Tropescilloscope: Truth in Television

When a trope actually does happen in Real Life. (read more at tvtropes.org)

Film Frequency (%) Film Frequency (#)

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