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Super Fun Happy Thing of Doom: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''The Ministry of Love was the really frightening one. There were no windows in it at all. Winston had never been inside the Ministry of Love, nor within half a kilometer of it. It was a place impossible to enter except on official business, and then only by penetrating through a maze of barbed-wire entanglements, steel doors, and hidden machine-gun nests. Even the streets leading up to its outer barriers were roamed by gorilla-faced guards in black uniforms, armed with jointed truncheons.''|''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]''}}
Something, often a company, that is described with an adjective in the title that is entirely at odds with what it actually does. Commonly, something evil will be paired with a nice-sounding adjective. This also applies when the title's implications are opposed to what the company/organization/EvilOverlord does. Basically, when you apply a completely inappropriate adjective to something ([[Villain with Good Publicity|often to make it seem better)]], that's this trope. Look for characters exclaiming "Hey...this isn't happy!" or something similar.
This is a [[Newspeak]] trope. There is usually a rather pointed takeaway for the audience about the people doing the naming: a society that uses vicious irony like this is never ''ever'' nice or just misunderstood.
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* [[Non-Indicative Name]]: for broader cases of name not matching reality.
* [[Fluffy the Terrible]]: also a trope where something fearsome has a harmless name; generally, though, [[Fluffy the Terrible]] tends to be silly or goofy, while '''Super Fun Happy Thing of Doom''' tends to be a lot darker.
* [[Happy Fun Ball]]: a trope where something's ''appearance'' doesn't match its function.
* [[The Not-So-Harmless Punishment]]
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* The F.L.E.I.A. in [[Code Geass]] is named for Freya, the Norse goddess of love and beauty. Its function is to create a huge [[Sphere of Destruction]] using a combination of nuclear fission and [[Green Rocks|Sakuradite]].
** Perhaps also a subversion through as it can easily be mistaken for [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|Flayer]].
* The bad guys of ''[[
* ''Flying Ghost Ship'' has a very cheerful [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F26V72seAAM advertisment] for the "Boa Juice". Which melts people alive.
* The [[Implacable Man|Satchi]], cyber law-enforcers in ''[[Dennou Coil]]''. They look like giant brown standing peanuts with smiley-faces painted on. [[Nightmare Fuel|Yeah]].
* This has to be the only reason [[Kirby|King Dedede]] ordered monsters from ''Holy'' Nightmare in [[Kirby:
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== [[Literature]] ==
* The most famous of these is from Orwell's ''[[1984]]''. The government has four chief buildings: The Ministry of Truth, in charge of propaganda, the Ministry of Peace, in charge of the military, the Ministry of Plenty, in charge of rationing supplies, and the Ministry of Love, described in the page quote.
** And don't forget the 5th one, the Ministry of Ironic Naming.
*** No, you mean "the Ministry of Totally Appropriate Naming". That's a different ministry entirely.
** And Big Brother itself, really.
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People's Democratic Republic of the Congo. Lies in name; 3. Oppression level; inhuman.
Shiny, Happy, People's Democratic Republic of the Congo. Lies in name; 5. Oppression level; hide. }}
* In the [[Strugatsky Brothers]]' novel ''[[Hard to Be A God]]'', a lot a villages were renamed from their [[Wretched Hive]] names to this trope. Perhaps in hopes it will make them better.
* ''[[The Hunger Games]]''. Gather round, everybody! Celebrate! We're going to take your children and make them kill each other. Brutally! And you will have to watch every second of it! And you will enjoy it!
* ''[[Animorphs]]'' gives us The Sharing, an organization full of nice, friendly people who do charity work and have a great time doing it. And after you are initiated, a parasitic alien crawls into your ear and you are a slave to the invading alien race.
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* ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' spell "Nybor's Joyful Voyage". That Nybor also devised whole ''line'' of [[Agony Beam]] spells can be counted as a subtle hint. It [[Tele Frag|unsafely teleports]] one victim to random place 1–100 miles away from the point of origin (including straight up and down).
{{quote|The "joyful" nature of Nybor's voyage refers to the joy of the spell's caster rather than that of its target.}}
** The [[Agony Beam]] spells also fall into this trope. "Gentle reminder," which inflicts intense pain, "mild admonishment," which causes prolonged torture, and "stern reproof," which is so painful it can kill its target. By the time you get to wrathful castigation, it's time to be afraid.
* [[Paranoia|The Computer]] states unequivocally that nothing in ''[[Paranoia]]'' falls under this trope and claiming otherwise is treason. Information about this trope is classified Ultraviolet and access without proper clearance is treason. Traitors will please report to the nearest Funtyme Spa and Reeducation Center. The Computer is your friend, trust The Computer.
* In [[Adeptus Evangelion]], the weapons company HELIOS manufactures a MASER pistol for Evangelion use. The design puts massive strain on the weapon's internal battery, occasionally causing what HELIOS advertises as a "bonus energy release". {{spoiler|It explodes.}}
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** Dorf Fortress is also ''full'' of randomly generated names, so occasionally you'll have something like this pop up.
* ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' has Professor Putricide's Laboratory of Alchemical Horrors and Fun. [[That One Boss|It's not that fun.]]
* From [[Final Fantasy VII]], we have [[Mega Corp|Shinra Inc's]] Public Safety Maintenance Department, just fancy euphemism for the company's [[Evil Army|army]] and police force. Said department has a sub-branch known as The Investigative Division of General Affairs Department AKA [[Quirky Miniboss Squad|the Turks]], highly skilled special agents that perform black ops on behalf of the corporation, including kidnappings and assassinations.
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[[Category:Doomed Tropes]]
[[Category:Subverted Innocence Tropes]]
[[Category:
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