All The Tropes:This Index Is Not an Example

Usually, the Trope Namer for a trope provides the one codifying example to define them all. This isn't actually a requirement (though it still comes highly recommended); some Trope Namers are only examples in a loose sense of the term, and others aren't even an example at all.

Be particularly careful when linking to these tropes, because they might not be what they sound like at first glance. (Obviously, any YMMV entry with a specific Trope Namer could be an example in the eyes of some viewers but not others; and some have actually been renamed because of it.)

Not to be confused with Just for Pun or Chekhov's Pun titles. Also not to be confused with works that seem like the Trope Namer, but aren't really (Fur and Loathing was not named after the CSI episode, nor was Determinator named from one of Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters's Fake.com Endings).

Then there are the tropes named after lines of dialogue that the trope namer never actually said.

Contrast the Index of Exact Trope Titles, Self Demonstrating Articles, and This Trope Name References Itself. Compare Defied Trope.

Oh, and don't bother listing this page itself, as that will create a paradox.

Tropes

 * A Nuclear Error: The phrase's appearance in The Clash's "London Calling" is a reference to the partial nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island—not common factual inaccuracies about nuclear weapons appearing in fiction.
 * And Some Other Stuff: The Trope Namer is Burn Notice, which typically does include the full recipes for all the dangerous stuff they use. The line itself cut out the ingredient simply because it would not have produced as big an explosion as was shown.
 * Another Side Another Story - The title refers to a secret movie from Kingdom Hearts and doesn't actually have anything to do with the trope. Chain of Memories has an example with Riku's "Reverse/Rebirth" mode, though.
 * Astroturf - This brand of Artificial Grass did not use this technique.
 * Big Ol' Eyebrows—Named after one of Strong Bad's hypothetical designs for potential new looks Strong Mad could sport. Nobody in the work actually has large eyebrows.
 * Bigger Than Jesus -- John Lennon didn't say this.
 * Bits of Me Keep Passing Out—Arthur Dent may have felt like crap, but he doesn't seem to have had any random body parts going to sleep. He did, however, have them disappearing at one point. Make of that what you will.
 * Black Dude Dies First—Trope namer was a movie in which the black dude does not die.
 * Black Metal—While the song by Venom contains many elements of Black Metal, the music and vocals are much closer to the style of Thrash Metal they would invariably influence.
 * Blithe Spirit—Trope is an inspiring force upsetting the stuffy old status quo for the the better. Neither the Noël Coward play, nor the movie remake, nor Shelley's 'To A Skylark' provide examples.
 * Boom Stick—A staff that shoots stuff, named after This Is My Boomstick (which was originally referring to a shotgun), though you could say "boom stick" is a literal name for it.
 * Brilliant but Lazy -- Spider-Man is anything but lazy, he just appears to be as Peter Parker because he's spending too much time superheroing for his regular life to be anything but a shambles.
 * Brooklyn Rage—Came from Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series making fun of some of the Cut and Paste Translation of Yu-Gi-Oh!!.
 * Brought to You by The Letter "S"—Has nothing to do with the closing annoucement on Sesame Street. (Although Super-Grover is an example.)
 * Caught Up in the Rapture—has nothing to do with Anita Baker's song, which is a traditional love song.
 * Chained Heat—The movie the trope takes its name from has nothing to do with diametrically opposed characters shackled together. The film is actually just a Les Yay-filled Exploitation Film about a women's prison.
 * A Child Shall Lead Them—The Bible passage in question doesn't refer to a child monarch.
 * Cue the Sun—The scene in The Truman Show where this line is said is not an example of the trope, but the movie itself does play this trope straight after the storm lightens up while Truman is out at sea.
 * Daydream Believer—has no connection to The Monkees' song.
 * Days of Future Past—about a type of future, not avoiding a Bad Future.
 * Deliver Us From Evil—about a Heel Face Turn caused by having a baby, not in any way related to the Lord's Prayer.
 * Dem Bones—Only the connecting bones are mentioned in the folk song Trope Namer, but in source, Ezekiel 37, the bones are covered in flesh. They're also not Mooks, they're the resurrected and restored nation of Israel.
 * Different for Girls—The trope is about a gender-bent protagonist finding out that things are...well, different for girls, while the Joe Jackson song of the same title is about how dating and love is, well, different for girls.
 * Do They Know It's Christmas Time?—The original song was a painfully provincial song by Band Aid about the then-contemporary famine in Ethiopia. The trope, eh, not so much.
 * Everybody Must Get Stoned -- Bob Dylan's song "Rainy Day Woman #12 and #35" is not actually about mind-altering substances, despite a huge Misaimed Fandom thinking so.
 * Evil Is One Big Happy Family—Cedrik, an antagonist from Order of the Stick, said "Screw that!" when his comrades suggested they were like that.
 * ET Gave Us Wi-Fi—And we already had phone technology, thank you.
 * Goddamned Bats -- Raoul Duke never had to deal with difficult video game enemies, thankfully.
 * Goggles Do Nothing -- Ranier Wolfcastle was wearing safety goggles not to look cool, but to protect him from a flood of acid—they just weren't enough for the job.
 * Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress -- The Tick (animation) was complaining about gravity working all too well. Luckily he is Nigh Invulnerable.
 * Great Balls of Fire—Nothing to do with the song, Fireballs or balls on fire.
 * Grimmification -- The Brothers Grimm didn't do that when they wrote their Fairy Tales. In fact, they Bowdlerised them quite a lot. It's just that the originals were so ripe with sex and violence, that even the new versions were still quite, well, grim.
 * He-Man Woman Hater -- The Little Rascals are too young to qualify under the trope.
 * Horse of a Different Color—About a creature vaguely like a Real Life one, not an old expression.
 * Humanity Is Superior—Crichton doesn't really believe that (indeed, humans aren't special at much of anything other than heat tolerance in Farscape.)) But he was crazy at the time he said that line.
 * Impersonating the Evil Twin—Well, probably.
 * I Am Not Leonard Nimoy—Named so as to be the inverse of I Am Not Spock. However, actor Leonard Nimoy is not known for having a public image or personality which overshadows the characters he plays; it's very much always been a case of the opposite.
 * I Just Shot Marvin in the Face—The trope refers to serious instances of damage being done by crass gun safety violations. The Pulp Fiction scene strictly speaking fits, but is clearly Played for Laughs, making it a much better example of Juggling Loaded Guns.
 * It's Raining Men—Paratroopers have nothing to do with that song.
 * It's the Only Way to Be Sure—While Ripley suggests nuking the site from orbit for this very reason during the scene that made Aliens the Trope Namer, it doesn't actually happen.
 * Isn't It Ironic?—Trope is using a song because one missed the irony in the lyrics. Trope Namer cannot be an example because it does not actually contain verbal irony. The title refers to ironic juxtapositions of events.
 * Just Like Robin Hood—Robin Hood actually stole from the government and returned to citizens what was taken from them.
 * Knight of Cerebus—This is not how Cerebus the Aardvark did Cerebus Syndrome. It drifted in more gradually.
 * Knight Templar - The Knights Templar were actually very tolerant of the Arabs, but propaganda and conspiracy theory said otherwise.
 * Lucky Charms Title—The cereal is written with ordinary letters.
 * Ludicrous Speed—Speed that is so fast it drives you ludicrous, while the trope namer heavily implies that you'd already have to be ludicrous just to want to go that fast.
 * Machine Empathy - The trope makes it clear that it's not Technopath, but the trope namer is.
 * Magic Bus - The bus in the song by The Who for which this trope is named is not itself actually magical—it's just an ordinary bus.
 * Magic Missile - The actual D&D spell doesn't require aiming and can't be dodged. Lots of other spells in D&D do fit the trope however.
 * Magnificent Bastard—Rommel was fighting for the Axis, but he doesn't really fit the trope.
 * Man, I Feel Like a Woman—Shania Twain's song is about female independence, not men feeling themselves up after discovering that they've somehow become women.
 * Me Love You Long Time—The prostitute in Full Metal Jacket was responding to purely economic forces rather than the soldiers' ethnicity.
 * Missed Him by That Much—A riff on one of Maxwell Smart's many catch phrases, but he never actually engaged in the trope himself.
 * Mexican Standoff—The term originated in a 19th century newspaper as a metaphor to describe a political struggle for power in Mexico.
 * Most Annoying Sound—The scene from Dumb and Dumber doesn't qualify because it's not a video game or toy.
 * My Horse Is a Motorbike—The meme from Sengoku Basara is just a regular horse that's been outfitted with handlebars and tailpipes.
 * My Own Grampa—The titular song is about a man who is his own step-grandfather by marriage. The trope is far more literal.
 * The Napoleon—The real Napoleon Bonaparte was of average height for his time. He appears comparatively short in paintings due to stocking his Imperial Guard with tall men.
 * Next Sunday AD -- Mystery Science Theater 3000 was inexplicit regarding the date and demanded too much suspension of disbelief for a few years one way or the other to cover up.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Herod—Jesus didn't come back to kill Herod.
 * Nietzsche Wannabe—Nietzsche himself actually rejected nihilism.
 * No Celebrities Were Harmed—The end credits of The Critic used the phrase after announcing out that celebrity voices were impersonated, not to note that characters base on Real Life celebrities have different names on the show.
 * Officer and a Gentleman—Richard Gere's character in An Officer and a Gentleman is most decidedly not an example of the trope.
 * One of These Doors Is Not Like the Other -- Sesame Street never featured a maze that could be navigated only by observing subtle hints.
 * Open the Iris—Namer was a shield for the Stargate, not anything about someone's eye.
 * Orwellian Retcon—Orwell didn't do this, and it's not clear that it happened in-story in 1984 either (but, then again, that's the point).
 * Pac-Man Fever—The song is about liking the game, not about getting video game facts wrong.
 * Panicky Expectant Father—Namer was a comment about a long standing ambition to write a subversion of the trope.
 * Pronoun Trouble—Daffy's trouble was with person, not gender.
 * Red Right Hand—The trope refers to some odd physical trait that indicates someone is evil. The line from Paradise Lost is speaking metaphorically, and about God (specifically his punishments), who is not evil.
 * The Renfield—Renfield never actually served Dracula out of loyalty; he just got taken in by the promise of food.
 * Restored My Faith in Humanity -- Akara means that her faith in the future of humanity (which is understandable to doubt with the demons running around everywhere) is helped by your actions.
 * Robot Roll Call—in Mystery Science Theater 3000, it's a Theme Tune Roll Call, and not an index about robots.
 * Rock Me, Amadeus—The song is about Mozart, but does not have any Sampling from him.
 * Scandalgate -- "Watergate" was just the name of the hotel where the famous US political scandal mainly took place. While it inspired the use of the "-gate" suffix in almost all future political and media scandals, the Watergate scandal itself did not follow this convention and, thus, is not an example of the trope.
 * Scourge of God, The—Trope is serial killers who kill sinners, Trope Namer is mass murderer Attila the Hun.
 * Shock and Awe—Destroying an enemy's will to fight with massive, overwhelming force doesn't have anything to do with electrical Elemental Powers.
 * Shut UP, Hannibal—No one ever tells off Dr. Lecter that way; if they did, he would eat them. "Discourtesy is unspeakably ugly to me."
 * So Happy Together—The song gives no indication that the relationship will end badly, and it may not even have begun yet.
 * Someone Elses Problem—The Trope Namer is a Weirdness Censor that invokes this trope via Applied Phlebotinum.
 * Something Completely Different -- Monty Python's Flying Circus rarely deviated from the formula, since the show didn't really have a formula to deviate from.
 * Spell My Name with an "S"—The trope is about frequently misspelled names. This was the reason Azimov Asimov wrote the short story of the same name, but the story itself exemplifies For Want of a Nail and My Nayme Is instead.
 * Strong Flesh, Weak Steel—Trope is named after a belief held by Thulsa Doom from Conan the Barbarian, but actual flesh stronger than steel isn't present in the work.
 * Team Rocket Wins—In the Pokémon anime and video games it was based on, Team Rocket or its corresponding Expy is always defeated, no exceptions.
 * They Just Didn't Care: The Mystery Science Theater 3000 guys did care. The the Attack of the The Eye Creatures guys, however, did not.
 * Timey-Wimey Ball—The actual episode of Doctor Who from which this phrase emerged ends in a perfectly reasonable Stable Time Loop. But the series as a whole is all over the place in explaining the perils and practice of time travel.
 * Timmy in a Well -- Never happened on the show.
 * Uncle Tomfoolery—There are two kinds, of which Harriet Beecher Stowe's hero is neither (presumably the name comes from how the character is often lumped into said categories through Common Knowledge).
 * Unto Us a Son and Daughter Are Born -- "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." The fulfillment of this was not part of a set of twins, much less fraternal twins.
 * Voice of the Legion—While the Gerasene demon certainly inspired many of the examples, there is no indication that he spoke with a Reverb of Doom.
 * The Walls Are Closing In—The trope name was inspired by lyrics lifted from the pre-chorus to the Linkin Park song "Crawling;" however, the phrase's use in the song is intended to be metaphorical and describe the narrator's nervous breakdown--not to convey that he's caught in a Death Trap where the walls literally close in and threaten to crush a character.
 * We Hardly Knew Ye—The trope refers to a character who is killed off or otherwise removed from the continuity of a series before the audience can get to know them properly. The trope namer is the old Irish folk song Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye, which is about a soldier who returns home alive, but so maimed and disfigured that he is virtually unrecognisable.
 * Whale Egg—The trope namer is an incident from The Simpsons where Ralph Wiggum mistaken a large, white isolation tank for said "whale egg;" it didn't involve an actual egg from an animal that doesn't reproduce that way.
 * With This Herring—Trope namer is a movie's Impossible Task. Trope is a video game habit of giving starting characters no equipment but a quest to save the world.

Tropes that were renamed off this list

 * Actor-Role Confusion—Originally "Your Secret's Safe With Me, Superman", after a line from The Simpsons that does not involve Superman or someone who played the character (which the trope is about).
 * Anger Born of Worry—Originally "Fear Leads To Anger", Yoda never felt fear for Anakin's safety that presented as anger at his return.
 * Bigger Is Better in Bed—Originally "Biggus Dickus". The mentioned character in Monty Python's Life of Brian engages in no bed activity, it's just his Punny Name which is highlighted.
 * Breakup Breakout—Originally "The Jannetty", who was actually The Garfunkel.
 * Informed Equipment—Originally "Fight In The Nude", a game challenge in Diablo to fight without armor, not a failure to render acquired equipment owing to cheap graphics which is the trope.
 * Lesser Star—Used to define a group member (usually in bands and music outfits) who is superfluous. Originally named "Garfunkel", but the duo of Simon & Garfunkel was well-known for their harmonies, and Art Garfunkel sang some of their most beautiful melodies.
 * No Delays for the Wicked—Originally "The Trains Run On Time", a term used about Mussolini for whom it was never true.
 * Ordered to Cheat—Originally "Sweep The Leg". In The Karate Kid, not only was "sweeping the leg" not cheating (and thus a viable strategy), there was a better example in the match before, where the same guy ordered another student to take Daniel out of commission, which he does by wrecking his knee...despite not wanting to cheat in the first place.
 * Playing a Tree—Originally "You Are A Tree Charlie Brown", who had never been cast as a tree.
 * Resignations Not Accepted—Originally "You Can Never Leave", a reference to lyrics from The Eagles song "Hotel California," which in the context of the song were about not being able to leave a place, rather than an organization.
 * Romantic Plot Tumor—Originally "George Lucas Love Story", changed because most romance stories in Lucas films are not poorly written and absorbing most of the film, and his famous example might not be his fault.
 * Skyward Scream—Originally "The Khan", which didn't involve a scream using that precise presentation. Instead look for The Scream.
 * Status Quo Game Show—Originally "You Can't Win", after an in-universe game show from Stay Tuned. The protagonists of the movie actually won on the game show, or at least survived it.
 * Suddenly Always Knew That—Originally "I Know Kung Fu", refers to a character suddenly using an advanced skill that he/she has apparently always knew but never mentioned it before. The original trope namer, Neo from The Matrix, had to get an Upgrade Artifact installed.
 * Terrible Trio—Originally "Team Rocket", but they were much too terrible in one sense of the word to be the other.
 * Translation Train Wreck—Originally "Do Not Want", which, while the bootleg the line came from is mostly an example, is merely inaccurate (an infamous translation of Darth Vader's Big No), not flat-out gibberish.
 * Urban Legend of Zelda—Originally "Schala Lives" after rumors of Schala from Chrono Trigger living. This was actually proven true in the DS port.
 * Verbal Tic—Originally "Spoon Speaker", which The Tick (animation)'s odd battlecry was not really.
 * Wedding Smashers—Originally "Wedding Crashers", but the film version was non-violent.

Partial Credit

 * My Future Self and Me—Originally in South Park where Stan meets with his future self. This is not actually the case; it turns out that he was an actor hired by Stan's parents to keep him off of drugs. However, at the end of the episode, Cartman actually does meet his future self.
 * Sprint Shoes—The Bunny Hood in Zelda was supposed to be this - but rolling is faster - but rolling too much made you dizzy in one game. In honor of being technically correct, just overshadowed, it remains an alt title.
 * The Starscream—There are multiple incarnations of Starscream in the Transformers franchise, and while most aren't exactly trustworthy, some are more treacherous than others.
 * What Could Possibly Go Wrong? - no specific Trope Namer, but whenever the phrase is actually said, Tempting Fate usually applies, and not this trope.

Mix of the last two

 * Cute and Psycho—Originally "Yangire", a term that was coined by fans to describe some unusual behavior of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha, though this was ultimately not the case.
 * Damsel Scrappy—originally "The Kimberly", who Took a Level In Badass during the season that followed the trope renaming and got Rescued From the Scrappy Heap.
 * Hypercompetent Sidekick—originally "The Radar", who was this until Flanderization.
 * Replacement Flat Character—Originally "The Niles", referring to a character from Frasier, who was such until Character Development.