Real Dreams Are Weirder: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"I'm sorry I made you wear a cheerleader's outfit and glue miniature horses to the couch!"''
|''[[Dilbert]]''}}
It can often be useful — or at least [[Rule of Funny|funny]] — to contrast the coherence of metaphorical or plot-driven dreams with "real" dreams that are far more bizarre.
When people actually dream, [[Mind Screw|it doesn't make sense]]. Things happen in random orders, for no good reason. Nevertheless, "dream" is an incredibly potent metaphor. We use "dream" to mean "aspiration", and "nightmare" to mean "fear". Fictional characters are also likely to have meaningful dreams of some
All this means that most of the time, when fictional dreams are described, they're considerably more coherent than real dreams ever are, a situation that's absolutely ripe for [[Lampshading]].
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{{examples}}
== [[Advertising]] ==▼
▲== Advertising ==
* An ad for Progressive auto insurance has a woman counting her discounts in her sleep, which turns into a crazy dream about a squirrel stealing nuts from a chipmunk family reunion and getting sent to "squirrel prison".
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* ''[[Azumanga Daioh]]'' has this in some of the girls' New Year's Eve dreams, which manage to be both plot-relevant ([[Slice of Life|what plot there is, anyway]]) ''and'' weird as all get-out.
* One enemy in [[
* ''[[My Dear Marie]]'' had one OVA episode devoted to [[Mad Scientist|Hiroshi]] inventing a device to allow [[Ridiculously Human Robot|Marie]] to dream. It's every bit as random as a real dream.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
== Comics ==▼
* Given the fact that ''[[The Sandman]]'' is entirely ''about'' dreams, naturally, most of the ones featured are plot relevant by default. That said, many are only tangential to the plot and can get very weird at times...
** In the ''first issue'', Dream raids the buffet of a dream where a man attends a fancy party full of celebrities whilst dressed as a clown. And it's a ''recurring'' dream.
* ''[[Empire State: A Love Story (Or Not)]]'':
{{quote|
* The dreams seen in ''[[Tintin]]'' are notoriously surreal and downright creepy...
** In "The Cigars Of The Pharao" Tintin is locked inside an Egyptian tomb and put to sleep with sleeping gas. He then dreams several strange images combining recent people he met and Egyptian artwork.
** In "The Crab With The Golden Claws" Tintin dreams he is turned into a bottle, which Haddock is planning to uncork.
** In "The Shooting Star" Tintin dreams he is visited by Philippus the prophet who then shows him a picture of a gigantic spider, claiming it is life size!
** In "The Seven Crystal Balls" Tintin and his companions all have the same nightmare: that they are visited by the Inca mummie Rascar Capac who enters their bedroom by night and then throws a crystal boll on the floor.
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** In ''Prisoners of the Sun'', Tintin dreams that Calculus is admiring an "Inca Tree" whose flowes are skulls while a real Inca menaces him with a spear, next Tintin asks the Inca, who now has Haddock's face if he has a licence for the rifle over his shoulder, upon which the Inca turns into a mysterious Indian who has been following the heroes and blasts Tintin with fire for blasphemy. Tintin then wakes upo with hot sunlight on his face.
== [[Fan Works]] ==▼
▲== Fan Works ==
* In ''[[Turnabout Storm]]'', [[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|Pinkie Pie]] comments on a dream she had where she commanded an army of sweets in a war between sweets and nutrition; lots of chocolate chips lost their lives, but they triumphed in the end. This comes out as quite weird even by [[Cloudcuckoolander|Pinkie's standards]].
{{quote|
* ''[[Queen of All Oni]]'': Jade's [[Dream Sequence]] in the third Interlude chapter is a [[
== [[Film
* From ''[[Loaded Weapon 1]]'':
{{quote|
'''Jack Colt''': No, waking up without my penis is my worst nightmare.
'''Mr. Jigsaw''': Okay, alright, so I'm not actually your worst nightmare. But I am right up there. }}
* ''[[Pee
{{quote|
'''Pee-wee:''' Yeah. I'm all alone. I'm rolling a big doughnut, [[Freud Was Right|and this snake with a vest]]... }}
* ''[[The Big Lebowski]]''. Nuff said.{{context}}
== [[Literature]] ==▼
▲== Literature ==
* This is a common joke in [[Discworld]] novels:
** In ''[[
*** "Hey, that one isn't all that scary compared to the [[Killed Mid-Sentence|oth-]]"
** In ''[[
** In ''[[
** ''[[
** Played subtly for horror in ''[[
{{quote|
* From ''[[The Onion]]'':▼
** ''Our Dumb Century'' has the headline: "MLK: 'I had a really weird dream last night.'" The article has King describing a really weird dream he had the other night, concluding that he has no idea what on Earth it meant.▼
** Their horoscope section once had the prediction "You will soon meet the woman of your dreams, the one where every tooth in her mouth has its own screaming face."▼
* In ''[[The Voyage of the Dawn Treader]]'', the "island where dreams come true" is a horrifying place where nothing makes any sense.
{{quote|
* Referenced in ''[[Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (
* In ''[[The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass]]'', Richard Cook has several dreams he claims to be prophetic visions, but rather ruins the effect by concluding his description of one with "and then after a short further dream about getting into a bath full of Smarties wearing a [[Batman]] costume, I woke up".
* [[G. K. Chesterton]] remarked in one of his essays that this is the reason many literary dream sequences just don't ring true. Real dreams aren't allegorical or artistic; they're ''weird.'' [https://web.archive.org/web/20180223084452/http://inamidst.com/stuff/gkc/dreams
{{quote|
▲== Live Action TV ==
* In season 2 of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', Buffy has a dream about opening an office-supply warehouse in Las Vegas, mixed in with her more [[Dreaming of Things to Come|prophetic dreams]] about Drusilla and Angel.
** Additionally and in reference to this, in the episode where the First Slayer was coming into everyone's dreams to kill them, there was also an appearance in everybody's dreams by a guy offering slices of cheese and [[Meaningless Meaningful Words]]-ridden advice.
* ''[[The Comic Strip Presents]]: Didn't You Kill My Brother?''
{{quote|
...Any questions? }}
* In one episode of ''[[Lost]]'', Claire has had a highly spooky meaningful dream about a coffin full of blood. To make conversation, Charlie tells her about a dream he's had:
{{quote|
* In ''[[Blackadder]] 2'' [[Miles Gloriosus|Walter Raleigh]] says he's brought Queenie lands beyond her wildest dreams...her response is to ask if he's sure because she's had some pretty wild dreams, like the one where she was a sausage roll, or the great big tree.
* Obviously, given that the main character is a psychiatrist and a lot of episodes focus on psychological issues, dream sequences in ''[[Frasier]]'' usually are symbolic and meaningful. However, some dreams are totally nonsensical, like Daphne dreaming about Queen Elizabeth drinking cocktails with Martin on the latter's balcony. Also, in one episode Frasier has a recurring dream about being in bed with Gil, which he ''thinks'' means something and which he tries to analyze, but upon pondering the details, winds up realizing that the dream actually makes no sense and has nothing to do with anything in his life.
* In the ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' episode "Doppelganger", the problem of the week is an alien entity making everyone have nightmares in which Sheppard is trying to kill them. The team meets for lunch, everyone compares their Sheppard-dreams... and then McKay, who hasn't been affected yet, talks about his nightmare about Carter inviting him to dinner, serving him lemon chicken (given his strong citrus allergy) and telling him she's promoting Zelenka over him, after which he gets [[Continuity Nod|eaten by a whale]].
== [[Music]] ==▼
* [["Weird Al" Yankovic]]'s song
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gYIbMwswKM "This Is Ponderous" by 2nu] is basically a [[Spoken Word]] account of a particularly bizarre dream:
{{quote|Before long, I was coming up
On this really weird part of my dream.
You know, the part where
I know how to tap dance,
But I can only do it
While wearing golf shoes.}}
== [[Oral Tradition]], [[Folklore]], Myths and Legends ==
▲== Music ==
▲* [["Weird Al" Yankovic]]'s song ''Stuck in a Closet with Vanna White'' is about a number of those dreams.
* Although the ones related in [[The Bible]] always turn out to have some sort of meaning, they're pretty much always weird. Like the one where emaciated cows come out of a river and eat fat cows, and show no sign of having eaten. Or the one where withered heads of grain do the same thing to good heads of grain.
== [[Video Games]] ==▼
▲== Video Games ==
* One of Max's election speeches in ''[[Sam and Max]]: Abe Lincoln Must Die!'' plays on this.
{{quote|
* The 2011 version of ''[[You Don't Know Jack]]'' featured a question category where the host would describe a bizarre dream he had (usually involving his mother and his cats Poopsie and Mayonnaise) which vaguely resembled the plot of a movie the player is meant to identify.
▲== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Combined with [["Not Wearing Pants" Dream]] in [http://lowroad75.comicgenesis.com/d/20090522.html this] ''Giselle'' strip about a wishing well.
* ''[[Cyanide
{{quote|
''[[Beat Panel]]''
'''MLK:''' I was freaking flying! }}
* Most of the dreams in ''[[Slightly Damned]]'' are very relevant to the plot, detailing characters' emotional struggles or serving as flashbacks. And then, Rhea dreams up [http://www.sdamned.com/2006/03/03022006/ this.]
** [[It Makes Sense in Context]] (aside from the flying fish). Snowy the bunny is in bed on top of them, when the shock from her nightmare turns her human, so she suddenly feels heavy.
* [http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=307 This] ''[[Hark! A Vagrant]]'' strip about the Ides of March:
{{quote|
'''Caesar''': Why, that's amazing, Calpurnia. I had a dream! I was wearing a robe made ''entirely'' out of hot dogs. }}
* In [https://web.archive.org/web/20120626123248/http://skin-horse.com/comics/10142011/ this] ''[[Skin Horse]]'' strip, Unity responds to the Abbess's description of her prophetic dream with an inverted [[Marshmallow Dream]] ("I dreamed I ate all the pillows in the house, and when I woke up the marshmallows were gone!")
== [[Web Original]] ==
▲* From ''[[The Onion]]'':
▲** ''Our Dumb Century'' has the headline: "MLK: 'I had a really weird dream last night.'" The article has King describing a really weird dream he had the other night, concluding that he has no idea what on Earth it meant.
▲** Their horoscope section once had the prediction "You will soon meet the woman of your dreams, the one where every tooth in her mouth has its own screaming face."
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In the ''[[Care Bears|Adventures in Care-a-Lot]]'' TV series, all the Care Bears share a [[Dream Land|dreamspace]] where they tend to have rather mundane dreams (where they do the same things they tend to do in their waking lives), so it was rather refreshing to see the bears having more dream-like dreams in the ''Share Bear Shines'' movie.
{{quote|
* ''[[
{{quote|
'''Flapjack''': "Even the scary ones?"
'''Skymaid''': "Ahahahahahahahahahahaha!...'''[[Nightmare Face|YES.]]'''" }}
* In the ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' special "Summer Belongs to You," Candace calls her [[Love Interest]] Jeremy while he's in Paris (where it's the middle of the night):
{{quote|
'''Candace:''' ''(smitten)'' Really?
'''Jeremy:''' Yeah, it was weird, you and I were in this Dixieland band, and there was an iguana playing the oboe... }}
* An episode of ''[[My Life as a Teenage Robot]]'' featured this when Jenny convinced her mother to install a "dream chip" in her. Her first dream is a surreal affair involving dancing on air with her crush in a distorted ballroom full of strange creatures. Then Jenny tries "daydreaming"
* ''[[Home Movies]]'' - the guys are confronted by the angry goalie Brendon got a goal off of (by the ball bouncing off his face):
{{quote|
'''Jason:''' (snorts) That is ''so'' old! Huh? Let me wipe the cobwebs off that line! ...but technically my worst nightmare to date is: I'm sitting in a high chair, and I'm breast-feeding my own mother, and she suddenly opens her mouth and I see my father's head...
'''Cho:''' Yeah yeah yeah, all right, I get it, shut up! You're giving me the creeps. }}
* In contrast to the dreams of the rest of the [[Justice League]] in the episode "Perchance to Dream," the Flash's dream (before Dr. Destiny turned it into an inescapable nightmare) was a surreal romp that included giant frogs in the fridge, cannibal children, and watching cartoons of himself while a small boy picked at the plot holes.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Dream Tropes]]
[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]
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