TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Trope Finder

Go To

The TVTropes Trope Finder is where you can come to ask questions like "Do we have this one?" and "What's the trope about...?" Trying to rediscover a long lost show or other medium but need a little help? Head to Media Finder and try your luck there. Want to propose a new trope? You should be over at the Trope Launch Pad.

Find a Trope:

Describe the Trope:


SimsKatie Since: May, 2009
2011-01-26 15:55:53

That's close, but in the example I mentioned they genuinely screwed up the metaphor they were quoting, and it was this misunderstanding they then passed to the audience as correct. People who have watched Shrek then use the onion quote themselves because they take the film's misquote at face value.

ETA: In Peer Gynt, the title character, a rapist and thief, is walking through a field at the end of his life. He finds an onion and begins to peel it apart looking for its heart, but there's no goodness to be had - nothing at the core but more stinking onion. This is clearly spelled out as a metaphor for his soul.

The writers of Shrek took the first part of this scene (onions have layers!) but forgot the reveal, and so misunderstood it to mean that you shouldn't just judge someone by their harsh outer skin - completely missing the point that the inside is exactly the same.

Edited by SimsKatie
thegrenekni3t Since: Dec, 2009
2011-01-26 18:39:12

Completely Missing The Point? Analogy Backfire?

Did the Shrek writers take the onion thing from Peer Gynt? It seems to me like they could just as easily have hit on the idea of onions having layers independently, and then failed to think it all the way through.

Edited by thegrenekni3t
Top