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All The Tropes:Everything's Worse With Snowclones: Difference between revisions
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'''''NOTE:''' This is not an invitation or a request to rename our existing snowclones without going through the usual process of gaining consensus for a page move before the fact. Rule 1 of [[All The Tropes:Terms of Service]] still applies.''
A '''Snowclone''' is a form of trope title that relies on imitating an older title's form with only a small modification. Usually this modification amounts to replacing a word or making a pun. [[The Other Wiki]] has [[w:Snowclone|a page about them]].
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The "Everything's X with Y" tropes are about shoehorning things into a work to get a certain emotional response, so "Everything's Worse With Snowclones" seems to be about using snowclones to evoke fear or apprehension. It isn't. Thankfully, this is just one administrivia page, so make sure not to repeat our mistake.
If you're looking for repeated patterns in the names of published works in any media, see [[The Joy of X]].
== Commonly Problematic Snowclones ==
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As you may have noticed, we have some titles that people very ''frequently'' try to make snowclones of, almost enough for the practice to become a [[Discredited Trope]] in and of itself. Be careful with these!
* [[What Do You Mean It's Not an Index?|What Do You Mean, It's Not (An) X?]]: This family of tropes is about when something is played up as X, but is not really X. The "not really X" part, unfortunately, expanded in scope to include various sub-concepts and now it's impossible to tell which one of them the snowclone is referencing (are the writers aware of the discrepancy? If they are, are they [[Played for Laughs|playing the contrast for laughs]] or actually trying to get the audience to go "whoa, awesome"?). This ''may'' be the best title if the trope is a really obvious instance of the "playing it up for X when it's not really" schtick across the board. If it's not, you should probably put the effort into coming up with something less muddled.
* [[Chekhov's Gun|Chekhov's X]]: This family includes tropes about elements that are introduced early to become important later. If what you're suggesting is this sort of trope, clearly explain what differentiates it from a generic [[Chekhov's Gun]] and make sure that it actually needs its own trope. If the difference comes down to "[[The Same but More Specific|Chekhov's Hat]]- a [[Chekhov's Gun]] that happens to be a hat", for instance, then it probably doesn't.
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* [[Screw This Index, I Have Tropes|Screw X I have Y]]: This is pretty much [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]], and as such it works very well (e.g. [[Screw the Rules, I Have Money]]). The problem starts when the X and the Y mutate into metaphors and it's not entirely clear anymore what is being screwed, for what reason, in what sense does the person doing the screwing "have" the Y and what part the Y plays in the screwing of the X. Usually at that point it becomes clear that the trope is being shoehorned into a snowclone and you should start looking for a better title.
* [[Schrödinger's Cat|Schrödinger's X]]: Based on the famous thought experiment, these are about cases where one choice can ''retroactively'' change whether something was true or false all along, so until then, it is both true and false at the same time. These can only happen in interactive fiction (or in passive media, if it is based on the writer's choices caused by audience reaction). DO NOT use it for "until something happens, it might turn out either
* X Effect: When it's not about status, sound or special effects, it is often hard to search for the trope when X is a work or a character. It can also be that there are many traits that the X has which do not fit the trope. Several formerly X Effect tropes have already been [[Renamed Tropes|renamed]].
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== Snowclones that work ==
Despite all common sense, there are some naming patterns that just work. We're not sure why. We're not sure how, but experience
* [[Our Monsters Are Different|Our X Are Different]]: This family of tropes focuses on how certain fantasy creatures are portrayed '''differently''' by each work that uses them; it is '''not''' a place to simply list works that include creature X. For that reason, not using the snowclone seems to cause trope decay and [[X Just X]] when we've studied the tropes. Despite being a snowclone, the tropes work better with the naming pattern than without it. This is not true for variations on the pattern that don't use the word different.
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