# Dead or nearly dead tropes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 25, 2025, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797 "2025-02-25T23:14:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 20
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2025, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/381 "2025-05-18T07:23:16Z")
Have the guy turn green and it’s David Banner in _The Incredible Hulk._ ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2025, 11:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/382 "2025-05-18T11:43:26Z")
Make the guy a dog and you have the littlest hobo. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2025, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/383 "2025-05-18T11:57:00Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > Whereby any incompetent out of shape untrained character can achieve world-class expert status in any skill by means of 30-second training montage. I think that is a weird way of putting it. The 30 second montage obviously represents months and months of arduous work, with the seasons changing etc. Also, from “any incompetent untrained” to “world-class expert” is not what I’m seeing. Rocky, Daniel etc. weren’t and didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2025, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/384 "2025-05-18T12:54:28Z")
Concussions, especially for professional athletes, didn’t used to be seen as a big deal. “He got dinged”, “got his bell rung”, “punch-drunk”. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2025, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/385 "2025-05-18T14:18:59Z")
> [@Neidhart](#): > > Concussions, especially for professional athletes, didn’t used to be seen as a big deal. Yeah it’s a really good example of the OP IMO. As it’s something where attitudes are actually in the process of changing in the public as a whole (they’ve already changed in sports, and of course medical opinion has been overwhelming for many years). It’s pretty glaringly inappropriate when I see a stereotypical “character gets knocked out, sees tweety birds, then carries on like nothing has happened” scene in one of my kids cartoons that’s been made in the last decade. It’s like seeing a character smoking inside. But at time it was made (again we are talking about 2010s) it was just funny trope. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2025, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/386 "2025-05-18T14:26:58Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > That was an early sixties trope: David Janssen in The Fugitive, Ben Gazara in Run For Your Life, Michael Parks in Then Came Bronson, Chuck Conner’s in Branded, George Maharis and Martin Milner in Route 66: hit the road for a lean purpose but that somehow makes you the clear-headed outsider to solve other people’s screwed-up lives along the way. This is the premise of the current show Poker Face. But that probably doesn’t count as its being deliberately retro, so the fact just including the trope gives the show a retro feel shows how long dead the trope is. ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2025, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/387 "2025-05-18T15:27:44Z")
Reminiscent of **Joe Versus the Volcano** and Tom Hanks’ “brain cloud.” ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2025, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/388 "2025-05-18T16:03:51Z")
> [@WildaBeast](#): > > You don’t see the old pie in the face gag much anymore, either. But spit-takes are alive and well on SNL. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2025, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/389 "2025-05-18T16:51:50Z")
Are you only counting times when it’s done in movies or television? Lots of people still do it in public to someone they don’t like. This list has recent cases of pieing in public to moderately famous people:: > **[List of people who have been pied](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_who_have_been_pied)** > > This is a list of well-known people who have been pied without consent. Consensual pieing is excluded from this list. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2025, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/390 "2025-05-18T18:02:24Z")
Yes, I was just thinking of movies and television, like Three Stooges shorts and such. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2025, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/391 "2025-05-18T18:31:33Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > That was an early sixties trope: David Janssen in The Fugitive, Ben Gazara in Run For Your Life, Michael Parks in Then Came Bronson, Chuck Conner’s in Branded, George Maharis and Martin Milner in Route 66: hit the road for a lean purpose but that somehow makes you the clear-headed outsider to solve other people’s screwed-up lives along the way. > > “Gee, I bought this beachfront house but my life seems so empty and my wife hates me. Lucky that itinerant surfer happened along and taught us the true meaning of life and love.” somehow there just isn’t the same audience for that message as there was sixty years ago. I think that trope is a product of an economically prosperous era. It’s more fun to contemplate hitch hiking across the country when you could decide anytime to find a good job and settle down. The _MAD_ magazine satire of _Then Came Bronson_ did a hilarious sendup of the opening credits sequence. The guy in the station wagon describes the prosperous middle-class life he’s “tied down to”, and envies Bronson’s “rusty bike, moldy sleeping bag, and the clothes on (his) back”. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2025, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/392 "2025-05-18T21:50:55Z")
A character is so nearsighted that he/she can barely see anything clearly…even while wearing eyeglasses. (Was this an artifact of a time when eyeglasses were less effective?) ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2025, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/393 "2025-05-18T22:27:58Z")
There are plenty of people with eyesight degeneration who wear lenses for what benefit they can get who are nonetheless substantially visually impaired. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2025, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/394 "2025-05-18T22:36:04Z")
I know someone who has 20/40 vision with glasses or contacts. And that was after years of therapy. She has an unconditional drivers license. She can see well enough for everyday activities. Frighteningly, when crossing the street she will peer out for cars. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2025, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/395 "2025-05-18T23:06:36Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > We did some sort of test but it wasn’t to see how apt we would be for any given profession, more like what professions would fit our interests. For some reason, I got a small variety of suggestions rather than anything specific; one of which was “electrician” and another was “airline pilot”. Had one in junior high. The thing I most remember was it suggested engineering. Interesting to me because my mother and grandfather were both engineers. But me? I’m a writer. I’m fascinated by how engineering brains work, but I definitely don’t have one. Me: “Look, that cloud is a bunny!” Mom: “That cloud is a cloud. What on earth are you talking about?” The story of my childhood. 😏 ---
**Author:** ![fedman1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e495f1/32.png) [@fedman1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fedman1)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2025, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/396 "2025-05-19T03:44:01Z")
don’t forget the elephant scared of mouse ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2025, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/397 "2025-05-19T03:49:14Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > It’s like seeing a character smoking inside. _Poker Face_ again! She actually smokes inside! It’s as if she’s trying to kill the “no smoking” trope by actually . . . smoking. Inside someone else’s house or business. It’s distracting the first time she does it, and every time after that too. We forget how common that used to be. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2025, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/398 "2025-05-19T03:58:51Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > _Poker Face_ again! She actually smokes inside! It’s as if she’s trying to kill the “no smoking” trope by actually . . . smoking. So it’s kinda a trope in its own right, whereby you instantly denote that a scene took place at a certain point in time by showing people smoking. It’s like showing people in powderer wigs or plate armor, except we remember the days of smoking inside (or some of us do) so it adds a nostalgia factor. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2025, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/399 "2025-05-19T05:35:58Z")
The bad guy sends an anonymous message, by using individual letters cut with scissors from newspaper headlines and pasted on a page . Usually a ransom note or threat. The letters were a mish-mosh of different sizes and fonts. I think it was common on Mannix. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2025, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/400 "2025-05-19T06:11:37Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > So it’s kinda a trope in its own right, whereby you instantly denote that a scene took place at a certain point in time by showing people smoking. It’s like showing people in powderer wigs or plate armor, except we remember the days of smoking inside (or some of us do) so it adds a nostalgia factor. Except that _Poker Face_ is set in the modern day, and the main character smokes because she’s a hot mess. Although she’s been trying to move to vapes in Season 2. Of course, the real reason the character smokes is, how would Natasha Lyonne’s voice sound that way if she didn’t? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797.md?page=19) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797.md?page=21)