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Or, A Work By Any Other Name; Or, The Work So Nice, They Named It Twice (Or in this article's case, [[Rule of Three|thrice]]).
Sometimes a work gives itself multiple alternative titles ''in the title'', usually giving the shortest title first, with the result being a [[Short Title: Long Elaborate Subtitle]]. Using this trope these days can give a similar [[Retraux]] feel as [[In Which a Trope Is Described]].
Compare [[Colon Cancer]].
{{examples|Examples}}▼
== Fairy Tales, or: The Oldest Ones in the Books ==▼
== Anime and Manga, or: Japanese Illustrated Media ==
* "[[Cinderella (Literature)|Cinderella]], or the Glass Slipper"▼
* Every episode title in (the first three seasons of) ''[[Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?]]'', although only one title is read aloud in the next-episode preview.
▲== Fairy Tales, or: The Oldest Ones in the Books ==
== Films, or: Motion Pictures ==
Line 20 ⟶ 22:
* ''Otto: or, Up With Dead People''
* ''Gas! -Or- It Became Necessary to Destroy the World in Order to Save It.''
* ''[[
* ''[[
== Literature, or: The Art of Words ==
* ''[[Frankenstein (
* ''[[
* ''[[The Hobbit (
* ''Clarissa, or The History of a Young Lady'' by [[Samuel Richardson]].
* ''Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded'', also by [[Samuel Richardson]].
* Poet [[Sonnets
** In fact, [
*** Subverted by the Marquis de Sade's novels ''Justine, or The Misfortunes of Virtue'' and ''Juliette, or Vice Amply Rewarded''.
* The [[Banned in China|famously banned]] erotic novel ''[[
* ''[[Cecilia]], or Memoirs of an Heiress'' by [[Frances Burney]].
* ''[http://www.neilgaiman.com/p/Cool_Stuff/Short_Stories/I_Cthulhu I, Cthulhu]; or, What's a Tentacle-Faced Thing Like Me Doing in a Sunken City Like This (Latitude 47° 9' S, Longitude 126° 43' W)?'', by [[Neil Gaiman]]
* The Thomas Hobbes book ''Leviathan or The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil''.
* [[Kurt Vonnegut]]'s ''[[
** "The Children's Crusade" part was due to a promise to the wife of a fellow former soldier. She was upset that the book he was writing would [[Do Not Do This Cool Thing|glorify war]]. She said, "You guys were just children back then". So he promised the book would be titled, "The Children's Crusade". Although no one bothers with the full title, she need not worry, it doesn't glorify war.
** Also by Vonnegut, ''God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, or Pearls Before Swine''.
** And the last of the "Trout Trilogy": ''[[Breakfast of Champions]], or Goodbye Blue Monday!''. Vonnegut was very fond of this technique.
* This is incredibly common in early 20th century children's series books as well. Examples: ''The Bobbsey Twins, or Merry Days Indoors and Out'' and ''The Moving Picture Girls, or First Appearance in Photo Dramas''. This seems to have died off by the time [[Nancy Drew]] came about.
* [[Philip K. Dick]]'s ''Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb.'' The title was a [[Shout
* ''[[The Inheritance Cycle|Brisingr]], or The Seven Promises of Eragon Shadeslayer and Saphira Bjartskular''. The second one just isn't as catchy.
* John O'Farrell's ''An Utterly Impartial History of Britain, or 2000 Years of Upper-Class Idiots In Charge'' and ''An Utterly Exasperated History of Modern Britain, or 60 Years of Making The Same Stupid Mistakes As Always''.
* Referenced in ''[[
* [[Wil Wheaton]]'s short story ''The Saga of Spongebob Vega$pant$ (or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love [[
* [[Friedrich Nietzsche]] was famously fond of subtitles, but the only
* ''The Sea Cook, or [[Treasure Island]]''.
* ''[[Varney the Vampire
* Sorcery and Cecelia, or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot: Being the Correspondence of Two Young Ladies of Quality Regarding Various Magical Scandals in London and the Country
* Cormac McCarthy's western novel ''Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West''.
* [[Idiosyncratic Episode Naming|All]] of [[Catherine Webb|Kate Griffin]]'s [[Matthew Swift]] books take the form "Title, or [[The X of Y|The X of Matthew Swift]]".
* ''[[Charles Darwin|On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life]]''
* ''[[Fluke, or, I Know Why
* ''[[Dave Barry]] in Cyberspace'' is not itself an example, but several of its chapter subtitles are. The most convoluted example is:
{{quote|
Transforming Society and Shaping the Future, Through Chat
Or: Watch What You Write, Mr. Chuckletrousers
Or: Why Suck Is OK, Blow Is Not
Plus: Danger! Sushi Tapeworms! }}
* [[Voltaire (
* [[Michael Moorcock]]'s ''[[
* ''[[The Diamond Age]], Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer'' by [[Neal Stephenson]]
* ''[[Principia Discordia]] or How the West Was Lost,'' was the original title. The 4th edition is more well known, and bears the [[Short Title: Long Elaborate Subtitle|slightly more cumbersome title]], ''Principia Discordia or How I Found Goddess And What I Did To Her When I Found Her: The Magnum Opiate Of Malaclypse The Younger, Wherein is Explained Absolutely Everything Worth Knowing About Absolutely Anything.''
== Music, or: The Rhythm's Gonna Get Ya ==
* Most any time part of a song title is in parentheses, this means that the part included in the parentheses is an alternate title.
** Fairly often when this happens, a song already has a title, but the artist (or the studio) realizes fans call the song by another name, and hence use the alternate title as recognition
* ''Every'' song on [[Radiohead]]'s album ''Hail to the Thief'' (including the album itself, which is actually titled "Hail to the Thief, or, The Gloaming"). For example, singles "There There" and "2+2=5" are really called "There There (The Boney King of Nowhere)" and "2+2=5 (The Lukewarm)". While the secondary titles are rarely ever used, the tracklist on the back cover includes both, and the lyrics in the liner notes ''only'' use the secondary titles.
* The Incredible String Band's 1967 album ''The 5000 Spirits or The Layers of the Onion''.
* Sufjan Stevens sometimes combines this with his infamous love for the [[Long Title]]. Consider this whopper from the ''Illinois'' album: "The Black Hawk War, Or, How To Demolish An Entire Civilization And Still Feel Good About Yourself In The Morning, Or, We Apologize For The Inconvenience But You're Going To Have To Leave Now, Or "I Have Fought The Big Knives And Will Continue To Fight Them Until They Are Off My Land"
* The [[Coldplay]] album ''Viva la Vida, or Death and All his Friends''. As you might guess, it has two title tracks.
* On [[Them Crooked Vultures]]' self-titled album, there's the song "Warsaw or the First Breath You Take After You Give Up."
* "[[Metallica
* [[Green Day]]'s "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)".
* There is a [[Queen]] song titled "Machines (or Back to Humans)".
* Bright Eyes' 2002 album ''Lifted, or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground''.
* "Richard II, Or Extraordinary Popular Dimensions And The Madness Of Crowds (Responsible Hate Anthem)" by [[Titus Andronicus (
* [[Cradle of Filth]]'s first EP, "V Empire Or Dark Faerytales in Phallustein"
* Glassjaw's ''Kiss Kiss Bang Bang'' EP has "Star Above My Bed (Call of the Tiger Woman)" and "Vermont Connection (The Chapter 7 Test or The Ephesians Were Right After All)".
Line 86:
** Some early pressings of "I Am The Walrus" had the secondary title "''No You're Not,'' Said Little Nicole."
* The last track of [[Paul Simon]]'s ''Graceland'' is a song entitled "All Around the World, or The Myth of Fingerprints".
** [[Simon and Garfunkel]] did a song called "A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I Was [[Person
* Chiodos has ''The Undertaker's Thirst for Revenge is Unquenchable (The Final Battle)''. Interestingly, it's almost exclusively referred to by its [[Long Title
* The Dandy Warhols' ''Odditorium or Warlords of Mars''.
* [[Captain Beefheart]]'s ''Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)'': In this case, the two titles are somewhat justified because the album consisted of reworked songs from a [[Lost Episode|never released]] [[Frank Zappa]]-produced album that would have been called just ''Bat Chain Puller''.
* The soundtrack to ''[[Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines]]'' has a cut titled "The Dance of the Intrepid Airmen, or: 55 Years Before the Beatles."
* [[
* Love's ''Forever Changes'' album includes a song called "Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale".
* Except for the short introductory track, every track on Lemon Jelly's [[Concept Album]] ''69-95'' is titled with the last two digits of the year in which the track's principal sample was released, followed by a more easily-remembered title, e.g. "''79 aka The Shouty Track", "'95 aka Make Things Right", etc. The year element is usually dropped when the tracks are referred to in any other context.
* The Left Banke's ''Walk Away Renee/Pretty Ballerina''. Apparently either they or their label couldn't decide which single should be the [[Title Track]].
== Radio, or: The Hills Are Alive with the Sound ==
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** Shortly after announcing that title, you could hear "There's money for you, there's money for you..."
** Another one went "The Greatest Mountain in the World, or, I Knew Fred Crute, or, The Greatest Mountain in the World!" <ref>We're not entirely sure who Fred Crute was.</ref>
== Theater, or: Life Is But a Stage ==
* [[
* [[Winifred Phelps]]' ''Temptation Sordid, or: Virtue Rewarded, A Melodrama''
* [[Charles Shadwell]]'s ''Irish Hospitality, or Virtue Rewarded''
* [[
* Edward Albee's ''The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?''
* Every [[Gilbert and Sullivan]] work except ''Trial by Jury'' and ''The Sorcerer''.
* In ''[[The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)|The Complete Works of William Shakespeare]]'', the cast make fun of how [[Strictly Formula]] Shakespeare's comedies tend to be, and thus abridge them all into one play. The title is:
** The Comedy of Two Well-Measured Gentlemen Lost in the Merry Wives of Venice on a Midsummer's Twelfth Night in Winter, or Sybaline Taming Pericles the Merchant in the Tempest of Love as Much as You Like it for Nothing, or The Loveboat Goes to Verona, or Four Weddings and a Transvestite!
* Eric Overmyer's ''[[On the Verge]], or the Geography of Yearning.''
* [[Eugene Ionesco]]'s ''Amédée, or How to Get Rid of It''
== Video Games, or: A Perfectly Good Waste of Time ==
* The 1993 adventure game, ''[[Peppers Adventures In Time|Pepper's Adventures in Time]]'' introduces each chapter of the game with such a title. One title hints at what you'll generally be focusing on, while the other gives a clue about the defining event of the chapter.
* ''[[Stickman and Cube]]'' does this in storylines, e.g., "Robo-Cube. Or, Cube Disappears #2", to make it clear that the comic in question is part of said storyline, and which part in particular.▼
* ''[[Darths and Droids]]'' [http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0131.html Episode 131]: Sour Relations, or "Tell Me More, Tell Me More", followed by [http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0132.html Episode 132]: Dour Narrations, or "Like, Did He Have a Pod?"▼
* ''[[
== Western Animation, or: Moving Drawings ==
* ''The [[Rocky and Bullwinkle]] Show'' did this in every [["On the Next..."]] preview. Both episode titles were always [[Incredibly Lame Pun|horrendous puns]]. As a result, the only episodes whose titles ''weren't'' an example were the season premieres like "Metal-Munching Mice" (see [[Evil Plan]]).
** The end of episode two of the four-episode arc "Moosylvania Saved" did not have either the main title or Either Or title.
* One episode of ''[[Teen Titans (
* The casino episode of ''[[The Simpsons (
* Both ''[[Mission Hill]]'' and ''[[Stroker and Hoop]]'' did this. Both of them, however, only lasted 13 episodes.
* The Hanna-Barbera version of ''Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventures'' featured an episode where our heroes fetch Mozart and Little Richard, titled "The Birth Of Rock And Roll, or: Too Hip For The Womb."
* The finale of ''[[
* Hanna-Barbera's 1967 revisionist version of ''[[
* [[The Powerpuff Girls]] homage to [[Rocky and Bullwinkle]], ''I See A Funny Cartoon In Your Future'' uses this. The antagonist is Madame Argentina, a crooked fortune teller who leaves the girls in a literal cliffhanger using three Powerpuff voodoo dolls. The next episode is "Hoo Doo Voodoo, or: Don't Scrye For Me, Argentina."
* Several [[Scooby Doo]] episodes had alternate titles that were not used. Among them:
Line 139 ⟶ 141:
** ''A Scooby Doo Christmas'' (or ''Ho Ho Horrors'')
* ''The Dover Boys at Pimento University or The Rivals of Roquefort Hall'' follows the same convention that plagued the book series it's parodying, "The Rover Boys".
▲== Webcomics, or: All the Fun, No Paper ==
▲* ''[[Stickman and Cube]]'' does this in storylines, e.g., "Robo-Cube. Or, Cube Disappears #2", to make it clear that the comic in question is part of said storyline, and which part in particular.
▲* ''[[Darths and Droids]]'' [http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0131.html Episode 131]: Sour Relations, or "Tell Me More, Tell Me More", followed by [http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0132.html Episode 132]: Dour Narrations, or "Like, Did He Have a Pod?"
▲** The alternate titles constitute a [[Shout Out]], and a [[Grease|most unexpected one]] at that.
▲* ''[[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|El Goonish Shive]]'' does it 4 times in one strip with [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2003-03-11 "Nanase: Scantly Clad For Hire" OR "Justin's Frustration" OR PERHAPS "Justin's Cat's Out Of The Bag" OR MAYBE "Dan Couldn't Decide On A Title"]
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Title Tropes]]
[[Category:Self
▲[[Category:Trope]]
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