# 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:** 21
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2025, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/401 "2025-05-19T06:18:36Z")
On _ **Columbo** _ too, frequently. ---
**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, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/402 "2025-05-19T08:24:13Z")
dates all the way back to Sur Walter Raleigh in 1581 ---
**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:** [May 19, 2025, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/403 "2025-05-19T10:49:53Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > A character is so nearsighted that he/she can barely see anything clearly…even while wearing eyeglasses. I’m trying to think of an example but can’t. (I’m just thinking of Mr. Magoo and Velma from Scooby Doo, both of whom can’t see very well _without_ glasses.) ---
**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 19, 2025, 11:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/404 "2025-05-19T11:54:49Z")
There’s an example in _Odds Against Tomorrow_, where Burke explains that Johnny will be able to pass himself off as the coffee delivery man and infiltrate the bank because the security guard “has glasses” (“and arthritis”). Mad Magazine was also fond of that trope (e.g. in a mock classified ad: “Many sublets available in apartment building with nearsighted doorman!”). ---
**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 19, 2025, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/405 "2025-05-19T14:36:45Z")
There used to be a lot more stubbornness on people’s part to admitting that they needed glasses, what with wearing glasses being considered the mark of a nerd, a milquetoast, etc. Nowadays eyesight testing for school is nearly universal and glasses are unremarkable. **ETA** : as recently as 1989 the movie “Major League” depicted a man who only in adulthood finally started wearing glasses. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2025, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/406 "2025-05-19T14:40:45Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > There used to be a lot more stubbornness on people’s part to admitting that they needed glasses, what with wearing glasses being considered the mark of a nerd, a milquetoast, etc. I think that’s what Mr. Magoo represented. In his case just stubbornness and refusing to admit he needed them. A common theme for older people. [Not terribly long ago a plot point in My Cousin Vinnie was about a woman who wouldn’t admit she needed even thicker lenses to see a reasonable distance.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TonMQm4ezAg) ---
**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 19, 2025, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/407 "2025-05-19T14:49:03Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > 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. TV Tropes page on this cites that with modern forensics it’s nowhere near as anonymous as it might once have been. Surprisingly, an alternative to handwriting– using stencils to make uniform letters– seems rarely used; perhaps because it was effective enough that advertising it was frowned upon? ---
**Author:** ![Hermione1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d07c76/32.png) [@Hermione1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermione1)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2025, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/408 "2025-05-19T16:18:19Z")
> TV taught me that as a kid. There was an episode of MASH with an alcoholic nurse. Of course they spent years being booze hounds but to show someone with a serious alcohol problem they needed to use a one off character. She starts hallucinating and Potter says it’s the DTs. Klinger (I think) says she didn’t seem drunk. Potter explains you don’t get DTs when you are drunk you get them when you stop drinking. I had never heard of any of it. Slight detour: it bugs me a bit that the synopsis of that episode on Verizon and on YouTube is all about Hawkeye and B.J. and their pranks on Charles…the B-plot. Instead of the A-plot of Margaret’s friend and her drinking problem…you know, the REASON the episode’s called “Bottoms Up”? ---
**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 19, 2025, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/409 "2025-05-19T17:15:45Z")
I think some of the confusion comes from the classic movie “The Lost Weekend”. Although the dialog clearly says that it’s _delirium tremens_ that’s responsible for Ray Milland’s hallucinations, that was a rather fast withdrawal from a binge. Many watching the movie might think he’s still inebriated. ---
**Author:** ![Hermione1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/d07c76/32.png) [@Hermione1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hermione1)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2025, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/410 "2025-05-19T17:51:12Z")
My first experience with that was watching the Foghorn Leghorn cartoon mentioned on that TV Tropes page. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2025, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/411 "2025-05-19T18:00:57Z")
Lucy’s friend (on I Love Lucy) will fall for Lucy-in-disguise as Harpo Marx and others - because she can’t aee well enough to tell the difference without her glasses ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2025, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/412 "2025-05-19T18:41:42Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I think that’s what Mr. Magoo represented. In his case just stubbornness and refusing to admit he needed them. This is, indeed, the point. A lot of people think that Mr. Magoo is making fun of the handicapped, but it isn’t – Magoo’s fault is that, although he could see perfectly well with glasses, he insisted that he didn’t need them and persisted in not using them, with predictable results. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2025, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/413 "2025-05-19T18:54:13Z")
> [@Andy\_L](#): > > Lucy’s friend (on I Love Lucy) will fall for Lucy-in-disguise as Harpo Marx and others - because she can’t aee well enough to tell the difference without her glasses A related “mistaken identity” trope which is very dead, for good reason— a male character dresses in drag for some comedy reason (his wife is attending some function without him, say, and he’s jealous so he goes to spy on her). A male friend or other acquaintance of his (or even more ‘hilarious’, someone in a position of power, like his wife’s boss) who is also at the function not only does not recognize him in drag, but finds him attractive and starts hitting on him. Closest actual example I can think of right now is when Bugs Bunny dressed in drag and Elmer Fudd would get all hot and bothered. ---
**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 19, 2025, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/414 "2025-05-19T18:57:11Z")
TV Tropes calls that one **[Sweet on Polly Oliver](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SweetOnPollyOliver)**. ---
**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 19, 2025, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/415 "2025-05-19T19:14:33Z")
On the 1978 to 1982 American television series _WKRP in Cincinnati_, a man is attracted to a woman but discovers that she is a man he once knew who has transitioned to being a woman. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2025, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/416 "2025-05-19T19:16:54Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Magoo’s fault is that, although he could see perfectly well with glasses, he insisted that he didn’t need them and persisted in not using them, with predictable results. According to Bob Rivers’s song, Magoo lost his glasses. But I guess that’s not canonical. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/IHsFCroV4h0/maxresdefault.jpg "Mr. Magoo") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHsFCroV4h0) ---
**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 19, 2025, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/417 "2025-05-19T21:02:09Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Closest actual example I can think of right now is when Bugs Bunny dressed in drag and Elmer Fudd would get all hot and bothered. Until Elmer (or others) got a glimpse under Bugs’s skirt and saw that “she” had a– . . . –fluffy tail. Went over my head as a kid of course but now I’m certain the writers were doing a double entendre. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2025, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/418 "2025-05-19T21:24:34Z")
> [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](#): > > TV Tropes calls that one **[Sweet on Polly Oliver](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SweetOnPollyOliver)**. Similar, but the inverse of the trope I mentioned. In the SoPO trope a woman dresses like a man, and another man who befriends her is strangely attracted to to his new ‘male’ friend. Thank god when he finds out ‘he’ is actually a woman, because of course he is heterosexual! ---
**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 19, 2025, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/419 "2025-05-19T21:36:30Z")
Yes, you’re right - the trope you were describing is **[Attractive Bent Gender](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AttractiveBentGender)**. ---
**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 19, 2025, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/420 "2025-05-19T21:45:10Z")
I was watching a video about the film _Blank Check_, which has an uncomfortable story line in which the ten year old boy forms a special relationship with an older woman. Like, they have a “date” and even kiss at the end, and she tells him to call her in ten years. Barely registered in my childhood brain but I think that’s one trope I’m glad to see dead. (See also: _Big._) I dunno what you want to call this trope. Quasi-romance between kids and adults? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797.md?page=20) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797.md?page=22)