Tropescilloscope: "Shaggy Dog" Story

A struggle or quest which is unexpectedly rendered moot when it ends. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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