Discussion Main / UnwantedGiftPlot

Agreed. It took me forever to find it. I was at the point where I thought no one made a page for it yet and I was going to make one on YKTTW.

I came here (to the Discussion page) specifically to suggest/request White Elephant Gift as a redirect (and now as a new name). Zotz is kind of an obscure movie, and even if you do know the movie, the trope isn't the first thing that would come to mind (incontinent powers that induce some sort of I Just Want to Be Normal because they're Bad Powers for Good People, at least for my mind, but it could even go as far as an artifact activated By the Power of Grayskull!).

My original thought was for White Elephant gift to be the redirect, but White Elephant Gift is nearly as succinct and more clear. I don't know how common it is worldwide in the English language, but it's very common amongst people I know both IRL and online (even when they don't happen to know that it's named for albino Thai elephants being inconvenient and useless for anything but showing off wealth, but socially impossible to refuse).

My only worry is that White Elephant Gift could be confused for the sometimes-name of a double-blind Secret Santa exchange (a "white elephant gift exchange"). I'm pretty sure "white elephant gift exchange" is much more rare than usage of the phrase "white elephant" in the form of this trope (I think it's mostly regional, and has fallen out of use with anyone younger than 40 who isn't used to hearing it from their parents), but I'm not completely sure about the former and am not at all sure about the last parenthetical section.

Even if it was confused with White Elephant Gift Exchange, the meaning still stands since the name implies the gifts are being given because the participants don't want them themselves. But if you were concerned about it, just write something at the bottom of the trope description like "Not to be confused with White Elephant Gift Exchanges, which are a form of Secret Santa."

I came here after seeing the trope name on the Home Improvement page. This is a very common sitcom plot and should be one of the better known tropes but the name just kills any chance of that happening.

A "White Elephant Gift" is more about how the gift is not paired up with the person, which is maybe about a quarter of the trope. The actual trope is more importantly about being too polite to dismiss the gawdy gift. Maybe Ugly Gift Fake Happiness.