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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:'''
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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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== [[Literature]] ==
Welcome to Lit. Class.
* ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]''. What was once a simple romance novel about two adultering people in early Puritian society has been examined and re-examined to death since the 1850s, trying to find hidden meanings. The biggest offender is the notion of Hester's daughter Pearl being one giant symbol rather than an actual character.
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** The author of the blog [http://slacktivist.typepad.com Slacktivist] once compared reading [[The Bible]] as the writers of ''[[Left Behind]]'' do to "seeing a homosexual subtext in ''Huckleberry Finn''". This has been done, in an infamous paper called "Come Back to the Raft, Huck Honey!".
* Nick Cave's novel ''And The Ass Saw The Angel'' is a giant [[Mind Screw]] set [[Through the Eyes of Madness]], brimming with [[Faux Symbolism|confusing religious symbolism]], right down to the title. In an interview, he told everyone [[MST3K Mantra|not to read too much into it, and just to enjoy it]].
** The original story may be found [http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Numbers%2022:1-35 here].
* The original ''[[Dracula (novel)|Dracula]]'' novel was a pot-boiler cross-the-world adventure. Even though vampires became sex symbols far later, the original novel is still often interpreted as heavy on [[Fetish Fuel|sexual allegory]].
** [[Older Than You Think|Vampires had been a sexual symbol well before Dracula]] - they were a popular symbol for "deviant" sexuality in the Victorian times. ''Carmilla'' features the world's first [[Lesbian Vampire]] and in Dr. Polidori's ''The Vampyre'' the titular vampire, Lord Ruthven is modeled after certain [[Byronic Hero|Lord Byron]], and is depicted as a sexual predator.
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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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* S. E. Hinton started to write ''[[The Outsiders]]'' when she was ''sixteen''. To ''vent''. Which really makes you wonder about how much symbolism ''she'' stuck into it.
** Not as much as ''Taming The Star Runner'', written twenty years later. It's about a sixteen-year-old who writes a novel and struggles with father issues. He goes to live with his uncle after fighting with his widowed mom's abusive husband. The uncle and the boy are basically both Expy's of the author at different points of her life.
* ''[[The Confidence
* Everyone has a high school English teacher who thinks every word of every book is ''dripping'' with meaning. The best is when the story actually does have an [[Anvilicious|obvious moral]], but the teacher is so busy hunting for [[Alternative Character Interpretation|some other theme]] in insignificant bits of imagery that he/she misses the point. Like, deciding that the main theme of ''[[The Stranger]]'' is something about nature.
* A recent{{when}} printing of [[Jane Austen]]'s ''[[Pride and Prejudice]]'' contains an "introduction" that discusses the story and compares and contrasts it with Jane Austen's other works. It manages to spoil not only the plot of ''Pride and Prejudice'', but also ''every other Jane Austen book'' while comparing and contrasting it.
* The Bantam Classic printing of ''[[Great Expectations]]'' has a lengthy introduction by [[John Irving]] that ''does'' spoil the whole plot before page one of chapter one, ''does'' compare the book to various other works of Dickens, and ''does'' go into way too much scholarly analysis, but at least doesn't go into much [[Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory]].
* 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
* There are pieces of literature that are standard reading for all IB students, including: ''[[Macbeth]]'', ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'', ''[[The Taming
* [[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
* 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....''"}}
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** 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]] article.
* [[Uncyclopedia]]'s [http://uncyclopedia.
* [[Todd in the Shadows]] [[Lampshade Hanging|acknowledged]] his tendency to over-analyze inherently cheap and shallow pop songs.
** Kyle Kallgren of [[Brows Held High]] fame makes a habit of this, especially in his "Between The Lines" videos. His earliest defining work on the TGWTG site was analyzing the themes and metaphors inherent in Nella's ''[[My Little Pony]]'' tales during [[The Nostalgia Chick]]'s review of the MLP movie.
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== 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 Media ==▼
▲== Other ==
* Improv comedy troupe/public pranksters Improv Everywhere parodied this trope by setting up a New York subway station as an art gallery, where preexisting objects like trash cans, advertisements and passing trains were the "art". See a video of it [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6NU5K3k8Xo&feature=player_embedded here].
* Aversion: Freud would say that unconscious conflicts resolve themselves by being expressed through symbolic stories. So, the fact that an author denies the presence of any deeper meaning to their work (as in the aforementioned ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]'', where the idea of a Kansan taking trip to the capital to appeal for help from the ruler seems to be a fitting metaphor for ruritans, mired in a farm crisis, traveling to D.C. to ask the President for aid), does not in and of itself [[Jossed|prove that no such meaning exists]]. [[Epileptic Trees|As long as the explanation makes sense, it's worth considering]]; and this is at the root of what makes something art or not. As long as the explanation makes sense....
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Audience Reactions]]
[[Category:Meta Concepts]]
[[Category:Unexpected Reactions to This Index]]
[[Category:What Do You Mean It's Not an Index?]]
[[Category:This Index Asked You a Question]]
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