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33 Trivia Tidbits About TV and Movie Tropes

Hmm. Now where have we seen these before?

33 Trivia Tidbits About TV and Movie Tropes

June 26, 2024

When we hear the word “trope,” we automatically roll our eyes and think “cliche.” But this list gave us an eye-opening lesson: They’re not the bad guys! They’re just helpful storytelling devices. It’s the lazy storytellers who recycle them over and over again who turn them into cliches. It’s like a hammer. A hammer can be a very useful tool, or it can be used to smash your TV to smithereens because you’re just so sick of the blatant overuse of the same old tropes!!!

Sorry — we got a little carried away there. We’ll put the hammer down now.

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33

Tired Tropes (And The Movies That Pulled Them Off) The Matrix (1999) FADE TO EDGY THEME SONG The Simpsons lampooned this action movie cliché with the (historically accurate) Zorro rap. But we have to give it to The Matrix: ending a subversive action movie with Rage Against the Machine kicking in is art. CRACKED.COM — Source

32

Tired Tropes (And The Movies That Pulled Them Off) Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) LIQUID NITROGEN DEATH Demolition Man, Timecop, Goldeneye, Jason X- death by liquid nitrogen was all the rage for some time. But the movie that turned it into an iconic thing was this, the last Terminator ever made. CRACKED.COM — Source

31

Tired Tropes (And The Movies That Pulled Them Off) When Harry Met Sally... (1989) FINAL DECLARATION OF LOVE Rob Reiner's classic wonderfully pulls off this sappy trope, as the cherry on top of a smart, multi-layered, still unsurpassed movie. The final declaration makes narrative, emotional, and structural sense. CRACKED.COM — Source

30

Tired Tropes (And The Movies That Pulled Them Off) The Invisible Man (2020) SECOND ACT ROCK BOTTOM You just know that however bad things are, it'll all work out in the end. But The Invisible Man successfully drops its main character into an inescapable abyss of hopelessness by its second act. Two words: restaurant scene. CRACKED.COM — Source

29

Tired Tropes (And The Movies That Pulled Them Off) BIG BLUE SKY BEAM Remember when every movie ended with one of these? The Avengers, Suicide Squad, Transformers: Dark Of The Moon... Independence Day did it so awesomely two decades earlier, we'll just assume all those movies were trying to replicate that. CRACKED.COM — Source

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FATALLY WOUNDED ALLIES ALWAYS SAY GOODBYE CRACKED. COM — Source

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THE FRIENDSHIP BOOMERANG A trusted companion leaves just before the final battle... But returns just in time to save the day! All is forgiven. GRAGKED.COM — Source

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CRACKED.COM AWFUL BIOPIC TROPES CHANGING THE ACTOR'S APPEARANCE AS OSCAR-BAIT We like Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman, so we'll let Monster and The Hours slide. But giving awards to Jared Leto for playing a trans woman in Dallas Buyers Club was just condoning narcissism (the Jared Leto kind of narcissism, which is even worse). — Source

25

CRACKED.COM AWFUL BIOPIC TROPES DOWN MEMORY LANE Musician biopics start late into their careers, usually as they're about to start an important show and they reflect back on their lives. We've seen this tired trope in the Johnny Cash, James Brown, and Queen biopics. — Source

24

AWFUL BIOPIC TROPES WRITING ON GLASS When Tom Cruise does math on glass in Mission: Impossible III, it makes sense because it's an action thriller. When Russell Crowe and Andrew Garfield write on glass in A Beautiful Mind and The Social Network, you know they're just trying to make boring intellectual labor look sexy and action-packed. = (Яم 1+10 EP= CRACKED.COM — Source

23

TIRED COMEDY BITS AWKWARD HANDSHAKES It's usually the punchline in most commercials, but countless movies and TV shows feature a spin on it. The missed high-five, or being left hanging, or the are we gonna hug, or fist bump, or shake, or high-five, or 'oh my god, this is so awkward! CRACKED — Source

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TIRED COMEDY BITS PARENTS TRYING TO BE COOL Middle-aged parents who have no idea what a Tikitty Tokitty is get a massive eye-roll from their teen daughter, who either helps them understand, or just storms off in a huff. CRACKED — Source

21

TIRED COMEDY BITS I'M OKAY! Even overdone in cartoons, but at least the absurdity of an I'm okay after a building falls on someone is way funnier than a live action character just falling, giving a dramatic pause, then proclaiming, I'm okay! Extra hacky points for the thumbs up. CRACKED — Source

20

TIRED COMEDY BITS Mets THE FAT MAN-CHILD AND HIS HOT WIFE After Homer Simpson (who ironically was created to satirize the American man), the fat idiot who is helpless without his capable (out-of-his-league) wife became the biggest sitcom trope. CRACKED — Source

19

CRACKED COM Enough of the new hair = character development shortcut. It's time to be a little more creative. — Source

18

CRACKED.COM WORST REALITY TV TROPES CRINGEY SILENCES In their desperate attempt to create appealing interpersonal dynamics, reality shows punctuate conversations with silences, knowing looks, and quirky music-something that was wonderfully parodied in the SNL sketch Pregnant in Heels. — Source

17

CRACKED.COM WORST REALITY TV TROPES THE GIRL NEXT DOOR As dating shows glorify traditional gender roles, it's no surprise that they love the girl next door trope. Are you naïve, cute, and from a small town? You might just be the next Rachael Kirkconnell from The Bachelor (hopefully without the racism). — Source

16

WORST REALITY TV TROPES IMMEDIATE DISTRUST Contestants distrusting people they got along well with is an easy way of manufacturing cheap drama. No explanations, no acknowledgment of context - just quick, unreflecting distrust. This is especially clear in trust-based reality shows, like Survivor. CRACKED.COM — Source

15

Hellboy Batman Begins IT If it rains at a funeral, the guests will be prepared with matching black umbrellas. John Wick Across the Universe The Amazing Spider-Man CRACKED.COM — Source

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STAR WARS REVENGE OF THE SITH WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOU HAD A NIGHTMARE SO INTENSE THAT YOU CONSTANTINE JOLT UP 90 DEGREES FROM YOUR BED? HOW ABOUT... NEVER? THE RING CRACKED.COM — Source

13

Crowds at sporting events need to see a lone person slow clap before they start applauding. Rudy Mystery, Alaska Cool Hoosiers Runnings CRACKED.COM — Source

12

Masterfully Subverted Tropes Community The body swap Community gave its spin on the old body switching trope with 2013's Basic Human Anatomy, in which Troy and Abed only pretend to swap bodies to avoid the awkwardness of Troy and Britta's anniversary. CRACKED.COM — Source

11

Masterfully Subverted Tropes The big heist scene scene Movies centered around a heist usually show the careful planning, the setting into motion, the ensuing hiccups, the whole deal. Reservoir Dogs goes the other way, and is instead a heistless heist film. It shows the gang discussing Madonna and the ethics of tipping, and then it jumps to the bloody aftermath. This Tarantino guy knows his stuff. Reservoir Dogs CRACKED.COM — Source

10

Masterfully Subverted Tropes Hot Tub Time Machine 2 The unrepentant jerk Rob Corddry's Lou Dorchen is even worse here than in the first movie. He's annoyingly selfish, cruel, and aggressive, and we have to assume that's his shtick. Surprisingly, though, after Clark Duke's Jacob tries to jump from a building, he wholeheartedly apologizes and becomes much mellower from then on. Not bad for a widely disliked comedy. CRACKED.COM — Source

9

Masterfully Subverted Tropes Tragedy Girls The unstoppable killer Tragedy Girls is no horror masterpiece, but it has some things going for it. A masked killer stalks a couple making out in a parked car in the middle of nowhere, but it immediately becomes clear that this is a set-up-by the victims. Five minutes in and this is already a whole different slasher. CRACKED.COM — Source

8

Masterfully Subverted Tropes Colossal The nice guy love interest When the Colossal trailers came out, we were too busy theorizing about the kaiju to see that Jason Sudeikis' casting was a set up. Не seemed like a nice guy, a predictable love interest among the mayhem. But against character, the comedian actually plays an alcoholic abuser. It's a clever bait-and-switch that Promising Young Woman would later echo. CRACKED.COM — Source

7

Masterfully Subverted Tropes Burn After Reading No third-act resolution After all the misunderstandings and murders - nothing. The movie does have a third act, but its peculiarity is in the same banality the Coens put in A Serious Man a year later, only bureaucratic instead of existential. No climax, no comeuppance, no final exposition-just the CIA shrugging at the dumb developments and deciding to ignore them. CRACKED.COM — Source

6

Masterfully Subverted Tropes Big Little Lies Mean rich lady During the first season, Laura Dern's Renata is an uptight, snobbish rich lady, particularly focusing her classist scorn on Shailene Woodley's Jane. By the end of the season, however, she realizes she was wrong, apologizes, and offers friendship like an actually fallible human being. We were not ready for such emotional maturity, to be honest. CRACKED.COM — Source

5

Masterfully Subverted Tropes Scream The famous actor survives That Scream subverts tropes is nothing new, but it must be stressed over and over how groundbreaking that opening scene was. Drew Barrymore was the movie's biggest star, so she's obviously the final girl, right? Nope, she chose to play the opening kill, and all the bets were off. Wes Craven obviously handled it like a genius. CRACKED.COM — Source

4

Masterfully Subverted Tropes Looper The marvel of time travel Most time travel movies try to put a novel spin on it, while also treating it like a big deal. Looper's own novel spin, however, is dismissing the importance and details of its mechanics and instead focusing on its effects. The film removes the coolness from Bruce Willis' time-shenanigans by rather showing the crushing weight of his child-killing spree. CRACKED.COM — Source

3

Masterfully Subverted Tropes Why don't they just leave? The moment we see walls bleeding, we're gone. But Nope twists the usual stubborness of horror movie protagonists by giving emotional weight as to why they stay. They could just take the money and let someone else deal with the unidentified aerial phenomena, but family history prevents it. Nope CRACKED.COM — Source

2

Masterfully Subverted Tropes The uptight principal Two years after Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Robert Downey Jr. continued the trope subversion by playing Principal Gardner in this teen dramedy. Unlike, say, Dean Rooney in Ferris Bueller, Gardner is not a bitter villain, but a nuanced principal clearly going through some stuff. And indeed, RDJ gives this kind of character an unusual depth. Charlie Bartlett CO d CRACKED.COM — Source

1

Masterfully Subverted Tropes Stranger Things Madman in the asylum Stranger Things has subverted its fair share of tropes, but adding Robert Englund to the cast set up a wonderful case. At first, he's obviously a baddie. He's believed to have murdered his family, he's in an asylum, he's played by Robert Englund- but he's soon revealed as the victim of the actual baddie. Nice rug pull there, show. CRACKED.COM — Source

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