Captain Obvious wick cleanup

Captain Obvious has over ten thousand wicks, and a huge portion of them are people potholing to it when they say something they think is obvious. This is, for lack of a better word, obvious misuse and needs to be dealt with. I am limited to mobile at present, so it's a bit of a pain for me to edit, but I'll do as much as I can. In the meantime, this is going to take a fair amount of work, so help is appreciated.

Took care of a sinkhole just now. Will see if I can remove more of them, though they have a tendency to crop back up.

Edited by Berrenta on May 22nd 2019 at 9:02:36 AM

I took care of the wicks in the G namespaces.

Edit: And I, J, K, L. So many "Obviously"s and "Duh"s... Edit 2: I lied, I ignored everything in Just for Fun.

Edited by Tabs on May 22nd 2019 at 4:13:33 AM

Forgive me, but how is that misuse?

We document tropes in fiction. Therefore, people using the trope to point out their obvious statement is misuse. I'm OK with occasionally explaining one's joke with a self-referential pothole, but as I'm going through wicks, the majority of links to Captain Obvious is misuse.

On Pothole Magnet (the paragraph has been here since 2014):

Oh - plus, the trope is on the In-Universe Examples Only list.

I've gone through Main up to G and namespaces beginning with B, O, X, and Z

Edited by Tabs on Jun 6th 2019 at 11:46:56 AM

I have seen many meta-examples were the trope is used to mention something obvious due to bad writing. Like this example from The Hunchback of Notre Dame (Golden Films)

• Captain Obvious: At one point, Jean-Claude says "Doing anything against the law is illegal."

Should this be considered correct use?

It'd still count as an in-universe example of Captain Obvious (or maybe Shaped Like Itself). We don't want to make a judgment call on the writer's skill.

Done with all wicks in Main/

Edited by Tabs on May 29th 2019 at 9:34:44 AM

I have some problems with two examples here.

Vince Offer:

• Captain Obvious: Thanks Vince, we wouldn't have noticed that onion skin without that zoom in. And the arrow. And he still has the nerve to ask, "You see that?"

The Last Airbender

• White Male Lead: Due to casting, which also makes him a Mighty Whitey in general, but especially in freeing the Earthbender camp, who egregiously lack the agency to rebel and only do so when he tells them they're surrounded by their natural element.

The first one seems like simpe complaining, and should probably be cut out.

The second is kind of meta, that scene is famous for pointing out something so obvious, even if is not treated that way in universe, so I'm not sure if that should stay.

I don't think they'd be missed if they're cut.

I'm starting a "duh" count.

Duh: 47

and "you don't say" and "well..." and "naturally"... I'm editing everything but archives and maybe other namespaces. YMMV and Trivia are low on the priorities list, though. Edit: I'm ignoring DarthWiki.

Edited by Tabs on Jun 5th 2019 at 9:50:57 AM

Don't forget the "goes without saying"s.

Are we allowed to edit YMMV and Fridge tropes?

Fridge: go ahead.

I'm done through the M namespaces. (Skipped Headscratchers.) So, so much Fan Myopia.

Duh count: 136

Edited by Tabs on Jun 17th 2019 at 12:25:37 PM

We're down to 4,857 articles, from over 10,000 before.

Final (for now) duh count: 167

Double checked Video Games and Visual Novels, already took all sinkholes.

Curiously, there were no unnecesary "duh".

Just switched a wick at Live-Action TV to something better. Was that a good idea?

As long as the new pothole fits better, it shouldn't be a problem.

So...how could we describe the mission?

Mission?