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{{trope}}
[[File:
Once in a while, a TV show does something that actually happens in [[Real Life]]. Don't worry, it never lasts, and they soon slip back into their [[Strictly Formula|old habits]]. Rarely, other shows pick up on this, and you then get a recurring [[Trope]] that accurately reflects the real world. Listed below, for your convenience, are some examples of those.
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When it's the exact opposite, you've got a bad case of [[Reality Is Unrealistic]]. If people fall for it, it's because [[TV Never Lies]].
Technically, these [[
The Bastard Spawn of these two [[
There's a Sliding Scale of
Another way of saying the above is that a great many things happen on television that have happened at least once to someone in the world. The reason they become [[
And that's pretty much how television works. So please, before adding anything to the list below or describing any existing [[
Also, just because something may be definitely and entirely
For example, [[The Mentally Disturbed]] - [[Captain Obvious|mentally ill people do exist]] in [[Real Life]] and therefore the trope belongs on this index. That said, real life mental illness (at least once you include the milder illnesses and degrees of it) is so common that having a list of mentally ill people would overwhelm the entire wiki, and some people would find being listed as examples of mental illness or instability very insulting.
{{examples}}
== A-C ==
* [[Abandoned Warehouse]]: At least one or two can be found in any larger town or a city.▼
* [[Abdicate the Throne]]: Britain's Edward VIII, Sweden's Queen Christina, recent Dutch monarchs.▼
* [[AB Negative]]: AB- really is the rarest common blood type with between .2% and 1% of any given population having it. However, [[wikipedia:Human blood group systems#Rare blood types|there are LOTS of really rare types.]]
** The whole aspect of the [[Trope]] in that AB- can only take AB- blood is false. The positive variant (i.e. AB+) is considered a universal receiver of Red Blood Cells (O- is the universal donor), which makes life much easier for the blood bankers, in that they can usually just grab a bag of any old blood type and they won't reject it. AB- (the [[Trope Namer]]) is only slightly more limited; they can receive any negative red cells but not positive red cells (as opposed to how the inverse is possible and is why AB+ is the universal receiver).
** The "universal donor/receiver" angle only works with components. Whole blood is uncommonly used in transfusion medicine at present; most blood products consist of specific processed components such as red blood cells, plasma, or platelets. O- is the universal donor for red cells; AB+ is the universal recipient for red cells. With plasma it’s basically reversed: O is the universal recipient, AB is the universal donor (Rh+/- doesn’t matter much in plasma). If you had to give someone whole blood it really ought to be an exact match.
** You can usually get away with giving Rh+ red cells to an Rh- patient [[It Only Works Once|ONCE without ill effects]]. Most people don’t have Rh antibodies unless they’ve been transfused with Rh incompatible blood (you can get them from pregnancy too). Once a person makes Rh antibodies giving them Rh positive blood can kill them.
** Regardless of the above, it is standard practice to give patients only their own blood type. Even if one is a universal recipient, using another type is done only if you have no choice. Rarity isn't really an issue either, because if one has a common blood type meaning there are plenty of donors, that also means there are plenty of recipients to split it between.
▲* [[Abandoned Warehouse]]: At least one or two can be found in any larger town or a city.
▲* [[Abdicate the Throne]]: Britain's Edward VIII, Sweden's Queen Christina, recent Dutch monarchs.
* [[Abnormal Ammo]]: Dragon's Breath pyrotechnic shotgun rounds. Actually most of [[wikipedia:12 gauge shotgun#Specialty ammunition|shotgun ammunition types]] could be considered "abnormal".
** Name any episode of ''[[
** The blunderbuss will use literally anything you can stuff down the barrel as ammo.
** The British rather ingeniously use (or used) tungsten rounds for cave fighting to prevent ricochet. [[Loophole Abuse|There was a side effect of the bullets acting like explosive rounds in human tissue.]]
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* [[Abusive Parents]]: Unfortunately.
* [[Acme Products]]: Acme was a fairly common name for companies at one time, as it would put them at or near the beginning of the listings in the phone book. It helped that the word means "the best".
** There still exists a supermarket chain on the East Coast of the United States called "Acme".
* [[Acquired Situational Narcissism]]: An actual DSM defined personality disorder that develops in some people who acquire fame or notoriety.
* [[Acrofatic]]: Sumo wrestlers. Many technical pro-wrestlers qualify too.
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* [[Alcohol Hic]]: That said, it's not the surest way to tell if someone is drunk - sober people can get hiccups just as easily.
* [[Alcohol-Induced Idiocy]]: Alcohol is well known for its ability to decrease intellectual capacity while lowering inhibitions.
* [[Alcohol Is Poison]]: Alcohol is toxic to humans, but for most adult humans, in amounts well below the
* [[The Alleged Car]]: Chances are, you've either owned one, or you're too young to drive.
* [[All-Natural Snake Oil]]: "All natural" can refer to many things, from the beneficial to the deadly, and is a form of the [[Appeal to Nature]] fallacy.
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* [[Arranged Marriage]]: Believe it or not, there are still places where this is common.
* [[Asexuality]]: It's weird being surrounded by something that you've got no interest in.
* [[As Long as It Sounds Foreign]]: Known in business as "foreign branding", and in everyday life as "Häagen-Dazs" Also, [
* [[Asshole Victim]]: This is what can happen to you when you're the kind of person that others are right to rejoice in your misfortunes. The moral: Try not to be such a douchebag.
* [[Assumed Win]]: Much to the embarrassment of whoever stands up.
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* [[Battle Cry]]: Some have hypothesized they came into existence as warning or intimidation, but common through the history of warfare.
** [[Remember the Alamo!]]: A quite common casus belli in warfare is remembering a [[Last Stand]] conducted in fighting against or defending against the enemy.
* [[Bara]] / [[The Bear]] / [[Manly Gay]]: A case of truth becoming trope - a fixture in gay-directed media, and once mainstream media began to portray a wider range of gay men, [[Manly Gay]] men including bears began to be depicted more often in it as well. Contrast [[Camp Gay]] and compare both [[Armored Closet Gay]], [[Macho Camp]], and [[
* [[Bavarian Fire Drill]]: People generally do what they're told, and this can be used against them. "Spearphishing" and other social engineering scams feed off of this quality of human beings.
* [[Bedouin Rescue Service]]: In the modern era, this is mandatory. In ages past... not so much.
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* [[Bragging Rights Reward]]: Too many to name, but anything where the only award is immediately consumed or is an unusable certificate or trophy (or worse, the temporary acclaim of one's current peers.)
* [[Brainwashed]]: Rare, but it can happen, though [[Tropes Examined by the Mythbusters|NOT by hypnosis or subliminal suggestion]]. (See [[More Than Mind Control]] below for how it does.) Ongoing situations of [[Domestic Abuse]] and other forms of abuse and exploitation tend to have some element of this.
* [[Brainwashed and Crazy]]: [[Nazi Germany]]. [[
* [[Briefcase Blaster]]: Heckler and Koch makes a special briefcase for their
* [[British Stuffiness]]: (see [[National Stereotypes]]) Brits are more private and reserved with people other than their close friends than Americans are, but this should not be interpreted as being arrogance; likewise the reverse with American bluster.
* [[Broke the Rating Scale]]: The first use probably was by a band who claimed that they were so loud that their speakers had to [[Up to Eleven|Go To Eleven]] (versus the usual 1-10 volume control).
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* [[Busman's Holiday]]: Carpenters spend their time off fixing the house, IT staff spend their time at home on a PC, musicians tend to spend time off going to others' shows and listening to music, and pilots and flight attendants do hitch rides on their airlines, obviously.
* [[But I Play One on TV]]: Actors, musicians, and others are often recognized for role played or stage persona.
* [[
* [[But We Used a Condom]]: To the sorrow of many, and the existence of quite a few.
** If our product doesn't work, Happy Father's Day!
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* [[Call a Smeerp a Rabbit]]: European naturalists named some animals, such as the koala bear, after other animals that kind of looked similar but weren't at all related. Example: The Tasmanian tiger, aka the thylacine.
* [[Calling Your Attacks]]: Martial arts practitioners believe that expressing certain phrases or vocalization help build up ''chi'' or ensure proper breathing
* [[Camp Gay]] / [[The Twink]]: Although to a far lesser extent (and a far more self-aware extent) usually than TV depictions of gay men would have you believe. Contrast [[Bara]], [[The Bear]], [[
* [[The Captain]]: On pretty much every naval ship that exists, and private sailors and pilots also have the title.
* [[Cardboard Prison]]: Some prisons and jails are rather easy to escape. Tended more to happen in the pre-camera past or in the Third World.
* [[Casting Couch]]: [[Real Life]] examples abound from film to fashion and music (where it's more common now). Somewhat subverted in that unlike in fiction, where complying may well benefit the victim, in reality, the victim may very well get nowhere at all for his or her trouble, or end up destroying his or her career doing this for real. Of course, there's also porn staged around the idea with fully willing participants...
** In the #MeToo era? Invoking this trope, even fictionally, has [[Unfortunate Implications]]. It's a bit like a radio DJ joking about payola on-air.
* [[Casual Kink]]: In some places far, far more than others. If you're in such a place, you probably either are very aware of it, or don't even recognize it as unusual.
* [[The Catfish]]: The [[wikipedia:Wels catfish|"wels catfish"]], also called a "sheatfish". They can be up to 10 ft long (3m) and weigh 330lbs (150kg). They eat ducks.▼
* [[CAT Trap]]: If you're suffering from claustrophobia, you don't want to spend too much time in a closed scanner.
* [[Caught with Your Pants Down]]: Because some people [[Your Door Was Open|don't remember to lock the door]], and others are exhibitionists.
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* [[The City Narrows]]: Most large cities have what is euphemistically called a "bad area" or two. The larger the city, the more likely. It probably won't be all alleys, though.
* [[The Chains of Commanding]]: It can be tough to be a political leader, and sometimes political leaders are restricted by politics or the lack of cooperation from others from accomplishing even important or needed goals.
* [[Check Point Starvation]]: There ''are'' no [[Check Point
* [[Cherry Tapping]]: Human beings who die from stinging insects or from something else that in small or ordinary amounts is fairly harmless, but in large numbers is fatal.
* [[Chewbacca Defense]]: If the defense does ''not make sense'', you must acquit. Still a logical fallacy, but it works.
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* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: You ''really'' want an example of this?
* [[Decade Dissonance]]: Compare Hong Kong to the Guangdong province just over the border, or downtown Rio de Janeiro to its slums. Hell, compare ANY inner city to the gleaming, tourist-laden areas.
** There is a tiny island off the coast of Scotland, St. Kilda, where the seas are so choppy and rough, that few people dare try to sail to and from it. People have lived there for centuries. The government sent an expedition there in about 1746 to see whether Bonnie Prince Charlie had taken refuge there after the Battle of Culloden. The locals hadn't heard of Prince Charles Edward
* [[Deep Sleep]]: Some people are definitely heavier sleepers than others, especially if drunk or drugged. The reason fire alarms and loud alarm clocks exist.
* [[Delegation Relay]]: Else known in English as "passing the buck," because no one really wants to do some chores or run some errands.
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* [[Dr. Jerk]]: Because some people in the caring professions enter them for their profit potential or for being "better than" or able to control others, or believe they have an [[Omniscient Morality License]].
* [[Dropped a Bridget On Him]]: [[Downer Ending|Doesn't always end up as funny though.]]
* [[Drowning My Sorrows]]: It doesn't
* [[Drugs Are Bad]]:
* [[Dude, Where's My Reward?]]: Ditto.
* [[Dungeonmaster's Girlfriend]]: Sometimes a significant other or relative of the person running a game does join the game and sometimes they get preferential treatment from the Dungeonmaster, who is supposed to be impartial.
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* [[Emergency Weapon]]: Every half-decent army gives its soldiers at least knives for backup, and even the ones that don't still have their soldiers equipped with hands.
** It's the countries that take soldiers hands away you really have to watch out for.
* [[Empty Cop Threat]]: Even if the cops can't ''actually'' charge the suspect with obstruction of justice, they can still ''threaten'' to do
* [[The European Carry All]]: Just check out this "[https://web.archive.org/web/20090318143100/http://www.hottopic.com/hottopic/store/product.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302024102&PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524442133688 one leg pant]", or as most people would call it, a skirt.
", or as most people would call it, a skirt. -->
* [[Even Evil Has Standards]]: There are real situations that keep from someone becoming a [[Complete Monster]], even if they had crossed the [[Moral Event Horizon|
** This is mostly seen in prison system where prisoners have standards and those who had violated them don’t last too long. Many oppressive regimes also have standards within their countries on what kind of brutality is too much, even for the government.
* [[Even Nerds Have Standards]]: Nerds either have very low standards, or [[
* [[Everything's Better with Chocolate]]: It releases pleasure hormones. Many people use it as an antidepressant, including [[J. K. Rowling]].
* [[Everything Is Big in Texas]]: Texas is a pretty damn big state.
* [[Everything's Sparkly with Jewelry]]: Because bright colors or unusual colors attract the human eye.
** [[Gem-Encrusted]]: Some people can really overdo this now that Swarovski crystals are more common...
* [[Everything Trying to Kill You]]: [https://web.archive.org/web/20131122060905/http://www.cracked.com/funny-163-australia/ Australia.] For the immunocompromised, life.
* [[Evil Debt Collector]]: <s>Most</s> '''All''' of them. No exceptions. See Palisade Collections or the collections department of Wachovia Dealer Services as typical examples.
* [[Evil Luddite]]: [https://web.archive.org/web/20090819114620/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/terrorists/kaczynski/1.html Ted Kaczynski], more commonly known as The Unabomber, is probably the [[Real Life]] [[Trope Codifier]].
* [[Evil Power Vacuum]]: Anytime a dictator or a really powerful dude is deposed. Colombia, for example, sank in a chaos of guerrillas and rival crime lords after Pablo Escobar got killed.
* [[Evil Uncle]]: The laws of primogeniture, where the deceased's son gets estates ahead of the deceased's younger brother, sometimes provoked younger brothers into this sort of thing.
* [[Evil Versus Evil]]: Power-hungry dictators (the closest Real Life equivalent of evil) often fight each other in their selfish quest for power. Hitler and Stalin could be an example of this form. Organized criminals fighting amongst each other creates another form: the drug cartel mafia wars in Mexico, gang wars elsewhere.
* [[Exalted Torturer]]: Due to [[Values Dissonance]], at various points in various societies, [[Real Life]] torturers have been excused and even glorified, as has torture itself. No examples may be given to avoid the obvious [[Flame War]], but it has happened.
* [[Explosive Overclocking]]: In memory of all those who turned their CPUs into grilled silicon after overclocking them to 6
* [[Extreme Graphical Representation]]: [http://lainos.sourceforge.net LainOS] is a FreeBSD-based operating system whose goal is to recreate the extreme graphical pizazz of the computers from ''[[Serial Experiments Lain]]''.
** [https://web.archive.org/web/20061012143527/http://www.compiz.org/ Compiz] is a window manager presently included with many Linux distributions. If you want, you can overload it with plugins so that your windows wobble like Jello when they move, your desktop is on the surface of a cube (with sharks inside), windows shuffle and dodge around one another when you switch between them, inactive windows go translucent and gain a mirror sheen, and a trail of fire follows your mouse around. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJB9Yum3S9M&feature=PlayList&p=6AD5E5D6B2DEA293&index=0&playnext=1 Here are some videos of it.]
* [[Face Doodling]]: If you haven't done this to someone, you're either lying or you've had this done to you.
** [[Take a Third Option|Or both]].
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* [[Fan Boy]]: To an even ''more'' annoying degree.
* [[Fashion Show]]: Another one that's existed in real life long before it was a trope.
* [[Faster-Than-Light Travel]]: Averted due to relativity. But wait! [https://web.archive.org/web/20121118154121/http://news.discovery.com/space/warp-drive-spaceship-engine.html Not so fast!]
* [[Fast Roping]]: Lifted directly from a standard (if somewhat dangerous) Real Life rappelling technique.
* [[Fatal Flaw]]: <s>Lots of people</s> ''Everyone'' will have one. Some have more than one.
* [[Fat Cat]]: Some cats really are overweight.
* [[Fat Bastard]], [[Fat Idiot]], and [[Fat Slob]]: Definitely NOT
* [[Fence Painting]]: Arranged by recruiters for militaries, fraternities, and sororities.
* [[Feuding Families]]: The Hatfields and the McCoys in the US; the MacGregors and the Campbells in Scotland; the Italian mafia families in New York and Sicily (with a couple in New Orleans).
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* [[Foreign Queasine]]: There's a whole show based around it called ''Bizarre Foods'' on the Travel Channel. And while most of it is in Asia, there are episodes that take place in North America, believe it or not. Anyone for fried nutria on a stick?
* [[Forgets to Eat]]: Every gamer has done this. This can also be applied to workaholics.
* [[419 Scam]]:
** The name actually comes from the section of the Nigerian criminal code pertaining to wire fraud, so it's also [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]].
* [[Freeze Sneeze]]: Cold really does make some people sneeze.
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* [[Hot for Student]]: [http://readjack.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/lafave1.jpg Debra La Fave] comes to mind. Or Mary Kay LeTourneau.
* [[Human Popsicle]]: Cryonics companies such as [http://www.alcor.com/ Alcor] and the [http://www.cryonics.org/ Cryonics Institute] offer to preserve your whole body or your brain (currently done by keeping the whole head) at low temperatures just after you're legally dead until someone finds out how to cure whatever was killing you. Research shows this ''might'' work someday, as the method they use now allows us to freeze and thaw small organs. They'll also, of course, have to cure the effects of freezing on the brain, which is somewhat more complicated. Oh, and figure out how to make new bodies for the heads-only crowd.
* [[Humiliation Conga]]: A criminal once tried to trick someone into sending him an Apple PowerBook G4 he bought at eBay. He ended up receiving a binder with keys glued on the inside covers. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130214033700/http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/ Read the full story here!]
* [[I Always Wanted to Say That]]: Because offline, at least, your brain comes up with that great quip far too late.
* [[I Can't Believe It's Not Heroin!]]: Capsaicin (the stuff that makes chili peppers hot) is very addictive.
* [[I Coulda Been a Contender]]: Bill Butterfield was so bitter about his football career ending in high school that he tried to push his son into athletic success. [https://web.archive.org/web/20120223194242/http://apse.dallasnews.com/contest/2002/writing/over250/over250.enterprise.fifth2.html The results weren't pretty]. Also mothers of beauty pageant girls, and parents trying to push kids into careers or better academic levels.
* [[I Hate Past Me]]: Everyone at one point or another has looked back on their life and asked at different points "What was I thinking?!".
* [[Idle Rich]]: Because for some people, being rich ''is'' their life's accomplishment. Aversions, however, do exist.
* [[If It Tastes Bad, It Must Be Good for You]]: Several good foods are actually quite bitter or almost disgustingly bland.
* [[I Just Shot Marvin in the Face]]: Every 12 seconds, a kid accidentally fires a gun and hurts someone.
* [[I Know Karate]]: Because some people do, indeed, know karate and other martial arts.
* [[I Know Mortal Kombat]]: Because even more people know no martial arts but think they do. The reason Bullshido and the [[What the Fu Are You Doing?]] trope exist.
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* [[Insufferable Genius]]: Architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
* [[The Internet Is for Porn]]: And/or downloading music. And/or, according to some, buying drugs.
* [[In-Universe Camera]]: Just look at [[YouTube]] videos of any disaster after around 2000. From 9-11 to 3-11, you will see any disaster from the inside.▼
* [[Is That Cute Kid Yours]]: Check the discussion page for examples.▼
* [[I Surrender, Suckers]]: The reason why police officers will keep one gun pointed at a dangerous suspect at all times until his arms are fully handcuffed.
▲* [[In-Universe Camera]]: Just look at [[YouTube]] videos of any disaster after around 2000. From 9-11 to 3-11, you will see any disaster from the inside.
▲* [[Is That Cute Kid Yours?]]: Check the discussion page for examples.
* [[It's All About Me]]: Narcissists and sociopaths on the more extreme end, individual survival and forgetfulness on the more benign.
* [[It's a Small Net After All]]: In Mexico, ''everybody'' uses MSN Hotmail, MSN Spaces, and MSN Messenger, thanks to an alliance between Microsoft and Telmex, the latter a nigh-monopolic telco led by Carlos Slim, the richest man in the world.
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== J-L ==
* [[The Jailbait Wait]]: Depending on the state, you may not even have to wait. Some go as low as 14. But yes, people are dumb{{verify}} enough to do this. By the time she's old enough, she'll already have a boyfriend.
* [[Jerkass]]: Who hasn't met at least one in real life? If you haven't, you may want to look in the mirror.
* [[Jerk with a Heart of Gold]]: ... On the other hand, you've probably met one of these as well. But if you consider yourself one, you probably aren't.
* [[Jews Love to Argue]]: The Talmud itself is a result of legal arguments regarding Jewish religious laws. This emphasis may have also been a contributing factor in the amount of Jewish lawyers, [[Unfortunate Implications|stereotypical]] and otherwise.
* [[Joke Item]]: Plenty of them exist, some for the point of using them in practical jokes, others for many other reasons.
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** Krav Maga, the deadliest martial art, was made specifically for Jews getting accosted by the SS.
* [[Leave Behind a Pistol]]: Intentionally leaving a suicide method in reach of someone likely suicidal has happened.
▲* [[
* [[Lensman Arms Race]]: World War II and the Cold War. Consider: the Germans only made very primitive payload rockets with long range work somewhat in WWII, and America couldn't launch a rocket as late as 1957. We were on the moon just over a ''decade'' later. ([[The Space Race]] being guided on both sides by [[Herr Doctor|genius German rocket scientists from Nazi Germany]], who were unaware of each others' existence as competitors for quite some time). And of course, nothing says "my <s>dick is bigger</s> kung-fu is better than yours" like the ever-more-powerful nuclear weapons tests of the 50s and 60s.
* [[Lethal Joke Item]]: Some items are far more dangerous or even deadly than they would look, either by themselves or when combined with something else.
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* [[Made of Plasticine]]: Human beings can be very weak and die from some of the most unlikely to ordinarily cause death things, but not always - see [[Normally I Would Be Dead Now]] below.
* [[The Mafia]], [[The Mafiya]], [[The Triads and the Tongs]], [[Yakuza]], and other organized crime groups: They are tropes because they exist.
* [[Maligned Mixed Marriage]]: There are hundreds, if noth thousands of examples throughout history of people hating those who marry outside of their race. In fact, at one time in the US, there were laws banning miscegenation.<ref>interracial marriage</ref>
* [[Mama Bear]]: Both the animal and human kind. There are documented cases of mothers rescuing their children from mountain lions and actual bears.
* [[Mama Didn't Raise No Criminal]]: The families of real life criminals do indeed live in this sort of denial sometimes, even when confronted with overwhelming evidence of criminal behavior.
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* [[Misleading Package Size]]: Overpackaging, fraud, or the desire to present something as more valuable than it is can make this happen.
* [[Miss Conception]]: If sex education doesn't exist. More common in the past, still sometimes happens in restrictive religious communities.
* [[Mission
* [[Mistaken for Gay]]: Many times, a result of the conflation of traits attributed to binary gender and sexuality. Yes, [[Captain Obvious|feminine men and masculine women can be straight]].
* [[Mistaken for Special Guest]]: See [[wikipedia:Guy Goma|Guy Goma]] for an example.
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* [[Mistaken Nationality]]: Far too common simply because many people don't care to learn geography or about nations.
* [[Mister Muffykins]]: Most breeders call the little yappy dogs victims of "small breed syndrome." A lot of it is just plain stupidity on the owner's part.
* [[The Mistress]]: Divorce lawyers and journalists alike make a huge part of their living because this is
* [[Modesty Towel]]: Force of habit and shyness will often lead to this being used even when there is no reason for it. Paranoia can also be a factor, if your room has a window.
* [[Monster Clown]]: [[wikipedia:Coulrophobia|Coulrophobia]]. Also applies to mimes.
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** The FCC and "concerned mothers". Both are also [[Acceptable Targets]].
* [[More Than Mind Control]]: How [[Brainwashed]] and [[Brainwashed and Crazy]] actually happen in [[Real Life]]. The amount of ways that people can be turned against their own interests, their own consciences, and even their own bodies and lives, or pressed into [[Happiness in Slavery]] or resignation to slavery are enough to be [[Nightmare Fuel]] and [[Paranoia Fuel]].
* [[Mugging the Monster]]: If people make a career of robbing people, there's always a chance they'll pick the wrong person to try to victimize and end up getting the shit beat out of them or shot. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130202185130/http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=73382 There have been] quite a few cases of muggers trying to assault karate students.
* [[Mundane Luxury]]: To someone living in a third-world country, simple things like ''clean'' running water can be considered luxuries.
* [[Music Is Politics]]: Protest songs of the 60s were practically their own subgenre.
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* [[No, You Hang Up First]]: A manifestation of the "sunk cost" fallacy in that someone who is speaking in such a conversation will want to stay on as long as they can even if it would be better to stop talking.
* [[Obligatory Swearing]]: Middle and high school. The [[Music/Hardcore Punk|Hardcore Punk]] [[Heavy Metal]], [[Music/Hip Hop|Hip Hop]], and [[Visual Kei]] music scenes. Sailors and truck drivers.
* [[Obligatory War Crime Scene]]: Yes, many of those war crime scenes you see in movies ''actually happened'' (or were based on true events) and were most likely ''toned down'' for viewers. The exception would be [[
* [[Oblivious Adoption]]: Oh, it happens alright. More often than we like to think.
** Fortunately, [[Happily Adopted|the other way around]] also happens.
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* [[Ragtag Bunch of Misfits]]: Is there a chapter in the Mexican 19th century that doesn't has one of these? Also, any revolutionary group in the history of ''forever''.
* [[Rain of Arrows]]: A key strategy of the English during the Hundred Years' War and of the Chinese.
** [[
* [[Randomly Drops]]: Dollar stores, thrift/consignment shops, and lost and found are this trope's [[Real Life]] counterpart. Also, in large cities or other places with a lot of people, people will often drop or forget things from loose change to occasionally expensive or hard to acquire items.
** Thieves (and on the other side of the coin, police raids of thieves or drug dealers) also run into this trope - things stolen or acquired in a raid can range from absolutely useless even for resale, to incredibly valuable and/or rare.
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* [[Roboteching]]: Many guided weapons actually do this.
* [[Rock Beats Laser]]: Though not common, superior tactics or sheer weight of numbers have defeated superior technology. This was apparently one of the reasons the Japanese won in the Russo-Japanese war, too. There's also the Whack-a-Mole theory: wherever you wipe out insurgency one place, they'll just pop up somewhere else, ad infinitum. Iraqi insurgents, the Viet Cong, and Afghanistan over the last 50 years are examples.
* [[Romantic Two-Girl Friendship]]: It is [
* [[Runaway Bride]]: An anonymous bride left the groom at the altar ''and ran away with his witness '''who was also his best friend'''.'' And they all lived happily ever after (except the groom).
* [[Ruptured Appendix]]: Yes, it happens in [[Real Life]]. And it IS fatal if untreated (this is why, if you have severe stomach pain in the lower right side or that started there and spread, you go to an emergency room, and you DO NOT take a laxative.)
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* [[Slave Mooks]]: Unfortunately so.
* [[Somebody Else's Problem]]: Fascinating to sociologists, not so much for the victims. Most notably the case of Kitty Genovese.
* [[Smite Me,
* [[Snipe Hunt]]: A very common form of hazing or practical joke is to send someone on a search for something nonexistent.
* [[Something's Different About You Now]]: People change over time. That fat nerd you knew? Dropped the weight and became hot. That man you knew? Was actually [[
* [[Solar-Powered Magnifying Glass]]: Unfortunately, for our six-legged friends.
* [[Solid Gold Poop]]: Ambergris is whale vomit. It's also extremely valuable for use in perfumes. Guano. Not as valuable now as it used to be. For centuries, it was used to make saltpeter and phosphorous, which was used for explosives and gunpowder. Now, it's mostly used for fertilizer, and some of the world's ''best'' coffees owe their rich flavor to this particular fertilizer.
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* [[Stout Strength]]: Incredibly strong men often look more rotund than body-building. Just watch the weightlifting portion of the Olympics. Or sumo wrestling.
* [[Stylish Protection Gear]]: Silk has properties that allow for diminished arrow penetration (note: there would still be ''non-lethal'' wounds). It was used by Mongol warriors and samurai. It's also fireproof.
* [[
* [[Street Urchin]]: One of the most serious social problems everywhere in the world.
* [[Succession Crisis]]: Plenty of historical examples. There was even a whole war called "The War of Austrian Succession".
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* [[Televisually-Transmitted Disease]]: Strangely, many of the miraculous recoveries you see in medical dramas actually have happened.
* [[That Poor Car]]: Disasters will cause this.
* [[The Password Is Always Swordfish]]: One of the most common passwords is... "password" or "password1" (since now most registrars require letters and numbers). The most common varies in length but is some form of ascending number
* [[There Are No Therapists]]: Teen suicide rates are much higher than they should be, but it's more because they don't WANT to see a therapist for fear of rejection. Also because since they think with their amygdalas, which is the emotional part of their brain, not the logical part.
** Bad experiences with therapy can lead people to ''never seek help again,'' even when it is urgently and severely needed. A bad therapist can be even worse than ''no'' therapist, for this reason.
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* [[Transparent Closet]]: Sometimes those of us who are LGBTQIA are the last to know for real. Other times, we just don't really care about creating a "closet" or have been lucky enough to have lived in a situation that has never imposed or demanded one.
* [[Trash of the Titans]]: As you can see in [http://www.squalorsurvivors.com/ this site]. It's called Collyer Bros Syndrome.
* [[Trigger]]: Almost everyone has them in some form. Some far, far more distressing than others. See it's [[
* [[Trigger Happy]]: The reason a lot of shootings (whether by police or civilians) happen. Especially if one feels as if one is in mortal danger, it is an instinct borne of paranoia that can be ''very difficult'' to override.
* [[Troll]]: An undeniable
* [[True Art Is Angsty]]: Angst tends to make art be seen as "more serious." Note that [[Oscar Bait]] is usually angsty.
* [[True Art Is Incomprehensible]]: This is one of those annoying ones that reinforces itself.
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* [[Undisclosed Funds]]: Swiss bank accounts. Also, talking about money was once viewed as crass, so people used these methods to do so.
* [[The Unpronounceable]]: Indians working in call centers with American customers typically use adopted "American" names. It's also very common for immigrants to have an Americanized nickname, especially if they're from the Middle East or Asia.
* [[
* [[United We Chant]]: Can happen often in sports arenas or anywhere many people gather; Barack Obama's US presidential run was littered with "yes we can!" and sports arenas often get "U!S!A!" or chant a player/team name.
* [[Unsportsmanlike Gloating]]: TD dances.
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* [[Useful Notes]]: Useful ''because'' they're true.
* [[Utopia Justifies the Means]]: Stalin, Mao, Robespierre, Pol Pot...
** Subjective. It's not clear who really fits this trope and who was just pretending to fit
== V-Z ==
* [[Verbal Tic]]: It happens, just not with every single person.
** Americans use [[Like Is, Like, a Comma|"like", like, every five words]]. And not just, like, the [[Valley Girl]] types (thanks to MTV).
** English-speaking Canadians [[Canada, Eh?|will often append "eh?" to the ends of their sentences]]. It's become a pastime of many Canadians to play it up when around Americans.
** Francophone Canadians often say "lá" ("there") at the end of each sentence.
** Mexicans do the same with "wey" and "ese" ("dude" and "this", respectively).
** Argentinians start their phrases with "che".
* [[Vindicated by History]]: More than a few people. There are several politicians who were widely hated during their term but are now fondly remembered by history books.
* [[Violation of Common Sense]]: Happens quite often in [[Real Life]].
* [[Violent Glaswegian]]: Glasgow is the murder capital of Western Europe.
* [[Visual Kei]]: Some artists and fans dress in the style and/or even maintain complete personas offstage.
* [[Virtual Celebrity]]: A few of them are around like [[Vocaloid
* [[Virtual Ghost]]: Programmers working with the band [[X Japan]] made a hologram of a late member (lead guitarist hide) that was both a [[Virtual Celebrity]] and very, very close to this idea. Programmers also did this to bring [[Tupac Shakur]] to Coachella 2012.
* [[Vocal Dissonance]]: Radio DJs, Mike Tyson, [[Steve Blum]], and several others do ''not'' look how you would expect them to based on their voice, and vice versa. This was a very real problem back in the days when "talkie" movies were new, and many actors lost their jobs because their voices were so silly.
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* [[With Great Power Comes Great Insanity]]: Turkmenbashi was a very... eccentric ruler. Yes, he was a dictator. But he didn't have gulags and didn't violate any human rights. He was just weird.
* [[Wizard Needs Food Badly]]: The need for food is universal among animals and humans, and larger amounts of and specific kinds (more nutritious in specific ways, or providing of certain ingredients) of food are needed for those whose occupations or hobbies are physically (and in some cases mentally) demanding.
* [[Wolverine Claws]]: Ninjas used the [http://www.freepatentsonline.com/D0510121-0-large.jpg Nekode]{{Dead link}} and Indians used the Tiger's Claw for fighting
* [[The Worf Effect]]: Used by police to break up fights and riots before they really start.
* [[Worthless Foreign Degree]]: Sadly true.
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Tropes of Legend]]
[[Category:Nonfiction]]
[[Category:The Shades of Fact]]
[[Category:
▲[[Category:Tropes]]
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