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mightymewtron Word Up from New New York Since: Oct, 2012 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
Word Up
#1: Apr 26th 2021 at 1:08:28 PM

We all know that it's very difficult to directly name a trope after a character or work without it being subject to Fan Myopia. However, some of these tropes have lasted a good while despite their trope name being a reference, because something about the name makes the trope clear anyway. (Or they're just fun names.)

What are some Trope Namers that you think actually still work?

The ones that were on my mind starting this thread are The Scrappy (because the connotations of "scrap" bring to mind throwing something away, which emphasizes how redundant a Scrappy is to a story) and, to a degree, Whammy (not as indicative, and I wouldn't be opposed to a rename but similar idea: I think the connotations of "wham" bring to mind a roadblock).

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
Weirdguy149 Former King from Lumiose City Since: Jul, 2014 Relationship Status: I'd jump in front of a train for ya!
Former King
#2: Apr 26th 2021 at 1:13:12 PM

I love that all of Inigo Montoya’s speech has named several tropes: Hello! My Name Is Inigo Montoya. You Killed My Father. Prepare to Die.

The legend has returned.
WoodKnapp94 Since: May, 2020
#3: Apr 26th 2021 at 3:59:43 PM

Off the top of my head;

mightymewtron Word Up from New New York Since: Oct, 2012 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
Word Up
#4: Apr 26th 2021 at 4:02:47 PM

[up] I think Cowboy BeBop at His Computer does have some Fan Myopia issues, but before I knew the context of the anime, I used to picture it as "Cowboy BeBop" being the person writing the fraudulent reviews for media on his computer.

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
nrjxll Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Not war
#5: Apr 28th 2021 at 2:43:19 AM

Don't take this the wrong way... bu it's funny you made that particular OP just now, because I've recently noticed several posts in cleanup and other threads mentioning the term "Whammy", and when I did I found myself repeatedly thinking it was a utterly bizarre and obtuse piece of jargon.

On a positive note, I will second "Sesame Street" Cred being a genuinely funny name, although I'm still not sure how intuitive it is. (I probably shouldn't go into too much detail, though, because a lighthearted Yack Fest thread isn't the right place for extreme cynicism...)

Edited by nrjxll on Apr 28th 2021 at 4:45:54 AM

mightymewtron Word Up from New New York Since: Oct, 2012 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
Word Up
#6: Apr 28th 2021 at 9:49:24 AM

[up] Eh, I might be biased, cuz the more I thought about it, the more I realized it is kind of obtuse. I even admitted it in the OP. tongue

I still think The Scrappy is still decent, but that's cuz it's part of the lexicon anyway.

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
MikeK Since: Jan, 2001
#7: May 3rd 2021 at 4:26:02 PM

]And the Rest, Gilligan Cut and Just Eat Gilligan. How many tropers nowadays can actually say they've seen Gilligan's Island?

"And The Rest" is kind of one of the better uses of a trope namer I think, because if you've never seen the show it just comes off as a totally straightforward description of what the trope's about.

Tabs Since: Jan, 2001
Synchronicity (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#9: May 3rd 2021 at 10:00:10 PM

[up]Yup:

Decent ones have a bit of fannish flare but you can still kind of glean what it's about, eg. Amazing Technicolor Wildlife and snowclones.

There's also the very rare case where the work came up with the phrase and it's now in the lexicon, eg. Star-Crossed Lovers. A modern example would probably be Kryptonite Factor.

WoodKnapp94 Since: May, 2020
#10: May 19th 2021 at 11:34:19 AM

Alright, here's some more:

mightymewtron Word Up from New New York Since: Oct, 2012 Relationship Status: THIS CONCEPT OF 'WUV' CONFUSES AND INFURIATES US!
Word Up
#11: May 24th 2021 at 5:48:34 PM

I really like the name for Country Matters for a few reasons.

It stems from an old term for sex stuff, with Hamlet being the Trope Namer, but those unfamiliar with the source material would still pick up on the pun. It also works as a subtle double meaning — since the trope is about how different national cultures respond to the word "cunt," it is literally about how your country matters when using the word!

Edited by mightymewtron on May 24th 2021 at 8:48:48 AM

I do some cleanup and then I enjoy shows you probably think are cringe.
antenna_ears from California Since: Apr, 2020 Relationship Status: Coming soon to theaters
#12: May 26th 2021 at 1:46:28 AM

McNinja, because the Mc is very non-japanese sounding even if you’re not familiar with the webcomic (I’m not tbh).

ccorb from A very hot place Since: May, 2020 Relationship Status: It's not my fault I'm not popular!
#13: May 26th 2021 at 4:54:10 AM

Ultimate Lifeform is named after Shadow from the Sonic franchise. It perfectly describes what the trope is about.

Rock'n'roll never dies!
NotSoBadassLongcoat The Showrunner of Dzwiedz 24 from People's Democratic Republic of Badassia (Old as dirt) Relationship Status: Puppy love
The Showrunner of Dzwiedz 24
#14: May 26th 2021 at 6:40:54 AM

[up][up][up][up] I often refer to the French hardware superstore chain Leroy Merlin as "Leroy Jenkins", but pronounced in French ("Le-rwah Jen-can") Just For Pun.

But, some of the trope names are less obvious for Europeans, like The Other Darrin, anything related to Gilligan's Island, and for Central and Eastern Europe, things related to Archie Comics, for example.

However, the Buffy Speak used for the names like Big Bad and Insane Troll Logic is fairly descriptive in itself, despite being odd. Same goes for Jerkass - someone's being a jerk and an ass at the same time. The Scrappy however, didn't strike me as inspired by Scooby-Doo, particularly when connected to the fairly good pun in Rescued from the Scrappy Heap. And when you think about it: how many of the episodes would end up with Scrappy pulling the bedsheet off the ghost with his teeth and exposing the real estate fraudster underneath?

Edited by NotSoBadassLongcoat on May 26th 2021 at 3:41:18 PM

"what the complete, unabridged, 4k ultra HD fuck with bonus features" - Mark Von Lewis
MikeK Since: Jan, 2001
#15: May 27th 2021 at 5:18:06 PM

For some reason I was thinking about Grievous Bottley Harm and Grievous Harm with a Body. Both are puns on "Grievous Bodily Harm", an English legal term that might not translate culturally note , but still get the basic idea across ("harming someone with a bottle" and "harming someone with a body" respectively)

Edited by MikeK on Jul 4th 2023 at 9:15:57 AM

Segal991 A loyal animal lover from Somewhere Beyond the Sea Since: Mar, 2015 Relationship Status: Yes, we're lovers, and that is that
A loyal animal lover
#16: Jul 3rd 2023 at 1:40:50 PM

Go to the Euphemism, one of the more recent trope namers (to the best of my recollection), from Halloween Is Grinch Night. It's just such a fitting name for the spirit of the trope (euphemisms for answering the call of nature)!

Oh, I believe in yesterday
HoloMew151 Space Gal from From Deep, Deep Space Since: Jun, 2021 Relationship Status: Tweaking my holographic boyfriend
Space Gal
#17: Jul 3rd 2023 at 1:59:35 PM

Speaking of trope namers, was Short Run in Peru a trope namer? Because if it is, it has lasted for a good long while

andrewthetroper from ...mislim, iz Srbije Since: May, 2022
#18: Jul 3rd 2023 at 5:05:31 PM

[up] Garth Marenghi's Darkplace is apparently the Trope Namer, since it's mentioned that the In-Universe show had a "brief run in Peru". The trope name is a misquote of the original: the other examples I've got are...

About good trope namers: The Starscream and The Watson have few to no better titling options that would encapsulate everything about the characters without being wordy or clunky, and Bond, James Bond will probably be the most obvious work-named on this website for all time. It's the one I'd save if I had to choose one trope to be the only work-named trope on here.

Edited by andrewthetroper on Jul 3rd 2023 at 2:08:53 PM

The pessimist sees a dark tunnel, the optimist sees a light, the realist sees two lights and the engineer sees three idiots.
Segal991 A loyal animal lover from Somewhere Beyond the Sea Since: Mar, 2015 Relationship Status: Yes, we're lovers, and that is that
A loyal animal lover
#19: Jul 4th 2023 at 3:41:14 AM

The Big-Lipped Alligator Moment. Even its acronym (BLAM) is fitting; when it comes out of nowhere, it hits us with a blam! (Though the original scene may not count, as King Gator does come back at the end, and Anne-Marie does get all sickly from being in the bad water. I still like the title though.)

Oh, I believe in yesterday
andrewthetroper from ...mislim, iz Srbije Since: May, 2022
#20: Jul 4th 2023 at 5:32:02 AM

[up] Since the relevant scene isn't actually a BLAM due to the long reaching effect it ends up having on the story, This Index Is Not an Example. Something similar is at play with The Red Stapler, which is actually Defictionalization because the full-size red staplers in Office Space were painted and Swingline didn't make them before the film came out, but the dissonance between the Trope Namer and the actual situation doesn't matter here because "the red stapler" still conjures the image of a generic object blowing up due to media showing it off.

Edited by andrewthetroper on Jul 4th 2023 at 2:32:22 PM

The pessimist sees a dark tunnel, the optimist sees a light, the realist sees two lights and the engineer sees three idiots.
nrjxll Since: Nov, 2010 Relationship Status: Not war
#21: Jul 4th 2023 at 5:40:30 AM

[up][up][up]I'd argue The Watson is considerably better than The Starscream because the former is literally a part of English at this point - calling a character another character's "Watson" is not limited to our site. The latter, while lacking a pithy renaming option, more a case of grandfather clause than anything.

andrewthetroper from ...mislim, iz Srbije Since: May, 2022
#22: Jul 4th 2023 at 9:03:56 AM

Notably, Epileptic Trees and Voodoo Shark are better off with their current name because of the lack of clarity of their names, since both convey insane things (insane fan theories and explanations that just raise more questions respectively), and Big-Lipped Alligator Moment holds the same logic.

[up] In the same vein, The Dragon will never change because it's an offsite term, as is Jumping the Shark (and Voodoo Shark itself).

Edited by andrewthetroper on Jul 4th 2023 at 6:04:44 PM

The pessimist sees a dark tunnel, the optimist sees a light, the realist sees two lights and the engineer sees three idiots.
punkcrow The horrors persist, but so do I (He/Him) from Northwest Indiana Since: Dec, 2020 Relationship Status: I made a point to burn all of the photographs
The horrors persist, but so do I (He/Him)
#23: Jul 17th 2023 at 2:00:13 PM

Like a Surgeon is one of those cases where the trope namer not actually being an example is still just fine - the trope really has very little to do with "Weird Al" Yankovic's song of the same name, but given it's a trope about treating non-surgical situations like a surgery, it still works.

Cold turkey's getting stale. Tonight I'm eating crow.
Zanreo Gizmondo from Glitch City (Ten years in the joint) Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
Gizmondo
#24: Jul 17th 2023 at 3:07:08 PM

Somehow, Jossed kind of seems to work even if you don't know much about Joss Whedon or why it was named after him (I didn't, but I also got used to the term during my early TVT years) - helps that it's similar to "tossed", as if to say the theory is now "tossed away".

I also like the Zero Wing-named tropes, but I'm kind of biased there lol

Edited by Zanreo on Jul 17th 2023 at 12:07:34 PM

My favorite failed console tbh
WarJay77 It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000) from My Writing Cave (Troper Knight) Relationship Status: Armed with the Power of Love
It's NaNo, Bay-beeee! (8,356/50,000)
#25: Jul 17th 2023 at 3:17:39 PM

Yeah, the ones that have basically just become "a phrase that means the thing" without necessarily needing to be relevant outside of it (Jossed, BLAM, etc) seem fine to me. I've argued in the past about how those names don't need to change because for better or for worse the wiki understands what they mean, even if they're incomprehensible when you think of them in isolation.

Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall

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