The Joy of X: Difference between revisions

** "Countdown to Necropolis" (''[[Judge Dredd]]'')

** "Countdown to Destruction" (''[[Power Rangers in Space]]''; franchise [[Series Fauxnale]])

== [[Film]] ==

* '''The X, The Y, His Z and Her A''', spawned from ''[[The Cook the Thief His Wife And Her Lover]]'', which went through tons of [[Memetic Mutation]] when it was first out.

** Slightly more subtle was the series of missions in a ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' game called "The Crook," "The Thieves," "The Wife," and "The Lover."

** ''A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop'' is probably one these- this is the international film for a movie titled ''A Simple Noodle Story'' in reference to [[Blood Simple|the film]] it adapts.

* '''Miracle On X''' ''([[Miracle on 34th Street|34th Street]])''

** ''Miracle on Evergreen Terrace'' (''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'')

** The winter 1980 Olympics where the US Men's hockey team beat the Soviet squad in the semifinal round was dubbed the "Miracle on Ice."

** ''[[Recess]] Christmas: Miracle on Third Street''

* '''[[Attack of the Killer Whatever|Attack of the Killer]]/[[Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever|50-foot X]]'''

** ''[[Attack of the 50 Foot Woman]]''

** "Attack of the Killer App" (''[[Futurama]]'')

** "Attack of the 5½ Foot Geek" (''[[My Life as a Teenage Robot]]'')

* '''The X That Ate Y''' ''(Not based on any particular film, but a common title for [[There's No B in Movie|B-movies parodies]])''

** A whole series of children's books, that are of the format ''The (Holiday Decoration) that ate my (Relative)''.

** As a result of more than twenty years of continuous expansion and construction (which as of 2018 shows no sign of stopping), Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ has gained the nickname "The Hospital that Ate New Brunswick".

** ''The Creature That Ate Sheboygan'', a [[Tabletop Games|tabletop game]] by Greg Costikyan that has [[w:The Creature That Ate Sheboygan|its own page on The Other Wiki]].

* '''Crouching X, Hidden Y'''

** Started by ''[[Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon]]''

** "Crouching Jimmy, Hidden Sheen" (''[[The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius|The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron]]'')

** [[Whose Line Is It Anyway?|"We'll return you to 'Crouching Tiger, Screaming Siegfried and Roy' in just a second..."]]

* '''X, [[Either or Title|Or]]: How I learned to stop worrying and love the Y.'''

** Started by ''[[Dr. Strangelove]] or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb''

** David Willis's ''[[Walkyverse|Roomies!]]'' collection ''Roomies! Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Beer''.

** The first episode of the ''[[Touhou]]'' [[Fanime]] ''The Memories of Phantasm'' had the english title "The Ordinary Magician or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Kotatsu".

* '''From X with Love''', after [[James Bond]] novel/movie ''[[From Russia with Love]]''

** ''[[From Eroica with Love]]''

** The [https://web.archive.org/web/20131217131909/http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/8d/NES_Tetris_Box_Front.jpg boxart of the NES version] of ''[[Tetris]]'' features the tagline, "From Russia With Fun!"

** ''From Beijing with Love'' is a Bond parody by [[Stephen Chow]].

* '''The Good, The Bad And The X''', from [[Sergio Leone]]'s ''[[The Good, the Bad and the Ugly|The Good the Bad And The Ugly]]''.

** ''[[wikipedia:The Good, the Bad & the Queen|The Good, The Bad And The Queen]]''

** ''[[Bubsy]]'' level "The Good, the Bad and the Woolies"

** "The Good, the Bad and the Wallaby" (''[[Rocko's Modern Life]]'')

* '''Once Upon a Time in X''' from [[Sergio Leone]]'s ''[[Once Upon a Time in the West]]''

** Leone himself repeated this title, using it for ''[[Once Upon a Time in America]]'' and in ''Once Upon A Time... the Revolution'', an alternate title for ''[[Duck You Sucker]]'' (also alternatively titled ''[[A Fistful of Dynamite]]'')

** Once Upon A Time in Anatolia (2012)

** ... [[wikipedia:Once Upon a Time|and more]]

* '''I Was a Teenage X''' (''[[I Was a Teenage Werewolf|Werewolf]]'')

** ''I Was a Teenage Frankenstein'', film from the producers of ''I Was a Teenage Werewolf'', released in the same year (1957)

** "I Was a Teenage Brain Surgeon", referenced in a [[Spike Jones]] routine.

** "I Was a Teenage Thumb", 1963 ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' short.

* '''X House on the Y''', specific to 1970s exploitation horror and based on ''[[The Last House on the Left]]''

** ''The Last House on Dead End Street''

** ''The Last House in the Woods''

** ''[[Little House on the Prairie]]'' is a more lighthearted example that actually features the same naming structure and debuted earlier -- [[Older Than You Think|decades earlier]], along with ''Little House in the Big Woods'', by [[Laura Ingalls Wilder]]. ''Little Town on the Prairie'' echoed the pattern.

* '''All this, and X Y''' (in which Y rhymes with "too"), from ''[[All This And Heaven Too]]'', the famous movie with ''[[Bette Davis]]''

** ''All this and World War II'', a 1976 musical documentary that juxtaposes Beatles songs, performed by a number of musicians, with World War II newsreel footage and 20th Century Fox films from the 1940s.

** ''All This and Puppet Stew'', an album by Los Angeles punk rock band The Dickies.

** ''All This and Everest Too'', an actual newspaper headline printed on the morning of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, referring to the British expedition becoming the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest a few days earlier.

* '''X, Lies and Videotape''', or '''Sex, Lies and X''', or '''Sex, X and Videotape''', from ''[[Sex, Lies, and Videotape]]'':

** ''Who's Counting? Marilyn Waring on Sex, Lies and Global Economics''

** ''[[CSI: NY]]'' has an episode titled "Sex, Lies, and Silicone"

** ''[[Tripping the Rift]]'' has an episode titled "Six, Lies and Videotape"

* '''Bring Me the Head of X''', from ''[[Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia]]'', the 1974 crime drama film.

** ''Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis'', the 1988 [[Reunion Show]] for ''[[The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis]]''

** ''[https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/bring-me-head-alan-shepard-halloween-story Bring Me the Head of Alan Shepard: A Halloween Story]'', a blog post at the website of the National Air and Space Museum about a photo of two men holding a wax replica the astronaut's head.

** ''Bring Me the Head of Sergio Garcia'', a book Tom Cox about his year trying to compete on the pro golf circuit.

* '''Enter the X''' ''([[Enter the Dragon|Dragon]])'' has its own page: [[Enter Eponymous]].

 

** "The Joy of Sax", album by the [[Capitol Steps]]

** A [[BBC]] documentary about statistics, and how it doesn't have to be boring, is called "The Joy of Stats".

* There was a spate of '''Everything You Always Wanted to Know About X (But Were Afraid to Ask)''' after the success of the sex manual ''Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex...'', beginning with the [[Woody Allen]] film of the same name.

** ''Charmed'' featured "Everything You Wanted To Know About Magic Portals (but were afraid to ask)".

** In ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]'' [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|of all things]], Twilight breaks out ''Slumber 101: All You've Ever Wanted to Know About Slumber Parties (But Were Afraid to Ask).''

** The Sea Lions' [[Self-Titled Album|nearly eponymous album]] ''Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the Sea Lions But Were Afraid to Ask''

* '''Xing Toward(s) Y''' (''Slouching Towards Bethlehem'') started as a [[Literary Allusion Title]], but has arguably morphed into this.

** ''Slouching Towards Gomorrah'' by Robert Bork.

*** ''Fumbling Towards Ecstacy'', a [[How I Met Your Mother]] [[Fanfic]].

** ''[[Slouching Towards Bedlam]]'', an amateur [[Interactive Fiction]]

* '''A Tale of Two X''' ''([[A Tale of Two Cities|Cities]])''

** ''A Tale of Two Kitties'' (The ''[[Looney Tunes]]'' debut of Tweety), as well as the second Garfield film.

** ''A Tale of Two Sitters'' (''[[Wishbone]]'')

** ''[[A Tale of Two Sisters]]'' - the original title ''Janghwa, Hongryeon'' refers to a Korean folk tale.

* '''Whatever Happened to X?''' ''([[What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?|Baby Jane]])''

** ''[[Whatever Happened to... Robot Jones?]]''

** ''Whatever Happened to'' was a series of backups in the comic book ''[[DC Comics Presents]]''.

** The [[Internet Movie Database]] lists more than 30 other films and TV shows with this title format.

* '''X for Dummies''' (Note that the publisher has actually trademarked the phrase "for Dummies", so actual published works with this formula do not exist outside of the official series.)

** ''Witchhunting For Dumb People'' (''[[Discworld]]'' again) doesn't take any chances.

** In one [[Improv Everywhere]] prank, [[Star Wars|Princess Leia]] rides a subway while reading ''Galactic Rebellion for Dummies''.

** ''Data Structures for Assholes'' ([[Cluster F-Bomb|vitriolic]] parody from ''[[Homestuck]]'')

* '''How To Verb X and Other Verb Y''' (based on the book ''How To Win Friends and Influence People'' by Dale Carnegie)

** ''How To Lose Friends and Infuriate People''

** ''[[Lenny Bruce|How to Talk Dirty and Influence People]]''

** ''How To Lose Friends and Alienate People''

* '''All I Really Need to Know I Learned From X.'''

** Erma Bombeck, ''All I Know About Animal Behavior I Learned in Loemann's Dressing Room.''

** ''Where There's a [[Pun-Based Title|Will]] There's a Way [[Either or Title|Or]], All I Really Need to Know I Learned from [[Shakespeare]]'' by Laurie E. Maguire.

** ''El Paradigma: All I Really Need to Know in Business I Learned at Microsoft'' by Julie Blick.

* '''A Are From B, C Are From D.''' Started by ''Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus''.

** Parodied by our title [[Men Buy From Mars, Women Buy From Venus]]

** ''[[Myth Adventures|Imps Are From Imper, Deveels Are From Deva]]''

** The ''[[Walkyverse|Dumbing of Age]]'' storyline "Men Are From Beck, Women Are From Clark".

* '''I, X'''. Like ''The Joy of X'', the generally-parodied template (''[[I, Robot (literature)|I, Robot]]'') isn't the original (''[[I, Claudius]]'' or maybe something even older). See [[I, Noun]] for examples.

* '''The Seven Habits of Highly Effective X''' (People)

** The ''[[Dilbert]]'' collection, ''Seven Years of Highly Defective People''.

** ''The 666 Habits of Highly Effective Demons'', a magazine article in ''[[Raidou Kuzunoha VS King Abaddon]]'' (and probably a [[Woolseyism]])

** In ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' episode "Brother's Little Helper" Bart is reading "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Pre-teens"

* '''Sex and the Single X''', or '''Sex and the Y X'''

** ''Sex and the Single Girl'', the [[Trope Maker]]

** ''Sex and the Single [[Doctor Who|Gallifreyan]]'', a ''[[Doctor Who Magazine]]'' article

** ''[[3rd Rock from the Sun]]'' episode "Dick and the Single Girl"

* '''Fear And Loathing in X'''

** The archetype is of course Hunter S. Thompson's ''Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas''.

** The working title for ''Kentucky Straight Bourbon'' was ''Fear and Loathing in Kentucky''.

** [[Fur and Loathing]]

* '''Zen and the Art of X'''

** Started by Robert Pirsig's ''[[Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance]]'', which itself refers back to ''Zen in the Art of Archery'' by Eugen Herrigel. The title of the latter is often quoted with an "and" instead of "in".

** ''[[Gears of War]]'' has an achievement called "Zen and the Art of Reloading."

** And now, "[[wikipedia:Xen|Xen]] and the art of" various things has over 40K results on Google and counting. Surprisingly, "Xen and the Art of [[Half-Life]]" is not one of them. Nor is "Xen and the Art of [[Disappointing Last Level|Bad Level Design]]".

* '''The Art of X''' (''[[The Art of War|War]]'')

** ''The Art of Raising Dogs''

** Books of production art from a popular movie usually follow the formula "''The Art of {movie title}''"

** Interestingly enough there's no "The Art of Art" (there's The Art of Art History though)

* '''The Tao of X'''

** ''The Tao of Pooh'', the book that popularized Taoism in western society by relating it to [[Winnie the Pooh]]

** ''The Tao of Programming''

** ''The Tao of Steve''

* '''X Sutra'''

** Started by the Hindu Sutras, followed by the Jain Sutras. Most modern examples are in parody of the [[Kama Sutra]]

** [http://www.gamasutra.com GamaSutra]

** [[TV Tropes]] has [[Comic Sutra]]

* '''Are You There, God? It's Me, X''' Of course based on the title of the classic [[Judy Blume]] young adult novel, ''[[Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.|Are You There God Its Me Margaret]]''.

** ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'', "Are You There, God? It's Me, Dean"

** "Are You There, God? It's Me, Detroit", an article in the ''Detroit Free Press''

** ''Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea'', by Chelsea Handler

* '''The Compleat X'''

** Started by "The Compleat Angler," by Izaak Walton.

** ''The Incompleat Folksinger'' by Pete Seeger

** In-universe example: The Compleat Atlas in Garth Nix's ''[[Keys to the Kingdom]]'' series.

* '''Love In The Age of X''', referencing Gabriel Garcia's ''Love In The Age of Cholera''.

** ''Love In The Age of iPods'', a book by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan.

** "Love in the Time of Dragons", an episode of ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]''

** ''Love In The Time of Goblins'', Book One of the Hot Goblin Brotherhood Saga in ''[[Skin Horse]]''

* '''Doing X With Gun And Camera''' -- The prototypical title for a Great White Hunter-style travelogue. The original, or one of them, appears to be Captain Ralph Bonehill's book ''Out With Gun and Camera''—that, or ''Hunting Big Game in Africa with Gun and Camera'', a film from 1922.

** By 1930, this title was already being parodied, in the form of George Chappell's ''Through the Alimentary Canal with Gun and Camera''.

** ''Whale Hunting with Gun and Camera'' by Roy Chapman Andrews

** Another ''[[Discworld]]'' parody: Ridcully is the author of ''Along the Ankh with Bow, Rod and Staff with a Knob on the End''.

** ''Into the Outdoors with Gun and Camera'', an adventure included with the second edition of the [[Paranoia]] role-playing game.

* '''The X's Tale'''. ''[[The Canterbury Tales]]'' is the [[Trope Namer]], but sadly not the [[Trope Maker]]. The original is a frame story where X means "told by the", not "about a".

** ''[[A Knight's Tale]]'' Including a character supposedly being Chaucer.

** "A Rogue's Tale" (''[[X-Men (animation)|X-Men]]'' episode)

** ''[[The Bard's Tale]]''

* '''What Every Young X Ought to Know'''

** In ''[[Of Thee I Sing]]'', Wintergreen says he's writing the book "What Every Young President Ought to Know."

 

== [[Live Action Television]] ==

** ''[[The Goodies]] File'', the book of the series.

** ''The Odessa File'' and ''The Ipcress Files'', a good two decades before ''The X Files''.

* British media love '''[[Have I Got News for You|Have I Got X For You]]''' and '''[[Men Behaving Badly|X Behaving Badly]]''' for punning headlines.

 

** A website for the guitarist Ollie Halsall has a page about his collaborations with Kevin Ayers under the title "Ayers on a G-String".

** A number of newspaper and magazine articles have used the "X On A G-String" form. [[Stock Underwear|Very few of them are talking about music.]]

* '''The X formerly known as Y''', which of course comes from [[Prince]] and has its own [[The Trope Formerly Known as X|page]].

 

*** '''Tis Pity She's a Horticulturalist''

*** ... and so on.

* '''The Taming of The X''' ''([[The Taming of the Shrew|Shrew]])''

** ''The Taming of the Shoe'' (Magazine, animated short)

** ''The Taming of the Screw'' ([[Dave Barry]] book)

** [[The Taming of the Grue]]

* '''The X And I''' ''(King)''

** ''The Thing and I'' (''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'')

*** Likewise, "The Egg And I", an episode of ''[[Married... with Children]]''.

** "The Wizard and I", a song from the musical ''[[Wicked (theatre)|Wicked]]''.

* '''The Phantom of the X''' ''(Opera)''

** ''The Phantom of the Oprah'' (One-episode stage-show-within-a-show on ''[[Wings (TV series)|Wings]]'')

** ''Phantom of the Auditorium'', one of the ''[[Goosebumps]]'' books

** ''Phantom Of the Fair'', an obscure [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden Age]] superhero who used the Perisphere at the 1939 Worlds' Fair in New York City as his headquarters.

* '''A Streetcar Named X''' ''([[A Streetcar Named Desire|Desire]])''

** ''A Streetcar Named Marge'' (''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'')

** There is a short animated film about menopause called ''Streetcar Named Perspire''.

** There is an animated short featuring Tweety called ''A Street Cat Named Sylvester''.

* '''Dial X for Y''' (''[[Dial M for Murder]]'')

** ''[[Dial H for Hero]]''

** ''Dial M for Martin'' (''[[Frasier]]'')

** "Dial 'M' for Mother", the ''[[Archer]]'' Season 1 finale.

* '''Waiting for X''' (''Godot'')

** The model is [[Absurdism|absurdist]] play ''[[Waiting for Godot]]'', by Samuel Beckett (no, not [[Quantum Leap|that one]]).

** ''[[Waiting for God]]'' is also the title of a UK sitcom set in a retirement home.

** "Waiting to Go" is an episode of ''[[Arthur (animation)|Arthur]]'', containing several other references to the Beckett play.

* '''Bye Bye X''' (''Birdie'')

** "Bye Bye Nerdie" (''[[The Simpsons]]'')

** "Bye Bye Blackball" (''[[Happy Days]]'')

 

* '''The Life (and Times/Adventures/Etc.) of X'''

** ''[[Harry Potter|The Life and Lies of Albus Dumbledore]]''

** ''[[The Life and Times of Tim]]''

** ''[[Wicked (novel)|Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West]]''

* '''Memoirs of a(n) X'''

** ''[[Memoirs of a Geisha]]''

** The short animated film ''Memoirs of a Scanner''.

** ''[[Memoirs of an Invisible Man]]''

* '''[[So You Want To/See the Index|So You Want to]] be an X'''

** ''[[Quest for Glory I]]: So You Want To Be A Hero''.

** There are several short films with this title format, including ''So You Want to Be a Detective'', ''So You Want to Be a Baby Sitter'', ''So You Want to Be a Bachelor'', ''So You Want to Be a Cowboy'', ''So You Want to Be a Gambler'', and ''So You Want to Be a Handy Man''.

** "So You Wanna be a Superstar" (''[[Sailor Moon]]'' (NA Dub))

* '''[Insert Unlikely Activity Here] for Fun and Profit'''

** ''[http://insecure.org/stf/smashstack.html Smashing the Stack for Fun and Profit]'', a hackers' manual for exploiting the memory stack in computers.

** The [[Big Bad]] of [[Those Lacking Spine]] at one point reads ''Final Bossing For Fun And Profit'', and her Dragon reads ''Toadying For The Final Boss For Fun And Profit''.

** On ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' Quark makes a female employee read ''[[Fantastic Arousal|Oomox]] For Fun And Profit''.

* '''X "They" Don't Want You To Know About''' Oddly enough, "They" are rarely easily defined. Amazon gives you the following:

** ''Natural Cures "They" Don't Want You To Know About'' by Kevin Trudeau