Iconic Character, Forgotten Title: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

 

Often, this will be lost in foreign language translations which use the character's name as the title instead of translating the original one.

 

 

 

* In ''[[Lucky Star]]'', Kagami is looking for a "''LeLouch''" manga for Konata. "What the heck is a ''[[Code Geass]]''?"

 

* [[The Treachery of Images]] by René Magritte is sometimes called "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" or "This is not a pipe".

 

== Comic Books ==

* The word Hellblazer just gets smaller and smaller, while the words [[John Constantine]] get larger and larger. Ironic, because the original title was chosen specifically because they didn't think anyone would know who Constantine was (despite his appearances in the [[Swamp Thing]]).

* ''Journey Into Mystery'' is another example of a book that was originally supposed to be an anthology but eventually became dominated by stories about its [[Breakout Character|most popular character]] before finally just being renamed for him. In this case, it became ''[[The Mighty Thor]].''

* Similarly, ''Tales to Astonish'' became ''[[Incredible Hulk|The Incredible Hulk]]'' with #102, after the character who'd been co-starring since issue #59.

 

* [[Older Than Radio]]: The Armenian folktale ''The Daredevils of Sassoun'' is commonly just called ''David of Sassoun'' after the main character, despite the real title sounding much cooler.

* Even the Wikipedia page starts with "''[[Robinson Crusoe]]'' is a novel by Daniel Defoe..." The actual title was:

 

== Live Action TV ==

* Late night talk shows are often known by the name of the current host. For instance, for many years ''[[The Tonight Show]]'' was referred to more often as "Johnny Carson." People are more likely to say, "John Smith is on ''Letterman'' tonight" than "John Smith is on ''[[Late Show]]'' tonight."

** Well, the full title of ''Late Show'' is "''Late Show with David Letterman''", so you could argue that calling it "''Letterman''" shortens it to a word which is legitimately part of the title.

* The show is called ''[[Return of Ultraman]]'', not ''Ultraman Jack'' after its titular hero. Most people call it by its titular hero though.

* What show did the character Sergeant Bilko appear in? No, not ''Sergeant Bilko'' (except [[Syndication Title|in syndication]] and [[The Film of the Series|the film version]]) but ''[[The Phil Silvers Show]]'' or ''You'll Never Get Rich''.

* ''[[Family Matters]]'' was often misnamed "The Urkel Show" because Steve Urkel, originally a minor character, became an very successful [[Breakout Character]].

* This trope is almost certainly why Game Show Network named its revival of ''[[Press Your Luck]]'' (AKA "Whammy" or "The Whammy Show"), "Whammy: The All-New Press Your Luck".

* ''[[Keeping Up Appearances]]'' is universally referred to as "Mrs. Hyacinth" in Denmark (even though it does have an offical translated name, and that, when you think about it, "Mrs. Hyacinth" is a case of ''[[I Am Not Shazam]]'')

* A lot of people seem to think that ''[[Secret Diary of a Call Girl]]'' is titled "Belle du Jour", which in actual fact is the pseudonym of its main character, played by Billie Piper. The confusion might also be because the blog the show was based on was called "Belle du Jour."<ref>"Belle du Jour" is [[Gratuitous French|French]] for "girl of the day."</ref>

* Both ''[[Bloom County]]'' and ''Outland'' were known for Opus, so the third comic strip with him became just ''Opus''.

* The comic strip ''Thimble Theater'' is hardly known today, but one of its characters, [[Popeye]] is quite well known, probably because he later got an animated series.

 

 

* ''[[Metalocalypse]]'' is commonly referred as "Dethklok", after the cartoon band in which the show is centered around. The [[Working Title]] was actually ''Dethklok Metalocalypse'' before they decided to shorten it to just ''Metalocalypse'', but since many people are not sure on how to pronounce "Metalocalypse" correctly, they simply refer to the show as "Dethklok" as well.

* The ''[[Dynomutt Dog Wonder]]'' show is more commonly referred as "Blue Falcon & Dynomutt" or simply "Blue Falcon".

 

 

== Real Life ==

* The actor Sylvester McCoy (born Percy Kent-Smith) got his stage name this way. Some of his earlier work was as a sidekick/warm-up man to the stand-up comedian-cum-performance artist [[Ken Campbell]], as a fictional character called "Sylveste McCoy". To further the joke, his character was credited in the playbill as "Sylveste McCoy as Sylveste McCoy". One reviewer didn't get the joke and used it in the review as if it was his real name, so he said [[Sure Why Not]] and used it as his stage name from then on (though adding an "r" to the end - no, those weren't typos earlier).

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Did Not Do the Research]]

[[Category:Title Tropes]]

[[Category:YMMV Trope]]