TV Tropes Wiki

September 28, 2007 2:12 PM

A wiki cataloging common cliches in anime, tv shows, and webcomics, amoungst other things. Looking for a Wikipedia even more chock full of pop culture cruft? Ever wanted to know what the heck that thing that goes DOINK in an anime was? Wanna see a complete archetypal breakdown of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Wish to better understand the sorting algorithm of evil? All these tropes and more can be found within!
posted by zabuni (28 comments total)

Wow.
posted by Artw at 2:14 PM on September 28, 2007

This can't be good.
posted by Curry at 2:15 PM on September 28, 2007

I would have gone with Face Full Of Alien Wing Wong myself.

Maybe that's the wrong way to put that...
posted by Artw at 2:29 PM on September 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

God help me The Thing That Goes Doink was actually something I wanted to know about...
posted by Artw at 2:47 PM on September 28, 2007

Previously - probably not found by the auto-checker because it's changed URLs since the original post, and I vote for leaving it up anyway because it's expanded massively in the past 3+ years since the earlier post. (Among other things, it's not strictly limited to TV any more.)

And a warning before you get too deeply into it: TV Tropes Will Ruin Your Life.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 2:56 PM on September 28, 2007

that thing that goes DOINK

I'm pretty sure I prefer the thing that goes 'ding' when there’s stuff.

Blatantly stolen from Doctor Who.
posted by quin at 3:17 PM on September 28, 2007

Added since the last time this was posted:
Professional Wrestling Tropes
Wikipedia Tropes
Guide to Fan-Speak
posted by ormondsacker at 3:27 PM on September 28, 2007

TV Tropes will also ruin your productivity, or they have mine, anyway.
posted by everichon at 4:03 PM on September 28, 2007

Neat. Please keep linking to interesting articles.
posted by smackfu at 4:48 PM on September 28, 2007 [1 favorite]

dead link... mirror?
posted by greensweater at 4:54 PM on September 28, 2007

dead link.
posted by sgt.serenity at 4:55 PM on September 28, 2007

Was working erlier.
posted by Richard Daly at 5:14 PM on September 28, 2007

It seems to suffer a bit from Anime Overload, where most of the examples are obscure anime or Buffy.
posted by smackfu at 5:16 PM on September 28, 2007

Once I post TV-based cliches to a web page somewhere, will they disappear from my brain? I could really use the space for other stuff.
posted by whir at 5:16 PM on September 28, 2007

I think we crashed their server, guys.
posted by ZachsMind at 5:18 PM on September 28, 2007

This is a horrible website. Because I have other things I really should be doing. But I just can't stop reading it. And it's so damned unimportant.
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 5:50 PM on September 28, 2007

what are you talking about, Great Big Mulp? This is a treasure trove of tropiness! A veritable cornucopia of trite cliches! I love it!
posted by ZachsMind at 6:22 PM on September 28, 2007

Here's one for Metafilter!
posted by JHarris at 7:40 PM on September 28, 2007

Mmmmm, Discworld
posted by RussHy at 7:47 PM on September 28, 2007

It seems to suffer a bit from Anime Overload, where most of the examples are obscure anime or Buffy.

That may be partly due to the fact that everything is notable.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 9:00 PM on September 28, 2007

It seems to suffer a bit from Anime Overload, where most of the examples are obscure anime or Buffy.

I can't find anything online to support this, but I seem to remember that TV Tropes started as an offshoot of a Buffy fansite.
posted by bluishorange at 10:20 PM on September 28, 2007

Yeah, a lot of the early influence came from buffistas.org, and another faction from Television Without Pity. Dunno where they all went though.

If'n y'all want to see how tropes are made, pay a visit to the shop floor: You Know That Thing Where...
posted by darksasami at 4:11 AM on September 29, 2007

This is an amazing website. It's basically a literary analysis of television, movies, anime, comics, etc - it's fascinating. And I love how they can date the genre-savvy character trait to the Epic of Gilgamesh.
posted by jb at 5:50 AM on September 29, 2007

This cracked me up:

Uri Geller's "psychic ability" is bending spoons. With his hands.
posted by kandinski at 8:23 AM on September 29, 2007

Brilliant. Thanks.
posted by WPW at 8:07 AM on September 30, 2007

This thing is like crack, or ice cream. I read one page, open a bunch of links in new tabs, then read those, repeat, and then it's an hour later and I have 50 pages to read.
posted by smackfu at 10:19 AM on September 30, 2007

Trippy.
posted by nickyskye at 11:57 AM on September 30, 2007

This is awesome.
posted by Mitheral at 3:41 PM on September 30, 2007