City of Weirdos/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: People in a big city ignore the strange stuff happening around them.

  • Straight: Chordarr, the alien invader, appears in Los Angeles. Nobody cares.
  • Exaggerated: Chordarr, a fifty-foot tall alien invader, appears in Los Angeles and starts smashing buildings left and right... but nobody cares.
  • Justified:
    • Chordarr zapped the city of Los Angeles with an Apathy Beam before appearing.
    • A film crew can be seen nearby when Chordarr appears.
    • Chordarr looks human, so everyone just assumes he's a guy with an odd outfit.
  • Inverted:
    • Everyone in Los Angeles panics when mild-mannered Charles Darr walks down the street.
    • The protagonist moves to the Uncanny Village and dismisses anything strange as "local color".
  • Subverted:
    • The humans think Chordarr is just a guy in a rubber suit. When he displays his true power, everybody panics.
    • The LAPD eventually notice Chordarr and ask him to come with them.
  • Double Subverted:
    • The panicking humans were extras on a movie set; actual bystanders don't think anything of Chordarr.
    • The cops just pulled Chordarr aside because he's carrying a laser pistol, and they wanted to make sure he had a handgun permit.
  • Parodied: After being ignored by the people of Los Angeles, Chordarr panics. He starts grabbing bystanders and begging them to pay attention to him.
  • Deconstructed: The work is high on the cynical side of the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism; the people's indifference to Chordarr is a reflection of how apathetic and self-centered they are.
  • Reconstructed: After Chordarr appears and menaces the city, residents realize they've been too self-centered, and work to pay more attention to things around them.
  • Zig Zagged: The city starts out as normal, and then gets weirder as the series progresses.
  • Averted:
    • The show is a drama played straight, with no fantastic elements whatsoever.
    • Or it does have fantastic elements, but witnesses react to seemingly impossible events with the expected panic, amazement, and awe.
  • Enforced: The show is trying to keep things Like Reality Unless Noted, so they can't have people paying too much attention to weird things.
  • Lampshaded: "Another alien in L.A.? That's, what, the fourth one this week?"
  • Invoked: Weeks before Chordarr's scheduled attack, his Mooks have been appearing around the city dressed as rubber-suited monsters. Residents are already complaining about the "weird publicity stunts" when Chordarr arrives.
  • Defied: Chordarr makes a huge spectacle when he lands, leaving behind a crater the size of a city block, to make it clear that he is not to be ignored.
  • Discussed: "Chordarr's appearing in Los Angeles. Wonder if they'll even notice."
  • Conversed: "According to Hollywood Psych, people in big cities are so jaded that they won't even care if an alien invader starts walking down the street."

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