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To the literary analyst, all works are [[When All You Have Is a Hammer|ripe for analysis]].
Sometimes, this helps you appreciate a work. Sometimes, it doesn't, but it produces insight into the the thought process and culture that produced the work. Other times, it's misguided
'''Such an attitude may be expressed in several ways:'''
* Insisting that [[Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory]]. ("Every character, scene and action ''must'' have [[wikipedia:Allegory|an inner meaning]].")
* [[Late Arrival Spoiler|Casually revealing major plot twists in discussion of the book]], or even the book's preface or ''[[Trailers Always Spoil|blurb]]''.
* Writing dense dense dense descriptions of what makes the book good in the blurb, which only make sense to someone who has already studied the work for several years.
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== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' has gotten this treatment, of all places, in an economics essay [https://web.archive.org/web/20101206003343/http://www.efn.org/
** Eva's connection with this trope was even referenced in ''[[FLCL]]'', where one of the characters is said to have "written a long book on the deep mysteries of Eva."
** The Eva-effect reaches to the rest of the Super Robot genre. Any Super Robot show made after 1997 is either considered some sort of [[Reconstruction]] of the Super Robot genre, a [[Take That]] to ''Eva'', a [[Poe's Law|parody]] of classic Super Robot shows...or [[Take a Third Option|all of the above]].
* ''[[FLCL]]'' is one to talk: The show is full of such frantic (and hilarious) [[Mind Screw]] that it's not clear if ''anyone'' is even clear on what the plot is, let alone what it's all supposed to mean. Brought to you by the folks who made Eva, of course.
* The last episode of ''[[Bottle Fairy (anime)|Bottle Fairy]]'' inspired [https://web.archive.org/web/20060508205809/http://denbeste.nu/Chizumatic/tmw/BottleFairy.shtml "Too many words about Bottle Fairy"], which interprets the fairies as dolls Sensei-san's "deeply disturbed" (possibly autistic) younger sister uses to interact with a world she is unable to cope with herself.
* ''[[Naruto]]'' gets a lot of this when it comes to the nation politics, and the use of 12 year old ninjas as living weapons, along with the true meaning of ''Will of Fire''.
* ''[[Gundam Wing]]'' got this treatment, by a fan who was making a valiant attempt to put out some of the [[Flame War|flame wars]] being waged over pairings, and clarify the [[Hidden Depths]] of many characters. You can read the essays yourself [https://web.archive.org/web/20120625222753/http://www.croik.com/essays/gundamwing
* Here's an interesting [https://web.archive.org/web/20090213150740/http://www.dragonsgate.net/dzone/dilandau.html take on anime's most famous pyromaniac], Dilandau Albatou of ''[[Escaflowne]]'' fame (the link is to the first part, but it provides useful context for part 2. The second part is the real nitty-gritty of the analysis).
* ''[[Death Note]]'' gets a lot of this, helped in no small part by its morally-ambiguous characters.
* ''[[Tokyo Babylon]]'' is a good example of the second point. The french edition's summary used for promotion reveals all the important plot points up to volume 6. Of a 7 volumes series.
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** Some people (and more than a few high school text books) say that a great deal of it is based on math and logic. In his day, [[Lewis Carroll]] was known for publishing mathematical treatises under his real name, Charles Dodgson.
** "The Jabberwocky" is one of the better known poems written by Carroll and one of the most often analyzed independently. Some academics claim that the poem is a satire of bad poetry or an example of how not to write a poem. Others claim that Carroll is commenting on the nature of language by using nonsense words that seem like real words. Still others have more far-fetched analysis.
*** A few of them are now real words, most famously 'chortle'. (If you're a gamer, there's also 'vorpal' blades being enchanted for more likely decapitations.)
** As for [[The Hunting of the Snark]], Carroll explicitly said that if there was a meaning to it, he didn't know what it was.
** All of which does nothing but skim over the fact that Alice was originally just a silly story he made up on the fly to entertain the three daughters of a friend while in a rowboat. One of the girls loved it so much she asked him to write it down, and he did so, eventually refining and publishing it. Later in life, Carroll would reportedly claim it was, and always had been, a hidden tract against "new math" and how people ascribing to it lived in a world of neither rhyme nor reason, which may actually make him a victim of this trope in regards to ''his own work''.
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* Bill Denbrough, one of the primary protagonists in Stephen King's [[IT]], addresses this ("can't you guys just let a story be a ''story?''") Being laughed at by his incredulous writing course instructor, said protagonist leaves the university to become a successful horror novelist.
* The original ''[[Winnie the Pooh|Winnie-the-Pooh]]'' novels have dozens of serious or semi-serious works written about them such as ''The Tao of Pooh'' or ''Pooh and the Philosophers.'' Usually these are written with a tongue-in-cheek attitude, though, so they can often be quite entertaining (the Disney version does not get the same treatment; if these books mention it at all, it's usually in degradatory terms).
* There are pieces of literature that are standard reading for all IB students, including: ''[[Macbeth]]'', ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'', ''[[Taming Of The Shrew]]'', ''[[Othello]]'', ''[[Sir Gawain and the Green Knight]]'', ''[[An American Childhood]]'', ''[[Things Fall Apart]]'', ''[[Heart of Darkness]]'', ''[[Oedipus]]'', ''[[Antigone]]'', ''[[The Bluest Eye]]'', ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'', ''[[The Great Gatsby]]'', you name it. If we've read it, we analyzed every last sentence to death. This also includes ''[[Maus]]'' and ''[[The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian]]'', which are, after all, comic books. International Baccalaureate English students are practically parodies of this trope, taken to over the top ways. For example, see [https://web.archive.org/web/20120412055745/http://intensecogitation.info/2010/06/11/the-keats-enigma/ this] analysis of Keats.
* Salvador Plascencia made a complaint in one interview about how people were trying to find a metaphor in ''everything'' mentioned in ''[[The People Of Paper]]'': "These mechanical turtles are really mechanical turtles; they are not a symbol. People ask me, "Were they Volkswagen bugs?" I'm like, "No! They're mechanical turtles." They're looking for the metaphor." Though considering how he admits in the same interview that even ''he'' [[Mind Screw|gets confused about his confused book]] and that said book features [[Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory|a blatant Jesus parallel]] in {{spoiler|the resurrection of Little Merced}}, you probably can't blame said readers for thinking that the mechanical turtles symbolize something deep.
* ''[[The Old Man and the Sea]]'': GOOD GOD! this one's been analyzed to '' '''beyond''' '' death. Mr. Hemingway said it was just about a dude and a fish.
* There's an analysis of ''[[Harry Potter]]'' entitled ''Harry Potter and International Relations'', which looks at how IR theory relates to the Harry Potter universe.
== Live-Action TV ==
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== Magazines ==
* Parodied by ''[[The Onion]]'' on at [https://web.archive.org/web/20100225050652/http://www.theonion.com/content/node/27794 least] [https://web.archive.org/web/20100224123311/http://www.theonion.com/content/node/25742 three] [https://web.archive.org/web/20100219050358/http://www.theonion.com/content/node/39205 occasions].
** Made all the more hilarious by an AP English test from a few years back that involved analysing an Onion article.
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{{quote|"What's my ''message?''" Bob seizes a mercury arc light from the coffee table. "'Keep a cool head and always carry a light bulb!'"}}
* Isn't It [[Irony|Ironic]], [[Alanis Morissette|don't you think?]] Alanis was initially evasive, but later on claimed that it was the ''use'' of "ironic" that was the irony; "it was specifically written from the standpoint of someone like a teenage girl writing in her diary." She intentionally misused ironic IN an ironic way. Alanis was twenty-one when that album came out, so she could very well have been a teenage girl herself when she wrote the song. It ''is'' ironic, however, that an entire song about irony wasn't actually ironic, the question is only in intent.
* [[Steely Dan]], although many of their songs require a bit of background understanding of the subjects, [https://web.archive.org/web/20071012153644/http://www.stylusmagazine.com/articles/staff_top_10/top-ten-obscure-steely-dan-lyrics.htm this article] looks a bit too deep to find meaning in things already explained by [[Word of God]], and has probably the most gutter-minded perspectives on the band to date, and simultaneously pointing out the obvious as well as missing the point.
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== Video Games ==
* This amazing deconstruction of ''[[Sinistar]]'' entitled [https://web.archive.org/web/20130921115041/http://onastick.net/drew/sinistar/ I Hunger, therefore, I live.]
* The [[Moviebob|Game Overthinker]] makes a habit of doing this to video games. See for example his episode ''Super Mario and the Sacred Feminine''.
* [[Chrono Trigger]] is a Christ figure. [http://www.chronocompendium.com/Term/CTT:Crono.html And that's just the beginning].
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* The [[MOTHER]] fandom has this in spades.
** GIYGAS IS A FETUS.
*** Even if Giygas isn't a fetus, he sure does [http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13790475/Giygas.png look like one]{{Dead link}}.
* Many of the articles on www.insertcredit.com, and even more so on its spiritual successor, www.actionbutton.net, indulge in this trope in DROVES.
* ''[[Halo|HALO: Combat Evolved]]'' [and only ''Combat Evolved''] is a post-modernist work of art, comparable to the Iliad, the Chief descended from Rambo AND Captain America, and... look, you just [
** It's ''specifically'' features religious references all over the place. Heck, even the main theme is ''Gregorian chanting''.
* [[GameFAQs]] has plot analysis for the entire ''[[Silent Hill]]'' series that are longer than the installments' walkthroughs combined. It's possible the authors simply finagled course credits for games already played. At least it makes interesting reading for fans who can't get enough Silent Hill.
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* Parodied in ''[[SMBC]]'': [http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2112#comic\]
{{quote|"That's not how English class works. What we ''can'' do is pretend the book is a towering riddle of symbology designed to obfuscate a central theme so simplistic that it can be expressed in a single paragraph during a one-hour midterm."}}
* One fan of [[Bloody Urban]] left a comment praising [https://web.archive.org/web/20120509075344/http://asquidcalledzelda.deviantart.com/art/Eat-Healthy-156575419 this page] for its (completely unintentional) satire of capitalist values.
{{quote|"This got a few comments on deviantart praising my witty critique of the hypocrisy of fast-food consumption. Apparently I have captured the dilemma of the modern consumer. And I was like ''Really? I thought this was just a fat joke....''"}}
== Web Original ==
* ''[[Something Awful]]''
* Some of the very pages on [[TV Tropes]] are ''extremely'' detailed for popular mainstream works. See [[Trope Overdosed]].
** A number of the [[Worse Than It Sounds (Darth Wiki)|Worse Than It Sounds]] entries are send-ups of this idea.
** Invoked, Exaggerated and of course {{spoiler|[[Played for Laughs]]}} [[TV Tropes|On This Very Wiki]] with [[The Ugly Barnacle
* [[Uncyclopedia]]'s [http://uncyclopedia.
* [[Todd in the Shadows]]
**
* [[Confused Matthew]]
** [[Word of God]] (of the two films mentioned) would [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9r5In4Vagas say] [http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0069.html otherwise].
* ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' of all things is given this treatment by [[The Wiki Rule|The Homestar Runner Wiki]].
▲* [[Confused Matthew]] argues in his epilogue to his No Country for Old Men review that it, and 2001, were created cynically for these sort of people. Didactic elements were peppered into the film in place of characters, dialogue or plot. YMMV of course.
▲* Invoked, Exaggerated and of course {{spoiler|[[Played for Laughs]]}} [[On This Very Wiki]] [[The Ugly Barnacle|here]]
* Mocked in the [[Whateley Universe]] when Phase takes a World Literature class on the epic. The papers written on the classical Greek and Roman epics are all flamed by fellow student Majestic. Who happens to be the incarnation of Hera/Juno and ''might actually know more about this than anyone else in the class''.
* Mocked in [[videogamedunkey]]'s video ''[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rz6jHTpi6zw Click]'', a [[Dramatic Reading]] of Amazon reviews of [[Click|the Adam Sandler movie]], where he found [http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/R3CM6Z8JL40CVW a lengthy review analysis]:
{{quote|"Jesus Christ, this guy fucking dissected the entire movie of Click. This is like a professional film thesis.. on Click."}}
== Western Animation ==
* ''[[Fillmore!]]!'' has an episode where the Book Club try to steal the best books from the library for themselves. The head of said club when he is collared and sent to detention rants about how the Book Club deserve them more than others as they are the only ones who appreciate them in the right way and understand things like the subtext of [[Judy Blume]]. Ingrid Third points out, "Judy Blume doesn't ''have'' a subtext, but she ''is'' very good."
* A [http://waluigious.blogspot.com/2008/03/in-which-i-analyze-mama-luigi.html serious investigation] into the "deep philosophical significance" hidden between the lines of the ''[[Super Mario World (video game)|Super Mario World]]'' cartoon episode and [[
* ''[[Scooby Doo]] and the Loch Ness Monster'' is at least a little about scientific skepticism, isn't it? Anybody?
** Pretty much every version of [[Scooby Doo]]. Whether intentional or not, the fact that every villain in Scooby Doo episodes is a normal person masquerading as a supernatural monster is very much in line with the typical skeptical mindset, which feels that a naturalistic explanation (Old Man Johnson scaring people away from the pirate treasure by dressing up as a werewolf) is much more reasonable and likely than a supernatural one (werewolves exist).
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* In 2005, the journalist Wilker de Jesus Lira wrote a monograph called "O merchandising capitalista no desenho Bob Esponja" (''The capitalist merchandising in the [[SpongeBob]] cartoon'') where he attempts to show that [[SpongeBob]] preaches the American capitalism that predates the lower classes, saying that "[[SpongeBob]] is the perfect capitalist employee, who doesn't rebel against his chief and accepts everything, even if he lives with a misery salary".
* People love applying this to ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic|My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic]]''. There's been essays on everything from [http://www.overthinkingit.com/2011/02/24/my-little-pony-political-economy/ the political makeup of Equestria] to the application of Jung's shadow archetype to [[Large Ham|the Great and Powerful Trixie]] to [http://www.reddit.com/r/mylittlepony/comments/h12nm/pony_personality_disorders/ psychoanalysis of the main cast, complete with personality disorder diagnoses]. This is part of a larger trend of overanalysis, which includes the famous [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muVfidujxRg physics presentation] that concluded that Applejack is made out of dark matter.
* ''[[Animaniacs]]'' actually lampooned this sort of thing with the [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNJ6dFwh8a4 Please Please Please Get a Life Foundation], an [[Tropaholics Anonymous| in-universe support group]] for people who take cartoons too seriously.
== Other ==
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