Not Tropeworthy (alt names crowner 6/28/19): Smelly Feet

This trope....do I even need to say it? This is probably the extreme end of TV Tropes' creepy tropes and is borderline Fetish Fuel. Since Foot Focus was cut, it only makes sense that this one be too, even though it's not necessarily inappropriate unless some creepy people out there interpret it that way....

Ummmm...what? The trope is about characters having negative reactions to other characters' foot odor. Where are you getting anything fetishistic from the page?

The page is a legitimate trope and it's fine. No action needed.

The trope is legit; just because it's about feet doesn't mean it's a fetish trope.

Where's the problem then? A lot of things can be interpreted as sexual without it being so. I toss another vote in the bucket to take no action.

@Willbyr: The talk about fetishism is probably from the last paragraph in the opening trope text:

There's also an example from family guy mentioning a foot fetish, but doesn't really mention anything beyond that.

Edited by shadowmanwkp on Apr 5th 2019 at 10:26:24 AM

Yes.

As literally anything can be kinky, I'd delete the last two sentences from the description.

No other action is needed.

Removed that sentence.

[deleted]

Edited by RamenChef on Apr 5th 2019 at 11:07:45 AM

So, my potential problem is that it is a bit People Sit On Chairs. Specifically, "Person has smelly feet." Which turns it into "list of times smelly feet are listed in fiction." Which is pretty much useless as a trope and its only actual value is as a fetish repository.

What does that say in terms of a narrative? Does it say that the person is abhorrent or slovenly? Is it that they're superficially clean, but dirty once you get under them? The description seems to try to lean into a "something something goofiness" but the examples don't really do that at all. Nah, it just says that they have smelly feet.

Comically Smelly Feet, Slovenly Stinky Feet, Surprisingly Stinky Feet, something like that could be a trope. But just Smelly Feet isn't.

I agree - a good while ago this site just classified anything that reoccurs throughout works as a trope, but now that we've agreed there should be some sort of narrative importance or significance to it we're left with a bunch of old tropes (pages?) that don't fit.

Edited by BreadBull on Apr 6th 2019 at 5:03:47 AM

Hm, that is true...

I cant believe this. I thought this trope didnt exist.

Where does the page say it's about in-universe reactions? I read the description and it just talks about how feet can smell bad, which is People Sit on Chairs. Larkmarn's suggestions might have potential, but "feet can smell bad" doesn't.

See also: Office, which was "offices exist" and whose TRS thread led to the creation of a legitimate trope, Standard Office Setting. I'm guessing the former was a relic from what BreadBull was referring to.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Apr 14th 2019 at 7:06:54 AM

The majority of the examples go that route; the description is indeed too generic. I'm wondering if the entire thing needs to be retitled and rewritten from the ground up.

Smelly Feet, as it is, makes me think of Growling Gut (which has an unopened TRS here) in that they're something that happens in fiction, and happens in real life, but the description is so broad they wind up coming across as a fetishist's repository rather than a trope.

There hasn't been much activity since last month. Should a crowner be made for whether this gets cut?

Yeah, why not?

Crowner made.

Edit: Note to mods for when the holler is seen: Please hook this crowner instead.

Edited by GastonRabbit on May 14th 2019 at 2:02:14 PM

We might need to rewrite the trope, but it definitely shouldn't be cut.

Agreed.

Fair enough. New crowner made.

And hooked, thanks.

What would we rewrite it to? What’s the trope here? Is it a character trope? A gross-out gag?

I think it's a gag trope. You know, when someone's feet are so smelly the stench from merely unveiling them causes gagging and/or more over the top reactions.

That's the best way to make the trope work, anyway.