Tropescilloscope: Serious Business

Treating something more seriously than necessary. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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