Tropescilloscope: Wrong Genre Savvy

A character thinks they're in a genre with different rules than the one they're actually in. (read more at tvtropes.org)

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