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PaperclipPerfector  14hr ago (text post)   535 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for April 10, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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I'm obsessed with tvtropes.org and r/TopCharacterTropes.

What are your favorite tropes and examples in media?

  • When characters have a wardrobe that they cycle through in a season/series, and you see the same articles of clothing occasionally re-worn, the way a normal person would.

Seinfeld comes to mind as the obvious example. Just recently noticed this a few times in Halt and Catch Fire.

Can't find it on tvtropes. Maybe it's not a trope at all, just a good costume department.

Related: "character always wears something different" (https://old.reddit.com/r/TopCharacterTropes/comments/1s4hq5p/love_design_trope_the_character_has_a_different/)

It's somewhere between that, and Limited Wardrobe. More like: "Character often wears something different, but not always, and sometimes re-wears the same clothes in different outfits"

I have spent far more time on this website than can possibly be healthy. I'll edit this comment when more tropes come to mind.

Reminder: TVTropes is censored (1 2). An alternative is AllTheTropes.

Can you explain WTF is the reason for censorship? it is unclear.

I'm not an expert on the topic, but it is my understanding that the admin of TV Tropes was compelled by the site's advertisers to remove pages on controversial topics. The linked page—for Time Braid, a super-fun Naruto fanfiction story that depicts sex between underage characters—is one example of a page that was removed from TV Tropes but has been restored on AllTheTropes.

Time Braid is a controversial Naruto fanfic that tends to have a fairly polarizing effect in the social justice era. no idea what KuroBaraHime is, googling indicates possibly some sort of e-girl?

My favorite trope is surrealism (technically a genre but it has a tvtropes page). Specifically surrealism that I can relate to the real world, I think because the real world is surreal. Advertisements, institutions, politicians, celebrities, social media…are caricatures of what we imagine is reasonable society, formed from our idolization of the past. (Though fortunately, less so lived experience; closer to me becomes more normal, because it’s how I came to define normal).

And I hate to be cynical, but predict everything will get weirder. Imagine what people from the 1800s would think of today, or cavemen of the 1800s.

It’s not a bad thing, though not good, it just is. A related trope is Cosmic Bliss, though I like when it’s not bliss but just not irreconcilable horror.

Examples: TADC, ENA (I didn’t like until it “clicked” that ENA depicts an autistic worldview and masking). I wish I had examples that aren’t silly cartoons.

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