This Index Is Not an Example

Usually, the Trope Namer for a trope provides the one codifying example to define them all. Sometimes, however, a trope is named after something that isn't itself a good example of the trope—or isn't an instance of the trope at all. Sometimes the quote sounds nice but it is in the wrong context. Oftentimes the trope is a variation on another trope and receives a name based on it.

Be particularly careful when linking to such trope pages, because they might not be what they sound like at first glance. (Obviously, any YMMV entry with a specific Trope Namer could be an example in the eyes of some viewers but not others; and some have actually been renamed because of it.)

Not to be confused with Punny Trope Names or Snowclone titles, although this is often caused by snowcloning the name of another trope. Also not to be confused with works that seem like the Trope Namer, but aren't really (Fur and Loathing was not named after the CSI episode, nor was Determinator named from one of Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters' Fake.com Endings).

Then there are the tropes named after lines of dialogue that the Trope Namer never actually said.

Contrast Self-Demonstrating Article and This Trope Name References Itself. Compare Defied Trope and Non-Indicative Name. Also see This Image Is Not an Example and This Quote Is Not an Example. Is similar to Dead Unicorn Trope in the sense that both are about believing a certain trope is more prevalent than it really is, but is distinct in that these tropes have one specific moment that does not follow.

Don't bother listing this page itself, as then it would no longer belong (due to Russell's paradox).

Some of these examples contain unmarked spoilers. Proceed with caution.

Tropes:

Snowclone and Puns

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Actual non-example trope namers

Above the Influence: A character refuses to accept the advances of another character who is not fit to consent, such as a state of intoxication. The American campaign of the same name is instead encouraging the viewers to stay off drugs.
Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder: A character moves on after being separated from their spouse. The Trope Namer is King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder!, in which King Graham's family is kidnapped and he's not moving on—"going yonder" for him means starting out to rescue them.
Acquitted Too Late: A character is executed and then found to be not guilty after the fact. The Trope Namer is Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, in which the phrase "acquitted too late" refers to a character who was murdered, not to one who was executed—one of the Ten Little Murder Victims must be the killer, so being a victim is an "acquittal" of sorts. And even then, the killer fakes his death to deflect suspicion, hence why "and then there were none".
Aliens of London: Aliens who speak English do so with a distinctive accent for no good reason. The Trope Namer is the Doctor Who episode "Aliens of London", where the aliens in question do have a good reason for speaking in distinctive British accents—they're in Human Disguise as British government officials. Interestingly, this incarnation of the Doctor (as portrayed by Christopher Eccleston) fits the trope himself with his distinctive non-London accent.
The Almighty Dollar: A deity whose power relates to money. The Trope Namer was Washington Irving, who used the phrase hyperbolically to describe money in general and the value placed on it in American culture.
And Some Other Stuff: A work describes how to make something dangerous, but avoids listing a key ingredient to prevent impressionable viewers from making it themselves. The Trope Namer is Burn Notice, which typically did include full recipes for its dangerous things—in this case, one character is withholding ingredients from another, and the show did it because there are no ingredients that one could add to create an explosion as big as we saw.
Another Side, Another Story: Playing the game from the perspective of the other side, and getting a different story. The Trope Namer is Kingdom Hearts I, but it's a secret movie that plays after beating the game with certain criteria fulfilled, so it's not strictly "another story" so much as a Sequel Hook.
An Arm and a Leg: A character gets one of their body parts dismembered. The name comes from a figure of speech meaning when something is very expensive.
Bat Out of Hell: The trope uses the term literally to refer to giant demonic bats. The expression (which serves as the title of the album by Meat Loaf, and a 1966 British thriller, among others) traditionally evokes the image of a normal bat fleeing hell.
Bits of Me Keep Passing Out: Body parts fall asleep. The Trope Namer is The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (1978), whose protagonist uses the phrase to describe his general sense of feeling like crap after his first space travel experience rather than any specific body part falling asleep (although the use of the Infinite Improbability Drive shortly thereafter does make some of them temporarily disappear or change size).
Black Dude Dies First: The trope is a black character being the first to die. The Trope Namer is Evolution (2001), in which a black character says this line as a Genre Savvy excuse not to do something dangerous—and this is why he survives.
Black Metal: An extreme subgenre of Heavy Metal, named after a song by Venom which certainly was influential on the genre but in itself is much closer to Thrash Metal.
Blinded by the Light: The Trope Namer is a song by Bruce Springsteen, which uses the term metaphorically. The trope itself uses the term literally to refer to blinding an opponent with bright lights for a combative advantage.
Blithe Spirit: An inspiring force upset the stuffy old status quo for the better. The name comes from a line in Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "To a Skylark", which later supplied its name to a play by Noël Coward, neither of which is really about the trope.
Blow You Away: The trope is about wind-based Elemental Powers, but it draws its name from a common figure of speech referring to being very impressed by something.
Breakaway Pop Hit: A song that's hugely popular coming from a movie no one remembers. The Trope Namer is the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in which Anya notes that her song averted the trope.
Brilliant, but Lazy: The trope is a character who is intelligent but chooses not to apply themselves. The Trope Namer is Spider-Man, whose protagonist is described as such by those who note his intelligence and his poor school performance—except his poor grades are not from laziness, but rather from devoting more time to being a superhero than to studying. The exact phrasing comes from the movie Spider-Man 2, and in that case it's the villain Doc Ock seeing Spider-Man unmask himself and giving a wry Ironic Echo of his earlier comment about his colleague's assessment of Peter, which he now sees was Entertainingly Wrong.
Brooklyn Rage: A violent New Yorker, often from the outer boroughs like Brooklyn. The Trope Namer is Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, which is making fun of the English dub of Yu-Gi-Oh! giving Joey a random Brooklyn accent; while the Abridged version of Joey does exhibit occasional violent tendencies, he's explicitly not from New York and just has an Unexplained Accent for Rule of Funny. (In context, "Brooklyn rage!" is really a Forced Meme based on said accent.)
But Liquor Is Quicker: A character gets drunk or high in order to lessen their reservations around having sex with another character. The Trope Namer is "Reflections on Ice-Breaking" by Ogden Nash, where the reservations described are about meeting new people and not specifically sexual.
Came Back Wrong: A character comes back from the dead changed and usually dangerous. The Trope Namer is season six of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, when the idea that Buffy might have come back wrong is discussed, mainly due to Spike’s anti-violence chip not working on her anymore. It turns out, however, that Buffy is physically and spiritually intact, and her erratic behaviour post resurrection is simply to due to trauma and depression.
Canis Major: Giant canids. Named for the constellation Canis Major, which is a group of stars and not an actual giant dog.
Cannot Tell a Lie: A character is physically incapable of lying. The Trope Namer is Mason Locke Weems' (likely apocryphal) story about a young George Washington, who was perfectly capable of telling a lie but honorably chose not to when confronted about his misbehavior.
Carry a Big Stick: A large, blunt objects used as a weapon. The Trope Namer is a quotation from Theodore Roosevelt which was used as a metaphor for Gunboat Diplomacy: "Speak softly, and carry a big stick; you will go far."
Catapult to Glory: A character launches from a siege weapon for a surprise attack. The Trope Namer is the Darwin Awards, which is actually describing someone who died in an ill-conceived Tree Buchet attempt.
Cat Concerto: Cats singing (or rather yowling) on the back fence. The Trope Namer is the Tom and Jerry cartoon "The Cat Concerto", in which the cat isn't singing at all but rather playing a piano. Which makes sense; in Classical Music, that's what a concerto is—not a sung piece, but an instrumental solo with orchestral accompaniment.
Caught Up in the Rapture: The trope is about Christian eschatology, in which The End of the World as We Know It is imminent but the good believers are beamed up to Heaven beforehand. The Trope Namer is a song by Anita Baker, which uses the Christian imagery as a metaphor but is otherwise a traditional love song.
Chained Heat: Diametrically opposed characters are shackled together. The Trope Namer is a film of the same name which is actually just a Les Yay-filled Exploitation Film about a women's prison.
Charles Atlas Superpower: A human character's training allows them to do things that would be impossible for a human in real life. The Trope Namer is the bodybuilder Charles Atlas, who was a real historical figure, and therefore could not have developed the kind of powers that the trope refers to.
A Child Shall Lead Them: A minor is in a position of great authority. The Trope Namer is the Bible verse Isaiah 11:6, which uses a small child as a metaphor—it's describing a world so peaceful that it wouldn't fall apart even if led by a small child.
Church Militant: A church engages in active warfare, with lots of weapons. It's named after a common phrase used in Catholicism, which is actually about spiritual warfare.
Clothes Make the Superman: A superhero derives his powers from his clothes. The Trope Namer is Superman, who doesn't draw his powers this way; "Superman" is just a great poetic shorthand for "superhero", and fits into the old saying "clothes make the man".
Cloudcuckooland: An odd place, where you might find a Cloudcuckoolander. The Trope Namer is Aristophanes's play The Birds; it's a translation of the term "Nephelokokkygia", and it's not an odd place, but rather a fictional Utopia.
Complete Monster: A trope with a strict definition, which its Trope Namer doesn't meet. The term was coined by Stephen King in his 1981 Book on Trope Danse Macabre to describe Herbie Satten, a conceited baseball player from the EC Comics strip "Foul Play!", who poisons an opponent to win a game. However, he fails the strict definition for two reasons: first, this act, while heinous, is a single act, whereas a Complete Monster displays a pattern of such acts (all Herbie does is cross the Moral Event Horizon); and second, his next opponents murder him in a Vigilante Execution and use his body parts for a grotesque ball game, whereas a Complete Monster must be clearly more heinous than every other character. Herbie's not a Complete Monster; he's just a Hate Sink.
Crocodile Tears: Feigned crying for the purpose of emotional manipulation. The name is a common idiom that derives from the idea that crocodiles don't cry because they're sad—which is true, but not because they're being emotionally manipulative; that's just the only way they can clean their eyes.
Crying a River: Characters cry so hard that they cause flooding. The name is a common idiom for excessive crying which doesn't happen literally.
Cuckoo Nest: A character believes that they're trapped in an asylum and that the prior events of the story or series were all hallucinations. The Trope Namer is One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, where the protagonist is in an asylum, and he never thinks he's experiencing hallucinations.
Cue the Sun: A symbolically positive sunrise. The Trope Namer is The Truman Show, in which it's meant literally—as part of the "Truman Show" Plot, the directors literally must cue the sun to start the day in the artificial town.
Daydream Believer: A character believes fictional stories are true. The Trope Namer is a song of that name by The Monkees, which is about a singer trying to cheer up a teenaged girl who once idolized him but now doesn't.
Days of Future Past: A future with historical elements. The Trope Namer is the X-Men comic of the same name (and its subsequent film adaptation), which is about travelling to the past to prevent a Bad Future.
Death of a Thousand Cuts: A weapon or strategy defeats an opponent with a large number of weak attacks. The term comes from a translation of the Chinese term lingchi, an ancient execution method in which the victim's body is slowly dismembered over a long period of time.
Deliver Us from Evil: A Heel–Face Turn caused by having a baby. The name comes from a line in the Lord's Prayer, which is just about being rescued from evil without the pun on "delivering" a baby.
Dem Bones: The trope is about animate skeletons. The Trope Namer is a folk song of the same name about the story of the Valley of the Dry Bones in the Biblical Book of Ezekiel, in which the skeletons in question are immediately given flesh and souls once they're reanimated.
Died in Your Arms Tonight: A character dies in another character's arms. The Trope Namer is a song by Cutting Crew which is about something completely different—in this case, "died" is an Unusual Euphemism for having an orgasm (although there is a cover version that does use the term in the sense of the trope).
Different for Girls: A gender-bent character comes to terms with what's different about being a girl. The Trope Namer is a song of that name by Joe Jackson, which is about how dating and love are different for girls and has nothing to do with gender-bending.
Don't Fear the Reaper: The Grim Reaper is portrayed as being a benevolent figure. The Trope Namer is "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" by Blue Öyster Cult, where the narrator says the trope name to his lover as a metaphorical way to say that she needs to accept they will eventually die; the Grim Reaper doesn't actually appear as a character at any point. (However, the song also got name-dropped in Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey, where Bill was using the title in the sense of the trope.)
Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: A character has multiple conflicting allegiances. The Trope Namer is Team Fortress 2, which uses the term to describe the Spy; but this level of complicated espionage isn't technically possible in the game (where teammates are Friendly Fireproof), and in supplemental material every instance of the Spy is definitely loyal to his own team.
The Dragon: A villain who acts as a second-in-command to the Big Bad. The name was a reference to The Hero with a Thousand Faces, where Joseph Campbell names the "dragon" to refer to the ultimate threat that the hero has to defeat, not a second-in-command to the true ultimate threat. Campbell's use of the term was in turn drawing from mythological dragons, but there are no examples of dragons fitting the trope in any mythology anywhere in the world.
Drugs Are Bad: A Stock Aesop in which drugs have no positive use whatsoever. The Trope Namer is South Park, in which it's an occasional Catchphrase and almost always played as a Spoof Aesop; if the show has any real Aesop to tell, it's that drug addiction is caused by external factors and can only be fought by identifying and helping people particularly susceptible to addiction.
El Spanish "-o": English words vaguely changed to make them sound like Spanish. The Trope Namer is the El Producto brand of cigars, which sounds like this trope but is grammatically correct Spanish.
Enemy Within: An internal struggle with an evil entity. The Trope Name comes from a historical idiom which originated in a religious context to describe sinful temptations, and was later used to describe subversive elements within a government—in neither case did it refer to having a literal evil entity inside one's own body or mind. (People today are more likely to associate the trope name with the Star Trek: The Original Series episode of the same name than either of these historical usages, but that episode is actually about a Literal Split Personality and so not an example either.)
Especially Zoidberg: A character makes a general statement about all members of a category that includes some person or thing X, another character asks "Even X?", and the first character responds "Especially X!" The Trope Namer is the Futurama episode "Bender Gets Made", where Hermes says "We don't have that kind of money! Especially not Zoidberg!", but there's no other character who asks "Even Zoidberg?" in between. (The trope was used in several other Futurama episodes, but never involving Zoidberg.)
Everybody Must Get Stoned: Almost all the characters are taking mind-altering substances. The Trope Namer is a lyric from Bob Dylan's song "Rainy Day Woman #12 and #35", which is not actually about mind-altering substances (despite a huge Misaimed Fandom thinking so).
Everything but the Girl: A character motivated by love manages to acquire great rewards, but still fails to win the love that they were seeking. The Trope Namer is the former slogan for Turner's Furniture, where it was used to mean that the store sold a wide variety of household items and had no relation to the trope. (There's also a band Everything but the Girl, but they're not an example of the trope either.)
Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: All the villains get along with each other. The Trope Namer is The Order of the Stick, where it's spoken sarcastically by a villain who's annoyed at an underling thinking it's true.
Excellent Judge of Character: The trope is a character who knows who to trust. The Trope Namer is Aladdin, where the Sultan uses the phrase to describe himself—except his trust in Jafar makes him seem to be the exact opposite (granted, it's implied that Jafar was using magic to manipulate him).
Excessive Evil Eyeshadow: Villains tend to wear obscene amounts of eyeshadow. The Trope Namer is the Discworld book Wyrd Sisters, where the eyeshadow is not worn by a villain but rather by a kind-hearted witch who only wears it when she wants to look scary like a typical witch.
Fantastic Foxes: Foxes from mythology. The Trope Namer is Fantastic Mr. Fox, who isn't a mythological fox; just an ordinary Funny Animal.
Father Neptune: A sailor who's faced every peril the ocean has and survived. Named after Poseidon in Classical Mythology, known to the Romans as Neptune. Poseidon wasn't a sailor at all, but rather a god who held dominion over the seas, which falls under the separate trope Lord of the Ocean.
Faustian Rebellion: A character gains power through a Deal with the Devil and then uses that power to fight back against whatever evil entity they made a deal with. Named after Faust, who did sell his soul to a demon for power, but never revolted against the demon.
Fearful Symmetry: A battle whose participants are doing the same thing, so it looks like a mirror image. The Trope Namer is a line from William Blake's poem "The Tyger", which is about admiring the symmetry of a tiger's body and has nothing to do with the trope.
Feet of Clay: A character with a reputation for being formidable turns out to be completely incompetent. The Trope Namer is the Book of Daniel, where Daniel has an allegorical vision of a metal statue with feet partly made of clay. But the clay in Daniel's vision was actually representing a fault in a kingdom, rather than just one person. And the point wasn't that the kingdom wasn't actually powerful, only that its power was more unstable than it at first seemed.
Finger Poke of Doom: A move that requires little to no effort on the part of its user is portrayed as devastating in order to emphasize how powerful that character is. The Trope Namer is a wrestling match in which Hulk Hogan defeated Kevin Nash for the WCW World Championship by lightly poking Nash in the chest, at which point Nash theatrically threw himself to the floor and allowed Hogan to pin him. Even in Kayfabe, the move was never meant to be seen as genuinely dangerous; Nash was simply taking a dive to reunite the New World Order under Hogan's leadership.
Flash Sideways: A character has a vision not of the past or the future, but the present in an Alternate Universe. The Trope Namer is a common nickname given to a series of sequences in the final season of Lost that seemingly depict the characters' lives in an alternate timeline—after the first three seasons had previously featured "flashbacks" depicting the characters' backstories, and the fourth and fifth seasons featured "flash-forwards" depicting their lives after escaping the Island. This was ultimately subverted, however, as the series finale revealed that the "alternate timeline" was actually the afterlife all along.
Florence Nightingale Effect: A nurse falls in love with their patient. The Trope Namer is the famous nurse Florence Nightingale, who never did this to anyone; she was just a byword for a nurse. It's not our fault; the psychologists who named the phenomenon had really Small Reference Pools.
Foregone Conclusion: The audience knows from the beginning how a story will end. The Trope Namer is Othello, in which Iago uses the term to say You Are Too Late because something has already happened.
Franken-X: An artificially-created creature has a name or nickname similar to "Frankenstein". The Trope Namer is Frankenstein, where "Frankenstein" is the name of the scientist who created the monster, not the monster itself.
Free-Range Children: Kids can wander around anywhere with little to no adult supervision. The Trope Namer is The Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror V" segment "Nightmare Cafeteria", in which "free-range" is used in its meat-eating context; the kids were for eating later.
Freudian Excuse: A villain blames their villainy on childhood tragedy. The name comes from psychologist Sigmund Freud, who made a name for himself on analyzing childhood and its effect on adulthood. But he never went so far as to suggest that an unhappy or abusive childhood would turn someone evil, or that anyone would or should use it as an excuse for their actions.
Future Imperfect: People from the future have incorrect ideas about the past. The Trope Name comes from the future imperfect, a grammatical term for a verb form indicating an action expected to take place in the future. ("Future Imperfect" is also the name of a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode and a The Incredible Hulk comic, but they are not examples either; the former is actually an example of Faked Rip Van Winkle while the latter is an example of Bad Future.)
Game-Over Man: A Video Game Trope in which character acknowledges your death on the Game Over screen. The Trope Namer is Aliens, which uses the line for a character panicking in fear and has nothing to do with video games.
Go Among Mad People: A sane character is trapped in a facility intended for the insane. The Trope Namer is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which is not an example because the "mad people" Alice was referring to weren't being kept in any kind of facility; she was just talking about visiting their houses.
Goddamned Bats: Weak but annoying video game enemies. The Trope Namer is Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which discusses Gonzo being attacked by imaginary bats as part of a drug-induced haze and has nothing to do with video games.
God Was My Co-Pilot: A seemingly-human character who was accompanying the protagonist throughout the story turns out to have been a deity in disguise. The Trope Namer was World War II flying ace Robert Lee Scott Jr., who used the phrase as a metaphor for his belief that God had been subtly guiding him in providential ways throughout his military career, not as a claim that some other pilot was literally God in a human disguise.
Goggles Do Nothing: Goggles used only as an accessory, not for protecting the eyes. The Trope Namer is Rainier Wolfcastle in The Simpsons, who did try to use the goggles for eye protection only to find that they were functionally useless.
Good Is Dumb: An index for tropes about good characters being more likely to do dumb things. The trope-naming scene in Spaceballs has nothing to do with that, Dark Helmet was just making a childish insult while doing Evil Gloating.
Got the Whole World in My Hand: A villain is depicted holding the world, whether literally or metaphorically. The Trope Namer is the spiritual children's song "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands", referring to God and how he keeps the world under control.
Gravity Is a Harsh Mistress: Gravity isn't working the way it's supposed to. The Trope Namer is The Tick, in which the title character is complaining about gravity working exactly as it's supposed to—just not to his advantage. (Good thing he's Nigh-Invulnerable.)
Great Balls of Fire!: Hard rock musicians relying heavily on Impressive Pyrotechnics and other theatrics. The Trope Namer is the Jerry Lee Lewis song of the same name, which is in an entirely different genre. Interestingly, the song also lends its name to a biopic about Lewis which depicts him kind of partaking in the trope by setting his piano on fire, but in real life Lewis claimed he never did that.
Gretzky Has the Ball: A character who's ignorant about sports jumbles terms from different games together. Named for Wayne Gretzky, but not because he ever did it himself; the trope just uses his name as a famous player of a sport that doesn't involve a ball.
Grimmification: Taking a Bowdlerised story and going way in the other direction to make it Darker and Edgier or, as one might say, grimmer. The Trope Namer is The Brothers Grimm, who picked up a reputation over the years for grimdark Fairy Tales—except they actually Bowdlerised their stories themselves, and the originals were even darker (and sexier and more violent).
Hair-Raising Hare: Rabbits are portrayed as terrifying creatures. Named for the Bugs Bunny cartoon Hair-Raising Hare (1946), in which "hair-raising" is meant to refer to the monsters Bugs encounters, not to Bugs himself being scary.
Half the Man He Used to Be: The Trope Namer is a lyric from The Beatles song "Yesterday", which uses the term metaphorically. The trope uses the term literally to refer to people being cut in half.
Having a Blast: Explosion-based elemental powers. The name is a common idiom that just refers to having a great time.
Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: The Trope Namer is item 35 on The Grand List of Console Role Playing Game Clichés, referring to a boss who doesn't die even though you beat it. The trope itself goes even further; the boss not only doesn't die, but it turns around and defeats the player. Both of these contrast with Hopeless Boss Fight, as losing to the boss in the battle itself still means Game Over.
Heal Thyself: Using a Healing Factor on oneself. The name comes from a Biblical quote about how doctors can't heal themselves.
He-Man Woman Hater: Grown men who dislike women. The Trope Namer is The Little Rascals, whose protagonists are little kids; while some of them do hold such opinions, that falls instead under Girls Have Cooties. It also has no relation with Masters of the Universe, as no depiction of He-Man fits the trope.
Holding Out for a Hero: The trope is about society becoming unwilling to solve its issues due to expecting superheroes and other heroic figures to do so. The song by Bonnie Tyler implies the singer desires a heroic figure for a lover, while the music video portrays her character attacked by a group of demonic cowboys and rescued by a heroic cowboy. Neither of them implies that society as a whole relies too heavily on heroic figures.
Horse of a Different Color: Non-horse animals used as horses. The name comes from an idiom meaning "another matter entirely", and from The Wizard of Oz, in which the "Horse of a Different Color" was an actual horse who was continually changing colors.
Humanity Is Superior: Humanity's Hat is being the best. The Trope Namer is a line from Farscape, spoken by a character who doesn't really believe it (and has no reason to in the setting); he's just taunting someone from another species. (And he was crazy at the time.)
Human Resources: Resources produced by extracting things from human bodies. Named after a term in economics which refers to humans being viewed as a type of economic resource, and has nothing to do with any other resources being extracted from humans.
The Hyena: The trope is not about literal hyenas, but rather a character who laughs at everything. The name comes from a popular conception of a hyena's barking as sounding like laughter, but it's not actually laughter.
I Am What I Am: A character learns to accept who they are. The Trope Namer is The Bible, in which God utters these words in the context of giving His name (or something like it). You could also consider the Trope Namer to be Popeye, who has this trope as a catchphrase, but he's also not an example as he never failed to accept himself in the first place.
I Believe I Can Fly: The Trope Namer is a song by R. Kelly of the same name which uses it as a metaphor for how it feels to fall in love. The trope itself uses the term literally to describe settings where every superhero seems to know how to fly.
I Fought the Law and the Law Won: A police force so tough that no criminal can hope to win a fight against them. The Trope Namer is "I Fought the Law" by Sonny Curtis and the Crickets, in which it's only said that the narrator failed to evade the police; the song doesn't elaborate at all on how or why the narrator got caught, so there's nothing to indicate that the cops who caught him would be especially difficult to fight for criminals in general.
Insane Troll Logic: An argument uses bizarre and nonsensical reasoning, often done deliberately by a Troll. The Trope Namer is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where Xander used the term to refer to a Sadistic Choice forced upon him by a literal troll in a bizarre attempt to show respect for him as a Worthy Opponent; it wasn't that the troll's reasoning was nonsensical, but rather that it only made sense within the context of troll culture and seemed insane to humans.
Intellectual Animal: A non-human animal with human-level intelligence. The name is a non-standard translation of a Greek phrase first coined by Aristotle, which originally referred to humans themselves—and the whole point was to illustrate that other animals aren't as intelligent as humans are.
In the Hood: Wearing a hood to conceal one's identity. The name comes from a phrase used to describe being in "the 'hood"—"'hood" being short for "neighborhood" and shorthand for the urban ghettoes that lend the name to the Hood Film genre. (Although it might be an example if a gangster is using a hoodie like this.)
In Their Own Image: A villain attempts to destroy the world and build a new one more in line with their desires. The Trope Namer is The Bible, where the phrase is used to describe how God created humanity; in that case, it wasn't about a villain replacing an existing world with a new one, but rather a benevolent deity creating a part of the world for the first time.
I Reject Your Reality: A character dismisses facts they don't agree with. The Trope Namer, shortened from the line "I reject your reality and substitute my own!", is The Dungeonmaster, but in that case it was used legitimately, in response to the villain threatening to destroy the protagonist "in a future reality". However, when Adam Savage of MythBusters fame popularized the phrase, he was definitely using it in the sense of the trope.
Isn't It Ironic?: A work uses a song without realizing the implications of it, often because they weren't paying attention to the lyrics (and missed an Irony therein). The Trope Namer is a song by Alanis Morissette of the same name which is famous for not having any examples of irony in it. Since the trope used the name of a song without any consideration to its lyrics, the trope could also be said to be an example of itself.
Istanbul (Not Constantinople): An Alternate History work renames Real Life places to reflect changes in the timeline. The Trope Namer is a song by the Four Lads of that name (made famous by They Might Be Giants) which isn't about Alternate History at all; in our own timeline, the city of Constantinople was renamed İstanbul in 1930.
It's a Small World, After All: Science-fiction stories portray all things on the same planet as though they're close together, regardless of the size of the planet. The name comes from the song "It's a Small World", in which the "world" is Earth, not a fictional planet created for the story, and the title line is used metaphorically to describe how many experiences people from different parts of the world all have in common, rather than claiming that all things on Earth are literally, physically nearby to one another.
It's Raining Men: A large number of people fall from the sky at once, usually paratroopers. The Trope Namer is a song of that name by the Weather Girls, which has a lot more to do with the sudden appearance of a lot of hunky men than the fact that they're coming out of the sky. (The music video has exactly two men actually floating down from the sky—on umbrellas.)
Jerkass: A character so unpleasant that it's unrealistic for anyone to want to interact with them. The Trope Namer is The Simpsons episode "The Joy of Sect", where Homer coins the word to shout at some people in his car's path and later two people standing in front of him. Fans would later use the word to describe Homer himself, coining the term "Jerkass Homer" to refer specifically to his increasingly selfish characterization (which, coincidentally enough, started around the same time as that episode).
Join or Die: A villainous organizations kills anyone who doesn't join them. The Trope Namer is Benjamin Franklin's political cartoon depicting the individual fledgling United States; in that context, it wasn't that the States would kill those who didn't join, but rather that they would die on their own without joining.
Karma Houdini: A character who avoids being punished for their crimes. Harry Houdini did not commit any crimes that he would deserve karma for.
Kill It with Fire: The trope is a character having a vulnerability to fire. The name comes from an Internet meme which wasn't about literal fire; it referred to deleting computer files, images, or articles.
Knight Templar: A villain who thinks they're a hero. The Trope Namer is The Knights Templar, who were never strictly villains; they just got that reputation thanks to propaganda of the time. Their portrayal in Assassin's Creed, which does fit the trope, has also played a part in shaping their popular perception.
Know-Nothing Know-It-All: An idiot who thinks they're smart. The Trope Namer is The Simpsons episode "Lisa the Vegetarian", where Homer throws the phrase at Lisa as an insult; she's not an example because while she is pretty full of herself, she's genuinely smart, meaning she's an authentic Insufferable Genius.
Launcher of a Thousand Ships: A character whom the fandom ships with nearly every other character in the work. Named for an epithet given to Helen of Troy in Classical Mythology, which referred to the literal warships on which the Greeks sailed to defend her honour against the Trojans, not to readers out-of-universe shipping her with other characters.
Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: Combatants lay down ground rules before fighting. The Trope Namer is Street Fighter III character Dudley, who offers this line but no actual ground rules, and very much does not fight like a gentleman.
Like a Surgeon: Non-surgery situations treated like surgery for comedic effect. The Trope Namer is "Weird Al" Yankovic's song of the same name, itself a parody of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" and about a real surgeon (but one who probably shouldn't have a medical license).
The Living Dead: A Special Effect Failure reveals that a corpse is being played by a live person. The Trope Namer is the Living Dead Series, which uses the term to refer to zombies in general.
Lolicon and Shotacon: The trope is about paedophilia in fiction, particularly in Japanese works that themselves seek to sexualise minors. There are two Trope Namers: the title character of Lolita for girls, and Shotaro Kaneda from Gigantor for boys. Neither are strictly speaking examples; Shotaro isn't sexualised at all, while Lolita shouldn't be sexualised because the book is about the Unreliable Narrator-slash-Villain Protagonist's attraction to her. The fact that enough people thought otherwise to use those characters for their Fan Speak terms shows why the trope is so controversial. (If you're wondering, the "con" bit is a Japanese slang term for "complex".)
Love Is in the Air: A far-reaching Love Potion or spell. It's named after John Paul Young's song which is simply a Silly Love Songs.
Lucky Charms Title: A work's title uses non-alphanumeric symbols. The Trope Namer is the Lucky Charms cereal brand, whose own name is spelled entirely with letters; it's the cereal's marshmallow shapes that resemble the kind of symbols the trope is about.
Ludicrous Speed: Speed so fast, it drives you ludicrous. The Trope Namer is Spaceballs, which heavily implies that you'd already have to be ludicrous to want to go that fast, and in which the characters suffer no lasting side effects (aside from some Amusing Injuries).
Machine Empathy: Someone with enough technical knowledge to know a machine's problems by feel. The Trope Namer is Paranoia, which uses the term to refer to supernatural control of machines—something we call Technopathy.
The Mad Hatter: A madman who acknowledges, accepts, and embraces his madness. The Trope Namer is the character of that name from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, who isn't really an example because while he's plenty mad, he doesn't show any particular self-awareness about it. (However, the Cheshire Cat from the same book is an example.)
Magic Bus: A vehicle (often, but not necessarily, a bus) that can do amazing things for no adequately explained reason. The Trope Namer is a song by that name by The Who, which is about an ordinary bus that's metaphorically magical.
Magnificent Bastard: A particularly cunning, dedicated, and charming villain. The Trope Namer is Patton, in which U.S. Army General George S. Patton uses the term to refer to his German counterpart Erwin Rommel. It's not an example because while Patton does consider Rommel a Worthy Opponent, Rommel has so little of a role in the movie that there's no indication that he fits the full character archetype.
Man, I Feel Like a Woman: The trope is named after a song by Shania Twain, which is about female independence. The trope itself uses the phrase literally to refer to a male character becoming a woman and reacting by feeling up their new body.
Man on Fire: A character walking or running around while on fire. Named after the book Man on Fire (as well as the 1987 and 2004 movies based on it), where the protagonist isn't actually on fire; the title is just a metaphor for how determined he is to fulfill his mission.
Mary Sue: The trope has a fiendishly complex definition (the page lists 14 subtropes and just as many alternative definitions), but at its most basic it's a poorly written Fan Fic character, often a self insert, who is the center of the story's universe and makes the story much worse for it. The Trope Namer is the protagonist of the Star Trek fanfic A Trekkie's Tale, which was a parody written at a time when fans were long familiar with the phenomenon (particularly the variety we call a Mary Sue Classic). Mary Sue herself would thus be an example of a Parody Sue and not strictly a "Mary Sue".
The Masochism Tango: Emotional abuse and dysfunction in an unhappy relationship between people ill-suited to each other. The Trope Namer is a song by Tom Lehrer which is about a man being physically tortured by his lover—except they really do love each other and are doing it consensually, they're just into a particularly violent brand of BDSM.
Master of Your Domain: A character can manipulate their body to a supernatural degree. Named for Seinfeld, where the phrase was a euphemism for abstaining from masturbation.
Mexican Standoff: Two or more people are pointing weapons at each other such that if one fires, they all die. The name comes from a term coined by a 19th-century newspaper as a metaphor to describe a political struggle for power in Mexico; it originally said nothing about weapons.
Mister Big: A villain who's short but nonetheless in charge. The Trope Namer is the villain of that name from the James Bond film Live and Let Die, who was never a particularly small man (and his original novel incarnation was straight-up Large and in Charge).
Modern Major General: Someone who, despite their incompetence at their job, has numerous non-job-related skills. The Major General Song from The Pirates of Penzance sounds impressive to the uninitiated, but most of the things that the Major General brags about doing are either flat-out impossible or trivially easy. To "know the Kings of England" involves his period's equivalent of a middle school education, and one cannot know "every detail of Caractacus’s uniform" due to him only ever being drawn while nude or in a loincloth.
Money for Nothing: Getting money but having nothing to spend it on. The Trope Namer is a song by Dire Straits, which is about a working-class man opining on how rock stars earn their income—not "nothing to spend it on", but "did nothing to earn it".
Most Annoying Sound: A Darth Wiki trope about particularly grating Video Game sounds. The Trope Namer is the film Dumb and Dumber, which indeed uses the term to refer to a particularly grating sound—but since it's Darth Wiki, the trope has a strict definition, and examples can only come from video games or toys.
Morphic Resonance: The trope referse to a person being transformed into another species or object and still resembling an original form. The Trope Namer is a controversial hypothesis that argues for the existence of a "Morphic Field" that informs the capabilities and specifications of a species, and is imprinted upon by members of the species gaining a new skill or useful mutation, and is thus more an example of Lamarck Was Right.
Münchausen Syndrome: Someone pretends to be ill, or pretends that someone close to them is ill, to get attention. Named after The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, where Baron Munchausen is known for telling tall tales, but none of his lies involved anyone being sick.
murder.com: The actual site is just a directory for murder mystery fans, not a live execution feed of any sort.
My Death Is Just the Beginning: A character, usually a villain, sacrifices themselves to initiate a plan. The Trope Namer is Pious Augustus from Eternal Darkness, who's not an example because there's no plan to be had.
My Horse Is a Motorbike: A modern-day motorcycle is used as a Cool Horse. The Trope Namer is a meme from Sengoku Basara, which actually refers to the opposite phenomenon—Date Masamune has a horse that he outfitted with handlebars and tailpipes to give himself a Badass Biker aesthetic.
My Own Grampa: The trope is named for a 1947 song by Lonzo and Oscar, which is about complicated matrimonial relations leading to a guy becoming his own step-grandfather. The trope is more literal—it's about becoming one's own biological ancestor, usually through Time Travel.
The Napoleon: A short person with an equally short temper. The name comes from the psychological term "Napoleon complex", which refers to aggressiveness derived from insecurity about one's height. The term in turn comes from Napoléon Bonaparte, but he's not an example because he wasn't that short; he was actually slightly above-average by 18th century standards.^note Perception of him being short comes from Unit Confusion between France and England and his tendency to surround himself with particularly tall Imperial Guardsmen.
Nerf: Something in a game that was previously considered too powerful gets updated to make it weaker. Named after the toy brand Nerf, whose toys were never powerful to begin with.
Never Say "Die": A work avoids using words such as "die" or "kill" for a character who died. The name comes from a common idiom which is about persisting through adversity, rather than avoiding the literal word "die".
Next Sunday A.D.: A story takes place in the future, but so soon that it's practically indistinguishable from the present. The name comes from the Theme Tune of Mystery Science Theater 3000, which was set in a future distant enough to find space travel and sentient robots—it was just a silly way to describe the show's date vaguely.
Nice Job Breaking It, Herod: A villain fails to kill a child who's destined to defeat him. The name is a snowclone of Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! with a pun on the Biblical character King Herod, who did see Jesus as a threat to his power and try to kill him as an infant (at least in some accounts), but was not himself defeated by Jesus, dying long before Jesus began his ministry. (Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! is itself named for Portal, but that game doesn't have an example of Nice Job Breaking It, Herod either.)
No Celebrities Were Harmed: An Expy or Captain Ersatz of a Real Life celebrity, as a sort of Plausible Deniability in case the celebrity complains about their portrayal. The Trope Namer is The Critic, which used the phrase in the end credits as a pun on the No Animals Were Harmed disclaimer—except the show did happily use celebrities' real names, so it was just a funny way of saying that they were being impersonated.
No-Respect Guy: The Only Sane Man who doesn't get a break or their peers' respect. The Trope Namer is the catchphrase of Rodney Dangerfield, but most of the characters he played are not the Only Sane Man but are bumbling, abrasive, and generally don't deserve much respect.
A Nuclear Error: The name comes from The Clash's "London Calling", which uses the phrase as a reference to the partial nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island. Our use of the name is for inaccurate depiction of nuclear weapons—consider it a punnier way of saying "Artistic License—Nuclear Weapons Policy".
Olympus Mons: Beings who have godlike powers, but can be brought under the control of human masters. The name comes from the Latin name for Mount Olympus; while Olympus was considered the home of the gods in Classical Mythology, said gods were never under the control of any human. There's also a volcano on Mars called "Olympus Mons", but it has nothing to do with the trope.
Only a Flesh Wound: A character getting shot in the shoulder or leg is treated as a minor injury. The Trope Namer is The Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, who isn't an example for two reasons. Firstly, his arms and legs were cut off with a sword, not shot. Secondly, the movie doesn't actually portray his injuries as minor—the Knight just pretended they were because he didn't want to admit Arthur had beaten him.
Only a Model: A miniature model of a structure that exists (or will exist) elsewhere. The Trope Namer is Monty Python and the Holy Grail, in which Patsy claims the full-sized Camelot Castle is "only a model"—but he's just Breaking the Fourth Wall. (For added irony, the "model" he's referring to is a real castle; the production couldn't afford to build an actual model.)
Open the Iris: Aggressively dilated irises to convey a character's emotional state, usually seen in animation. The Trope Namer is Stargate, which was not animated and used the term to refer to a Dilating Door.
Orcus on His Throne: A villain doesn't do anything himself to stop the heroes. The Trope Namer is Orcus, lord of the undead from Dungeons & Dragons, who is described as such in the Third Edition "Manual of the Planes". Except in-story, he's usually a very proactive villain; the manual described him this way as a way of allowing the Game Master to use the character to set up the story without him having to interact with the Player Characters.
Original Position Fallacy: A character promotes actions or systems that harm others, not foreseeing that the same actions or systems will inevitably be used against those who originally promoted them. Named for John Rawls' "original position" thought experiment, the entire point of which is to defy this trope—the premise of the experiment is that the souls don't know how they're going to be born, so they ought to treat any harm that their proposed rules might cause to anyone as if it might happen to them personally.
Orwellian Retcon: Old copies of a work are edited to make them consistent with later Retcons. Named for George Orwell, who never did this with any of his works. The name is a reference to Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, where Winston has a job editing old news articles to keep them up-to-date with the Party's current ideology; the trope for that is Internal Retcon.
Pac-Man Fever: A non-video game depicts video games so shallowly, it's as if they've never advanced since Pac Man. The Trope Namer is the 1982 music album by Buckner & Garcia, which was contemporary to the original Pac-Man and thus depicted video games as they really were at the time.
Paint It Black: The name comes from a song by The Rolling Stones about a man overcome with grief at his lover's death who wants to paint everything black. The trope itself is about a character changing to a black costume when they turn evil, not out of grief.
The Pen Is Mightier: A pen is used as an Improvised Weapon. The name comes from the idiom "the pen is mightier than the sword", which is actually about The Power of Language: words can be more powerful than weapons.
A Pirate 400 Years Too Late: Swashbuckling pirates operating in modern times. The Trope Namer is the Jimmy Buffett song "A Pirate Looks at 40", which is not about a swashbuckling pirate but a drug dealer who laments that he couldn't be a swashbuckling pirate because he's "200 years too late" (and now he's forty years old and wasted his life).
Playing with Fire: The name is an idiom for doing something risky. The trope itself uses the term literally to refer to pyrokinesis.
Pretend We're Dead: Named for the song by L7, the message of which is that ordinary people need to stand up to Moral Guardians and the phrase refers to people not saying anything when censorship happens. The trope is instead about living people blending in with zombies.
Pronoun Trouble: A work wants to disguise a character's gender, or to portray a character as genderless, but runs into problems when using personal pronouns. The Trope Namer is the Looney Tunes short "Rabbit Seasoning", in which Daffy Duck's trouble was with person, not gender, and it wasn't because the short was trying to disguise something about the person referred to, but rather because Bugs Bunny was trying to confuse him and Elmer Fudd by deliberately choosing pronouns that didn't make sense in context.
Rage Helm: A face-concealing style of helmet sculpted to look like an angry face. The Rage Helm in Vindictus is so named for actually making the wearer angrier, but it doesn't cover the real face at all.
Rasputinian Death: A character is killed only after several events which should each individually be fatal. The name comes from Grigori Rasputin, who was reputed to have died like this, but was actually killed with just three gunshots, the third instantly fatal. His killers gave him this reputation in part out of a desire to paint him as demonic.
Rated M for Manly: A work advertises itself by emphasizing its masculinity. The Trope Namer is Counter-Strike, and specifically the Parody Commercial for Counter-Strike: Extreme Gore Edition, which is a parody of the trope—which falls under the different trope Testosterone Poisoning.
Real Fake Door: A functionally useless door that can be opened, but leads nowhere. The Trope Namer comes from an advertisement for "Real Fake Doors" from the Rick and Morty episode "Rixty Minutes'', but the doors advertised do not actually open.
The Real Remington Steele: A mysterious character's identity is revealed to be a disguise, leading the audience to think there is no such person with that identity—except the work then reveals that there is. The Trope Namer is Remington Steele, in which the protagonist, a woman in charge of a detective agency, creates a fictitious male character to be the boss (to manage her customers' chauvanistic expectations), only for a Con Man to install himself as the boss. Except it's not an example because the "boss" was never a real person; there were just two competing impostors.
Red Right Hand: An odd physical trait indicates that a character is evil. The Trope Namer is Paradise Lost, which used the phrase metaphorically for God and His divine punishments (which aren't actually evil).
Ride the Lightning: The name comes from the Metallica album of the same name, which is about execution by electrocution. The trope itself takes the name more literally and is about moving with or as electricity.
Right Hand Versus Left Hand: Two or more groups within a large organization end up working at cross-purposes to each other due to a lack of proper communication. The Trope Namer is Jesus in The Bible, who used the metaphor to describe someone who helps others without drawing attention to himself.
Ring of Fire: The name comes from a song by Johnny Cash, which uses the phrase as a metaphor (in this case the danger of having an affair). The trope itself uses the term for literal rings of fire.
Road Runner PC: Video games where the player characters are far faster than any of the NPCs. Named for the Road Runner in Looney Tunes, who is a cartoon character, not a video game PC.
Rock Me, Amadeus!: Using a Standard Snippet of classical music, usually in something not very "classical". The Trope Namer is a song by Falco which is about classical composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart but doesn't actually sample his work.
Sadly Mythtaken: An inaccurate portrayal of mythology. The Trope Namer is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in which Buffy makes the "mythtaken" pun in response to Maggie Walsh believing that the Slayer was a myth despite Walsh herself being involved in the supernatural world.
Scandalgate: Scandals are referred to with the suffix "-gate". The name comes from the Watergate scandal that led to the resignation of Richard Nixon, in turn named after the Watergate Hotel where the minor crime took place that led to the proverbial major plot. While all examples of the trope are judged in comparison to Watergate, the Watergate scandal in itself is not an example because if it were—as That Mitchell and Webb Look would tell you—it would be called "Watergategate".
Scissors Cuts Rock: A character in a game manages to win against someone whose type normally has the advantage over theirs. Named for Rock–Paper–Scissors, where doing this is impossible.
The Scourge of God: A serial killer starts with the guiltiest victims first. The name comes from a nickname variously attributed to either Attila the Hun or Genghis Khan, neither of whom was an example because they weren't serial killers, but rather invaders who killed pretty much indiscriminately. Indeed, the contemporary term the polytheistic Romans used for the former was "the Scourge of All Lands".
The Scream: A character responds loudly to a situation. The Trope Namer is Edvard Munch's famous painting of the same name, but the figure it depicts isn't screaming (despite its gaping mouth), but rather reacting to someone else screaming (note how it covers its ears). And indeed, that "scream" could well be metaphorical; Munch was inspired by a personal experience of hearing an "infinite scream through nature" while walking through Oslo which gave him a strong feeling of anxiety and despair, and the work's title in German is The Scream of Nature.
Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: A character with morals so strong, they can't be bribed. The Trope Namer is Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, spoken by Seto Kaiba, who also named the opposite trope Screw the Rules, I Have Money!; the latter is his Catchphrase, he very much fits the latter trope rather than the former, and he only said the former phrase by screwing up the order.
See No Evil, Hear No Evil: Things the audience hasn't seen yet won't make any audible sound, even if they logically should. The name comes from an unrelated Buddhist proverb about the importance of avoiding impure thoughts. (The trope also shares its name with a movie, but the movie title doesn't have anything to do with the trope either, instead being a pun on the fact that the two main characters are a blind man and a deaf man.)
The Shadow Knows: A disguised person's shadow reveals their true self. The Trope Namer is The Shadow, where "The Shadow knows!" is the title character's Catchphrase, but which otherwise has nothing to do with the trope.
Sheep in Sheep's Clothing: A character who is initially set up to look like A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing, only for it to turn out that their kindness was genuine all along. The name comes from a phrase that Winston Churchill allegedly used to describe Clement Attlee, which was meant to imply that Attlee was weak and cowardly.
Shock and Awe: The name comes from a common idiom for destroying an enemy's will to fight with massive, overwhelming force. The trope itself uses the term literally to refer to electrical Elemental Powers.
Single Serving Friend: A character who we're told is a close friend with another character despite only seeing them in one scene. The Trope Namer is Fight Club, which the narrator uses as a term for people he meets and talks to on airplane trips that he's only 'friends with' on that flight. They are not close friends, in fact they have literally never met the narrator and never will again. The only single serving friend with any longterm significane to the narrator is Tyler Durden, who has much more than one scene of screentime.
So Happy Together: A last happy moment between a couple before a relationship's tragic end. The name comes from the song "Happy Together" by The Turtles, which has nothing to do with a relationship ending badly; indeed, while you might hear a snippet of it when the trope is being used, it's probably being done ironically.
So Long, and Thanks for All the Gear: A video game character leaves the party and takes with them all the gear you equipped them with. The name is a pun on the book So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, which has nothing to do with video games; the phrase itself is the dolphins' last message to humanity before leaving Earth.
Some Call Me "Tim": A character has an overly long or unpronounceable name but goes by a short and common nickname. The Trope Namer is Tim the Enchanter from Monty Python and the Holy Grail, who is never indicated to have any name other than "Tim"; as such, he's actually an example of Special Person, Normal Name. (The rumor that the joke was an ad-lib upon John Cleese forgetting Tim's full name is unsupported.)
Staying Alive: A character is shown suffering injuries that should be fatal, but is still alive later with no explanation. The Trope Namer is "Staying Alive" by The Bee Gees, where the phrase is used to describe coping with intense stress, rather than surviving actual physical injuries.
The Stoic: A character who rarely, if ever, shows emotion. The name comes the philosophy of stoicism from Ancient Greece, which wasn't about not showing emotions at all but just having control over them. The trope closest to the philosophy is The Spock (the Trope Namer of which is an example).
"Stop Having Fun" Guys: Competitive video game players who insult other players who don't play competitively. The Trope Namer is an xkcd strip where the phrase is directed against a group playing Rock Band, except there the criticism wasn't that they weren't playing competitively, but rather that they weren't playing real instruments.
Strong Flesh, Weak Steel: A gaming trope in which squishy organic beings are somehow harder to kill than armored equipment, usually because said squishy organic is a boss of some kind. The Trope Namer is Conan the Barbarian, where the phrase had nothing to do with video games; it was a metaphor the villain used for his subjects' devotion.
Suffer the Slings: The name comes from the famous "to be or not to be" soliloquy from Hamlet; it's about the metaphorical "slings and arrows of outrageous fortune". The trope itself refers to literal slings.
Sympathy for the Devil: A hero has sympathy for a villain. The Trope Namer is the song of that name by The Rolling Stones, in which the phrase is used ironically; Satan in the song is a total Hate Sink who sings sarcastically about how evil he is.
A Tale Told by an Idiot: A stupid character attempts to explain something that's happened, but the person they're speaking to can't figure out what they're talking about. The Trope Namer is Macbeth, in which the phrase is used as a metaphor for viewing human existence as meaningless.
Teenage Wasteland: A setting ruled by children and teenagers, where adults either hold no power or are absent entirely. The Trope Namer is "Baba O'Riley" by The Who, where the phrase refers to the teenagers' potential being wasted, rather than to the wasteland being created or ruled by the teenagers themselves.
Thanatos Gambit: A character makes a plan based on manipulating the circumstances of their own death. Named for the deity Thanatos in Classical Mythology, who never did this; he was just chosen because of his association with death and to make a pun on Xanatos Gambit.
Thinking Up Portals: A character can make usable portals spontaneously appear. The name comes from Portal and its memetic tagline "Thinking with Portals", but the game itself is not an example because portal creation is not an innate ability; it requires technological assistance.
This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman!: Contrived set pieces allow a character with an overspecialized powerset to remain useful in team settings. The trope namer is Aquaman, a character who doesn't have hyperspecific powers at all (the ability to live underwater and talk to sea creatures is well fit for the oceans which cover three quarters of Earth, and his own comics often take place entirely underwater), and even before acquiring the Combo Platter Powers he's known for today, he could get by with his greater-than-average strength and guile in land-based team-ups with other DC Comics heroes. His situation actually fits the related trope Useless Superpowers — he was often unable to use his powers at all due to Superhero Speciation and land-based Creator Provincialism, and his Superfriends version was forbidden from being shown punching villains due to the censorship of the time.
Throw the Book at Them: The name comes from an idiom from legal proceedings, referring to prosecuting someone to the fullest possible extent. The trope itself uses the phrase literally to refer to attacking someone with a book.
Tom Swifty: Tagging dialogue with an adverb that's a pun on what was said. The Trope Namer is the Tom Swift series of books, which rarely did this and was more famous for regular Said Bookism—the phrase was inspired by parodies that took the Said Bookism to a more bizarre extent.
Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth: A monster either can't or won't kill a particular character because of some off-putting trait the character has. Named for Yog-Sothoth in the Cthulhu Mythos, but neither Yog-Sothoth nor any of the other monsters in the original mythos ever did this; the trope just uses his name as a stand-in for any horrifying creature. (However, an example of the trope involving Yog-Sothoth himself did happen in an episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy.)
Trampled Underfoot: A character crushes a much smaller character or object underfoot. The Trope Namer is the song of that name by Led Zeppelin, which is actually a series of automotive metaphors for sex.
Uncle Tomfoolery: A comically portrayed African-American. The Trope Namer is Uncle Tom's Cabin, in which the protagonist is not comically portrayed. The name comes from "Uncle Tom" having entered the American lexicon as a general shorthand for a stereotypically portrayed African-American; the trope is one strain, influenced by minstrel shows of the time that parodied the book and its title character. The idea of the "passive figure who cooperates with the racists" is often associated with the book, but even that is not a match for the novel, in which Tom is a Badass Pacifist who sacrifices himself rather than sell out his escaped friends. They may have been mixed up by people who haven't read the book.
Under the Sea: An underwater Video Game level. The Trope Namer is the song of that name from The Little Mermaid, which has nothing to do with video games^noteKingdom Hearts notwithstanding. (it's really more Cultural Posturing by sea creatures than anything else).
Unto Us a Son and Daughter Are Born: The tendency for twins born in the media to be fraternal and different sexes. The name comes from The Bible talking about Jesus, where the line is "unto us a child is born, to us a son is given", and there are no twins to be found.
Van Helsing Hate Crimes: A subtrope of Fantastic Racism, where a creature who isn't dangerous gets targeted by a monster hunter who believes their species to be inherently evil. Named for Abraham Van Helsing from Dracula, who isn't an example because vampires in his story's universe are inherently evil. (However, he sometimes plays the trope straight in parodies of the story, most famously in the Hotel Transylvania series.)
Voice of the Legion: An evil character with a deep, reverberating voice, as if there were multiple people talking in unison. The name comes from the trope I Am Legion, which in turn comes from The Bible; a man possessed by multiple demons says the phrase to Jesus (before Jesus expels them all). However, there's no indication in the text that the man sounded as if all the demons were talking in unison.
The Walls Are Closing In: The name comes from the lyrics to the Linkin Park song "Crawling", a metaphor for the narrator's nervous breakdown. The trope itself uses the phrase literally for a kind of Death Trap.
Warp Whistle: A Video Game item that can instantly take you to one of several fixed points on the game world. The Trope Codifier is the "magic whistle" from The Legend of Zelda, but the Trope Namer is the "warp whistle" from Super Mario Bros. 3, which was a reference to the Zelda whistle but operated much more like a Warp Zone.
We Hardly Knew Ye: A character is killed off or otherwise removed from the work before the audience can get to know them properly. The Trope Namer is the old Irish folk song "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye", which is about a soldier who returns home alive but so disfigured as to be virtually unrecognisable.
Whale Egg: An animal that does not lay eggs in Real Life does in the work. The Trope Namer is The Simpsons, in which the "whale egg" wasn't an egg at all but was misidentified as such by resident Ditz Ralph Wiggum. (That said, the show did use the trope in another episode, but with a rhino.)
Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: A character has a weird legal name, like "Dude". The Trope Namer is The Big Lebowski, in which the Lemony Narrator does muse about how weird the name is, but also knows it's not the character's legal name, which is the non-weird "Jeffrey Lebowski"; he just prefers to be called "the Dude", meaning he's Only Known by His Nickname.
Who Wants to Live Forever?: When an immortal character doesn't like being immortal. The Trope Namer is Flash Gordon (1980), in which Prince Vultan says the line before going into a suicidal battle, but he's not immortal; he just figures it wouldn't be great.
With This Herring: A hero is expected to succeed at an adventure while badly under-equipped. The Trope Namer is Monty Python and the Holy Grail, in which the Knights Who Say "Ni!" challenge King Arthur to cut down the mightiest tree in the forest with a herring, but there's no expectation he will succeed; that falls under Impossible Task.
The Woobie: A character the audience feels sorry for due to their constant misfortunes. The Trope Namer is Mr. Mom, where a kid calls their Security Blanket a "woobie" since it comforts them and does not refer to a pitiable character.
Xenafication: A female character becomes an Action Girl. The Trope Namer is Xena: Warrior Princess, whose title character isn't an example because she was always an Action Girl; she's just the standard by which the others are judged.
"X" Makes Anything Cool: Using the letter "X" on a name that normally doesn't have it will make that thing cooler. The Trope Namer is Futurama, but it's referring to the "X" making the word "extortion" cool, when that always has an "X" in it. (That exchange is also the Trope Namer for "Blackmail" Is Such an Ugly Word.)
You Bastard!: A character admonishes the audience for enjoying something they shouldn't. The Trope Namer is South Park, where Kyle says it every time Kenny dies; except he's not directing it at the audience, but rather the in-universe character(s) responsible for Kenny's death.
You Can't Go Home Again: The name comes from a proverb about how home can change while you're gone; you can come back, it just doesn't feel like home anymore. The trope itself means the phrase literally to refer to situations where a character can't return home at all for physical, legal, or other reasons.
You Mean "Xmas": A fantasy setting has a holiday tradition which coincidentally resembles that of a real-world holiday. The Trope Namer is Futurama, where "Xmas" is explicitly just an alternative name for Christmas that caught on enough to replace the original name over time, not an unrelated holiday with only coincidental similarities. (However, the show did have a straight example in Freedom Day, a fictional holiday heavily based on the Fourth of July.)
Zettai Ryouiki: An Anime Fanspeak term for a short skirt worn with thigh-high socks, leaving a short patch of visible skin. The Trope Namer is Neon Genesis Evangelion, where the term—which literally translates to "absolute territory"—was used to refer to the AT fields. It was only among otaku culture that the phrase was repurposed to refer to the trope. Evangelion itself doesn't have any examples of the trope (at least, not in the main canon).

Renamed off the list

Tropes that were renamed off this list:

Anger Born of Worry: Originally "Fear Leads to Anger", a character fears so hard for another's safety that they present anger at their return. The former Trope Namer was The Phantom Menace, where the phrase referred to losing control of one's fears and feeling angry at the source of the fear.
Badass Decay: Originally "Spikeification", a character becomes less badass during the show. The former Trope Namer was Spike from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who wasn't an example because he was never really badass, at least on screen—and his badass degradation had an in-story reason thanks to behavior modification treatment.
Belated Injury Realization: Originally "I Ain't Got Time to Bleed", where a character realizes he an injury he previously did not notice. The line from Predator (1987), stated by Blaine, who is too macho to let an injury slow him down.
Big Bad Wannabe: Originally "Evil Frog Who Wants to Be an Ox", this is when a character thinks of themselves as a major villain, but is nowhere near as threatening as they think they are. The former Trope Namer was the Frog from The Frog And The Ox, who was never trying to be dangerous or evil.
Bigger Is Better in Bed: Originally "Biggus Dickus", a character has a large penis and knows how to use it. The former Trope Namer was the character of that name from Monty Python's Life of Brian, who wasn't an example because there's no indication of his anatomy; he just had a Punny Name (and a Real Joke Name as it turned out).
Breakup Breakout: Originally "The Jannetty", an ensemble breaks up and only one (or a few) former members break out. The former Trope Namer was Marty Jannetty, tag team partner to Shawn Michaels, who wasn't an example because he never actually broke out after splitting from Michaels; it was Michaels who broke out. Jannetty was more of a Lesser Star.
Bystander Syndrome: Originally "Someone Else's Problem", people ignore a problem because it doesn't concern them. The Former Trope Namer was Life, the Universe and Everything, where it actually referred to a Cool Ship's Weirdness Censor.
Casanova Wannabe: Originally "The Leisure Suit Larry", after the protagonist of Leisure Suit Larry. The wannabe is someone who attempts to be a womanizer but fails to attract women, while Larry always ends up with several conquests, making him much closer to a Kavorka Man.
Coincidental Dodge: Originally "Gardener Contract", a character dodges a deadly attack they're unaware of by sheer coincidence. The former Trope Namer was Chance the Gardener from Being There, himself the former Trope Namer for Seemingly Profound Fool. He was never subject to an assassination attempt in the film; he was just the type of character to whom this might happen.
Confusion Fu: Originally "Schrödinger Fu", a character has a fighting style based on being as unpredictable as possible. The former Trope Namer was Erwin Schrödinger, who otherwise had nothing to do with the trope.
Creator's Apathy: Originally "They Just Didn't Care", an artist admits they don't care about their work. The former Trope Namer was the Mystery Science Theater 3000 riff of The Eye Creatures where Joel and the bots call out the many poor special effects as well as the "the the" from the title card.
Creator's Culture Carryover: Formerly "We All Live in America", a work portrays a country as a lot more like the author's home than as itself. The former Trope Namer was the Rammstein song "Amerika", which was not an example because Rammstein is a German band, so it would only be an example if a non-German country looked more like Germany than itself, and the song is about how even when a country does look like itself, Eagleland Osmosis means it looks more like America all the time.
Damsel in Distress: Originally "Jones the Cat". The trope is about female characters whose main purpose in the story is to get captured or otherwise endangered so that the hero can rescue them. The former Trope Namer was Jones in the Alien franchise, who's actually a male cat, and so falls under Distressed Dude.
Defecting for Love: Originally "Capulet Counterpart" after the second title character Romeo and Juliet. The trope is about an antagonist who winds up falling for the protagonist and joining their side. Juliet may fall for Romeo, but she does not join the Montague side, rather they both choose not to be on either side, choosing love over a family feud.
Do Unto Others Before They Do Unto Us: Originally "Pandora Plea", this is when a character justifies using a morally dubious weapon on the grounds that their enemies will use the same weapon against them if they don't. The former Trope Namer was Pandora from Classical Mythology, who doesn't do this in any version of her story. Depending on which version of the myth you read, her reasons for releasing all the evils in the world from her jar were either about a sadistic desire to make men suffer or not being aware of what would happen; no author ever portrayed her as releasing the evils because she feared someone else would if she didn't.
Down to the Last Play: Originally "The Casey Effect", the heroes win a sports game with a dramatic play at the last possible moment. The former Trope Namer was the poem Casey at the Bat, which was a pointed subversion in that the protagonists muster up a chance for their star Casey to win the game with a home run in the final inning, but he strikes out.
Dramatic High Perching: Originally "I Have the High Ground", a character looks cool by standing on a tall structure. The former Trope Namer was Revenge of the Sith, which used the phrase to refer to a strategic advantage in a fight from being positioned higher (even metaphorically, it's a metaphor for good triumphing over evil by having the moral high ground).
Either "World Domination", or Something About Bananas: Originally "The Vodka Is Good but the Meat Is Rotten", this is when a character attempts to translate a remark made in a foreign language, and comes up with multiple possible translations that are all completely unrelated to one another. The original name came from an old joke that doesn't actually feature an example, instead just being about a "Blind Idiot" Translation.
Exponential Plot Delay: Originally "Zeno's Race", this is when the pacing of a serial work gets progressively slower as it goes on. The former name was a reference to a paradox posed by the Greek philosopher Zeno of Citium, which originally had nothing to do with serialized storytelling.
Failed Future Forecast: Originally "Dewey Defeats Truman", a work set 20 Minutes into the Future makes assumptions about real-world events that turn out to be false. The former name came from a famous newspaper headline which came from an early edition of a newspaper predicting that Thomas E. Dewey would beat Harry S. Truman in the 1948 United States presidential election hours later and getting it wrong, which is more Assumed Win.
Formula-Breaking Episode: Originally "And Now for Something Completely Different" (later renamed to just "Something Completely Different", before being changed again to its current name). The former Trope Namer was a recurring line from Monty Python's Flying Circus, which used it as a transition between sketches, not to announce an episode departing from the show's formula. (The show actually did have an episode that was an example of this trope, namely "The Cycling Tour", the only episode to follow a single linear plotline rather than simply a series of sketches linked by a "stream of consciousness" format, or, on occasion, an Excuse Plot, but said episode was unrelated to the catchphrase)
Impersonating the Evil Twin: Originally "I Am He as You Are He", after the opening lyrics of The Beatles' "I Am the Walrus"; insofar as anyone could understand the lyrics, they weren't about impersonating anybody.
Inadvertent Entrance Cue: Originally "Something Wicked This Way Comes", this is when a character gives a description of something, and another character who coincidentally matches the same description suddenly appears. The former name came from a scene in Macbeth, where one of the Witches says it just before Macbeth enters, but it's not really an example because the Witch's comment was already about Macbeth to begin with.
Inconsistent Spelling: Originally "Spell My Name with an 'S'", this is when a work is inconsistent regarding how a character's name is supposed to be spelled. The former Trope Namer was Spell My Name with an S, where the title is a reference to Dr. Zabotinsky changing his name in-universe, not to any out-of-universe creators spelling his name inconsistently.
Informed Equipment: Originally "Fight in the Nude", Video Game equipment is not rendered on the character because of cheap graphics. The former Trope Namer was Diablo, which used the term for a Self-Imposed Challenge of fighting without armor; the equipment wasn't rendered because it wasn't there.
The Insomniac: Originally "No Rest for the Wicked", this is for characters with insomnia. The former name was an idiom which originated from Miles Coverdale's translation of The Bible, where it was about the souls of the wicked getting no rest from their punishments in Hell, not about insomniacs.
Intentional Engrish for Funny: Originally "Zero Wingrish", after the memetic intro to Zero Wing, whose garbled script was the result of a "Blind Idiot" Translation and not intentional.
In-Universe Game Clock: Originally "Time Keeps On Slipping", this is when the time of day in a video game visibly changes in-universe. The former name was based on a lyric from "Fly Like an Eagle" by Steve Miller Band, a song which had nothing to do with the trope.
Lesser Star: Originally "The Garfunkel", an ensemble member who's superfluous and contributes little of value. The former Trope Namer was Art Garfunkel, one half of Simon & Garfunkel, who very much wasn't an example because he was an integral part of the duo's harmonies and sang some of their most iconic melodies. It's just that the other half, Paul Simon, had a more successful solo career after they broke up.
Man Bites Man: Originally "Take a Bite Out of Crime", this is about people in combat biting their opponents. The former Trope Namer was McGruff the Crime Dog, an advertising mascot who never actually bit any of the criminals in his ads—he just used the phrase as a humorous slogan.
Manchild: Originally "The Oscar", after a Oscar Bluth from Arrested Development, who wasn't immature enough to qualify, especially compared to his family members such as Buster, G.O.B, and even Maeby in season 4.
Mighty Whitey and Mellow Yellow: Originally "Me Love You Long Time", a stereotypical romantic pairing of a tough white man and a passive Asian woman. The former Trope Namer was Full Metal Jacket, where the line is said by a prostitute propositioning a soldier in The Vietnam War; hardly a long-term relationship, and she's not interested in the soldiers for their ethnicity in any event.
No Delays for the Wicked: Originally "The Trains Run on Time", villains benefit from cooperative bureaucracies, Easy Logistics, or just good luck. The former name came from a common saying about fascist Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, who it was said got the people on his side because he made the trains run on time, which describes the different tropes Bread and Circuses and Repressive, but Efficient (the name "The Trains Run on Time" now redirects to the latter). He wasn't an example of No Delays for the Wicked; he had to cut through the bureaucracy. And in any event, he never really made the trains run on time.
Ordered to Cheat: Originally "Sweep the Leg". The former Trope Namer was The Karate Kid, in which "sweeping the leg" wasn't cheating, just cheap; in context, it was an order to Attack the Injury. The film is still an example, though, because Daniel's injury was caused by ordering the previous opponent to injure him, despite said opponent's protestations that he would be disqualified—and he was right.
Playing a Tree: Originally "You Are a Tree, Charlie Brown", after a common naming convention for the Peanuts TV specials. This never happened to Charlie Brown in any incarnation; it was just a gratuitous Trope Namer. (Maybe the association with trees came from how a Peanuts special named Aluminum Christmas Trees, but Charlie Brown never had to play one.)
Person as Verb: Originally "I Pulled a 'Weird Al'", but "Weird Al" Yankovic never used the trope in his music, nor did any character in any other work use his name as a verb.
Powered by a Forsaken Child: Originally "Soylent Green", this is when a source of great power can only be used by doing something horrific. The former Trope Namer was Soylent Green, where the eponymous food is revealed to be made from processed human remains. While this fits the "requires doing something horrific" part, but those who ate it weren't doing it to get any special powers—it was just an act of desperation caused by a massive global food shortage.
Redemption Demotion: Originally "Good Is Dumb" in reference to Spaceballs, which does not feature a villain doing a Heel–Face Turn and becoming less effective. The line instead is about good people being depicted as universally clueless, Good Is Dumb is now a page for exactly that.
Resignations Not Accepted: Originally "You Can Never Leave", after a lyric from The Eagles' "Hotel California". That lyric wasn't about refusing resignations, but meant more literally about physically being unable to leave the eponymous hotel.
Rule-Breaker Rule-Namer: Originally "Skippy Rules", this is when a rule is created in response to some person's actions and then named after that person. The former Trope Namer was Skippy's List, where no rules on the List were themselves named after Skippy—they were just rules he'd been informed about for one reason or another, whether because he had personally broken them or otherwise.
Sealed Evil in a Duel: Originally "Sisyphus vs. Rock", this is when a villain is neutralized by being forced to engage in a duel with the hero for eternity. The former Trope Namer was Sisyphus of Classical Mythology, whose punishment didn't involve having to duel anyone, unless you consider the boulder he had to try to push up the hill as a "hero".
Skyward Scream: Originally "The Khan", a character looks to the sky and screams while the camera films them from above. The former Trope Namer was Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, in which Kirk screams Khan's name loudly but doesn't do so using that precise presentation. It's just The Scream (and perhaps Say My Name).
Slow Laser: Originally "Frickin' Laser Beams", a laser weapon that's slow enough for the audience to see it, when it should travel at light speed. The former Trope Namer was Austin Powers, which wasn't making a point about how the laser is slow enough to be seen. In fact, the line comes from Dr. Evil wanting sharks with "frickin' laser beams attached to their heads".
Surveillance as the Plot Demands: Originally "Palantir Ploy", this is when villains having vague means of surveillance scattered everywhere is used as a Hand Wave to explain their knowing anything the plot requires them to know. Named after the Palantiri in Tolkien's Legendarium, which aren't really an example because their surveillance capacities have clearly defined limits, and surveillance isn't their main function anyway.
Status Quo Game Show: Originally "You Can't Win", a character participates in a game show but can't win because Status Quo Is God. The former Trope Namer was Stay Tuned, where it was the name of a Show Within a Show—except the characters are Trapped in TV Land and wound up winning anyway (or at least surviving when it wasn't expected).
Straw Nihilist: Originally "Nietzsche Wannabe", a character uses nihilism as an excuse to behave in immoral ways and/or to avoid seeking happiness in life. The former Trope Namer was Friedrich Nietzsche, whose philosophy was actually an inversion; he argued that denying the existence of objective good and evil just gave one even more reason to see all things in existence as good. Hence, he fits better under The Anti-Nihilist.
Suddenly Always Knew That: Originally "I Know Kung Fu", a character suddenly uses an advanced skill that they've apparently always known but never mentioned because You Didn't Ask. The former Trope Namer was The Matrix, which wasn't an example because Neo didn't know Kung Fu before he said the line; he became an Instant Expert thanks to an Upgrade Artifact.
Toplessness from the Back: Originally "Sexy Back", this is when a naked or topless woman is filmed in a way that only shows her bare back. The former Trope Namer was the Justin Timberlake song "Sexy Back", which otherwise had nothing to do with the trope.
Unexplained Recovery: Originally "I Got Better", a chracter is injured or even killed but recovers offscreen for no reason. The former Trope Namer was Monty Python and the Holy Grail, in which a peasant accuses a witch of turning him into a newt but sheepishly admits he "got better". It's not an example because more likely than not, the peasant was lying that he had been transformed.
Unseen Evil: Originally "Ultimate Evil", an evil which is not shown because Nothing Is Scarier. The former Trope Namer was Star Control II, except the "Ultimate Evil" the Spathis fear is unseen because it doesn't actually exist.
Urban Legend of Zelda: Originally "Schala Lives", false rumors of Easter Eggs and other hidden things in Video Games. The former Trope Namer was Chrono Trigger, which wasn't an example because "Schala Lives" turned out to be true.
Vampire Dance: Originally "Blood on the Dance Floor", this is when vampires are shown dancing. The former Trope Namer was the Michael Jackson song "Blood on the Dance Floor", where the eponymous blood is the result of an attack by a vindictive human woman, not a vampire. (Blood on the Dance Floor is also the name of a music duo, but neither they nor any of their songs fit the trope either.)
Verbal Tic: Originally "Spoon Speaker", after the odd battlecry of The Tick, which wasn't an example because he didn't randomly insert the phrase outside of a Battle Cry context.
Wedding Smashers: Originally "Wedding Crashers", someone shows up to a wedding and smashes it up. The former Trope Namer was the film Wedding Crashers, but that movie's title characters weren't violent; they just wandered into weddings they weren't invited to.

Partial credit

Partial Credit (including cases where the trope happens, but not the way the name implies):

Aerith and Bob: A fantasy setting has both mundane and exotic character names. The name Aerith comes from Final Fantasy VII, which has no character named Bob (although the remake has a character named "Billy Bob"), but it is an example since it has a character named Vincent.
American Kirby Is Hardcore: The tendency for a Japanese work's cover or box art to be changed to be "grittier", with "angrier" characters, for release in North America. The Trope Namer is the Kirby franchise, which did this with its advertising throughout The '90s but only engaged in this with some games' box art (not starting until Kirby: Nightmare in Dream Land and phasing it out after Kirby's Return to Dream Land).
And I Must Scream: A character is immobilized in a Fate Worse than Death—where death is impossible. The Trope Namer is I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, where the narrator uses the phrase to describe his fate, which fits almost every aspect of the trope: he's immortal, voiceless, trapped in a giant computer, and unable to commit suicide, but is capable of limited movement.
Bambification: Deer are portrayed as harmless, innocent creatures. The Trope Namer is Bambi, who fits the trope only in scenes of him as a fawn. The adult Bambi, while still generally kind, is shown to be frighteningly dangerous when provoked.
Beware the Superman: A character's superpowers make the world worse. The Trope Namer is Superman,^note who has long been a benevolent character—but way back in the 1930s, in his very first appearance, he was evil (or at least very morally ambiguous). The Injustice version of Superman also fits the trope.
Big Bad: A villain who is the primary cause of the bad happenings in a story. Named for Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who liked to refer to himself as "the big bad". While he had fit the trope when he first appeared in Season 2, he was soon replaced in that role when the Angelus, an even more evil vampire, was introduced; and by the time he started using the trope name to refer to himself in Season 4, he was no longer anywhere close to being one.
Bigger Than Jesus: A famous character, often a musician, compares their popularity favorably to a religion or religious figure. The Trope Namer is John Lennon, who kind of did this, but with two twists relative to the trope. First, he actually said that The Beatles were "more popular than Jesus". And second, it wasn't a Blasphemous Boast, but rather a lament at the zealous nature of the Beatles' massive fandom, which was on the level of a religious fervor.
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: A bizarre and Non Sequiturial scene in an otherwise ordinary work that has no bearing on the rest of the work. The Trope Namer is The Nostalgia Chick, which coined the phrase to describe the trope after a particular moment from All Dogs Go to Heaven in which a singing alligator shows up out of nowhere to perform a musical number. It's a marginal example, as while the scene is out of place and unexpected, it's not that outlandish for the film, which is an animated musical about Funny Animals set in New Orleans; and it gets the barest of references later, when the alligator shows up again and sings a single line from the song.
Big Ol' Eyebrows: A character has big eyebrows that make them look tougher, stupider, or (in the words of the Trope Namer) "110% lady-proof". The Trope Namer is the Strong Bad Email "Haircut", which does show Strong Mad wearing said eyebrows for a second (as one of several possible hypothetical "new looks"), but doesn't otherwise have any characters with eyebrows that big (or at all, for that matter).
Black Widow: A woman who murders all her lovers. Named after the female black widow spider, which is often said to eat the males it mates with after it's finished with them. In real life, while female black widows will eat their mates if they can't find other food, this only rarely happens in the wild; most recorded instances of it have occurred under laboratory conditions. (However, this behaviour does occur commonly in the redback spider, which is closely related to the black widow and is often confused with it.)
Brought to You by the Letter "S": A superhero costume with letters on it. The Trope Namer is the "Letter of the Day" segment from Sesame Street, which was much less restrictive and found letters in all sorts of things—but it did occasionally point them out on superhero costumes, most notably Super Grover's prominent "G".
Cain and Abel and Seth: A third sibling is introduced to complicate the relationship between an established sibling pair. The Trope Namer is Seth in The Bible, who is introduced after his brothers Cain and Abel. However, Abel died before Seth was born, so his presence didn't really complicate the relationship between the other two.
The Cake Is a Lie: A reward is promised but not given, nor ever intended to be given. The Trope Namer is Portal, in which the cake is promised, not given, and never intended to be given—but unlike the vast majority of examples, it exists, just not for the player character's benefit.
Chameleon Camouflage: A character can seamlessly blend in with the environment as to become invisible. It's named for the popular conception of chameleons' ability to do this, and for the most part they can—but only about a dozen species of dwarf chameleon (genus Bradypodion) out of more than 200 do this as a disguise, with the rest using it for communication. (Octopi are actually much better at using "chameleon camouflage".)
Chicken-and-Egg Paradox: A recurring cycle of events where each event in the cycle depends on another event in the same cycle, leaving it a mystery how the cycle could have started in the first place. Named after a famous riddle originally posed by Aristotle, which asks "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" This was a legitimate paradox at the time Aristotle wrote about it, but it's not really an example anymore because modern science has definitively resolved the mystery—the first chickens evolved from earlier egg-laying animals, so the egg came first.
Cut Lex Luthor a Check: A supervillain tries to acquire wealth, fame and/or power through complicated evil schemes, even though they're clearly intelligent or talented enough that they could easily acquire those things legally. Named for Superman's archenemy, Lex Luthor, who was originally depicted as a brilliant but mentally unstable Mad Scientist, leading to the common observation that he could easily get rich by patenting and selling his many inventions if he weren't so obsessed with destroying Superman. Since the mid-1980s, however, he's been traditionally depicted as a wealthy corporate CEO who does possess a vast fortune acquired via legal means that are unconnected to his supervillainy.
David Versus Goliath: A story where the hero is the underdog in comparison to the villain. The Trope Namer is the battle between David and Goliath in The Bible, in which the villainous Goliath dismisses David as a weak opponent due to David being much younger and smaller in stature, only for David to defeat him in one shot. However, David was never actually the underdog that Goliath assumed he was. Even putting aside the fact that David brought better weaponry to the fight, the story had already established that he was much stronger than one would have thought from his unimposing appearance—enough so to kill lions and bears with his staff—so it's more a case of Underestimating Badassery.^note
Dead to Begin With: A character is already dead at the start of the story, which follows them through the afterlife. The Trope Namer is A Christmas Carol, which opens "Marley was dead to begin with." While Jacob Marley's ghost is shown doing penance for his sins later, it only takes up a small portion of the book and is basically a side note to the story of his surviving business partner, Ebenezer Scrooge.
Do Not Call Me "Paul": A character hates being called by their given name, usually preferring their own cooler appellation. The Trope Namers are professional wrestlers Paul Wight (better known as "Big Show" and "The Giant") and Paul Levesque (better known as "Triple H"), who are both mostly examples. Paul Wight went as Paul intermittently early in his career, and after a long while switched back to his real name in the ring in 2021. Paul Levesque is stricter, but he did have a very brief (and not well remembered) stint in WCW when he went by Jean-Paul.
Dr. Feelgood: A doctor hands out prescription drugs like a drug dealer. The phrase had occasionally been used as a colloquialism for real doctors who did this. However, the Trope Namer (insofar as it's the first work to borrow the term) is the eponymous character of Mötley Crüe's song "Dr. Feelgood", who's actually the opposite—he's a drug dealer who styles himself as a doctor.
Dropped a Bridge on Him: An important character is abruptly killed off in a way that strikes the audience as inappropriately anticlimactic or unceremonious. The Trope Namer is Star Trek: Generations, in which Captain James T. Kirk dies after a bridge collapses under him. But in that instance, it was only the manner of Captain Kirk's death that struck most Star Trek fans as an unfitting end for the character; most of them agree that the circumstances of his death were still appropriately poignant, as he at least got to go out in a Heroic Sacrifice against the Big Bad in the climax of the movie. The film as a whole was also largely framed and marketed as a final sendoff for the character, so his death wasn't exactly abrupt or unceremonious.
Every Car Is a Pinto: A car that would explode at the slightest provocation. The Trope Namer is the Ford Pinto, which had a reputation as an Alleged Car which did this. The first model of the Pinto did explode in collisions, but later models fixed the issue.
Face Stealer: A shapeshifter who can steal others' identities and use them as a disguise. The Trope Namer is Koh the Face Stealer from Avatar: The Last Airbender, who indeed had the power to steal other people's faces and wore them as masks, but he couldn't actually use them as a disguise because they didn't conceal his enormous, monstrous body—he only kept them as Creepy Souvenirs.
From the Mouths of Babes: The Trope Namer is Psalm 8:2, in which even children speak of the glory of God. The trope is generally about children saying something you wouldn't expect, but the vast majority of examples are sexual or violent in nature.
Gaslighting: Trying to convince someone they're insane by making them question their memory or sanity through psychological manipulation. The term comes from Gaslight, where a man does try to do this to his wife. However, the dimming gas lights that give the film its title were actually not part of the husband's attempts to manipulate the wife into thinking she's crazy, and he wasn't even aware it was happening. In fact, the lights were actually one of the things that helped the wife retain her sanity, when other people confirm they see it dimming too. In other words, the literal "gas lighting" that happens in the film actually has the exact opposite effect of how the term gaslighting is used today.
General Ripper: A military leader with a burning hatred for a single enemy, which makes him a liability. The Trope Namer is General Jack D. Ripper from Dr. Strangelove, who indeed hates the Dirty Communists so much that he tries to Nuke 'Em without the President's knowledge. But he doesn't have most of the other hallmarks of the trope; while most examples are loud, brash, jingoistic firebrands who will throw as many troops as they can at their enemy, General Ripper hides behind a Mask of Sanity (standing in contrast to the eminently reasonable but hilariously frantic General Buck Turgidson) and spends most of the movie keeping his troops safely fortified in a military base.
Girl Friday: A very competent Always Female assistant. The original Trope Namer is the Robinson Crusoe character Friday, who's male. However, the exact phrase "girl Friday" comes from His Girl Friday, where it does refer to an actual example of the trope.
A Glass of Chianti: A villain shows his class with a fine wine. The Trope Namer is Hannibal Lecter from The Silence of the Lambs, who's never seen actually drinking a glass of wine. But he does relate an anecdote in which he did have "a nice Chianti" with fava beans and a guy's liver.
God Is Dead: God or a god dies. The Trope Namer is Friedrich Nietzsche, who first used the phrase in The Gay Science as a metaphor for the decline of belief in God, rather than describing the literal death of a deity. However, in Nietzsche's later novel Also sprach Zarathustra, Zarathustra and several other characters do use the phrase in the sense of the trope.
Golden Snitch: A single event or target in a competition is worth more than everything else combined, rendering it useless. The Trope Namer is the Quidditch ball from Harry Potter, which in theory is not an example because it is possible to catch the Snitch and still lose the game, and Word of God from J. K. Rowling says this happens far more often in professional Quidditch than in the simplified version we see at Hogwarts. Such a scenario happens twice in the series, but it's only really plausible the second time. The first time it happens, in the final of the Quidditch World Cup, the team who lost needed only to score one more goal to force a tie by catching the Snitch, and a professional team who didn't fight to get that goal instead of catching the Snitch ought to be derided as so dumb as to be uncoachable. In contrast, the second time it happens is in the middle of the Hogwarts Quidditch season, where Ginny catching the Snitch counterbalanced Ron's abysmal goal-keeping. Gryffindor only lost this match to Hufflepuff by ten points, a small enough deficit to leave Gryffindor in the running for the championship.
Growing the Beard: A definitive moment when a series begins to become noticeably better in quality. The Trope Namer is Star Trek: The Next Generation, as fans of the series noticed a sharp increase in the quality and consistency of stories and the show, coinciding with the character Commander Riker literally growing a beard in between the first two seasons. While the second season is regarded as an improvement over the first, it's still generally regarded as the second or third weakest season of the show and the general consensus is that the third season is where the show truly became great.
I Am Not Shazam: A character is mistakenly believed to have the same name as the work's title, but it's different. The Trope Namer is the DC Comics series Shazam!, whose protagonist is not named "Shazam" but rather "Captain Marvel"—"Shazam" is his transformation phrase. (Indeed, the book couldn't be titled "Captain Marvel" because of a trademark dispute with Marvel Comics.) One line of continuity is not actually an example, though—in the 2011 New 52 Continuity Reboot, and the movies that followed, his name actually is Shazam.
In the Original Klingon: A character claims that something from another culture was actually created by their own culture. The Trope Namer is Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, in which Chancellor Gorkon claims that William Shakespeare is best read "in the original Klingon". Unlike most examples, however, Gorkon doesn't actually believe nor expect anyone else to believe that the Klingon translations of Shakespeare are the originals; he's just making a facetious joke in order to diffuse tensions at a heated diplomatic meeting.
I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: Serious harm, perhaps even deadly harm, as a result of Reckless Gun Usage. Most portrayals are Played for Drama. The Trope Namer, Pulp Fiction, is strictly speaking an example, but it's clearly Played for Laughs, making it a better example of Juggling Loaded Guns.
Jawbreaker: A character's jaw gets damaged. The trope shares its name with a term meaning a very hard word to pronounce, which won't actually damage one's jaw (however, it's also the name of a very hard, spherical type of candy, which can hurt your jaw if you're not careful).
Jekyll & Hyde: A character has two personalities, one good and one evil. The Trope Namer is The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, where the criminal Mr. Hyde turns out to be an alter-ego of the respected Dr. Henry Jekyll. However, while Mr. Hyde in the original story is indeed pure evil, Dr. Jekyll turns out not to be as good as he seems either. And relatedly, while most examples of the trope have the evil/"Hyde" persona being forced on the innocent/"Jekyll" persona against their will, the original story had Dr. Jekyll deliberately creating Mr. Hyde so that he could act out his darkest impulses without any witnesses being able to catch him.
Just Here for Godzilla: The fans are into a work for a single element, at the expense of all the rest of the work. The Trope Namer is the Godzilla series, which often has movies where the audience is just there to see Godzilla wreak havoc and doesn't care about anything else. But there are a few installments where the primary draw is something other than Godzilla; for instance, the original Godzilla (1954) is also famous for its powerful commentary on the atomic bombings of Japan; King Kong vs. Godzilla features King Kong in the starring role;^note Destroy All Monsters has nine other monsters teaming up with Godzilla; and Godzilla vs. Megalon is most notable for Jet Jaguar.
Just Like Robin Hood: A thief who targets the corrupt wealthy in order to give to the needy. The Trope Namer is Robin Hood, who in his earliest legends was closer to a Karmic Thief; only one 15th-century Robin Hood story mentions him wanting to give away his stolen wealth, and even there he's never shown actually doing it. However, from roughly the late 16th century onwards, almost all later portrayals of him have been straight examples.
Kafka Komedy: A comedy story in which the protagonist is well-intentioned and reasonable, but everything goes horribly wrong for them anyway. Named for Franz Kafka, who often wrote stories about characters who meet with horrible fates despite seemingly having done nothing wrong. Whether his stories qualify as "comedies" is debatable, though. It's probably more accurate to describe them as surreal Genre-Busting works, which have elements of Black Comedy, but can just as easily be read as tragedy or horror.
Klingon Scientists Get No Respect: A character from a Planet of Hats is disrespected by his race for having talents that don't relate directly to the trait they're known for. Named after the Klingons from Star Trek, but Klingons who aren't warriors are usually treated with respect by fellow Klingons. Other alien races in Star Trek do play the trope straight and occasionally the Klingons also play it straight Depending on the Writer.
Leeroy Jenkins: The Team's plans are ruined when one of its members recklessly charges into the fray. The Trope Namer is the Leeroy Jenkins Video, in which Leeroy did indeed rush in without listening to his team's plans, but that plan was so inherently flawed that it wouldn't have worked even if he followed it.
Long Pants: A character is animated such that there is no distinction between their pants and shoes. The Trope Namer is Homestar Runner, whose title character is certainly drawn that way and insists that he wears long pants, but other characters like Strong Bad dispute whether he's wearing pants at all (and the truth is obscured thanks to Rule of Funny).
MacGuffin: An object which is important to the plot solely because the characters want to get it, where the details of what it is and why they want to get it otherwise don't matter. The Trope Name comes from a joke first popularized by Alfred Hitchcock, in which a man on a train holds a mysterious item, and when asked what it is, he says it's a "MacGuffin". While the so-called MacGuffin in the joke matches the "the details of what it is don't matter" part of the trope, it's still only very loosely an example, because the other passenger who asks the question wasn't trying to get the MacGuffin — he just wanted to know what it was. (However, Hitchcock did use clearer examples of the trope in a number of his actual movies, most famously with the mysterious reel of microfilm in North by Northwest.)
Marth Debuted in "Smash Bros.": A character's first appearance outside their home country is a sequel or a spin-off. The Trope Namer is Marth from Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, who did indeed appear in Super Smash Bros. Melee in North America before any Fire Emblem game made it to the West.^note Except that wasn't his first appearance—that honor goes to a different spin-off, the dubbed Fire Emblem OVA.
Mordor: The homeland of evil, a dark and desolate wasteland. The Trope Namer is The Lord of the Rings, where the plateau of Gorgoroth, which Frodo and Sam cross, fits the description well—but the rest of Mordor is quite a fertile country, with a large lake and volcanic soil that make the southern parts of the land good for farming.
My Country, Right or Wrong: A character sides with their country regardless of whether they agrees with its actions. The trope name is based on a quote from U.S. Senator Carl Schurz—but only part of it. The full quotation, which pulls itself out of the sense of the trope, is "My country, right or wrong. If right, to be kept right, and if wrong, to be set right." An earlier variant of the saying came from Naval Commander Stephen Decatur, who used it to mean something closer to the trope's meaning, but he didn't use the exact phrasing of the trope title.
My Future Self and Me: A character meets their future self thanks to Time Travel. The Trope Namer is an episode of South Park, the main plot of which is not an example because Stan's "future self" is actually an actor his parents hired to keep him off drugs. But at the end of the same episode, Cartman does meet his future self and doesn't believe him.
The Neidermeyer: A cruel and abusive military officer whose soldiers despise them. The Trope Namer is Doug Neidermeyer from Animal House, largely due to the film's "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue humorously claiming that his own troops eventually killed him in The Vietnam War. But during the events of the film proper, Neidermeyer isn't actually a military officer: he's just the leader of Faber College's local ROTC chapter, making him a cadet. While he's certainly cruel and abusive, his Jerkass behavior is mostly limited to screaming at his fellow cadets and forcing them to do chores. And since ROTC cadets don't serve in combat, he doesn't treat his men like disposable cannon fodder (which is otherwise one of the classic hallmarks of the trope).
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: The hero unwittingly makes things worse. The Trope Namer is a line from Portal, which has plenty of examples in the form of Stupidity Is the Only Option. But when GLaDOS says the actual line, it's not an example because she's trying to guilt you during the final boss battle by claiming that one of the parts of her you destroyed was a machine that made shoes for orphans.
Not Using the "Z" Word: A story features creatures that are obviously based off of well-known mythical creatures, but avoids using the traditional names for them because it's seen as sounding too ridiculous. The Trope Namer is Shaun of the Dead, which plays the trope straight in every scene except for the trope-naming one, where Ed does call the zombies "zombies" and Shaun yells at him not to do that.
Obvious Judas: A character is revealed to be evil, but it was obvious to the audience all along. The name comes from the name "Judas" as a term for a traitor, itself derived from The Four Gospels, in which Judas Iscariot was the disciple who turned in Jesus. In the actual Gospels, though, Judas himself is sort of a mixed example: while all four Gospel authors introduce him as being a traitor from the start (John even mentions that Judas had been Stealing from the Till as the group's unofficial treasurer, since he helped carry their money bag), at the time the disciples never suspected Judas of ulterior motives. In fact, when Jesus announced that one of them was going to betray him, each of them doubted themselves more than anyone else (they all asked him "Is it I?" rather than "Is it Judas?"), implying that the disciples only noticed the red flags about Judas retroactively. Numerous explanations have popped up for why he was Beneath Suspicion like trusting Jesus' judgment despite the signs that Judas was up to no good or noticing that he was untrustworthy with money, but didn't think his shortcomings extended so far that he'd betray Jesus. One interpretation was favored by Origen of Alexandria, who suggested that Judas simply lacked moral fortitude and the act of betrayal was a Moment of Weakness that no one saw coming.
Off with His Head!: Lethal decapitation. The Trope Namer is Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which is actually a subversion; while the Queen of Hearts shouts the phrase several times at various people out of displeasure at the croquet game, it's later revealed that the King pardoned them all behind her back. However, starting with the Disney cartoon adaptation, most later versions of the story have taken out this reveal and played the trope straight.
One-Winged Angel: The villain undergoes a dramatic Power Makeover when he starts really trying to win the fight. The Trope Namer is Sephiroth from Final Fantasy VII, who does indeed undergo such a transformation during the final boss fight. But said form has seven wings, not just one. The term "One-Winged Angel" actually comes from his Battle Theme Music, which is not a reference to this transformation.
The Password Is Always "Swordfish": A password which is easily deduced from simple clues, usually because it's the name or date of something significant to the character. The Trope Namer is Horse Feathers, where the password for Baravelli's speakeasy is indeed easy to figure out—but it's not because the word "swordfish" has any particular significance for either Baravelli or his store, it's just that Baravelli is too stupid to realize he's not supposed to tell people the secret password directly.
Pride Before a Fall: A story starts with an arrogant character suffering some loss of power or influence. Named after a saying in the Book of Proverbs, which is about the same general idea of the arrogant being inevitably humbled, but is not specifically about it happening at the beginning of the story.
"Rashomon"-Style: Multiple characters give differing accounts of the same events. Akira Kurosawa's Rashomon is about multiple characters giving different accounts of the events leading up to a man's murder, but unlike most examples, it isn't because they all remember those events differently—it's because they're all lying.
The Red Stapler: A work features a product and affects demand for it in Real Life. The Trope Namer is Office Space, which indeed did this when it featured a red Swingline stapler. Except the product didn't even exist when the film was made (they just took a black stapler and painted it red), and the company only started making them as a result of this demand, so it's a better example of Defictionalization.^note
Right Man in the Wrong Place: A normal person becomes the protagonist because he's the only one around who can fill the role, and he does it surprisingly well. The Trope Namer is Half-Life 2, in which the G-Man uses the term to refer to protagonist Gordon Freeman. And while Gordon is very much an example in Half-Life 1 (and the G-Man recognizes it), he isn't really an example in Half-Life 2 because the G-Man deliberately dropped him into a specific time and place to achieve his own mysterious goals.
Rookie Red Ranger: A team's most powerful member is its Naïve Newcomer. The Trope Namer is the Power Rangers franchise, which has quite a few examples of inexperienced Red Rangers who aren't actually the most powerful member of their team and plenty who aren't actually the leader.
The Scrappy: A character, despite the work's intentions, is consistently hated by the audience for narrative reasons. The Trope Namer is Scrappy-Doo from Scooby-Doo, who's widely seen as an example but doesn't meet the strict definition. He was introduced to appeal to kids and save the show from cancellation, and he achieved both quite well—but the existing fans hated him so vehemently that even after the show was cancelled, renewed, spun off, and everything in between, they became a very loud Vocal Minority who vaulted the character into popular consciousness as "universally hated". If anything, Scrappy is more of a Base-Breaking Character.
Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: A character uses their wealth to do things they shouldn't be allowed to do. The Trope Namer is Seto Kaiba from Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series, who frequently uses his wealth to buy himself out of situations (as he does in the source material Yu-Gi-Oh!). But when he says his trope-naming line, he's just straight-up cheating; he's not actually spending any money.
Secret-Keeper: Character who keeps a secret in which they are not directly involved. Named for the Fidelius Charm in Harry Potter, but while the theoretical purpose of the spell is to protect secrets, in the story it is only ever used to keep buildings secure by making them inaccessible to anyone without permission from the Secret-Keeper, and it is implied to work for that purpose even if the enemy knows where the building is.
Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll: The tendency of rock musicians to be The Hedonist. The term originated in The '60s, but as a reference to three distinct characteristics of the entire counterculture, not how sex, drugs, and rock and roll specifically overlap.
The Smurfette Principle: A cast with only one female character. Named for Smurfette of The Smurfs, who was originally created to be the only female Smurf. However, a few other female Smurfs did get added to the series' cast over time.
Springtime for Hitler: A plot to fail at something intentionally goes awry because the characters don't actually fail. The Trope Namer is The Producers (1967) and the play within a film Springtime for Hitler, which is a bit more complicated than most examples. First, in most cases the characters profit directly from the failure; in the Trope Namer, the characters don't profit from the play's failure directly, but rather from their plan to oversell shares in it to gullible investors—the play's failure is meant to bring it beneath the authorities' suspicion and avoid investigation. Second, in most cases the "failure at failing" would be a disaster in itself; in the Trope Namer, the characters could have made money from the play's success the traditional way had they not cheated their investors.
Straw Vulcan: The idea that logic is always better than emotion, expressed through a Straw Character. The Trope Namer is the Vulcan race from Star Trek, who were sometimes written this way, but at other times (especially in Star Trek: The Original Series) played the role of Only Sane Man to humans who represented the opposite trope.
Sweet Home Alabama: A more positive portrayal than usual of the American Deep South. The Trope Namer is the song of that name by Lynyrd Skynyrd, where the narrator does have an affectionate view of Alabama and tries to defend it against those who "put her down". However, the song itself doesn't actually portray Alabama very positively, whether intentionally or not.^note
Swiss-Army Weapon: A weapon with multiple uses. Named after the Swiss Army knife, which has famously many uses and could theoretically be used as a weapon, but it's not actually designed to be used as a weapon, and it wouldn't work very well as one.
Team Rocket Wins: The Goldfish Poop Gang who never wins a battle finally wins one. The Trope Namer is Team Rocket from Pokémon the Series, who weren't an example at all when the trope was named—they were just a good byword for the kind of villains the trope concerns. It was only after the trope was established, over 900 episodes into the series in the Pokémon Sun and Moon adaptation, that they finally won a legitimate fight against the protagonist and became an example.
They Killed Kenny Again: A character dies and inexplicably comes back to life as a Running Gag. The Trope Namer is Kenny from South Park, who was indeed an example for the first five seasons. Then the show started to change it up, killing him off for real in Season 5, resurrecting him with an explanation in Season 6, subverting the gag in subsequent appearances, and generally giving the whole thing a Cerebus Retcon. (Well, they wanted to keep the gag fresh.)
Thou Shalt Not Kill: A character follows a strict moral code that prevents killing under any circumstances. The Trope Namer is The Bible, where "Thou shalt not kill" is one of the Ten Commandments. And while some schools of Christianity do interpret this as a strict prohibition against killing for any reason, it's widely suggested that "kill" isn't the best translation of the original Hebrew, which uses a word that's more akin to "murder", and that the Commandment allows for killing in certain justifiable situations such as soldiers in wartime.
Thread of Prophecy, Severed: Something happens that causes a prophecy to completely fall apart. The Trope Namer is The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, which tells the player this if they kill an NPC that is critical to the main plot and that they should probably reload their last save. Despite this though, it is still possible to complete the main quest through a hidden "backdoor" route the player isn't informed of, meaning this is closer to a Prophecy Twist.
The Three Faces of Eve: A trio of women consisting of the Wife, who is calm and capable, the Seductress, who is lively and sexualized, and the Child, who is innocent and immature. Named after The Three Faces of Eve, where the eponymous "three faces" fit all the dynamics of the trope—except that they're not actually three separate women, but just one woman with a Split Personality.
Time Stands Still: Time stops for everyone except a certain character. The Trope Namer is the song "Time Stand Still" by Rush, which is only marginally an example because it doesn't actually happen to the narrator, but he spends a lot of time wishing it could.
Timey-Wimey Ball: Time Travel is portrayed inconsistently. The Trope Namer is Doctor Who, whose rules of time travel are all over the place—but in the episode in which the Doctor uses the trope-naming phrase to describe the timeline, it actually resolves as a fairly reasonable Stable Time Loop (albeit one containing a nice Time Paradox).
Timmy in a Well: An animal rescues a child from danger. The Trope Namer is Lassie, and Lassie saved Timmy from all sorts of dangers. But Lassie never saved Timmy from a well; that was just a common joke about the kind of plot the show included which over the years was misunderstood to have been an actual scenario in the show. Interestingly, most of the things Lassie had to save Timmy from were far more dangerous than being stuck in a well.
Totally Radical: Unrealistic teenage slang, as envisioned by someone quite a bit older than a teenager. The trope is named for a phrase that certainly fits the trope nowadays, but was genuine teenage slang in The '90s. It does prove the point well, though; many uses of the trope are writers extrapolating the slang from when they were teenagers to the present day.
Unstuck in Time: A character who has Mental Time Travel but can't control it. The Trope Namer is Billy Pilgrim of Slaughterhouse-Five, who may or may not have been an actual example of the trope; he claimed to be one, but this is implied to be a story he confabulated to rationalize flashbacks caused by trauma and/or brain injury.
Voodoo Shark: A creator's attempt to explain an unanswered question just raises more questions. The Trope Namer is the novelization of Jaws: The Revenge, which explains that the film's Threatening Shark is chasing the Brody family because of a voodoo curse. But whether that raises more questions than it answers is a matter of debate; for many, it doesn't raise more questions, it's just really stupid and puts an end to any sense of realism the films had.
Warts and All: A character who's the stuff of legend is discovered to have been imperfect, but still respected as a legend. The Trope Namer is Oliver Cromwell, who used the term to ask for his portrait to contain all his physical imperfections so that future generations would recognize that he was imperfect, his accomplishments notwithstanding. While this generally does show symbolically that Cromwell wasn't morally perfect, the phrase itself refers specifically to physical imperfections.
The Watson: An Audience Surrogate who keeps asking questions throughout the story, so that other characters can explain what's going on for the audience's benefit. Named for Dr. Watson in the Sherlock Holmes stories, who would often express bafflement at Holmes' deductions so that Holmes would have someone to explain his reasoning to. Unlike most examples of the trope, though, Watson generally didn't play this role throughout any given story; more often, Holmes would keep him in the dark for the bulk of it, with the details of Holmes' plans only being explained to Watson (and, by extension, the readers) towards the end.
What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: A character has an unusual superpower that's basically useless. The Trope Namer is Ma-Ti from Captain Planet and the Planeteers, whose "heart" powers can seem quite lame in contrast to his teammates' Elemental Powers. But while Ma-Ti is pretty much useless, it's not because his powers are useless; he's actually a telepath and an empath with powers of Mind Control, but "heart" also gives him a moral compass so strong that he refuses to use his powers to their full extent.
Where da White Women At?: A pairing between a black man and a white woman that society disapproves of. The Trope Namer is Blazing Saddles, in which Bart just says the line as a distraction; he's not in a relationship with a white woman. But he is playing on the racist whites' perception of black men as being out to "steal their women" (so he can lead them into an ambush), so the attitude is prevalent even if the relationship is not. Bart also has a brief fling with the white Lili von Shtupp, but she seduces him only for Bart to prove himself immune to her charms, at which point she genuinely falls for him: but even then, the characters are more angry that she failed to entrap him than that she's actually fallen for a black man.
Your Head A-Splode: A character's head explodes. The Trope Namer is the Strong Bad Email "video games", in which Strong Bad uses the term "asplode" to describe what happens to the Player Character in a hypothetical video game—except in that case, it wasn't his head that "asploded", but his entire body.
Zeerust: Defined in The Meaning of Liff as "[t]he particular kind of datedness which afflicts things that were originally designed to look futuristic." In turn, the Trope Namer borrowed the name from a town in South Africa which otherwise has no relation to the trope.
Zerg Rush: Overwhelming an opponent with a huge number of individually weak units. The Trope Namer is StarCraft, in which the Zerg are very commonly used in this way—but the exact phrase "Zerg rush" refers to a specific tactic of sending a small number of Zerg units to sneak in and seize enemy resources before they get a chance to set up their defenses.

Partial credit and renamed

Actor Allusion: Originally "The Alkazar", this is when a character says or does something that references another role played by the same actor. The former Trope Namer was Alcazar, a one-shot Futurama character who appeared in a plot line parodying Married... with Children. While this parody was an example of the trope, the allusion was to Leela's voice actor (Katey Sagal, who had also played Peg Bundy on the original show), not to Alcazar's (David Herman).
Actor/Role Confusion: Originally "Your Secret's Safe with Me, Superman", the inability to differentiate between a character and the actor who plays them. The Trope Namer is a line from The Simpsons episode "Mr. Plow", which is technically an example as Barney can't tell Superman from the actor who played him—except in that case, he didn't even get the role right, because he was meeting Adam West, who played Batman in the 1966 TV adaptation.
Adaptational Self-Defense: Originally "The Dog Shot First", an edit of a scene in which a character Shoots the Dog so that they are now acting in self-defense. The Trope Namer is a play on the phrase "Han shot first", a reference to an infamous edit to the first Star Wars film A New Hope in which Han Solo shoots Greedo in the Mos Eisley Cantina. In the original, Han just shot Greedo (hence "Han shot first"), but the edit has Greedo shoot first (and miss badly and implausibly), giving Han the opportunity to return fire. It was kind of an example in that it gave Han a better justification to shoot Greedo, but even in the original Greedo is pointing a gun at Han and clearly threatening to kill him, so Han was justified enough that he wasn't Shooting the Dog in the first place.
Authority in Name Only: Originally "The King of Town", when a nominal authority figure has no actual authority. The former Trope Namer was the King of Town from Homestar Runner, who is sometimes treated as having legal authority depending on the Rule of Funny.
Awful Wedded Life: Originally "No Exit", this is about characters who are trapped in awful marriages. The former Trope Namer was Jean-Paul Sartre's play No Exit, where the three main characters aren't married to one another, but rather souls in Hell who are being manipulated by the demons to stay together for eternity so that they could torment one another. However, it does have a discussed example—when the three sinners explain their backstories to one another, Garcin tells the other two that he's in Hell because of how cruel he was to his wife when he was alive.
Breakout Villain: Originally "Moriarty Effect", this is when a character created to be a minor or one-off villain ends up becoming so popular that later instalments or adaptations elevate them to being the main villain of the series. The former Trope Namer was Professor Moriarty from the Sherlock Holmes stories, who had only a handful of appearances in the original canon, but is usually made into Holmes' most prominent foe in adaptations and other derivative works. However, he's not quite a full example, because even in the very first story where he appeared, it was already stated that he'd been Holmes' greatest enemy for a long time; his not having previously appeared was explained by saying that the task of tracking him down required such careful secrecy that Holmes kept Watson—and, by extension, the readers—in the dark about it until it was already close to completion.
Condemned by History: Originally "Deader Than Disco", something that was once well liked is now viewed with contempt. Disco was once an example given its popularity in The '70s and the harsh backlash against it in the following decades, but its condemnation was undone by the Popularity Polynomial and it's no longer hated as much—especially by younger generations who don't remember the original backlash against it.
Cute and Psycho: Originally "Yangire", a Japanese Portmanteau of the words yandere and kireru (to snap or lose one's temper). Anime fans coined it to describe Nanoha's uncharacteristically cold-hearted attack on Teana to teach her a lesson in episode 8 of Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS, but she Nanoha only did so to prevent Teana from harming herself as opposed to a deranged character who pretends to be sweet and innocent.
Cut Short: Originally "Woody's Finest Hour", the name of an episode of a Show Within a Show from Toy Story 2. While it initially seems that the show was cancelled after ending on a Cliffhanger, it's implied later that it did get a resolution. However, it's intentionally left vague if it actually got a Series Finale due to being tied to the film's manipulative Hidden Villain.
Damsel Scrappy: Originally "The Kimberly", a reference to Jack Bauer's daughter from 24. The character in question was an example early on, but she subsequently Took a Level in Badass (incidentally, right after the trope was renamed for being incomprehensible to anyone not familiar with the show), got Rescued from the Scrappy Heap, and ceased to be an example.
Decapitated Army: Originally "Ding Dong, the Witch Is Dead" after the musical number from The Wizard Of Oz, the trope refers to instances where an army immediately becomes harmless as soon as their leader is defeated. The second time that song is sung in the film, it fits the trope perfectly: the Wicked Witch of the West's Winkie soldiers sing it after her death, after which they let Dorothy and her friends go in peace. But the first time (the more famous instance), the Munchkins just sing it after the death of the Wicked Witch of the East; rather than soldiers laying down their arms, they're just people rejoicing upon the death of an oppressor.
Driven by Envy: Originally "Salieri Syndrome", after Antonio Salieri in Amadeus, who is indeed deeply envious of Mozart's talent but never successfully undermines him. While he does claim to have murdered him late in his life, that's just his extremely overactive imagination at work.
Eccentric Mentor: Originally "The Dumbledore", after Professor Albus Dumbledore from Harry Potter. While Dumbledore fit the trope quite well in Philosopher's Stone, his quirkiness was considerably toned down as the series underwent Cerebus Syndrome; by the later installments, he'd transitioned into a mostly solemn and straight-laced Reasonable Authority Figure.
Exaggerated Trope: Merged with "Up to Eleven", a reference to a famous scene in This Is Spın̈al Tap where Nigel Tufnel claims that Spın̈al Tap's music is especially loud because their amplifiers' top volume setting is 11 rather than the standard 10. While Spın̈al Tap is described as the world's loudest band, and generally goes above and beyond with its antics, the entire joke behind that scene is that their amps don't actually exceed normal limits—they're just unusually labeled, and Nigel is too dumb to understand the difference. As the director points out, there's no reason not to just make 10 louder. (Up To Eleven currently only exists on a disambiguation page that includes Exaggerated Trope.)
Finger in the Mail: Originally "Mary Kelly's Kidney", this is when a kidnapper or serial killer sends someone a detached body part from one of their victims. The former Trope Namer was Mary Kelly, one of the women murdered by Jack the Ripper. In real life, Jack did send half of a woman's kidney to investigators, along with a letter claiming that he'd eaten the other half—but the half-kidney wasn't Mary Kelly's. It belonged to another victim, Catherine Eddowes.
Head-Turning Beauty: Originally "Hello Nurse", after a Running Gag from Animaniacs. While the character was indeed stunningly beautiful and routinely got this reaction from Yakko and Wakko, most other characters didn't share in that reaction.
Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Originally "The Radar", after the character from M*A*S*H. He started out this way, but was Flanderized out of hypercompetence, especially when his commanding officer was changed from Colonel Blake into the much more competent and self-sufficient Colonel Potter.
Instant-Win Condition: Originally "The Enemy Gate Is Down", after a scenario from Ender's Game. While Ender does identify (and abuse) an instant-win condition in the Battle School simulations, his use of the phrase isn't about that; it's just a trick he used to orient himself in zero-gravity (which he and his team continued to use while eventually abusing the instant-win condition).
Parody Displacement: Originally "The Weird Al Effect" after "Weird Al" Yankovic, referring to instances where a parodic work becomes more well-known than the work that it was parodying. Renamed because the vast majority of Weird Al's song parodies aren't more famous than the songs that they're parodying; most of them are parodies of well-known hits (he usually chooses to parody the most popular songs in the world in a given year) where the joke relies on listeners knowing the original.
Replacement Flat Character: Originally "The Niles" after Niles Crane from Frasier. He was originally conceived as a less nuanced foil to his brother Frasier after he underwent Character Development and got his own spinoff, and was portrayed as something akin to the one-note pompous intellectual that Frasier used to be when he debuted on Cheers. Over the years, however, Niles got a good deal of Character Development of his own.
Romantic Plot Tumor: Originally "George Lucas Love Story" after director George Lucas, who acquired a reputation for being terrible at writing romance thanks to Anakin and Padme's widely derided love story in Attack of the Clones. While their love story in that film was definitely an example, that's effectively the only example in Lucas' filmography (people just never stopped mocking him for it); most of the time, Lucas is perfectly capable of writing a romance well enough that it doesn't overtake the rest of the film.
Ruthless Modern Pirates: Originally "A Disgrace to Blackbeard" from a line in the South Park episode "Fatbeard". While the Somali Pirates fit this trope when they're introduced, the plot focuses on Cartman defying this trope in favor of A Pirate 400 Years Too Late.
Speak of the Devil: Originally "He Who Must Not Be Named", this is when saying a villain's name is dangerous because it summons them or draws their attention. The former Trope Namer was Lord Voldemort in Harry Potter, who at first was not an example because the taboo on saying his name was just an in-universe irrational superstition; saying his name didn't actually make him any more dangerous than usual. However, in the final book, he exploits the superstition in a way that causes saying his name to become exactly as dangerous as people thought it was.
Sprint Shoes: Originally "Bunny Hood", after the item from The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, which does what the trope describes: it increases the character's speed. It doesn't do that in every Zelda game, though, and even in Majora's Mask, the speedrunners found that it was faster to roll than to use the Bunny Hood. (The Bunny Hood most effective in the Super Smash Bros. series.)
Translation Train Wreck: Originally "Do Not Want", a translation so bad as to be unintelligible. The former Trope Namer was Backstroke of the West, a "Blind Idiot" Translation of Revenge of the Sith; while much of the film is an example, the line "Do not want" in particular was not, because it was a translation of a Big "NO!" and at least vaguely intelligible. (That's also not what the phrase means as a meme, where it's used as a synonym for Squick.)
Unintentionally Unsympathetic: Originally "Fat Monica", after Monica from Friends and her past as an overweight teenager. Due to Values Dissonance, the jokes at her expense seem more mean-spirited, making her more sympathetic in the eyes of the audience.
Unique Enemy: Originally "The Red Snifit", after Super Mario Bros. 2, which had only one Red Snifit. However, other games in the Super Mario Bros. franchise had more than one red Snifit, and indeed in most of them the largest number of Snifits were red.
You Just Told Me: Originally "Rumpelstiltskin Ploy", a character is goaded into a Reflexive Response and tricked into revealing a secret. The Trope Namer is the fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin, where the title character is indeed defeated by speaking his secret out loud, but that wasn't because he was tricked into it in conversation; he just thought no one was listening.

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