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32 Trivia Tidbits About TV and Movie Tropes

You can’t have storytelling without tropes. If you think you’re just so original that you can bang out a screenplay without them, be our guest. You’d probably end up with some collection of random scenes in more of an art piece than a movie. Classic tropes like “the chosen one” and “friends to lovers” have been used in countless great stories, but with some subtlety and originality in the movies or shows that used them, they fly under the radar. 

So when you think of tropes as cliches, you can blame the lesser copycats who overuse them in lieu of originality. Here’s a big batch of the good, the bad and everything in between…

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CRACKED.COM FBI TIRED HORROR TROPES THAT STILL WORK THE SKEPTIC IS PROVEN WRONG Ghost Stories, and of course The X-Files during its prime, made great use of this trope. But our favorite example is John Cusack's character in 1408. Seriously, we need more smart horror movies taking their time with a smug skeptic - only for them to be forced to swallow their skepticism.

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TIRED HORROR TROPES THAT STILL WORK NOBODY BELIEVES YOU That moment when the main character is all alone against their threat and nobody believes them is truly a pleasure of the genre. If even their sanity is doubted? Even better. The Invisible Man was already pulling this paranoid, suffocating trope very well, and then the restaurant scene happened. Well done, movie. CRACKED.COM

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TIRED HORROR TROPES THAT STILL WORK MID-FILM PLOT SWITCHES We're so used to established genres, that a midway change in genre, plot, or style can feel refreshing and keep us on our toes. Psycho is of course the grandaddy, and Audition and Abre los Ojos go from romcom to psychological horror. Recent examples include/See You, The Perfection, and Mother! CRACKED.COM

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CRACKED.COM TIRED HORROR TROPES THAT STILL WORK THE SLOW BURNER Movies that take their time with the horror make the entire, anxiety-inducing trip worthwhile. 2021's Candyman reboot had a quite different pace when compared to the more conventional (if still superior) original, but the final third of 2008's French classic Martyrs is a masterclass in slow-burning dread.

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Tired Rom-Com Tropes (That Still Make Us Swoon) The player falls in love Players need not be hurtful douchebags, but they do cause distrust in their partners - right before they actually fall madly in love. Hitch was a below average rom-com trying to pull this trope off, but Crazy, Stupid, Love actually did it. CRACKED.COM

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Tired Rom-Com Tropes (That Still Make Us Swoon) Romance can be secondary A smart rom-com can still have its explicit romance play second fiddle to the movie's actual emotional core, like in / Love You, Man. In Bridesmaids we're rooting for Kristen Wiig and Chris O'Dowd, but the driving dramatic force is her friendship with Maya Rudolph. (That and the dangers of food poisoning.) CRACKED.COM

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Tired Rom-Com Tropes (That Still Make Us Swoon) Silent acknowledgement We love witty banter, but sometimes all that is needed is the silent acknowledgement of attraction. Destination Wedding was already getting a bit too mean and cynica, but then its last scene gave it just the amount of hopeful sweetness it needed. CRACKED.COM

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Tired Rom-Com Tropes (That Still Make Us Swoon) Acknowledging the manic pixie dream girl Initially just quirky and innocuous, the manic pixie dream girl became kind of toxic. Curiously, the (often misinterpreted) movie that started it all, 500 Days of Summer, already exposed the trope as an unfair, dehumanizing male fantasy. CRACKED.COM

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Tired Rom-Com Tropes (That Still Make Us Swoon) Multiple intertwining stories We love rom-coms that manage to juggle several stories at the same time - it's like getting multiple movies for the price of one. Love Actually totally pulled this off-it might have aged badly, but it's still miles better than American knock-offs. An even better example? Crazy, Stupid, Love. CRACKED.COM MERRY

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Tired Rom-Com Tropes (That Still Make Us Swoon) 40 The meet cute Meet cutes are a structural pillar of the rom-com, like the final fight in action movies. The meet cute scene in Trainwreck had a few good jokes, but the one between Silver Linings Playbook's two highly imperfect characters was just perfect. Who knew comparing psychiatric meds could be romantic? - - CRACKED.COM

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Masterfully Subverted Tropes Red State The consistent narrative perspective Kevin Smith's horror movie follows a group of friends trying to survive a murderous Christian cult. Standard storytelling would follow a protagonist- turned-final survivor, a supporting set of characters, maybe a switcheroo here or there. But Smith never actually picks a protagonist, switching perspectives constantly instead, resulting in a refreshing subversion of the survival horror tropes. CRACKED.COM

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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

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Masterfully Subverted Tropes Romance means monogamy This pre-Code rom-com was way ahead of its time. Miriam Hopkins's Gilda is torn between two men, but instead of solving the love triangle in a monogamous choice (like every single rom-com movie ever), the three of them just choose to live together. Gregg Araki's 1999 Splendor tried the same spin, but this one did it 66 years earlier. Design for Living CRACKED.COM

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Masterfully Subverted Tropes Tender memories as character motivation Throughout the film, Charlie seems to confront teenage life's challenges by relying on loving memories of his deceased aunt. The third act, however, reframes those memories as painful flashbacks. She wasn't sweet and caring, but, well, something bad. Trope: depressingly subverted. The Perks of Being a Wallflower CRACKED.COM

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Masterfully Subverted Tropes The Witcher The Chosen One Princess Cirilla was chosen way before she was even born, comes from a whole lineage of Important People, and is linked to Geralt by destiny. And yet she shows a surprising amount of agency, even considering breaking the very cycle that put her in that position to begin with. CRACKED.COM

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Masterfully Subverted Tropes Fight Club Boys will be boys Fight Club's worst readings mistake it for a celebration of toxic masculinity. But after the actual fights, we see that there are no bruised egos, only acceptance of fragility and gratitude for the chance to let go of macho bullcrap. Against normie and reactionary readings, the first things to go in the club are male scapegoating and entitlement. CRACKED.COM

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Masterfully Subverted Tropes The basement entity Parasite begins as a wacky comedy. Then it slowly starts peeling off layers, and suddenly there's a creepy basement dweller. By then it's clear Parasite is about to take a bleak turn, but is it a horror movie? Is that a ghost? The true villain is, of course, neoliberalism, but it takes a few subverted horror tropes to get there. Parasite CRACKED.COM

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Masterfully Subverted Tropes The creepy old man Framed through young Kevin McCallister's POV, old man Marley seisems terrifying, as everyone says he's a serial killer (and he's played by Deranged's Roberts Blossom). But unlike the actual threat of the Wet Bandits, Marley is just a sweet old man who even helps him in his Die Hard-like night. Director Chris Columbus pulls every tonal shift wonderfully. Home Alone CRACKED.COM

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CRACKED.COM *poking fun at boss* *group falls silent* She' s/He' S right behind me, isn't she/he?

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НЕНЕ YOU SAID... PENAL MOBY-DICK WANG That '70s Show Scrubs Two and a Half Men JOKE IS OVERDUE FOR RETIREMENT. CRACKED.COM

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You're going to be a father! Wow, your life is ruined!! It's kind of dumb to base a joke on the assumption that all men hate fatherhood. CRACKED.COM

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HOLLYWOOD, ENOUGH WITH THE DRAMA QUEEN GAYS. modern family CRACKED.COM

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CRACKED COM Is anyone laughing at all these moms being uptight joyless harpies?

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5

The running gag the about Sheldon's discomfort with BiG BANG physical intimacy THEORY was in terrible taste. The whole joke was Look, it's a man who is asexual. That's not really a joke, it's just a character with a less-common sexuality. The existence of minority groups as a joke hasn't ever been funny, and just shows how out-of- touch this stupid show was. GRAGKED.COM

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Dean Pelton is never quite open about what his sexuality actually is, but he's very open about being sleazy AF. community CRACKED.COM Representation is important, but representation of an LGBT+ character as a predatory stereotype is moldy and antiquated. Community was such a smart show, it's a shame that Pelton now seems like a cheap gag.

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Family Guy loves to eat FAMiLY time with non-jokes that are totally devoid GUY of comedic content. The worst offender was the repeated trips to the Conway Twitty well. Once, the show even dedicated five minutes, nearly a quarter of an episode, to a clip of him. There's no joke, there's no punchline, most annoyingly, there's no need to actually write something entertaining. GRACKED.COM

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32 Trivia Tidbits About TV and Movie Tropes

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F.R.I.E.N.D.S We were on a break! would make anyone want to stop being Friends. What started as a sad state of Ross and Rachel's relationship became Ross's manic catch phrase played to increasingly roaring laughter with every new rehashing. Ross and the other Friends say the tedious and agonizing phrase over a dozen times in seven seasons, even twisting the knife one last time as one of the final lines of the entire series. CRACKED.COM

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