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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"At this point the turbolift opens, revealing [[Cowboy Cop|a cop-on-the-edge who doesn't play by the rules]], [[Corrupt Corporate Executive|a greedy corporate big-wig looking to get rich]] [[Green Aesop|by poisoning the water supply,]] and [[Uncle Tomfoolery|a skinny black guy]] whose job it is [[Jive Turkey|to say 'Dayymn!' and refer to 'My black ass!']]"''
|'''[[SF Debris]]''', reviewing the ''[[Star Trek: Voyager]]'' episode "Twisted"}}
You are watching something like ''[[Starship Troopers (
You are in a '''Cliché Storm'''. Do not worry. The pain will soon pass. A bug will soon scrag the [[Ensign Newbie|inept Lieutenant]]. Security will soon come to the perimeter. [[You Shall Not Pass|The line will soon be held]]. It will be over, soon.
Remember, this is [[Tropes Are Not Bad|not always a bad thing]]
See also [[A Space Marine Is You]], a specific form of a Cliché Storm; see also [[Deconstructor Fleet]], for works that tear through dozens of tropes en route from Cliché Storm to originality. Compare [[Medieval European Fantasy]], a common setting in some Cliché Storms. Compare [[Strictly Formula]], [[Reconstruction]]. Compare and contrast [[Troperiffic]], which is a more fun version of this trope, although the lines between the two are blurry and kind of subjective.
An important thing to note is that, as we enter the 21st century, the sheer number of works created makes it nearly impossible to write something "original". Also, our ability to securely store books and films in libraries makes it easy to access old works. That can make the newer material ''appear'' to be cliché storms, simply because we could see the similarity to countless older stories. With all that,
{{examples
▲== Anime/Manga ==
* This is the ''point'' of ''[[Kujibiki Unbalance]].'' In fact, many examples of [[Show Within a Show]] are full of clichés, possibly so that they seem "more fictional" than the show they're part of.
* See also ''[[Gekiganger 3]]'' from ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'' which is even more of an example. Practically every attack and character is lifted from some famous [[Super Robot]] series, mostly ''[[Mazinger Z]]'' (for robot design and attacks) and ''[[Getter Robo]]'' (the characters and just about everything else).
* ''[[Record of Lodoss War]]'', similar to the ''[[
* ''[[Strawberry Panic
* The dream [[RPG Episode]] at the start of ''[[The Tower of Druaga (
{{quote|
* ''[[Strike Witches]]''. It's still quite enjoyable though, if you just don't think too hard about what happens.
* ''[[
* Same thing for ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]''. [[Beyond the Impossible|It likes breaking the laws of physics]] [[Serial Escalation|in increasingly awesome ways.]]
* ''[[The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' has a cliche storm in the first episode (broadcast order). However it is justified by the fact that the episode is a film made by the main characters for a film festival.
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* The ''[[Guardian Hearts]]'' OVA series manages to cram in each and every cliché of anime [[Fan Service]] and the [[Unwanted Harem]]. To the seasoned viewer, viewing it for the first time feels like seeing it the second time.
* Just about every character, visual element, and plot device in ''[[Elemental Gelade]]'' feels lifted from some <s> other</s> better series.
* ''[[Bakugan]]'', on a level rivaling even the ''[[
* ''[[Ghost Stories]]'' demonstrates quite a few cliches from horror works.
* ''[[Black Cat (
* ''[[Guilty Crown]]'' makes use of a staggering number of cliches.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* [[Rob Liefeld|Rob Liefeld's]] infamous ''Youngblood'' featured a team whose only [[Badass Normal|non-powered member]] was also its leader, several Wolverine [[Captain Ersatz|rip-offs]] including a [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]], characters layered in [[Too Many Belts|pouches]] and [[Shoulders of Doom|shoulderpads]], [[Dark Age of Supernames|names]] like "Darcangel" and "Badrock," gun-toting [[Nineties Anti
* The ''[[
* Well Spoken Sonic Lightning Flash briefly notes that "they thought of everything! No cliche left unturned!" when he sees his team's new headquarters in ''Final Crisis Aftermath: DANCE''. The series itself doesn't exemplify the trope, however, nor does the team.
== Fan
* [[In
* Parodied in the [[Harry Potter]] fic ''When in Doubt, Obliviate'' when Snape took exception to several standard cliches during a teacher's meeting.
{{quote|
'''Dumbledore''': "That's certainly big of you, Severus. I feel inspired already."
'''Snape''': "After that doesn't happen, I'm not going to be forced to spend time with him in my classes and as the head of his house and start to see a new side of him. Particularly as I'm not going to find out that he was abused or neglected or had some other tragic problem growing up other than his mother's death..."
'''Dumbledore''': "...What won't happen then?"
'''Snape''': "I'm certainly not going to see a side of him that I hadn't before and see some of myself or any random relatives of his that aren't his father in him. I'm not going to be drawn to his modesty, intelligence, kindness, or any other virtue you can think of."
'''Dumbledore''': "Well, now I think you're just limiting yourself. Would it really be so bad if that did happen?"
'''Snape''': "It doesn't really matter if it would or would not be since it ''won't''. And finally, I will most certainly not become his favorite teacher and or his mentor. I simply will not do it and this will not become an inspirational story. It will not." }}
* ''[http://www.fimfiction.net/story/6878/A-Perfectly-Ordinary-Day-in-Ponyville A Perfectly Ordinary Day in Ponyville]'' is a ''[[My Little Pony
== Film ==
* ''[[Avatar]]'' and ''[[Titanic]]'' are here to show us that [[Tropes Are Tools|this is not a bad thing]]. ''Avatar'' is even ''self-aware'' of its cliches (Calling the [[Mineral MacGuffin]] "[[Unobtanium]]") and even Cameron has said "It's just ''[[Dances
* The movie ''[[Rio]]'' is a compilation of pretty much every trope common to kids movies in the 2000s, especially [[Dreamworks Animation|Dreamworks]] movies. See page for a list.
* Self-aware in ''[[A Few Good Men]]'', where Tom Cruise's character has a throwaway conversation with the local newsstand vendor involving each of them trying to wryly out-cliche the other.
* Surely [[Video Game Movies Suck|part of the reason]] for the catastrophic bomb dive of ''[[Final Fantasy:
{{quote|
* ''[[Dungeons
* The complete filmography of Roland Emmerich, [[Michael Bay]], and Stephen Sommers, but [[Tropes Are Not Bad|that's not to say they aren't entertaining]].
** Sommers in particular [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] the hell out of this. In his commentary for ''[[The Mummy
** He also claims that movie rules require a pointed gun to make sufficient rattling noises - about the level created by a large garbage bag full of cans is a good starting point.
* ''[[
* Ryuhei Kitamura isn't a terrifically subtle director, to say the least. He is, however, terrifically entertaining, which might explain why he was picked to direct ''[[Godzilla]]: Final Wars''.
* The three ''[[Starship Troopers (
** The first and third are intentional satire, the second is closer to this, with some heavy-handed satire.
* ''[[The Mummy
{{quote|
"Time to go!"
"Here we go again!" }}
* ''[[
** The movie was a thinly-veiled attempt to do ''[[Star Wars]]'' in a fantasy setting long before ''[[Inheritance Cycle
* Briefly parodied in ''[[Small Soldiers]]'', which features a scene where Major Chip Hazard gives a hilariously cliché-ridden speech to his "soldiers."
{{quote|
** Actually, everything Hazard says is made of this, from the "roll call" when he activates his troops to his combat banter.
* ''[[Street Fighter:
** So did [[Street Fighter (
* The 2007 hard sci-fi epic ''[[Sunshine (
* ''[[Sleepover]]''. Mind you, it ''is'' a preteen chick flick comedy, but this is ridiculous. It doesn't help that most of the actresses are fresh out of Barbizon and don't even realize how many [[Dead Horse Trope
* Parodied in ''[[Loaded Weapon 1]]'' with this exchange:
{{quote|
Mike McCracken: I don't know, I gave it to York. I thought she was one of your men.
Gen. Morters: Act in haste, repent in leisure.
Mike McCracken: But he who hesitates is lost.
Gen. Morters: Never judge a book by its cover.
Mike McCracken: What you see is what you get.
Gen. Morters: Loose lips, sink ships...
Mike McCracken: [[The Beatles (
''[Gen. Morters, cornered, looks to Mr. Jigsaw]''
''[Mr. Jigsaw consults Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, shakes his head]''
Gen. Morters: Sorry Mike, no good. }}
* Discussed in ''[[
{{quote|
'''Inara''': "--and that's not incense."
''BOOM!'' }}
** Oddly enough, The Alliance ''is'' an evil empire, and Mal ''is'' the plucky hero and the rest of the movie goes pretty well as you would expect, albeit with enough emotional twists and turns to engage the audience.
** Actually, as Joss Whedon points out, the Operative is kind of right. While the Alliance is antagonistic to the main characters, said characters are thieves and smugglers. The Alliance is presented as actually being largely beneficial and benevolent. Granted, how much of this comes across in the film itself is debatable, since time for these subtleties is somewhat limited. As for Mal as 'the plucky hero' - even in the series Mal is far from the hero archetype, and for the film Whedon pushed him even further towards the darker, non-heroic side so he could undergo some sort of arc of development during the film.
* In a [[So Bad
* Cheap [[Sylvester Stallone]] vehicle ''[[Xtreme Kool Letterz|D-TOX]]''. Stallone plays a cop who, after punching a [[Cymbal
{{quote|
* Subverted in almost every possible way throughout ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]'', a film in which almost everything you expect in a World War II action film turns out exactly the opposite of what you'd expect.
** Unlike ''[[Saving Private Ryan]]''... aside from the Normandy Beach scene, which broke some serious new ground in that genre.
* Limit of Love: ''[[Umizaru]]''. Up until the last 10 minutes, you can easily predict not only every single "unexpected twist" but every single line the characters are about to say. Of course even if we count that last moment where {{spoiler|the ship sinks with the protagonist still on board}}, the ending is still pretty much the same. Just goes to prove it, you can only make so many movies about a sinking ship.
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* Many [[Quentin Tarantino]] movies are like this, but ''[[Kill Bill]]'' is the poster child. [[Tropes Are Not Bad|And you will love]] [[Refuge in Audacity|every last second.]]
* This trope is parodied in [[Trailers Always Lie|the trailer]] for ''[[Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film For Theaters]]''.
* ''[[When Time Ran Out]]''. Of course, it's notable that most of the Cliches used ''in'' that movie were the ones Irwin Allen himself have been credited with creating. (It's eerily similar to the 1972 film adaptation of ''[[The Poseidon Adventure]]'', complete with an elderly woman fleeing for an escape dying of a heart attack and the majority of the people who stayed behind [[Kill
* ''[[Daylight]]''; it's pretty much every disaster movie since 1972.
* The portions we hear of the speech the Federation President gives at Khitomer in ''[[Star Trek VI]]'' are basically a political/diplomatic speech cliché storm.
* ''[[The Expendables]]''. But that's precisely the point.
** In fact, it hits up more tropes than expected, particularly during the middle section, which unfortunately bores the [[Genre Savvy]] person who knows exactly what the main character's going to decide to do, and just want him to [[Get On With It Already]].
* ''[[Battle: Los Angeles]]'' is oversaturated with [[Alien Invasion]] and war movie tropes. Which doesn't mean it has nothing new or exciting to offer.
** And then the film ''[[
*** This is made even more ironic when one realizes that both films were released ''months'' apart. Film/''[[
* ''[[Resident Evil]]: Apocalypse'' contains so many cliches from every zombie, sci-fi and buddy action film in the past ten years before release that it is near impossible to find something original in the film.
* ''[[Alpha and Omega]]''. Entire movie in a nutshell: Male falls in love with female. Male realizes he can't be with female because their love is forbidden due to them being different. Male and female get captured, wake up in a new location, and have to find their way home. Then throw in a bunch of kiddie humor during their adventure. Male and female finally arrive home, but the female dies. Oh wait, she didn't actually die. Male and female, despite their differences, fall in love, and live happily ever after. The end.
* [[Roger Ebert]]'s review of ''[[Stargate (
* The trailer for the new Steven Soderbergh actioner ''[[
* ''National Lampoon's Senior Trip'' is the bad/lazy version of this as the entire [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits|class]] is just one big checklist of student cliches from the [[High School Hustler]] leader to [[The Stoner]] sidekick(s) to the [[Schoolgirl Lesbians]] with special emphasis on [[Big Fun|Miosky,]] who's trying everything in his power to be the next John Belushi, plus [[Politically Incorrect Hero|"date a blonde Jap."]] The ''only'' saving graces to this film is Matt Frewer as their [[Badly
* ''[[Christian Mingle]]''. E. Reid Ross of ''[[Cracked.com]]'' wrote in [http://www.cracked.com/quick-fixes/4-reasons-new-christian-mingle-movie-will-be-hilarious/ 4 Reasons the New Christian Mingle Movie Will Be Hilarious] that the trailer of this film "May Have Set the All-Time Record for Cliches".
* ''[[The Scarecrow (2000 film)|The Scarecrow]]'' by Richard Rich has been criticized for being too similar to a [[Disney]] movie, namely ''[[Beauty and the Beast (1991 film)|Beauty and the Beast]]''. [[Tropes Are Not Bad|It's far from being horrible, though]] - the animation is surprisingly good, and the main villain Grisham is just different enough from Gaston to stand out ([[Large Ham|though no less hammy]]).
* [[Defied Trope|Defied]] by ''[[Codex Alera]]''. Yes, it is a story about a [[Farm Boy]] who becomes a sword-wielding badass, learns the magic system, gets a hot girlfriend, saves the world from an [[
▲== Literature ==
▲* [[Defied Trope|Defied]] by ''[[Codex Alera]]''. Yes, it is a story about a [[Farm Boy]] who becomes a sword-wielding badass, learns the magic system, gets a hot girlfriend, saves the world from an [[Always Chaotic Evil]] nonhuman menace, and is {{spoiler|secretly the incredibly magically powerful heir to the throne}}. But it ''isn't.'' Perhaps this is due to the [[Cool vs. Awesome]]. Or the unique magic system. Or the fact that all the races have been replaced by completely different and awesome things. Or that the main character is the [[Defied Trope]] of the [[Marty Stu]]. Or maybe because it was written by [[Jim Butcher]].
* ''[[In The Hall Of The Dragon King]]'' by Stephen Lawhead fits this to a T. Peasant boy who becomes heir to the throne? Check. Old, wise mentor figure? Check. [[Supporting Leader]]? Check. Completely evil, slightly insane villain who wants to take over the world? Check. [[Evil Prince]]? Check. Liberal use of both the [[Idiot Ball]] and [[Villain Ball]]? Check. Despite all that, [[Tropes Are Not Bad|it's still a rather well written book]].
* The ''[[
** Christopher Paolini actually said at one point that he was attempting to pay homage to the vast store of high fantasy archetypes. Given that he said this about a book he wrote when he was in his early teens, and that that was the least painful book of the series, this troper is inclined to believe that he actually just writes really clichéd works.
* The ''[[Sword of Truth]]'' series. Everything from a common man of [[Luke, I Am Your Father|mysterious lineage]], to a [[The Obi
** Impossible! [[Sci Fi Ghetto|Terry Goodkind does not write fantasy, you moron!]]
* ''[[The Fionavar Tapestry]]'' reads like a deliberate attempt on the part of Guy Gavriel Kay to see how many high fantasy clichés can possibly be strung together in 1,000 pages of text.
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** Unfortunately all of his works have a more than certain familiarity to each other...
* ''[[Maximum Ride]]''. So what if you've never read it? In some form, you already have.
* ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' is notorious for being mistaken as a
* Nicely [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] and then subverted in the [[Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms]] series by [[Mercedes Lackey]]. Here, the "cliche storm" is almost literal: a metaphysical force called The Tradition which gathers around significant events and people, directing magical energy to flow in [[Archetype|archetypal]] directions and following certain tropes that have been set down through folklore and that consequently reinforce themselves by inspiring even ''more'' folklore! Characters throughout the series find themselves guided by, opposed by, and sometimes rebelling against The
* ''[[Jim Springman and
* ''[[Twilight (
* Grahame Coats of ''[[
* Played with in George R. R. Martin's story ''The Hedge Knight''. It begins with every possible cliched circumstance around a knight joining a tournament. Then every single element of the story is revealed to actually be something else.
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== Live Action TV ==
* The characters on ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', as the quote below from "urgo" indicates, would occasionally indulge in volleys of cliches. O'Neill in particular had a tendency to refer to the Goa'uld as having "very clichéd" behavior, and the last scene in the series is of the characters [[Hurricane of Aphorisms|reciting various proverbs and cliches]].
{{quote|
"No obvious signs of civilization."
"P4X-884 looks like an untouched paradise, sir."
"Appearances may be deceiving."
"One man's ceiling is another man's floor."
"A fool's paradise is a wise man's hell."
[[Crowning Moment of Funny|"Never run with... scissors?"]]'' }}
** Something similar happens in ''[[The X
{{quote|
'''Mulder:''' Well, I won't sit idly by as you hurl cliches at me. Preparation is the father of inspiration.
'''Scully:''' Necessity is the mother of invention.
'''Mulder:''' The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.
'''Scully:''' Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we may die.
'''Mulder:''' I scream, you scream, we all scream for non-fat tofutti rice dreamsicles. ''(grabs Scully's dreamsicle and eats it)'' }}
** In the very last episode of ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'', at the end, the team use a large amount of cliches to describe what they've learned from their experiences. "Beggars can't be choosers. Better late than never. Look before you leap." "The best things in life are free."
{{quote|
'''Daniel:''' Silence is golden.
'''Cam:''' Jack of all trades, master of none.
'''Sam:''' Nothing ventured, nothing gained. }}
*** Then Vala says "Life is too short", a statement repeated throughout the episode (and Daniel and Vala's {{spoiler|time-erased relationship}}) but supposedly forgotten when the [[Reset Button]] was hit. Suggesting, interestingly, that somehow Vala remembers what happened.
* [[McLeaned|Col. Blake]] of ''[[
{{quote|
* ''[[Prison Break]]''
* ''The Post-Modern Prometheus'' in ''[[The X
* ''[[Legend of the Seeker]]'' is a fantasy cliche ''hurricane''.
* This is pretty much the entire premise of ''[[Glee]]''.
* The ending of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3TkyqsEy54 this commercial.]
* On ''[[The West Wing]]'', when Bartlet debated his [[Strawman Political]] opponent Robert Ritchie, we hear a snippet of one of Ritchie's responses that goes like this:
{{quote|
* The ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' episode "Monster Movie". Every classic horror movie cliche you can think of -- {{spoiler|because the bad guy, a shapeshifter, is deliberately [[Invoked Trope|invoking]] them.}}
** That's because the episode was an [[Affectionate Parody]] of the old Universal monster movies, right down to the way it's shot.
* Alton Brown's commentary in ''[[Iron Chef America]]'' have been this from the start. The Chairman's conversations with the challenger have turned into this.
* ''[[
* The ''[[
{{quote|
* ''[[Perfect Disaster]]''. A short [[Mockumentary]]-styled [[Documentary]] series that focuses on horrible natural
* In the season 3 finale of ''[[Leverage]]'', the team writes a speech for a politician that is intentionally made up of nothing but political speech cliches. The public eats it up.
** Granted, it was a small country with a one-party democracy, so the public wasn't yet disillusioned with political cliches, and the team took advantage.
* ''[[
* ''[[Gilmore Girls]]'' has an episode when Rory is moving into her college dorm and another student has lost a bet between him and his girlfriend and must only speak in cliches. A cliche storm follows.
== Music ==
* The careers of many pop-punk
* [[The Beatles (
* The charity single "Just Stand Up!" Justified in that the song was written so that sales could go to the cause (''Just Stand Up For Cancer'') and for inspirational purposes, and therefore wasn't intended to be original.
* Every line of Cascada's "Every Time We Touch." You know, we could just place the last nail in the coffin and admit that the weather forecast for every pop music station is 100% chance of Cliche Storm. Forever.
* The story of the Mannheim Steamroller album and TV special ''The Christmas Angel: A Family Story'' seems built from a list of Christmas fantasy cliches: [[The Nutcracker (
* [[Celine Dion]]'s albums are a veritable clichefest. Her first seven albums (not counting her Christmas Album) feature no fewer than 27 songs with the word love in the title. That's about 1/5th of the songs she recorded. She outdid herself on "The Colour of My Love" where half of the songs (and the title of the album) feature the word love.
** Toto are pretty similar; about half their songs follow the formula of 'I love you very much <insert female name as title of song>.' It got so bad, they named one song (admittedly a good one) ''99''. On their second album.
* Nearly anything written by Diane Warren, including Céline Dion's "Because You Loved Me". Count how many times she used the phrase "in this moment" in [[
* Almost eveything ever released by Ronnie James Dio... although, to be honest, rocking like [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RR1mGsUvYI this] when you're around 70 is still pretty damned awesome.
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7baAX6a6pM "He has songs of/ Wildebeests and angels/ He has soared/ on the wings of a deeee-mon!!!..."]
* The entire discography of [
* The lyrics Cosmos' ([[Dark Reprise|and Chaos']]) themes in ''[[
* [[Michael Jackson]] could fall into this.
** His last large-scale video, "You Rock My World", is a rehash of elements from his ''Bad''/''Dangerous''-era videos: 1930s/'40s gangster motif ("Smooth Criminal"), Jackson having to prove he's tough ("Bad"
** While many regard it as a tearjerker, "Gone Too Soon" is really just a list of tired similes ("Like a perfect flower/That is just beyond your reach/Gone too soon").
* Most of [[Tenacious D]]'s songs are made of Cliche Storms. [[Tropes Are Not Bad|Not that that makes them any less awesome...]]
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== Tabletop Games ==
* Official ''[[Dungeons
* Hey, look! It's another [[Euro Game]] about farming, trading, or something set in medieval times.
* Hey, look! It's another American game about fantasy, combat, or something set in ''fantasy'' medieval times.
* Hey, look! It's another WWII tabletop wargame!
* [[Magic:
== Video Games ==
* ''[[
** The ''Wings of Liberty'' campaign itself isn't much better. The characters are, at best, paper-thin
** This is exacerbated by the fact that not only is it a cliche storm on its own, its plot is the exact same cliche storm you saw in the previous Blizzard RTS. [[Play the Game, Skip
* ''[[
** ''[[Grandia (
** Also the whole point of the aptly-named ''[[Nostalgia]]''.
* ''[[Eternal Sonata]]'' seems to teeter between this and [[Troperiffic]], with varying opinions as to which side it leans more heavily towards. It has many elements of the traditional JRPG, but it could be argued that this was intentional.
* A fair few people argue that the first ''[[Atelier Iris]]'' game, and maybe the second one, work on this level as
* ''[[
* Likewise, ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]''. A somewhat unusual development by the team that brought you the [[Deconstructor Fleet
** Mask of the Betrayer makes more sense if you think of it as the deconstructor to ''Neverwinter Nights 2'''s cliche-storm.
* ''[[Mass Effect]]'' is this in game form, although that's the
** That and the writers show an awareness to all the cliches and play with them constantly. The writing is also so strong, that it never feels cliche or unoriginal. The game always feels nice and fresh.
** ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'' on the other hand, is much [[Darker and Edgier|darker]], [[Deconstructor Fleet|deconstructive]], and subversive than the first game.
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* Likewise, ''[[True Crime]]: Streets of L.A.'' intentionally reproduced the 1980s action flick in video game form.
* And likewise, ''[[Total Overdose]]: A Gunslinger's Tale in Mexico'' did this for the Mexican action movies.
* ''[[Dragoneers Aria|Dragoneer's Aria]]''. It's an RPG that consists of [[Final Fantasy VII
* ''[[Beyond the Beyond]]'', one of Camelot Software's first non-''[[Shining Force]]'' RPGs.
* ''[[Star Ocean: Till the End of Time]]'' should have had a counter that clicked every time they recycled a cliché from ''[[
** Bonus points go to the twist that {{spoiler|the world of ''Star Ocean'' is a Video game -- even the 4D beings who play it probably thought "This game really ''is'' pretty cliche isn't it?"}}
* ''[[Grandia II]]'', ''[[Luminous Arc]]'', and ''[[
* ''[[Legend of Dragoon]]''. When it first came out, many fans couldn't stop comparing it to ''[[
* Done intentionally in ''[[Fable
* ''[[Live a Live]]'' is like this for most of the game, with chapters made up of incredibly cliched characters and plots. Then you unlock another chapter that starts like this but turns into an exceptionally brutal [[Deconstruction]].
* ''[[Just Cause (
* ''[[The House of the Dead (
* ''[[Halo]]'': pretty much half the speeches by either the Master Chief or the Sergeant fall into this catagory. That being said, many of the Sergeant's little speeches are also played up to have humorous lines.
* Every single thing about ''[[Rogue Galaxy]]'', down to every line of dialogue.
* ''[[Enchanted Arms]]'' plays every trope, every cliche, and every stock phrase so straight, you could lock it in a temperature-regulated room in France as the International Standard for Straightness. Okay, it does have the Pizza Golem. With pepperoni, bacon and sausage. That's fairly original.
* ''[[Dead Space (
* ''[[Black Sigil]]'' is pretty much every late-80s/early-90s JRPG cliche rolled into one really slow DS game. It also suffers from the "One [[Random Encounters|random fight]] every three steps" syndrome that plagued a lot RPGs of the era.
* ''[[Red Steel]]'' is one of the most shameless examples of a
* ''[[Wet]]''
* The first 10 hours or so of nearly every single ''[[Tales
* ''[[
* The [[
* ''[[Sands of Destruction (
* ''[[Forty Winks]]'' for the [[
* ''[[Dragon Age]]''. Granted, the game ''does'' have quite a few original things, but when one looks at the setting...with few exceptions...it's practically every Tolkienian-inspired [[Medieval Fantasy]] plus a few things, minus a few things. Forest-dwelling elves who are big on Archery and hunting? Check. Subterranean Mountain-dwelling dwarves with a fondness for alcohol and crafting? Check. Mage towers? Check. Humans who speak with British accents? Check. Obvious influence from the British Isles or Western Europe? Check. Mages wound up destroying the world and creating Darkspawn? Check. Dwarven warriors? Check. [[Fantastic Racism]]? ...eh, mark it but not fully played out. [[Real Is Brown|Green and brown-stained landscapes?]] Check. Evil dragons that are just giant animals in terms of intelligence? Check. Last in the line of kings? Check.
** The game's even ''self-aware''! The human origin story is ''loaded'' with Cliches...yet during the story, when you kill giant rats, your character can say "Giant rats? That's like the start of every bad bard-song I've ever heard!"
* Dr Nefarious from ''[[Ratchet and Clank]]'' is practically built out of this trope. [[Played for Laughs]] of course.
* Try this ''[[Quake
* ''[[The Saboteur]]'' seems to have been made intentionally with every [[World War 2]] cliche in mind.
* ''[[Disaster
* ''[[Guild Wars]]'' is particularly guilty of this, [[Play the Game, Skip
** Although there are some subversions. (Varesh Ossa is actually [[The Dragon]] rather than a pawn of Abaddon, despite being Chosen, it's heavily implied literally ''any'' of the Chosen could have done what the player character does, the player character [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero|unintentionally screw over Elona in time for Guild Wars 2]]) Nightfall in particular has the most
* [[The Feeble Files]] is kinda cross between genuine cliché storm and parody of it.
* [http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/495903 Super PSTW Action RPG] is this for video game RPGs.
* ''[[Red Dead Redemption]]'' is full of this. This is most likely because EVERYTHING that happens in the game is a tribute to old [[Spaghetti Western]] movies.
** ''[[Red Dead Revolver]]'' is even more like this, to the point where it forgets to have a coherent plot in order to recycle as many [[Spaghetti Western]] tropes as possible. All the set-pieces are there; [[The Good, the Bad
* The plot of Champion Mode in ''Fight Night Champion'' is essentially an amalgamation of every single boxing movie cliché in existence: brutish undefeated rival? Check. Crooked Don King-esque promoter? Check. Friendly rival brother that turns bitter only for the two to eventually reconcile? Check. [[Shallow Love Interest]]? Check...
* ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' (especially ''[[Super Robot Wars Original Generation]]'') is built on this it's not even funny, starting with a [[Ascended Fanboy|mecha otaku turned giant robot pilot]], a ''German [[Samurai]]'' with his [[Char Clone]] [[Heterosexual Life Partner]] as [[Memetic Mutation|real men who ride each other]], [[The Stoic]] gambler and his [[Manic Pixie Dream Girl]] partner, guy with ridiculous [[No Sense of Direction]] with one of the [[Elemental Powers]] on his tows AND two talking cats, a ridiculously busty [[Artificial Human|android girl]]... and so on. Really, and it's still ''awesome''.
* ''[[Darksiders]]'' has been noted for mainlining on [[Grimdark]] tropes: set [[After the End]], featuring a stoic [[Badass]] on a [[Roaring Rampage of Revenge]], fighting against the [[Legions of Hell]], and so on and so forth. General consensus is that it ''works''.
* ''[[Baten Kaitos]]: Eternat Wings and the Lost Ocean''. You have Kalas, a teenage orphaned [[Anti
* The ''[[Fire Emblem]]'' series is split between
** To be fair, ''[[Fire Emblem Akaneia]]'' wasn't [[Seinfeld Is Unfunny|as cliche in their day as they seem now]] - consider Akaneia helped establish the genre it's a part of; compare ''[[Fire Emblem]] 6'' and ''8'', which were about a decade and a half after Akaenia.
** Fire Emblem 9 was, backstory and setting aside, pretty much this to Fire Emblem games. However, it's interesting to note that about half way through the game, they start playing with the Fire Emblem tropes, such as having the princess instead of being a plot figure don armour and become full out playable. Fire Emblem 10 meanwhile goes into full-on [[Deconstructor Fleet]].
** ''[[Fire Emblem: Awakening]]'' was actually ''mistaken'' as one, on basis of having the main character being a blue-haired sword-wielding prince. However, it quickly begins to subvert this/
* ''[[Diablo]]'' intentionally does this as part of the charm. Then again though, at this point (By Diablo 3), Blizzard probably knows that [[Play the Game, Skip
==
* A ton of
* Everything in ''[[Sonichu]]'' that doesn't [[All There in the Manual|fail to make any sense unless the author explains it]] has been seen before in so many other, better works.
* Parodied on ''Hiro'' with [http://drunkduck.com/hiro/index.php?p=414050 Lo, the Cliche King]{{Dead link}}.
* Done deliberately and for laughs in Jango's [[Evil Gloating]] [http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0276.html here] in ''[[Darths and Droids]]''.
* The GM's story in ''[[DM of the Rings]]''.
* ''[[Mitadake Saga]]'', like the original game, glorifies itself on Anime tropes quite often.
* ''[[The Black Blood Alliance]]''
* Done in-story in ''[[The Noob]]'' with the MMORPG ''ClicheQuest''
* [http://www.gocomics.com/pibgorn/2003/10/02/ In universe] for ''[[Pibgorn]]''.
* An in-universe example was done by [[Real Life Comics]] during a dimension-hopping adventure where they wound up in a world where "everything is a ''[[
{{quote|
'''Tony''': Sorry, pal! You're on your own! }}
* Catch a Mad in ''[[Narbonic]]'' not spouting off every ''[[Mad Scientist]]'' cliche ever and you will find a Mad letting the side down. If you can't rant for at least an hour about
== Web Original ==
* Judging by what can be gathered about ''[[Satina (Wants a Glass of Water)]]'' after watching its first official episode (''Bring Your Demon to Work Day''), said show is absolutely ''made'' out of [[Sitcom|sitcom]] cliches.
** However, said show uses its utter cliched-ness as a humorous contrast to the fact that it is about [[Improbable Species Compatibility|a human and a demon taking care of their human/demon hybrid baby]], so it more-or-less works.
== Western Animation ==
* The animated ''[[The King and I]]'' was one big fat cliché from start to finish.
* The ''[[Mega Man (
* ''[[
** One comment on a Mogulus stream channel chat summed it up thusly: "[[
** For those unfamiliar with the film, a [[
*** It's even worse when you add in the annoying sidekick, who is just [[The Load|so useless]] until the end when he "saves" the hero, except he gets attacked by some flying frog things as a result...
* ''[[
* ''[[Barbie]]'' movies often fall prey to this especially when they're ferociously trying to subvert it in the name of [[Girls Need Role Models]].
** ''Barbies and the Three Musketeers'' manages to fall prey to this ''and'' attempt to make them role models for girls. Unfortunately, it flops (even more, mind you) when they replace the swords (and ''muskets'') with batons and fluffy, uniformed kittens.
* Just about every Disney sequel that ever went straight to DVD.
** Although, some ''have'' thought that ''Cinderella III'' was somewhat deconstructive, and it also lampshaded several tropes played in the original fairy tale (e.g., the king asking why the prince is so in love with someone over their choice in footwear, characters seemingly being very suspicious about choice of love).
* ''[[
* ''[[
* Whether intentional or not, ''[[The Fairly
* Pretty much the entire point of ''[[
* The character of [[Evil Sorcerer|the Archmage]] on ''[[
* The [[LEGO]] [[Hero Factory]] mini-series, also called "''Rise of the Rookies''". A great cast with some big names and CGI models with over-detailed textures a good story do not make. It relied so much on recycled formulas and rolled so well on clichés, that it neglected to explain the very driving force behind its plot: {{spoiler|Just ''what'' did Von Nebula want revenge for? Nobody has done ''anything'' to him.}} Heck, the first episode included a scene during which the characters tell us just how awesome the main hero is, and that he ''will'' end up saving the day. Just in case you feared that the series would have something interesting and unexpected in stall for him (and surprise, surprise, his whole character development was also wrapped up in the same episode).
** Arguably, its p-redecessor ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
** ''[[
* ''[[
** Probably because the show had a heavy emphasis on comedy; the writing made it clear that they knew it was all cliched, so at times it could come off as an [[Affectionate Parody]] of the superhero genre.
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
* The 2010 reboot of ''[[
** Though it's not as bad as some examples. The 1980s version, however gave us ''The Legend of Big Paw''.
* ''[[
* ''[[
*
* The first season of ''[[
* Do ''not'' be fooled by the insect-populated [[Scavenger World]] that ''[[The Buzz on Maggie]]'' takes place in; it is about as cliched and stereotypical as animated sitcoms get.
* While ''[[Courage the Cowardly Dog]]'' might not be an actual [[Cliche Storm]], it certainly is one ''hell'' of a [[Troperiffic|Trope Storm]].
== Other ==
* Subverted so much in online text-based RP games that it's almost starting to come full-circle. Everyone seems so terrified of making their character a [[Mary Sue]] that they're going to ridiculous heights to make their characters/plots blandly average... even in genres and settings where everyone having some measure of the fantastic is not only forgivable, but ''preferred''. These often end up producing [[Anti
** This is ''especially'' prevalent mostly due to the misuse of the [[Mary Sue]]
* The fourth installment of ''[[
* All the reviews for ''[[The Princess and
** [http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-et-princess25-2009nov25,0,6472123.story LA Times]
** [http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20322455,00.html Entertainment Weekly]
* [[Cirque Du Soleil]]'s ''[[KA]]'', their only show to put its [[Excuse Plot]] front and center, is a conventional heroic journey: royal twins are separated when their kingdom is attacked and their parents killed by evil forces; they and their sidekicks (some wacky, some serious) go through a variety of adventures to be reunited and help defeat the army. Each finds romance along the way, the Twin Brother with a villain's daughter and the Twin Sister with a Tarzan-like forest hero. The pleasure of the show is watching it unfold without intelligible dialogue and with oodles of [[Scenery Porn]] and acrobatics; the familiarity of its story is kinda to its benefit.
* [http://youtu.be/WAG9Xn5bJwQ This] hilarious [[Real Trailer, Fake Movie]].
* [[World War II|Bernard Montgomery's]] [http://www.remuseum.org.uk/corpshistory/part16/el-alamein-personalmessage.jpg address to the British Eighth Army]{{Dead link}} shortly before the battle of El Alamein was filled with cliches, and he was known for being fond of using them in general.
* [http://nylawblog.typepad.com/.a/6a00d834516c2469e20153901a011d970b-pi This] [http://nylawblog.typepad.com/.a/6a00d834516c2469e20153901a0218970b-pi brief].
* ''[http://the-toast.net/series/how-to-tell-if-youre-in-a-novel/ How To Tell If You’re In a Novel]'' series on The Toast classifies it by genres.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Dialogue]]
[[Category:Home Page/YMMV]]▼
[[Category:YMMV Trope]]
[[Category:Example As a Thesis]]▼
[[Category:Sturgeons Tropes]]▼
[[Category:Cliche Storm]]
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