39,327
edits
Niche Network: Difference between revisions
m
+Category:Alliterative Trope Titles
m (Mass update links) |
|||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
A simple [[Show Within a Show]] gag. With the sheer number of television stations available in this day and age, a channel that only has programming which relates to a single hobby or niche can be viable. Think "The Golf Channel" or "Soapnet" for real life examples of this. Naturally, these niche' networks aren't all that appealing to people who aren't interested in the networks' subject matter. Some shows like to exaggerate how uninteresting these channels are to non-hobbyists. They do this by having a character turn to a channel that only runs programming about an unbelievably inane subject 24 hours a day.
The gag works because the channel is boring in two different ways. Even if you somehow manage to find the boring subject matter intriguing, the channel is implied to be repetitive ("We're all X, all the time" or "X, 24 hours a day.). As if that wasn't enough boredom, some shows add to this gag by having an extremely bored sounding man narrate the channel's programming in a bland monotone.
Line 12:
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* On the ''[[Sesame Street]]'' segment ''Elmo's World'', Elmo's TV tunes in to these kinds of channels to teach kids.
* CSPAN and other networks that focus on [[Political Programmes]] are often portrayed this way in kids' shows.
** As are 24-hour [[News Broadcast]] channels.
* ''[[Shining Time Station]]'' had the kids introduced to television via Schemer, who showed them such channels as footage of babies crying.
* Though not TV networks, the 'guest newspapers' from which ''[[Have I Got News for You]]'' takes some of its fill-in-blanks headlines for the final round are basically this trope. And they're all real.
Line 39:
* This was a running gag on ''[[101 Dalmatians|101 Dalmatians: The Series]]''. Various channels on the pups' TV set included "The All-Dog Network", "The All-Cat Network", "The Gravy Channel", "The Poultry Channel", "Swine TV", "The All-Fashion Network", and various others.
* In ''[[The Powerpuff Girls]]'' episode "Daylight Savings" the Professor gives the girls a curfew. The villains take advantage of this and when the Professor tries to watch TV, all the channels he switches to are discussing how Townsville is doomed. He finally finds one that is talking about something else: the time channel. On this channel, [[Punny Name|Sonny Dial]] presents the up to the minute time. This reminds the Professor he forgot to set the clocks back, so he can sends the girls back out to save the day.
* From ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]''- "Coming up next on The Clock Channel: 6:00."
* ''[[Rocko's Modern Life]]'' has a 24 hour [[Everything's Louder with Bagpipes|bagpipe]] station featuring the "All Scottish Show".
* ''[[Daria]] featured the Pigskin Channel (a decade before the launch of NFL Network) and a fashion channel.
Line 46:
== [[Real Life]] ==
* [[wikipedia:The Puppy Channel|The Puppy Channel.]]
** In order to give their staff some time off, some networks will play a video of a [[wikipedia:Yule log|Yule log]] burning around Christmastime.
** "That channel that exists to sell knives" aka the [[Infomercial]] channel.
* Other examples are available in the [[Networks]] article.
Line 54:
[[Category:Fictional Media]]
[[Category:Niche Network]]
[[Category:Alliterative Trope Titles]]
| |||