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Poorly Named Trope: The Frizzle

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Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#1: Oct 31st 2010 at 4:40:00 PM

Okay, The Frizzle is one of the more WTF tropes I've seen in a while. Care to play Guess The Trope with this title?

Badly needs a rename, as it fails just about every rule of Character Named Tropes.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
rodneyAnonymous Sophisticated as Hell from empty space Since: Aug, 2010
#2: Oct 31st 2010 at 4:50:27 PM

Guess The Trope: Bad Hair Day!

Oh, it's actually about... um... something else. Someone powerful with no backstory?

Becky: Who are you? The Mysterious Stranger: An angel. Huck: What's your name? The Mysterious Stranger: Satan.
DRCEQ Since: Oct, 2009
#3: Oct 31st 2010 at 4:58:41 PM

The Frizzle is a Super-Crazy Awesome Fish out of Water who has no in-depth explanation for being there. At the same time though, nobody really makes that big a deal about it. Named after Miss Frizzle from the Magic Schoolbus.. which is why the schoolbus was magic... yeah.

SERIOUSLY needs at the least, a redirect, but a rename would be preferable.

mmysqueeant I'm A Dirty Cowboy from Essairrrrcks Since: Oct, 2010
I'm A Dirty Cowboy
#4: Oct 31st 2010 at 5:13:50 PM

Oddly, I'd actually seen that page before and STILL couldn't get what it meant!

Now that's an unclear title.

EDIT: The description makes long references to how the Frizzle is the perpetrator of plot. Crazy Ex Machina ?

edited 31st Oct '10 5:16:19 PM by mmysqueeant

Camacan from Australiatown Since: Jan, 2001
#5: Oct 31st 2010 at 5:57:27 PM

Frizzle isn't even immediately recognisable as an opaque in-reference: it just looks like an uncommon English word. I mistakenly thought it was a synonym for fizzle and jumped to The Squib — a child of a wizarding family with no magical powers. Way wrong.

SilentReverence adopting kitteh from 3 tiles right 1 tile up Since: Jan, 2010
adopting kitteh
#6: Oct 31st 2010 at 6:09:57 PM

If it was to keep this name it would bave to be The Ms Frizzle. But I think it needs a rename to the attribute, not the character.

Fanfic Recs orwellianretcon'd: cutlocked for committee or for Google?
carla Since: Jan, 2010
#7: Nov 1st 2010 at 7:46:36 AM

while i love ms. frizzle and Fan Myopia is fighting tooth and nail to keep me from agreeing with OP, i have to admit that "Crazy Awesome without an explanation" is not the first thing that comes to mind when i think of the frizz. perhaps "Crazy Awesome Teacher," but it's not necessarily the lack of background or fish-out-of-water-ness that jumps out with that name.

official vote: rename.

-goes off to cry her misery out in a corner-

TheGunheart Some nights I rule the world (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Some nights I rule the world
#8: Nov 1st 2010 at 9:27:18 PM

Yeah, Tropers/Ryusui and I came up with this one back when no one was batting an eye at character-named tropes. This is actually the second attempt to get it renamed.

To put it simply, this is a Crazy Awesome character who's backstory is never explained. In retrospect, the Plot Generator part probably wasn't needed, but it comes up often with these types of characters, as what makes them unusual (like magic powers, unexplained homicidal tendencies, or time travel) is usually part of what drives the plot.

Katherine Since: Jan, 2001
#9: Nov 1st 2010 at 10:30:14 PM

Yeah, I had a similar reaction to Carla: I got immediately that it was a reference to Ms. Frizzle, but my immediate assumption was "Eccentric/Magical Teacher"; "Crazy Awesome with no backstory" is not a leap I would've ever made. The Man With No Name is the first character who'd jump to mind as an Ur-Example, but that's already a redirect to No Name Given. I'm not totally convinced that this needs to be separate from Crazy Awesome, especially since it seems to lump together those with an in-universe Mysterious Past that others wonder about and those whose pasts just never become relevant to the story.

Ghilz Perpetually Confused from Yeeted at Relativistic Velocities Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Barbecuing
Perpetually Confused
#10: Nov 1st 2010 at 10:34:19 PM

Care to play Guess The Trope with this title?

Yes. And I got it. Years of Babysitting and having to listen to The Magic Schoolbus have left scars.

Weirdo Without A Past?

TheGunheart Some nights I rule the world (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Some nights I rule the world
#11: Nov 2nd 2010 at 12:46:39 AM

Yeah, it is kind of Crazy Awesome meets Mysterious Past. Looking at Mysterious Past, though, it seems that it has to be acknowledged in-universe and may be a vital to the plot. When I worked with Ryusui on this trope, a past is something that would help to understand the character, but is not vital to the plot.

Enigmatic Eccentric? Mysteriously Awesome?

I think there are enough legit examples on the page that it counts as its own trope.

edited 2nd Nov '10 12:47:07 AM by TheGunheart

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Earnest (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#13: Nov 2nd 2010 at 1:37:31 PM

This trope has been up for rename before, but we got hung up on what to rename it.

TheGunheart Some nights I rule the world (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Some nights I rule the world
#16: Nov 2nd 2010 at 7:32:58 PM

[up]Ooh, not bad!

Twentington Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Desperate
rodneyAnonymous Sophisticated as Hell from empty space Since: Aug, 2010
#18: Nov 2nd 2010 at 7:58:15 PM

[up][up][[up] Explicably awesome.

Becky: Who are you? The Mysterious Stranger: An angel. Huck: What's your name? The Mysterious Stranger: Satan.
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
TheGunheart Some nights I rule the world (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
Some nights I rule the world
#20: Nov 5th 2010 at 3:27:43 PM

So, how much longer until the rename?

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#21: Nov 5th 2010 at 4:34:42 PM

Any time now, I guess. The crowner is resoundingly positive. Any volunteers to do the deed?

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
fawn Since: Aug, 2009
#22: Nov 5th 2010 at 5:21:42 PM

I just made the page Inexplicably Awesome and redirected The Frizzle to it, but I don't know how to make a new discussion page.

EDIT: Nevermind.

edited 5th Nov '10 5:24:43 PM by fawn

^Not actually my favorite animal.
Madrugada Since: Jan, 2001
#23: Nov 5th 2010 at 5:27:33 PM

Beautifully done, fawn. You get a gold star for moving over the YKTTW, the old discussion, and the Laconic as well.[awesome]

This one is done.

edited 5th Nov '10 5:27:55 PM by Madrugada

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SingleProposition: TheFrizzle
20th Apr '10 12:00:00 AM

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Total posts: 23
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