Trope Name

IMPORTANT: The content of this page is outdated. If you have checked or updated this page and found the content to be suitable, please remove this notice.

Semi-witty one-liner about said picture that's even less relevant to trope

"Quote from a particularly noteworthy example of the trope."

—attribution

Definition of the trope, explaining that the trope occurs when specific lines of dialogue are replaced by general and generic descriptions, giving the appearance of a template.

Explanation that the trope is often used in parody and Deconstruction to highlight patterns and clichés.

Origin of Trope Name. References to other, relevant tropes. Justification of reason trope was split from older, less well-written trope.

See also related tropes. Compare some similar tropes. Contrast conflicting tropes.

Mild warning that this trope is not to be confused with similarly-named non-trope page or similarly-titled and easily confused page.

Examples of Trope Name include:

Advertising

There's a new brand of tampons that uses this trope to show how different they are from the competition...
Carlton Draught's Big Ad. It's a big ad. Very big ad. This ad better sell some bloody beer.
There's a new Anti-Drug ad by the Partnership for Drug Free America that depicts an argument between a mother and daughter that is entirely made of this trope.
During the Dr Pepper 10 commercial: "CATCH PHRASE!"
Example of "recent"^[when?] ad that was broadcast in Albania in 2005.

Comic Books

About three pages of Paul Cornell/D'Israeli's XTNCT.

Erotica

Title of Comic from Milk! Issue 16.

Film

Steven Soderbergh's Schizopolis contains a scene with a conversation between husband and wife that consists solely of this. "Generic greeting!"
- The movie plays with language a lot, including a character that speaks entirely in seemingly random phrases (like "nose army"). The conversation in genericspeak is repeated later from the woman's point of view, where the man's dialogue is dubbed in Japanese, which contrasts with her lover's dialogue, which is in Italian.
Movie Title
The Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy movie had a trailer like this beginning with the iconical "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy has this to say about...".
The Veggie Tales Jonah movie contains the memorable Song Which Goes Under The Credits

This is the song that goes under the credits
These are the credits, so this is where it goes
Has nothing to do with the movie, so we'll say
Hey hey hey hey hey hey hey hey!

Literature

The Condensation of All Game Fiction published on rpg.net.
The "Adjective Noun" story, from Hitherby Dragons
"This Is the Title of This Story, Which Is Also Found Several Times in the Story Itself" by David Moser.
The first chapters of Italo Calvino's If on a winter's night a traveler.
Not strictly self-referential, but Naked Pictures of Famous People by Jon Stewart contains a "recipe" for an entertainment awards show, with lines like "Expression of gratitude to Supreme Being and to members of honoree's blood lineage".
This Is A Book By Demetri Martin.

Live-Action TV

The theme to It's Garry Shandling's Show:

This is the theme to Garry's Show
The opening theme to Garry's show
Garry called me up and asked if I would write his theme song
I'm almost halfway finished
How do you like it so far?
How do you like the theme to Garry's Show?

This is the theme to Garry's Show
The opening theme to Garry's show
This is the music that you hear as you watch the credits
We're almost to the part
Of where I start to whistle
Then we'll watch "It's Garry Shandling's Show"
(whistles)
This was the theme to Garry Shandling's show!

How to Report the News

Music

"Title of the Song", by Da Vinci's Notebook.

Title of the song
Naive expression of love
Reluctance to accept that you are gone
Request to turn back time
And rectify my wrongs
Repetition of... the title of the song.

"Songwriting Workshop", by Tom Smith.

This is the verse that sets up the premise
Of why you have written a song.
Say what you want, it's your song after all,
But do try not to make each individual lyric line too long.
Because it might not scan.
Properly.

"This Is The Chorus" by Morris Minor and the Majors.

And this is the chorus,
This is the chorus.
It goes around and around and gets into your brain.
This is the chorus,
Our fabulous chorus,
And thirty seconds from now you're going to hear it again.

From an unidentified folk singer overheard on the radio:

This is the chorus.
It's the title of this song.
This is the chorus.
And it won't go on too long.
It's sometimes called the refrain
And it will come back again.
This is the chorus.
It's the title of this song.

Hook by Blues Traveler is a song about generic songs. Read just the first verse:

It doesn't matter what I say
So long as I sing with inflection
That makes you feel that I'll convey
Some inner truth of vast reflection
But I've said nothing so far
And I can keep it up for as long as it takes
And it don't matter who you are
If I'm doing my job then its your resolve that breaks

The Heeby Jeebies, parodying The Beatles:

And now we come to the second verse.
Which I'm singing right now.
I dont know what I'll say in it.
Ah well it's over anyhow.

The cover art of Flipper's Album - Generic Flipper.
"(This Song's Just) Six Words Long" by "Weird Al" Yankovic.

Couldn't think of any lyrics
No, I never wrote the lyrics
So I'll just sing any old lyrics
That come to mind, child

And similarly, King Crimson's "Happy With What You Have To Be Happy With".

Then I'm gonna have to write a chorus
We're gonna need to have a chorus
And this seems to be just as good as any other place to sing it 'til I'm blue in the face

"Coin Operated Boy" by The Dresden Dolls

"This bridge was written
To make you feel smitten-er
With my sad picture
Of girl getting bitterer"

"The Grunge Song" by Radio Free Vestibule (NOT Weezer)

"This is the part of the song that's really quiet
we play very soft, it sounds like a ballad
AND THIS IS PART WHERE WE PLAY REAL HARD
IT'S MUCH LOUDER THAN AT THE BEGINNING
and we go back to the quiet part. Again."

"Punk Rock 101" by Bowling for Soup

"Don't forget the delay...lay...lay
On the very last word...word...word..."

From "Arica" by Tv's Kyle:

Arica, this is totally the bridge
To this musical pep-talk
It really sounds romantic and self-important....

Brandon Muller's Linkin Park Parody is a mix of this and very pointed satire.
Psychostick's #1 Radio $ingle.

"Well this is the part of the song where I talk about emotions
And this is the part of the song where I sing about how I feel so cold inside.
And this is where my producer told me to say "yeah.""

Jon Lajoie's parody of typical pop songs, called "Pop Song":

"And now the token rap verse
That doesn't make any sense
But helps to get a small percentage of the urban music market"

Orange Goblin's Tosh Lines:

This is the first line of my song
Second line didn't take me all that long
Third line and I'm about to lose control
Fourth line is a lesson in rock and roll
Fifth line is very much like the third
Line six is the best you've ever heard
Seventh line and we're getting near the end
Eight line and that's your lot, my friend

This is an album by The Black Keys. The name of this album is Brothers.
The Swirling Eddies: "This is the Title"
An awful lot of Mitch Benn songs use this as a form of satire, mixed with Hypocritical Humour.
Deadmau5' albums Random Album Title, and possibly invoked with For Lack of a Better Name (the first album released after Random Album Title) and its title track, "Lack of a Better Name". From "This is the Hook":

This is the hook. It's catchy. You like it.

MC Lars' Generic Crunk Rap:

Phrase about my car, rhyme about my crew (Volvo!)
Rap about how much more crunk I am than you
Rhyme about my rims, rhyme about my bling
Chorus where I scream cause I don't know how to sing!

Von Dooley's Shitty Pop Song:

And now the next verse, you might think it's shit
so I'll throw in a harmony to change it up a bit.
This took me an hour and a half to make
and honestly that's even pushing it a bit (pointless whisper)

Theatre

"The Song That Goes Like This", from Spamalot.

Once in every show
There comes a song like this
It starts off soft and low
And ends up with a kiss
Oh where is the song that goes like this?

[title of show] follows the spirit, if not the letter, of the trope. It's a musical about two guys writing a musical about two guys writing a musical.
In musicals, an eleven o'clock song is a show-stopping number which comes late in the second act, shortly before the show's finale. Ankles Aweigh has one titled "An Eleven O'Clock Song."
The Ig Nobel Prize ceremonies have the traditional "Welcome, Welcome" and "Goodbye, Goodbye" speeches. Each is two words long.

This Very Wiki

This page you're reading right now.
This.
And this.
And this.
All This Trope Name References Itself examples... including itself.

Video Games

The Rubikon from Planescape: Torment uses this trope to deconstruct the concept of a dungeon.
Sam and Max: Season One: Episode Six: Bright Side Of The Moon:

Sam: Random, but innocuous, comment.
Max: Irreverent reply hinting at mental instability!
Sam: You crack me up, little buddy.

Duty Calls, a parody FPS game, also an elaborate advertisement for Bulletstorm, uses these for pretty much every line of dialogue.
Sentinel in Marvel vs. Capcom 3 does this.

"UNDERMINE TARGET CONFIDENCE."

Web Animation

Homestar Runner:
- The Show's ending chant from this short.
- To a lesser extent, this email toon.
- Homestar's "TV joke" in this Answering Machine.
- The "prank call" Strong Bad leaves in this email.
- Homestar's grocery list in this email.

"Amazing thing, amazing thing, amazing thing, amazing thing!"

- This list.
Arfenhouse 2 starts off with a parody of badly-made Flash-animated versions of 8-Bit Theater that flooded Newgrounds at the time of its release:

Fighter: Blatant ripoffs!
Black Mage: Terrible echo effect!
Thief: (garbled) Really bad voice-acting!

Metal Gear Awesome has this.

"Cryptic metaphor!"

Web Comics

The Story Title arc of Bruno the Bandit.
The Women With Tea strip of Partially Clips.
This illusionary halfling from Order of the Stick. Who does not also appear here.
How to create^{[dead link]} a Stickman and Cube comic.
Here's Penny Arcade's take, where they follow their basic formula using only trope names.
This Bob and George comic.
Irregular Webcomic:
- The Ur-Lightbulb Joke.
- Another joke from the same comic.
- And also a poll question.
Similarly, Dinosaur Comics offers a barrage of Profession Jokes.
This Cyanide & Happiness episode.
This strip from This Comic Sucks.
This strip from Multiplex.
The song titles in this Questionable Content.
This Sluggy Freelance strip.
The last panel of this strip of 8-Bit Theater.
This 1/0.
This Chainsawsuit, and the commentary below as well.
This rousing wake-up call from Gunnerkrigg Court.
This one from Kirby vs. the Squeaks.
Xkcd:
- The comic Self Description draws diagrams about the amount of black on the comic strip itself (including the diagrams).
- And to an extent, this one too—abusing this trope is how he'd hypothetically build a supermarket brand identity.
This Square Root Of Minus Garfield, of the strip's running gag of Garfield Minus Garfield puns
Garfield Abridged.

{Garfield lies motionless amidst a pile of food scraps and entrails.}
Jon: CONTEXT
{Jon points at Garfield, angrily.}
Jon: ADMONISHMENT
Garfield: CONTRADICTION
Jon: DIRE IMPLICATIONS
Garfield: WITTY RETORT

The "Catchy Title" Dead Marlo strip.
This insult from Khaos Komix.
Rick's Pre-Ass-Kicking One-Liner from Ratfist.

Web Original

This bash quote. Ironically, it was ranked #1 in the bash quote database for several years, but is dethroned as of March 9, 2021 (where it sits in at the still-impressive rank of #2).
This article.
The Existential Flame War LiveJournal community.
This deconstruction of a typical Daily Kos diary.
This fanficrants post.
This video, though only tangentially.
This CRFH rescript (NSFW)
LoadingReadyRun's Quantum Documentary.
This blog post, and the thousand plus comments following it.
Another blog post...For Science!
This RPGnet thread (log-in required)
This Magic: The Gathering article.
- And this one!
This self-referential story.
This typical incendiary blog post, and its followers.
A Trailer for Every Academy Award Winning Movie Ever, a Cracked.com video based on Oscar Bait movies.
This news website article about a scientific paper.
This question on Meta Stack Overflow.
The Manifesto Manifesto.
This Facebook exchange.
This anime blog post.
Stupid AMV Title. Pointless comment about not naming the link "This."
This Youtube Video.
The Editing Room's scripts are full of characters that bluntly state what their role is in the movie.

Real Life

This Facebook exchange, which is a satire of internet debates.

Joke that didn't fit anywhere else, usually about the page itself, referencing the topic at hand.