# 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:** 3
**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:** [February 26, 2025, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/41 "2025-02-26T03:34:58Z")
> [@Lumpy](#): > > > [@Asuka](#): > > > > Also people getting stuck in walk-in freezers was a sitcom staple but now I can only remember it last being seen in the 00s. > > It was done seriously on a 2011 episode of Castle, in which a killer trapped Castle and Beckett in a freezer and they were facing the real prospect of death. It also happened to Dee in a 2012 episode of _It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia_. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2025, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/42 "2025-02-26T04:34:10Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > Also people getting stuck in walk-in freezers was a sitcom staple but now I can only remember it last being seen in the 00s That happened on season 2 of The Bear in 2023. ---
**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:** [February 26, 2025, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/43 "2025-02-26T04:47:58Z")
> [@Crafter\_Man](#): > > Man giving out cigars after his wife gives birth. Before breaking out the cigars: Boil some water and/or rip up the bedsheets. -or- Fathers sequestered in the hospital waiting room, pacing the floor and chain-smoking cigarettes. Then the nurse coming in, saying “Congratulations, it’s twins!” Or triplets. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2025, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/44 "2025-02-26T05:12:41Z")
For reference, here are a couple of handy TV Tropes pages. > **[Dead Horse Trope - TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DeadHorseTrope)** > > Please don't list this on a work's page as a trope. A trope which has gone way beyond being a Discredited Trope to where the very act of Playing With that trope has itself become a trope. The progression is generally: Clever idea â&# … > **[Forgotten Trope - TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ForgottenTrope)** > > These are the tropes that are one step beyond Dead Horse Tropes and Discredited Tropes; not only are they not used straight, they're not used at all. You won't find this in any current series; they have disappeared from the writer's toolbox. Note … ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2025, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/45 "2025-02-26T05:41:59Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > Before breaking out the cigars: > > Boil some water and/or rip up the bedsheets. Heh. Dead or nearly dead fits this one. I think the last time I saw it was on the Partridge Family, when the family’s hamster is about to give birth. Danny shouted, “Boil some water! Tear up the bedsheets!” When asked why, he replied, “I dunno, but it’s what they do on TV.” But that was over 50 years ago, so there you go. ---
**Author:** ![Reeses\_Monkey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reeses_monkey/32/2885_2.png) [@Reeses\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeses_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2025, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/46 "2025-02-26T08:28:11Z")
ATMs spitting out bills all over the place Two characters getting handcuffed to each other Having to get back a letter sent by mistake ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2025, 10:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/47 "2025-02-26T10:15:47Z")
Men being offended at a _woman_ having superhuman/supernatural powers, _Bewitched_ style. Heroic cuckoldry. Go back more than a few decades and fairly common tropes were the good guy seducer, and cheating on her husband being a woman asserting her own desires. Relatively easy divorce and equal rights are what killed that I think, because it’s far less likely for a woman to have been married off against her will to a man she never wanted. Also, the male version of “a man in a loveless marriage he never wanted who has a mistress he loves”. > [@WildaBeast](#): > > I think in general the lovable comedic town drunk character is pretty much dead. Many years ago I recall reading an article on American drinking culture once in Scientific American, and it’s apparently a cyclic thing. Over decades in a fairly regular cycle it swings between “drinking is cool, drunkenness is funny, no need to worry about health issues” and the other extreme of “drinking is stupid/immoral, drunkenness is disgusting, alcohol is extremely unhealthy”. We’re just at the latter side of the cycle. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2025, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/48 "2025-02-26T10:24:27Z")
Sitcoms from the mid 60s all the way to the end of the 70s used to get a ton of mileage out of the entry of women into the white collar workforce. _Mary Tyler Moore_ made a whole series out of it, but all sorts of otherwise housebound shows found subplots in the daughter’s first job or the wife working part time. Tropes galore. The phenomenon is normalized so the associated tropes are generally dead. However, the underlying transition has _evolved_ which allows some of the same tropes to hang on in mutated form. Consider the new cliche of the over-traditional old guy who hasn’t fully adapted to the transition and holds and expresses obsolete views in a “humorously” sexist manner. The show mocks him as a neanderthal, but it means some of the old tropes hang on, albeit “ironically.” Comedy gold! /s ---
**Author:** ![JacobSwan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@JacobSwan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JacobSwan)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2025, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/49 "2025-02-26T10:34:34Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > An old army buddy of mine is coming to visit. Used on ‘Shrinking’ within the last 12 months. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2025, 10:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/50 "2025-02-26T10:52:57Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > Also people getting stuck in walk-in freezers was a sitcom staple but now I can only remember it last being seen in the 00s. Used for serious dramatic purposes in the Season 2 finale of The Bear, as part of its quite deliberate habit of using sticom tropes/plots in a dramatic mode ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2025, 10:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/51 "2025-02-26T10:57:58Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > Sitcoms from the mid 60s all the way to the end of the 70s used to get a ton of mileage out of the entry of women into the white collar workforce. One specific trope I remember from as far back as the Flintstones is; For contrived reasons, today the wife is going to be doing the husband’s job and the husband will doing the housework. The wife, alhtough nervous, absolutely nails it. Lands the big contract, solves the engineering problem, makes one simple suggestion that results in millions of dollars of efficiency savings etc. The husband, meanwhile, simply can’t cope. The house is a mess, teh kids are hungry, some sort of hilarious disaster occurs… By the day’s end, all agree that although the wife could absolutely excel in work, probably better than the husband, she’ll have to stay in her role of housewife because her lovably incompetent buffoon of a husband will likely kill their children. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2025, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/52 "2025-02-26T11:17:01Z")
A man and woman are walking along, when they encounter a wet or muddy spot on the path. Being a gentleman, the man takes off his jacket and throws it onto the spot, and the woman proceeds to walk on the jacket. (The jacket protects her feet from the water/mud.) [Buster Keaton’s hilarious take on it](https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/video/man-loses-woman-after-laying-down-coat-over-puddle-stock-video-footage/927253172). ---
**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:** [February 26, 2025, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/53 "2025-02-26T11:29:27Z")
> [@Stanislaus](#): > > the wife is going to be doing the husband’s job In the February 26, 2025 _Classic Doonesbury_ strip, Boopsie takes over the team that B.D. was the coach of and wins a game. _Classic Doonesbury_ strips are repeats of the original _Doonesbury_ strips. I don’t know how to figure out when the original strip appeared. ---
**Author:** ![Stanislaus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stanislaus/32/3391_2.png) [@Stanislaus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stanislaus)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2025, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/54 "2025-02-26T12:03:26Z")
Another male/female trope you don’t see so much now is the forcefully initiated kiss. Back in the day, there was evidently nothing more romantic than a man grabbing a woman, probably while she was still talking, and lunging in to mash his face into hers. Bonus points for uttering “Shut up you fool” or somesuch tender endearment as her only warning. Cue swoon and stroll off into the sunset. Nowadays while you might see a gender reversed version where the woman grabs the oblivious lunk who can’t see what’s right in front of him, you more often get the slow, hesitant kiss. Where the couple are talking, and the talk slows down, and their faces get closer together and they linger in that “just about to but not actually quite kissing” space for several seconds before one of them (I think even then usually her) finally closes those last crucial millimetres. (I’m restricting to male/female because there weren’t a lot of same-sex kissing scenes back in the day, so one positive trope change is that gay people are now seen as, you know, people. Or at least more so.) ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2025, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/55 "2025-02-26T12:17:11Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > There’s a more general head injury trope. Whereby a character receives a head injury, they are momentarily stunned (see stars or circling tweety birds) but then continue on their way without any untoward effects or seeking medical attention. > > This still comes up occasionally in the recently made cartoons my kids watch, but I think will be viewed as negatively as things like smoking before long. The Netflix “Daredevil” series made a big deal out of how Daredevil is a devout Catholic so he refuses to kill. He only uses nonlethal combat techniques like hitting someone in the head with a metal club or throwing someone head-first down a metal staircase. 🤡 ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2025, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/56 "2025-02-26T12:29:02Z")
Villian: “Pay me the rent” Damsel: “But I can’t pay the rent” Villian: “You must pay the rent” Hero: “I’ll pay the rent!” Couple can’t pay their restaurant bill, wind up washing dishes. Drinking too much and driving home, arrive safely after comedic near misses. Pulling a loose tooth by tying a string between the tooth and a doorknob. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2025, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/57 "2025-02-26T12:30:27Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Pulling a loose tooth by tying a string between the tooth and a doorknob. Curing the hiccups by scaring the patient. ---
**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:** [February 26, 2025, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/58 "2025-02-26T12:36:42Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > I feel I’ve still seen “Man joins the military because it was either that or prison” in movies to this day despite that not really being a thing at all since the 1970s I heard a news story with that happening in the 2000s: > **[206: Somewhere in the Arabian Sea - This American Life](https://www.thisamericanlife.org/206/transcript)** > We had some time to kill, and I saw a group of talkative young sailors who looked like they might be talkative interviewees. I asked Lieutenant Gorell if it will be OK to talk with them, but worried about their big mouths, he steered me instead to a serious-looking sailor named Kevin [? Wrenn. ?] This turned out to be a mistake for poor Lieutenant Gorell. > > #### Kevin > > I’m just ready to go home. I don’t know what it’s about. > > #### Ira Glass > > How come you chose the service? > > #### Kevin > > A court order. > > #### Ira Glass > > Really, court-ordered? > > #### Kevin > > Yeah, that’s how they do it in Texas. Instead of you going to jail, they send you to the armed service. So that’s how– > > #### Ira Glass > > They gave you the choice of jail or the Navy? > > #### Kevin > > Yeah, or the armed service, any armed service. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2025, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/59 "2025-02-26T12:40:10Z")
How about women being delicate snowflakes who faint when confronted with trauma or even stress? How about women home makers who wear dresses and heels while maintaining their home during the day? ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2025, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797/60 "2025-02-26T12:44:46Z")
Married couples sleeping in twin beds. Wearing night caps. Shotgun weddings. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-or-nearly-dead-tropes/1014797.md?page=4)