Better Than a Bare Bulb: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

[[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshades]]. Some writers just love them.

 

See also [[Tropes Are Tools]] and [[Deconstruction]]. Compare [[Trope Overdosed]] and [[Troperiffic]]. [[It Runs on Nonsensoleum]] is something of a subtrope.

{{examples}}

== Anime and Manga ==

* ''[[Ouran High School Host Club]]'' often hangs lampshades in both the anime and the manga, at least in the beginning of the series. Even the author herself hangs a lampshade now and then in her Author's Notes. Then again, Ouran is an [[Affectionate Parody]] of [[Shoujo]] series.

* In the anime version of ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'', and in the novels, the SOS Brigade create a film for the Cultural Festival. Kyon becomes narrator, as usual, and proceeds to act as a [[Lemony Narrator]], threatening to beat up Koizumi should he kiss Mikuru, and pointing out that some scenes just don't make sense for instance.

 

* Here are a few characters who ''love'' to hang lampshades all over the place.

** [[She Hulk]]

** [[Grant Morrison]]: e.g. one scene in his ''Bulleteer'' miniseries shows a villainess trying to kill the title character [[Stuffed Into the Fridge|with a refrigerator]].

 

* ''[[Kyon: Big Damn Hero]]''. Since it's a Haruhi fanfic written by a troper, this is only to be expected. The name is a big clue, as well.

* ''[[Calvin and Hobbes: The Series]]'' also does this.

 

== Film ==

* ''[[The Emperor's New Groove|The Emperors New Groove]]''

* ''[[The Muppets (film)|The Muppets]]''

 

== Literature ==

** Also lampshaded is the mysterious absence of Solanum from the news; the companies that own them didn't want to cause a panic. This regards just about everything about how the news works, the entire Internet, and the tendency of news to gyrate towards more sensationalist stories, even if it means sacrificing accuracy. The walking dead would be the Holy Grail for any news organization.

* ''Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'' is constructed almost entirely out of lampshades (held together with British snark, postmodernism, and cynicism).

 

== Live Action TV ==

* ''[[iCarly]]'' generally lampshades anything remotely related to the characters picking up an [[Idiot Ball]], as well as a wide variety of common genre tropes like [[Adults Are Useless|All Adults Are Useless]].

* ''[[Due South]]'' enjoys giving Fraser increasingly strange and unbelievable abilities and when other characters express astonishment as to how he does it, he merely says "That's not important."

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

* ''[[FoxTrot]]'' is fond of [[Lampshade Hanging]] to an extreme degree. Notice how many trope examples on its page involve lampshades in some way.

 

== Theater ==

* The musical ''[[Urinetown]]'' hangs lampshades on everything in sight, starting with "too much exposition" and the show's [[Intentionally Awkward Title]].

* [[Older Than Radio]]: This was one of the signatures of George M. Cohan's shows (besides flag-waving, that is).

 

== Video Games ==

** This form of conversation continues in the Extra Stage, where Marisa asks why the hell she's visiting the Moriya Shrine, and Alice outright tells her that it's the [[Bonus Dungeon]]. Marisa's response is along the lines of [[No Fourth Wall|'Haven't I already done enough by beating the game already?']]

* [[The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks]] has taken great glee in mocking just about every Zelda tradition it can. It has to be played to be believed.

* While the main [[Super Mario Bros.|Mario]] series is not an example, the [[Paper Mario]] games love lampshading just about everything about the series. the [[Mario & Luigi]] games do it too, but not quite as much.

* The iOS game [[Highborn]] lampshades everything it possibly can: odd things that happen in the story, the fact that they're breaking the fourth wall repeatedly, many of the shout-outs.

* The recent ''[[Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' games use Lampshading as a frequent source of humor, most prominantly Sonic's snarky comments towards Dr Eggman's plans past and present.

 

== Webcomics ==

* ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'' derives about half its humour from [[Lampshade Hanging]], to such an extent to even ''hang a lampshade on hanging lampshades.'' See the picture on [[Lampshade Hanging]].

* ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'' does this a lot, too, and a lot of the humor ''[[Darths and Droids]]'' comes from hanging Lampshades on some of the more [[Egregious]] things in ''[[Star Wars]]''.

* [[The Way of the Metagamer]] is made of lampshades. Even directly referencing [[This Very Wiki]].

* All of the video game tropes parodied by [[RPG World]] are lampshaded by Cherry calling attention to them. This in itself is lampshaded in one comic with: "Oh look, Cherry doesn't get it."

* When ''[[The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob]]'' indulges in some piece of [[Techno Babble]] that's more than half drivel, there's usually a caption saying "Yay! Technobabble!" or something similar.

 

== Web Original ==

* [[Chuggaaconroy]], in his [[Let's Play]] videos will lampshade anything and everything that happens. Usually done with regards to tropes within the game itself, either the story or gameplay, but often will point out how [[Catch Phrase|cliche something]] [[Verbal Tic|he says is]], or how badly he's playing due to the [[Performance Anxiety|Let's Play Curse]].

* The work of [[Its Just Some Random Guy]].

* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series|Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series]]'' and indeed [[Abridged Series]] in general ''exist'' for this reason.

 

== Western Animation ==

{{quote|'''Phineas:''' Someone should build an All-Terrain vehicle that really goes over all terrain!

'''Ferb:''' [Holds up fingers to count] Two, three, four...

'''Phineas:''' [[Catch Phrase|Hey, where's Perry?]] }}

* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' has a whole episode devoted to this trope: [[Who Would Want to Watch Us?|The Ember Island Players.]]

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Metafiction Demanded This Index]]