Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,561
edits
m (update links) |
No edit summary |
||
(27 intermediate revisions by 11 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
{{cleanup|Some examples have already been moved to subpages. For consistency, the rest should follow suit.}}
[[File:stophelpingoots.png|link=The Order of the Stick|frame|MUST...RESIST...URGE TO KILL...]]
{{quote|'''Phileas Fogg:''' Watch out on the right! ''(Passepartout turns around to find nothing)'' ...[[Your Other Left|No, no, my right.]]
''(Passepartout gets ganged up on)''
'''Passepartout:''' [[Trope Namer|STOP HELPING ME!]]
|''[[Around the World in Eighty Days]]'' (2004)}}
Sometimes, "help" can be more trouble than it's worth.
Every gamer knows the scenario: It's taken you the best part of three hours to get to this stage of the game. Your mission involves skill and dexterity, but that's all
'''''"BE CAREFUL!!!"'''''
Line 18 ⟶ 20:
It ''can't'' be simple coincidence that so many characters that are meant to "help" you sport irritating voices, social ineptitude and the worst sense of timing on the planet. It ''has'' to be a conspiracy. It's also sadistic -- [[All There in the Manual|in the game manual]], it says that this character is a loyal best friend or devoted assistant. He's there to help you. You wish he wouldn't.
The character that has you screaming "Stop helping me!" is usually an [[Exposition Fairy]] who either has an attitude problem or interrupts when you really wish they wouldn't. Sometimes it's [[Spoony Bard|a party member who's a master of the]] [[Useless Useful Spell]]
Unfortunately, these annoyances are never disposable characters. You're stuck with them for the entirety of the game. The best you can hope for is that they do a [[Face Heel Turn]] and become the bad guy's problem. In fact, sending them to the opposite faction might be a good tactical maneuver on your part. However, in that instance, [[Murphy's Law]] will kick in and they'll be [[Good Is Dumb|just as effective fighting against you as they were ineffective fighting for you]]. ''C'est la vie.'' At least you don't have to listen to their voice constantly and you finally have that excuse to kill them that you've been waiting all game for.
In fact, most "guide" characters will try the player's patience if they've played the game through a couple of
This should go without saying, but try to avoid sticking AI sidekicks in here that are simply not [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard|perfect]]. If they can pull their own weight in a fight, but have different priorities and thresholds for doing things than a player might, then they probably don't belong here. (Complaining that the computer is trying to use its healing items on you earlier than you necessarily want it to, for example, does not put them in
Compare [[Escort Mission]], [[Offending the Creator's Own]], [[Worst Aid]]. Compare [[Mission Control Is Off Its Meds]], where the voice is intentionally designed to be unhelpful or confusing. Related to [[For Your Own Good]] and [[Don't Shoot the Message]]. When it happens ''regardless'' of what is happening, it's [[Continue Your Mission, Dammit!]]
{{examples on subpages}}
{{examples}}
== New Media ==
* Any internet search engine that tries to predict what you're going to type before you type it by offering up a list of suggestions, especially if that list covers up or moves the "search" button so that you try to click on "search" and end up hitting the suggestion instead, as seen [http://i52.tinypic.com/eajfvb.jpg here]. Especially when you copy something, paste it into the search engine, and go to click "search."
** [[Google]] is always VERY helpful, as seen [http://i55.tinypic.com/v49sgx.jpg here]. You type something in, and it searches for something '''else''' under the assumption that you're too stupid to type in what you want.
*** Not to mention the highly distracting "instant search" which looks for things as you type them, and often searches for all the wrong things until you're done typing completely. But for every letter you type, it seems to find something drastically different, combined with the previously-mentioned "covering of the Search button". To use Google with instant search on, I have to look at the keyboard as I type, because looking at the screen messes with my mind. Luckily, this can easily be turned off.
* [[YouTube]] now offers helpful suggestions in case you spell something correctly, as seen [http://i52.tinypic.com/1z6efl5.jpg here].
** Which became especially stupid when searching for [[The Idolmaster|The iDOLM@STER]] when it would replace the a with @ and then FAIL TO FIND ANYTHING because it couldn't recognize the @ symbol.
* Yahoo Answers seems to panic if one uses proper punctuation, as seen [http://i55.tinypic.com/12557ki.jpg here].
* The imageboard ''4chan'' briefly gained a Clippy-inspired "helper" one April first. Asking Sticky the 4chan Assistant for help with "trolling" emptied your post and name fields, and replaced it all with the words "DICK BUTT".
==
* In the ''[[The Terminator|T2 3-D: Battle Across Time]]'' show at Universal Studios, this is The Terminator's response to John Connor's repeatedly telling him how close the baddie was.
== Real Life ==
===
{{Clippy|It looks like you're reading trope examples.
Would you like help with that?
* [[Trope|Read the definition of a trope.]]
* [[Special:RandomPage|Read another page of trope examples.]]
* [[:Category:ATT Templates|Use a template to add an example to this page.]]
|float=1}}
* Clippit (a.k.a. Clippy), the animated paper clip "assistant" in ''Microsoft Office''. Clippy is just one of several assistants (including a dog and a wizard) which differ from him by animations and little else—i.e., they're equal on annoyance level. Clippy just gets all the sass because he's the default one.
** Parodied on an episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'': A python attacks a Springfield school computer, and Clippy springs up to say, "You look like you're trying to eat me. Need some help?"
** Parodied again in another ''Simpsons'' episode. "It looks like you're trying to blow up the computer. Mind if I hug my kids?"
** Also parodied on an episode of ''[[Family Guy]]''. "It looks like you're trying to take over the world. Do you need some help?" Stewie's response: "Go away, you paper clip! No one likes you!"
** ''Also'' parodied in a small spoof "advert" for Windows RG ("Really Good"), where typing ''anything'' causes Clippy to appear.
{{quote|
** Yet another parody on 2DTV: during a sketch in which ''Matrix'' characters end up inside the Windows system, Clippy turns up with a cheery "Hey, you look like you're trying to write a letter -- want some help?" only to be smited away. Later, she reappears with a "Hey, you look like you're trying to beat up Bill Gates, want some help?", only this time she is left alone as she kicks the dustbin Bill Gates is currently sticking out of.
** I believe [https://web.archive.org/web/20080516165817/http://www.elfwood.com/libr/a/n/angry/zheroes.htm.html this] story is appropriate here. And also cathartic.
** As is [http://www.cracked.com/blog/clippy-finally-messes-with-the-wrong-word-doc/ this]. Corruption blackmail, suicide attempts, Cthulhu... this story has it all!
** From ''[[Mass Effect (video game)|Mass Effect 1]]'' "It looks like you are trying to restore the station. Would you like assistance?" [[Crowning Moment of Funny|"Oh crap. A pop-up."]]
Line 168 ⟶ 67:
*** Arguably, Office 2007 was the only one that needed the Assistants there. Microsoft completely redesigned Word, which was amazingly unhelpful, something they apparently realized. When they released Office 2008, they went back to the classic format (sans Assistants), with everybody breathing a sigh of relief.
** Parodied in several freeware games, such as a Clippy Blaster shoot-em-up, as well as an intentionally-unhelpful assistent for Unix editor VI, called VIgor. This was first suggested as a joke in webcomic ''[[User Friendly]]'', but the internet being the internet, somebody actually created it, sporting such gems as "You seem to be trying to move the cursor to the left. Are you sure you want to do that?"
** Also, the assistant Cuppit from adventure game spoof ''[[
** Clippy's "assistance" methods have since spread to Hotmail and Windows Vista, which will block various things without allowing you the option to manually override the block. To add to the problem, the false positive rate is astounding, to the point where the majority of positives will be false positives.
** Clippy is seen when [https://web.archive.org/web/20131215174109/http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1886349 The Matrix Runs on Windows]:
{{quote|
** Comedian Demetri Martin once did a joke about Clippy helping to write a ransom letter. "You should use stronger language, you'll get more money!"
** The guys at ''[[Red vs. Blue]]'' created an episode in which the character of Sarge (stereotypical Texan [[Turned Up to Eleven]]) reminisced about being "next in line to be one of those little Office Assistant thingies." It then had a shot of Sarge being an Office Assitant - popping up on page and screaming "WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO TODAY ''DIRTBAG!'') which was [[Crowning Moment of Funny]]. [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] came when mere hours after the episode was released a Red Vs Blue fan ''actually created a Sarge Office Assistant that popped up and scream at you "WHERE DO YOU WANT TO GO TODAY DIRTBAG"''
** In 2005, when Microsoft ("a company with a doubly un-erotic name") backed out of supporting a gay rights bill in Washington because of threats of a boycott, ''[[The Daily Show]]'' showed the explanatory company-wide email as it would have been typed into Microsoft Outlook: "I don't want the company to be in the position of appearing to dismiss the deeply held beliefs of any employee by picking sides on a..." Up pops Clippy: [[Take That|"You seem to be composing a lame cop-out. Need help?"]]
** A [[Captain Ersatz]] of Clippy appears in the first issue of IDW's [[Doctor Who|Eleventh Doctor]] comic series. When the TARDIS lands on a planet that is essentially a halfway home for holographic spam email, one of the holograms is a talking stapler that offers advice at the most inopportune moments (sample dialogue: "You appear to be about to be disemboweled by a monster. Would you like any assistance?") Subverted in that the stapler proves in the end to be genuinely helpful and resolves the "B"
* Automatic spelling
** The English version also "corrects" lower case i to upper case I.
* [[BonziBuddy]].
* Rogue security programs. They're not even really trying to help you (quite the opposite, actually), but that's how they try to come off.
=== Other Real Life ===
* Anyone who has ever had a hypochondriac for a friend has probably felt this way at some point.
* Many an EMT or firefighter has at least thought this when someone untrained, unfortunately frequently a cop, attempts to "help". No, grabbing the suspected spinal injury victim by the arm and trying to pull him to his feet to move him isn't optimal, thank you.
Line 256 ⟶ 86:
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Stock Phrases]]
[[Category:Video Game Characters]]
[[Category:
|