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34 Trivia Tidbits About TV and Movie Tropes

A little screen time deja vu

34 Trivia Tidbits About TV and Movie Tropes

May 01, 2024 Add Cracked to Google

We’re kickin’ this list off with an action-packed thrill ride! We got guns blazing, cars flipping and evil monsters smashing through this building! We’ll hustle like hell to get into this elevator, then… Oh yeah, elevators are pretty slow and play calm, pleasant music. That’s sure to provide some comedic relief.

Hmm, haven’t we seen this before? Who cares? The doors are opening. Time to get back to the list!

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34

Reservoir Dogs

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

33

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

32

Tragedy Girls

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

31

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 — Source

30

Movie Tropes

CRACKED.COM BANG 30 Minutes or Locel Lost Tropes 30 minutes or it's free The entire concept of pizzas being free if delivered late was already outdated when Jesse Eisenberg's 30 Minutes or Less came out. Also, now we crave pizza. Great. — Source

29

CRACKED.COM Lost Tropes Alliterative names Names like Peter Parker, Bruce Banner, or Lois Lane were all the rage back in the day, but today's heroes don't really seem to follow this pattern. Well, except for Donnie Darko. — Source

28

Lost Tropes

CRACKED.COM Lost Tropes Anvil to the head You hear a whistling sound, see a shadow surrounding you, look up, and sure enough, an anvil is coming to you. You then pull out a sign that says, oh right, this trope. — Source

27

Broken Records

Lost Tropes Broken record You sound like a broken record flat out needs explaining these days. You sound like a broken record flat out needs explaining these days. You sound like a broken record flat out needs explaining these days. CRACKED.COM — Source

26

CRACKED.COM EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY ALARM WILL ND STAIR Lost Tropes New father's cigars Nothing says healthy environment like smoking around newborns! We haven't seen Knocked Up in ages, but if they didn't parody this trope but with joints, that's a total missed chance right there. — Source

25

GRACKED.COM Lost Tropes Comedy posters are red and white. The red-block-letters-on-white pattern became cringey very quickly (although we'd totally purchase an ironic 2001: A Space Odyssey in this format). — Source

24

Elvis

CRACKED.COM Lost Tropes Elvis lives! Is there a connection between the decline of Elvis conspiracies and the later lameification of conspiracy theories? Look, we're not saying there is, we're just asking questions. — Source

23

CRACKED.COM Lost Tropes The French are cowards Perhaps for having been invaded by the Nazis, the French were usually depicted as surrendering cowards needing to be saved. But really, have you seen French action and horror movies? Oh, and then there is the anti-fascist Résistance as well. — Source

22

Lost Movie Tropes

CRACKED.COM Lost Tropes Japanese products suck After World War II, a common trope was Japanese products being of inferior quality. The country seems to live in the future now, but hey, this made sense back then. — Source

21

CRACKED.COM Bordon's DELIVERY 0 DAI on IN IN - AINT Lost Tropes Cheating with the milkman As milkmen stopped being a thing, they were substituted by other unwitting sex symbols for lonely housewives-like pizza delivery guys in the '80s, pool boys in the '00s, and internet comedy writers in the, well, anytime now, you'll see. — Source

20

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

19

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 — Source

18

Masterfully Subverted Tropes Climax Sanity among chaos Gaspar Noé's Climax may have a female protagonist in Sofia Boutella's Selva, but she's not really a final girl. A more powerful genre subversion comes in the third act, as she's not really a sane victim among the bloody chaos. She's also tripping balls, and the third act of this horror film is just that: madness. CRACKED.COM — Source

17

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

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16

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

15

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

14

Looper

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

13

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

12

Charlie Bartlett

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

11

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

10

CRACKED.COM Lost Tropes Lost kids on milk cartons. The mid-'80s campaign remained popular long after was gone, and has appeared in everything from The Lost Boys, Honey to I Shrunk the Kids, Rick and Morty, and of course, The Simpsons. — Source

9

Lost Tropes Sci-Fi food pills Like flying cars, jet packs, or a sustainable future, full meals in pills are a forgotten trope from older, more naive sci-fi. Just pop a couple and you're done! SUGAR ATOES CHICKEN PIE CRACKED.COM — Source

8

Lost Tropes Getting divorced in Reno In the early 20th century, only Nevada made it easy to get a divorce, so people would flock to Reno to part ways with their formerly beloved ones. neno CITY LITTLE IN THE WORLD BIGGEST THE Metro LOTT I CRACKED.COM — Source

7

CRACKED.COM Lost Tropes Going postal After a series of incidents during the '80s, '90s comedy was full of mailmen just losing it and shooting up people. You know, before shootings got a bit too real for laughs. — Source

6

CRACKED.COM CO RU Lost Tropes Easter European women are ugly. Yikes, this is an obscure one - and also, yikes, look at this outdated, mysoginistic Cold War trope. It's probably sprinkled with fat suits for comedic value. — Source

5

Lost Tropes The third one is 3D Third parts in a franchise would have 3D as their gimmick, because third part, 3D, you get it. Who didn't get it, though? The makers of Saw 3D, which is the seventh movie in the franchise. Brilliant. CRACKED.COM — Source

4

CRACKED.COM Lost Tropes Everybody laughs at the end This trope has recently been put back into the spotlight by the immediate classic Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers. As the movie rightly puts it, the worse the joke, the longer the laugh. — Source

3

Lost Tropes Flashback stare Suddenly invaded by flashbacks of 'Nam or Cats, you just stare at nothing with dead eyes. Then it hits you: this trope is so outdated, it was mocked in Airplane! CRACKED.COM — Source

2

Cartoon Tropes

Lost Tropes Funny suicide Suicide (by gun, train, etc.) was used as comedy in old cartoons. But suicide is serious business (unless you're Hitler in the bunker, in which case cue the Benny Hill music and fart sounds) CRACKED.COM — Source

1

GRACKED COM Lost Tropes Extreme '90s anti-heroes. How badly has this aged? Just ask Rob Liefeld, who has become a joke for his radical characters with bloated muscles, childishly designed weapons, and, erm, suits full of pouches. Pouches are rad! — Source

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