Tropescilloscope: "Shaggy Dog" Story

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

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