It's such a pointless pun (unless it's a reference to something I don't get) that I would have thought it was the result of different terminology used in different countries, but the pun does seem to have been the point of the name
.
TBQH the "pun" has about the same level of meaningfulness as the pun in Kick The Son Of A Bitch. A rename sounds like a good idea.
Edited by Coachpill on Sep 15th 2023 at 2:59:39 PM
Your goateed philistine is sashaying towards us. | 🧱I don't think it can even count as a pun if it has no second meaning, it's just using another word. If you look at the YKTTW history you can see that it was intended to be one. It's just... incredibly stupid.
That said, while I think the choice to use it is nonsensical, if it's not causing any problems (and from that ATT thread, the situations where people considered it could be confusing were about as outlandish as the possible "explanations" for the "pun") so if it's not misused, I don't know if there's anything to be done.
The redirect having over 10% of the wicks is interesting, but I don't know if it's grounds to bother changing.
Edited by Larkmarn on Sep 15th 2023 at 11:39:33 AM
Found a Youtube Channel with political stances you want to share? Hop on over to this page and add them.I mean, yeah. The name is dumb and Doorstep Baby makes sense, however because "Doorstop" is intentional and because it's not causing misuse (as far as we currently know), I also don't think it's that necessary to change.
Like if it gets to TRS I'll be cool with changing it because really it's a one letter difference and it makes more sense, however at the moment while I find the title irritating I also don't think it's a major issue.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallThis frankly strikes me as another demonstration of why requiring TRS for any substantial change isn't a great idea, honestly. The name isn't enough of an issue to be worth taking up a limited slot when there's many other tropes with more substantial problems, but OTOH I definitely would like to change it.
id say the pun is harmless enough and im not sure if anyone else is confused. that said, im not going to die on a hill over a minor letter change
that said (and not directed at you OP) i generally oppose replacing pun titles because a lot of arguments boiled down to "well it isn't understandable to me or ASL people I know"
i may be dead inside but at least i have Mystery :,)As long as Doorstep Baby is a redirect, I don't think it's a problem. Most people probably just read the "Doorstop" as "Doorstep" anyway, ala "Berenstain vs. Berenstein".
Thing is, does this count as a useable alt spelling redirect along the lines of commonwealth spellings and plural redirects? Or is it something people aren't actually allowed to use?
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallI'm in favour of correcting the name. A 'pun' which is indistinguishable from a typo ought to be treated as a typo.
ERROR: The current state of the world is unacceptable. Save anyway? YES/NORole Reprisal is precedence for a trope getting renamed for the wrong word being used despite lacking (iirc) major misuse, but, as mentioned, TRS would need to agree to it.
Edited by Synchronicity on Sep 18th 2023 at 12:18:11 PM
Thing is, that was a case of a genuinely misused word, while this appears to be intentional. So I'm not sure if the same argument would hold up, given that technically it's trying to be a pun.
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper WallI've never been able to tell what the pun is even supposed to be. Is the pun the idea that the person opening the door stops cold upon seeing a baby on their doorstep? That's all I can think of, but that's not even a pun, it's just stupid. So, perhaps I'm missing something. The title's always come across as completely wrong, but I'm honestly more bothered by the paragraph trying to pretend it's a pun than the trope name itself. However, if a trope description feels the need to try and explain why the title is wrong and why we should be okay with it being wrong, it probably shouldn't be a wrong title in the first place.
Edit: It was actually drafted
as "Doorstep Baby" until some tropers decided it would be funny to change it to Doorstop Baby (although they don't explain why it's funny).
Edited by Wyldchyld on Sep 24th 2023 at 12:02:48 PM
If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.![]()
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It matters because the case behind Role Reprisal was that it was a genuine case of word misuse and so it got a free ride through TRS to fix that. It wasn't attempting to be a joke; it was entirely a mistake that got corrected.
In this case, such an argument wouldn't hold up — Doorstop is supposed to be how the title is spelled because it's all part of a joke, so no mistake was made and we can't rely solely on "word misusage" to get the title changed.
Essentially, one was a genuine accident someone made when creating the trope, and one is a nonsense but fully intentional joke. They're simply too different to apply the same rule to.
Anyway, I agree that the current title is dumb and not funny but I still think we'd need to prove misuse to get it to change, given that other "pun" titles don't get to go to TRS just because their pun is terrible.
Edited by WarJay77 on Sep 24th 2023 at 12:52:11 PM
Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall![]()
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I think the joke is just the idea of using a child as a literal doorstop
which is more "randomly odd mental image" than outright "funny" to me.

I'm taking this discussion here from this ATT query
.
Basically the trope is named Doorstop Baby for the sake of pun (at least several tropers think so) but the trope is actually about leaving a baby on a doorstEp instead of using them as a doorstOp.
Even the trope's decription felt a need to clarify the title, which makes the "witty" spelling kind of redundant.
Should this trope be renamed with the correct spelling? It has over 800 wicks but also a redirect which is spelled correctly. The redirect has about 90 wicks.