Tropescilloscope: Truth in Television

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

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