Genre Roulette: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

'''Genre Roulette''' is what the name suggests: A single work that switches between distinct genres, seemingly at random.

 

{{examples}}

* The ''[[Excel Saga (anime)|Excel Saga]]'' anime played this with pretty much every episode being a parody of a certain genre. Everything from War Movies, to Dating Sims, to Sports, to Variety Shows to Post-Apocalyptic is given a once over.

** ''[[Excel Saga (anime)|Excel Saga]]'' made a point of this, opening ''every episode'' with manga author Koshi Rikdo giving his (reluctant) approval to give the series a Genre Shift. The style and weirdness remained consistent enough despite this, however.

* ''[[Cowboy Bebop]]'' seamlessly combines the [[Space Western]], [[Film Noir]] and [[Yakuza]] genres, among others.

 

* [[Grant Morrison]]'s ''[[Seven Soldiers]]'' does this deliberately with each of the miniseries exhibiting the traits of a particular style of comic genre.

** ''The Return of Bruce Wayne'' and ''Multiversity'' are also set up the same way with each issue being a different genre based on the setting (time in RoBW and the worlds in Multiversity).

* Played with a bit in [[Ronin (comics)|Ronin]].

* [[Aquaman]] can be this at times, while most of the iconic DC heroes have their own niche, Aquaman is constantly reinvented. At one point he went from warrior king, to exiled [[Barbarian Hero]], to [[Messianic Archetype]], to Street Level Crimefighter, to {{spoiler|mentor to}} a [[Heroic Fantasy]]-inspired [[Legacy Character]] in the span of ''30 issues''.

 

* ''God Told Me To''. What genre it thinks it is depends on what scene it happens to be.

* ''[[Man of the Year]]'' does this, shifting between comedy, thriller, drama, and mystery all the time.

* ''[[Brotherhood of the Wolf]]'' is a mystery, martial arts film, monster horror film, drawing room drama, spy film and historical epic depending on the scene.

* ''[[Save The Green Planet]]'' has some regular [[Mood Whiplash]], from slapstick comedy to creepy psychological horror, with the odd martial arts scene thrown in.

 

* ''[[Gravity's Rainbow]]'', [[Historical Fiction]] overall skips between [[Science Fiction]], war, romance, pornography, family tragedy, horror and slapstick comedy.

** Pynchon does this a lot. It's even more blatant in ''Against the Day''.

* ''[[Cloud Atlas]]'', which skips between genres with merry abandon.

 

* One episode of ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'' keeps flipping between genres, as [[Lampshaded]] by the captions:

{{quote|TODAY IN PARLIAMENT HAS NOW BECOME THE CLASSIC SERIAL

* ''[[Doctor Who]]'' pushes the line between this trope and outright [[Genre Busting]]. It did so even more in the era of [[William Hartnell]], who played the First Doctor, before the series had quite settled into its format.

** As showrunner [[Fan Nickname|The Grand]] [[Steven Moffat|Moff]] put it: "Sometimes it's comedy, sometimes thriller, sometimes horror, sometimes children's stories, the silliest stories you've ever seen. Sometimes it's all that in the same episode". In Series Five alone we had a thriller, a dystopian rebellion, historical sci-fi with Churchill, a horror-adventure, a comedy romp with vampires, a [[Dream Within a Dream]] mystery, a political intrigue with reptile people, [[A Very Special Episode]] about Vincent Van Gogh and depression, a comedy, and a [[Wham! Episode|finale]].

* ''[[Community]]'': that is all. I mean what genre haven't they- wait, we should just ask Abed, I bet he knows.

* ''[[Super Sentai]]'', and by association ''[[Power Rangers]]'' in its yearly theming, in addition to its [[Toku]] base genre. This also applies with the ''[[Kamen Rider]]'' series as well. Episodes can run this line in all these series.

 

* In [[Bjork|Björk]]'s 1995 album, ''Post'', she switches from [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KxtgS2lU94 Industrial Rock], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGpLMNnhLFo Dance], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htobTBlCvUU Jazz], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP5OA0SCMZA Trip Hop], [[Chamber Pop]], [[Ambient]], and [[Neoclassical Punk Zydeco Rockabilly|other]] [[Genre Busting|genres]].

* Canadian indie band Islands' debut album ''Return to the Sea'' featured a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq3-98XJCfw ten minute epic], [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoRmTMjksfM synthpop], [http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=mqIHptgTam0 catchy indie-pop] and a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCxadMtJcIA rap interlude].

* [[Vanilla Ice]]'s music has elements of [[Nu-metal]], Jazz, Country, Hip-Hop, [[Gangsta Rap]], Funk, [[Alternative Rock]], etc.

* Crotchduster embodies this to the max. They switch between Power Metal, Death Metal, Grindcore, Synth-Pop, Comedy, Electronic, self made audio samples, Classic Rock, Blues, Jazz, A Cappella, etc. etc. You name it, they've used it at some point. And they only have ONE. FUCKING. ALBUM.

 

== [[Toys]] ==

* ''[[Bionicle]]'''s exact genre depends on which comic/book/on-line serial you read or which animation/movie you watch. Its tone also shifts from kid-friendly fables that teach [[An Aesop]] at the end to [[What Do You Mean It's for Kids?|highly violent, messed up, borderline-horror]] stories that make you wonder how they got [[LEGO]] to approve them.

 

* ''[[Dinosaur Comics]]'' parodies this. After T-Rex comes up with [http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1183 the ultimate disaster movie], [http://www.qwantz.com/index.php?comic=1184 he realizes how he can make a nigh-infinite number of sequels]: By [[POV Sequel|by showing the same series of events from different perspectives]], he can shoehorn his story into any genre imaginable.

* ''[[The Dreamer]]'' jumps from historical fiction to YA lit in a matter of pages.

* ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' tends to change its genre with every [[Story Arc]]. Compare the fantasy epic shown in [http://sluggy.com/comics/archives/weekly/041120 these] strips from 2004, to [http://www.sluggy.com/comics/archives/weekly/050618 this] [[Sitcom]]-style [[Broke Episode]] from 2005, to [http://sluggy.com/comics/archives/weekly/061014 this] crime thriller from 2006, to [http://sluggy.com/comics/archives/weekly/070818 this] [[Fantastic Comedy]] from 2007. The only consistent trait is that most strips have some sort of joke in them, but even that's [[Cerebus Syndrome|not always the case]].

 

* ''[[Samurai Jack]]'' switches between a samurai movie, a spaghetti western, then a buddy comedy, silent movie slapstick, horror, crime drama, ''[[Indiana Jones]]''-esque pulp adventure, a gladiator flick, etc., and sometimes all in the same episode!