Chandler's Law: Difference between revisions

[[File:JesusGunDoor.jpg|link=Jesus|frame|The readers will never see this coming!]]

 

 

 

Although expressed in a form very specific to the genre in which Chandler was writing, the Law can be easily generalized to handle any type of story.

 

Not to be confused with ''anything'' to do with [[Friends|Chandler Bing]], nor [[Sonichu|Christian Weston Chandler]].

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* In ''[[Naruto]]'', The [[Tournament Arc|Chunin Exam Finals]] culminate in a series of seven one-on-one single-elimination fights between the remaining eight participants. By the middle of the third battle, the Tournament was no longer progressing the story by itself, so the author chose that moment for [[Big Bad|Orochimaru]] to reveal his Evil Plan to destroy the Leaf Village.

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

** Take two characters who would otherwise have nothing in common or anything to discuss and [[Locked in a Room|put them into the same room]].

** Make a list of all the horrible things that could possibly happen to your character and consider going down the list.

 

 

* ''[[My Immortal]]'' abuses the concept so much that it becomes a [[Random Events Plot]] very quickly. It's pretty coherent (Ebony and Draco meet, date, screw like bunnies, break up) until Voldemort shows up. And Snape becomes a pedophile. And Draco gets captured. And Dumbledore turns evil. And Draco commits suicide. And comes back to life. This is all in about 2,000 words, by the way.

** Which is, in itself, a kind of [[Mind Screw]], just to keep up with what little coherency the story has.

 

 

* In the American version of ''[[The Office]],'' Michael Scott misuses this trope constantly at his improv class. Any time he is called to act in a scene, he pulls out a gun to increase drama because "you can't top it". Of course, nobody can top it and it ruins every improv exercise the class attempts.

** In fact, improv classes usually state as one of the first rules of scenework that pulling a gun is a "weak choice"—as pointed out above, it keeps everyone else in the scene from contributing anything. Not to say it never happens, of course.

* [[Jim Henson]] once commented on his pre-Muppet puppet sketches that when he couldn't think of how to close a sketch, he'd either have an explosion or have one character eat the other. It's pretty clear that this carried over to [[The Muppet Show]].

* ''[[Two and A Half Men]]'' has Alan, while writing a movie in a coffee shop, geting writer's block several times and solving it by having a meteor hit the characters.

 

== [[Music]] ==

* ''[[Trapped in the Closet]]'' by R. Kelly follows this trope so much it goes from [[Once an Episode]] to [[Drinking Game]] pretty quickly.

** Parodied in the ''South Park'' episode of the same name, where R. Kelly is ''constantly'' pulling out his gun, usually for no reason at all.

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* [http://www.wikislessons.com/index.php?date=2005-10-26 This] ''Wiki's Lessons In Life'' comic applies this principle to conversations.

* ''[[Girl Genius]]'' uses the rather natural combination of this trope and [[Moment Killer]] [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20090511 here].

** Earlier on, the trope is discussed with regard to throwing pies instead of sudden violence [http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20050511 here].

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Rule of Drama]]

[[Category:Laws and Formulas]]

[[Category:Mechanics of Writing]]