TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Ask The Tropers

Go To

Have a question about how the TVTropes wiki works? No one knows this community better than the people in it, so ask away! Ask the Tropers is the page you come to when you have a question burning in your brain and the support pages didn't help. It's not for everything, though. For a list of all the resources for your questions, click here. You can also go to this Directory thread for ongoing cleanup projects.

Ask the Tropers:

Trope Related Question:

Make Private (For security bugs or stuff only for moderators)

Amonimus (Sergeant)
2023-10-11 14:25:49

This applies to all items, YMMV or not.

TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
Kisujj Since: Jun, 2023
2023-10-11 14:28:20

That's too bad. Thanks!

DoktorvonEurotrash (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
2023-10-12 05:42:55

This site used to be a lot more lenient about naming tropes after examples in specific works. The tropes you see have probably retained their names due to the Grandfather Clause.

Amonimus (Sergeant)
2023-10-12 05:52:21

^ Or specifically, per Trope Renaming Guidelines, if the name doesn't cause confusion it's fine.

Even if YMMV is not a "main" page, casual readers still need to understand what the non-Trope linked to is about without clicking on it.

Edited by Amonimus TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
Kisujj Since: Jun, 2023
2023-10-12 05:58:43

Would an allusion to Schrödinger be understandable? Or is it too narrow for mainstream readers?

DoktorvonEurotrash (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
2023-10-12 09:37:25

^In my experience, that is pretty well known due to Pop-Cultural Osmosis, and I'm fairly sure we already have a couple of Schrödinger's tropes.

Excessive-Menace (Fifth Year at Tropey's)
2023-10-12 09:38:03

There's plenty of tropes alluding to Schrödinger (Schrödinger's Butterfly, Schrödinger's Cast, Schrödinger's Question, etc).

EDIT: Ninja'd!

Edited by Excessive-Menace SING TO ME, LEND ME THE SONG OF BLASPHEMY
Kisujj Since: Jun, 2023
2023-10-13 07:05:53

Thank you all for the replies!

Doctorvon Eurotrash, I didn't know about the Grandparent Clause. Now that you mentioned it, I added it to the trope page of one of my favourite movies. A nice trope, by the way.

There's quite a number of Schrodinger tropes on the site indeed. But then again, what if they are ALL under a Grandparent Clause? just joking

Edited by Kisujj
NoUsername Since: May, 2012
2023-10-13 09:17:27

at least with regards to OP, i feel like big-lipped alligator moment doesn't suffer too much from trope namer syndrome because even if you don't know the specific reference, it's easy enough to make a connection that it's a moment so out-of-place it's like a big-lipped alligator could have shown up instead and it wouldn't change anything. it helps that the acronym is BLAM which describes the feeling you usually get when seeing one

Kisujj Since: Jun, 2023
2023-10-13 09:27:12

^ If you ask me, the first thought of this trope title would be "some kind of a jump-scare". And in reality the trope turns out to describe "an out-of-place moment". It could be titled just like this - "Out-Of-Place Moment", why invent an alligator with, eh, big lips. Is it a trope about kisses, or some awkward make-up?

Edited by Kisujj
NoUsername Since: May, 2012
2023-10-13 09:32:43

hmm, i hadn't considered the perspective of someone relatively new to the term, yeah. it requires knowing that it isn't important that the alligator has big lips, but that the alligator's appearance is a weird and inexplicable moment

Mouser Since: Jan, 2001
2023-10-13 13:10:33

It's almost worse if you do know the source, because the original BLA isn't actually an example of a BLAM. I'd suggest it be changed if it wasn't over a decade old.

number9robotic (Experienced Trainee)
2023-10-13 14:23:52

I don't think BLAM is a bad name for what it is even taking into account the lack of context, because given the point of the trope of "really randomly weird moments", having no prior knowledge of what the "big-lipped alligator" could really accentuate the uncharacteristic bizarre-ness of the situation. I think it similar to something like Noodle Incident — it's specifically a Calvin and Hobbes reference, but the fact it's basically a nonsense phrase out of context might actually work in its favor of highlighting the point the trope is supposed to make.

Thanks for playing Kings Quest V!
WarJay77 (Troper Knight)
2023-10-13 14:37:53

Discussions on trope names belongs at Trope Talk; this is beyond the original question.

Working on: Author Appeal | Sandbox | Troper Wall
Kisujj Since: Jun, 2023
2023-10-13 14:57:45

^ People just do not agree with what I said in my first comment and they explain their point regarding what I mentioned. As I started this discussion, I can say I do not mind people expressing their opinions. It helps sometimes. Why do you think this isn't that one time?

Amonimus (Sergeant)
2023-10-13 15:04:23

Because Ask The Tropers isn't a chatroom. If the OP question has been answered, there shouldn't be any further replies.

The topic has started to switch to specific tropes instead if it's okay for YMMV items to have pop-culture names in general.

Edited by Amonimus TroperWall / WikiMagic Cleanup
Kisujj Since: Jun, 2023
2023-10-13 15:08:00

Delete this discussion then, the question is answered.

Top