Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

Most prominently noted in ''[[Friends]]'', many shows utilize quirky episode naming conventions. Though the episode title is usually not even broadcast with the show (usually only [[Animated Series]] do this), this information is gleaned from press releases, closed captioning, and the guide information. Of course, in literature it [[In Which a Trope Is Described|can be more obvious]].

 

Now, if the names get too in-jokey, quirky or obscure they can have an adverse effect in being difficult to correlate the plot of the episode when its name means absolutely nothing.

 

Compare [[Character Name and the Noun Phrase]] if they're used in a series, [[Unusual Chapter Numbers]], [[Theme Naming]] and [[Title Drop]]. One sub-trope is [[Episode Finishes the Title]].

 

* Many anime series use other words in place of "episode" when ordering episodes (however, some are specific to the original manga versions).

** ''[[07-Ghost]]'' uses "Kapitel," which is German for "chapter".

** ''[[Guilty Crown]]'' uses "Phases".

** ''[[Gundam Seed]]'' and ''[[Gundam Seed Destiny]]'' use "Phase."

** ''[[Hellsing]]'' uses "Order" (alludes to the structure of the organization).

** ''[[Hikaru no Go]]'' (about the game Go) uses "Game."

** ''[[Death Note|Lost]][[Serial Numbers Filed Off|+Brain]]'' uses "Sign."

** See below for the ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' manga examples.

** ''[[Millennium Snow]]'' uses "Snow" (First Snow, Second Snow, etc.).

** ''[[Muhyo and Roji's Bureau of Supernatural Investigation]]'' uses "Article".

** ''[[Psyren]]'' uses "Call" (alluding to telephones—a significant plot device)

** ''[[RahXephon]]'' uses "Movement", in keeping with the musical theme of the show.

** ''[[Saber Marionette J]]'' uses "Program" (alluding to the android Marionettes).

** ''[[Saki (manga)|Saki]]'' uses "Hand."

** ''[[Trigun]]'' uses "Bullet."

** ''[[Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle]]'' uses "Chapitre", French for "Chapter".

** ''[[Weiss Kreuz]]'' uses "Mission." ''Gluhen'', fittingly, uses "Last Mission."

** The ''[[Wolf's Rain]]'' manga uses "Grope" in place of "chapter."

** ''[[Yumeiro Patissiere]]'' uses "Recette," French for "recipe."

** ''[[Zatch Bell]]'' uses "Level."

* Another very popular trick is using music-related terminology or music piece/song titles in episode naming:

** ''[[Black Heaven]]'' uses the names of famous rock and roll songs as episode titles.

** ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' used episode titles designed to be reminiscent of song titles (sometimes actual titles) or styles: "Waltz for Venus", "Jupiter Jazz", "Bohemian Rhapsody", "[[Mushroom Samba]]", etc. The finale was titled "The Real Folk Blues", also the name of the show's end [[Theme Tune]], and the movie is called "Knockin' on Heaven's Door".

** The chapters of the ''[[Cromartie High School]]'' manga were all references to song, albums, or lyrics. Similarly, the four volumes of the DVD in the American release were named after song and had covers parodying the names of albums.

** [[Kyoto Animation|Kyoto Animation's]] adaptation of ''[[Kanon]]'' used a classical music subgenre in each episode title, ending with "Kanon". Studio Toei's version used track titles from the original game.

** Every episode of ''[[Scrapped Princess]]'' starts with a musical movement style ("Elegy", "March", "Concerto", etc.) and usually ends with a short description of a major character to be introduced in that chapter.

** While the individual episodes of ''[[Simoun]]'' weren't named idiosyncratically, the DVDs were, using musical terms: ''Choir of Pairs'', ''Orchestra of Betrayal'', ''Rondo of Loss'', ''Crescendo of Lamentation'', and ''Song of Prayer''. It makes sense, since the teams of pilots that flew the titular aircraft were called ''chor'' (choir).

** Shinyaku Ookami Ga Kuru uses song titles from Rammstein.

* The ''[[Hellsing]]'' manga is using (famous) game titles as their chapters, such as ''[[Warcraft]]'' or ''[[Final Fantasy]]''.

* Episodes of ''[[Galaxy Angel (anime)|Galaxy Angel]]'' are phrased as titles to very strange recipes, such as "Milfeulle's Special made Cake for Surprise & Hug Hug Hug Pot," "Ambition and Poverty BBQ Chicken & Chain-linked Noodles without the Link" and "Dried Pork Legs & Top-Gun Fried Tofu mixed with Vegetables." Keep in mind that the series has [[Edible Theme Naming]] concerning the girls.

* ''[[Princess Tutu]]'', ''[[Rozen Maiden]]'', and ''[[Elfen Lied]]'' all have episode titles in German. Each episode of ''[[Princess Tutu]]'' is also titled after the piece of classical music that's most prominent in the episode.

* ''[[The Slayers]],'' like ''[[WITCH (animation)|W.I.T.C.H.]]'', used the alphabet: Each episode in the original 26-ep season followed an alphabetical pattern. Each title was a short exclamation, followed by a longer explanation, and the exclamations were alphabetical: "Angry! Lina's Furious Dragon Slave!" is the opening, continuing with "Bad! Mummy Men Aren't My Type!" and so on, through "Zap! Victory Is Always Mine!"

** This was dropped on ''Next'' and ''Try'', but revived with ''Revolution'' ("AMAZING - The Astonishing Dragon Slave!?" to "MISTY - The Blades Are Brought Down!") and ''Evolution-R'' ("NEW COMER? A new adventure begins!" to "ZERO HOUR! Those heading to destruction!"), which had 26 episodes between them.

* ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'''s Japanese episode titles were all references to cliche phrases or words in Anime that were relevant to the episode: for instance, the second episode's title could be translated "Leave 'The Blue Earth' to Me".

* Up until season 5, nearly all of ''[[Detective Conan|Detective Conan's]]'' titles would be "(insert victim/event) murder case".

* ''[[The Law of Ueki]]'' episodes all are named "The Law of ___". Example: "Episode 16: The Law of the Awakening Organ".

* ''[[Magikano]]'' episodes always ask a question. Example: "Are They Really Cursed Cat Panties?!"

* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'' used to end its episode titles with "nano", meaning "it is" or "is it". For example, the first episode translates to "Is This a Mysterious Encounter?" and the second episode translates to "'Lyrical' is the Magic Word?" The series drops this practice mid-way into season two (starting with Episode 9, "Christmas Eve") and hasn't used it since.<ref>Mind you, the first 8 episodes of ''[[Oddly-Named Sequel 2: Electric Boogaloo|A's]]'' had the pink scribbly font, the background of Raising Heart, and a little soundbite together with Nanoha saying the episode name. And then comes "Christmas Eve" with nothing more than white text on a black background, and silence. It does a very good job in setting the viewer up for [[Break the Cutie|what]] [[Beware the Nice Ones|happens]] [[It Got Worse|next]].</ref>

** Also, the manga use different words for "chapter":

*** ''[[Magical Record Lyrical Nanoha Force]]'' has "Record XX:" followed by the chapter title. The chapter titles also come only in English.

*** ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Movie First the Comics]]'' uses "Sequence : X-Y", where X is the arc number, starting with 0.

* The ''[[Aria]]'' anime episode titles all begin with ''sono'' ("that") in Japanese. Given the differences in syntax, this is not always carried over in the English translations, though they usually manage to include that (or those) in the title.

* Each episode of ''[[Black Cat (manga)|Black Cat]]'' uses the word "cat" in the title. Most of the titles are in the form of "The _____ Cat" or "A(n) _____ Cat", with the _____ being an adjective.

* Except for the last one and the specials, ''[[Chobits]]'' titles tend to follow the formula "Chii <verbs>".

*** Though not an unbreakable rule, ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'' tended to have titles of the form [Sentence!] [Name or reference]. "Lightning! Kabuterimon," "Roar! Ikkakumon," "Clash! The Freezing Digimon." The titles were also mercifully short, whether following the naming trend or not.

** Almost all of the ''[[Digimon Frontier]]'' dub episode titles were clever manipulations of a popular catchphrase, idiom, or song title. Examples include: "Can't Keep a Gumblemon Down" (Can't keep a good man down); "Fear and Loathing in Los Arboles" (after the novel and movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas); and "Glean Eggs and Scram" (Green Eggs and Ham). Note the pilot episode is called "All Aboard" and the finale is "End of the Line".

* Each episode of ''[[Nerima Daikon Brothers]]'' starts with "Ore wa" or "My"...and, judging by the dub's translations of the episodes, they're often made to sound like vague innuendo.

* Every episode of the anime version of [[Girls Bravo]] started or ended the title with "Bravo" and included a descriptor ("Bravo From the Bathroom!", "Bravo at School!", and "Cooking is Bravo!", to name the first three episodes). Given some of the titles, it begs the question: just what does Bravo mean...?

** [[This and That|You mean it isn't obvious?]]

* ''[[Dirty Pair]] Flash'' has a different naming pattern for each of its three parts:

** The first part's episode titles are follow this pattern: <English adjective> Angel. (The last episode is titled "[[Lovely Angels]]".)

** Some of the books in the series also have idiosyncratic chapter naming: ''The Rolling Bootlegs'' name chapters by the time ("The First Day", "That Night", "The Second Day"), ''Children of the Bottle'' name chapters after alternating positive and negative emotions (Happiness, Angst, Delight, Anger), and ''Alice in Jails'' has chapters that always start with "Let's ___" ("Let's Go to Prison!", "Let's Eat Our Last Supper", "Let's Just Admit That This Is All Your Fault").

* Since ''[[Michiko to Hatchin]]'' is set in Brazil (or a version of it), the episodes have Portuguese names.

* Each chapter of the manga ''[[Yotsubato|Yotsuba&]]!'' is of the form "Yotsuba to ''X''" ("Yotsuba & ''X''"), where ''X'' is the topic of the chapter. For example, the first chapter, where Yotsuba and her dad move into their new home, is "Yotsuba & Moving."

** The sole exception is Chapter 14, which sees Yotsuba's neighbour Asagi get the title: "Asagi's Gifts". Appropriately enough, it focuses on Asagi and her family.

* ''[[Chi's Sweet Home]]'' begins every episode title with the titualar character's name and a comma, resulting in ungrammatical titles such as "Chi, Frolics About," and "Chi, Goes Outside." The passive voice is often used to shoehorn titles into the naming convention, as in, "Chi, Is Invited In." The English translation of the manga changes it to "a cat [does something]".

* ''[[Black Butler]]'' episode titles are all "His Butler, _______"

* Although it's not apparent from the English translation, all episodes titles of ''[[Kemonozume]]'' contain references to taste and various flavors. (The first episode is titled "The First Taste" and the last one is "The Flavor Doesn't Matter.")

* ''[[I My Me! Strawberry Eggs]]'' does this on two levels: Each episode title has something to do with makeup ([[Wholesome Crossdresser|appropriately enough]]), and each DVD volume is called a "Quarter".

* Several of the later episodes of ''[[Macross Frontier]]'' are named for songs from the show. In three cases ("Triangular", Diamond Crevasse", and "Blue Ether"), the song is used as the ending theme.

* The arcs of ''[[Higurashi no Naku Koro ni]]'' are in the format of "two-kanji word" + shi-hen: (Onikaku''shi'', Watanaga''shi'', Tatarigoro''shi'', Himatsubu''shi'', Meaka''shi'', Tsumihorobo''shi'', Minagoro''shi'', Matsuribaya''shi'').

* Every episode title of ''[[Madoka Magica]]'' is taken from a line of dialogue in said episode.

** The [[Spin-Off]] ''[[Kazumi Magica]]'' does something similar, except that each chapter's title is taken from an unusually named food that appears in it.

* Every chapter in ''[[Ame Nochi Hare]]'' is suffixed with hPa, which stands for hectopascal, and is used by meteorologists as a unit of measurement for air pressure. This is relevant to the [[Gender Bender|plight]] of the five protagonists who will [[Involuntary Shapeshifting|transform into girls]] whenever it [[Hostile Weather|rains]].

* ''[[A Channel]]'' has a regular title in Japanese, and a [[Either or Title|second title]] in English that always starts with an "A".

* ''[[Rosario + Vampire]]'' uses the hella predictable + sign in the name to make it's episodes. X + Vampire.

* The anime adaptation of ''[[Daily Lives of High School Boys]]'' have all skits' names start with "High School Boys and..."

* ''[[Ben-To]]'' uses the name of a bento box featured in its respective episode, followed by its calorie count. For example, Episode 1 is called "Sticky Natto Okra Rice with Cheese Topping Bento, 440kcal"

* ''[[The World God Only Knows]]'' has every title be some sort of reference, with the topic changing every few chapters. For example, part of the Ayumi re-capture arc used the names of Westerns.

* ''[[To Love Ru Darkness]]'' has every title fit into "Topic in English~A Flowery Description About Said Topic in Japanese~", except for the first four chapters (which repeat the same thing in English and Japanese) and the prologue (which is called "Prologue[[Prologue and Activation]]"). An example is "Past[[Memories Leading to Tomorrow]]".

 

* Marvel series by [[Jeph Loeb]] & Tim Sale all have the protagonist's name followed by a color represented in the story. Examples are Spider-Man: Blue (after the character's emotions), Daredevil: Yellow and Hulk: Gray (after the protagonists' early colours).

** The Yellow also refers to cowardice, as Daredevil is The Man Without Fear; Gray refers to the Hulk's status as a wildcard straddling the line between good and evil.

* Every chapter in the ''[[2000 AD|Two Thousand AD]]'' story ''Zenith'' is named after a rock song. ''2000 AD'' itself refers to issues as 'progs'.

** The ''2000 AD'' spin off publication The Judge Dredd Megazine also refers to it's issues as 'Megs'. The short lived 'Extreme Editions' which consisted of vintage ''2000AD'' reprints were also refered to as X(issue number). The Mighty Tharg seemed to like this trope.

** The tradition was unfortunately broken with the "Viltrumite War" trade.

* Evan Dorkin's "Milk & Cheese" comics were entitled "First Number One," "Second Number One," etc. until the 5th issue was finally "First Number Two." Based on the notion that the Number One issue of a comic book tends to be grabbed up by collectors and speculators to sell more issues.

* Four of the ''[[Cerebus the Aardvark]]'' graphic novel collections have titles that could be seen as forming a sentence: ''Women'', ''Reads'', ''Minds'', ''Guys''. (Cerebus's belief in female telepathy is discussed at some point during the story.)

 

* ''[[Hunting the Unicorn]]'' names its chapters after characters in ''[[The Last Unicorn (novel)|The Last Unicorn]]''. The three exceptions so far are "The Midnight Carnival," "The Quest," and "The Clock." The last two are ''very'' important, plot-wise.

* In ''[[Winter War]]'', the chapter titles are of the format "[POV character]: [Title]", or "Ensemble: [Title]" if there are several POV characters- e.g., "Nanao: Winter", "Ensemble: "The Day Before". The few exceptions are things like "Karakura: Waiting" (actually the first ensemble chapter) and a very few chapters that list multiple narrators in the heading, like "Momo, Isane: We Have Met The Enemy".

 

* ''[[Kill Bill]]'' has Volumes 1 and 2.

* In Sweden, this happened to [[Mel Brooks]] movies. ''[[The Producers]]'' was renamed after the play in the movie to ''Det våras för Hitler'' (''[[Springtime for Hitler]]''). Ever since then, as soon as a Mel Brooks parody film was released in Sweden, it would be renamed to "Springtime for [subject matter]", e.g. ''Det våras för rymden'' (''[[Spaceballs|Springtime for space]]''), ''Det våras för sheriffen'' (''[[Blazing Saddles|Springtime for the sheriff]]''). Mel Brooks didn't like this practise, and ''Life Stinks'' was the last movie to be renamed in this fashion.

** A similar thing happened with the Spanish dubs for Spain: ''[[Airplane!]]'' became "Aterriza Como Puedas" ("Land The Way You Can"); afterwards, ''[[The Naked Gun]]'' became "Agárralo Como Puedas" ("Catch [him] The Way You Can"), ''Jane Austen's Mafia!'' became "Mafia, Estafa Como Puedas" ("Mafia, Con [someone] The Way You Can"), et cetera.

 

* All of the titles in [[The Belgariad]] are a reference to chess: Pawn of Prophecy, Queen of Sorcery and Castle of Wizardry all refer to chess pieces, while Magician's Gambit and Enchanter's End Game are strategic terms.

** Eddings is on record as saying these weren't his idea and he didn't like them: they were his editor's titles. He wanted to publish a trilogy, but the books would have exceeded the publisher's size limit.

*** By that token, it bears pointing out that the working title for Death Masks - in which the [[Public Domain Artifact|Shroud of Turin]] was the [[McGuffin]] - was "Holy Sheet". Rumor has it that the publishers demanded a change.

** Unfortunately, the publishers of the British version of the tenth book didn't notice the same number of letters thing; it became Small Favour.

* Jim Butcher's ''Alera'' series always has the word "Fury" in the title - "Princep's Fury", "Captain's Fury", "Furies of Calderon", etc. After the first book, the word preceding "Fury" is the rank/title of the main character (meaning the later titles can be majorly spoiler-ific.)

** The first book was going to be this way too (and change the naming convention to ___'s Fury). The title was originally ''Shepherd Boy's Fury'', but [[Executive Meddling]] changed it.

** The first book kind of fits the "main character's rank/title" pattern. "Calderon" is what Kitai calls Tavi throughout the book.

* The French translation of the first ''[[Discworld]]'' novel, ''The Colour of Magic'', was called ''La Huitième Couleur'', ("The Eighth Colour"). This was followed by ''The Light Fantastic'' becoming ''Le Huitième Sortilège'' ("The Eighth Spell") and ''Equal Rites'' becoming ''La Huitième Fille'' ("The Eighth Daughter"; not strictly accurate, as Esk's elder siblings are all brothers). Then they gave up, and just called ''Mort'' ''Mortimer''.

* Lindsey Davis's [[Marcus Didius Falco]] books started out this way, with ''The Silver Pigs'' being followed by ''Shadows in Bronze'', ''Venus in Copper'', ''The Iron Hand of Mars'' and ''Poseidon's Gold.'' At which point, she ran out of metals that were known to the Romans and sounded promising in a title. Titles from then on follow no particular pattern, though several play with a well-known phrase (''Three Hands in the Fountain'', for example.)

* Nearly all the ''[[Stephanie Plum]]'' novels by Janet Evanovich include a number in the title, and the numbers are sequential. The only four exceptions to the "title includes the number of the book in a chronological listing of the series" pattern so far are four holiday-theme entries, all of which include the word Plum in the title.

** This was mocked in a ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' episode, where Joel and the 'Bots come up with a [[Long List]] of bogus titles in "the Ludlum library": The Horshack Conspiracy, The Forbin Conundrum, The Slingshack Congealment, etc.

* Lawrence Block's books about Bernie Rhodenbarr all start with "The Burglar Who..." or "The Burglar In...". Block unintentionally created a pattern with his books about Matt Scudder, which all had five word titles (''Eight Million Ways to Die'', ''A Dance at the Slaughterhouse'', ''Time to Murder and Create'', etc.) until somebody pointed it out to him. He called the next one ''A Long Line of Dead Men'' to break the pattern.

* Every book of ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'' is entitled "The ______ of Haruhi Suzumiya". Examples are "Melancholy", "Disappearance", "Rampage", "Intrigues" etc.

** [[Fanfic]] titles often follow the convention. A [[Death Note]] crossover was called "The Boredom of Shinigami Ryuk".

* The ''Mas Arai'' series of [http://www.naomihirahara.com/mysteries.html Naomi Hirahara] are all composed of one English and one Japanese word. The author sort of follows the same pattern herself, but "Naomi" is a name in English (derived from Hebrew) and Japanese, though it's pronounced differently.

* Each city in ''[[Invisible Cities]]'' has a feminine name. The city chapters are titled either "<adjective> cities" or "cities and the <noun>".

* Each of John Updike's "Rabbit" novels has a title with an alliteration involving the main character's name: ''Rabbit Run'', ''Rabbit Redux'', ''Rabbit Is Rich'', ''Rabbit at Rest''.

** A decade or so after the last Rabbit book (at the end of which the character dies), Updike wrote a short novella following up on the activities of his descendants. The title was - what else? - ''Rabbit Remembered''.

* The ''Julesburg Mystery Series'' themes its titles off of deadly water phenomena: ''Riptide'', ''Whirlpool'', and ''Undertow''.

* Mindy Starns Clark titled her Million Dollar Mystery series using common sayings with incremental units of money in each title: ''A Penny for Your Thoughts'', ''Don't Take Any Wooden Nickels'', ''A Dime a Dozen'', ''A Quarter for a Kiss'', and ''The Buck Stops Here''.

* The R.D. Wingfield novels that inspired the TV series ''[[A Touch of Frost]]'' all go for the [[Epunymous Title]]: ''Night Frost'', ''Hard Frost'', ''Frost at Christmas'' etc.

* John Sandford's Lucas Davenport novels are all titled ''__________ Prey'', from 1989's ''Rules of Prey'' through 2011's ''Buried Prey''.

* Every chapter of the web-novel ''[[Domina]]'' is a Latin word or short phrase. On that note, the chapters are referred to as "scenes."

* All the book titles in the [[October Daye]] series come from [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]].

 

* Most likely because the fans will probably refer to the episodes this way anyway, most episodes of ''[[Friends]]'' follow the pattern "[[The One With...]] ____" or "The One Where ____". The only exception is the finale ("The Last One"), and to some extent, "The One That Could Have Been" (the what-if ep) and "[[Milestone Celebration|The One Hundredth"]].

** There was actually an interview somewhere in which the writing staff explained that they "wanted to name them what people were going to be calling them anyway".

** Apparently the reason they did it was so they wouldn't spend a whole lot of time thinking of an episode name that people would never see anyway.

** Some episode guides list the title as "The Male Unbonding" to bring this one in line with the others.

* Every episode of ''[[Grey's Anatomy]]'' shares its title with a song, though the songs chosen run the gamut of genres and eras.

** Ditto for ''[[ALF]]''.

* Every episode of ''[[Scrubs]]'' follows the naming convention "My ____", as it is told from the perspective of J.D., the main character. The only exceptions are episodes told from the perspective of other characters in the show, which are called either "His Story", "Her Story", or "Their Story", with a number.

** At one point the writers persuade themselves that they're terribly clever and name an episode "[[Incredibly Lame Pun|My Ocardial Infarction]]" (a myocardial infarction is a heart attack).

* Each episode of ''[[Boston Public]]'' was named "Chapter _____", with the titular number corresponding to the episode number.

* Every episode of ''[[Wonderfalls]]'' mentions an animal in the title, and is also two words.

* Fitting with the premise of the show, episodes of ''[[24]]'' are titled with the time period represented during the episode. For example "2:00 a.m.-3:00 a.m.". To disambiguate episodes in different seasons, subsequent seasons named episodes in the following manner: "Day 2: 2:00 a.m.-3:00 a.m.".

** The 2008 revival has returned to this convention, though there isn't too many variations you can take from that pattern.

* ''[[Power Rangers]]'' occasionally uses a set formula for a season's episodes.

* Almost every episode of ''[[Dragnet]]'' used a title of the form "The Big ______".

* Every episode of ''[[Love, American Style]]'' used a title of the form "Love and the ______" or "Love in the _____".

** Perhaps "Deadalive" was the result of a shortened two-parter?

** Most of the time, though, episodes titles for ''[[The X-Files]]'' were extremely vague words or phrases brought up by a single line of dialogue or some other subtle or insignificant aspect of the episode, and the titles were simply there so the creators had something to refer to each individual episode as.

** The British private eye series ''Public Eye'' did the "random dialogue as episode title" thing before (the show's creators were big fans of ''Naked City'', which took a similar approach to its episode titles), and ''[[Damages]]'' also uses it ("Tastes Like a Ho-Ho", "They Had to Tweeze That Out of My Kidney", "You Got Your Prom Date Pregnant", "Don't Throw That at the Chicken," etc).

** ''[[Deadwood]]'' did this too, starting during its second season.

** "Memoirs Of An Invisible Dan" (''[[Memoirs of an Invisible Man]]'')

** "Cross Rhodes" (''[[Crossroads (2002 film)|Crossroads]]'')

** ... and "Raiders Of The Lost Art" (''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark]]''). Even though [[Mad|another TimeWarner owned entity]] used that title 30 years go.

*** They're also not above riffing on movies with ''Gossip Girl'' cast members; witness "The Townie" from ''[[The Town]]'' (with [[Blake Lively]]), "Panic Roommate" from ''[[Panic Room]]'' and ''[[The Roommate]]'' (the latter with Leighton Meester in the title role), and "Easy J" from ''[[Easy A]]'' (with Penn Badgley).

* The pilot episode for ''[[Caroline in The City]]'' used the same title as the series itself, but every subsequent episode title used some variant of "Caroline and the _____".

* Every episode of the short-lived sitcom ''Alright Already'' had a title of "[[Oh God With the Troping|Again with the _____]]".

* Each episode title in ''[[Harper's Island]]'' is onomatopoeia associated with a death that occurs in that episode. They are also all one word, except for one episode, which is three ("Thrack, Splat, Sizzle").

* Every episode of ''The [[George Carlin]] Show'' was a sentence in the form of George (Predicate): "George Goes Too Far", "George Helps a Friend", etc.

** Several ''[[Sonny With a Chance]]'' episodes are named "Sonny With A _____", "_____ With A Chance", or vice versa.

** ''[[Shake It Up]]'' calls every episode "______ It Up," with [[Odd Name Out|the exception of]] "Shake It Up, Up And Away." Perhaps to make up for it, the [[Crossover]] with ''[[Good Luck Charlie]]'' is called "Charlie Shakes It Up."

* ''[[Super Sentai]]'' uses these often:

** Generally, each season calls each of its episodes something relevant to the motif. ''Magiranger'' had "Stages", ''Boukenger'' had "Tasks", etc. As far as episode titles:

** ''[[Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger]]'': Most episodes are either in the form "Noun, Verb!!" (early episodes) or "The Noun Verbs" (later episodes).

** ''[[Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger]]'': Every episode title is in the form "[[The Noun and the Noun|Noun and Noun]]".

** ''[[Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger]]'': Every episode title is in [[Gratuitous English]], written in katakana.

** ''[[Mahou Sentai Magiranger]]'': Every episode title is suffixed with the name of a spell from the show.

* The ''[[Honey I Shrunk the Kids (TV series)|Honey I Shrunk the Kids]]'' TV show titled their episodes as a statement starting with "Honey..." The only exception is "From Honey with Love".

* Each episode of ''[[Day Break]]'' has a question as the title: "What If He Runs Away?", "What If It's Her?", since the protagonist is trying new tactics each time the day restarts. (And yes, they all start with "What If...".)

* ''[[The Forgotten]]'' uses "<something> John/Jane" for its titles. This is taken from the practice of identifying unknown victims as John or Jane Doe.

** Three episode titles however, has Doe instead of John/Jane (namely "Double Doe", "Donovan Doe" and "Living Doe").

* Nearly every episode of the short-lived Steven Weber sitcom ''The Weber Show'' (a.k.a. ''Cursed'') had an episode title which was some variant of "...And Then (Something Happened)".

* ''Gary Unmarried'' begins every episode title with "Gary" or "Gary's" followed by a description of a person or action.

** Literature: "Something Wicca This Way Comes", "The Demon Who Came in from the Cold", "The Importance of Being Phoebe", "Sense and Sense Ability", "Valhalley of the Dolls", "The Legend of Sleepy Halliwell", "Malice in Wonderland."

** TV shows: "That 70s Episode", "Sword and the City", "I Dream of Phoebe", "Spin City", "Styx Feet Under", "Extreme Makeover: World Edition", "Desperate Housewitches", "Rewitched", "The Jung and the Restless", "My Three Witches."

* [[Cirque Du Soleil]]'s [[Widget Series]] ''Solstrom'', which involved magical solar wind, used the word "wind" (sometimes plural) in every on-screen episode title. For some reason, when it was broadcast in the U.S. the episodes were given plainer titles that dropped this convention ("Howling Wind" became "Gothic", "Once Upon a Wind" became "Adventure", etc.), but the original titles were reinstated for the DVD release.

* Every episode title of ''[[Maude]]'' began with "Maude's ..."

* Every episode of ''[[No Ordinary Family]]'' begins with the words "No Ordinary." For example, "No Ordinary Marriage," "No Ordinary Earthquake."

** All except the first, which was simply called "Pilot". This is probably for, on the chance the pilot from the first episode comes back, they can have an episode titled "No Ordinary Pilot."

* ''Maybe It's Me'', ''Committed'', and ''Opposite Sex'' all called their episodes "The ______ Episode"; ''Half & Half'' went a step further, going for "The Big ______ Episode." (Fate rewarded this addition by not having this show cancelled after one season, unlike the other three.)

* [[The First Shop of Coffee Prince]] lists each new chronicle as "[# of episode] Cup."

* The second and last season of ''What About Brian'' called each episode therein "What About ______..." (e.g. "What About Calling All Friends...").

* Most of the episode titles in ''[[Lost Girl]]'' either include the word fae (often in a pun) or use the name/species of a fae that appears in the episode.

* In arguably the most bizarre naming convention on this page, all the post-pilot episodes of ''[[Don't Trust the B---- in Apartment 23|Don't Trust The B—— In Apartment 23]]'' have titles which end in an ellipsis...

 

* The score for ''[[Batman Begins]]'' is titled idiosyncratically: the first track, ''Vespertilio'', is the Latin word for bat, and the other titles are all scientific names for different genera of bat. This is not the case for ''The Dark Knight'''s music; however, many of the track titles are either taken from lines of dialogue in the film, or a slight variation on them: I'm Not A Hero, Blood On My Hands, And I Thought My Jokes Were Bad, Like A Dog Chasing Cars; etc. However, it's noteworthy that the lines of dialogue spoken do not correspond to the scenes in which the music plays. For example, "Like A Dog Chasing Cars", an energetic treatment of one of the main themes, is not played over the scene where the line is spoken, which is a quiet conversation with the Joker. In fact, it's not even played over any of the scenes involving high-speed vehicular chases, which mostly go without score.

* The band New Order frequently have song titles that do not appear in the lyrics and have nothing to do with the song such as True Faith, Blue Monday or Bizarre love triangle

* [[Michael Giacchino]] has a lot of fun with his track titles. Some examples:

** "Here Today, Gone to Maui" (''[[Lost]]'' Season 3 soundtrack)

** "I Gotta Beam Me" (''[[Star Trek]]'': Deluxe Edition)

** "Pterodactyl Ptemper Ptantrum" (''[[Land of the Lost (TV series)|Land of the Lost]]'')

*** "...Road Rage" (''[[Speed Racer (film)|Speed Racer]]'')

*** "...Road Trip" (''[[Super 8]]'')

** Best one EVER: "L'eggo My Eko" (also from Lost season 3).

* Christopher Young's promotional release of his score for the movie ''Hush'' has the following tracklisting: "Hush," "Little Baby," "Don't Say A Word," "Mama's Gonna Buy," "You" and "A."

** Since then, most of his studio albums have featured two-letter words as their titles, and other releases such as ''Hit'' and ''OVO'' have been quite tersely named as well.

* Extreme metal band [[Dimmu Borgir]] tend toward three-word album titles that are often quite nonsensical: ''Enthrone Darkness Triumphant'', ''Godless Savage Garden'', ''Spiritual Black Dimensions'', ''Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia'', ''Death Cult Armageddon''.

* Death metal band [[Morbid Angel]] consistently have their ''n''th album staring with the ''n''th letter of the alphabet. Straight from their first, ''Altars of Madness'', to their ninth, ''Illud Divinum Insanus''.

* Progressive Doom Metal band, Madder Mortem, use their name as an acronym for the titles of their albums: M - Mercury, A - All Flesh is Grass, D - Deadlands, D - Desiderata...

** The [[Don McLean]] album ''American Pie'', which labels it's sides as "One Side" and "Another Side".

** [[Guns N' Roses]]' debut album ''Appetite For Destruction'' with "Side G" and "Side R" (standing for "GNR", an acronym for the name of the band)

** [[Cheap Trick]]'s debut had the sides labeled Side 1 and Side A, as a joke about there not being any "b material" on the album. This actually led to some confusion when it was first released on cd - the first 5 tracks were actually what the band considered the second side, which has since been corrected on newer reissues.

*** The original CD version placed the songs in the same order in which they were listed on the record cover.

* All of the tracks on Miles Davis' album "Aura" (except for the first track, Intro) are named after colors: White, Yellow, Orange, Red, Green, Blue, Electric Red, Indigo, and Violet.

 

* BBC radio comedy ''[[The Burkiss Way]]'', being originally conceived with the conceit of being the radio version of correspondence course "The Burkiss Way to Dynamic Living", used the form "Lesson X: ______ The Burkiss Way": "Lesson 1: Peel Bananas The Burkiss Way", "Lesson 4: Solve Murders The Burkiss Way", "Lesson 12: Make Short Comedy Programmes The Burkiss Way", etc. As the show drifted away from the original format to a more surreal form, they began playing with the format: "Lesson 19: Replace The Burkiss Way", "Lesson 21: Get Cut Off The Bur-", "Lesson 23: Son Of The Burkiss Way", etc. This was lampshaded with "Lesson 28: Ignore These Programme Titles The Burkiss Way". The penultimate episode of series 4 is called "Lesson 33: The Last Burkiss Way"; the actual final episode is then called "Lesson 34: The Next To Last Burkiss Way". There are two Lesson 39s, both called "Repeat Yourself The Burkiss Way"; the second starts the same as the first, before stopping with an apology for putting the wrong tape on. Lesson 45 is usually referred to as "Write Extremely Long Titles The Burkiss Way"; The full title as given in the Radio Times is "Lesson 45: Write Extremely Long Titles With Lots And Lots Of Words In, Like This, So That The Radio Times Will Have To Allot More Space Than The Measly Half A Centimetre Of Billing Space We Usually Get And At Least It'll Look A Bit More Prominent On The Page, Although Still Nowhere Near The 50 Column Inches They Give To [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy|The Hitch-hiker's Guide To The Galaxy]] The Burkiss Way".

* ''[[Adventures in Odyssey]]'' has used a few. The 1993 season used verses from the Lord's Prayer as titles for individual episodes: "Our Father","Hallowed Be Thy Name", "Thy Kingdom Come","Thy Will Be Done", "Our Daily Bread", "Forgive Us as We Forgive", "Into Temptation", "Deliver Us from Evil", "For Thine Is the Kingdom", "The Power", "And the Glory", "Forever...Amen". These episodes were later released in a compilation titled "On Earth as it is in Heaven."

* ''[[The Roman Mysteries]]'' has all its novels using a [[The X of Y]] format, with the X always being a group of people and the Y always being a place in the Roman Empire.

* As in the TV show that succeeded it, the ''Dragnet'' radio show episodes were all of the format "The Big ____"

 

== Software ==

* Likewise, Knuth's font rendering engine METAFONT is currently at version ''2.718281'' and converging towards ''e''.

* The OGRE 3D game engine names each release after deities from the works of [[H.P. Lovecraft]], starting with ''Hastur'' and continuing to the present with ''Shoggoth''.

* The various releases of Mac OS X are all named after big cats.

* For a while, all the programs and applications released for desktop environment KDE snuck the letter "K" in their names. The trend has been waning in recent years, though.

* Likewise, much software written in Python names itself "py<something>". It is noteworthy that Java and Python pretty much occupy opposite ends on the spectrum of perceived "elite"-ness, yet for some reason these two specifically seem to compel programmers to declare what language they are using. No one knows why.

* Many Mozilla/Gecko-based programs follow the format [Nature noun][Animal] - Firefox, Thunderbird, Seamonkey, Sunbird, Songbird. Not all of them do, though (e.g. Camino).

** Windows XP, 7 and Vista were respectively named "Whistler", "Blackcomb" and "Longhorn", after a pair of ski resorts(since merged) and a bar located between them(reflecting the original plan for Vista to merely be a waypoint between the two big releases); 7's codename was dropped when the Office manager took over the project(he killed Office's use of codenames as well), which fits in with Windows 2000, which only had a codename for the [[What Could Have Been|scrapped home version]](Neptune).

* Intel tends to use codenames based on locations in the Western United States or Israel.

* Major releases of Google's mobile operating system Android are named after desserts, e.g. "Cupcake", "Donut", "Eclair", "Frozen Yogurt" ("Froyo")"Gingerbread", and now "Ice Cream Sandwich" First letters of current and upcoming releases' names' also follow the alphabet.

** The next version is all but confirmed to be called "Jelly Bean".

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

* The code names of ''[[Magic: The Gathering|Magic the Gathering]]'' expansions always have some kind of theme to them, ranging from Mexican words to food; recent examples have included "Rock/Paper/Scissors" (for ''Shards of Alara''/''Conflux''/''Alara Reborn'') and "Live/Long/Prosper" (for ''Zendikar''/''Worldwake''/''Rise of the Eldrazi'').

* Many genre supplements for the original ''[[Big Eyes, Small Mouth]]'' RPG used the "(adjective) (noun), (adjective) (noun)": ''Big Robots, Cool Starships'' (mecha and science fiction), ''Cold Hands, Dark Hearts'' (gothic and horror), ''Big Ears, Small Mouse'' (talking animal cartoons), "Hot Rods & Gun Bunnies'' (modern action; bends the convention a bit).

 

== Theatre ==

** Sonic 3's multiplayer levels are named '''A'''zure Lake Zone, '''B'''alloon Park Zone, '''C'''hrome Gadget Zone, '''D'''esert Palace Zone, and '''E'''ndless Mine Zone.

* [[Super Mario Bros.|Mario]] has a few of these. All of the boss levels in ''[[Super Mario 64]]'' are called "Bowser in the ______" (Dark World, Fire Sea, and Sky, in that order). All of the main levels in ''[[Super Mario Galaxy]]'' are "{{[[[Alliteration]] Alliterative pair of words}}] Galaxy".

* Entire video game consoles have had this with game titles, [[Super Title 64 Advance|but that's it's own trope]].

* ''[[Dead Space (video game)|Dead Space]]''. The first letters of each level spell something plot-relevant.

* The chapters of ''Vampire Night'' all include the name of a musical form. The last chapter is "Moonlight Symphony" ([[Beam Me Up, Scotty|not to be confused with]] "Moonlight Sonata").

* [[Tales (series)|The Tales Series]] of course, each game begins with the phrase "Tales of" and adds a somewhat random word after it, like [[Tales of Phantasia|Phantasia]], [[Tales of Symphonia|Symphonia]], [[Tales of Innocence|Innocence]], [[Tales of Destiny|Destiny]], [[Odd Name Out|once using an article]] (in [[Tales of the Abyss]], however, [[Crossover|Crossover Games]] are more likely to use one). If a game gets a [[Spin-Off]], the title will include a short phrase, like in [[Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World|Dawn of the new world]].

* The sectors of ''[[Iji]]'' each have an abstract noun as the title: "Hope", "Reality" etc.

* More of a meta-example but Crytek's current library of published games all have the word "Cry" in them, likely as a self-nod.

* ''[[Pokémon]]'' games have either a color or precious stone or metal theme in each generation. The Gen I games were originally [[Pokémon Red and Blue|Red And Green]], which are complimentary/opposite colors. However, it was changed to Blue for international release. ''[[Pokémon Yellow]]'', the third game, means that the four games were named for each of the four primary colors: red,green,blue and yellow. The Red/Green pairing was returned for the remakes, Fire Red and Leaf Green. The later ones were all precious metals or stones...[[Pokémon Gold and Silver]] plus Crystal, (rereleased as Heart Gold and Soul Silver),[[Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire]] plus Emerald, and [[Pokémon Diamond and Pearl]] plus Platinum. [[Pokémon Black and White]] broke with that trend and went back to the color opposites. Black 2/White 2 breaks the 'third game' tradition and sticks with the same two colors as the previous installments.

** Many of the games also represented the colors of the starter elements in gen 1 and in many games the Pokemon themselves. Blue/Green, Red and Yellow had green for grass and Bulbasaur, red for fire and Charizard, blue for water and Squirtle, plus yellow for Pikachu's color and for electricity/lightning. Gold for the golden Ho-oh and silver for the mostly silver Lugia. Ruby and Sapphire have the ruby red Groudon, the sapphire blue Kyogre and the emerald green Rayquaza. Black and White have the black Zekrom and white Reshiram. Diamond and Pearl are the exceptions. Palkia is kind of pearl-colored, but Dialga is bluish green rather than diamond colored. Giratina, the Platinum mascot, does have a grayish white lower body like the metal, but has other colors as well.

 

== [[Web Animation]] ==

* [[Awesome Series]] has all the titles named after the work being parodied, but with one word replaced with "Awesome".

** Or mashed into the title when it's only one word, such as [[Tetris|TetrAwesome]] and [[Cloverfield|Awesomefield]].

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

* Each page of ''[[The Non-Adventures of Wonderella]]'' is named with a relevant catch-phrase or pop-culture reference, or (more frequently) pun based on such. One word of every title is written in all-caps to make them [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|more dramatic]]. For example: [http://www.webcomicsnation.com/justinpie/wonderella/series.php?view=archive&chapter=14478 "SIN Derella"], [http://www.webcomicsnation.com/justinpie/wonderella/series.php?view=archive&chapter=25918 "A Christmas PERIL"], and [http://www.webcomicsnation.com/justinpie/wonderella/series.php?view=archive&chapter=24892 "MELANIN COLLEAGUE and the Infinite Sadness"].

* The name of each page of ''[[Megatokyo]]'' is a quote from the page.

** And the chapter titles are all metaphors from computing or gaming.

* Each ''Three Panel Soul'' strip is named "On ________", with the ________ usually refering to the strip's subject. For example: [http://www.threepanelsoul.com/view.php?date=2008-11-26 On Surnames]

* The ''Prime Directive'' storyline of ''Adventures In Aaron's Room'' is the only one to stick with single-word titles.

* Though [http://mountaincomics.com/ Mountain Time] titles are usually random inanities or pure gibberish, they sometimes form lists of arbitrary things, such as South American capital cities or actors from the movie ''Cocktail''. Other times, they follow the convention "Mountain Time ___", where the ___ is the episode number.

* ''[[Rusty and Co.|Rusty and Co]]'' has chapters named "Level N" ([[Monster Adventurers|of course]]).

* In ''Triquetra Cats'' each Chapter is refered to a Period

 

== Web Original ==

** "Ayla and the Birthday Brawl" had chapter titles taken from Spenser's "The Faerie Queene".

* ''[[Chaos Fighters]]'' has a few examples of replacing something for chapter: path for every novel in ''main series'' and file for ''Chaos Fighters: Cyber Assault-The Secret Programs''.

** His play-though of Super Mario Bros X goes meta (and [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8zxhPGOoV0 recursive]) into this trope as each episode name is a Trope Title from this site.

* ''[[Psycomedia]]'' uses this for the Frankenpodcasts, which are named after the [[Frankenstein (film)|Universal film series.]]

 

== Western Animation ==

* Every ''[[Pink Panther]]'' short made in the 1960s and 1970s has the word "Pink" in the title. Similarly, every short in DFE's ''The Inspector'' series has some French wordplay in the title.

* Sav! The World's series ''[[Oban Star-Racers]]'' names most of its episodes in the form "X Like Y", where Y is the name of the [[Monster of the Week]]. X is always an adjective that begins with the same letter or sound as the antagonist's name -- "Playful Like Para-Dice", "Agile Like Aikka", et cetera. Unfortunately, this meant they were forced to use the word "Cruel" twice.

* ''[[Skunk Fu!]]!'' uses "The Art of ____". There was even an episode where they did "The Art of Art".

* Almost every episode of the first season of ''[[Sonic Sat AM|Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' had the word 'Sonic' in it, despite how little it would have to do with the actual plot. This was discarded in season 2.

* The 26 episodes of the second season of ''[[WITCH (animation)|WITCH]]'' were all named in the form "(letter) is for (word starting with that letter)", and in their proper sequence run from "A Is for Anonymous" to "Z is for Zenith", without repeating or dropping any letters.

* The episodes of ''[[Clerks the Animated Series]]'' had descriptive and increasingly lengthy titles (apart from the last episode, entitled simply "The Last Episode Ever"). The longest was that of the second-to-last episode, "Dante and Randal and Jay and Silent Bob and a Bunch of New Characters and Lando, Take Part in a Whole Bunch of Movie Parodies Including But Not Exclusive To, The Bad News Bears, The Last Starfighter, Indiana Jones and the Temple Of Doom, Plus a High School Reunion".

* Most episodes of the cartoon ''[[Westerm Animation/Darkwing Duck|Darkwing Duck]]'' had pun-laden titles. One pun was usually enough, and by and large they were simple variations on stock phrases, like "Slime Okay, You're Okay", "Whirled History", and "Water Way to Go" or well-known movie titles, like "Dry Hard", "Planet of the Capes", and "Steerminator". A few, like the two-part episodes "Darkly Dawns the Duck" and "Just Us Justice Ducks" were not puns, but were still obviously wordplay, while some, such as "Smarter than a Speeding Bullet" fit the variation on stock phrases form, without being puns.

* [[Conan O'Brien]]'s new [[Talk Show]] ''Conan'' has fake titles similar to ''[[Family Guy]]'''s: "Baa Baa Blackmail," "Murder, She Tweeted").

* ''[[Transformers]]: [[Beast Wars]]'' had a [[Story Arc]] featuring the characters coming into contact with mysterious aliens. These arc episodes were the only ''Beast Wars'' episodes with idiosyncratic names: "Other Voices" Parts 1 and 2, "Other Visits" Parts 1 and 2, and "Other Victories".

** Season 2 has "Blueprints", "Destructive Testing", "Reinforcement", and "Shear Strength", which are from construction and architecture; "First Steps", "Growing Pains", and "Identity Crisis", from child psychology; "Accomplices", "Probable Causes", and "Gangland" are from criminology, and "Subtext", "Opening Night", and "Final Curtain" are from theatre.

* Every episode in the first series of ''[[Max Steel]]'' had titles beginning with the letter S. Possibly, if Greg Weisman had been kept on as developer, this would have carried on for the rest of the show.

* The first episode of ''Aozora Shoujotai'' is titled DEFCON I, with subsequent episode titles [[Defcon Five|counting up to DEFCON VI]].

* ''[[Samurai Jack]]'' would use some form of "Jack and the..." or "Samurai versus..." (or "Jack versus..." and "Samurai and the...", making it idiosyncratic and effectively descriptive of the episode.

* Every ''[[Peanuts]]'' movie and television special had Charlie Brown's name in it, except the second movie "Snoopy Come Home" and the lesser-known 1991 television special "Snoopy's Reunion."

* Like ''[[Supah Ninjas]]'' (see the Live-Action TV folder), every episode of the 'Super Secret Secret Squirrel' segment of ''[[Two Stupid Dogs]]'' is named after that instalment's [[Monster of the Week|villain]], e.g. "Queen Bee" and "Greg".

* Both ''[[The Raccoons]]'' and ''[[Batman: The Brave And The Bold|Batman the Brave And The Bold]]'' give their episodes [[Excited Episode Title|titles ending with exclamation points!]]

* The majority of the episode titles for ''[[Charlie and Lola]]'' are essentially statements from Lola, often in a humorously protracted fashion. Examples include "I Will Not Ever Never Eat a Tomato", "We Do Promise Honestly We Can Look After Your Dog" and "I Do Not Ever, Never Want My Wobbly Tooth to Fall Out".

* [[Kid vs. Kat]] has episodes that feature the name of main character, Coop, or a word that explains the plot added to existing phrases. For example "Coop D'Etat," "The Incredible Shrinking Coop," and "Kat to the Future."

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Title Tropes]]

[[Category:Creator Speak]]