Title Confusion: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"The argument is too subtle to cram into a title, which is why I went to the trouble of writing the rest of the book."''|'''[[Richard Dawkins]]''', regarding ''The Selfish Gene''}}

 

 

Often contributes to instances of [[Cowboy Bebop At His Computer]], including the trope's namesake incident. For confusion regarding our own [[Word Salad Title|Word Salad Titles]], see [[I Thought It Meant]]. Specific [[Sub Trope|Sub Tropes]] include:

* [[Iconic Character Forgotten Title]]: The protagonist's name is mistaken for the work's title.

* [[Protagonist Title Fallacy]]: Which character the title refers to is clear, but that character is mistaken for the protagonist.

{{examples|Examples where the title itself is mistaken for something else:}}

* ''[[Dastardly and Muttley In Their Flying Machines]]'' is popularly known as ''Stop That Pigeon'' or ''Stop The Pigeon'' because of its theme song. As a matter of fact, ''Stop That Pigeon'' was the series' working title, and instead of Dick Dastardly, a German baron was intended as the squadron leader.

* A minor example: ''The Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries'' were often thought of as just ''Sylvester & Tweety Mysteries'', which is understandable given that the title appears five times in the theme tune without the "The"; the "The" only appears in the title card.

* A common misconception of entry-level ''[[Mermaid Melody Pichi Pichi Pitch]]'' fans is that the abbreviation is "Mermaid Melody". In fact, "Pichi Pichi Pitch", and sometimes "Pichi" or "P3", is the shortened title on every piece of merchandise, as well as the biggest part of the logo. Because this isn't common in other series (imagine calling ''[[Sailor Moon]]'' "Bishoujo Senshi" or ''[[Angelic Layer]]'' "Kidou Tenshi"), it's assumed that people just automatically think this because the first half of the title is the English part. The English and German versions of the manga have, in retaliation, moved "Mermaid Melody" to tiny font ''after'' the "Pichi Pichi Pitch".

* The webcomic ''[[Dinosaur Comics]]'' is still occasionally referred to as ''Daily Dinosaur Comics''. [http://web.archive.org/web/20030220043058/http://www.qwantz.com/ This] is where "Daily" came from. Note the top of the page "Welcome to qwantz.com", then immediately on the next line "daily dinosaur comics". Since "qwantz.com" isn't a suitable title for the comic, the descriptive text was likely mistaken for the title back in the day, and it stuck.

* [[The Movie]] of ''[[The X Files|The X-Files]]'' is simply called "The X-Files"; the phrase "Fight the Future" was just its tagline. Confusing these two is rather like saying that every other episode of the show was called "The Truth is Out There". The second movie, however, is titiled ''The X-Files: I Want to Believe''.

** Mind you, the Japanese title is the [[Glurge]]-ical ''It's a Wonderful World''.

* Leonard Nimoy's 1977 book ''[[I Am Not Spock]]''. The book was an autobiography which dealt with the differences between Nimoy and his famous ''[[Star Trek]]'' character. Of course, everyone read the title and assumed that he hated playing Spock. Years later, a ''Paramount executive'', believing this, almost refused to let Nimoy direct ''Star Trek III''! Nimoy later published a book titled ''[[I Am Not Leonard Nimoy|I Am Spock]]''.

* ''Girls of the [[Playboy]] Mansion'' is not, contrary to what it sounds like, a porn show, but rather a documentary on the lives of the three Hugh Hefner wives.

* ''[[The Merchant of Venice]]'' is not Shylock, but Antonio, as made explicit by the original full title: ''The moſt excellent Hiſtorie of the Merchant of Venice. VVith the extreame crueltie of Shylocke the Iewe towards the ſayd Merchant, in cutting a iuſt pound of his flesh: and the obtaining of Portia by the choice of three chests.''

* Because of the confusing nature of the Dark Forces/Jedi Knight series (for more information, see above), each game can have multitudes of abbreviations such as JKII, JO, JKII:JO, SW:JO, DFIII.

** They are almost always called, in order, ''Dark Forces,'' ''Jedi Knight,'' ''Jedi Outcast'' and ''Jedi Academy.''

* ''[[Temple of Elemental Evil]]'' technically has a "The" in front of it, but absolutely no one uses it (It gets a smaller font size on the original's logo even). Similarly, the computer game adaptation has the subtitle "A Classic Greyhawk Adventure", but it isn't used outside of the cover, first patch installer, and copyright screen.

* [[Dr. Strangelove|Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb]].

* There were some, only going by title and not having read a synopsis or seeing a trailer, thought that ''[[Twenty Eight Days Later (Film)|28 Days Later]]'' was a sequel to ''[[Twenty Eight Days (Film)|28 Days]]''. ''28 Days Later'' was about a zombie outbreak, ''28 Days'' (no "later") was [[Sandra Bullock]] playing a woman in a rehab program. It didn't help that ''28 Days Later'' was released 2 years after ''28 Days'', about the expected time for a sequel to be produced.

* Some people assume that [[The Beatles]]' "Revolution 9" is the song that has the lyrics "You say you want a revolution..."; they're actually thinking of "Revolution 1" (or "Revolution," the B-side to "Hey Jude"). "Revolution 9" is the weird sound collage with the voice repeating, "Number nine... Number nine... Number nine..." (which notoriously sounds like "Turn me on, dead man" when played backwards).

 

=== In-universe examples: ===

[[Category:Title Tropes]]

[[Category:Title Confusion]]