A Series of Unfortunate Events: Difference between revisions

[[File:The_Bad_Beginning_1_6867.jpg|frame|Wouldn't you rather read a story about a happy little elf?]]

 

{{quote|''[[Snicket Warning Label|PLEASE READ SOMETHING ELSE.]]''|Lemony Snicket }}

 

 

 

Throughout the first few books in the series, the children are sent from one caretaker to another, each one more eccentric and troubled than the last. Count Olaf is following them in a series of [[Paper-Thin Disguise|Paper Thin Disguises]] that [[Adults Are Useless|only the children immediately see through]]. Eventually, the children must strike out on their own to discover their family's dark secret - their parents' connection to a mysterious organization. And all the while, bizarre and improbable disasters strike the children and everyone around them for no discernible reason.

[[Lemony Narrator|Lemony]] Snicket [[Narrator|narrates]] throughout, providing commentary, anecdotes, and advice - usually against reading any more of his history of the Baudelaire orphans.

 

 

 

== ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'': ==

* Book the Eleventh: ''The Grim Grotto''

* Book the Twelfth: ''The Penultimate Peril''

 

== Supplementary materials: ==

* (''The Bad Beginning Rare Edition'')

* (''The Puzzling Puzzles'')

* ''The Beatrice Letters''

 

----

* [[Lemony Narrator]]

* [[Snicket Warning Label]]

 

* [[Abusive Parents]]: Not parents, strictly speaking, but many guardians are thoroughly unsuitable. Count Olaf worst of all.

* [[Adaptational Attractiveness]]: While their appearance outside of illustrations are never really detailed in the books, the movie makes them appear much more "pretty", making Klaus look much older than he probably should, and making him no longer need glasses, which would be a vital plot point in the fourth book.

** Aside for Violet who has been repeatedly noted as being pretty in the books.

* [[Alliterative Name]]: The [[Odd Name Out]] in both sets of triplets: Quigley Quagmire and Dewey Denouement. {{spoiler|Beatrice and Bertrand Baudelaire. Actually, both Beatrice Baudelaires.}} The titles of the first twelve books are alliterative, as well as many, many locations mentioned throughout the books (Lousy Lane, Lake Lachrymose, Finite Forest, Heimlich Hospital, etc.).

* [[Alter Ego Acting]]: Daniel Handler and Lemony Snicket -- separate characters in the books themselves.

* [[Aluminum Christmas Trees]]: There actually is [http://www.libraryhotel.com/ a hotel in New York City] organized by the Dewey Decimal System.

** Handler has way too much fun with this. At one point a location (a train station, if I remember correctly) is mentioned to have three shops - one is a computer repair shop. Another is a blacksmith shop. Have fun figuring out what time period those two establishments could coexist in.

* [[And Now You Must Marry Me]]: Olaf tries to force Violet to marry him in Book the First, despite being her legal guardian. The creepiness of this is actually played up, culminating in the [[Crosses the Line Twice|hilarious and horrifying]] line "You may not be my wife, but you are still my daughter, and--"

* [[Anti-Villain]]: Arguably the Baudelaires themselves in later books, and among actual antagonists, Fernald seems to fall into this category at times.

* [[Anyone Can Die]]

* [[Arc Number]]: 13. It makes sense, since...well, look at the title.

** Every book even has thirteen chapters. {{spoiler|Averted in the final installment, however, thanks to the additional "Chapter Fourteen" which is treated as a seperate book despite consisting of a single chapter. This also causes the series ''as a whole'' to avert the arc number; until then, it would have had 169 (13 times 13) chapters, but it now has one chapter more than that.}}

** There are also some actual [[Arc Words]], especially in the later books and in the "supplementary materials." For example, "The world is quiet here."

* [[Aristocrats Are Evil]]: ''Count'' Olaf, anyone?

** ''The Hostile Hospital'' the Baudelaires are accused of being "murderers, arsonists, and spurious doctors.".

** The back covers list five or more of the "unfortunate events" found within, generally 2 or 3 serious ones and then something quite harmless -- or at least that sounds that way.

* [[Author Appeal]]: Approximated in-universe by Carmelita Spats's ridiculous "tap-dancing ballerina fairy princess veterinarian" and "ballplaying cowboy superhero soldier pirate" outfits.

* [[Author Catchphrase]]: "A word/phrase which here means..."

* [[Bait and Switch Credits]]: {{spoiler|Chapter 170, a.k.a. ''Chapter Fourteen''.}}

* [[Banned in China]]: Daniel Handler was actually hoping for some of this, and was disappointed in how little it happened. His one real "victory" was that the books were banned from a school in Georgia due to Olaf's plan to marry his distant relative Violet in book one, to which he responded "I'm at a loss as to how to write a villain who doesn't do villainous things."

* [[Bilingual Bonus]]: some of Sunny's comments, such as her arigato in the Slippery Slope, or her saying Aubergine to mean that she is making a plot with this eggplant. Others are a mishmash of English ("Kicbucit?" for "Is he dead?") and a couple are plain old Hebrew ("Yomhuledet!" which is translated as "Surprise" but literally means "birthday" and "Yomhashoah" which is translated as "Never again" but literally means "Holocaust Memorial Day"). The children also make pasta Puttanesca, an Italian dish translating as "whore's sauce."

* [[Beethoven Was an Alien Spy]]: The narrator and his comrades imply that V.F.D. dates back to [[Ancient Greece]], that Martin Luther King, Edith Wharton, and Thomas Malthus were involved with it -- although Malthus was on the evil side of the schism -- and that Shakespeare may be alive. However, these may be the result of revisionism in accordance with V.F.D.'s own views.

* [[Belated Backstory]]: [[Department of Redundancy Department|Although it takes a while,]] this is exactly what happens to Fernald.

* [[Bittersweet Ending]]: The ending of the movie, that closes the story in an ambiguous but optimistic way:{{spoiler|"...the Baudelaires were very fortunate indeed."}}

* [[Bizarrchitecture]]: Doctor Orwell's eye-shaped building, the "thumb" shaped buildings at Prufrock Prep and to a certain extent, the Eye decor of Olaf's house.

* [[Boarding School of Horrors]]: Prufrock Preparatory School in Book the Fifth.

* [[Body Motifs]]: The eye that first appears in Count Olaf's ankle tattoo, and later in many other places.

* [[Boring but Practical]]: One chapter taught kids a useful trick when eating foods you don't like to spread the food around on the plate so as to make it appear like there's less left.

** Also the trick the kids use in the elevator that their dad taught them, where they press every single button in order to cause a large delay.

* [[Cinderella Circumstances]]: The first book, in which the Baudelaire siblings live with the bossy and horrible Count Olaf who treats them like servants. In the tenth book, "The Slippery Slope", Sunny resides with Count Olaf and his henchmen after being captured by them. She ends up becoming a servant for the whole group, including cooking meals in freezing temperatures, cleaning, and sleeping in a casserole dish and having to '''clear a car floor of potato chips''' ''by blowing them out.'' . The narrator even references Cinderella.

* [[Circus of Fear]]: Caligari Carnival, in Book the Ninth.

* [[Clark Kenting]]: Numerous characters at various points, with the minor characters being better at it than the main ones.

* [[Common Meter]]: "The Little Snicket Lad"

* [[Contemptible Cover]]: Many non-English-language covers are awful and do the series no justice.

* [[Continuity Nod]]: Tons of these, especially in "An Unauthorized Biography". [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] and [[Subverted Trope|Subverted]] in "The End"

* [[Conveyor Belt O' Doom]]: Occurs in Book the Fourth -- with an absurdly huge circular saw.

* [[Cool Car]]: The Tatra 603 and 1959 Chrysler Imperial in [[The Film of the Book]].

* [[Corrupt Corporate Executive]]: Closer to this than [[Corrupt Hick]] is Sir, the amoral, cigar-smoking lumbermill owner who pays his workers in coupons and gives them gum for lunch; in a later appearance, business is bad, as nearby lumber source the Finite Forest is running out of trees.

* [[Covers Always Lie]]: The twelfth book features several sinister-looking figures whom fans thought would be important -- or even specific characters from previous books -- but no corresponding characters appear in the text. Inverted by the British edition of the sixth book, on which the cover gives away the main plot twist.

* [[Curse of the Ancients]]: "Blasted furnaces of Hell!"

* [[Cut Short]]: Or more precisely, [[No Ending]].

* [[Daydream Believer]]: The combination of [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]] and [[Paranoia Fuel]] really makes an impact on some impressionable young readers.

* [[Day of the Week Name]]: Book the Thirteenth features Friday Caliban, and alludes to a Thursday Caliban and a Monday.

* [[Deathbringer the Adorable]]: The Incredibly Deadly Viper, which is not poisonous and is actually really friendly.

* [[Deconstruction]]: Most of the books deconstruct one genre or another (although sometimes this is closer to an [[Affectionate Parody]]). The second half of the series deconstructs the first half of the series. Arguably the last three books start deconstructing their immediate predecessors, too.

* [[Department of Redundancy Department]]: Frequently used for humour in the narration throughout the series, mostly as part of the "defining words" and "translate Sunny's speech" gags:

** In the ninth book, one chapter starts out with a description of deja vu. The second page of the chapter is almost exactly the same as the first page (including the picture and the chapter heading). Several chapters later, the exact same passage describing deja vu is repeated again.

** In ''The Grim Grotto'', Lemony Snicket attempts to put the reader to sleep by giving a very repetitive description of evaporation.

* [[Don't Try This At Home]]: In Book the Second, Snicket tells the reader to "never ever ever" do something, and the "ever"s continue for [[Overly Long Gag|two whole pages]].

* [[Downer Ending]]: Optional in some books, in which the author [[Snicket Warning Label|suggests to stop reading and imagine an ending better than the real one.]]

* [[Drowning Pit]]: Lemony in an ''Italian restaurant''.

* [[Dumb Is Good]]: [[Inverted Trope]]: "Well-read people are less likely to be evil."

** Then the inversion is subverted, when the [[Lemony Narrator]] later directly tells the reader this is not always the case.

* [[DVD Commentary]]: Two, one that comes in the regular "actors and director" flavor and one that features the director and {{spoiler|Daniel Handler in character as}} Lemony Snicket himself, who is obviously very disturbed at the director's insistence on introducing count Olaf into the plot at all, let alone (supposedly) [[As Himself]].

* [[Everyone Went to School Together]]: Quite a few characters went to school together, but this is somewhat [[Justified Trope|justified]] by the fact that they were all members of a secret organisation and this was their training; also, several of these characters are [[The Ghost]].

* [[Evil Costume Switch]]: Fiona, when joining Olaf's side, exchanges a uniform with a portrait of Herman Melville for one with a portrait of notoriously bad poet Edgar Guest.

* [[Evil Laugh]]: Olaf's actually indicates [[Character Development]]

* [[The Film of the Book]]: The series was well-received by critics, made a lot of money, and the sequel has been in [[Development Hell]] for years. In fact, the director said that they may have to make the sequel animated, and claim the [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]] for the first movie.

* [[Foregone Conclusion]]: The intros to many of the books tell you that the story will NOT have a happy ending, and Lemony Snicket will also casually reveal which characters will have bad things happen to them throughout the book.

* [[Gadgeteer Genius]]: [[Wrench Wench|Violet.]]

* [[Genre Savvy]]: The Count Olaf in [[The Film of the Book]] seems to have read the books, because he knows to {{spoiler|make sure Violet signs her name using her right hand.}}

* [[Geographic Flexibility]]: The spatial as well as temporal milieu of the Series is best described as "everywhere and nowhere", as it's apparently far from most known continents, and the large city the Baudelaires lived in doesn't even have a name.

* [[The Ghost]]: The series has a wide backstory and several characters are only ever referred to. The most notable example is probably R., the Duchess of Winnipeg.

* [[Glove Snap]]: Jim Carrey's Count Olaf does this in his herpetologist disguise.

* [[Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress]]: [[Discussed Trope|Plays out in dialogue]] -- and thus ends up [[Averted Trope|averted]] -- in Book the Twelfth: "I suppose I'll have to add the force of gravity to my list of enemies."

* [[Hanlon's Razor]]: The line between willful villainy and pure incompetence is rather thin, especially since some incompetent and stupid characters become pawns in what seems like a massive [[Gambit Roulette]].

* [[Hannibal Lecture]]: Or rather, Hannibal Gloat, in the movie. Olaf reveals to the audience that he has just legally married Violet and played everyone for a sap. When Mr. Poe demands that the Chief of Police arrest him, Olaf calls Poe and everyone out on how the kids had repeatedly tried to warn the adults and asked for help, but they wouldn't listen to them. "No one ever listens to children".

* [[Henpecked Husband]]: Jerome Squalor. And how.

* [[Hitler Ate Sugar]]: Played with, a few times. (Only a villainous person places his cup on the table without using a coaster or enjoys the works of Edgar Guest.)

* [[Hostage for McGuffin]]: A [[Subverted Trope]]: in Book the Tenth, where for once it's proposed by the heroes, neither they nor the villain are capable of carrying out their side of the bargain.

* [[Hypocritical Humor]]: When Captain Sham (Count Olaf) says, "There ain't nothin' better than good grammar!"

* [[The Illuminati]]: Hinted at with Fiona Widdershins, who seems to prefer triangular eyeglasses.

* [[In Case You Forgot Who Wrote It]]: [[The Film of the Book]] is titled ''Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events'', perhaps to emphasize the [[Lemony Narrator]].

* [[Incest Subtext]]: Violet and Klaus, [[Sarcasm Mode|obviously]]. The [[Film of the Book]] actually ''does'' sport a bit of chemistry though.

** [[Just for Fun]], try watching the movie with the sound off. Pay attention to [[Held Gaze|the looks]] the siblings give [[Brother-Sister Incest|each other]] throughout the film. Try not to think differently [[Alternate Character Interpretation|about the characters]] after ''that''.

** Not to mention the connection to his name and [[Easter Egg|Edgar Allen Poe's association with tuberculosis]]

** However, {{spoiler|with the fire in the second to last book and the vague status on the minor characters, he may have died.}}

* [[Just a Stupid Accent]]: Characters trying to be "foreign" use broken English with clumsy syntax (like "I am loving of the children") and frequent interjections of "Please", and apparently everyone falls for it.

* [[Karma Houdini]]: [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] and [[Justified Trope|justified]]

* [[Kill All Humans]]: While not particularly harmful, the insects called snow gnats sting humans just for the fun of it.

* {{spoiler|[[Kill'Em All]]}}: Maybe.

* [[Kissing Discretion Shot]]: A very rare literary version. In ''The Slippery Slope'', it's extremely obvious that there is some chemistry between {{spoiler|Violet and Quigley}}, but the moment the two get alone and one starts with the [[Longing Look|Longing Looks]], Snicket goes off on one of [[Lemony Narrator|his signature spiels]] about how since the series started {{spoiler|Violet}} has had little to no privacy, and that he will take this chance to give them a little. [[Ship Tease|The readers were not amused.]]

* [[Leave the Two Lovebirds Alone]]: Snicket does this to the readers in ''The Slippery Slope.''

* [[The Long List]]: The Snow Scouts Alphabet Pledge in the tenth book, along with lists of food, disguise items, and books seen elsewhere. Also, the long list of rules they had to follow at the Village of Fowl Devotees.

** Don't forget Esme Squallor's personal library full of books cataloging what was in and out in various months, years, etc.

* [[Lost Aesop]]: Parodied. The series starts off meandering fairly aimlessly through satires of various unfortunate literary settings, with Book the Third [[Lampshade Hanging]] its lack of a meaningful [[An Aesop|Aesop]], but the later books begin to diverge wildly with mixed messages about what is justifiable in conflict; Book the Tenth resolves this, then Book the Twelfth forgets it was resolved, and Book the Thirteenth (and Last) concerns the impossibility of finding answers to the big questions in life, while ignoring most of the big questions in the series.

* [[Lovable Coward]]: Lemony Snicket himself. In nearly every book, while narrating some terrifying situation, he comments that, had he been in the Beaudelaire's place, he would have been unable to go on and would have instead run away in terror, dissolved into helpless tears, etc.

* [[MacGyvering]]: Violet does this at least [[Once Per Episode|once per book]].

** And Klaus gets his turn in ''The Miserable Mill''.

* [[Masquerade]]

* [[Meaningful Name]]: ''Most'' character and place names are literary or historical allusions, some of them clearly relevant (such Dr. Orwell the hypnotist and Dewey the librarian), others more like a secular version of [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic]].

* [[Mind Screw]]: The eleventh and thirteen books featured an {{spoiler|incarnation of Mystery and Death, shaped like an ''enormous question mark'', that stalked the seas, its motives unfathomable}}; the existence and activities of V.F.D. get very close to this in the twelfth book, too.

** Hell, re-reading the entire series, along with all the [[Red Herring|Red Herrings,]] [[Red Herring Twist|twists on such]], [[Paranoia Fuel]], and the fact that ''every single thing in the series could be a clue toward an ending'' (or not) Can turn even the [[Viewers Are Geniuses|smartest and most critical thinking readers]] on their heads in absolute confusion.

* [[Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate]]: [[Meaningful Name|Doctor Orwell.]]

* [[Mysterious Past]]: Nearly every character has a mysterious past, and none are ever fully revealed. For example, Emse reveals that Beatrice stole the sugar bowl, but Lemony later states that he was involved too. Just ''HOW'' he was involved, we do not know.

* [[Nice Hat]]: The Council of Elders in the seventh book wear hats shaped like crows.

* [[Noodle Incident]]: It's implied that a lot of the backstory is too tragic to even mention, and Snicket himself alludes to downright absurd situations such as being trapped in a flooded Italian restaurant, which may or may not be hypothetical)

** The main series consists of thirteen books, each with thirteen chapters. {{spoiler|The thirteenth book has a "hidden" fourteenth chapter which serves as an epilogue, bringing the main series total to one hundred seventy chapters rather than one hundred sixty-nine.}}

* [[Obfuscating Stupidity]]: An [[Alternate Character Interpretation]] of movie!Olaf. He's portrayed as very goofy and melodramatic by Jim Carrey (surprise, surprise), but he's still able to come up cunning plans to steal the Baudelaire fortune.

*** Violet was actually the name of Claus von Bulow's lawyer.

* [[Oh, and X Dies]]: In ''The Reptile Room''

* [[The Omniscient Council of Vagueness]]: V.F.D.

* [[Onion Tears]]: [[Discussed Trope|Discussed]] in ''[[The End]]''.

* [[Painting the Medium]]: In ''The Ersatz Elevator'', the three children are {{spoiler|thrown down an elevator shaft}}, and rather than try to describe it, Lemony just prints two pages solid black.

* [[Paper-Thin Disguise]]: Count Olaf, over and over again.

** In the eighth, ninth, and twelfth books, the Baudelaires get disguises of their own. Their disguises in the eighth book are particularly ridiculous: thirteen year old Klaus and baby Sunny just don face masks and ill-fitting doctor uniforms and are mistaken as the pale-faced women, ''by the women's own cohorts''! In the ninth book, their disguises are a bit less paper thin, but Count Olaf still probably should have recognized them since he's been following them so long (though he does mention that they look familiar).

* [[Parental Abandonment]]: Happens to at least eleven characters.

* [[Parental Substitute]]: Dr. Montgomery is a good substitute. In ''The Penultimate Peril'', volunteers Kit Snicket and {{spoiler|Dewey Denouement}} answer ''some'' of the Baudelaires' questions and the latter offers to become their guardian. {{spoiler|All three of them die, of course.}}

* [[Perky Goth]]: Violet's character design changes from a rather innocent 50's girl style, to a lolita-style goth.

* [[Persona Non Grata]]: Snicket mentions that he is banned from a certain town, not so far from where ''[[Infallible Narrator|you]]'' live.

* [[Precision F-Strike]]: In ''The Reptile Room''

** This has actually gotten some controversy over being in a children's book series. [[Word of God]] says this was meant to have him [[Kick the Dog]].

* [[Properly Paranoid]]: The Baudelaires, about Count Olaf's many attempts to infiltrate their lives and snatch them for their fortune; V.F.D., a secret organisation which has split into two opposing sides, one noble and one murderous; and Aunt Josephine in [[The Film of the Book]], for the scene where all her crazy fears come true (although she's not around to see it). It makes us realise that maybe, just maybe, she's not as crazy as she seems. Then she sells the orphans out to Count Olaf to save her life, and we realise she is truly crazy to think he'll spare someone who could, albietly unlikely, speek out against him and reveal that Captain Sham is actually Count Olaf.

* [[Public Execution]]: Fortunately averted in ''The Vile Village'', but more or less straight in ''The Carnivorous Carnival''.

* [[Pyromaniac]]: Count Olaf ''really'' likes to burn houses down and enjoys it even more ''if there is someone inside''

** He also doesn't mind the occasional hospital full of children.

* [[Reasonable Authority Figure]]: Uncle Monty was this (at least in the film).... for as long as he lasted.

* [[Recursive Canon]]: Apparently Snicket's books are published within the world of the Series, but it's not clear if they're different versions.

* [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent]]: Averted very hard. The Baudelaires' herpetologist uncle {{spoiler|he's actually the brother of the wife of the cousin of the father of the baudelaires}} is kind and well-educated. He allows the children to fearlessly indulge their curiosity. The dangerous snakes are properly caged. And he only assigns the harmless and friendly but fearsome-looking Incredibly Deadly Viper that name as a joke and is even quite helpful to the Baudelaires.

* [[Retcon]]: So heavy that a number of companion books had to be written to fully explain them; these were themselves retconned. Handler originally thought the series would only last a few books, not the intended 13, and hence the first four books were essentially unconnected; V.F.D. was created as an ongoing plotline when it became clear the series could run 13 books, and details from the first four books were retconned to be part of the V.F.D. backstory to bring the entire series together.

* [[Scenery Gorn]]: The ruins of the Baudelaire mansion, and Olaf's house in [[The Film of the Book]].

* [[Scenery Porn]]: All other scenery in the above.

* [[Screw This, I'm Outta Here]]: {{spoiler|The white-faced women}} fall victim to this in Book the Tenth. Apparently, so do {{spoiler|Fernald and Fiona}} in Book the Twelfth (albeit off-screen).

* [[Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness]]: Often seen in books which Klaus has to read because only he can make sense of them.

* [[Shaming the Mob]]: Done by ''Olaf'' of all people to the audience of the play in the film.

** Why will no-one call me Ish?

* [[Show Within a Show]]: The theme song from ''The Littlest Elf'' is heard on two characters' car stereos, and Olaf has a bobblehead of the character in his car, implying it's a film within the world of the story. This ties in perfectly with the conceit that Snicket's intended audience is also part of that world, when he recommends ditching out and seeing that movie instead.

* [[Significant Anagram]]: Count Olaf's henchmen use anagrams of "Count Olaf" as pseudonyms. In the eighth book, Violet is given an anagrammed name on a hospital patient list One of the anagrams in the list, when unravelled, reads "Beatrice Baudelaire". Whether this was done deliberately, to state that she IS actually alive {{spoiler|at least until the hospital burned down}}, or not, is unknown. It may just be a red herring.

* [[Signature Style]]: And how.

* [[Sliding Scale of Silliness Versus Seriousness]]: For the most part, very silly.

* [[Social Services Does Not Exist]]

* [[Snicket Warning Label]]: The [[Trope Namer]].

* [[Spoof Aesop]]: Snicket's narration is peppered with comments like "The moral of [[World War I]] is 'Never assassinate Archduke Ferdinand'"; the [[Spin-Off]] ''Horseradish: Bitter Truths You Can't Avoid'' compiles a lot of these, some from the main series and some entirely new.

* [[Spy Speak]]: V.F.D., being a secret organisation, naturally uses copious quantities of this, so much so that there have been disputes among readers over whether certain phrases are in code or not.

"I didn't realize this was a sad occasion." }}

* [[Stealth Pun]]: The Baudelaire children's first guardian after Olaf is called Uncle ''Monty'', And he owns ''Pythons''. You figure it out.

* [[Sub Story]]: ''The Grim Grotto''

* [[Synchronized Swarming]]: The swarm of "snow gnats"can take on forms like hoops and arrows when attacking people.

** Then there's his association of poet ''Edgar Guest'' with the villains in ''The Grim Grotto'', even stating outright that it's because his poetry sucked in a [[Tastes Like Diabetes]] way. Kind of jarring in a series so focused on [[Black and Gray Morality]].

* [[Tastes Like Diabetes]]: Invoked with the first few minutes of [[The Film of the Book]], which is quickly and mercilessly subverted by a [[Record Needle Scratch]].

* [[Theme Initials]]: V.F.D.

* [[Theme Naming]]: The teachers at Prufrock Preparatory School are named after fish, and later we discover some families of siblings with alphabetically sequential names.

* [[There Are No Therapists]]: So many children are orphaned in this series, but instead of counseling they get sent to abusive foster homes -- or worse.

* [[Throw It In]]: In [[The Film of the Book]], "Let me try that again, quickly, while it's fresh in my mind." The dialog was supposed to end after Klaus says "Our parents just died", but Carrey felt he didn't get the reaction right. Silberman just kept the cameras rolling and Carrey ad-libbed from there.

* [[Totem Pole Trench]]: An interesting variant: Violet and Klaus put on the same oversized outfit to disguise themselves as a two-headed person.

* [[Two-Teacher School]]: Prufrock Prep has three teachers, a Vice Principal, and no other visible staff, excepting the lunch ladies who are Olaf's white-faced women who wear masks.

* [[Uncleanliness Is Next to Ungodliness]]: Olaf's poor hygiene and dirty house, played up even more in [[The Movie]]-- there are not only roaches and rats in the kitchen, but bats living in the cupboards.

* [[The Unpronounceable]]: Sir's real name -- which is why he makes people call him Sir.

* [[The Un-Reveal]]: When Sir is in a sauna, he puts down the cigar whose smoke usually covers his face, but he is covered up again by the steam.

* [[Verbal Tic]] ([[Fauxreigner|Fauxreigners]] "Gunther" and "Madame Lulu" say "please" in almost every sentence.

* [[Viewers are Morons]]: In a parody of the way children's books try to be educational, Lemony constantly defines words such as alcove, brummagem, cower, denouement, ersatz etc. Ironically many viewers didn't realize this is supposed to be a joke, even though he uses the most bizarre and snarky definitions, and much of the humor comes from assuming the reader ''[[Viewers Are Geniuses|already knows]]'' the standard definition of the word.

* [[The Walrus Was Paul]]: Let's face it, the entire series was a deliberate [[Mind Screw]].

* [[Weirdness Magnet]]: Sort of. The children are more like weirdness iron filings, drawn to bizarre people and places. On the other hand, that might just be because there aren't any normal people in Snicketland.

* [[We Sell Everything]]: Last Chance General Store.

** In the first book an assistant of Olaf's is mentioned who has warts all over his face. We never hear of him again.

* [[Where Are They Now? Epilogue]] {{spoiler|Chapter Fourteen}}; arguably a [[Subverted Trope]] because they haven't gone anywhere, although their views have moved on. ''The Beatrice Letters'' form part of an epilogue themselves. Even though the scrambled letters reveal that {{spoiler|" BEATRICE SANK"}}, the Baudelaires {{spoiler|are apparently living out their lives doing what they love. Beatrice (that's the Beatrice born in Book 13) is currently trying to find Lemony Snicket, presumebly to ask him [[Mind Screw|what the hell is happening.]] }}

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Films of the 2000s]]