Tropescilloscope: Bavarian Fire Drill

Acting with authority fools others into thinking that you have it. (read more at tvtropes.org)

More Tropes Slashed Throat Race Lift Happily Married The Bully Obfuscating Stupidity Celebrity Paradox Mexican Standoff Age Lift Gainax Ending The Chick Bad Boss Once More, with Clarity! Ass Shove Rule of Symbolism Earn Your Happy Ending Victoria's Secret Compartment Genre Savvy Greater-Scope Villain Sealed Evil in a Can I Just Shot Marvin in the Face Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds Horror Films Faking the Dead Television Movie Index Black Comedy Have a Gay Old Time For the Evulz Unusual Euphemism Woman in White Hidden Depths Credits Gag Badass Boast Random Events Plot Hope Spot Blackmail Hair-Trigger Temper Together in Death Silent Movie Adorkable Make It Look Like an Accident As Long as It Sounds Foreign Dark Action Girl Babies Ever After Improbable Weapon User Shut Up, Hannibal! Femme Fatale Improbable Infant Survival aka: Infant Immortality Grievous Bottley Harm Dark and Troubled Past Offscreen Teleportation Corrupt Corporate Executive Shower Scene Japanese Films Drives Like Crazy The Ditz Word of God The Faceless British Films Awesome, but Impractical Hollywood Law Beware the Nice Ones Cool Old Lady Parental Substitute timeperiod Animated Credits Opening No OSHA Compliance The Ghost Colour-Coded for Your Convenience aka: Color Coded For Your Convenience Ship Tease Advertised Extra Artistic License – Military Five-Man Band Taking the Bullet Slasher Smile Based on a True Story '80s Hair Badass Longcoat Dogged Nice Guy Laughing Mad Lampshade Hanging Police are Useless Rule of Funny Big "NO!" Foil Logo Joke Eiffel Tower Effect Villain Ball Bond Villain Stupidity La Résistance Alliterative Name Bittersweet Ending Does This Remind You of Anything? Stealth Hi/Bye Crazy Jealous Guy Adaptation Distillation Betty and Veronica Visual Pun Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! Informed Ability He Knows Too Much Didn't Think This Through Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking Worthy Opponent Even Evil Has Loved Ones Spiteful Spit Call-Back Narrator Catch-Phrase Not Using the "Z" Word Cool Old Guy Kids Are Cruel Auto Erotica All There in the Script folderlabel Bowdlerise Took a Level in Badass Suspiciously Similar Substitute Attempted Rape The Smart Guy Cold-Blooded Torture Bond One-Liner After the End Failed a Spot Check Guile Hero Hell Is That Noise Nice Guy Superhero Punctuated! For! Emphasis! It Can Think Race Against the Clock Darkest Hour Defiant to the End An Arm and a Leg Bitch in Sheep's Clothing The Reveal Gory Discretion Shot Anachronism Stew Off with His Head! Taking You with Me Agony of the Feet Male Frontal Nudity Adaptation Dye-Job Fatal Flaw Undying Loyalty Mercy Kill Determinator aka: The Determinator Big Bad The Dog Bites Back Dull Surprise Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping Camera Abuse Kill It with Fire Adult Fear Rewatch Bonus Index of Film Westerns Big Bad Duumvirate Action Girl A.I. Is a Crapshoot Parental Incest Red Right Hand Demonic Possession Four-Temperament Ensemble Sinister Minister Neck Lift Line-of-Sight Name Recap / RiffTrax aka: Riff Trax Movies Humiliation Conga Death Glare Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? Sir Swears-a-Lot Works Set in World War II Serious Business Manchild Reality Has No Subtitles Action Genre Hooker with a Heart of Gold Major Injury Underreaction Defrosting Ice Queen Rousing Speech Anguished Declaration of Love Adaptational Heroism Domestic Abuse Accidental Misnaming Improbable Aiming Skills The Cameo Mighty Whitey Sequel Escalation Screw the Rules, I Have Money! Ambiguous Disorder Cool Car Let's Get Dangerous! Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer Funny Background Event Hypocritical Humor Foreshadowing Bloody Hilarious Disguised in Drag The Bad Guy Wins Insistent Terminology Self-Deprecation Cool Shades Smug Snake Conspicuous CG Dropped a Bridge on Him Big Brother Instinct Diabolus ex Machina Parental Neglect Air-Vent Passageway Artistic License – Biology Thriller Tranquil Fury Mama Bear Laser-Guided Karma Dark Is Not Evil Red Herring Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique Kick the Dog Only in It for the Money Pragmatic Villainy Sanity Slippage Morality Pet No Celebrities Were Harmed Kubrick Stare Reckless Gun Usage Screw the Money, I Have Rules! Meaningful Name Trailers Always Spoil Fun with Acronyms Stepford Smiler Novelization "Awesome McCool" Name Leitmotif Death by Adaptation Russian Films Creative Closing Credits Truth in Television Chekhov's Gun Catapult Nightmare Ugly Guy, Hot Wife Chekhov's Skill Brainless Beauty The '50s Girl-on-Girl Is Hot Never Trust a Trailer aka: Trailers Always Lie Cat Fight Punch-Clock Villain Dramedy Offscreen Moment of Awesome Nice Hat Dramatic Gun Cock Imagine Spot Spell My Name with an "S" Wounded Gazelle Gambit Punny Name Abusive Parents Cruel and Unusual Death A Father to His Men Pyrrhic Victory French Films Coming-of-Age Story Artistic License – History Cain and Abel Eagleland A Date with Rosie Palms Sci-Fi Horror Antagonist Title Music Stories Red Shirt Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? Only Known by Their Nickname Kill 'em All There Is No Kill Like Overkill Maybe Ever After Vomit Discretion Shot Authority Equals Asskicking Annoying Younger Sibling Hate Sink Artistic License – Gun Safety Anti-Hero Adaptational Villainy Danny Peary Cult Movies List The Un-Reveal Leaning on the Fourth Wall Mr. Exposition Those Wacky Nazis Villain Opening Scene Rasputinian Death Captain Ersatz Setting Update Took a Level in Jerkass The Stinger Foregone Conclusion Poor Communication Kills Animal Motifs Spared by the Adaptation Character Development Genre Shift Bury Your Gays Actually Pretty Funny Romantic Comedy Blatant Lies Historical Hero Upgrade Horror Comedy Heroic Sacrifice Badass Bookworm Ironic Echo War Is Hell Composite Character Ms. Fanservice Adaptational Attractiveness Mistaken for Gay Getting Crap Past the Radar Monumental Damage Riddle for the Ages Better to Die than Be Killed The End... Or Is It? Large Ham Dark Reprise The Musical Outrun the Fireball True Companions Breaking the Fourth Wall Dying Moment of Awesome Not What It Looks Like Dutch Angle Soft Glass Psychological Thriller An Axe to Grind Blonde, Brunette, Redhead Distracted by the Sexy "Well Done, Son!" Guy Hero Antagonist The Chessmaster Jerkass Has a Point Man on Fire Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane Martial Arts Movie Pimped-Out Dress May–December Romance Determinator Author Avatar NO INDOOR VOICE The Big Guy Spanner in the Works Cloudcuckoolander Overprotective Dad Shirtless Scene All Just a Dream Black Dude Dies First Sassy Black Woman For Want of a Nail Historical-Domain Character Roaring Rampage of Revenge Downer Ending Loophole Abuse Hong Kong Films Face Death with Dignity Fiery Redhead Final Girl Tap on the Head Closed Circle I Have Your Wife Up to Eleven Black Best Friend Deadpan Snarker Deliberately Monochrome Only a Flesh Wound Department of Redundancy Department A Minor Kidroduction Meet Cute Serial Killer Country Matters Would Hit a Girl Shoot the Shaggy Dog Match Cut Card-Carrying Villain Sadistic Choice Early Installment Weirdness Enemy Mine Rule of Cool Same Language Dub Demoted to Extra Gorn Even Evil Has Standards Fainting Did Not Get the Girl Totally Radical Belligerent Sexual Tension Sole Survivor Pragmatic Adaptation No-Holds-Barred Beatdown Arranged Marriage The Smurfette Principle Creator Cameo Hoist by His Own Petard Mundane Made Awesome Costume Porn Say My Name Instant Death Bullet Exactly What It Says on the Tin Badass Grandpa Blood from the Mouth Too Dumb to Live Left the Background Music On Impaled with Extreme Prejudice One Steve Limit Here We Go Again! Pretty in Mink Lock and Load Montage Bare Your Midriff Film Noir Unspoken Plan Guarantee Drill Sergeant Nasty Video Credits What You Are in the Dark Biopic Alpha Bitch Gratuitous English Eldritch Abomination Artistic License – Geography Due to the Dead Arch-Enemy Fake Shemp Dumb Blonde Back from the Dead Honor Before Reason Protagonist Title Fish out of Water Flipping the Bird The Place Revenge The Dreaded Wrong Genre Savvy Chiaroscuro Implacable Man Heroic BSoD Gender Flip Adaptational Badass Stuff Blowing Up Fantasy Films Early-Bird Cameo Gone Horribly Right Brutal Honesty Manly Tears Homage "Shaggy Dog" Story Gold Digger Driven to Suicide Rule of Three Older Than They Look I'm a Humanitarian Pre-Mortem One-Liner Crucified Hero Shot Epic Movie Genre Throwback Broken Bird Redemption Equals Death Bi the Way Cassandra Truth Soundtrack Dissonance The Lancer Stealth Pun Pay Evil unto Evil Fat Bastard Frame-Up "The Reason You Suck" Speech Scare Chord Unresolved Sexual Tension Double Entendre Badass in a Nice Suit Shell-Shocked Veteran Funny Foreigner Smoking Is Cool My Greatest Failure Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! Jerk with a Heart of Gold Peek-a-Boo Corpse As You Know Chuck Cunningham Syndrome Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy MacGuffin Product Placement Dwindling Party All Girls Want Bad Boys The Remake Bad "Bad Acting" Crapsack World My God, What Have I Done? Villainous Breakdown Plucky Comic Relief Room Full of Crazy Military and Warfare Films Hollywood Darkness Evil Brit Really Gets Around Silence Is Golden Heel Realization Artistic License – Physics Madness Mantra Affectionate Parody Calling the Old Man Out Mystery and Detective Films Action Prologue Real Life Establishing Character Moment Destination Defenestration Becoming the Mask Dirty Cop No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Ambiguously Gay The '80s Sports Stories Boom, Headshot! Daylight Horror And the Adventure Continues Killed Mid-Sentence Stalker with a Crush The Load Drowning My Sorrows Intrepid Reporter Adapted Out Cool Guns Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome Arc Words Blood Knight Twist Ending Italian Films Bunny-Ears Lawyer Break the Cutie Extreme Doormat Cat Scare Captain Obvious Canadian Movies Fate Worse than Death Anyone Can Die The Hero Dies Manipulative Bastard Toplessness from the Back Armor-Piercing Question Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass One-Word Title You Have Failed Me Creepy Child Covers Always Lie Last-Name Basis Big Fancy House Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other Well-Intentioned Extremist Politically Incorrect Villain From Bad to Worse Throwing Your Sword Always Works Shipper on Deck Deal with the Devil Fourth Date Marriage Training Montage Reality Is Unrealistic All Men Are Perverts Epic Fail Dissonant Serenity O.O.C. Is Serious Business Jump Scare Mr. Fanservice Manic Pixie Dream Girl Depraved Bisexual Parental Abandonment Off-into-the-Distance Ending Those Two Guys Stock Footage Facial Horror Casting Gag Brother–Sister Incest Vitriolic Best Buds Brick Joke Public Domain Feature Films Anachronic Order Non-Indicative Name What Happened to the Mouse? Overly Long Gag Pun aka: Incredibly Lame Pun Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism Evil Is Petty Tempting Fate Mood Whiplash Stylistic Suck Redshirt Army Unreliable Narrator Heel–Face Turn Vacation Films Kick the Son of a Bitch In Medias Res Grey and Gray Morality Evil Counterpart Deliberate Values Dissonance Continuity Nod The Oner Playing Gertrude Red Oni, Blue Oni Storming the Castle Batman Gambit My Beloved Smother Never Trust a Trailer Alas, Poor Villain Book-Ends Documentary Freeze-Frame Bonus Only Sane Man Adaptation Name Change Mugging the Monster Expository Hairstyle Change No Antagonist The Lost Lenore Needs Wiki Magic Love World of Ham Toilet Humour aka: Toilet Humor Flashback The Mole Big Eater Reality Ensues Animal Title Index Never My Fault Evil vs. Evil 20 Minutes into the Future Black and Gray Morality Insane Troll Logic Evil Plan Nothing Is Scarier The '70s Your Cheating Heart In the Back Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene Everyone Has Standards Aside Glance Half the Man He Used to Be Badass Normal Rich Bitch "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue Evil Cannot Comprehend Good Slasher Movie Motor Mouth Dirty Old Man Rape as Drama Retirony Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold Author Appeal Black Comedy Rape All There in the Manual Does Not Like Shoes Villain Song No-Sell Bloodless Carnage What the Hell, Hero? Be Careful What You Wish For Male Gaze Retired Badass Chewing the Scenery Suddenly SHOUTING! Real Life Writes the Plot Expy The Alcoholic The Stoic Amusing Injuries Recycled IN SPACE! Fan Disservice Chase Scene Pre-Asskicking One-Liner Beta Couple Love at First Sight Gilligan Cut Time Skip Precision F-Strike Screw This, I'm Outta Here! Cluster F-Bomb It Will Never Catch On Shown Their Work Every Car Is a Pinto Police Brutality Scenery Porn Ungrateful Bastard Car Fu Fanservice Extra Bound and Gagged Exact Words Award-Bait Song Karmic Death Bait-and-Switch Ripped from the Headlines Tagline Asshole Victim Men Are the Expendable Gender Those Two Bad Guys Never Found the Body The Mafia Interrupted Suicide The Ace Amoral Attorney Disney Death Malevolent Masked Men The Sociopath Children Are Innocent Extremely Short Timespan Not So Different Disappeared Dad Mooks Moment Killer Damsel in Distress Death of a Child She Cleans Up Nicely Lighter and Softer Light Is Not Good Deconstruction Bland-Name Product Yandere Call-Forward Good Is Not Nice Posthumous Character Naked People Are Funny Bald of Evil The Cavalry Our Vampires Are Different Unusually Uninteresting Sight Plot Hole You Killed My Father Re-Cut German Films Not So Above It All Groin Attack Take That! The Voiceless The Casanova Knight Templar Not Even Bothering with the Accent Fatal Family Photo Token Minority Big-Bad Ensemble You Have Outlived Your Usefulness Shout-Out Ominous Latin Chanting Irony Anti-Villain Love Triangle Humans Are Bastards Easily Forgiven Knife Nut Immune to Bullets Nice Job Fixing It, Villain! Canon Foreigner The Film of the Book Chekhov's Gunman Evil Is Hammy Comically Missing the Point Friend to All Children Heroes Want Redheads Curb-Stomp Battle Henpecked Husband Contrived Coincidence Vomit Indiscretion Shot Mad Scientist Disproportionate Retribution You Have Got to Be Kidding Me! Central Theme Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" As Himself Translation Convention Very Loosely Based on a True Story Curse Cut Short This Is Gonna Suck Would Hurt a Child In Name Only Roger Ebert: Great Movies List Bring My Brown Pants Papa Wolf Actor Allusion Names to Run Away from Really Fast Beauty Is Never Tarnished Running Gag Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas Adults Are Useless Star-Crossed Lovers Red Eyes, Take Warning Empathic Environment Dressing as the Enemy The Atoner Important Haircut Affably Evil Corpsing The Alleged Car Retcon Wham Line Our Zombies Are Different The '60s Oh, Crap! Only One Name Villain Protagonist Idiot Ball Unwitting Instigator of Doom One-Man Army Dramatic Irony Dual Wielding Wretched Hive Dies Wide Open Break the Haughty Camp Gay Married to the Job Wham Shot Made of Explodium The Brute Ragtag Bunch of Misfits Romantic False Lead Reasonable Authority Figure Big Applesauce Fanservice Death by Sex Adaptation Expansion Paper-Thin Disguise Spiritual Successor Cowboy Cop Not Quite Dead Heterosexual Life-Partners Death Seeker Berserk Button Meaningful Background Event Guns Akimbo Meaningful Echo Get Out! Neck Snap Framing Device Small Name, Big Ego She's Got Legs Jitter Cam Vampire Fiction Leave the Camera Running Made of Iron Put on a Bus Zombie Stories Accidental Murder He Who Fights Monsters Slap-Slap-Kiss N-Word Privileges Whole Plot Reference Karma Houdini Title Drop More Dakka Decoy Protagonist Dirty Coward Famous Last Words Daddy's Girl Ax-Crazy The '90s Take a Third Option Fire-Forged Friends Historical In-Joke It's Personal Refuge in Audacity Intergenerational Friendship Noodle Incident Mind Screw Sacrificial Lion Faux Affably Evil And I Must Scream Drugs Are Bad Improvised Weapon The Power of Love Green-Eyed Monster Mythology Gag Rated M for Manly Despair Event Horizon Australian Movies Not So Stoic Artistic License – Law No Name Given Loads and Loads of Characters Naïve Newcomer Evil Laugh Eye Scream Missing Mom The Great Depression Suspiciously Specific Denial The Dragon Pet the Dog And Starring Broken Aesop Disney Villain Death Face–Heel Turn Hero of Another Story Pretty Little Headshots Obviously Evil Sequel Hook Broken Pedestal How We Got Here Crazy-Prepared The Hero Skewed Priorities Fantastic Racism The Stoner Deus ex Machina Eureka Moment Obstructive Bureaucrat Body Horror Film Series Film Noir Index I Want My Beloved to Be Happy Hypocrite Scenery Gorn Psycho for Hire Super Strength Ambiguous Ending Eyepatch of Power Your Head A-Splode Bilingual Bonus An Aesop Handicapped Badass Death by Irony Bloodier and Gorier From Nobody to Nightmare All for Nothing As the Good Book Says... Double-Meaning Title Combat Pragmatist Fingore Ascended Extra Apocalypse How Bavarian Fire Drill The Quiet One I Need a Freaking Drink Bottomless Magazines Action Survivor B-Movie Insult Backfire Properly Paranoid Scary Black Man Christmas Movies Index Jerkass Straight Gay Freudian Excuse Bar Brawl The Starscream No Ending Show Within a Show Abhorrent Admirer Villain with Good Publicity BFG Sexy Discretion Shot Jerk Jock Big Damn Heroes Beard of Evil Developing Doomed Characters Market-Based Title The X of Y Evil Sounds Deep Evil-Detecting Dog I Did What I Had to Do The Un-Favourite aka: The Un Favorite Aluminum Christmas Trees A God Am I It's All About Me Wicked Cultured Historical Villain Upgrade Ghost Fiction Bullying a Dragon Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil Butt-Monkey Almost Kiss Science Fiction Films Darker and Edgier Woman Scorned Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday The Vamp Psychopathic Manchild Bolivian Army Ending