# Commonly misclassified works **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 13, 2022, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-misclassified-works/973192 "2022-10-13T15:18:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JohnnyEcks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnnyecks/32/18197_2.png) [@JohnnyEcks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnnyEcks)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2022, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-misclassified-works/973192/1 "2022-10-13T15:18:07Z")
Some books, movies, and whatnot are commonly regarded as one genre, but are actually another. For example, Little, Big by John Crowley is usually considered a fantasy novel. It’s actually horror. Likewise, Alan Moore’s Miracleman is a horror comic disguised as a superhero comic. Twin peaks was sold as a mystery, but it wasn’t really. What are other examples? ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2022, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-misclassified-works/973192/2 "2022-10-13T17:36:05Z")
Woody Allen’s _A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy_ is a tragedy with the message that love never truly brings happiness. ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2022, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-misclassified-works/973192/3 "2022-10-13T18:20:04Z")
_Bridge to Tarabithia_ was marketed as a fantasy. Its not a fantasy. I think its slice of life. YMMV ---
**Author:** ![JohnnyEcks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnnyecks/32/18197_2.png) [@JohnnyEcks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnnyEcks)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2022, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-misclassified-works/973192/4 "2022-10-13T19:12:07Z")
What about The Godfather movies? They were meant to be tragedies, but lots of people seem to take all the wrong lessons from them- just like Breaking Bad and the Sopranos. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2022, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-misclassified-works/973192/5 "2022-10-13T19:16:59Z")
I went to a bookstore once and asked if they had any of the _Yes, Minister_ books and was directed to the religion section. They’re actually British political satire. I also think that _Forrest Gump_ plays as a tragedy; someone who gets to experience so many significant historical events but is unable to appreciate them. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2022, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-misclassified-works/973192/6 "2022-10-13T22:35:42Z")
> [@JohnnyEcks](#): > > Twin peaks was sold as a mystery, but it wasn’t really. I mean, ‘who killed Laura Palmer?’ was certainly a mystery. Just a quirky, dark one. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2022, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-misclassified-works/973192/7 "2022-10-13T22:47:16Z")
Anything that gets labeled with the genre “Science Fiction”. That’s not a genre; you can write SciFi stories in any genre. Adventure is a genre, and probably the most common among those with a Science Fiction setting. Horror is also a fairly common one, but there can also be comedies and any other actual genre. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2022, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-misclassified-works/973192/8 "2022-10-13T22:51:01Z")
I’ve always seen Jurassic Park put into the “action” category which it really isn’t, it’s more adventure/thriller. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2022, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-misclassified-works/973192/9 "2022-10-13T23:04:27Z")
All of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books are labeled as “humor”. And yeah, most of them are pretty funny, but that’s not really the core of the books. And some of them are just straight-up drama, with no more humor than any other drama. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2022, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-misclassified-works/973192/10 "2022-10-13T23:53:52Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > All of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld books are labeled as “humor”. And yeah, most of them are pretty funny, but that’s not really the core of the books. Conversely, humor _is_ the core of _Alice’s Adventure’s In Wonderland_. Somehow some people seem to miss that. It’s most commonly classified as fantasy, which it is, but in rather the same sense as _Monty Python and the Holy Grail_. They’re both an excuse for a series of comedy sketches. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2022, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-misclassified-works/973192/11 "2022-10-14T01:24:22Z")
_Daddy’s Dyin’ . . . Who’s Got the Will?_ is listed as a comedy, even on its imdb and wikipedia pages. But the jokes are few and far between, and not very funny. I would have described it as a drama, and a pretty serious one at that. (It’s a good film. It’s just not a comedy.) A large portion of Ray Bradbury’s stories would be classified as Magical Realism if they were published today. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2022, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-misclassified-works/973192/12 "2022-10-14T04:57:41Z")
It’s a coming of age tale. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2022, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-misclassified-works/973192/13 "2022-10-14T12:26:05Z")
Blake Edwards’s _The Man Who Loved Women_ was marketed as a comedy. While there were some funny scenes (all of which were shown in a trailer) it was primarily a relationship drama. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2022, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-misclassified-works/973192/14 "2022-10-14T13:26:57Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I went to a bookstore once and asked if they had any of the _Yes, Minister_ books and was directed to the religion section. They’re actually British political satire. I remember a similar mislabeling, but with music. More than 25 years ago, to my initial joy, a CD store opened just across the street from my house. But I soon figured that the owner was an idiot with no knowledge of music at all. So where did you find “The Eagles Greatest Hits”? In the heavy metal rack…You see, the cover has a skull, so it must be heavy metal. 🤦‍♂️ Another story to demonstrate the guy’s cluelessness : I once asked him to order Lou Reed’s “New York” album, and he cried out “I know this one! “New York, New York”, Frank Sinatra!”. I said “No, just “New York” by Lou Reed”. His reaction: “Lou what? How do you spell that?” 😆 ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2022, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-misclassified-works/973192/15 "2022-10-14T13:55:32Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > But I soon figured that the owner was an idiot with no knowledge of music at all. My story happened at Powell’s, which is the best bookstore in the known universe. But when you’ve got a million books, you can’t know where every single one is located. > [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > Another story to demonstrate the guy’s cluelessness : I once asked him to order Lou Reed’s “New York” album, and he cried out “I know this one! “New York, New York”, Frank Sinatra!”. I said “No, just “New York” by Lou Reed”. His reaction: “Lou what? How do you spell that?” 😆 What rack did he put “Metal Machine Music” in? I’m not sure there is a correct place for that. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2022, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-misclassified-works/973192/16 "2022-10-14T14:03:37Z")
In the ‘I went to a bookstore once’ vein, I found among the books about the preparation of organic matter for caloric intake a copy of . . . The Anarchist’s Cookbook. Worst. Recipes. Ever. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2022, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-misclassified-works/973192/17 "2022-10-14T14:04:17Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > What rack did he put “Metal Machine Music” in? I’m not sure there is a correct place for that. If he had have such niche CDs, he surely would have put it next to the Eagles in the heavy metal section. Because it has “metal” in the title. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2022, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-misclassified-works/973192/18 "2022-10-14T14:15:56Z")
I once was told by a friend that he found a copy of _Roots_ in the gardening section of a bookstore. He may have been pulling my leg, but it made me laugh. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2022, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-misclassified-works/973192/19 "2022-10-14T14:29:00Z")
I’m sure we all remember when _Apollo 13_ was in the Science Fiction section at Blockbuster. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2022, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-misclassified-works/973192/20 "2022-10-14T14:40:55Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > _Apollo 13_ was in the Science Fiction section That’s not necessarily inappropriate. It’d be a good example of hard science fiction (like _The Martian_) if it weren’t a true story. And arguably, it, like any “based on a true story” movie that isn’t a documentary or a 100% accurate depiction of what actually happened, could be considered historical fiction. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/commonly-misclassified-works/973192.md?page=2)