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{{trope}}
[[File:6a00d83452129c69e20147e0e9ec6a970b-
{{quote|''"The snozzberries taste like snozzberries!"''
|'''Willy Wonka'''|''[[Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory]]''}}
A tautology is a truthful phrase with no informational content. A = A is a tautology. Unnecessary repetition of words meaning the same thing: "free gratis" or "I can see it with my own eyes" or "It is what it is".
Sometimes this can be funny, like something humorous. Other times it can be tiresome, like a... [[Buffy-Speak|tiresome thing]].
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{{quote|'''Lepidus:''' What manner o' thing is your crocodile?
'''Antony:''' It is [[Trope Namer|shap'd, sir, like itself]], and it is as broad as it hath breadth; it is just as high as it is, and moves with its own organs. It lives by that which nourisheth it, and the elements once out of it, it transmigrates.
'''Lepidus:''' What color is it of?
'''Antony:''' Of its own color too.
'''Lepidus:''' 'Tis a strange serpent.
'''Antony:''' 'Tis so. And [[Crocodile Tears|the tears of it]] [[Captain Obvious|are wet.]] }}
This article was brought to you by the [[Department of Redundancy Department]], the Department that brought you this article. Related to [[A Dog Named "Dog"]], [["El Niño" Is Spanish for "The Nino"]], [[Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep"]], and [[The Trope Without a Title]], some articles this one is related to. See also [[Recursive Acronym]].
{{examples|Examples which illustratively demonstrate the ''Shaped Like Itself'' trope convention inclusively include:}}
== Advertising Commercials ==
* The slogan for Raid insecticides has long been, "Kills bugs dead."
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* Australian brewery Carlton & United's recent slogan for its flagship Carlton Draught: "Made from beer."
* Milo ad campaign : "That's not cool, but MILO with cold milk's cool, 'cause it's made, with cold milk."
* A new apartment block overlooking Slough railway
** [[Daria|"...And bored out of your mind."]]
** The same slogan was also used to advertise a new apartment block overlooking Ruislip Underground station, likewise on a major route into and out of London.
* Spoofed in a recent set of ads for Nationwide Insurance, featuring "The World's Greatest Spokesman in the World!"
* The ''[[You Don't Know Jack]]'' shop page (apparently no longer functioning) is called the STORE-Mart, and features the catchy slogan "We Sell Various Items To You".
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** Ahem. ''Diet'' Dr. Pepper tastes like Dr. Pepper.
* "Our bank's debit card gives you the security of a Personal PIN Number!"
== Japanese Anime Cartoons From the Far East ==
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* [http://i55.photobucket.com/albums/g156/silvercrescent17/shapedlikeitself.jpg This] example from ''[[Shakugan no Shana]]''.
{{quote|'''Kazumi:''' It's called a school festival. It's a festival organized by the school.}}
** Pardonable since Japanese has a special word for "school festival" that can't be produced by saying either "school" or "festival."
* In ''[[Naruto]]'', the legendary ''[[Power Trio|Sannin]]'' (lit. "three ninja") are often called "the [[Department of Redundancy Department|Three Sannin]]" in translations.
** Something between this and [[I Am Not Shazam]] is referring to the nine-tailed demon fox as "The 9-Tailed Kyuubi" (or other tailed beasts in a similar manner) as if "kyuubi" was a proper name, but it just means "nine tails" and we don't learn the real name of it ({{spoiler|Kurama}}) or any of the other tailed beasts' names but Shukaku until very late in the series.
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** There's also Ako's [["No. Just... No" Reaction]] moment when Yuuna talks about [[Parental Incest|giving her father a deep kiss]]:
{{quote|'''Ako''': No, no, no, that's not okay! That's just...not okay!}}
* A moment in the beginning of ''[[
{{quote|'''Watanuki''': What's a Mokona?
'''Yuko''': A Mokona's a Mokona. You count them one Mokona, two Mokona then you stop because there's only two Mokona. }}
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* The dub of ''[[Fist of the North Star]]'' has the line: [[Hot-Blooded|"GOD'S ARMY IS THE ARMY OF GOD!"]]
* In the ''[[Sailor Moon|Sailor Moon Stars]]'' manga, Usagi asks Chibi Chibi who she truly is. Chibi Chibi responds with something among the lines of "I am I." Usagi contemplates it seriously for a moment before getting annoyed that Chibi Chibi completely dodged the question.
* In ''[[Mahoraba]]'' the six year old personality goes on a large tangent of this: "Nanako is Nanako. Nanako is Nanako so it's Nanako. If Nanako wasn't Nanako then Nanako wouldn't be Nanako but Nanako..."
* ''[[GaoGaiGar|Gao Gai Gar]]'': "The power of [[Applied Phlebotinum|The Power]]..." This is because the latter is [[Gratuitous English]], so it originally went "ZA PAWAA no chikara..." (Still, who knows why didn't they use "strength" or something)
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20090215124404/http://www.jamendo.com/es/track/44370 The Power of the Power of the Power of the Great Sword!]
*** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ScIu5qrMaxQ The Power of the Power of the Power of the Power of the Power...]
* ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou-sensei|Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei]] [[Inverted Trope|inverts this]]; the final episode's [[Suspiciously Specific Denial]] [[This Is a Work of Fiction|Disclaimer]] states that any resemblance between this show and ''itself'' is purely coincidental.
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'''Keiichi:''' So, WHO IS IT?!
'''Mion and Rena:''' [[Evil Laugh|AHAHAHAHAHAHA!]] }}
== Graphical Sequential Comics ==
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* In ''[[DR and Quinch]]'' stories, things are often described in this manner by whichever character is narrating. For example, the hatchway of a spacecraft is described in one story as opening "with a sound just like the sound of a hatchway opening."
* One issue of ''[[The Simpsons (Comic Book)|The Simpsons]]'' shows Bart, Milhouse, and Martin looking over all the new summer comics in the comic-book shop - and, of course, most of them feature [[Nineties Anti-Hero|snarling renegade "heroes"]] or [[Most Common Superpower|impossibly buxom super-women]] on their covers. Two of the comics have the titles "Deathkill" and "Killdeath" - which qualifies as a double example.
== Fan-written Fan Works Made by Fans ==
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* In ''[[Light and Dark - The Adventures of Dark Yagami|Light and Dark The Adventures of Dark Yagami]]'', Blud enjoys eating "blood bananas" that are made out of blood.
** Also, many other examples. Including the "nuclear bom went off like a bom", though perhaps this could be saying that it went off like a bomb but not a nuclear one, since all it really does is scratch the paint on Soichiro's car.
* ''[[Dark Secrets]]'' has the following [[Narm
{{quote|" Are you sure? " [[Harry Potter (novel)|Draco]] asked, making sure [[How Do I Used Tense|this is what she wanted.]]}}
** Dialogue tags that reiterate the dialogue they're describing are infuriatingly common in fanfic, especially when [[Said Bookism]] is also in play.
* "Gay, Bejewelled, Nazi Bikers of Gor" frequently employs tautologies to mock [[Gor|the original author's]] redundant writing.
{{quote|The meal consisted of busk meat, which is a manly meat taken from the busk, those large, shambling animals used by Goreans for meat. In addition I had eaten several vulo eggs, these being the eggs of the birds that the Goreans call the vulo, and which the Goreans keep so they can eat their eggs. This was as well in addition to the so-turgey bread I had eaten with my busk meat and vulo eggs, the flour for this bread being taken from the so-turgey plant, which is grown on Gor by the peasant caste.}}
* In Jeffrey Wells's ''[[Narbonic]]'' fanfic ''A Brief Moment of Culture
{{quote|We stood before the slucking mass of yellow-tinged white yogurt that draped and spilled over the gerbil pens like some kind of ... obscene mutant dairy product or something.}}
* One (NSFW!) parody of the notorious ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' [[Dark Fic]] "Debt" features this gem:
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** The secret ingredient of the secret ingredient soup.
** The thousand demons of Demon Mountain.
** Master Shifu. ''Xifu'' (pronounced the same) means "master" in Chinese.
** Chor Ghom Prison. Guess what 'Chor Ghom' means?
* When Eric catches up to T-Bird in ''[[The Crow]]'', it takes a while for T-Bird to realize who he is. This is doubtless partially due to the makeup Draven wore, but it might also have been denial, as when he realizes it, he's so confused and frightened he fires off ''five''
{{quote|'''T-Bird:''' ... I know you. I knew I knew you; I ''knew'' I knew you... But you can't be you. This is the really real world. We killed you dead! There ain't no comin' back..."}}
* The Continuum Transfunctioner from ''[[Dude, Where's My Car?]]''. The Continuum Transfunctioner is a very mysterious and powerful device. Its power is exceeded only by its mystery, and its mystery is exceeded only by its power.
* ''[[Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull]]'' gives us this classic Lucasism: "Their treasure was knowledge; ''knowledge'' was their treasure."
* The 1976 mystery spoof ''[[Murder By Death]]'' (a title that itself qualifies) includes this exchange early on:
{{quote|'''Dick:''' It sounded as though somebody snipped the wire.
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* In ''[[Pootie Tang]]'', Chris Rock's character has a friend who repeatedly ruins his rants by [[Don't Explain the Joke|Explaining The Joke]] like this. For example, one rant ends with the line "And they won't let air in. [...] That's how exclusive a Biggie Shorty party is." His friend's response: "You know what else? It's hard to get in, too."
* The classic Mikey quote from ''[[The Goonies]]'': "Because it's their time! ''Their'' time! Up there. Down here, it's ''our'' time -- it's '''''our''''' time down here!" Martha Plimpton (Stef) even made fun of it in the cast commentary: "We reiterate that!"
* The movie title, ''[[Deuce Bigalow]] Male Gigolo''. Aren't all gigolos male by definition? Considering how much that movie does a weird gender inversion of anatomy-naming (e.g. shenis, man-gina,) this use of the trope was probably intentional.
* This exchange from Uwe Boll's ''[[House of the Dead (film)|House of the Dead]]'':
{{quote|'''Rudy:''' You created it all so you can be immortal. Why?
'''[[Mad Scientist]]:''' To live forever. }}
* ''[[Monty Python and
** Also, "Yes, shrubberies are my trade. I am a shrubber. My name is Roger the Shrubber. I arrange, design, and sell shrubberies."
{{quote|"Three is the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four thou shalt not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. ''Five is right out''."}}
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** From a deleted scene: "The plan will go ahead as... planned!"
* The contract scene in ''[[A Night at the Opera]]''. ("The party of the first part shall be known in this contract as the party of the first part...")
* Shortly before the ''[[Inglourious Basterds]]'' attempt to meet a double agent in a bar in a cellar:
{{quote|'''Aldo:''' Fighting in a basement presents several difficulties, the first of which being, ''you're fighting in a basement.'' }}
* From ''[[Snatch]]'':
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[[Beat]] "Because he dodges bullets, Avi." }}
* California Carlson in the [[Hopalong Cassidy]] films insists that "El Camino Real" is Spanish for "The Real Camino", to hide the fact that he has no idea what a camino is.
== Written Literature With Words ==
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** ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'' does this a ''lot'' with its embedded definitions matching subsequent descriptions. "The restaurant, which was very 'gaudy' (a word here which means 'filled with ugly neon lights') was filled with ugly neon lights."
* Used with great effect in the [[James Bond]] novel ''[[Thunderball]]'' by [[Ian Fleming]]. In it, to describe the room that Bond was given in the Shrublands health clinic, Fleming worded it thusly: "It was a room-shaped room with furniture-shaped furniture and dainty curtains."
* Subverted in ''[[Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (
** And don't get them started on ''The Invisible Book of Invisibility''...{{spoiler|which is invisible.}}
* ''[[Discworld]]'' has [[Trope Overdosed|numerous examples]], Terry Pratchett seems to love this trope.
** It's very common in Ankh-Morpork, where a previous Patrician of Ankh-Morpork banned all similes that cannot be proven true, a law Lord Vetinari still
** In ''Soul Music'', just after Imp y Celyn meets his bandmates, Lias tells him that "rock" is speciesist slang for "troll" in Ankh-Morpork. "Free advice what I am giving you gratis for nothing." Then again, he's a troll in the relatively warm Ankh-
** Neither is Scrape, a particularly wretched troll drug, which (combined with boyish shyness) might account for this flash of insight from the drug-addled Brick (in ''Thud!''):
{{quote|'''Brick:''' We call dem ''wukwuks'' 'cos dey looks like... [[
** [[
** Also, "The ball shall be called the ball", Glenda's favorite football rule, which [[Chekhov's Gun|the characters take advantage of later in the book]].
** From ''[[Night Watch (Discworld)|Night Watch]]'':
{{quote|But Rust was always a man to interrupt an answer with a demand for the answer he was in fact interrupting.}}
** A convoluted example appears in ''Hogfather'', when Ridcully asks the Senior Wrangler why they always hang up mistletoe at UU's all-male Hogswatchnight dinner. The Wrangler's improvised answer, as Ridcully points out, is essentially that the mistletoe is an important symbol ... of mistletoe.
** There's been a monster or two in the [[Discworld]] books with eyes the size of very large eyes.
* Another example of a repetitive place name comes from ''[[Dragaera]]''. Bengloarafurd Ford, which means "Ford Ford Ford Ford Ford" in several different languages. Finally a bridge was built, and the place renamed to Bengloarafurd Bridge.
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* ''The [[Principia Discordia]]'', in a section describing the organization of the Erisian church, notes that "A POEE Cabal is exactly what you think it is."
* ''[[Dave Barry]] Slept Here'' explains "The Decline of Spain" in a single sentence: "On [[Running Gag|October 8]], 1565, Spain declined."
** In an effort to make history easier to understand, Dave set all events in history as taking place on October
* ''Dave Barry In Cyberspace'': "OK, here it is, page 367: ''A "BIOS ROM AUTOCACHE FORMAT ERROR" message indicates that there is an error in the BIOS ROM autocache format.'' That clears THAT up!"
* The [[MacGuffin]] in ''[[Hollow Chocolate Bunnies of the Apocalypse]]'' is only referred to as the MacGuffin (until the very end), and it is only ever described as
* P.J. O'Rourke describes the events of the 1991 post-Soviet revolution in Georgia, concluding "If none of this makes sense it's because -- believe me, I was there -- [[Makes Just as Much Sense in Context|none of this makes sense]]."
* Many things in ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' have names in Elvish. Sometimes, translations were provided. They were often arranged so as to sound like part of the name; if you translate all the Elvish, you discover characters called Greenleaf Greenleaf (Legolas) and Shipwright the Shipwright (Círdan), as well as a place called the plain of Battle Plain (Dagorlad).
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* In the sixth book of the ''[[Captain Underpants]]'' series, it is discovered that "organic orange-flavored oranges" are effective weapons against robotic booger monsters, since the booger monsters are apparently held together with cold viruses which are destroyed by Vitamin C.
* The novel ''[[The Phoenix Guards]]'' has a particularly egregious example in Bengloarafurd Ford, which due to a long history of changing hands in the endless Easterner/Dragaeran border skirmishes has a name that translates from several different dialects as "Ford ford ford ford".
* The [[Happily Ever After|ending formula]] of German [[Fairy Tale
* [[The Wonka|Willie Wonka]] describing his lickable wallpaper in ''[[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory]]'': "And when you lick a snozzberry, it tastes just exactly like a snozzberry..."
** This is not quite the same
* ''[[Dracula (novel)|Dracula]]'' has quite the morbid [[Crowning Moment of Funny]] when Van Helsing opens Lucy's coffin, revealing it empty, to try to prove to Dr. Seward that she's now a vampire.
{{quote|'''Dr.Seward:''' I am satisfied that Lucy's body is not in that coffin, but that only proves one thing.
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'''Dr. Seward:''' That it is not there.
'''Van Helsing:''' That is good logic, so far as it goes. }}
* [[Kim Stanley Robinson]] describing a [[Space Elevator]] in ''[[Green Mars]]'': "Just to the south of them, the new Socket was like a titanic concrete bunker, the new elevator cable rising out of it like an elevator cable ..."
* There's a book about [[The Peter Principle]] in which one man tells this story:
{{quote|"When I was a kid, I thought the Earth was flat. Then I learned in grade school, it was round. In high school I learned, it was a sphere. On college I learned, that it actually was a sphere flattened at the poles. On the university, I learned that it was a geoid. I looked up the word and found it meant 'Earth-shaped'."}}
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* In ''[[Count Zero]]'', Bobby's condo in Barrytown has carpet-colored carpet and curtain-colored curtains.
* Grey Murphy from the [[Xanth]] novels is [[The Nondescript]], so much so that his driver's license lists his hair as "hair-colored".
== Live Action TV with either Actors or Non-Actors in Television ==
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'''Paul Merton:''' Would a baby elephant be elephant sized?
'''Angus Deayton:''' Well, that would be the size of a baby elephant.. }}
* The title of the series ''[[Unsolved Mysteries]]''
* An episode of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''. Harmony is worried that Buffy is coming for her, and cries to Spike, "She'll kill me to death!"
** The first episode had this exchange:
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'''Al:''' Free gratis.
'''Merrick:''' Free gratis is a redundancy.
'''EB:''' Does that mean "[[Captain Obvious|repeats itself]]"?
'''Al:''' Then leave gratis out.
'''Merrick:''' What luck for me Al, that you have such a keen editorial sense. "Free. Distributed Free. Period." }}
* ''All Aussie Adventures''' Russell Coight does this a lot:
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"The symbol of this land, the majestic wedge-tailed eagle, named for its wedge-shaped tail and the fact that it's an eagle." }}
* In the ''[[LazyTown]]'' episode "Rottenbeard", Robbie Rotten describes a treasure chest as "All locked up with locks".
* Radar on ''[[M*A*S*H (television)|Mash]]'' does this all the time, a running gag the actor invented for himself.
* ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' featured a parody of [[Narm
** The Aquabats actually do have an excellent song, that is excellent, called "Lovers of Loving Love".
** ''[[Manos: The Hands of Fate|Manos the Hands of Fate]]''
** ''The Giant Behemoth''. The British title was "Behemoth, the Sea-Monster", [[Executive Meddling|but someone]] [[Viewers are Morons|thought the American release needed further clarification.]]
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** The Darling Mermaid Darlings.
** Uber-Life Life Insurance and the Wish-A-Wish Foundation.
* Sean Hannity once infamously claimed that America is "the single greatest best country that God has ever given man on the face of the Earth". [http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/174546/june-19-2008/sean-hannity-loves-america This was given a complex Venn diagram] on ''[[The Colbert Report]]'' to explain how it was neither [[Department of Redundancy Department]] nor
* The "[[Department of Redundancy Department|Comedians of Comedy]]" tour.
* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' looks on the surface to be an example, because "SG" does stand for "Stargate". However, SG-1 is the name of the [[Five-Man Band|Four Man Band]] that goes through the stargate itself (as distinct from the other teams, SG-2 through SG-25), so this is, while slightly confusing, at least a partial aversion of
** In ''[[Stargate Atlantis|Atlantis]]'', there's a brief flash of a computer screen in the episode "McKay and Mrs. Miller" when we see the power levels of the ZPM Module. ZPM stands for Zero Point Module.
* ''[[Kamen Rider Decade]]'' turns his fellow Rider, [[Kamen Rider Blade]], into a [[BFS]] called the Blade Blade.
* From ''[[Look Around You]]'' comes the following on the brain: "Think of it as a kind of modified heart, only with a mind, or brain."
* ''[[That '70s Show]]''... Oh, that Kelso:
{{quote|"Angie's so pretty. Looking at her is like looking at... something else pretty"
"25 years! Man, if you were dogs, that would be... 25 dog years" }}
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{{quote|'''Cancer Man:''' They're all honorable, these honorable men.}}
* * ''[[Engine Sentai Go-onger]]'': "Why are pathetic people so pathetic?"
== Musical Songs with Lyrics You Can Sing ==
* Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds' song "O'Mally's Bar"
{{quote|''Well Jerry Bellows, he hugged his stool
''Closed his eyes and shrugged and laughed
''And with an ashtray as big as a fucking big brick
''I split his head in half }}
* [[They Might Be Giants (band)|They Might Be Giants]]' song "Whistling in the Dark":
{{quote|''There's only one thing that I know how to do well
''And I've often been told that you only can do
''What you know how to do well
''And that's be you
''Be what you're like
''Be like yourself }}
* [[Sublime]]'s "Foolish Fool".
* Cheech & Chong's "Basketball Jones". "That basketball was like a basketball to me!"
* Similarly, "Albuquerque" by [["Weird Al"
* The song "King of Spain" by Moxy Früvous has the line "a palatial palace, that was my home".
* The song "Que Sera, Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)" has a tautology in its title (as well as chorus), though it seems to be paraphrasing Shakespeare (see above).
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** "Betty and Me" refers to a procedure being "legal in the states where it wasn't banned."
* "Friends", by Ween. "A friend's a friend who knows what being a friend is!"
{{quote|'''[[Miles Gloriosus]]:''' ''Light the pyre!''▼
'''Pseudolus:''' ''What kind of pyre?''▼
'''Miles Gloriosus:''' ''A pyre of fire!''▼
'''Pseudolus:''' ''Ohh, a fire-pyre!'' }}▼
** This is even more tautological once you remember that "pyre" is the Greek word for fire, meaning that Pseudolus essentially said: "Ohh, a fire-fire!"▼
* One line from the America song "Horse With No Name" goes "The heat was hot."
* [[
* "Epic" by [[Faith No More]]: "What is it? It's it!"
* ''[[Dave Barry]]'s Book of Bad Songs'' offered [[Paul McCartney]] a Certificate of Redundancy Certificate for the line "But if this ever-changing world in which we live in..." in "Live and Let Die". (it's argued to this date if the lyrics are that or "in which we're living")
* There's also the borderline-meaningless credit often found in the liner notes of [[The Eighties|80s-era]] rock albums on the Geffen label -- "John Kalodner: John Kalodner"
** [[Weezer]] did something similar with their "fifth member" in the credits of ''Pinkerton'': "Karl Koch: Karl Koch".
** Likewise, British band The Happy Mondays credited one of their line-up as follows on ''Pills and Thrills and Bellyaches'': "Bez:Bez". For those not familiar with their oeuvre, the main musical contribution of Bez (Mark Berry) was comically inept dancing and a bit of tambourine.
* The intro to [[
{{quote|''It hit me like an, uh...ten ton...heavy thing}}
* "Hat Shaped Hat" by Ani Difranco. "...in walked a man in the shape of a man holding a hat-shaped hat..."
* 'Paramore's "We Are Broken" gives us the gem: "Your arms, like towers, tower over me."
* [[Phil Collins]] expresses an idea this way in "Two Hearts":
{{quote|''But if you don't put faith in what you're believin', it's getting you nowhere}}
** Which was then reiterated by his 1999 song "[[Tarzan (Disney film)|Two Worlds]]"
{{quote|''Put your faith in what you most believe in. Two worlds, one family.}}
* "Killed By Death" by [[Motorhead]].
* Arlo Guthrie begins his famous [[Shaggy Dog Story]]
* [[Flight of the Conchords]]' "Rambling Through The Avenues Of Time" includes the line "her eyes were reflections of eyes".
* [[Spamalot]] has 'The song that goes like this'.
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* In "Get With the Times", Cool Calm Pete (which is a pretty redundant name in and of itself) advises the listener to "pray for your fake phony facade."
* [[The Beatles (band)|"All You Need Is Love"]]
{{quote|''There's nothing you can do that can't be done
''Nothing you can sing that can't be sung... }}
* [[Tenacious D]]'s song "Tribute":
{{quote|''All of a sudden there shined a shiny demon}}
** An older version at least made it "shone a shiny demon", which is just as redundant, but shined was probably funnier, because it sounded more redundant.
* [[This Is Spinal Tap|Spinal Tap]]'s classic "Tonight I'm Gonna Rock You Tonight":
{{quote|''Tonight I'm gonna rock you (tonight I'm gonna rock you)
''Tonight I'm gonna rock you (tonight I'm gonna rock you)
''Tonight! }}
* [[Van Halen]] had on "Why Can't This Be Love": "Only time will tell if we stand the test of time".
* [[Covered Up|All-4-One]]/
* In one Tom Chapin song, two girls tell the other kids not to play with Bruno because he's "a dweeb". When pressed for the definition of "dweeb", they define it as "like Bruno".
* In Rebecca Black's "song" "[[Friday (song)|Friday]]", we get gems like "Yesterday was Thursday/Today it is Friday", and "Gotta have my bowl/Gotta have my cereal"
* In the course of [[Da Vinci's Notebook]]'s "Uncle Buford" Mega-Mix, "Uncle Buford" asks, "You ever eat worms? They taste like... worms."
* [[The B-
* "She'll be comin' round the mountain when she comes."
* Clint Black's "Wherever You Go"..."there you are".
* [[Laibach]]: the songs "God is God" and "Life is Life (Leben Heist Leben)"
* "Flight" by [[Van der Graaf Generator]] frontman Peter Hammill:
{{quote|''He say nothing is quite what it seems
''I say nothing is nothing. }}
* "After the Fox", written by Burt Bacharach and Hal Davis, and performed by the Hollies: Who is the Fox? I am the Fox! Who are you? I am me! Who is me? Me is a thief!
== Newspaper Comics Printed In The Comics Section Of Newspapers ==
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* One of the supporting characters in ''[[Popeye (comic strip)|Popeye]]'' comics was George W. Geezil, a local cobbler. George hated Wimpy, often stating that Wimpy "should be killed to death".
* ''[[Hagar the Horrible]]'' once asks Lucky Eddie how it feels to be so thin. The answer is that it feels about the same as being fat... [[Dissimile|only thinner]].
== Relatively Recent Media Forms That Are New Rather Than Old ==
* [[H-game|Eroge]] (a Japanese abbreviation of "Erotic Game") are sometimes referred to as "Eroge games" in text.
== Professional Wrestling and Grappling Done at a Professional Level ==
* [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]]'s Jack Swagger's alias is "The All-American American".
** It has been parodied a couple of times. Most memorably when [[Shawn Michaels]] described Swagger as the "All-American American American American American". (Swagger, whether out of fondness for Michaels or amusement at the joke, has since adopted the term.)
* After turning on his brother [[Bret Hart]], [[Owen Hart]], as is custom, cut a promo explaining the motivations for his [[Face Heel Turn]]. Which he ended by saying, "And that's why I kicked your leg out from under your leg."
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* When he was still Mr. Kennedy (before he left WWE and became Mr. Anderson in TNA), Mr. Kennedy once introduced himself, perhaps referencing Austin Powers, by saying "Please allow myself to introduce myself!"
* Ken Patera faced [[Bobby Heenan]] in a debate over his prison sentence and remarked, "[http://youtu.be/itz5QQfC_cE?t=4m20s I had a lot of time to think about the Bobby Heenan types of this world. Types like yourself!]"
== Stand up comedy performed on stage to make people laugh ==
* British comedian Simon Munnery, in his stand up show [https://web.archive.org/web/20130619121745/http://www.gofasterstripe.com/cgi-bin/website.cgi?showclip=1&id=2242 Hello] illustrates a point with a Venn diagram, consisting of two overlapping circles, one labelled Diagrams, one labelled Overlapping Circles and the overlap labelled Venn Diagrams.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20160312193842/http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/66fd38f0c5/aziz-ansari-craigslist-ad?rel=player Aziz Ansari]: "Could you imagine blowing a guy (for a half hour!) for sold-out concert tickets and then finding out they're selling them at the door? That'd be like blowing a guy for a half hour for sold-out concert tickets and then finding out they're selling them at the door. There's no other way to complete that analogy 'cause that's the shittiest thing that could ever happen to you."
* One of comedian Frank Caliendo's more famous routines is his John Madden impersonation routine, which uses Madden's own predilection for
== Transmitted Wireless Radio ==
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* A guest on an [[NPR]] program once described "MRE meals". Meals-Ready-to-Eat meals.
* ''[[The Goon Show]]'': The episode "The Nadger Plague" features this opening narration: "It was in the year 1656 that the dreaded nadger plague swept across Europe like the Dreaded Nadger Plague of 1656."
== Playable Tabletop Games That Can Be Played On Top Of A Table ==
* ''[[Warhammer
== Staged Theatrical Plays Featuring Live Performers ==
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* ''[[A Man for All Seasons]]'' includes the line "Holy writ is holy," [[Image Boards|bringing to mind a certain meme]].
* ''If This Isn't Love'', from ''[[Finian's Rainbow]]'', starts with a girl singing that she has "a secret kind of secret".
* "[[The Rocky Horror Picture Show|A mental mindfuck can be nice!]]"
* ''[[A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum]]'': Justified in that Pseudolus was trying to conceal the fact that he couldn't read.
{{quote|'''Soldier:''' You know what this is, of course?
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And Later:
'''Pseudolus:''' I know what it says here: Words! }}
** Then there's "Dirge":
▲{{quote|'''[[Miles Gloriosus]]:''' ''Light the pyre!''
▲'''Pseudolus:''' ''What kind of pyre?''
▲'''Miles Gloriosus:''' ''A pyre of fire!''
▲'''Pseudolus:''' ''Ohh, a fire-pyre!'' }}
▲*** This is even more tautological once you remember that "pyre" is the Greek word for fire, meaning that Pseudolus essentially said: "Ohh, a fire-fire!"
* In the Last Supper scene of ''[[Jesus Christ Superstar]]'', Jesus expresses his contempt for Judas's treachery by exclaiming, "You liar! You ''Judas''!"
* In ''[[Art]]'' by Yasmina Reza, Serge describes "a man of his time" as "a man who lives...in his own time."
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'''Marc''': How much do you pay this man? }}
* The reprise of "It's Your Wedding Day" from ''[[The Wedding Singer]] [[The Musical]] Comedy'' includes the line, "People called him [[Title Drop|the wedding singer]]/He sang at weddings and so the name was apt."
== Electronic Videogames Which Can Be Played Via Digital Apparati ==
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* ''[[Ragnarok Online]]'' has an item called Earthen Bow. Its description is as such: "A bow that looks like it is made in a natural way, making it look like it looks quite natural."
* Unique monsters in ''[[Diablo (series)|Diablo]] 2'' have random name generators. Results? ''Bloodcloud the Cloud'', and such...
** It can also happen with the stock effect phrases for random loot names, such as a light leather belt that increases your light radius in dark places, or as the game calls it, a "Light Belt of Light." While this is not technically redundant since the item in question is a light(weight) belt that produces light(illumination), it still sounds funny.
** Then there are the skills that let you interact with corpses. While you've got one selected, mousing over a body will display its name as "<monster name> Corpse", which is sensible enough. However, due to the way some monsters are named, it occasionally throws up such gems as "Decayed Corpse Corpse" or "Corpse Axe the Dead Corpse".
* There is a Commodore-64 game titled ''Killed Until Dead''. (The notion of killing someone to death sure seems to be popular...)
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{{quote|'''Dynaheir''': Minsc is, well, [[Cloudcuckoolander|Minsc]].}}
** Of course, in this case, the information is in the pronunciation, not in the words. Thats why this isn’t really a tautology (but is still shaped like itself).
* Anyone who has even a passing knowledge of Spanish will get hours of amusement out of ''[[Resident Evil 4]]'''s incessant referencing of "The Los Illuminados"
** Also, "the Las Plagas" though this was [[Translation Correction|averted in the Spanish translation]].
* In ''[[
* Any time John Madden is in a football game, such as [[Madden NFL]], he uses such sounds-like-itself phrases as, "You know, the receiver can't catch the ball if the quarterback doesn't throw it!" or "Usually, the team with the most points wins!"
* [[Anachronox]]'s super-villain Rictus says one line, a slight variation of the main example.
* Welcome to [[La-Mulana|Hell Temple]]. [[Bonus Level of Hell|This place]] is one that none should come to. [[Door of Doom|If thou will have no regrets]] regardless of [[It Got Worse|what happens]], proceed. [[Platform Hell|This is Hell Temple.]] [[Memetic Mutation|Hell Temple is Hell]]!
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* Alistair in ''[[Dragon Age]]'', on Morrigan: "Beautiful just like...like something that's also dangerous. Like a...beautiful dangerous thing."
* In ''[[Left 4 Dead]] 2'''s Dark Carnival campaign, there's a lot of posters for a [[Fake Band]] named the Midnight Riders. Each band member has their own title, like "The Lover", "The Drinker", or "The Brawler". Ox, the drummer, gets a title of "The Drummer".
* In ''[[
* In ''[[King's Quest VI Heir Today Gone Tomorrow]]'', if you use the hand icon on the tinder box, you are told, "It feels exactly like a tinder box."
* ''[[Castlevania: Symphony of the Night]]'' features a sword named Gram, the description of which reads "The sword named Gram." It also features a sword named Harper. The description for it reads "The sword named Harper."
* ''[[Strong Bad's Cool Game for Attractive People|Strong Bads Cool Game for Attractive People]] Episode 1: Homestar Ruiner'' revolves around the big "Race to the End of the Race". In ''Episode 2: Strong Badia The Free'', all the characters create their own independent countries, including the titular Strong Badia, Marzistar/Homezipan, The Homsar Reservation, and Strong Mad's country of... Country.
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** ...and so on
* Near the beginning of ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'', Leon tells Sora, "[[The Heartless]]. Those without hearts." ''Really'', Leon? Because I thought we were calling them the Heartless in a ''metaphorical'' sort of way that had nothing to do with them being creatures of pure darkness!
** Curiously enough, it's actually an aversion. [[Non-Indicative Name|The Heartless aren't beings without hearts, but rather hearts consumed by darkness.
* The title of puzzle game series ''[[Deadly Rooms of Death]]''.
* If you smell the plants in Central Park in ''Frederik Pohl's Gateway'' (the text adventure based on the [[Heechee Saga]]), you are informed that they smell "very plant-like".
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{{quote|''You are now carrying the wooden wood.''}}
* Averted with the voice command for calling someone a Spy in ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'': using it with your cursor over any given player will result in saying "that [class] is a Spy", but if you use it on someone who already looks like a friendly Spy but may be an enemy Spy, the lines are along the lines of "that's Spy isn't on our side".
== Animated Internet Web Animation on the World Wide Web ==
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* ''Space Tree'' the space tree (in space)!
* ''[[Retarded Animal Babies]]'':
{{quote|'''Cat:''' [[Incredibly Lame Pun|4 is for]]... tha-that's what it is.
'''Hamster:''' Splunge is for Splunge. }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20131213181051/http://www.weebls-stuff.com/catface/Cat+Face/ "Cat Face, he's got a big cat face, he's got the body of a cat and the face of a cat, and he flies through the air 'cause he's got a cat face, Cat Face!"]
* From ''[[Asdfmovie]] 2'':
{{quote|"I baked you a pie!"
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"PIE FLAVOR." }}
* [[Brain POP]]'s slogan: "The more you know, the more you know".
== Illustrated Online Web Comics That Are On the Internet ==
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* ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]'' Chapter 10 is titled: "Doctor Disaster Versus the Creepy Space Aliens from Outer Space". Doctor Disaster himself feels the need to specify:
{{quote|'''Dr. Disaster:''' ''Spacemonauts!'' The evil ''Enigmarons'' are threatening the Earth from their moon base ''on the moon''!}}
* ''[[8-Bit Theater
* ''[[The Order of the Stick]]'' has the Wooden Forest, as well as Sunken Valley. In fact, most place names in the comic are either this trope or [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]. If not both.
** Elan also tells Haley he would like to see her come back from a dangerous fight "in one big Haley-shaped piece."
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{{quote|Primarily known as the guy who looks great in suspenders and ticks an awful lot, Ples is the guy who [unsurprisingly] looks great in suspenders and ticks an awful lot.}}
** From the comic itself we have the fantastic "If you're dead, I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"
* The titular Kyra from Full Time Ink's "Uh-oh, it's a Dinosaur" often speaks in this manner, such as "MEEP MWOP! It's big like a [https://web.archive.org/web/20130709191431/http://fulltimeink.com/archives/332 big room]!" and "I haven't eaten since the [https://web.archive.org/web/20130709151826/http://fulltimeink.com/archives/8183 last time I did."]
* ''[[Schlock Mercenary]]'' got [
{{quote|'''Der Trihs''': Have you considered that maybe, just maybe, the killer committed the crime and made it look like a shark attack because the killer was ''hungry'', and happened to ''be a shark''?
([[Beat Panel]])
'''Policeman''': You obviously know nothing about police work. }}
** For this, [
* ''[[Bug
* Aerith of ''[[Ansem Retort]]'' gave us this gem:
{{quote|I feel like I'm on a bad reality show, which is ironic because I ''am'' on a [[Show Within a Show|bad reality show]].}}
* One-shot from Aaron Williams: [http://comic.nodwick.com/?comic=2002-11-13 "Witch!" "Harpy!"]
* From ''[[Darths and Droids]]'':
{{quote|'''R2-D2:''' This is like... a betrayal.
'''GM:''' Being betrayed is like a betrayal?}}
:Although in this case the PC's were betrayed and the way it was handled feels like a betrayal to one of the players.
* ''[[Drive (webcomic)|Drive]]'' has an attempt to use metaphor bounced [https://web.archive.org/web/20180402062221/http://www.drivecomic.com/archive/100529.html here].
== Web Original Stories on the Internet ==
* The Evil League of Evil, in ''[[Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog|Doctor Horribles Sing Along Blog]]''.
* In ''[[Commentary!
* [[Atop the Fourth Wall|Linkara]]'s Top 15 Worst Moments of ''Countdown to Final Crisis'' declares the number 1 moment to be ''Countdown'' itself, justified by saying that ''Countdown'' will undoubtedly go down in comics history as nothing more than a moment.
* In ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'', the evil AI O'Malley gives this speech:
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** "Alarm goes off cause it's an alarm"
** "When i wake up I open my eyes/Keeping them closed makes it dark inside/so I need to open them cause that's what I do/When i wake up I need to do that"
* [http://www.theonion.com/articles/world-death-rate-holding-steady-at-100-percent,1670/ "
* When [[The Nostalgia Critic]] reviewed ''[[The Thief and the Cobbler]]'', he parodied the extremely generic [[Executive Meddling|studio-mandated]] songs with his own song, that went something like this:
** "My heart will love a loving love love, but only in my dreams. But because I sing with singiness, the dreams I'll dream I'll dream!"
* ''[[Z True Long Island Story]]'' presents: ''Broskis on Broadway [[All Musicals Are Adaptations|The Musical]]'', "a show so inspiring, ''[[Newsweek]]'' magazine calls it so inspiring."
* [
* [http://www.27bslash6.com/foggot.html 27b/6]: "The product, misrepresented as 'Natural Black' instead of '[[Astro Boy]] black', turned my hair as dark as an adequate simile describing just how black it actually was and stained my forehead and ears purple."
* [http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/xzibit-yo-dawg Yo dawg, I heard you like shapes...]
== Western Animation Cartoons from the Occidental World ==
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** "I yam what I yam, and that's all that I yam."
** In one of the Paramount shorts, when Bluto is carrying off Olive, she yells, "Let go of me you... you ''you,'' you!"
* A good example of a pleonasm is ''[[He-Man and the Masters of the Universe]]''. Of course, [[Monty Python and
** Of course, "he-man" did have the advantage of being a [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/he-man real word].
* Dr Zoidberg pulled a truly spectacular five-hit combo on ''[[Futurama]]'': "My next clue came at 4:15, when the clock stopped. And another came two hours later at 4:15, when I discovered the murdered body of Amy's dead, deceased corpse."
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* ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'': "You have a picture of a shrink ray ON the shrink ray gun. That is totally retarded."
** It's a walking eye. It does...[[Buffy-Speak|WALKING EYE STUFF]]!
* ''[[The Tick (animation)]]'' animated series featured a villain who called himself the Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight (yeah, baby!).
** With the immortal line "An object at rest cannot be stopped!"
* ''[[Minoriteam]]''... '''"BALACTUS DEVOURER OF WORLDS IS READY TO DEVOUR WORLDS!"'''
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** From "Fear Of Flying":
{{quote|'''Air hostess''': Due to our policy of overselling flights, this flight has been oversold.}}
** From "Dumbbell Indemnity":
{{quote|'''Moe''': "I'm just gonna die lonely and ugly and dead."}}
* In the ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' episode "Phineas and Ferb Get Busted", the song "Little Brothers" manages to be both [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|touching]] and [[Crowning Moment of Funny|hilarious]] because of the refrain:
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'''Argent''': Hence the name. }}
* [[The Hobbit (animation)|Enough! I am Gandalf, and Gandalf means... ME!]]
== The Non-Fictitious Real World That is Real ==
* One of the definitions and goals of
* In mathematics, the Identity Postulate is X = X.
* Some people write the word that a symbol represents afterwards, e.g. "10% percent" or "$20 dollars".
* This can be used in SQL Injection attacks against authentication forms. When the input isn't treated separately from the code you can 'OR' the check with a tautology in an input field, such that the result is always true. In badly designed systems this means you'll automatically get access. For example, enter the username and password: ' OR 'A' = 'A (with exactly those quotes).
* The El Niño current is practically saying "The The Boy Current"; the male and female articles "El" and "La" from Spanish are treated in this way a lot, hey, even Spanish has words (of arabic origin) through that process, and they got to English... Alchemy (from Alquimia from, according to most sources, "Al Khmi", "the black earth", as opposed to barren sand, made right with the words "Quimica" and "Alquimia"), Alfajor ("Al Fasur"; The Nectar, The Fancy/Great Sweets) and Alligator (El lagarto; The Lizard)
** The Alhambra. It was originally al-Qasr al-Hamra ("The Red Fortress") in Arabic, then passed into Spanish as "la Alhambra." So basically its current name is not from ''what'' it is, but what ''color'' it is, and has too many definite articles to boot.
* "Ramen Noodles". The "men" or "mein" in the word is the Japanese and Chinese word for noodles (probably).
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** Plato is fond of philosophizing about how "beauty is a thing that possesses beauty," in his dialogs. He also devotes passages to explain how even numbers can never be odd, which should be apparent by definition.
* People who order "chai tea". Cause chai means... yeah. Although it's now necessary, since you can also get a chai latte.
** Some restaurants have Soup of the Day. Some restaurants Soupe du Jour. And then some restaurants sell Soupe du Jour of the
** Many restaurants that sell French dip sandwiches offer them "with au jus sauce". "Au jus" is French for "with juice".
** Another example is the dish lobster scampi. "Scampi" being Italian for "lobster," you're eating lobster lobster. As with the "au jus" example, though, "scampi" is a specific preparation style. This has resulted in scampi dishes that contain no lobster whatsoever, such as shrimp scampi and veal scampi.
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* Many foreign phrases are used wrong, like "the hoi polloi" (the the masses).
* Jeb Bush's first name stands for '''J'''ohn '''E'''llis '''B'''ush.
* Let's not forget those infamous recursive acronyms, such as G
* Similarly, there is a local thrift store / charity / volunteer organization called "The LISTEN Center". LISTEN stands for "LISTEN In Service To Every Neighbor". So, The L(((isten In Service To Every Neighbor)isten In Service To Every Neighbor )isten In Service To Every Neighbor)... Center.
* Two major users and/or abusers of tautologies in [[Truth in Television|real life]] are Yogi Berra and David Coleman.
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"You can observe a lot by watching."
(after watching a Steve McQueen movie) "He must have made that when he was alive." }}
*** Of course, Yogi Berra collected all the things he
** Some Coleman tautologies ("Colemanballs") are:
{{quote|"If that had gone in, it would have been a goal."
"The Italians are hoping for an Italian victory."
"Forest have now lost six matches without winning." }}
* A startling number of the coaches' comments on pregame sports programs boil down to, "The key to winning tonight is to score more points than the other guys and stop them from doing the same."
** Football commentator John Madden is either infamous or popular (depending on whether you like his commentary or not) for this kind of commentary. People either love or hate him for it depending on what they think of it.
** Bjorn Borg, on How to Win in Tennis: I have to hit the ball over the net one more time than the other guy.
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** The end of the above sentence put into code. I'll reprint it here: "<nowiki>[[strike:strike-shortened]]</nowiki>".
** I'm pretty sure it originated at least a decade-and-a-half earlier with "Let Reagan be Reagan."
* And let us not forget [[Brooke Shields]]' immortal testimony before Congress: "Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life."
* Not to mention the various misstatements made by [http://www.snopes.com/quotes/candidate.asp Dan Quayle]. Including the following (probably apocryphal) one:
{{quote|"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."
"The future will be better tomorrow." }}
* "If we played like that every week we wouldn't be so inconsistent"
* Six words: "Wherever you go, there you are."
** For that matter, "You are here."
*** According to email legend, there is a train station somewhere in Japan which has a large sign stating "YOU ARE HERE" on the wall. [[Mathematician's Answer|And no map.]]
*** Around the student campus of [https://web.archive.org/web/20110509082905/http://www.tkk.fi/en/ a Finnish university], there's a sign with only the words "you are here" (in Finnish) and a large red dot. There is also a corresponding half-a-meter diameter red circle painted on the ground next to the sign.
* In the US military, unclassified computer systems are logged into with a "Common Access Card", which true to its name, is the same basic ID card used for everything else. This is shortened to CAC (pronounced "cack"). Many people insist on the phrase "CAC card". Unfortunately, said individuals tend to be your ''commanding officer''.
** Also, the computers are set to audibly remind you to remove your ID after a few minutes of inactivity. The phrase? [[Freud Was Right|"Please remove your CAC from the CAC reader"]].
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** FLAW = Four Letter Acronymic Word.
* Probably the original:
{{quote|Q: What's [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|brown and sticky]]?
A: {{spoiler|A stick.}} }}
* [[Abraham Lincoln]] said once: "[[Trivially Obvious|People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like.]]"
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* John Kerry on hiring illegal immigrants: "[[Captain Obvious|It's against the law to hire someone illegally]]."
** Bush gave us the very similar "Those who enter the country illegally violate the law."
* [http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=1712 The Justice Society of Justice]
* [[Ayn Rand]]: "Existence exists". Duh.
** And "A is A" is quite literally the statement "shaped like itself".
Line 1,050 ⟶ 1,037:
* The JavaScript error "''''null' is null''' or not an object".
** The GCC error "'long long long' is too long". (Though strictly speaking it's really three long.)
* Every object in Java has a toString() method, which converts the object to a String.<ref>A string is a sequence of characters; usually letters, numbers, and symbols</ref>
* The English word "sacrosanct" is itself an incarnation of this trope. The root "sacro" comes from the Latin word "sacrum", meaning sacred, and the root "sanctus" (the past participle of the Latin word "sanctire") means holy. Three guesses on what this adjective means in English.
* Any street named El Camino Road
* East Timor (an island country in Southeast Asia). Timor is a variant of "timur" Malay for "east". Timor is the island's name. The western half of the island belongs to Indonesia. East Timor is located... [[Captain Obvious|in the east]].
* The [https://web.archive.org/web/20131026074814/http://www.kirtland.af.mil/
* People who say things like "4 a.m. in the morning."
* French singer Johnny Halliday during an interview at the Paris-Dakar rally said a very profound thing: "If we hadn't wasted an hour and fifteen minutes, we'd be here an hour and fifteen minutes earlier".
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* The phrase "Whys and wherefores"--"wherefore" means why.
** Similarly: "For all intents and purposes".
** Duplicate words are extremely common in law. One book on legal writing said that the practice originated in the days of Old English, when two words were
* The [[wikipedia:River Annan|River Annan]] is named for a word in a now extinct Celtic language meaning "water", and "the River Water" is tautological enough. However, in culture (such as in songs by Kate Rusby and [[The Decemberists]], and the webcomic ''[[Gunnerkrigg Court]]''), the river is usually named "the Annan Waters", which of course means "the Water Waters".
* Mae West: "I generally avoid temptation unless I can't resist it."
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* Back on the 8th of May 1945, newspapers were awfully excited about how it was VE Day in Europe. Victory in Europe Day in Europe.
* "Assless chaps." All chaps are assless. Otherwise they'd just be leather pants.
** If anything, the phrase simply refers to when chaps are worn with nothing underneath them, which is kind of like calling a beanie not worn with a visor a "bill-less hat".
* [http://failblog.org/2009/12/17/christmas-decorations-fail/ This.]
** The fail there must be extended to the Spanish translation that has been given, the word is "campanillas" not "companillas".
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** Not food, but the Head Chef of a restaurant... (Chef meaning Chief, the title actually being Chef de Cuisine, not Head Chief, which is like saying the Chief Chief)
*** Even funnier: 'chef' used to mean 'head' in Old French. So the Head Chef is the Head that is at the Head of the cuisine.
* In propositional logic, a statement is a tautology if it evaluates to true for all possible Boolean inputs. The simplest form of this is "A or ¬A". In layman's terms, when there are only two options, everything is either
* Wittgenstein is a master of this even while he criticizes it. In the ''Investigations'', he comments, "We might also say: 'Every thing fits into itself.' --Or again: 'Every thing fits into its own shape.' While saying this, one looks at a thing and imagines that there was a space left for it and that now it fits into it exactly." He goes so far as to smear a blob of ink on the page, saying, "Does this spot 'fit' into its white surrounding? --''But that is just how it would look'' if there had at first been a hole in its place and it then fitted into the hole."
* Several [[Malaproper|Bushisms]] fall into this, such as "More and more of our imports are coming from overseas", and "Its against the law to hire somebody illegally."
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* It is what it is.
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OefBfUkPkw But why is it what it is?]
* In South Africa, a certain football commentator (whose name escapes me) is known for his stupid comments during matches. At the beginning of the final match of the 2008 PSL (a South African Football League) season, for example: "What a great season this has been, 43 goals scored, and would-you-believe-it, 43 conceded", and (in reference to Cristiano Ronaldo's move to Manchester United a few years ago) "[Unremembered sum of money]! For that kind of money, I'd play for free!".
* A [[World War Two]] era German map labeled a lake in Finnish Lapland as "Jaurujärviozero-See". The joke here is that "See" means "lake" in German, "ozero" means "lake" in Russian, "järvi" means "lake" in Finnish, and "jauru" means "lake" in Sami, the language of the indigenous peoples of that area. In other words, on the map, it's titled "Lakelakelake-lake".
* Most U.S. coins list their value in cents, but the dime's value is said to be "one dime."
* Pluto is now classified as a "Plutoid" and a "Plutino."
* Oddly, the Darwin-inspired platitude Survival Of The Fittest (coined by Herbert Spencer rather than [[Charles Darwin]]) is an example. "Fittest" simply means "most likely to survive".
* The common programming idiom "Trope trope = new Trope();" This roughly translates to "Create an object using the Trope constructor. We will treat it as a Trope and call it 'trope'." (The first instance is not just idiomatic but '''necessary''' in most languages (those without type inference). The second can be avoided through better variable naming, but is often required by simple-minded workplace policies.
* Happens all the time in the Canadian Arctic when terrain features are officially designated by their traditional local Inuit name, but mapmakers sometimes then append the English term for the feature to the Inuktitut. Leading, inevitably, to things that come out as "Big Hill Hill", "Small Island Island", "Big Island in the Lake Island", and "Small River River".
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* In a May 2011 Issue of the Newspaper called ''The Metro'', the subtitle of an article reads, ''"Larger earthquake 250km from Madrid preceded by smaller one"''.
* Saying "Hi, it's me" over the phone.
* A literal and graphic example: a flock of flamingos get together and form a [https://web.archive.org/web/20160418201806/http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/4/8/4/85484_v1.jpg ...guess what.]
* Some people hear the Japanese refer to Mt. Fuji as "Fujiyama", and decide to call it "Mt. Fujiyama". "Yama" is Japanese for "Mountain".
* And here's comedian [https://web.archive.org/web/20160418201801/http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/2/3/4/106234_v1.jpg Andy Dick] demonstrating this trope in more ways than one.
* A linguistic example is "the gostak distims the doshes," used to demonstrate how meaning can be arrived at using the syntax of a sentence. The words are nonsense, but logic goes that a gostak must be something that distims the doshes, while distimming is what the gostak does to the doshes and the doshes are what the gostak distims.
* The word "lagomorph" is a classification that includes rabbits, hares and pikas. The Greek root words for this term essentially mean "hare-shaped".
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== Wikis That Everybody Can Edit ==
* [[TV Tropes]] and [[All The Tropes]]:
** YKTTW entries, such as "Gesturing with a Weapon: Somebody gestures at people with a weapon".
** For that matter, a lot of [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]] articles can sound a bit like this.
* [[That Other Wiki]]'s [[wikipedia:Japanese|disambiguation page for "Japanese"]] helpfully provides a link to "[[wikipedia:Japanese language|Japanese language]], a [[wikipedia:Japonic languages|Japonic language]] spoken mainly in Japan." The same template probably appears for many multi-purpose demonym-national adjective-language name words, but would be at least marginally more informative when not concerning a [[wikipedia:Language isolate|language isolate]].
** Japanese is considered to be a language isolate, because we're told it is... by the Japanese. The fact is, many linguists find convincing evidence that the Japanese language is related to Korean. There is genetic and archeological evidence also consistent with an ancient link between the Japanese and ancestors of the Koreans. In addition, outside Japan, the languages of the Ryukyu Islands are considered separate from but related to Japanese, although at times the government has called them dialects for political reasons.
** [[wikipedia:Classification of Japonic|Classifying Japonic is complex]]. The [[wikipedia:Altaic languages|Altaic languages]] are a controversial proposed family containing Mongolian, Tungusic, Turkic, and sometimes Japonic and Korean.
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[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]
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[[Category:Shaped Like Itself]]▼
[[Category:Self-Demonstrating Article]]
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