20 Of The Worst Tropes in Reality TV

Reality TV, we meet again. Like fascist movements or that ex we lovingly call “the toxic one,” we cannot help but return over and over to the bottomless pit of despair that is reality TV. Only this time, we’re not discussing its horrible downsides, its fundamental deceptions, or even the lives it has ruined. Instead, we’re focusing on tropes. And not our favorite ones, because that’s the thing — what would those even be? Seriously, we could only answer with a blank stare the question, “What are your favorite tropes from reality TV?” Tropes from action? We have a bunch. Horror? You’re insulting us. Sci-fi? Don’t even. Rom-coms? Shoot, we haven’t done that one yet…

But yeah, reality shows. Okay, so if we had to guess, our favorite reality TV trope would be that time there weren’t any. Our second favorite reality TV trope is the entropic heat death of the universe in which no trace of reality TV survives. We love those tropes. Now, as for the ones we dislike the most, well, they’re pretty much the ones defining the genre. If we wanted actual attempts at depictions of reality, we’d watch documentaries. (Note to self: documentary tropes!). And if we wanted skewed, satirical depictions of reality, we’d watch mockumentaries. As for reality TV, however, it is built on the quite specific trope that is blatantly dishonest manipulation aimed towards manufacturing artificial drama. Like fascist movements. Or that ex. Wait, where were we? Oh yeah – still, such an overall genre trope defining reality TV can be broken down into finer tropes, such as…