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Dancing Bear: TRS?

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StarSword Captain of USS Bajor from somewhere in deep space Since: Sep, 2011
Captain of USS Bajor
#1: Dec 1st 2024 at 10:52:13 AM

I adopted the Trope Launch Pad draft of an unrelated trope, A Success, by Comparison, and it had a suggested quote that was shared with Dancing Bear, which I checked out and thought had a bad case of Trope Namer Syndrome. Rather than a trope, it's a YMMV item named after a Russian proverb: "The marvel is not that the bear dances well, but that the bear dances at all." It argues that a work attracts viewers because of a particular gimmick than because it's good in its own right. This is supported by two redirects titled Gimmick Attracts an Audience and Watch It for the Gimmick.

But, based on prior experience, I immediately figured it was probably being misused for literal dancing bears, especially after somebody sinkholed the title Dancing Bear into A Success, by Comparison's page quote. To my surprise, it wasn't, but based on the number of times it turned out to be sinkholed, I'm willing to bet it's only the question-mark icon for Audience Reactions that's keeping it that way.

I had put this in the TRS Queue but a couple people questioned my conclusions, so I've pulled it and brought it here to see what people think.

Dancing Bear Wick Check results:

  • Correct Use (33/61, 54%)
  • Misuse for Literal Dancing Bears (2/61, 3%)
  • Other Misuse (4/61, 7%)
  • Sinkholes, (19/61, 31%)
  • Insufficient Context (3/61, 5%)

Edited by StarSword on Dec 1st 2024 at 1:52:21 PM

Trust me, I'm an engineer!
NoUsername she's only programmed to be very nice Since: May, 2012
she's only programmed to be very nice
#2: Dec 1st 2024 at 12:36:17 PM

i didn't think dancing bear had much misuse because the description is abundantly clear and it just got a new image that demonstrates the trope a lot better. most of the use is either correct or no context so it just needs cleanup rather than TRS i think. i can see dancing bear and a success by comparison coexisting with the former being an audience reaction and the latter being IUEO, but getting rid of sinkholes would be helpful.

StarSword Captain of USS Bajor from somewhere in deep space Since: Sep, 2011
Captain of USS Bajor
#3: Dec 1st 2024 at 1:22:55 PM

[up]A Success, by Comparison isn't related, it just came up because of a question over the page quote.

Trust me, I'm an engineer!
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