Xtreme Kool Letterz: Difference between revisions

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{{trope}}
{{quote|''Reactions resulted in the product being coined "Krazy Glue;" a product so crazy that it requires intentional misspelling.''|''Cracked'', "[http://www.cracked.com/article_17134_5-accidental-inventions-that-changed-world.html 5 Accidental Inventions That Changed the World]"}}
|''Cracked'', "[http://www.cracked.com/article_17134_5-accidental-inventions-that-changed-world.html 5 Accidental Inventions That Changed the World]"}}
 
[[Self-Demonstrating Article|Certain letterz of the English alphabetz are just "kewler" than others]]. As such, many peoplez will intentionalli mizzpel wordz by xubztituting these letterz, in the hopez that this will draw moar attentshun from young peoplez and make the rezult look moar youth-oriented.
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* "I" instead of "Y" at the end of a word.
* "Z" instead of "S" at the end of a plural word.
* Spelling "cool" as "kool", or worse, "kewl".[[hottip:*:<ref>[[We All Live in America|The misspelling "kewl" only makes sense in American dialects; everywhere else distinguishes "ew" from "oo".]]</ref>
 
Less-common variantz include:
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"Text speak," originating in IM and a popular shorthand for use with mobile phones, is similar to "1337," though the hardcore consider it a different language.
 
One possible justification for [['''Xtreme Kool Letterz]]''' in [[Real Life]] is that, at least in the United States, "common words" cannot be trademarked as-is, but deliberate misspellings can.
 
The overall trope is [[Older Than Radio]], with deliberate misspellings being used for humor at least since the early Victorian era. (And back then, of course, semiliteracy was such a problem that many otherwise articulate people ''unintentionally'' misspelled words, making this trope not only comical but also satirical.)
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* [[A Villain Named Zrg]], [[Law of Alien Names]] and [[NameTron]]
----
=== {{examples|Xamplez ===:}}
 
== Advertyzing ==
* Early advertising example: A 1950s print ad for Heinz baked beans included the caption, "Beanz Buildz Kidz!" And that wasn't even their main slogan... it was "Beanz Meanz Heinz".<ref>That was probably unintentional in terms of Xtremeness, seeing as how the brand name is, of course, Heinz, and the ad was just a play on it, not on Sup4 Kule L3tt4rz.</ref>
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** One Bratz book is actually named''Xtreme Kool''.
** Once they got to stringing together names like "Bratz Babyz Ponyz," you get to wondering how much longer until they trademarked the letter z and we'd all have to start paying them to be able to use it.
* Sprint's new WiMax service will be called "XOHM" (pronounced Zoam). ''"It's an invented term that went through extensive market research and tested well with consumer and business audiences," said Sprint's John Polivka. "There is a certain 'cool factor' with the X in it..." [http://www.bizjournals.com/baltimore/stories/2007/08/13/daily34.html (source)]
* Sheetz convenience stores have a fast food counter that sells "Bagelz" and "Wrapz".
* Intel's Xeon processors -- oddlyprocessors—oddly enough, not really targeted at the "extreme" gaming crowd.
* When NVidia released their first DirectX 9 video chipset, they christened it the GeForce FX 5800. However, it ran very hot and was utterly destroyed by the rival ATi 9700 that was released ''months earlier''. The FX name became associated with "total suckage" and the name was dropped upon the introduction of the GeForce 6000 series. You could still get yourself a GeForce 8800GTX though, so it's not like the [[Xtreme Kool Letterz]] were dropped completely. The "GT" is often used to refer to a sporty edition of a car (more horsepowers, perhaps) and the X added the cool factor. The absolute extreme would be the Nvidia GeForce 9800 GTX+ (also known as the less awesome GeForce GTS 250).
* Invoking this trope for a product name is one thing, but how about invoking it for a brand name? Cue XFX, very respected AIB partner for graphic cards. Of course, some of its more popular products are... Nvidia cards. Of course, the company management just couldn't help to make some "XXX" series to distinguish its premium versions of most products. So you end up with cards like the "XFX GeForce 9800 GTX XXX edition." Incidentally, the general consensus is that at least the company lives up to its name.
* Microsoft's "DirectX" and "ActiveX" technologies are themselves an example of this. What does the X convey about the product, exactly? <ref> The X is short for "Extensions". The Win32 GDI (the standard set of libraries used by Windows programs to perform graphics and input functionalities) proved too bulky and too slow to be used for games, having been designed instead to be a more general set of functionalities for application development. "Direct Extensions," or DirectX, was a library meant to simplify access to low level input/output hardware for graphics, input, sound, and networking. X for eXtension also applies to Intel's MMX instruction set. The other letters varied in meaning, or lack thereof, according to which side of the legal battlefield you were standing on. The X in this case is also the variable 'X'. [[Direct X]] is a collection of several different technologies.</ref>
* The "[[X BoxXbox]]" falls under this trope as well. Microsoft realized that "DirectX Box" just didn't sound all that catchy. The Xbox is, essentially, just a computer with streamlined DirectX support, one of the reasons why it and its successor are touted as being "developer friendly."
* Automobile model names tend to acquire a two- or three-letter suffix to indicate a "cooler" sports car version. This suffix will usually contain one or more of the following: "GT" or "G", "S" or "SS", or "X". The the car in question need not have any actual sporting or high-performance characteristics; the letters on the decal or name badge are enough to impart coolness. (E.g., AMC Pacer X, Yugo GVX.)
** There are, of course, cars with cool sports car letter suffixes which live up to the hype: the mid-sixties Impala SS, for one. <ref> To be entirely fair, the letters indicate the particular feature package. "GT" stands for "Grand Touring," SS for "Super Sport," etc. Most GM muscle cars came in basic packages and enhanced SS packages (and not a few GT packages, although this was more a Ford feature), and even occasionally wandering off into nonsense territory, like the Camaro Z28 SS. While still "xtreme," the concept predated the modern fascination with xtremeness by at least forty years.</ref>
** The Dodge Omni GLH is a rare example of a model name suffix which stands for something: "Goes Like Hell," a reference to the car's hotted-up engine. There was an even higher-spec version of the car called the Omni GHLS- Goes Like Hell Some More.
** Vespa mostly uses this straight, but inverts it in the LX series; The series was launched in 60th anniversary of the (Italian) company, and LX is Roman numerals for 60.
* The Kia Forte is available as a four door sedan, or as a two door Koup.
* Products that for some reason go from version "9" into version "X". Roman numerals + [[Xtreme Kool Letterz]] = [[Rule of Cool]].
** Mac OS X.
** The new version of QuickTime included with OS X Snow Leopard is so Xtreme that it skipped from version 7 to version X.
** The ATi X series of video chipsets, which came after the 9000 series.
** Paint Shop Pro, made by Jasc and then bought by Corel, originally used 1-8 for its version numbers. When Corel bought it, it went from 8 to IX. Then came X, then XI. As the switch happened with 9, not 10, one might be inclined to think this ''might'' not be a case of [[Xtreme Kool Letterz]]... until the 12th version came out as "X2".
** Partly from superstition about the number 13, and partly so they could have cool letter in its name, the thirteenth version of Wordperfect Office is called X3. (And who is this WP Office owned by? Do we see a pattern here?)
* There are "freeline skates" with the brand name ''Xliders'' as well as a pumped-up Razor scooter called a ''Xootr''. I am completely at a loss as to how to pronounce either of those.
* As of 2008, the packaging and advertising for Goldfish snack crackers features four [[Let's Meet the Meat|anthropomorphic crackers]] as [[Mascot|mascotsmascot]]s. One of these cracker characters is named Xtreme.
* According to [[Wikipedia]], Kool-Aid (originally Kool-Ade) was first sold in 1927, and Kool cigarettes were first sold in 1933.
* The banners on this page right now, which, many thanks to Ads by Google, are currently "XTREME Ringtones," "Xtreme Machine Wheels" and "Xtreme Diesel Performance."
* Many things marketed to kids seem to use this trope, probably in an attempt to make their product seem "cooler".
** Kidz Bop probably falls under this category
* There used to be a cider called "Xider". I've wondered if the spelling was supposed to evoke an American pronunciation of "exciter," but everyone around here (Sweden) just said "kseeder". Then regulations changed and the stuff could no longer be legally referred to as a cider, so they changed the name to "Xide," whatever that's supposed to mean.
** It's probably meant to be excite, but the spelling makes you say it as if you had a runny nose.
* Trix, and Kix.
* The next big global compact sedan from General Motors is sold in Europe, and will be sold in the U.S., as the [[wikipedia:Chevrolet Cruze|Chevrolet Cruze.]]
* Officially, the name of Elon Musk's private spaceflight company is Space Exploration Technologies, but they use "[[Space X]]" because it just sounds cooler.
* [[Playstation Network]] has a sort of video-magazine entitled Qore (Core).
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** Also from Bombardier, the TRAXX locomotive. "Stands for Transnational Railway Applications with eXtreme fleXibility." TRAEF would not have sounded anything like as good.
* UNIX got its name when Unics became a [[Non-Indicative Name]] by no longer being a uniplexing (i.e. one thing at a time) system.
* The X Windowing system, now X11, which is commonly used on Unixen. Justified--itJustified—it's predecessor was "W", as in "Windowing"
* Brazilian entrepreneur Eike Batista names all of his companies '** X' (EBX, MMX, OGX, MPX, LLX...), because he wants to "multiply wealth".
* Springfield Armory Company imports the Croatian-made HS-2000 handgun into the U.S. and sells it under the name "Springfield XD". The "XD" is short for "eXtreme Duty".
* Although it wasn't named this way for kewlness, ''Cheez Whiz'' definitely fits the spelling pattern.
* Pringles "[https://web.archive.org/web/20110404021629/http://www.pringles.com/en_us/Pages/Xtreme.aspx Xtreme]" flavors.
* DiGiorno Pizza & [https://web.archive.org/web/20120501145117/http://www.digiorno.com/Wyngz.aspx Wyngz].
** Which was actually because they couldn't legally call them "wings" due to the absence of any actual wing meat.
* The "ambient electronic device" [https://web.archive.org/web/20120401151030/http://www.karotz.com/home?locale=en_GB Karotz], successor to the [[wikipedia:Nabaztag|Nabaztag]].
 
== Animez &and Mangaz ==
 
* The official English translation of the ''[[Bokurano (Manga)|Bokurano]]'' manga explains the name "Zearth" by invoking this trope (justified, in that it's a bunch of kids piloting the robot). It is worth noting that the ''real'' reason for the name Zearth is that it's the Japanese pronunciation of "The Earth" rendered back into English (well, it's close to it anyway). On the one hand, even in a direct translation, the kids did go with "Zearth" instead of "The Earth" because it sounded cooler. On the other, has anyone ever actually said "the z makes it more extreme!" with a straight face? [[Crapsack World|In the world of]] ''Bokurano'' they might.
== Animez & Mangaz ==
* The official English translation of the ''[[Bokurano (Manga)|Bokurano]]'' manga explains the name "Zearth" by invoking this trope (justified, in that it's a bunch of kids piloting the robot). It is worth noting that the ''real'' reason for the name Zearth is that it's the Japanese pronunciation of "The Earth" rendered back into English (well, it's close to it anyway). On the one hand, even in a direct translation, the kids did go with "Zearth" instead of "The Earth" because it sounded cooler. On the other, has anyone ever actually said "the z makes it more extreme!" with a straight face? [[Crapsack World|In the world of]] ''Bokurano'' they might.
* [[Transformers]] examples:
** This is the basis behind the names of X-Brawn and Skid Z in ''[[Transformers: Robots in Disguise (Animeanime)|Transformers Robots in Disguise]]''. It was for a whole thought that X-Brawn was used because Hasbro couldn't secure a trademark on 'Brawn', but one of their marketers later explained that they just put in the X too look cool.
** Also, "Lazorbeak" from ''[[Beast Wars (Animation)|Beast Wars]]''. (The Generation 1 character is always spelled "Laserbeak," as are the Cybertron and Animated ones. Expect a lot of people to get it wrong anyways.)
* ''[[Ikki Tousen (Manga)|Ikki Tousen]]'''s fourth season, ''Xtreme Xecutor''
* [[Digimon (Franchise)|Digimon]] examples:
** ''[[Digimon Xros Wars (Anime)|Digimon Xros Wars]]'', the sixth series of the franchise, and its sequel ''[[Digimon Xros Wars: the Young Hunters Leaping Through Time (Anime)|Digimon Xros Wars theThe Young Hunters Leaping Through Time]]''. It's supposed to have a connection to the [[Combining Mecha|DigiXros functionality]] in the series, which is, much as you'd guess, visually represented by an X.
** RizeGreymon in ''[[Digimon Savers (Anime)|Digimon Savers]]''.
* The anime ''[[Texhnolyze (Anime)|Texhnolyze]]''.
* [[DragonballDragon Ball]] "Z".
* The group who became [[Gainax]] coined the name of their studio from the world ''gaina'', which meant "giant" or "big" in the dialect of the Tottori prefecture, plus an "X" because it sounded both international and very cool.
 
 
== Bord Gamez ==
* English-language ''Scrabble'' gives you more points for using K (5), J (8), X (8), Q (10), and Z (10). Justified as these letters are the hardest to use, though there are some legal two-letter words containing them, such as ''za'' and ''qi''. The trick? There's only one of each.
 
 
== Kard Gamez ==
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (Tabletop Game)|Yu-Gi-Oh]]'' card game:
** It includes a card called [http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Mind_Haxorz Mind Haxorz] in the set ''Rise of Destiny''. Really! It's fun to mention that the original Japanese name of the card is merely "Mind Hack".
** We also have [http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Meklord_Astro_Machinicle Meklord Astro Mekanikle]. Deserves special mentions because in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh 5 Ds]]'' it's the trump card used by the ''villain''.
** [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]] with the Xyz monsters introduced in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh Ze Xal]]'' and the card sets. It's pronounced "ik-seez" and is a reference to spacial coordinates<ref>three dimensions: its place on the mat, and the cards under it</ref>. Humorously, up to the point of their announcement in the TCG, fansubbers of the show never caught that meaning, assuming it was "Exceed" because it was the closest-sounding actual word.
* ''[[Magic the Gathering (Tabletop Game)|Magic the Gathering]]'''s Phyrexia, with names like Gix, Xantcha, and Skithiryx. As Tom LaPille [http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/ld/110 puts it], "Are you more intimidated by the thought of the dread reign of Firecsia or Phyrexia?"
 
 
== Komix Bookz ==
* [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] examples:
** ''X-Treme X-Men''. Generally considered a really silly title, one online reviewer referred to the first three issues as ''That [[Chris Claremont|Claremont]] Book''. Ironically, when, after 46 issues, the book was canceled and the writer moved the characters to ''Uncanny X-Men'', the team was renamed "X-Treme Sanctions Executive."
** "Storm claims it was an inside joke, and blames Gambit. Gambit blames Rogue. I blame society." -- Cable—Cable, ''X-Men: Future History - The Messiah War Sourcebook''.
** Arguably, the [[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]] themselves. In the first issue, Professor Xavier notes that it stands for "X-tra power!" Fortunately, it's been [[Retcon|retconnedretcon]]ned to stand for both Xavier's name and the X Factor, the unknown genetic factor that gives mutants their powers.
** And then there's Professor Xavier's name:
*** Ther's all the adaptations that pronounce it "Professor Ex-avier," just to make it clear to [[Viewers are Morons|stupid viewers]] that there's an X in his name. "Xavier" is an archaic Spanish spelling of "Javier," so it should be "khavi-air" (or "zavvy-ay", in French), people. ("Ex-avier" is a common mispronunciation of "Xavier" in [[Real Life]], though).
*** The Spanish dubs fortunately make a point of pronouncing his name "Khavi-air".
*** There is a comic where Xavier admits that ''technically'' it isn't pronounced like that -- hethat—he just prefers it.
** And the ''[[X-Men]]'' spin-off book ''X-Force'' once had a character called Adam-X, the X-Treme. Ah, the '90s. Thankfully, "the X-Treme" part rarely appeared outside of cover announcements of his guest appearances.
** Before Adam-X, there was Illyana Rasputin, aka Magik.
** Even earlier, there was Alex Summers, aka Havok.
** Subverted [[Stealth Pun|really deviously]] during [[Grant Morrison]]'s run. {{spoiler|The first arc of New X-Men was titled "E is for Extinction." Let's just say that another writer might have emphasized a different letter of that word.}} <ref>Except that the "X-tinction" title had already been used multiple times throughout the history of the team. He probably just wasn't allowed to use it again.</ref>
** When the second incarnation of the ''[[X -Force]]'' was threatened with legal action over their name, leader the Orphan simply changes it -- toit—to "X-Statix". He says it came to him in a dream and he doesn't really know what it's supposed to mean.
* In the second issue of ''Hyperkind'', one of the newly empowered Hyperkind decides to adopt "Logic" as his [[Code Name]]. Another member (the resident comic nerd of the team) stops him, telling him to call himself "Logix" because, "That's how it's done!" Said comic nerd then decides to call himself Amokk, for the same reason.
* In ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]: Black Dossier'', Mina delivers a [[Take That]] to the producers of the ''League of Extraordinary Gentleman'' movie when she identifies a rocket as being American because "who else would think that "extra" starts with an "X"?" The League movie was often referred to as ''LXG''.
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* Kobra
* Underground Comix. So called to distinguish them from mainstream comics.
* ''[[Miracleman (Comic Book)|Kimota!]]''
* Hell, just watch any of Linkara's ''Atop the Fourth Wall'' skits and it has a 50/50 shot of pointing one of these out with "Because poor literacy is KeWl!" message.
* In the weekly [[Anthology Comic]] ''[[The Beano]]'', there is comic strip entitled ''Ratz''.
* [[Captain America (comics)]] of Marvel's Super Soldier program was Weapon 1. 40 years later came the last major Super Soldier trial: [[X-Men (Comic Book)|Weapon X]].
 
 
== Komix Stripz ==
* ''[[Krazy Kat]]'' is one of the very first examples. She had bit parts in George Herriman's assorted Sunday comics as early as 1903, was called "Kat" by 1909, and "Krazy Kat" by 1910. By the time she got her standalone strip in 1913, she'd developed her personal dialect, a mixture of Spanish and Yiddish accents with Ks everywhere.
 
 
== Fan Workz ==
* Appears in ''[[Total Drama Comeback]]'', much to the campers' horror, as Chris attempts to apply the C->K variant to the {{spoiler|Cool Kids' Club}}. [[Dude, Not Funny|Nobody is amused]], and even Chris seems horrified when he realizes the [[Unfortunate Implications]].
 
== SportzFilmz ==
 
* ''[[Antz (Animation)|Antz]]''
== Filmz -- Anym@tion ==
* ''[[Antz (Animation)|Antz]]''
 
 
== Filmz -- Lyve-Aktion ==
* Early example: The 1950 film ''[[Rocketship X-M]]'', where the titular spaceship's name is short for "Expeditionary Mission".
* The movie ''[[XXX (Film)|xXx]]'' and its sequel ''xXx: State of the Union''. Best summed up with the following exchange:
{{quote| '''Toby:''' [[Gangsta Style|Knocked over a few 7-Elevens, have we?]]<br />
'''Xander Cage:''' Nah, I had my leg in a cast for about three months. All I did was play [[First-Person Shooter]] video games.<br />
'''Toby:''' That's a really sad story. }}
** Note that Vin Diesel is an [[One of Us|avid game freak]] [[Real Life|IRL]].
* When the teleplay ''[[Quatermass|The Quatermass Experiment]]'' was made into a film, it was titled ''The Quatermass Xperiment'', apparently in reference to its BBFC X certificate (the film is nowadays rated PG).
* ''[[eXistenZ (Film)|eXistenZ]]'' could be justified because "Existenz" is the German word for existence and "isten" is Hungarian for "God," giving the director a reason to frame it with Caps.
* ''[[Da Ali G Show]]'' is a chronic abuser of this, with such recurring words like "Respek" being used intentionally by the titular character, who referenced that all respect had been lost in the world since [[Too Dumb to Live|the word "respek" had been removed from the dictionary]]. [[Rule of Funny|But of course...]]
* The marketing for the movie adaptation of ''[[The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (Filmfilm)|The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen]]'' used the acronym "LXG". Didn't help the movie either.
* From the silent movies, the ''Keystone Kops'' were the inspiration for many later examples. Although at this time, K's weren't meaning "cool," but rather "funny," as in "ha ha, those guys can't spell correctly."
* The titles of the hood classics ''[[Boyz N the Hood]]'' and ''[[Menace II Society]]''.
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* The "Rekall" brand in ''[[Total Recall]]''.
* The religious film ''[[C Me Dance]]''.
 
 
== Lyterature ==
* ''[[Discworld (Literature)|Discworld]]''
** Referenced in [[Terry Pratchett]]'s ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Maskerade|Maskerade]]'', in which Agnes Nitt attempts to change her name to [[Awesome McCoolname|Perdita X. Dream]], where "X" stands for "someone who has a cool and exciting middle name." Doesn't work though -- allthough—all the people in her village refer to her as "the Agnes who calls herself Perditax."
** Also in ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Soul Music (novel)|Soul Music]]'', when an all-troll Music With Rocks In band want to call themselves simply "Trolls" they're told, "But you've got to spell it with a Z. Trollz."
** Funnily enough, on a non-''Discworld'' note, when the Trolls doll line was revived for the 21st century (along with an animated series), the powers that be [http://www.trollz.com/ did just that].
** The vampires in ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Carpe Jugulum|Carpe Jugulum]]'' express a desire to [[Phantasy Spelling|spell it "vampyres"]], as the Y makes it look more modern. Even though said spelling is probably [[Older Than They Think|older]].
** Dr. Hix in ''[[Discworld (Literature)/Unseen Academicals|Unseen Academicals]]'', head of the Department of [[Necromancer|Postmortem Communications]], is really named Hicks, but with his black robe and skull ring he "would have been mad, or let us say even madder, to pass up a chance to have an X in his name."
** And of course, there's the whole continent called XXXX. But pronounced "Fourecks" (and named after a [[Real Life]] brand of Australian lager).
* The ''Matthew Martin'' series by Paula Danziger features a character who spells her name "Jil!" because she got bored with "Jill."
** Another children's book has a character named Susan who changes her name to, well, the title says it all: ''My Name is Sus5an Smith. The 5 is Silent.''
* Several names in ''[[The Wheel of Time (Literature)|The Wheel of Time]]'' are actually perfectly ordinary names that have been grossly misspelled. Examples include "Elayne" (Elaine), "Padraig" (Patrick), "Birgitte" (Bridget), and "Logain" (Logan).
** Well, to be fair, Padraig is a legitimate Irish variation of Patrick in its own right and Birgitte is a legitimate Scandinavian variant of Bridget. It should be noted that in the Norwegian translation of ''The Wheel of Time'', Birgitte's name is translated to the more exotic sounding Bergithe, as Birgitte is quite an usual name in Norway.
* Same goes for ''most'' personal names in ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire (Literature)|A Song of Ice and Fire]]''. The letter "y" is particularly common.
* ''[[Oryx and Crake]]'' by [[Margaret Atwood]] pictures a future where hyper-rich corporations call themselves things like HelthWyzer and RejooveNation with a straight face. It's never explained, but one gets the feeling they have been forced to come up with these "creative" spellings because all the normal ones had been trademarked. Unless they actually thought it sounded cool.
* Species in [[Peter David]]'s ''Hidden Earth Chronicles'' include Mandraques, Firedraques and draqons.
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* In ''[[The Edge Chronicles]]'', all the inhabitants of Sactaphrax uses this as do all the Leaguesmen, it's justified as the scholar who make up Sanctaphrax's population want to sound educated and the Leaguesmen want to sound like them.
* J.R. Ward's ''[[Black Dagger Brotherhood]]'' series has a number of main characters with [[Names to Run Away From]] coupled with this sort of spelling. Some examples include: [[Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?|Phury, Rhage, Zsadist, Rehvenge, and Tohrment.]]
* The ''[[Septimus Heap (Literature)|Septimus Heap]]'' series uses this [[Egregious|Egregiously]]ly for '''Magykal''' words and phrases.
 
 
== Lyve-Aktion TV ==
* A late episode of ''[[Sabrina the Teenage Witch (TV series)|Sabrina the Teenage Witch]]'' involved Sabrina, Roxie and Morgan forming a girl group called "Girlz." During their first audition, they think they can easily beat the guy who went on before them because they have a Z in their name; however, his name turns out to be Zeke.
* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]''
** Parodied in episode "Wormhole X-Treme," with the eponymous [[Show Within a Show]]. One character comments that he "wanted to call it ''Going to Other Planets'', but [[Executive Meddling|the network said]] that shows with 'X' in the name get better ratings."
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** During a review of ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'', Adam and Morgan commented on the title, saying "everything is cooler when spelled with a K."
* ''MXC: Most Xtreme Elimination Challenge''. Used tongue in cheek, since it's a [[Gag Dub]] show.
* The French series ''[[Kaamelott (TV)|Kaamelott]]'', parodying the Arthurian legends. A lone stylized "K" is also used prominently during the credits and even on fictitious heraldry. The author justifies this as being close to an ancient variant of spelling for "Camelot"; hence, here the effect aimed at isn't to look "cool" but "antiquated".
* The shameless cable network [[Disney XD]], which outright tells you they're both extreme and 'wit it', as the XD part is an "extreme!" emoticon denoting extreme happiness.
* The official name of [[Greek|the college show on ABC Family]] is ''GRΣΣK''. Of course, the sigma is transliterated as an S, not an E. How do you pronounce "Grssk" anyway?
* Variant: On ''[[Top Gear]]'', their homebuilt electric car (the Hammerhead Eagle i-Thrust) was named with a [[IProduct|lowercase "i"]] because it was the Xtreme Kool Letter for the eco-friendly set.
* Ed Helms filed a report on ''[[The Daily Show]]'' about an insurance made especially for teenagers and concluded with a fake ad that said it even covers you if you break your coccyx while skating -- spelledskating—spelled ''kokkyx''.
* ''[[Kamen Rider Double]]'''s [[Super Mode]] is literally called CycloneJokerXtreme. This is primarily because the show's [[Transformation Trinket]] relies upon USB flash drive-like devices, each with a logo consisting of a stylized version first letter of its name that also represents its power (for example, a volcano shaped like an "M" for "Magma").
 
 
== Muzik ==
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** Also, the film to go with it, ''Bananaz''.
** And the short non-clip animations are ''Gorillabitez''.
* [[Pink|P!nk]]'s album ''M!ssundaztood''. "P!nk" is more of a [[Lucky Charms Title]].
* [[Kool Keith]]
* [[The Lonely Island]] songs ''Just 2 Guyz'', ''We Like Sportz'' and ''We'll Kill U''.
* [[Megadeth (Music)|Megadeth]] is suppose to be spelled without a second "A".
* Kool & the Gang.
* During [[Christina Aguilera]]'s "Dirrty" phase, she was usually referred to as "Xtina", due to the fact that "X" is used as an abbreviation for "Christ" (as in "Xmas") for reasons dating back to Greek times -- intimes—in Greek, the name started with the letter chi, which looks like an X.
** Her 'Love Me 4 Me' uses extremely cool letters.
* [[Xzibit]], or as he likes to say, "X to the Z Xzibit." Hell, one of his most famous songs is "'''X'''"!
* The Japanese rock band [[X Japan]] was initially known as just X. They changed their name when they gained international recognition because there was already a punk band in the USA called X.
** In the opposite direction, for a few years in the 1990s British band Bush was known as Bush X in Canada, because a Canadian band from the 1970s still owned the name there.
** British group Liberty X added their X for similar reasons, after being formed from a TV talent show's runners-up as plain 'Liberty'. This was a permanent change, though, as the name was contested within the UK, rather than being a monicker-of-convenience temporarily adopted abroad.
* French example: la [[wikipedia:Tecktonik|Tecktonik]]. Xtreme Kool Letterz (in particular the use of "ck") is also very popular amongst its practitioners around the world, either for individual aliases or group names.
* The entire genre of jazz[[Jazz]] may owe its name to this. The name is derived from the Cajun patois word jass (referring to "strenuous activity" in general, and one activity in particular), and reputedly, it started being spelled with the double-z not only because "jazz" looked cooler, but more mundanely, at least in part because jokers kept stealing the letter J from the billboards.
* The US [[Power Metal]] band Kamelot. (And no, the Arthurian Camelot is usually spelled with a C in German.)
* [[Metalocalypse|Dethklok]] and to a lesser extent their [[Xtreme Kool Letterz|"kvlt"]] spelling Dëthkløk.
* Those Y's guys from Pyrymyd.
* Strangely [[Inverted Trope|inverted]] with the Japanese band [[Polysics]], whose name is based on a synthesizer named [[wikipedia:Korg Polysix|Korg Polysix]]
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* The UK disco house label Hed Kandi, taking it to the vowels as well.
* British pagan rock band Inkubus Sukkubus. Technically, they were originally named Incubus Succubus, but changed it to Inkubus Sukkubus for "numerological reasons."
* Pick a nu[[Nu metalMetal]] band. ANY nu[[Nu metalMetal]] band.
** The [[Ur Example]], [[Korn (Music)|Korn]], or rather, [[Ko ЯnKorn|KoЯn]], used that to look childish - which is why the logo is crayon-like and has [[The Backwards R]].
** [[Limp Bizkit|Limp Bizkit's]]'s "in da house y'all$".
* Primal Scream's seventh album is a bit... conflicted about this. Its title is spelled ''XTRMNTR'' on the mostly vowelless album cover, but then again the band's name is similarly written "PRML SCRM" there, and ''Exterminator'' is written in some other places.
* [[Def Leppard]], whose name is misspelled to make them sound less punk.
* [[Led Zeppelin (Music)|Led Zeppelin]]. Because their manager thought dropping the 'a' from Lead would help to prevent "thick Americans" from pronouncing it "leed". Famously produced an album with a 'title' that could not be vocalised or spelled at all, only four symbols, which veers beyond this trope through [[Lucky Charms Title]] to [[The Unpronounceable]].
* Boyz II Men.
* For Synth musicians, most are familiar with these days with Yamaha XG Lite (that XG stands for Yamaha's proprietary eXtension to General MIDI, of course).
* [[Hello! Project]] group Berryz Koubou. ZYX also counts.
* A few songs by Swedish hair band Crashdïet, like Knokk 'Em Down and Breaking the Chainz.
* [[Avril Lavigne]]'s song "Sk8er Boi."
* Industrial bands in general love swapping "K" for "hard C."
* [[Metallica]] sometimes spelled their names like this (Jaymz, Larz).''S&M'' does it [http://www.ilbaluardo.com/Cover/Audio/M%20-%20N%20-%20O/METALLICA%20-%20S%20&%20M%20-%20Back.jpg for some songs].
** Beatallica follows/parodies it. Their [https://web.archive.org/web/20130628034851/http://www.beatallica.org/lyrics.html lyrics] are transcripted with gratuitous "Z" everywhere, and the band members are [[The Beatles (band)|The Beatles]] + [[Metallica]] mashups written with Xtreme Kool Letterz (Jaymz Lennfield, Grg Hammetson, Kliff McBurtney, Ringo Larz).
* The American Hip Hop duo [[wikipedia:Outkast|OutkastOutKast]].
* The Southern California ska band Shame & Skandal.
* [[Prince]] abuses this a lot in his song titles (2 and U used wherever possible), combined with [[Lucky Charms Title]] (an eye-symbol for I), and he even writes his lyrics and liner notes in [[Xtreme Kool Letterz]]. Famously swapped his own name for a [[The Unpronounceable|symbol]] that transcended this trope altogether.
* Klymaxx, an all-female band best known for the soft rock single "I Miss You."
* An awful lot of songs by [[Tupac Shakur|2Pac]]. 2pac himself was also an example, though rather than "to," it replaces "tu" (his real name was Tupac).
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* There's also a British jazz-funk band named [[wikipedia:Freeez|Freeez]] that had a minor hit with a song called "Southern Freeez." Curiously, like EBN OZN above, they too had their most major hit with a song titled "AEIOU," though EBN OZN's song featured spoken word lyrics and Freeez's featured falsetto vocals.
* And there's a pop/rock band that existed in the 1960s and '70s called Jaggerz, best known for their song "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fYV3dJp-k4 The Rapper]."
* Litefoot. U may kno him moar 4 da ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' moovee n ''[[The Indian in Thethe Cupboard|Da NDN n da Cubberd]]'' but hee iz allso a rappr. [[Overly Long Gag|Eeven haz hiz pwn laybel. Itz djuzt lyke inny otha rekrd laybel tho, nkloodin skrewin hiz sined artiztz.]]
* Classic rock band Slade has this in spades: "Cum On Feel The Noize" being one of the more harmless (and well-known) examples; then there are "Cuz I Luv You," "Look Wot You Done," "Skweeze Me, Pleeze Me," "Mama Weer All Crazee Now," "Gudbuy T'Jane" ... And I'm pretty sure that somewhere in the list, there are some misspellings I missed.
* [[Blaqk Audio]]. It's either to pronounce it as "Black" or else it sounds like "blak-k" and "Blak-k Audio" just sounds dumb.
* One of the song intros in [[Tom Lehrer]]'s live performances mentions an eccentric who changed his name to Hen3ry with a silent 3.
* Split Enz, although they chose that spelling as a nod to their home country of '''N'''ew '''Z'''ealand, not just because it looked cool. Also, before changing the spelling, they actually released a few early singles as Split Ends.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmZvOhHF85I&t=1m28s 2 CHAINZ!!!!!!]
 
 
== Nyoo Me-D-ya ==
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* Applications written for the Linux "KDE" desktop environment tend to be named with K's replacing hard C's (Konqueror, Konsole). Sometimes the "K" usage is a tad bit more... nonsensical, as with the name of the bundled golf game, Kolf. (Admittedly, Kgolf would've looked stupid.)
** Though KDE is a project that started on Germany, and several of those words are valid German words (like Konsole).
** Originally KDE was supposed to stand for Kool Desktop Environment (currently it's simply K Desktop Environment; the K no longer stands for anything), with the [[Xtreme Kool Letterz]] spelling of "cool" being [[Justified Trope|chosen for a good reason]], in that the commercial Common Desktop Environment (which is a proprietary (i.e. not open-source) program with more restrictive terms than KDE) already claimed the name CDE, so KDE was chosen instead to avoid lawsuits from the owners of CDE. Plus, well, "kool" is better than "common." (Eventually KDE and its rivals GNOME and Xfce went on to replace CDE on Linux and some other Unix-like systems.)
*** The aforementioned desktop environments are all based on a certain common GUI system. This system is named... [[wikipedia:X Window System|X]]. Just like that.
**** It's part of a pattern. It was the successor to the W GUI system, which was used by the V operating system. No Y yet.
***** W, as in "windowed". X, being the letter after W, was a perfectly legitimate name for W's successor.
** And then there's POSIX. It stands for Portable Operating System Interface. Where does the X come from? [[Rule of Cool|It looks cool]].
*** Probably from UNIX which is 'successor' of Multics (Multi-/Uni-) with [[an Xtreme Kool Letters|XtremeKoolLetter]]Letter at the end.
**** Ken Thompson's original version of the OS, written in Assembly, was called UNICS, a pun on MULTICS. Dennis Ritchie's C rewrite saw the name change to Unix.
** An interesting case is the music player Amarok, which was originally spelled amaroK until it was decided that looked stupid. "Amarok" is the name of a real Inuit deity, however.
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* The music database [http://musicbrainz.org/ MusicBrainz].
* it iz common 4 teenz 2 do dis when textinq, also there iz a trend of usinq q instead of g.
* 𝕏, the social network site formerly known as [[Twitter]], joined this list in late-July 2023. [[Bonus Points]] for the hollow stroke.
 
== Newzpaper Komix ==
* ''[[Krazy Kat]]'' is one of the very first examples. She had bit parts in George Herriman's assorted Sunday comics as early as 1903, was called "Kat" by 1909, and "Krazy Kat" by 1910. By the time she got her standalone strip in 1913, she'd developed her personal dialect, a mixture of Spanish and Yiddish accents with Ks everywhere.
 
== ProProfezzional Wreztling ==
* The Hardy Boyz, and their perennial rivals The Dudley Boyz, in [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]].
** The Hardy's stable with Lita was also referred to as Team Xtreme
** [[Lampshade Hanging|Spotlighted]] in a promo by Edge and Christian, the rivals of both teams, when mentioning "The Hardyz, and the Dudleyz, both of whom inexplicably spell their names with Z's"
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* Wrestling Society X
* XPW (Xtreme Pro Wrestling), where both acronym and full name drop the E.
* The XFL, [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]]'s short-lived foray into pro football. Unlike most pro sports league names, it wasn't an acronym; the X didn't stand for anything. It was ''supposed'' to stand for "eXtreme Football League"; the only reason it didn't is because there was ''already'' an Xtreme Football League at the time, which, ironically, ended up merging with the AFL before its first game.
* There's NXT. Doesn't stand for anything, that's just the "xtreme kool" way of spelling "next" (since the program is the "next" generation of WWE).
* After many years of identifying WrestleMania events with Roman numerals, #17 was officially X-Seven – pronounced "ecks-seven". And the next year saw X8, "ecks-eight". From #19 (XIX) onwards, all-Roman numbers have been back in vogue.
* ECW's Rhino was renamed Rhyno when he went to WWF. That wasn't about being "Xtreme" though, that was so WWF/E could establish a trademark, hence why he went back to being Rhino after they canned his ass.
* ECW itself was an xception to the rulez, so to speak, by correctly using an E for Extreme. (Other wrestling promotions such as XPW, as noted above, are not so grammatically-minded.) It was founded in 1992, though: you can bet that 10 or so years later there would have been an X in there for sure – their late-period pay-per-view Anarchy Rulz submitted to this trope, for instance. They also started out as Eastern Championship Wrestling.
* Shawn Michaels and Triple H (and [[X -Pac Heat|X-Pac]], and [[Dark Action Girl|Chyna]], [[Overly Long Gag|and]] [[Those Two Guys|"Badd Ass" Billy Gunn and Road Dogg]]) ARE D-Generation X, and they've got [[Catch Phrase|two words for ya...]]
* [[Vince Russo]]'s [[Fun Withwith Acronyms|Sports Entertainment Xtreme]] faction from the early days of [[TNA]].
* Towards the end of [[WCW]], wrestler Disco Inferno started spelling his name "Disqo Inferno.," though this may have been more of a reference to music star [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sisqó Sisqó] than trying to be cool.
* [[Power Stable|The Radicalz]]
 
 
== Ray-D-O ==
* [[Adam and Joe]] introduced a series of Song Wars Classics, which they insisted was spelt Song Wars Kqllasixcq (with a silent X).
* Univision uses the "La Kalle" brand for many of its music stations in the U.S.
 
 
== Sportz ==
* Many minor league sports teams use Xtreme Kool Letterz in their names, especially indoor football teams. A few examples: Kissimmee Kreatures, Nashville Kats, Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz, Kalamazoo Xplosion, Lehigh Valley Outlawz, Kansas Koyotes, Memphis Xplorers. Baseball has the Orem Owlz, the West Tenn Diamond Jaxx, and many varieties of "Sox" (though baseball teams have been using this spelling for over a hundred years).
** The [[Funetik Aksent|phonetic spelling]] of "Sox" was so immigrants would know how to pronounce it correctly.
** The Orem Owlz are one of the final examples of a period of history in the state of Utah when this trope got out of hand. After people started making the connection that the three main sports teams in the state all had a double Z (The Jazz, the Grizzlies and The Buzz) people decided every team in Utah needed to follow suit. This lead to such team names as The Freezze, the Starzz, the Blitzz and the Owlz. Even The Buzz was changed to The Stingerzz for a while. This fad has since been proven to be stupid and doesn't show up with new teams.
* Another French example: [[Le Parkour]].
* The XFL lived on this trope... which is why it died after a single season.
* [[ESPN]]'s Summer and Winter X-Games.
* [http://mywesttexas.com/articles/2009/12/13/sports/top_stories/doc4b248945ad9fb074726171.txt This high school football team.] Admittedly, scoring 122 points in a single game and ''not'' being called out across the country for bad sportsmanship ''is'' extremely cool.<ref> It helps that their opponent had been putting up lopsided scores throughout their run to the championship game...and also that said opponent still managed to score 88 in the loss.</ref>
* Subversion: The [[Useful Notes/Boston|Boston]] Red Sox and [[The Windy City|Chicago]] White Sox baseball teams didn't get their names because they looked cooler than "Red Stockings" or "White Stockings" (their original names), but because it was easier for the newspapers to print "Sox" than "Stockings." Eventually, the names stuck.
* Quebec City's minor league basketball team is known as the "Kebs," short for "Kebekwa" -- a phonetic spelling of Québécois, but rather ironically in English phonetics.
 
 
== Taybletop Gamez ==
* <s>The Orks'</s> Da Orkz' [[Funetik Aksent]] is spelled with these in ''[[Warhammer 40000 (Tabletop Game)|Warhammer 4000040,000]]''. So are the names of lots of daemons. (Although the daemons often look like they've been spelt by randomly punching a keyboard).
* ''Waste World'' RPG presents some kool spelling variationz like "skavengers," "drakonium," "konvoys," "kimera" and the like.
* Many games, including ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (Tabletop Game)|Dungeons and& Dragons]]'' from 3rd edition forward, gave in and abbreviated "experience points" as "XP". This carries over to computer games, too.
* English-language ''Scrabble'' gives you more points for using K (5), J (8), X (8), Q (10), and Z (10). Justified as these letters are the hardest to use, though there are some legal two-letter words containing them, such as ''za'' and ''qi''. The trick? There's only one of each.
 
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (Tabletop Game)|Yu-Gi-Oh]]'' card game:
** It includes a card called [http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Mind_Haxorz Mind Haxorz] in the set ''Rise of Destiny''. Really! It's fun to mention that the original Japanese name of the card is merely "Mind Hack".
** We also have [http://yugioh.wikia.com/wiki/Meklord_Astro_Machinicle Meklord Astro Mekanikle]. Deserves special mentions because in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh! 5 Ds5D's]]'' it's the trump card used by the ''villain''.
** [[Invoked Trope|Invoked]] with the Xyz monsters introduced in ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh Ze Xal]]'' and the card sets. It's pronounced "ik-seez" and is a reference to spacial coordinates.<ref>three dimensions: its place on the mat, and the cards under it</ref>. Humorously, up to the point of their announcement in the TCG, fansubbers of the show never caught that meaning, assuming it was "Exceed" because it was the closest-sounding actual word.
* ''[[Magic: theThe Gathering (Tabletop Game)|Magic the Gathering]]'''s Phyrexia, with names like Gix, Xantcha, and Skithiryx. As Tom LaPille [https://web.archive.org/web/20130703113905/http://www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.aspx?x=mtg/daily/ld/110%2Fdaily%2Fld%2F110 puts it], "Are you more intimidated by the thought of the dread reign of Firecsia or Phyrexia?"
 
== Vydeo Gamez ==
* Nintendo:
** When Nintendo introduced the [[Nintendo Entertainment System]] in North America and Europe, they [[Call a Rabbit Aa Smeerp|referred]] to its game cartridges as "Game Paks," a term which they continued using until the [[Game Boy Advance]].
** Two words: [[Nintendo Sixty Four64|Rumble Pak]]!
** Controller Pak and Expansion Pak
** System + game bundles are referred to as "paks."
* [[Good Old Games]] displays the message "Kewl, your purchase is complete" after you buy a game.
* [[Super Mario Bros.|Bowser's]] vehicle in ''[[Super Mario World (Videovideo Gamegame)|Super Mario World]]'' was originally the [[Unfortunate Implications|Koopa Klown Kar]]. Now it's the Koopa Clown Car.
* ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' takes this to an extreme.
** In that series, ''every'' word which starts with a hard C (with some of the exceptions being Johnny Cage's last name and the live action series ''[[Mortal Kombat: Conquest (TV)|Mortal Kombat Conquest]]'') is spelt with a K. Worse still, those are apparently the ''proper'' spellings of those words in the MK universe. ''Damn''.
** Another exception is the kharacter Chameleon, who started out as a kharacter who switched between the movesets of the male Ninjas. However, this is also kountered by the kharacter Khameleon, who does the same thing but for the female ninjas.
* [[Gruntz]] is a puzzle game where plurals end in Z instead of S in the help file and in-game text. There are a few missed instances, however.
* ''[[Mega Man X (Video Game)|Mega Man X]]''; the Game Boy Color versions were titled ''Mega Man X-Treme''. A later series goes even further: ''[[Mega Man ZX]]'', it's very convenient that the characters Zero and X already have the naming conventions to set up the kool title.
* The release of the Microsoft [[X BoxXbox]] provoked games publishers into a flurry of Xtreme naming to distinguish their not-so Xtreme ports of [[PSPlayStation 2]] titles from the original versions.
* In the ''[[Jak and Daxter|Jak]]'' videogame series, the police [[Mooks]] are called the Krimzon Guard, despite the fact that the elites are dressed in yellow armor. (To be fair, the normal Krimzon Guard do dress in red.)
* ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'' is especially bad with this one:
** Every single member of [[The Omniscient Council of Vagueness|Organization XIII]] has an X in his or her name. What's more, their names are anagrams on their real names with an X thrown in for [[Theme Naming]]. 'Roxas' is also a real name (both place and person -- itperson—it's mostly popular in the Phillipines), which helped to shade the obvious anagram {{spoiler|that would ruin the [[Tomato in Thethe Mirror]]}}. The more you know! Axel and Xion are real names as well, and the three make up the most sympathetic members of the Org.
** [[Word of God]] from the ''[[Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep]]'' [[All There in the Manual|Ultimania]] vaguely justifies the Organization's Xtreme Kool Letteringz as being due to Xemnas's memories of his former self Xehanort's goals to {{spoiler|obtain the χ-blade.}}
*** Subversion in the above rules, as normally the foreign letters aren't pronounced any different, but here χ-blade was not pronounced as X-blade but as "chi" blade (which actually sounds more like keyblade, so it fits).
* HeadGames made a series of extreme sports games, including eXtreme PaintBrawl, eXtreme Watersports, and eXtreme Bull Riding. ''PC Gamer'' reviewer Colin Williamson was given the task of reviewing all of these and spared no chance to mock this at every turn. On eXtreme PaintBrawl:
{{quote| ''It's gaming garbage taken to the eXtreme! Avoid at all costs.''}}
* The unofficial abbreviation usually used for the PlayStation (until the PS2 came out, at least) was "PSX." This is because the console's codename during development was the "PlayStation Experimental." Made much worse by the fact that Sony actually released a separate console called the PSX (only in Japan, of course) which incorporated a video, photo, and music player with DVR support, along with the capability of playing PS/PS2 games.
* This is just a screw-up of IGN's, but in a recent video report they referred to a [[Sigma Harmonics|game]] as "Sigma Harmonix" in text. Ten seconds later, we have a shot of the game's logo, [[They Just Didn't Care|which spells "Harmonics" like a normal person would]]. (Harmonix (spelled that way) is a [[Rock Band|different brand entirely]].)
* Parodied repeatedly in the online RPG ''[[Kingdom of Loathing (Video Game)|Kingdom of Loathing]]''.
* The XBand service used a primitive modem cartridge for the SNES/Genesis to connect to players (as if on a BBS) through a now defunct service. The company that made it went on to create a Windows-based MPlayer service, which also eventually shut down. What made it even more Xtreme was the ''A'' in the logo was upside-down. Wait for it... '''XB∀ND'''!
* Any term related to the Kremlins in ''[[Donkey Kong Country]]'' had their hard "C"'s replaced with "K"'s. [http://www.smbhq.com/users/botvgh/season7/2k1christmascarol.html This installment] of ''[[Battle Of The Video Game Heroes]]'' [[Lampshade|Lampshades]]s this by having DK ask if they honestly have to keep doing it.
* The ''Shutokou Battle'' series of street racing games is known as ''Tokyo Xtreme Racing'' in North America.
* There's a game in the ''[[Grandia]]'' series which is outside the main game 'continuity' (though none of the numbered games are related in any way). It's called... ''[[Grandia Xtreme]]''! What's so Xtreme about it? It's primarily focused around [[Level Grinding]].
* The [[Spiritual Successor]] to ''[[Pokémon Colosseum (Video Game)|Pokémon Colosseum]]'', ''Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness''. Apparently, "XD" stands for "eXtra Dimension." The pronounciation is actually supposed to be "Excess," but really, no one says that.
* ''[[Left 4 Dead (Video Game)|Left 4 Dead]]'' ostensibly has a reason for doing this, but it would be a blatant lie if we said the marketing team didn't use the [[Letters 2 Numbers|4]] in the title for this reason.
* The undeniably awesome "Petz" genre for the DS, namely the related "Dogz," "Catz" and "Horsez." How can you resist these 4 awesome names?
** Who wants to play [https://web.archive.org/web/20120503133019/http://wii.ign.com/objects/142/14254709.html Party Babyz]!!!
* The [[Turbografx SixteenTurboGrafx-16|Turbografx 16]] action RPG series ''Exile'' is called ''XZR'' in Japan. They are pronounced the same if you torture the phonetics enough.
* The [[Big Bad]] in ''[[Final Fantasy VIII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VIII]]'' replaces every c with a k. Although the [[Big Bad]] isn't really that cool or extreme in the relative sense. That didn't stop her theme music from being ''called'' "The Extreme".
* A lot of [[Rareware]]'s early games. ''Jetpac'', ''Tranz Am'', ''Atic Atac'', ''Sabre Wulf'', ''Underwurlde'', ''Blackwyche'' and ''Dragon Skulle'', oh my.
* Certain expansion packs of Koei's ''[[Dynasty Warriors]]'' and ''[[Samurai Warriors]]'' games bear the subtitle of ''Xtreme Legends''.
* The name of ''[[Battle Tanx]]'' just says it all really, with bonus points for making it a [[We Will Use Wiki Words in Thethe Future|Wiki Word]]. Also apply to one of its little-know spinoff, ''WDL: War Jetz''.
* Somewhat lampshaded in ''[[BrutalBrütal Legend (Video Game)|Brutal Legend]]'', where Eddie Riggs names his faction Ironheade, with an E to let others know that they're not kidding.
* ''[[Intelligent Qube]]'' gets an honorable mention. It has a Q so it can be shortened to IQ. The European version goes for the more hard-hitting "Kurushi".
* [[Gears of War|Marcus Fenix]], sort of. Maybe they were targeting it to a base that they knew couldn't spell "phoenix"?
* Did Blizzard think players of ''[[StarcraftStarCraft]]'' wouldn't be able to spell "phoenix?" One of the Protoss characters is named Fenix.
** Justified. He's a Protoss, not human. Said [[Scary Dogmatic Aliens]] also have names like Zeratul, Aldaris, Artanis and Raszcagal.<ref>pronounced "rash-a-gall"</ref>.
* The interface used on the [[PSPlay Station 3]], [[PSP]], and some Sony TVs is officially named the XrossMediaBar (pronounced cross media bar).
* Some of the [[Sonic the Hedgehog]] series' music albums sometimes have the word 'Traxx' or 'Soundtrax' within its title. There's also ''[[Development Hell|Sonic Xtreme]]''.
* [[The Idolmaster (Videovideo Gamegame)|THE iDOLM@STER]]
* [[I Made a Game With Zombies In It|I MAED A GAM3 W1TH Z0MBIES 1NIT!!!1]]
* ''3D Ballz''
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* [[wikipedia:Dynowarz|Dynowarz]]
* ''[[First Encounter Assault Recon|F.3.A.R.]]''. Usually satirically pronounced as F'three'er, Eff'three'er, or even Free'r.
* Frequently used in [[MMORPGMassively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game|MMORPGsMMORPG]]s when a player really wants a name that has [[One Steve Limit|already been picked by someone else]].
* A rather confusing variation is ''Karnaaj Rally''. After a quick analyzation you've probably come to the realization that it's "Carnage Rally". It seems they changed "C" to "K", which is common ever since ''[[Mortal Kombat]]''. They added an extra "A" and changed the last two letters to "J".
* ''Aggressors of Dark Kombat'', the title of a [[Fighting Game]] for the [[Neo Geo]], played on both ''[[Mortal Kombat]]'' and the name of the company that created it, ADK.
* The obscure 1982 [[Midway Games]] game ''Kozmik Krooz'r''.
* Look no further than Egosoft's [[X (Videovideo Gamegame)|X-Universe]], an entire series which gets its name from the player's ship in ''X: Beyond the Frontier'': The Xperimental Shuttle.
** A lot of human names seem to be recognizably modified from present-day names (Jesan is close to Jason, etc.).
** Torus '''Ae'''ternal.
* ''[[Tachyon the Fringe (Video Game)|Tachyon the Fringe]]'s'' cover art replaced the 'o' in 'tachyon' with the Greek letter omega (Ω).
 
 
== Vizual Novelz ==
* In ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro Ni (Visual Novel)|Umineko no Naku Koro Ni]]'', Furudo Erika is an example of this in Japanese. Her given name, which would usually be spelled エリカ, is spelled ヱリカ. The ヱ is pronounced exactly the same as エ, but practically never shows up in normal writing anymore because it is archaic. Fitting for a [[Mary Sue]] [[Deconstruction]].
 
=== Vizual Novelz ===
* In ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro Ni (Visual Novel)|Umineko no Naku Koro Nini]]'', Furudo Erika is an example of this in Japanese. Her given name, which would usually be spelled エリカ, is spelled ヱリカ. The ヱ is pronounced exactly the same as エ, but practically never shows up in normal writing anymore because it is archaic. Fitting for a [[Mary Sue]] [[Deconstruction]].
 
== Web Anym@tion ==
* Parodied on ''[[Homestar Runner (Web Animation)|Homestar Runner]]'': the creators have intentionally used Xtreme Kool Letterz in ways that make no sense:
** Spelling "awesome" as "awexome."
** The best is "[http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail191.html Videlectrix Kidx]."
** For [[April Fools' Day]], they make an intro for [[Darker and Edgier|HSR Xeriouxly Forxe]]. Homestar... er, "H. Star" pronounces this with each X as a "KS" sound, rexulting in him getting xcolded by "S. Bad," who replaxes ''all'' hix xibilant conxonantx with pronounxed X's.
 
 
== Web Komix ==
* ''[[Penny Arcade (Webcomic)|Penny Arcade]]'''s Tycho [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/02/04 has a fit] when he hears about "Gamez N Flix."
* In a similar fashion, Erin from ''[[Critical Miss (Webcomicwebcomic)|Critical Miss]]'' has an "[https://web.archive.org/web/20110905073102/http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/critical-miss/7665-Critical-Miss-7 English gland]" that flares up that flares when the language is abused, and becomes an [[Eldritch Abomination]] when she sees too much of this.
* ''[[Khaos Komix]]''. It fit the original comic a bit better than the current incarnation.
* ''[[Xkcd (Webcomic)|Xkcdxkcd]]'': The apparent acronym has no particular meaning, but hits a few kool letterz. According to the author: "It's just a word with no phonetic pronunciation -- a treasured and carefully-guarded point in the space of four-character strings."
* In ''Start of Darkness'', a print addendum to the popular webcomic ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|The Order of the Stick]]'', Xykon's main goal while he was alive was to be a "badass evil villain". To this end, he not only invents a "cool-sounding name with an 'X' in it" for himself, he [[Spell My Name Withwith an "S"|splits hairs over how people spell it]].
{{quote| '''Xykon:''' ... and my name is Xykon.<br />
'''Right-Eye:''' Um, yes, OK, great and powerful sorcerer Zykon--<br />
'''Xykon:''' No, no, no! With an X, not a Z! Z's are for pussies. }}
* A.I. in ''[[Schlock Mercenary (Webcomic)|Schlock Mercenary]]'' sometimes use numbers to substitute for letters, and even whole syllables, in their names; for example, "5er0" (pronounced "Ver-None," with 5 substituting for its Roman equivalent, V) instead of Vernon.
* ''[[Last Res 0 rtRes0rt]]'' has it right in the title, though [[Word of God]] justifies it on the basis of having a hard time securing a domain name in the "correct" spelling.
* Parodied in ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20111227034533/http://overcompensating.com/posts/20100126.html Overcompensating]''.
* The title ''[[Loserz]]'' has to be a bit sarcastic about this.
* ''[http://theslackerz.com/ Slackerz]'', (even in the title) alludes to this constantly.
* And there's "Mylytant Femynyst" from ''[[Precocious (Webcomic)|Precocious]]'', for the "wymyn" version (see below).
* The trolls of ''[[Homestuck (Webcomic)|Homestuck]]'', who seem to be in a [[Lensman Arms Race]] for the most obnoxious IM behavior, among other things pathologically replace letters with Xtra Kool ones, or with numbers.
* Dan of ''[[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|El Goonish Shive]]'' sometimes uses these in the narration boxes.
 
 
== Web Ureejnul ==
* [[LOLcats|I can haz cheezburger?]]
* Meez was guilty of this, though it has improved over the years. It would lead to a lot of [[Narm]].
{{quote| "You have received an infraction for violating the Meez Rulz."}}
* Parodied in the [[Homestar Runner (Web Animation)|Homestar Runner]] toon [https://web.archive.org/web/20131116234533/http://www.homestarrunner.com/aprilfool10.html "Xeriouxly Forxe"], which itself was referenced by [http://www.homestarrunner.com/main26.html main page number 26].
* [https://twitter.com/ctrlcreep/status/724328443324862464 topoth∈sia, spelling out what we knew in our hearts] about [[Magick]]:
 
{{quote|[[Insistent Terminology|please, use the correct terminology]]
mundane: emoticon
occult: emotickon}}
 
== Westurn Anym@tion ==
* Dimension X from ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987 (Animation)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1987]]'', which is alternately described as a distant spiral galaxy or an alternate dimension. Krang is possibly another example of 'K' for koolness.
* ''[[The Powerpuff Girls (Animation)|The Powerpuff Girls]]'':
** In "Knock It Off": Professor Dick Hardly is selling his PPG clones under the name "Powerpuff Girlz X-treme," even going as far as calling Chemical X "Chemical X-treme."
** Of course, the Japanese-created adaptation series is titled ''[[Powerpuff Girls Z]]''. Even worse, the Japanese DVD episode titles imply that they should be called "Powerpuff Girl'''z''' Z."
* ''[[Clone High]]'' parodied this with a [[Totally Radical]] energy drink called X-Stream Blu.
* Presumably, the reason ''[[Swat Kats (Animation)|Swat Kats]]'' isn't titled ''SWAT Cats'' is because of this trope. The fact that the subtitle is "The Radical Squadron" seems to support that (as does the whole series' tone).
* Following the "Keystone Kops" example above, an episode of ''[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|The Simpsons]]'' has Krusty the Clown (which is an example right there) hosting "Krusty's Komedy Klassic" at the Apollo Theater. He ''really'' shouldn't have put the [[Fun Withwith Acronyms|acronym]] on stage in big white letters in front of ''that'' many black people...
{{quote| '''Krusty:''' Hey, hey! It's great to be back at the Apollo Theater, and... ''(notices the three white K's behind him onstage)'' [[Unfortunate Implications|KKK?]] ''That's'' not good!}}
* Also related to the above example, ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants (Animation)|SpongeBob SquarePants]]'''s principle restaurant is titled the Krusty Krab.
* Another early example of this trope being applied deliberately: ''[[wikipedia:Dragon Flyz|Dragon Flyz]]'' (from 1996).
* "Sonic Sez" from ''[[Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog (Animation)|Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog]]''. Of note, though, is the fact that "Sez" was written by Tails in each case, and when Sonic appeared, he would correct it to "Says".
** "Sez" was also used on newspaper headlines [[Older Than They Think|decades]] before ''AoStH'' came about.
* ''[[X-Men: Evolution (Animation)|X-Men Evolution]]'' has [[The Scrappy|Spyke]] and [[Ascended Extra|Berzerker]].
* ''[[Galactik Football]]''
* In ''[[Batman Beyond (Animation)|Batman Beyond]]'''s future, the streets of Gotham City are plagued by a gang called the "Jokerz." Bruce is not impressed.
* ''[[Code Lyoko (Animation)|Code Lyoko]]'' does this with the monsters: Kankrelat (from French "cancrelat"), Blok, Krabe, Kongre, Rekin, Kalamar, Kolossus... Justified in-story with Odd doing most of the naming, and that's just the kind of thing he'd do. On the same note: "[[Calling Your Attacks|Lazer Arrow!]]"
* The world of ''[[Invader Zim]]'' has no school, but rather a "Skool." Although it's not there to be cool, just to show how [[Crapsack World|crappy their world is.]]
* Disney had also originally intended to use that spelling of the word for the title of ''[[The Emperor's New School (Animation)|The Emperors New School]]''. They also have the main character '''K'''uzco, whose name came from the Peruvian city '''C'''uzco.
* Disney is replacing [[Toon Disney]] with XD. It's as bad as it sounds and the marketing is even worse.
* The ''[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0482151/ X-DuckX]'' play this totally straight.
* ''[[Futurama (Animation)|Futurama]]'':
** In the year 3000, occurances of "sk" has been replaced by "x". You can frequently hear characters saying "Can I ax you a question?"
** One episode [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this while [[Playing Withwith a Trope|playing with]] [[Blackmail Is Such an Ugly Word]].
{{quote| '''Bender:''' Blackmail is such an ugly word. I prefer "extortion." The "x" makes it sound cool.}}
* Though it's not really in the cartoons themselves, these fan-made profiles for [https://web.archive.org/web/20130514011230/http://users.cwnet.com/xephyr/rich/dzone/hoozoo/simba.html Simba] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20120122050423/http://users.cwnet.com/xephyr/rich/dzone/hoozoo/timon.html Timon & Pumbaa] spell ''[[The Lion King (Disney)|The Lion King]]'''s villain's name as "Skar", despite it being spelled as "Scar" everywhere else.
* Ellipsanime's ''[[Xcalibur]]'' drops the E from the name of a certain legendary sword to supposedly sound cool.
* ''[[Wakfu (Animation)|Wakfu]]'' makes largely use of [[Sdrawkcab Name]], but sometimes combines it with this for some names, like "Rubilax" ([Exc]alibur again), "Kabrok" ("corbac", French slang for raven), "Sybannak" (Cannabis)...
* ''[[The Amazing Spiez (Animation)|The Amazing Spiez]]'', a spin-off series of ''[[Totally Spies (Animation)|Totally Spies!]]''
* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender (Animation)|Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' subtly manages to slip this in. Everyone in the fire nation's royal family has the letter Z in their name ('''Z'''uko, A'''z'''ula, O'''z'''ai, So'''z'''in), and many characters from the Water Tribes have names featuring K ('''K'''atara, So'''kk'''a, Ha'''k'''oda, Pa'''kk'''u, '''K'''ana, '''K'''ya). Iroh and Ursa are the odd ones out for the former example.
* Two episodes of ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'': "No Rulez Rules Jimmy" and "Team X-treme Team."
* [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] in the ''[[Robot Chicken]]'' sketch "[[Eight8 Mile|8]] [[Looney Tunes|Carrot]]".
{{quote| '''[[Daffy Duck|Daffy]]:''' B-Rabbit, you're on.<br />
'''[[Bugs Bunny|Bugs]]:''' Eh, I told you, Daffy, my name is Bugs.<br />
'''Daffy:''' No, your MC name is B-Rabbit! [[We Are're Still Relevant, Dammit!|We've got to appeal to today's kids!]] [[Totally Radical|No longer Looney Tunes, we're "Lizooney Tizunes"! Woo-hoo! Real hip-hop, dawg!]] }}
* ''[[Courage the Cowardly Dog]]'' has <s>Cats</s> Katz.
* ''[[The Problem Solverz]]'' and many of its episode titles. Interestingly, "Zoo Cops" is an exception to this. And bizarrely enough, Problem Solvers is actually spelled correctly in the pilot (just not in the title).
* ''[[Cubix Robots for Everyone|Cubix]]''. Standard robots will have 'ix' on the end of their names, while Doctor K's creations always have a name beginning with K. Kolossal, Krab, Katastrophe, Klobber, Kannon, {{spoiler|the Kulminator}}...
* A short-lived [[Saturday Morning Cartoon]] on [[CBS]] in 1998 was called ''[[Birdz (Animation)|Birdz]]''.
* In ''[[Daria (Animation)|Daria]]'': Mystik Spiral, Trent Lane's band. Though he might change the name....
 
== TVAll D Tropez Wyky ==
 
== TV Tropez Wyky ==
* [[For the Evulz]]
* [[For the Funnyz]]
* [[Four X4X]]
* [[Friends of Really Kool Sobriquet]]
* [[Funetik Aksent]]
* [[Xtreme Kool Letterz]]
* [[Xtreme Sport Xcuse Plot]]
 
 
== Reel Lyfe ==
Line 510 ⟶ 475:
* There is a cable TV channel in Brazil (Telecine) that once a week broadcasts movies subtitled with internet slang and Xtreme Kool Letterz.
* [[Older Than Radio]] example: The nut that gives Coca-Cola (as well as Pepsi) its flavor is called a kola nut, but the spelling was changed to a "C" to match "coca" and "cocaine." (Partially subverted in that C is a less Kool letter than K.)
* A possible etymology for "OK" is that it was an [[Xtreme Kool Letterz]] version for "All Correct": "Oll Korrect".
* The Ku Klux Klan is clearly an example of this, and they have a potential to ruin an otherwise appealing use of [[Xtreme Kool Letterz]] when someone notices that the initials are KKK. Sometimes in comedy, as with ''Krusty's Komedy Klassic'' in ''[[The Simpsons]]'' or the Kappa Kappa Kappa sorority on ''[[Mad TV]]'', this unfortunate set of initials will be played for laughs. Remember, though, that [[Hitler Ate Sugar]] and this trope is still [[Tropes Are Not Bad|not a bad thing]] even though a group of equally repulsive racists has taken a liking to the use of [[Xtreme Kool Letterz]].
** In the 20s, a Klansman could meet at a Klavern to have a Klonversation with the local Kleagle. Don't know the rules? Don't worry, they're all laid out in the Kloran. (Apparently, the Klan had the same naming conventions as the ''[[Donkey Kong]]'' series.)
** There's an urban legend that "Ku Klux" approximates the sound of a shotgun being cocked. Another idea was that "Ku Klux" is a bastardization of ''kuklos'', Greek for "ring" or "circle". The Kuklos Adelphon was basically the KKK before it was the KKK. Rumor has it that "klan" was added to the end, because the founders of the KKK were Scots-Irish.
Line 524 ⟶ 489:
** Fun fact: dropping needless 'k's at the end of words like "magick," "musick" and "publick" was one specific goal of folks like Noah Webster.
* All X-perimental aircrafts by the USAF, from the Bell X-1 to the Boeing X-53 are called [[wikipedia:X-plane (aircraft)|X-planes]].
* The ratings "X" and "XXX" -- except—except not. The other ratings (originally G, M, and R) were trademarked by the MPAA, but X was not; the original meaning was something like "this movie has not been rated by the MPAA." It could be self-applied by producers to any movie to indicate that they felt it was inappropriate for those under the age of 17. It was soon co-opted by the porn industry, and "XXX" was a marketing gimmick intended to imply something along the lines of [[Rule of Three|"this movie is three times raunchier than an ordinary X"]]. Non-porno filmmakers realized that the X rating had become essentially synonymous with pornography, and pressured the MPAA for a different designation. Eventually X changed to NC-17, which WAS an official rating and was a decided move ''away'' from [[Xtreme Kool Letterz]]. (And then ''Showgirls'' came out and NC-17 became porn.)
* The Old English/Old Norse letter ''thorn'' (Þ / þ) has been used in place of a p in the "tongue sticking out" emoticon. Conversely the ð in Skaði (pronounced like the th in thus) has been turned into a d among astronomers.
* In the UK at least, it is common to give limited-stop bus routes a number with an "X" prefix for Express, although this goes back many years. Of cource whilst giving a bus route an "X" prefix doesn't make it sound cooler (try as they do, making buses "cool" is very hard), it does make it sound ''faster''. It is not uncommon to find "X" routes that are far from express.
* Kamaz. It is actually an abbreviation, standing for ''Kamsky Avtomobilny Zavod'', or "Kama Automobile Plant" (Kama is the name of a river).
* The '50s and early '60s hot rod culture favored the term "kustom", particularly in George Barris' Kustom Kars (Barris is famous for many awesome TV Kars, including [[The Munsters]]' family koach, the [[The Monkees|Monkee-Mobile]], the [[Dukes of Hazzard|General Lee]] and the [[Batman (TV series)|Batmobile]]).
* In 11 markets, Comcast has changed the name of its "Triple Play" service to [https://web.archive.org/web/20110228125023/http://www.xfinity.com/home/ Xfinity], probably under the belief that it is "contemporary." Furthering this delusion, they have covered the site with Klavika (a [[Useful Notes/Fonts|sans-serif typeface]] with squarish curves that has become a go-to "web 2.0" face). Their mobile internet service, meanwhile, is the predictably "kewl" ''Internet 2go''.
* The Monster Raving Loony Party has purposely misspelled "Education" in their suggestions (2) page for their manifesto.
* Toys "Я" Us.
* Native Instruments seem not to be able to decide between [[Xtreme Kool Letterz]] and [[Gratuitous German]]. Product names like Reaktor or Kontakt fall into both categories, Komplete falls only into the former, and Maschine falls only into the latter.
* Roland's top workstation generations of the 21st century have been named Fantom. The true reason, however, is that they weren't allowed to use Phantom.
* The Oberheim Xpander synthesizer.
Line 538 ⟶ 503:
* The Improv Comedy troupe known as [http://comedysportz.com/ Comedy Sportz].
* The computer hardware manufacturer Asus has a range of "Xtreme Design" motherboards.
* "Tyre". Sure, it's the legitimate British and Commonwealth spelling of the word (for "the rubber thing you put on a wheel" -- as—as distinct from "to weary", which remains ''tire''), but it sure rubs off this way to North Americans.
* An Android OS Twitter Client was renamed Twidroyd from Twidroid after being bought by Idealab's [[Tweet Up]]. The reasoning for this is that Lucas Films owns the trademark for the word Droid, nevermind the other bamillion apps with Droid in the name that aren't being sued right now.
* In U.S. Air Force Civil Engineering units, pavement and heavy equipment operators are also known as "Dirt Boyz."
* While X-rays weren't originally called that way for kool reasons, the name was certainly used that way afterwards. Witness the [https://web.archive.org/web/20170326225713/http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/museum/artifacts/archives/002457.asp X-RAY shoe fitting machine], a relic of an era where radiation was widely considered to be the new and trendy scientific cure-all, with predictably disastrous results.
* In the Philippines, there is a language called jejemon which follows the rules of this trope. And yes, the Filipino [[Grammar Nazi|grammar nazis]] hate them.
* Raven-Symoné. The accent serves no obvious purpose, since it's pronounced "Raven-Simone".
Line 548 ⟶ 513:
* Many Christian youth-oriented church groups have been doing variants on this since the late 80's and like most, it's questionable if there's any payoff for doing it.
* The Cité Internationale Universitaire in Paris, which houses international students at the various Paris learning institutions, has a lot of fun with foreign letters on its signs, [http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4001/4548338390_703ca13892.jpg such as this] or [http://www.decitre.fr/gi/31/9782858938131FS.gif this]. They don't even stay consistent throughout.
* There's an office building in the St. Louis suburbs called Cequel III.
* Xian and Xmas are common abbreviations for Christian and Christmas. The X abbreviation is taken from the Greek letter X or Chi, the initial of Christ.
* Behold...the [http://jalopnik.com/5882944/chevy-cruze-wagon-fords-c+suite-shuffle-and-amg-aint-going-diesel Chevrolet Cruze Wagon]!
* The Citroen Xsara. Pronounced "Zara" in UK adverts.
* The [[Cool Car|AMC AMX]]. Its full name is the American Motors Corporation [[Department of Redundancy Department|American Motors]] eXperimental
* The names kids choose for themselves on [[X BoxXbox]] Live. Hell, even the name ''[[X BoxXbox]]'' itself.
* The now defunct Burger Chef chain, which was sold to Hardee's, had sandwiches named the Super Shef and the Top Shef (a burger with cheese and bacon).
* Not even investors are immune to the lure of Xtreme Kool Letterz: The Toronto Stock Exchange changed its abbreviation from TSE to TSX when it became publicly-traded in 2002.
 
=== Sportz ===
* Many minor league sports teams use Xtreme Kool Letterz in their names, especially indoor football teams. A few examples: Kissimmee Kreatures, Nashville Kats, Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz, Kalamazoo Xplosion, Lehigh Valley Outlawz, Kansas Koyotes, Memphis Xplorers. Baseball has the Orem Owlz, the West Tenn Diamond Jaxx, and many varieties of "Sox" (though baseball teams have been using this spelling for over a hundred years).
** The [[Funetik Aksent|phonetic spelling]] of "Sox" was so immigrants would know how to pronounce it correctly.
** The Orem Owlz are one of the final examples of a period of history in the state of Utah when this trope got out of hand. After people started making the connection that the three main sports teams in the state all had a double Z (The Jazz, the Grizzlies and The Buzz) people decided every team in Utah needed to follow suit. This lead to such team names as The Freezze, the Starzz, the Blitzz and the Owlz. Even The Buzz was changed to The Stingerzz for a while. This fad has since been proven to be stupid and doesn't show up with new teams.
* Another French example: [[Le Parkour]].
* The XFL lived on this trope... which is why it died after a single season.
* [[ESPN]]'s Summer and Winter X-Games.
* [http://mywesttexas.com/articles/2009/12/13/sports/top_stories/doc4b248945ad9fb074726171.txt This high school football team.]{{Dead link}} Admittedly, scoring 122 points in a single game and ''not'' being called out across the country for bad sportsmanship ''is'' extremely cool.<ref> It helps that their opponent had been putting up lopsided scores throughout their run to the championship game...and also that said opponent still managed to score 88 in the loss.</ref>
* Subversion: The [[Useful Notes/Boston (useful notes)|Boston]] Red Sox and [[The Windy City|Chicago]] White Sox baseball teams didn't get their names because they looked cooler than "Red Stockings" or "White Stockings" (their original names), but because it was easier for the newspapers to print "Sox" than "Stockings." Eventually, the names stuck.
* Quebec City's minor league basketball team is known as the "Kebs," short for "Kebekwa" -- a—a phonetic spelling of Québécois, but rather ironically in English phonetics.
 
----
''[[Atop the Fourth Wall (Web Video)|Because poor literacy is KeWL!]]''
 
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Hottip markup{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:Naming Conventions]]
[[Category:Older Than Radio]]
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[[Category:This Trope Name References Itself]]
[[Category:Advertising Tropes]]
[[Category:EverythingsEverything's Better Withwith Indexes]]
[[Category:Self -Demonstrating Article]]
[[Category:Xtreme Kool Letterz]]
[[Category:Hottip markup]]