Red Shirt Reporter: Difference between revisions

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Who is out in 70 mile per hour winds, lashing rains and certain death? It's the Redshirt Reporter. When people need to know about how to get out of a flaming building, who is running through the building? The Redshirt Reporter. They are often seen wearing a rain slicker, amid flying debris, [[Going for the Big Scoop]]. Often ends up on [[Dead Line News]].

The Redshirt Reporter is the man (or ~~woman -- a~~ Redshirt Reporter is about as likely to be a woman as a man) who is doing the stand-up, on-the-scene live report from someplace that's so insanely dangerous or unpleasant that anyone with a lick of sense wouldn't be there.

The Redshirt Reporter is the man (or woman—a Redshirt Reporter is about as likely to be a woman as a man) who is doing the stand-up, on-the-scene live report from someplace that's so insanely dangerous or unpleasant that anyone with a lick of sense wouldn't be there.

If it's played for comedy, it may be that his boss hates him and is trying to get him killed, or it may be that the reporter is too dumb to realize the danger. In these cases, he usually survives. Played for drama, the reporter is "the best reporter we've got!", and is usually aware of how dangerous it is. This type is also much more likely to end up dead in fiction. A truly [[Memetic Badass|legendary]] reporter is even more likely to get bumped off, for [[The Worf Effect|various reasons]].

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* [[Alliteration|Damien Day]] from [[Drop the Dead Donkey]] likes to ''pretend'' he's in serious danger. [[Parody]] meets [[Exploited Trope]], as he's using the trope to attempt to gain better viewing figures.

* The Re-Imagined Battlestar Galactica has a brief scene of Baltar watching the disjointed news reports of the Cylon attack. The 'man on the street reporter' hears the boom, feels the wind, then his feed and the feed from the news studio cut to static.

* The ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?]]'' skit "Newsflash" is a parody of this trope: it's based on putting Colin Mochrie in this ~~role -- only~~ he doesn't know what he's reporting on. The skit uses greenscreen technology to run footage he can't see as his "on-the-scene" background. Watch [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_swmkuwb_hc&feature=related here].

* The ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?]]'' skit "Newsflash" is a parody of this trope: it's based on putting Colin Mochrie in this role—only he doesn't know what he's reporting on. The skit uses greenscreen technology to run footage he can't see as his "on-the-scene" background. Watch [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_swmkuwb_hc&feature=related here].

* In ''[[The Goodies]]'' episode "[[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever|Kitten Kong]]", it's played entirely for laughs. Watch it [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLDaI4yuKNU&NR=1 here, starting at 2:10]

* Parodied on ''[[The Daily Show]]''. In their January 2012 Indecision coverage there is a skit about the upcoming South Carolina primary including an anchor in a windstorm and a female anchor covered in blood screaming about the horrors of the campaign.

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== Western Animation ==

* The city of Detroit in ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' seems to have averted this by having their [[Red Shirt Reporter]] be a ''robot''. Given all the weirdness that goes down in that city and how much that particular robot gets damaged, it seems to make the most sense.

* The city of Detroit in ''[[Transformers Animated]]'' seems to have averted this by having their Red Shirt Reporter be a ''robot''. Given all the weirdness that goes down in that city and how much that particular robot gets damaged, it seems to make the most sense.

* ''[[Family Guy]]'' has utilized both "Asian Reporter" Trisha Takanawa and "Black-U-Weather" Ollie Williams in this role.

{{quote|'''Diane Simmons''': ...while hurricane Norman continues to pound Quahog. We now go live to Asian reporter Tricia Takanawa for a look at how locals are dealing with the imminent disaster. Tricia?