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The Tasteless But True Story: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|
''And so I went to see the movie so that I, too, could ascertain that unspeakable atrocities had occurred in the 17th Century. I didn't want to be the only member of my generation unaware of the terrible events of 1634, a year that will live in infamy. Like everyone who's committed, I found it my duty to bear witness against the moral outrages of, if not my time, then at least somebody's time. You can't just sit around.''|'''[[Roger Ebert]]'''<ref>
''From the director of a long list of exploitation films, comes the tasteless but true story behind [[But You Screw One Goat!|donkey shows]].''
Originally [[Dramatization]] of a story [[Ripped from the Headlines]] was a simple device to add interest to a [[Cop Show]] or [[Police Procedural]] ([[Dragnet|with names changed to protect the innocent]]) and to provide a bit of [[Truth in Television]]. But then there are the morbid, violent, and generally horrible stories that are put out into the world to titillate with
This really is a nasty trope. Writers claiming
Note that this trope is used for when the horror and nastiness in real life stories is portrayed as it is in order to titillate, not when it is used to serve as a warning so that this doesn't happen again, or when victims tell their stories of how they have suffered when they are asking for help.
Many of these works will preface it with some version of a [["Not Making This Up" Disclaimer]] to give themselves more legitimacy.
See also [[Roman à Clef]], for cases where "it really happened" is a fact rather than an excuse, [[Mondo]] for the related form of [[Exploitation Film]], and [[Very Loosely Based on a True Story]], for cases where it could be mistaken for something which happened [[Gilbert and Sullivan|in the dusk, with the light behind it]].▼
▲See also [[Roman à Clef]], for cases where "it really happened" is a fact rather than an excuse, [[Mondo]] for the related form of [[Exploitation Film]], and [[Very Loosely Based on a True Story]], for cases where it could be mistaken for something which happened [[Gilbert and Sullivan|in the dusk, with the light behind it]].
If a work of fiction ''claims'' to be something that really happened, this is the [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]] or [[Based on a Great Big Lie]]. If the work is ''toned down'', see [[Freakier Than Fiction]]. If this is invoked accidentally, it becomes [[Do Not Do This Cool Thing]].▼
▲If a work of fiction ''claims'' to be something that really happened, this is the [[Literary Agent Hypothesis]] or [[Based on a Great Big Lie]]. If the work is ''toned down'', see [[Freakier Than Fiction]]. If this is invoked accidentally, it becomes [[Do Not Do This Cool Thing]].
{{examples|When [[Dramatization]] goes too far, you get works like these:}}
== [[Film]] ==
* Stories about concentration camps where the torture and degradation are presented to titillate. Prime example: ''[[Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS]],'' which is [[Very Loosely Based on a True Story]]
* This happens pretty much any time the [[Lifetime Movie of the Week]] is [[Based on a True Story]]. While it's generally considered in bad taste to [[Complaining About Shows You Don't Watch|insult something you didn't watch]], somehow one doubts there was any redeeming value in "The [[Groin Attack|Lorena Bobbit]] story."
* Averted by the film ''In the Light of the Moon''. Despite telling the story of one of the most widely referenced murderers in recent history, the movie doesn't spend much time wallowing in the disturbing details of Ed Gein's crimes, instead focusing on the utterly deranged mind that perpetrated them. Yes, you see some of what he did, but not much, and certainly not enough to titillate, as it were.
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*** Real oubliettes incidentally don't usually have a door, or have one built later when the room's purpose was changed for something less sinister (many ex-oubliettes were converted into gunpowder storages). People were lowered down to them through a trapdoor.
** Two words: Torture Museums.
*** A good example, as the claims of real life use of some of the [[
* Most news stories about murders or suspected murders, and not just in the tabloids (meaning "trashy news sources" in this case). However, these days telling tabloids from "mainstream" news organizations takes a microscope and several days' research.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:The Shades of Fact]]
[[Category:Truth in Television]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tasteless But True Story, The}}
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