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* An in-universe example is brought up in the final episode of [[Ghost in the Shell]]:[[Stand Alone Complex]] where a few of [[The Protagonist|the protagonists]] meet in a library. One points out the uselessness of printed media to which another points out that it is just a habit of mankind.
* The character of Index can't really be dropped from the series ''[[To Aru Majutsu no Index]]'' but her character and abilities after the initial arc don't really add anything. However, she's fairly popular and, again, her name is in the title. So as the story introduces two more protagonists and something of a rival main heroine, poor Index is largely confined to either comedy scenes or used as a macguffin. Some of the less kind fans have taken to calling her a [[Half Life|headcrab]] in response to her perceived uselessness and most common running gag.
== Comic Books ==
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* [[Fantastic Four|Reed Richards]] has the ability to stretch his limbs. However, as time goes on he used this power for actual combat less and less. Why? Because he's [[The Smart Guy]] of the Marvel universe, and that's dominated his characterization. If he shows up outside of the book, expect little use of the stretching, and inside the book only occasionally.
** Often he'll just be randomly stretched for no important reason, just for the purpose of them acknowledging that's his power or else he uses it to grab an item on a counter far away or something. Pretty much never for combat.
** Some more recent{{when}} comics, such as 4, bring his elastic body back into the foreground by showing how useful such a power is when in the hands of the smartest man on the planet. His secondary powers from his plastine skin (such as not needing to sweat, or enhanced heat resistance) come up often too.
* The ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (comics)|Legion of Super-Heroes]]'' has a group called the Legion of Super-Villains. This sort of [[Silver Age]] name would never be used nowadays (since nobody thinks of themselves as villains), but is so closely associated with the group that it can't be changed in the comic. (The [[Legion of Super-Heroes (TV series)|cartoon]] used '''L'''ight '''S'''peed '''V'''anguard.)
* [[Orient Men]] was originally basically a superhero parody, who battled crooks and giant apes and ghosts. Then the comic switched to more eclectic humor and plotline, and though Orient Men still wore his superhero cape and [[Flight|flew around]], his "superhero" status became more and more ignored.
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** Many modern writers have found [[The Mighty Thor|Thor]]'s "Dr. Donald Blake" secret identity to be dispensable, and it's only used in [[Thor (film)|the 2011 movie]] as a brief [[Continuity Nod]] (and because, well, were the scientists ''supposed'' to say, "hey, this is a guy who fell from the sky and says he's a depowered god" or "this is my brother Donald"?)
** The Jaime Reyes [[Blue Beetle]] is an example of a more modern approach to the secret identity. He technically has one, but his close friends and immediate family are all [[Secret Keeper|in on the secret]].
** For that matter, [[Captain America (comics)|Captain America]]. If you read his [[Golden Age]] adventures, why the government would spend all the money and resources on an elite special forces symbol of America in the largest war in its history, only to hide him out as a buck private - not only [[Cannon Fodder|risking getting him killed in combat taking some stupid bridge]], but also forcing him to make up some lame excuse every time he needs to slip away for a real mission - is a complete mystery. As with Thor and Iron Man, [[Captain America: The First Avenger|the 2011 movie]] dispensed with it altogether.
*** And on that note, Cap's whole origin. Although it [[Zeerust Canon|probably made sense to Jack Kirby and Joe Simon in 1940]] to have one [[Mad Scientist|lone scientist]] (Dr. Erskine) in charge of ''an entire government program'', such that if he got killed, all his research was lost, by the end of [[World War II]] and the revelation of the Manhattan Project, during which multiple groups of physicists were working all across the country, often with no knowledge of what others were doing or, indeed, that there ''were'' others to begin with, it should have been clear [[Did Not Do the Research|government programs do not work that way]]. Still, almost all subsequent adaptations and reboots have kept the lone Dr. Erskine around because that's how the story goes.
*** There is also the problem of Bucky, Cap's [[Kid Sidekick]]. While Robin gets a pass because of Batman's "eccentricities," Bucky is much harder to justify for a superhero during [[World War II]] who is a definite agent of the US Military having an clearly [[Child Soldier|underage partner]]. As a result, most modern talents tend to fudge about his age to get by.
** They are even beginning to apply this to ''Batman,'' of all people. With Batman (as of mid-2011) franchising out his name, a public awareness that maybe he's more than one guy, and the fact that Wayne has publicly admitted to funding Batman, the response when someone says, "Bruce Wayne is Batman," tends to be, "So?" Not to mention that many of his enemies (including Ra's, the Black Glove, and possibly Joker and Riddler) know his identity, and all of his close friends and family tend to be [[Badass]] in their own right, his secret ID is getting pointless.
** Of course, secret identities make perfect logical ''sense'', for many superheroes, for the simple reason that this is why their parents, kids, spouses, friends, and neighbors are alive. If their enemies knew who they were/are, they'd ''immediately'' target the superhero when he was off-guard, as well as his friends and loved ones. Or to put it another way, if his enemies (most of them) knew Peter Parker was Spiderman, Aunt May's life expectancy (even prior to One More Day) would have been... limited. Peter's success in keeping it secret is aided by the idea of his spider sense going off whenever his privacy is threatened, making it very difficult to observe him secretly or sneak up on him.
** Except most superheroes, including Spider-Man spend a disproportionate amount of time rescuing their own loved ones. Heck, Peter Parker is know as Spider-Man's photographer so attacking him and his loved ones would be a good way to draw Spider-Man into a trap.
* Speaking of Batman, ''Robin'' is becoming more and more an artifact of the Gold and Silver Age. Teen sidekicks used to be everywhere, but these days it reeks of irresponsible child endangerment (especially with the current{{when}} Robin being a ''pre-teen''). Robin is virtually the only one left, because he's integral to the character. (And yet, note his absence from the [[Christopher Nolan]] films.)
** Jim Starlin, who wrote Post-Crisis Jason Todd as Robin, believed the character was an artifact, served no purpose, offered him up to be killed by editorial, and deliberately wrote Jason to be as unlikable as possible. This culminated in the infamous "Call in to decide Robin's fate!" debacle, which did not go over as well as planned and led to the introduction of a third Robin anyway.
** And in the Tim Drake era, Robin generally only occasionally appears as a regular in Batman's series, appearing more in his own book and in [[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]].
* [[Spider-Man
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[The Lord of the Rings (film)|The Lord of the Rings]]'' is an interesting example. Arwen wasn't super-prominent in [[The Lord of the Rings|the books]], more or less a [[One-Scene Wonder]], but Liv Tyler was high-profile enough that filmmakers felt it would be pragmatic to expand her role. She got third billing too. However, as the films went on, they (rightly) felt they would do well to stick to Tolkien and focus on the main plot, and the films were pretty much successful enough to not bother with pleasing focus research. As a result, Arwen's appearances in ''Return of the King'' are essentially cameos.
** The same principle happened to Cate Blanchett's Galadriel, but to a lesser degree because she is already way more prominent than Arwen. Apart from the Lothlorien chapters (which take up a sizable chunk of ''Fellowship of the Ring''), Galadriel gets mentioned again from time to time, and she shows up at the very end. The appendices give more information about her, including an [[Offscreen Moment of Awesome]] where she (and her husband) led an elven army to destroy one of Sauron's main fortresses in the North while the main characters were fighting their own battles to the East. For the films, Blanchett was given more lines and scenes throughout the trilogy.
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* ''[[James Bond]]'' using a Walther PPK continues primarily because it's iconic of the character and Walther sponsors the franchise. During the [[Cold War]] the PPK was very tiny for a pistol and being produced by Nazi Germany it couldn't be linked to any country's official operations (Leftover German guns were used to arm proxy states all over the world by both sides of the Cold War and many caches left in Africa and the Middle East have supplied third parties). Now the PPK is horribly out of date with guns that are smaller and more powerful while having better ergonomics (the PPK has a reputation for painful recoil despite its tiny cartridge) are common, 7.65 Browning is relatively rare and illicit arms sales are a far better origin cover than an antique from a war that occurred almost 75 years ago. An attempt to replace it with more modern P5 was made in ''[[Octopussy]]'', but it failed because the movie never mentions the new gun. A more successful attempt was made in ''[[Tomorrow Never Dies]]'' to replace it with the new P99, but this was dropped several films latter.
==
* The criminal law of Finland still starts with the words (roughly translated) "''We, Alexander the Third, with the grace of God, Emperor and Autocrat of Russia, Tzar of Poland, Grand Duke of Finland, etc. etc. etc. decree that...''" and so on and so forth, even though Finland has not been under Russian rule since 1917, and a quite significant portion of the law has changed since.▼
* Since the Constitution of the United States cannot be changed, only amended, the 18th amendment still establishes the prohibition of alcohol (repealed by the 21st amendment). In theory an amendment can be declared to have never passed (claimed of the 16th amendment by a small number) or be deemed unconstitutional (The 17th Amendment is argued to deprive states of equal representation in the Senate, the one thing an amendment can't do. Support for this claim far exceeds the previous but is still small) and suffer [[Ret-Gone]], but this has never happened and lacks widespread support.▼
* To a degree this would seem to apply to Zaphod Beeblebrox in ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' series (at least in the book version), after he fulfills his self imposed mission. He makes a fairly small appearance in ''Life, the Universe and Everything'' and is then completely absent from the final two books, though he is mentioned once or twice. The radio version of the last book, ''Mostly Harmless'' (made after Douglas Adams' death) felt compelled to bring him back anyway.
** Similarly, any visual version of ''Hitchhiker's Guide'' suffers from the complication of giving Zaphod a second head and a third arm. Both elements were completely unimportant in the actual books and radio play and just inserted to be weird. Yet if you were to design a one headed, two armed Zaphod, you'd have a riot of galactic proportions.
*** The [[The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy (film)|movie]] compromised this by only giving him a ''retractable'' head (which actually becomes a plot point in this version). He ''does'' have three arms, but the extra one only shows up a few times, and seems to come out of his chest.
** The radio version's differing plot for the second season kept Zaphod in a fairly important role, and he was a popular character; so they gave him an expanded role in the adapted series.
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** In ''After the Funeral'' there is an emphasis on nuns, something that turns out to be a false lead designed by the culprit to redirect suspicion. In the ''[[Poirot]]'' adaptation, the running thread of the nuns are shifted from the murderer to other suspects, making it more of an obscure [[Red Herring]] than an actual clue.
▲== Live Action TV ==
* Ryan Howard on ''[[The Office]]'' has never been quite important enough to justify his existence as one of the main cast members, but he definitely had a role as The New Guy who would react to all the strangeness of the Office because he wasn't used to it. After the third season he actually started becoming less important than the likes of Angela, Stanley, Kevin, etc. none of whom are in the opening credits. By this point, if Ryan appears in an episode at all it's as little more than a cameo, and yet he's still there in the opening credits.
** He's in the main credits because the actor who plays him is also one of the producers, not because of the importance of his character.
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* On ''[[Boy Meets World]]'', Topanga's ''name'' was one. Her character was given that name to emphasize her [[Granola Girl]] personality and overal weirdness (the name comes from Topanga Canyon in Los Angeles, where a lot of hippies reside), but after her character was retooled in season two and those aspects of her character were dropped, she just became a normal girl with a weird name. In light of this, there were several jokes about her name throughout the series.
* ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'''s catchphrase "Live, from New York, it's Saturday Night!", came about because when it first premiered, there was already a television program called ''Saturday Night Live'' that aired on ABC, so the show was called ''NBC's Saturday Night'' during its first season.
* Depending on who you ask, Yeoman Rand's [[Chuck Cunningham Syndrome|slow fade]] from ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' during the first season was an example of this. She was originally supposed to be Kirk's love interest on ship, but it was soon decided that it would be better if he didn't have one, and without anything for her to do they phased her out to the point that she [[Demoted to Extra|only appears in the background of one scene, without any lines]], in "The Conscience of the King"
** This decision may have been helped along by the severe drug and alcohol addiction Grace Lee Whitney had at the time, which William Shatner and others claim was the main reason Rand was dropped. However, Grace Lee Whitney has said that she only developed the drug problem after she was fired.
* Originally, Zoe, Demetri's
* [[The Movie]] of ''[[Thomas the Tank Engine]]'' introduced the engine Lady as a sort of [[MacGuffin Girl]] keeping the magical bond between the Engines' world and the real world alive, but this magical bond is not only never mentioned in any other version, but Shining Time Station and the Messrs. Conductor have since been phased out entirely. Nevertheless, Lady continued to appear in a few stories released shortly after the film, despite having lost the one thing that made her special and interesting. She disappeared after she'd appeared in enough stories to justify the toys to kids who didn't see the movie.
* When ''[[Sex and the City]]'' began, almost every episode had a [[Montage]] of extras speaking directly to the camera in various settings, all supposedly answering Carrie's questions for her column and related to the episode's theme. As the characters began to develop and evolve to the point that they could carry the plot well enough by themselves, this narrative was no longer necessary to keep the audience's attention, and they were phased out slowly over the course of the second season.
* When Oliver Queen in ''[[Smallville]]'' dressed up as [[Green Arrow]], his costume included a computerized voice modifier that lowered his voice, helping to preserve his secret
* Lucy Ewing becomes an artifact character on ''[[Dallas]]'' around the fourth or fifth season once she grows up and stops being a wild teenager. The writers gave her a drug problem, got her off of it and had her chase different short-term male guest stars (she almost married one until J.R. found out he was gay). Her appearances on the show notably dwindle from the sixth season; finally they [[Put on a Bus|Put Her On a Bus]] to Atlanta to marry one of the previously-mentioned males, brought her back after the divorce, sent her to Italy, brought her back again, and finally sort of lampshaded the whole thing by excluding her from the series finale episode and adding a line that in a world without J.R., she'd never have been born.
* On ''[[So Random]]'', the performers still go by the character names from when it was a [[Show Within a Show]] on ''[[Sonny With a Chance]]''.
* Though the only unhealthy thing about fat per se is that it has nine calories per gram as opposed to four with protein and carbohydrate (though fat is actually essential for vital functions, and is more filling than carbohydrate), women's magazines and health magazines regularly list both calories and fat.▼
== Music ==
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* In contrast, especially until [[Genesis (band)|Genesis]] had enough hits to throw away a lot of their earlier [[Epic Rocking|epics]], progressive pieces such as [[Suppers Ready]], "Dancing With The Moonlit Knight", "Squonk", "Dance On A Volcano" and "The Cinema Show", which were still played even as late as 1986, often clashed considerably with the new sound, style and line-up changes of the band in [[The Eighties]], to the point where they could be seen as artifacts in the setlist.
** A similar effect happened with the Trevor Rabin-era lineup of [[Yes]], who had to share catchy, post-modern, commercial, [[MTV]]-approved 80's pop hits like "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" in their setlists with early progressive [[Epic Rocking|epics]] like "Heart Of The Sunrise" and "Your Move/All Good People" from [[The Seventies]].
== Newspaper Comics ==
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** Patty, originally the mother hen and [[Alpha Bitch]], diminished as Lucy took over most of her role. She last appeared in a speaking part in 1976, with occasional cameos thereafter. When ''You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown'' was revived on Broadway in late 1990s, her role was rewritten to be Sally instead, as most modern audiences would not have been familiar with the character.
** Violet held out the longest, until 1984. By that time not only had Lucy become the strip's dominant female character, Peppermint Patty and Marcy had also arrived and established themselves.
== Professional Wrestling ==
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* [[Edge]]'s "You think you know me?" motif was from his original loner gimmick way back in 1998, yet has been inserted into all of his entrance themes, even after becoming a 15-time tag team champion and being apart of several stables, teams, and alliances.
* Cheerleader Melissa hasn't been a cheerleader since maybe 2004. While she was still training to be a full fledged wrestler, she debuted as a cheerleader-valet for a tag team with a hockey gimmick called the Ballard Brothers. After a stint in Japan she stopped valeting. She's tried renaming herself "The Future Legend" Melissa, and just plain Melissa, but it never seems to stick.
* [[Matt Hardy]]'s signature hand gesture has all but the ring finger and thumb extended, spelling V 1, a reference to a gimmick he used in 2003-2005 where he was
== Sports ==▼
* The Los Angeles Lakers, an American basketball team, originally played in Minnesota, which actually has, you know, lakes. The name makes absolutely no sense in Los Angeles, but has been around so long that it's not changing.▼
* The Utah Jazz, also an NBA team. This team originated in New Orleans, the home of jazz music. Utah? Not so much.▼
** Ironically, after the Jazz left the Charlotte Hornets moved to New Orleans, keeping the Hornets name (earned from Charlotte's nickname, "Hornet's Nest"). The name isn't completely out of place like some of the others, but it's still humorous that New Orleans is on the giving and receiving end of this trope.▼
*** To turn it around straight again, their team colors are still UNC baby blue and white.▼
* In an example of one of these ultimately being changed, in the NFL, when the Houston Oilers moved to Tennessee they kept the Oilers name for a bit, but finally changed to Titans, a name that doesn't scream Tennessee, but at least isn't a nonsensical reference to another region like the Oilers.▼
* American football has a scoring play known as the ''drop kick'', in which a player can, during play, bounce the ball off the ground and then kick it between the goalposts for a field goal or an extra point. Drop kicks have been obsolete for decades due to changes in play style and the football being made more pointed in shape to accommodate the passing game, but were never actually removed from the rule book. Cue a Miami Dolphins/New England Patriots game and consternation when Patriots backup quarterback Doug Flutie scored the first drop kick in over 60 years (it was a thank-you to coach Bill Belichick). Most NFL fans were unaware that the drop kick even existed.▼
** Likewise, the free kick. A ridiculously rare and obscure play that's only been used a handful of times in the past several decades. It takes place when a team receives a punt or kickoff and signals for a fair catch or otherwise does not return it. From the spot of the ball, rather than run a regular offensive series, the possessing team can attempt a free kick, so called because the opposing team cannot attempt to block it. The kicker and the ball spotter are the only two players involved in the play, with the kicker being allowed to take his sweet time in lining up his kick. In effect, the free kick plays like a normal kickoff, only with a spotter holding the ball rather then it being kicked from a tee. The kicker is aiming the ball for the uprights and if successful, his team receives three points like a field goal. Naturally, because even horrible punts and kickoffs are likely to push the ball well into the receiving team's territory, the circumstances where a free kick would be viable are rare in the extreme. A vast majority of recorded attempts took place in the final seconds of the half; since the opposing team can field the kick if it misses ''(and they almost always do)'', this leaves them no opportunity to run their own plays before time expires. Thus, the free kick serves mostly as a fun and arcane way to run out the clock with a somewhat safer result than throwing up a Hail Mary and risking an interception return they aren't prepared to guard against.▼
* [[Ice Hockey]], being somewhat of a lesser-tier professional sport in most places, tends to maintain a lot of Artifacts that [[Love It or Hate It|people either hold up as proof that hockey is the best game ever, or people hold up as proof that the sport is backward compared to other, more popular sports]]:▼
** The NHL instituted one point for an overtime loss starting in the 1999-2000 season, with the intention being that teams would play for a win in overtime for the extra point, instead of previous seasons where teams played defensively to keep the point they'd get in the event of a tie. After the 2004-2005 lockout, regular season games ended in a shootout if overtime kept the game tied, abolishing tie games, making the overtime loss point useless and recreating the same problem that the overtime loss point tried to fix: now teams that are tied at the end of the third period will play defensively in order to force a shootout, which they perceive to be easier to win.▼
== Theme Parks ==
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* Six Flags is the name of a string of theme parks from California to Massachusetts. The six flags are the "six flags of Texas," which have flown over it at various times in its history; the original park is near Dallas. The flags are the Spanish, French, Mexican, Texan (from its time as an independent nation), American, and Confederate. Now that the franchise is in other states, the six flags are simply shown in silhouette, as a brand logo.
** Technically, under American law, the Confederate flag isn't the flag of a nation; the secession that undergirds the Confederacy is considered, de jure, to have never been possible and therefore never taken place, and naturally the Union never recognized the Confederacy (nor did any other country). Perhaps "Six Flags" just focus-grouped better than "Five Flags."
* Originally, each of the tracks at ''Dueling Dragons'', a dual roller coaster at [[Universal Studios|Islands of Adventure]], was designed to mirror the other so that there would be several near-miss encounters between the two coasters; the ride was even programmed to make certain calculations to ensure optimal timing. However, after a few recent{{when}} accidents (possibly involving objects flying from people's pockets and hitting others), Universal made the decision to permanently end the practice of launching the coasters simultaneously, thus getting rid of the near-miss encounters that used to be the ride's main selling point, and thus rendering the design aspect of it completely without purpose (Also, the ride changed its name to ''Dragon Challenge'' after it was co-opted into ''[[Harry Potter]]'', thus averting an [[Artifact Title]]).
== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
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*** Fifth Edition Paladins can be any alignment, even Evil. The description still assumes a traditional Good aligned Paladin being described as "A paladin swears to uphold justice and righteousness, to stand with the good things of the world against the encroaching darkness, and to hunt the forces of evil wherever they lurk." and even if you choose an evil option for Sacred Oath, your smite still deals bonus damage to Fiend and Undead typed monsters because Sacred Oath's are chosen a level after you gain smite.
* In the ''[[Forgotten Realms]]'' setting, the drow city of Menzoberranzan uses a giant rock called Narbondel to measure time by heating it and letting it cool; this was added to the story when the drow saw via infravision, allowing them to see heat signatures. However, infravision was removed from the game years ago, and replaced with darkvision, that allowed people to see in perfect darkness, only in greyscale. Narbondel remains and continues to function as a clock tower, even though it's not exactly clear ''how'' the drow see it heat and cool.
* The back of ''[[Magic: The
** Also, the blue slash over the TER in DECKMASTER is a simple pen mark that no one noticed on the master until it was too late. Technically, the millions of MtG cards printed over nearly 20 years are all misprints.
** The removal of Mana Burn <ref>A rule where players took damage equal to unused mana when mana when their turn was advanced without spending it. Removed because there were so few times it would come up, and most of the times it did come up the effect was negligible and rarely changed the outcome of duels.</ref> removed the flavor (an ever increasing fire you'll eventually lose control of) and downside (eventually you're going to wide up with more mana than you can spend, eating mana burn) of [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Braid%20of%20Fire Braid of Fire] as well as making [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Discussion.aspx?multiverseid=89003 Spectral Searchlight]'s ability to give mana to other players useless outside of games with more than 2 players (though it's still good there and for giving yourself mana).
* Spell cards in the ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh Card Game]]'' made a lot more sense back when it was focused mostly on fantasy elements with a pinch of science fiction instead of the other way around.
** Likewise the term "Tribute" would seem extremely out of place nowadays. [[Warhammer 40,000|Unless the Adeptus Mechanicus had something to do with it]].
* ''[[Star Wars]]'' based RPGs (and most, but not all, expanded universe works do as well) use the metric system for most things. The versions based on ''[[Dungeons and Dragons]]''<nowiki>'</nowiki>s 3rd edition do this even though that system is built around 5 feet increments. This is obfuscated by giving measurements in "squares", which are shown on premade maps to be equal to 1.5 meters (4.92... feet).
== [[Video Games]] ==
* A common occurence in many a [[MMORPG]], as new content, released via patches or expansion packs, frequently leaves older content of less importance. Some examples include:
** ''[[World of Warcraft]]'s'' pre-expansion content had hints of this. Quest design was much more varied and interesting in Northrend, Outlands, or even the Bloodelf and Draenei starting areas. Blizzard attempted to fix this with the ''Cataclysm'' expansion pack, which changed the pre-expansion content (even for players who didn't purchase the expansion pack) to clear up any remaining artifacts and grant the older continents some of the smoother gameplay aspects developed in the expansion worlds.
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* Pom Pom in ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' was meant to be Homestar's sidekick when the cartoon was still primarily sports-based, easily the number two character in early cartoons, behind Homestar himself. As the cartoon shifted away from sports and more toward Strong Bad, Pom Pom became more and more superfluous, now being one of the ''rarest'' of the twelve central characters. Probably doesn't help that he's the straight man with few quirks or flaws in a cartoon where much quirkier characters Strong Bad, Strong Sad, Marzipan, Bubs, and occasionally even Homestar himself can all play the straight man role as necessary, nor that he can't talk in anything besides bubble sounds.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* Occasionally mentioned by the ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' creators who, while enjoying the character DIV, admit that the [[DIVX]] format's failure condemns the character's basis to increasing obscurity.
* The robots in ''[[Questionable Content]]'' have taken a smaller and smaller role since almost the beginning; even their [[Plucky Comic Relief]] appearances are coming fewer and farther between.
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* In ''[[Least I Could Do]]'', the character Jon originally served as Rayne's foil, being the [[Only Sane Man]] who reined in Rayne's zanier impulses. The character fell out of use as [[Real Life Writes the Plot|the author found himself growing distant from Jon's inspiration]], and a new character (Noel) took over the role of Rayne's wingman. Eventaully Sohmer acknowledged this by writing a story arc where Rayne and Jon patch up their friendship, and with Noel's marriage and child Jon has started coming back into the forefront.
** Thankfully Noel hasn't really ever suffered from [[Replacement Scrappy]] Syndrome, in that he's notably different from Jon - Jon is the [[Only Sane Man]] who may or may not suffer ulcers from dealing with Rayne; Noel is a [[Deadpan Snarker]] who's more than happy to accompany Rayne on his adventures, and only stops Rayne before he's going to do something TOO stupid.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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** Ironically, the diminishment of Meg's character began at about the same time as her original (and uncredited) voice actor Lacey Chabert was replaced by Mila Kunis. In contrast to Chabert's rather mundane characterization, Kunis brought a sharper, more distinctive quality to the character (along with a much greater appreciation for the show's type of humor than Chabert had, which is what caused her to leave the show and be uncredited). Kunis' performance allows the out-of-proportion attacks on Meg to be funny, whereas had Chabert remained, it likely would have just come off as mean-spirited.
* Klaus, the [[The Great Politics Mess-Up|East German athlete]] in a goldfish's body in ''[[American Dad]]'' seems to serve no purpose in later episodes. Originally he may have been a foil to Roger, but with Roger's [[Character Development]] that's pretty much fallen by the wayside. Also, Hayley was originally designed as a counterpart to Stan's extreme convervatism. As the show has largely lost its political aspects, Hayley's had less to do.
** Lampshaded by Klaus and Hayley in a recent{{when}} episode. Klaus pops up on the screen out of nowhere exclaiming, "Ha! I made it into the episode! Pay me, bitches!" Then Hayley pops up saying, "Ha! Me too!" Otherwise both characters are entirely absent from the episode.
** In some later episodes, Klaus' lack of purpose is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] through Klaus bemoaning his situation, or the other characters making fun of him. One particularly cruel example is "For Whom the Sleigh Bell Tolls", where the rest of the family is fighting for their lives against Santa Claus and his elves with machine guns and hatchets, and Francine mentions "What's his name?" during a conversation with Hayley; it then cuts to Klaus floating in his bowl with no background noise, and he dispassionately says "My name is Klaus Heissler." Klaus wasn't seen again the entire episode, before or since that scene.
** The show's ''entire premise'' fell under this trope, since politics were almost completely abandoned, and Stan hardly outs himself as a conservative nor display hate for liberals anymore.
* This actually happened to Optimus Prime of all characters during the final ''[[Transformers Generation 1|Transformers]]'' season. They'd brought him back because of Fan Backlash over his removal so they couldn't very well have him leave again. But because of the [[Loads and Loads of Characters]] that had to be written in [[Merchandise-Driven|due to the toyline]] all older characters such as Blaster and Perceptor had been written off in favor of the new characters with gimmicks (such as being a Head or Target Master or part of a combination team) except for Prime. As a result he looks notably out of place with his 80s era Mack Truck form and lack of gimmicky weapons when surrounded by futuristic cars and jets and all the Masters. Notably, in the Japanese continuity which splits off right after he's brought back to life, he's killed off again almost immediately, replaced by a series of newer, more visually and technologically impressive leaders.
** In the third season, this also happened to some extent with many of the first and second season characters who survived the movie, although some of them did get important roles in an episode or two (Blaster and Soundwave in "Carnage in C-Minor", Perceptor in "The Face of the Nijika", etc.).
* In the ''[[Disney]] Sing Along Songs'' VHS series, Professor Owl from the [[Adventures in Music Duology]] was originally the host, with Jimminy Cricket and and Professor Ludwig Von Drake occasionally taking over. In later entries, Professor Owl only appears to say "And now is your host, [Jimminy Cricket / Professor Ludwig Von Drake]!", and [[The Other Darrin|in a completely different voice from the intro and earlier videos]], at that. The most likely reason is that the between-song segments were composed entirely of [[Stock Footage]] of old cartoons, and Cricket and Von
* Hack and Slash in ''[[
* ''[[Total Drama Island
* The ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'' theme-song has the titular boys saying that they want to "Drive their sister insane!" However, [[Characterization Marches On]], and now the boys are incredibly nice, and want to help their sister
** Then again, you could take the line to mean that the things they do are going to drive her insane as a side effect, even if it's not what they intend to do.
** Sort of subtly [[Lampshaded]] in ''[[Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension]]''
== Real Life ==
=== Law ===
▲* The criminal law of Finland still starts with the words (roughly translated) "''We, Alexander the Third, with the grace of God, Emperor and Autocrat of Russia, Tzar of Poland, Grand Duke of Finland, etc. etc. etc. decree that...''" and so on and so forth, even though Finland has not been under Russian rule since 1917, and a quite significant portion of the law has changed since.
▲* Since the Constitution of the United States cannot be changed, only amended, the 18th amendment still establishes the prohibition of alcohol (repealed by the 21st amendment). In theory an amendment can be declared to have never passed (claimed of the 16th amendment by a small number) or be deemed unconstitutional (The 17th Amendment is argued to deprive states of equal representation in the Senate, the one thing an amendment can't do. Support for this claim far exceeds the previous but is still small) and suffer [[Ret-Gone]], but this has never happened and lacks widespread support.
=== Nutrition ===
▲* Though the only unhealthy thing about fat per se is that it has nine calories per gram as opposed to four with protein and carbohydrate (though fat is actually essential for vital functions, and is more filling than carbohydrate), women's magazines and health magazines regularly list both calories and fat.
▲=== Sports ===
▲* The Los Angeles Lakers, an American basketball team, originally played in Minnesota, which actually has, you know, lakes. The name makes absolutely no sense in Los Angeles, but has been around so long that it's not changing.
▲* The Utah Jazz, also an NBA team. This team originated in New Orleans, the home of jazz music. Utah? Not so much.
▲** Ironically, after the Jazz left the Charlotte Hornets moved to New Orleans, keeping the Hornets name (earned from Charlotte's nickname, "Hornet's Nest"). The name isn't completely out of place like some of the others, but it's still humorous that New Orleans is on the giving and receiving end of this trope.
▲*** To turn it around straight again, their team colors are still UNC baby blue and white.
▲* In an example of one of these ultimately being changed, in the NFL, when the Houston Oilers moved to Tennessee they kept the Oilers name for a bit, but finally changed to Titans, a name that doesn't scream Tennessee, but at least isn't a nonsensical reference to another region like the Oilers.
▲* American football has a scoring play known as the ''drop kick'', in which a player can, during play, bounce the ball off the ground and then kick it between the goalposts for a field goal or an extra point. Drop kicks have been obsolete for decades due to changes in play style and the football being made more pointed in shape to accommodate the passing game, but were never actually removed from the rule book. Cue a Miami Dolphins/New England Patriots game and consternation when Patriots backup quarterback Doug Flutie scored the first drop kick in over 60 years (it was a thank-you to coach Bill Belichick). Most NFL fans were unaware that the drop kick even existed.
▲** Likewise, the free kick. A ridiculously rare and obscure play that's only been used a handful of times in the past several decades. It takes place when a team receives a punt or kickoff and signals for a fair catch or otherwise does not return it. From the spot of the ball, rather than run a regular offensive series, the possessing team can attempt a free kick, so called because the opposing team cannot attempt to block it. The kicker and the ball spotter are the only two players involved in the play, with the kicker being allowed to take his sweet time in lining up his kick. In effect, the free kick plays like a normal kickoff, only with a spotter holding the ball rather then it being kicked from a tee. The kicker is aiming the ball for the uprights and if successful, his team receives three points like a field goal. Naturally, because even horrible punts and kickoffs are likely to push the ball well into the receiving team's territory, the circumstances where a free kick would be viable are rare in the extreme. A vast majority of recorded attempts took place in the final seconds of the half; since the opposing team can field the kick if it misses ''(and they almost always do)'', this leaves them no opportunity to run their own plays before time expires. Thus, the free kick serves mostly as a fun and arcane way to run out the clock with a somewhat safer result than throwing up a Hail Mary and risking an interception return they aren't prepared to guard against.
▲* [[Ice Hockey]], being somewhat of a lesser-tier professional sport in most places, tends to maintain a lot of Artifacts that [[Love It or Hate It|people either hold up as proof that hockey is the best game ever, or people hold up as proof that the sport is backward compared to other, more popular sports]]:
▲** The NHL instituted one point for an overtime loss starting in the 1999-2000 season, with the intention being that teams would play for a win in overtime for the extra point, instead of previous seasons where teams played defensively to keep the point they'd get in the event of a tie. After the 2004-2005 lockout, regular season games ended in a shootout if overtime kept the game tied, abolishing tie games, making the overtime loss point useless and recreating the same problem that the overtime loss point tried to fix: now teams that are tied at the end of the third period will play defensively in order to force a shootout, which they perceive to be easier to win.
=== Other ===
* [[Adult Swim]] was so named because it referred to the period where kids are ordered out of public pools so that only seniors can swim in it, and when it first launched in 2001, it even featured bumpers of kids being told to get out of the pool along with seniors enjoying their time. Sometime around 2003, these were replaced with the "white text on black" style bumpers seen today, though the name hasn't lost all
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