Not Using the Z Word/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: Characters are faced with a creature, but refuse to call said creature by its given name.

  • Straight: Bob sees a group of walking dead people who eat flesh. Nobody says that they're zombies.
  • Exaggerated: Bob sees a black-and-white striped horse, but thinks of something other than "Zebra" to call it.
  • Downplayed: The characters gently get around referring to the zombies as anything specifically, or never even mention them, too concerned with their own survival.
  • Justified: Bob doesn't think these are technically zombies, not having enough of the proper traits.
    • Alternatively, Bob already came up with a name for them, such as "ghouls" or "vampires".
  • Inverted: Bob insists that the creatures be called "zombies", even though they're actually mutated alien werewolves.
  • Subverted: Bob explains how the creatures literally aren't zombies, but a similar mythical creature, but admits that it's easier to call them "zombies.".
  • Double Subverted: Alice then says that she'd rather call them by their given mythological name.
  • Parodied: The name used instead of "Zombie" is incredibly long so as to encompass all of its qualities, eg "Shambling-Rotting-Walking-Corpses-That-Feed-On-Flesh-And-Turn-You-Into-Shambling-Rotting-Walking-Corpses-That-Feed-On-Flesh."
  • Zig Zagged: As it turns out, the word they used instead of Zombie just happens to be the literal translation of the word "Zombie" in an obscure language that none of the characters know anyway.
  • Averted: They're called Zombies from the get-go.
  • Enforced: They can get away with using a look-alike of a licensed monster, but they can't use the proper name, so the characters just never say what they are.
  • Lampshaded: "Why can't we just call them Zombies instead of Them?
  • Invoked: "Don't call them Zombies."
  • Exploited: ???
  • Defied: A character tries to correct Bob calling the creature a Zombie. Bob slaps him and says "They're Zombies."
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: ???
  • Deconstructed: The refusal to say 'zombie' stems from the characters' disbelief that such a situation could occur. It progresses into outright psychotic denial that zombies even exist, and they walk out into the undead hordes as if heading out for a stroll, having convinced themselves that there's no such thing as zombies.
  • Reconstructed: Admitting the full level of danger they're in would demoralize the characters who aren't as strong-willed, so Bob avoids calling them zombies in order to allow them to rally together and get to safety; there's time enough to freak out and be scared once they get to the safe house.

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