Non-Indicative Name: Difference between revisions
Not a Subversion. Also Word Cruft and Natter. DO NOT. NEEDLESSLY. OVER-EMPHASIZE. THINGS!! This Troper.
(Correcting myself and de-English-centricising) |
(Not a Subversion. Also Word Cruft and Natter. DO NOT. NEEDLESSLY. OVER-EMPHASIZE. THINGS!! This Troper.) |
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** But they do taste like apples. There are little flakes of dried apple stuck right to the cereal.
* In April 2011 comedy and acrobatic troupe The Flying Karamazov Brothers were advertised in London under the slogan: "They're not Russian, they don't fly and they're not brothers."
* Malibu Rum. [[wikipedia:Malibu Rum|According to the other wiki]], it was originally made in Curacao, then in Barbados, and
* The Bavaria beer brand is and has always been Brazilian. The advertising campaign emphasizes this while ignoring the German-themed name.
* Same with commercials for Rold Gold pretzels, which had someone noting that "They aren't rolled, and they aren't gold!"
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* The "Hidden Villages" in ''[[Naruto]]'' aren't really at all hidden, being rather large, populated, and with open roads leading to and from it. In fact they are ''required'' to have their locations know to the public or else no one would know where to go to hire them as [[Private Military Contractors|mercenaries]]. The only one that's really "hidden" is the Hidden Sound Village, but that's not ''a village'', but rather a series of labs and bunkers. Mist came somewhat closer, as its valley is perpetually covered in a thick mist, but it's too large to effectively hide.
** The Hidden Waterfall Village is shown in the [[Non-Serial Movie|Non Serial OVA]] to be actually hidden, since it's the smallest and weakest village, and if its location was widely known, ''any'' of the other villages could crush it easily.
**
* There is a species of ''[[Digimon]]'' called "Flymon" even though they're really closer to bees.
** But bees can fly, so perhaps it's just named after its primary style of locomotion.
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** [[Word of God]] is "You can't call him 'Hellman'. It's a mayonnaise."
** The name might still be appropriate, as we do not know his actual lifespan. He could still be 'just a boy', from the demon point of view.
* [[Fantastic Four (Comic Book)|Doctor Doom]] is not actually [[Morally-Ambiguous Doctorate|a doctor]], but [[Fan Wank]] says he might have given himself an honorary one as ruler of Latveria.
** [[Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog|But does he have a PhD in doominess?]]
** Of course, his archenemy, '''Mr'''. Fantastic, has several doctorates...
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* ''[[Pretty Cure Perfume Preppy]]'' doesn't feature any actual preps.
* There is no war in ''[[The Last War]]'', unless you count the one between the author and canon.
* The three stories of the ''[[Elemental Chess Trilogy]]'' are
== [[Film]] ==
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* Toho's ''[[Latitude Zero]]'' features a monster named Black Moth. Take a wild guess what the monster is. Go on... Give up? It's {{spoiler|a flying lion/eagle hybrid.}}
* In ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]: At World's End''
** The Nine Pieces of Eight are not coins, but random pieces of junk. This is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] and [[Justified Trope|justified]] in-universe
** The [[Flying Dutchman]], which, unlike in the original legend, does not move through the air, and is not Dutch. Its captain is a Welshman with a Scots accent. ''Flying'' in those days, meant ''fast'' as often as it meant ''moving through the air'' (and very occasionally still does, in phrases such as "flying start"). The equivalent today would be "Racing Dutchman."
* In ''[[Mystery Men]]''
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'''Faisil:''' Probably because it sounds scary. }}
* ''[[Zombi 2]]'' (known in America as ''Zombie'', known in some other places as ''Zombie Flesh Eaters'') is not the second "''Zombi''" film, it's the first in its series. Romero's ''[[Dawn of the Dead (film)|Dawn of the Dead]]'' was released in Europe under the title Zombi, and Italian director [[Lucio Fulci]] decided to capitalize on its success by claiming that his film was actually a sequel or prequel. Which it wasn't.
* ''Zombie Holocaust'' was released in some places under the title ''Zombi3'', trying to do to Fulci what Fulci did to Romero. In other places, including America, it was released under the title ''Dr. Butcher M.D., Medical Deviate''. There isn't a character named Dr. Butcher in the film, and the evil Doctor character only shows up in the finale of the film. Even the titles ''[[Zombi 3 D]]'' and ''Zombie Holocaust'' are rather inaccurate- the film is predominantly about
* ''[[Burial Ground: The Nights of Terror|Burial Ground the Nights of Terror]]'' only took place over the course of one night.
* In ''Abbott and Costello Go to Mars'', [[Abbott and Costello]] go ... to Venus, even though they were ''supposed'' to go to Mars. This is an entirely normal sort of event for them (although they normally are [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]).
* ''[[Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein]]''. Apparently ''Chick Young and Wilbur Gray Meet Dracula, The Wolfman, and Frankenstein's Monster'' just wasn't a catchy enough title.
* ''Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory''. The werewolf never actually gets into the dormitory. He mostly just wanders around the grounds.
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* In the ''[[Friday the 13th (film)|Friday the 13 th]]'' franchise, Jason is not shown at any point to be in Hell in ''[[Friday the 13th (film)]]''.
* The ''[[Pink Panther]]'' movies are not about a feline. The "Pink Panther" is a diamond that plays a major role in some, but not all, of the films. The cartoon panther that originally appeared in the first film's credits, also called The Pink Panther, took on a life of its own as a TV cartoon and advertising mascot.
* ''[[Assault on Precinct 13]]'' actually takes place in "Precinct 9, Division 13." The title was chosen by the film's distributor, who
* ''[[Naked Lunch]],'' [[The Simpsons (animation)|"I can think of at least two things wrong with that title".]]
* ''[[The Barbarian Invasions]]'' is not a [[Conan the Barbarian]]-ripoff, but a story about French Canadian intellectuals talking about sex, aging and politics. It's predecessor ''[[The Decline Of The American Empire]]'' is, well, more of the same.
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** If only ''[[The Adventures of Pete and Pete]]'' had gone on long enough for that to happen...
* In [[The Riftwar Cycle]], not only is Macros the Black Sorcerer not a villain, but he wears ''brown'' robes, in contrast to most other wizards in the series. Justified as his name was part of a series of tales designed to keep people from approaching his island home base (which he could deal with but would be a hassle), and for that matter most Midkemian magicians didn't wear black so it was more unique. The Great Ones of Kelewan did however.
* Dante's ''[[The Divine Comedy|Divine Comedy]]'', the old definition of "comedy" is being used, namely a story with a happy ending, since at the end of the story Dante visits Heaven and meets God. The word "Divine" is
* ''[[Monty Python]]'s Big Red Book'' has a blue cover.
* The opening sentence of Salman Rushdie's ''Luka and the Fire of Life'' reads
* ''First Among Sequels'' in the [[Thursday Next]] series is the third among sequels in numeration, the fourth book. Well, the fourth sequel, but the [[Un Installment|internal]] third sequel [[Ret-Gone|never existed]] [[Literary Agent Hypothesis|because of the events of]] the fourth book.
* In the [[Odd Thomas]] series by [[Dean Koontz]], Little Ozzie is larger than his father, Big Ozzie.
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* The Perfectly Normal Beast in [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]: it is actually fairly normal, except that it only appears on the planet Lamuella in a stampede from one invisible space warp to another. It was named to reassure residents, but Trillian at least finds the name suspicious instantly.
* In [[Harry Harrison]]'s ''[[Death World]] 3'', the planet Felicity (meaning "bliss" or "happiness") does indeed contain rich mineral resources (if that is your idea of bliss), but it was named before the galactic community realized that it's full of hordes of nomadic barbarians who absolutely hate permanent structures and will kill anyone who isn't a nomad. That also includes mining equipment.
** Also, the title of ''Return
* In [[Sergey Lukyanenko]]'s ''[[Night Watch|The Last Watch]]'', Merlin's ultimate artifact is called the Crown of All. It's not a crown or anything even remotely close.
* In the [[Discworld]] book ''[[Discworld/Lords and Ladies|Lords and Ladies]]'', mention is made of the Carter family, who named their daughters after virtues and their sons after vices. They turned out to be non-indicative: Charity Carter grew up to be greedy and Prudence Carter wound up the mother of fourteen kids, while Anger Carter is known for being even-tempered and Bestiality Carter is known for being kind to animals.
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* The eponymous hotel in ''[[Fawlty Towers]]'' was not in any way even a single tower.
** The towers were, one might say... [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Faulty?]]
* A number of movies featured on ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]''
** The B-movie ''[[The Brain That Wouldn't Die]]''. A more fitting title would be ''The Brain That Desperately Wanted To Die, But Wasn't Allowed To''.
*** Furthermore, the eponymous character is technically an entire head, not just a brain.
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** A similar example is Throbbing Gristle's third album, ''20 Jazz Funk Greats'', which originally has 11 songs, all of which were not jazz or funk, but [[Industrial]].
* NRBQ's album ''NRBQ at Yankee Stadium'' is not a live album. NRBQ has never played at Yankee Stadium.
* [[Pink Floyd]]
** ''A Collection of Great Dance Songs'' is not especially easy to dance to.
** The song that uses the title of ''[[The Dark Side of the Moon]]'' for its refrain [[Refrain From Assuming|is actually named]] "Brain Damage".
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** The original British sleeve is definitely green. ''Slightly'' on the yellow side of green, but definitely green.
* As someone once pointed out, British DJ Dr. Fox is neither a real doctor nor a real fox. British Conservative politician Dr Liam Fox, by contrast, is a real doctor, but he doesn't live in a burrow with a vixen and cubs either.
* At full strength, there are more than five members in the current{{When}} line-up of gospel greats the Five Blind Boys of Alabama, and not all of them are blind Alabamans. Sadly, they're not really boys these days either. Sheer longevity has made the name less indicative than it was originally.
* "[["Weird Al" Yankovic|(This Song's Just) Six Words Long]]" is a lot more than six words long. Even if you go with the intended joke, it's ''seven'' words long (The word "is" is clearly enunciated in the lyrics, not as apart of a contraction with "just").
* [[Stereolab]]'s "Stunning Debut Album". It's actually a 7" single, and the band's second or third release. Their final album ''Not Music'' has more music than advertised.
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** Of course, while the scrolls themselves aren't usually seen in-game, the events of the main quests in each game are events foretold by the scrolls, and the plots of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th games are kicked off by the Emperor taking action because of what the scrolls revealed to him.
** Also from ''[[Skyrim]]'', Grelod the Kind is [[Complete Monster|anything but]].
* ''[[Metal Gear]]''
** This is explained in ''Snake Eater'' by Granin as its intended purpose as the previously "missing link" between infantry and artillery (like a gear in an engine).
* [[Donkey Kong]] is a gorilla. Shigeru Miyamoto came up with the name when trying to find a name to mean "Stubborn Ape", making this a case of [[Foreign Sounding Gibberish]] for him - specifically, he was looking up "stubborn" in a Japanese-to-English dictionary, and the sample sentence was "stubborn as a donkey".
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::* Technically, Zelda does appear in ''Majora's Mask'', but only in a flashback, and apart from re-teaching Link the Song of Time, her role in the game is otherwise irrelevant.
:* In ''Ocarina of Time'', the Forest Temple is actually a ruined old mansion, and the Shadow Temple is actually a series of torture chambers - no reference is made to either being used for worship.
::* In itself, [[The Legend of Zelda|the series proper]] is a misnomer. Certainly, the eponymous character plays a prominent role in most of the games, but
* In ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'', the ''blaze gun'' shoots ice and the ''glacier gun'' shoots fire. This is one result of the [[Blind Idiot Translation]] that plagues the original [[PlayStation]] release - the guns were "'''Anti'''-Blaze Gun" and "Anti-Glacier Gun" respectively in the original Japanese, and the PSP remake fixes this by simply swapping the names.
** While we're at it, the NPC ability "Steal Bracelet"? [[One-Hit Kill|Instantly kills the target]]; "breath" was consistently mistranslated as "bracelet" in the English release, which is why dragons had "Fire Bracelet" as an ability.
** Continuing this fashion in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics A2]]'' are what happens when you have mages named after colors—some fans ''think'' that they're named after clothing and sprite colors, but actually the names are perfectly indicative of what magic type they use. White mage uses white magic, black mage uses black magic, etc. Still leads to cases of Green Mages wearing purple clothing, though, when the player mages tend to have color-matching clothing.
** ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' itself lives this trope with a whopping 15 sequels (including 2 MMOs, but
* Playable character [[Boxing Kangaroo|Roger Jr.]] in ''[[Tekken]]''. The character fighting is actually [[Action Mom|Roger's mate]], Mrs. Roger, carrying their son (the actual Roger Jr.) in her pouch.
* In ''[[Dark Sector]]'', the main character gains access to a biomechanical weapon called a glaïve. It's the same sort of weird thing as in ''[[Krull]]'', not an actual glaïve. Again.
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* The ''[[Dawn of War]]'' game is not about the first war in history between ancient civilizations - it's a [[Real Time Strategy]] adaption of ''[[Warhammer 40,000]]'', a futuristic setting with a [[Forever War]], and the game certainly isn't set at the a very early time within the setting. The name get even more illogical for its sequel numbered 2, with a third set to happen. [[Rule of Cool|It does sound cool, though.]]
* Many of the track names on ''[[Medal of Honor]]''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s OST don't correspond to the levels the songs are used in, as they were originally composed for levels that were [[Dummied Out]]. One, "Approaching Colditz Castle", [[Cut Song|didn't even appear]] in the game, although it was later used in the Behind Enemy Lines mission in ''Allied Assault''. Same for ''Frontline''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s OST": "Border Town" and "Shipyards of Lorient" are switched around in-game, and "The Halftrack Chase" should have been titled "The Truck Chase".
*
** Antlions from ''[[Half-Life 2]]'' don't resemble real life antlions. They are quadripedal quasi-crustacean creatures while real antlions resemble dragonflies.
** The ''[[Half-Life]]'' games themselves have nothing to do with radioactive decay; the player character, though a [[PHD]]-holding scientist, works in theoretical physics and [[Badass Bookworm|ballistics]], not radiology.
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* The [[Big Bad]] of ''[[The Wotch]]'' is named Xaos (pronounced Chaose), but is an avatar of order (while [[Order Versus Chaos|the protagonist is one of chaos]]).
* In [[Chasing the Sunset]], there is the magister '''Malvenicus''' * [[Dramatic Thunder]] * , who is a [http://www.fantasycomic.com/index.php?p=c525 rather normal looking guy.]
*
* [[Girls with Slingshots]] contains plenty of girls, but few slingshots. The name does, however, crop up in reference to an alcoholic beverage in one strip, a tongue-in-cheek concession by the creator to those baffled by the ambiguous title.
** In the back of the first printed collection of the webcomic, the creator writes that it began with a few sketches - guess what they were of - and that after drawing a few of these, people began to ask Danielle Corsetto when those "girls with slingshots" would have their own comic strip. The kicker is that she then adds that she was drawing slingshots "...because I couldn't draw guns very well."
* [[Irregular Webcomic]] is this on one level (it's one of the most consistently updated webcomics out there) but not so much on others (it's a very unorthodox style of webcomic, what with the numerous unrelated plotlines and such).
** With the comic ending in October 2011, it is no longer irregular (updates every Sunday) nor a webcomic (new content will be new text annotations, released regularly every day).
* ''[[Order of the Stick]]'': Miko Miyazaki isn't a [[Miko]], and Lord Shojo is neither [[Shojo|female nor adolescent]], though
* ''[[Buttersafe]]'' has very little to do with butter, or the safety of it.
* ''[[MS Paint Adventures]]'' has been made in Photoshop since day two.
** ''[[Problem Sleuth]]'' is about weird puzzle shit and RPG mechanics.
** The characters in ''[[Homestuck]]'' got out of their homes quite some time ago.
***
*** Each of the heroes has a Title consisting of a Class and an Aspect, like Heir of Breath. Some of the aspects are non-indicative, like Breath (which effectively means [[Blow You Away|wind]]) and Light (chance or probability). The titles, though, are almost completely non-indicative. A Prince is not a leadership role, but rather someone who brings destruction to their aspect, or by means of their aspect. A Witch is creative, a Bard is passively destructive, etc.
****
* [[Wright As Rayne]] is, in spite of its name, about [[Badass Normal]] superhero Alex Rayne being part of a one-sided [[Freaky Friday Flip]] with teenage girl Dorothy Wright. Apparently Rayne As Wright doesn't have the same ring to it.
* ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' generally features home console or PC releases.
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** It does still have the computer theme deviations for which it was named (I assume). And art is in the eye of the beholder, so unless you are snarky and against photography, poetry, animesque illustrations, or the [[Furry Fandom]], the name still holds. It's still an [[Artifact Title]], though.
* [[Facebook]] isn't really a book full of faces.
* Chinese Troper Teslashark wrote a webfic that's called ''Time to Shoot Down the Moon''. The rock-satellite of Earth suffers nothing in the story. In fact, the author did it on purpose, to mock [[Alex Rider|sci-fi]] [[The Tomorrow|series and war fictions]] [[I Thought That Was|with outrageous names]].
* [[TV Tropes]], as stated in [[Hypocritical Humor]], as they're not just about TV.
* [[Marble Hornets]] is [[Nightmare Fuel|certainly not about hornets made of marble]].
** In-universe, "Marble Hornets" is the name of the student film project that Alex Kralie came up with that got interrupted after Alex's run-in with [[Slender Man|you-know-what]]. Whether or not the title actually had some significance to the plot of the project is never explained.
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* Similarly, Marlin from ''[[Finding Nemo]]'' is actually a clownfish like his son, Nemo. This was lampshaded about halfway through the film when Nigel the pelican tells Gill that Nemo's father shares his name with that of "a popular sport fish." Also, Dory is not a dory, she's a blue tang.
* On ''[[Rocko's Modern Life]],'' Heffer Wolfe is neither a heifer nor a wolf. Played with, however: he ''is'' a steer, and his last name comes from [[Oblivious Adoption|his adopted family]], who ''are'' [[Species Surname|wolves.]]
* ''[[Regular Show]]'''s tag line is "it's anything but".
* The ''[[Quack Pack]]'' version of Duckburg, unlike the one seen in ''[[DuckTales (1987)]]'' and in the comics, is actually not populated by ducks (or any anthropomorphic animal), with the sole exceptions being Donald, Daisy, Professor von Drake, and the nephews, at all!
** Also, Duckworth (Scrooge McDuck's butler), despite his name, is actually ''a dog.''
* ''[[Hey Arnold!]]'' plays with this, when a [[Drill Sergeant Nasty]] [[Sadist Teacher]] notes that Curly's hair isn't curly and [[You Fail Logic Forever|demands to know his real name]]. The odd thing is, [[The Cuckoolander Was Right|he's right]]—Curly's real first name is [[Embarrassing First Name|Thaddeus]].
* [[Doug]] Funnie [[The Straight Man|isn't.]]
*
* The Acme Hour on Cartoon Network was actually 2 hours long.
* The ''[[Rugrats]]'' spinoff ''[[All Grown Up!]]'' features the characters as tweens.
* The ''[[The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes|Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes]]'' episode "Iron Man is Born" does not retell the origin of [[Iron Man]], nor does "The Man in the Ant Hill" show [[Ant-Man|Hank Pym]] explore an ant hill. Some other episodes have the same names as comics they do not actually adapt, but most of them still sound relevant to the plot.
* The [[My Little Pony]] series, ''Newborn Cuties''
* The Scissorsmith in the ''[[Samurai Jack]]'' episode "Jack and the Farting Dragon"; he runs a shop that seems to sell everything ''except'' scissors.
* In ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (animation)|Dungeons and Dragons]]'', Sheila is given the designation of "Thief" by the Dungeon Master, but this is incorrect on more than one levels. First off, she's not the [[Loveable Rogue]] type of hero who gets by through stealing from or duping enemies (although, to be honest, she could have done so offscreen, as it would have helped the heroes a lot) and even using original game terms, she doesn't fit a Thief's role in an adventuring group. Thieves are the type who disarm traps and locks, and strike at enemies from the shadows; while stealth is a big part of Sheila's role in the group (via her [[Invisibility Cloak]]) she's mostly noncombatant. In fact, ironically, "Rogue" (the name the class eventually evolved into) seemed far more fitting in hindsight.
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* The game known in the U.S. as "football" deals with an object that can only loosely be considered a ball. And typically, only one or two players per team ever kick the ball.
** The same happens in parts of Australia where "football" generally refers to one of the rugby codes. Australian Rules Football might pass the ball by hand a lot but you do need to kick the ball to score.
** [[The Other Wiki]] says that the name "football" might have originally
* The Panama hat is made in Ecuador.
* The US five-cent piece, the nickel, is composed of three-quarters copper and only one-quarter nickel. In Canada it's even worse—it's 94.5% steel, 3.5% copper, with just a 2% nickel plating.
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** In Poland they are called "Mountain Rail" despite having nothing to do with the mountain, railway or cable cars that are sometimes called by that name.
* Tanks get their name because, in [[World War I]], the British factory workers assembling the first ones ever used thought (due to their rounded shapes) that they were working on water tanks.
**
** Some apparently had the word "Water Tank" written on their sides to let the enemy scouts believe that they were just armoured support-vehicles.
** Another version has it that when someone who had accidentally been allowed to view them (at a distance) asked what they were, the reply was "water tanks for Mesopotamia".
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* In baseball, a "foul pole" is a pole on either side of the outfield fence which separates a foul ball from a fair ball, even though a ball that hits the pole is fair.
* The Yellow Cab Company in Washington, DC has its cars painted in a distinctive black and orange two-tone livery.
* Pharmacology
* Cans are often called 'tins' because they ''used' to be made of tin, now it's usually non-indicative (and, if the tin is labeled as such, an aversion of [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]].)
* [[Hover Board|"Hoverboards"]] are actually two-wheeled self-balancing scooters that never leave the ground. Attempts to create [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|actual ''hovering'' hoverboards]], particularly in time for the 30th anniversary of ''[[Back to the Future (film)|Back to the Future]]'', have failed miserably.
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** Pomegranates are also not apples, and neither are they grenades.
** They ''are'' superficially similar enough to both that the name is understandable.
* The Polar Bear is not (as you might think) ''Ursus arctos'' (that's the Brown Bear, or grizzly), but ''Ursus maritimus''.
** "Ursus arctos" is effectively "bear bear", the first in Latin and the second in Greek. The Antarctic, on the other hand, is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|aptly named]], since it comes from the Greek for "no bears".
***
* From [[QI]]:
{{quote|''Rich Hall:'' I think it's evil to put a food in front of any bug. To name it, like, a "butterfly". 'Cause I would eat butterflies when I was a kid, because I thought they had butter in 'em. And honey bees. And a hamster! 'Cause, you know, you're four years old; you don't know better... and we were poor.}}
* The Australian Shepherd dog breed is actually American. The Bombay cat breeds are a similar case, with one being American (again) and the other being British.
* The Norway rat originated somewhere in China.
* Grapefruit.
* Canada geese aren't Canadian (although they can be found there). Blame a Mr. John Canada.
** Canada lynx, on the other hand, are (even though they turn up in the United States, too). Go figure.
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* Most of what's sold in American grocery stores as cinnamon sticks are actually the bark of the Cassia tree. They're closely related and taste similar, but not identical.
* Most of the mozzarella cheese on the market is actually imitation mozzarella, as true mozzarella must be made from water-buffalo milk. Cow milk is much cheaper.
* Most of what is packaged as "wasabi" in American and European shops is usually not true wasabi due to cultivation difficulties. It's actually mostly horse radish.
* In Germany and Austria, there is a food called ''Leberkäse'', which literally means "liver-cheese". It normally has neither liver nor cheese in it, unless you order a special type of it that way ("Leberkäse mit Käse" or "liver-cheese with cheese"), and is commonly translated into English as "meatloaf".
* Chinese fortune cookies were invented in the United States and are of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6MhV5Rn63M&feature=player_detailpage#t=140s Japanese descent.]
* Scotch eggs, Scotch pies, and Scotch broth are not made with real Scotch (although one supposes Scotch could theoretically be added to the broth, only a [[Lethal Chef]] with no respect for fine spirits would do that). (One is [[Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs|a hard-boiled egg encased in sausagemeat and breadcrumbs]], the second is a mutton pie made with a particular kind of pastry, and the third is lamb/mutton broth with vegetables.) These three (along with the whisky) are among the few cases in which the correct adjective is "Scotch" rather than "Scottish".
** Scotch eggs, contrary to the name, are not Scottish but an English snack, most probably inspired by an Indian dish.
**
* Mince Pies (the English kind) are pastries made with a filling of mincemeat. Originally the mincemeat was made up of meat, various fruits and preserves. Nowadays though, most mince pies don't contain any meat (unless you make your own at home) but the filling is still referred to as mincemeat.
* AriZona Iced Tea is based in New York.
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* Salad cream isn't intended specifically for salads (it's essentially a non-thixotropic version of mayonnaise, hence intended for the same broad range of uses) and (unlike mayonnaise) isn't particularly creamy.
* Red Rock Cider was once the subject of an advertising campaign pointing out that 'It's not red, and there's no rocks in it'.
* The "cacahuate japonés" (literally
* The sauces of Classic French cuisine is full of these things: Sauce Allemande ("German sauce") isn't German. Sauce Espagnole ("Spanish sauce") isn't Spanish.<ref>The sauce contains tomatoes; supposedly, it was invented for some Spanish dignitaries, who had brought tomatoes--a crop from their New World colonies--to France.</ref> Sauce Africaine ("African sauce") isn't African.<ref>It's Sauce Espagnole with Africanesque spices.</ref> "Créme anglaise" isn't English, or a cream!<ref>It's a sort of custard, and given that the English ''do'' like custard, that's fair.</ref>
* Russian dressing, Italian dressing, and French dressing were all invented in the US.
* Head cheese does not contain any dairy. It ''does'', however, contain meat and gelatin from a pig's head.
* Grape Nuts have nothing to do with grapes. Or nuts. They contain dextrose, sometimes called "grape sugar," although dextrose is more commonly known as glucose, which means "grain sugar".
* For the longest time Apple Jacks had no apple taste at all. In fact, there was an awkward period of advertising where commercials had people surprised that Apple Jacks didn't taste like apples, when the cereal at the time actually
* French Fries actually came from Belgium, or perhaps Spain. There's some debate as to which. To those thinking it's about the style of cutting, the original verb meaning to cut in that style of cutting is to ''julienne'' (and yes, it is from France); the use of "Frenching" to refer to this comes ''after and because of'' French fries.
** Also, they were discovered by American soldiers serving in France during World War I and brought back to the States.
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* German chocolate cake is not from Germany, but American. It was originally made by Sam ''German''.
** For an actual German chocolate cake, by which we mean the cake is actually from Germany and also happens to be a chocolate cake, you'll want a [[wikipedia:Black Forest cake|Black Forest cake]] instead. (Yes, like the one in ''[[Portal (series)|Portal]]''.)
***
*** And that forest has the usual green and brown colour tones.
*** Worse, it's called ''Selva Negra'' (Black ''Jungle'') in Spanish.
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*Place names are usually not their ancestors residence when they lived there. It is usually given because they moved. After all what would be the point if everyone comes from that place.
**This Tropper knows a Rhodes who has a dark and menacing look that makes one wonder if his ancestor was not indeed out marauding with the Knights Hospitalers(who were once based on Rhodes)at one time or another, before he settled down somewhere else.
* Despite the name, your average [[Conspiracy Theorist]] will almost never describe an overall theory of the conspiracy. This is because their preferred approach allows them to jump from one issue to another when they get cornered, and a complete theory can be debunked once and for all, in addition to just plain looking [[Gambit Roulette|ridiculous and improbable]].<ref>The weird thing is that hoaxers honestly think this is a logical debate technique.</ref> [https://web.archive.org/web/20191216160007/https://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message1237984/pg1 This is what happens when one decided to come up with a such a theory]{{Dead link}}.
* You will never meet a person with [[Race Tropes|skin tones]] matching either the background or the font used on this page. Except the [[Blue Man Group]].
**
* In an unbelievable case of being both a [[Meaningful Name]] ''
=== Places ===
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* A pizza place in Columbus, Ohio is called Catfish Biff's. Their slogan: "We ain't got no fish!"
* The NASCAR track once known as the Charlotte Motor Speedway (now the Lowe's Motor Speedway) is located in the city of Concord, North Carolina, which is not even in the same county as Charlotte.
**
** Similarly, the Milwaukee Mile is neither located in the city of Milwaukee (although West Allis, where the track is actually located, is still in Milwaukee County) nor is it a true mile.
* Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House, which many people take as meaning they held the surrender meeting in a courthouse. In fact, that was just the name of the town (really not much more than a hamlet, which didn't actually have a courthouse), and the ceremony was held in a civilian dwelling.
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* 7-Elevens are likely to be open 24/7.
** This is an [[Artifact Title]], since 7 AM to 11 PM used to be the store's regular hours before they expanded to being always open.
* Battersea Funfair was an amusement park, not a funfair.
* A demilitarized zone is supposed to not allow military activity. The Korean Demilitarized Zone (between North and South Korea), [[wikipedia:Korean Demilitarized Zone|as the Wikipedia article goes]], is "the most heavily militarized border in the world". You know that mined field from ''[[Die Another Day]]''? It really exists.
* The University of Texas at [[DFW Metroplex|Dallas]] is not actually in Dallas (save for a couple of buildings), but is instead mostly located in a suburb of Dallas, Richardson.
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* [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_City The Forbidden City]; not truly a city, it's actually a complex of former imperial palaces - and now a museum - located ''within'' a city, Beijing. In fact, the Forbidden City is located within a larger complex called the Imperial City, which again, is not truly a city.
* The Harvard Bridge is actually closer to MIT.
**
** Some of the north/south/east/west issues make a certain degree of sense
** Harvard Square has three sides.
* In Toronto, New College is
* Northwestern University sits squarely in the Midwestern US, in Evanston, Illinois (immediately north of Chicago). It was admittedly part of the area known as the Northwest Territory when it was founded in the early 19th century, but now it just sounds silly, especially considering that it's in the far ''northeastern'' corner of Illinois, and Northeastern Illinois University isn't far from it at all.
* American Indians have nothing to do with India. However, Indian-Americans do.
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*** Also California, Missouri, as well as the former Kinderhook (according to [[That Other Wiki]], named for Martin Van Buren's home city in New York) and Seneca (Native American tribe from New York relocated to Oklahoma) counties.
** Also Michigan City, Indiana. Ireland, Indiana; Kokomo Indiana; Brazil, Indiana; Lebanon, Indiana; Peru, Indiana... We could go on a world tour and not leave the bloody state.
*** Versailles, Indiana, and Vincennes, Indiana, both named after places in France (although it isn't in Indiana, Paris, Illinois, has this trait as well). And Gnaw Bone. Which has nothing to do with gnawing bones, it's a bastardization of Narbon. Also, Santa Claus does not live in Santa Claus, IN, but he does have a mail processing center and the Holiday World amusement park there
*** Vigo County in southwestern Indiana does contain a town called Vigo, but it isn't the county seat—that would be Terre Haute. Terre Haute itself comes from French words meaning "high land," but is situated in a rather flat part of the Midwest called the Wabash Valley.
*** For that matter, three hours north on US 41, you'll find a town (also?) called Highland, Indiana... which is every bit as flat as Terre Haute and no higher than any other town in the area.
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*** Then there's Rio Grande—which, for some odd reason, is pronounced "RY-o" Grande.
*** In Ohio, there are two cities called Centerville and two cities called Middleton. They are in the four corners of the state.
***
*** Also In Ohio, the cities of Huron and Sandusky are not in Huron County and Sandusky County, respectively. They're both in Erie County. Also, Logan is not in Logan County—it's in Hocking County.
*** There's also a Newark in Ohio. And in about 17+ other places, which is why the original one calls itself Newark-On-Trent to anyone from outside the town...
*** Hamilton is in Butler County, not Hamilton County; Cincinnati is in Hamilton County.
** Arizona now feels silly, even though we have "Fort X" where there's no fort, and Tuba City has nothing to do with the instrument.
** Oregon has a city called Bend, and a city called North Bend. North Bend is about 250 miles from Bend, and is west-southwest of it.
** Delaware County, Pennsylvania (the western suburbs of [[Philadelphia (useful notes)|Philadelphia]]) is adjacent to, but not in, Delaware. The city of Chester is in Delaware County, not in adjacent Chester County; that's where "West Chester" is. Delaware County includes a Ridley, a Ridley Park, and a Ridley Creek Park (three different places); a "Radnor-Chester Road" that begins in Radnor but does not go to Chester, and a "Darby-Paoli Road" that does not go to either Darby or Paoli. There's also Overbrook golf course (not in Overbrook), the Philadelphia country club (not in Philadelphia), and Aronomink golf course (not in Aronomink).
** North East, Pennsylvania is another city...located in the northwest corner of the state. It is however located in the northeast corner of Erie County.
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** How many of the twenty-some world cities named Springfield actually have a field, or disappear come late June/December?
** Champaign, Illinois, is in Champaign County. This would seemingly imply that it is the county seat, but similarly to the Vigo County, Indiana, example above, it isn't -- Urbana is. Of course, Champaign and Urbana are right next to each other (which is why they're quite often referred to collectively as Champaign-Urbana or Urbana-Champaign), which might explain this.
** Florida has a city called Seminole and a county named Seminole. But the city of Seminole is
* In Texas state agencies have nonindicative names to the point where a rule of thumb is that the more important the job sounds, the less power it has. The Railroad Commission, for example, has the power to regulate the state's oil and natural gas deposits. This goes on to the point where a common joke is that when George Bush was elected President of the United States, Rick Perry stepped down from his position as the most powerful man in Texas (the Lt. Governor) to become the Governor. It makes sense, however, since the Lt. Governor actually has more direct control over the state government than the Governor.
* The Spanish Riding School is in Vienna.
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** That's because it was originally a berry farm by Walter Knott. Founded America's First Theme Park and also sold the first boysenberries (named after his supplier of them, Rudolph Boysen).
* The New York Giants and the New York Jets football teams both play in New Jersey.
** This sort of thing is not uncommon in the NFL. The Washington Redskins play in Landover, Maryland. The Buffalo Bills play in Orchard Park. The Dallas Cowboys play in Arlington, Texas. The Miami Dolphins is an odd case, they don't play in Miami but instead on ''Miami Gardens''. The Patriots, oddly, subverts this trope when they moved from Boston to Foxborough, they changed their name from Boston Patriots to New England Patriots.
** Similarly, Millwall FC are no longer located in Millwall (where their ground used to be is now Mudchute Park) but in New Cross, nor are Arsenal FC still associated with Woolwich Arsenal (they're in Highbury). Chelsea FC have never been located in (posh) Chelsea (the land prices are too high) but always in (neighbouring, working-class) Fulham.
* The [[wikipedia:Southern Tier|Southern Tier]] is directly north of the [[wikipedia:Northern Tier (Pennsylvania)|Northern Tier]]. They are in southern New York state and northern Pennsylvania, respectively.
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* [[Montreal]] directions are totally screwed up. The South Shore is due east of downtown Montreal and Montréal-Est is nearly due north of it. "Eastbound" buses run anywhere from northeast to due north (in Verdun and Pointe-aux-Trembles). This is due to considering the St. Lawrence River as running west to east, which it mostly does, but at Montreal it runs north-northeast. Someone called Montreal "the only city where the sun sets in the north."
* The names of the English counties Derbyshire and Lancashire used to be indicative, but aren't any longer; their county towns are now Matlock and Preston respectively. The former was probably changed because Matlock is in the middle of the county, whilst Derby is on the eastern edge (not too far from Nottingham); likewise, Lancaster was in the middle of the pre-1968 Lancashire, but is now near the northern edge, whilst Preston is much nearer the middle. The counties haven't been renamed to match these changes, probably because "Matlockshire" and "Prestonshire" just sound wrong.
* Winnipeg has a West End neighbourhood... right in the middle of everything. It ''used'' to be an indicative name, but the city of Winnipeg acquired the city of St. James just to its west in [[The Seventies]]. Similarly, there are the neighbourhoods-and-former-villages of West Kildonan, North Kildonan, and East Kildonan, all of which are in the northeast corner of the city - north of the North End, to boot - which are arranged respectively northwest to southeast, all of them south of "Old Kildonan."
** The Red River isn't red.
** St. John's Cathedral isn't on Cathedral Ave., but on Anderson.
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** An "Islamic Community Center" is a mosque, according to the various pages on [[The Other Wiki]] that discuss particular Islamic Community Centers. If that's wrong, then there are a lot of pages that need updating there... and, unlike ATT, they'll ask for citations.
* Renaissance Festivals are typically based on England in the Medieval period or the Elizabethan period (sometimes a combination of both), but they have next to nothing to do with the culture of Renaissance Italy.
**
* The [[Oedipus Complex]] is named after a character that didn't have it: [[Oedipus Rex|Oedipus]] didn't know that the man that he murdered was his father or that the woman that he married was his mother, and was revolted by both revelations. Moreover, he wasn't in love with his mother, and he didn't hate his father—he killed his father after a chance encounter with him, and he only married his mother (the queen) because of the wealth and power that it entailed.
* The Big Ten Conference in collegiate athletics has had eleven members since 1990. The number eleven is hidden within the logo, but the name "Big Ten" has been rendered nonindicative. Chalk it up to the [[Grandfather Clause]].
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** False cognates are words that looks similar and have similar meanings, but are completely unrelated. Not the same as false friends (which can sometimes be cognates).
*** An example would be the Greek word ''θεός'' (theos) and the [[Pre-Columbian Civilizations|Nahuatl]] ''teotl''; both words mean "god" in their respective languages but [[Anachronism Stew|we're pretty sure ancient Greece and the Aztec Empire never had contact with one another]] outside of a game of ''[[Civilization]]'' (wherein one probably conquered the other).
***
***
*** The Indonesian word 'air' means ''water'' in English.
*** The word "yama" means "mountain" in Japanese and "pit" in Russian.
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*** And the [[Eighty Years War]] lasted for 68 years of fighting, but 80 from beginning to end. The Twelve Years' Truce separated two lengthy periods of warfare. Also, only one of the parties involved (The Netherlands and Spain) considers it a war.
** The French and Indian War was not France vs. the indigenous peoples of the American continent. The French and Indians fought ''together'' against the British. (There were Indians on the British side too.) ''[[Dave Barry Slept Here]]'' refers to this confusion, further asserting, "The British didn't even realize they were suppose to be ''in'' this war until several years after it started, by which time the French and the Indians, totally confused, had inflicted heavy casualties upon each other."
***
*** Some historians have called the period of fighting between Britain and France from roughly 1689 to 1815 (including the Seven Years' War) the "Second Hundred Years' War." Actual length, 126 years.
** ''La Guerra de los Pasteles'' (literally ''cake wars'') was fought because of complaints made by a French baker whose property was damaged during previous battles in Mexico.
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** Same thing with the French Radical party (it's in the center). It only got this name historically in the 19th century when it was radically in favour of laicity and republicanism, and the name stuck. And the left radicals are just its center-left wing.
*** 'Radical' doesn't mean left-wing, though, it just means in favour of radical action and/or change.
*
** The origin of this party's name is that it was formed in 1980s, when the Soviet Union was slowly crumbling apart and "liberal" and "democratic" were buzzwords of instant political success.
* Rationalization doesn't usually involve very much reason or rationality at all.
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