Praising Shows You Don't Watch: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''Definition of a classic — something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.''
|'''[[Mark Twain]]'''}}
The Inverse of [[Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch]], in which these people somehow know ''exactly'' how good something is, without having ever actually ''seen'' it. Maybe they saw so much praise they feel like they can account for having actually watched it for themselves, or maybe they're just carbon-copying someone's opinions to fit into the group. Or they have seen a fragment of the work, liked it, and assumed the rest is equally good. Who knows? Similar to [[
Compare [[Popcultural Osmosis]].
{{examples}}▼
▲{{examples}}
== [[Anime]]
* In the 1990s, the success of the movies of ''[[
== [[Film]] ==
* Happens a ''lot'' with
** ''[[
** ''[[Lawrence of Arabia]]''
** ''[[Casablanca]]''
** The Universal Horror Classics -- ''[[Dracula (
** A lot of [[German Expressionism]] -- ''[[
** A lot of the classic non-American film
** Plenty of [[Stanley Kubrick]] films, especially -- ''[[
** ''[[
** ''[[Taxi Driver]]'' and ''[[Raging Bull]]''
** ''[[Gone
* Many times certain fandoms give a 10/10 score to a movie on its [[IMDb]] page before it even comes out.
* ''[[The Wizard of Oz]]'' partially averts this. Almost everyone has seen it, but most people only watch it when they're kids or when they're ''with'' kids, and so can go many years without being exposed to it. It's common to watch it again after a long absence and being surprised by a sight gag, quip, or sequence that one had totally forgotten about.
** Or to [[Late to
== [[Literature]] ==
* [[The Bible]]. Some people who espouse it as the direct word of God haven't read more than a few verses of it (as opposed to Biblical scholars, who tend to analyze and discuss it academically). On the flip side, most people who hate it haven't read it either. Some traditions do cover a large portion of the text over the course of a few years, though.
** Controversial televangelist Jim Bakker even admitted in his biography that the first time he truly sat down to read it was when he was in prison after being convicted of mail fraud and wire fraud.
* In Islam, it is very important to learn about
* William Shirer characterized ''[[Mein Kampf]]'' as the bestselling book in Germany between 1934-1944 that was never read by most Germans who bought it.
* ''[[War and Peace]]''
* ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]''
* ''[[Moby
* ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' gets this, too. Mostly for people who haven't exactly read it, but praise it more for what they accomplished.
* ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]''. Many phrases from the book, like "[[Big Brother Is Watching|Big Brother]]", "thoughtcrime" and "[[Room 101]]", have entered pop culture, people can often quite convincingly claim they've read the book by simply quoting these phrases.
** That's debatable, as most people can only repeat the concept of Big Brother and think of it as an extreme form of totalitarianism that sees everything and controls everything. Anyone who has actually read
* [[Mark Twain]] would be displeased to learn that ''[[The Adventures of Tom Sawyer]]'' now meets his definition of "classic." When most people discuss the book, they refer to one scene
** Twain himself, in his remarkable essay ''[[Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences]]'', accused people that praised ''[[The Leatherstocking Tales]]'' of this trope
* Much like the ''Tom Sawyer'' example above, you can tell whether or not anyone has actually read ''[[
* [[Richard Feynman]] mentioned in his autobiography a case when one publisher sent a schoolbook to the California State Curriculum Commission, but it wasn't ready for print, so it had ''empty pages''. Six out of the ten members of the commission ''still'' rated the book favorably
* Many works of mythology, such as ''[[The Epic of Gilgamesh]]'', [[King Arthur]] and various other texts of [[Classical Mythology]] and other myths. Although many are well-respected as inspirations for modern fantasy and great storylines by themselves, probably few people have
* Part of the [[Framing Device]] for why ''[[The Princess Bride (
* While ''[[Twilight (
* ''[[A Brief History of Time
** And thus this page is a [[Self-Demonstrating Article]] - that second book is called ''[[Gödel, Escher, Bach]]'' (no "and"). Almost nobody knows the title of the book they praise!
* Anything you had to read in high school English class, whether you actually had to read it or not, such as ''[[To Kill a Mockingbird]]'', ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]'', ''[[Catcher in The Rye]]'', or anything by [[Ernest Hemingway]]. Believe it or not, these books and authors ''do'' have many detractors.
* Anything by [[Charles Dickens]]. Most modern readers have read adaptations, and most find the original versions boring.
* ''[[Les Misérables (novel)|Les Misérables]]''; most of the praise comes from those who have seen the theatrical version.
== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* There are very few people who have seen acclaimed shows like ''[[The Wire]]'' in full, yet because it is the general opinion of critics, they immediately proclaim them "the greatest TV show ever made" after watching the first few episodes. Which is silly, given that it's a very slow-burning show which takes several episodes to get going.
** Quite a few shows on HBO or Showtime have this problem, probably because those are higher tier networks so a lot of people can't see them (legally) anyway until they come out on DVD, but everybody wants to seem "cultured".
* Barely any of the people who say that original format of ''[[
== [[Music]] ==
* Happens with a lot of very successful and famous rock groups. [[The Beatles]], [[The Rolling Stones]], [[ACDC
** Parodied by this ''[[Funny Or Die]]'' vid: "[https://web.archive.org/web/20131023230514/http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/662c3c3a0b/take-off-your-tshirt-if-you-cant-name-a-song-by-the-band-thats-on-it-from-watt-white Take Off Your T-Shirt If You Can't Name A Song By The Band That's On It]".
** It's nearly impossible to have never heard at least one song from all the aforementioned groups if you've ever listened to the radio. You might or might not have heard anything by [[Yes]]; "Owner of a Lonely Heart" is pretty popular on the radio. So, these types of fans might get the bands mixed up -- "Paint It Black" is ''totally'' [[ACDC
** The Ramones are probably a better example. The shirts are more popular than the band ever was. Most people probably don't know that three of them are dead.
* Happens in the classical music world as well; everyone's heard ''of'' Bach, Mozart, Brahms, and so forth (Beethoven gets a pass for the "Ode To Joy," "Fur Elise," and the opening of the Fifth Symphony) but few can name a piece of theirs or identify it on hearing. Moreover, most of those who can usually come up with their #1 hit, so to speak, whether or not it's at all similar to their entire oeuvre or a good example of their work - Brahms' ''Wiegenleid'' ("Lullaby"), for example, which is [[Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy|almost, but not quite, entirely unlike everything else he every wrote]].
==
* Usually anything that fits any of the tropes on the [[True Art]] index often gets this.
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* [[Shakespeare]] is so well known for being "the greatest author in the English language, and possibly any language," that many people will not hesitate to dump heaps of praise over his entire body of work and over all aspects of his writing. While some of his best-known plays are required reading in most high schools, Shakespeare wrote quite a few plays, and not all of them were works of staggering genius. Some plays are preserved only out of a [[Gotta Catch Em All]] sense of duty to study Shakespeare's entire body of work, rather than for their individual quality. Also, many people don't know that most of Shakespeare's plays were adaptations/rip-offs of previous works. Shakespeare punched up the plot and wrote the dialogue (the latter of which someone would argue is the ''point'' of reading Shakespeare), but did not himself invent the stories.
* Hunter and Jeff in ''[[Title of Show]]'' admit to doing this.
{{quote|
Hunter: I thought Dee Hoty was good in ''Whorehouse''
Jeff: Actually, I never saw it so that's not fair.
Hunter: I never saw it either but I have opinions about stuff I've never seen all the time. }}
* The works of Menander received loads of acclaim throughout history... despite ''all of his works'' existing solely as fragments from the ''eleventh century to the end of the nineteenth''. Since then, a few of his works were recovered (''Dyskolos, or The Grouch'', has been found in its entirety, and now about three-quarters of ''The Samian Woman'' are now known), leading to an inevitable [[Hype Backlash]].
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''[[Silent Hill 2]]''
* The UK PC Gamer magazine's review of ''[[Far Cry]] 2'' was more like a review of the press pack circa six months earlier; features were mentioned that didn't exist, the main factions were repeatedly called by the wrong names, and much was made over the ability to pick factions and missions, something you can't do unless you really hate advancing the plot.
* Compare the number of people who have praised ''[[
* Mysteriously, more people knew of and begun to praise ''[[System Shock]] 2'' after [[Zero Punctuation|a certain someone]] reviewed a [[Spiritual Successor]].
** Regardless of who reviews it, classic games become more well known and praised after modern games emulate/continue them, especially when people want to appear to be a more "refined" gamer. Other examples: The effect of ''[[Fallout]] 3'' on ''1'', ''2'' and ''Tactics'' , the effect of ''[[The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion]]'' on ''Morrowind''.
* ''[[Radiant Silvergun]]'' is praised outside of Japan for various reasons related to gameplay and story, but [[No Export for You|the fact it was never released internationally and that it costs a small fortune]] makes it skeptical that many of them have ever seen anything more than a few videos of it.
* The ''[[Virtua Fighter]]'' series a whole. Often praised as the deepest fighting game ever created...by most that never played it.
* Similar to the above: the [[Trope Namer]] for [[8.8]] was a review of ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess]]'' released before the game itself. Half of the [[Internet Backdraft]] was this, while the other attacked the logic of the review (insisting the graphics should be greater when it's a port, not an enhanced remake).
** Rather hilariously true of many Amazon.com game reviews since 2000 onward, with people giving five star reviews to games that won't come out for months, sometimes reviewing the game based on a couple of screenshots and rambling about features that don't exist (but clearly should and will in five months!). Amazon's gotten better about it, at least.
* ''[[
* ''[[Portal (
* ''[[Super Mario Bros the Lost Levels
* ''[[Terraria]]'' had a community like this pre-release, with many people praising the game well before it came out and claiming it to be nothing like ''[[Minecraft]]'', despite only a limited number of them having played it at that point.
* A good number of ''[[Touhou Project]]'' fans [[Periphery Demographic|have not played the games proper]], and are only familiar with the games through fanart, doujins, remixes and other fan material.
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