Bowling for Ratings

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Ah, bowling! The sport of the common man. Generally when TV shows portray someone as an everyday working class hero, the writers make him a member of a bowling team. Could result in just references to a team, a singular bowling episode or a chance for a character to be Bested At Bowling. Trope name is a parody of Bowling for Dollars, a syndicated American Game Show format of The Seventies.

Sometimes, a Canadian series will have that country's distinctive five pin variant: five pins with rubber rings around the wide bottom and smaller balls with no finger holes. But neither Canada nor the United States will ever show any other type of bowling (sorry, candlepin and duckpin lovers).

Examples of Bowling for Ratings include:

Anime and Manga

  • A "singular bowling episode " example: Excel Saga spoofs bowling as a sport in episode 9, "Bowling Girls".

Live-Action TV

Video Games

Western Animation