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PaperclipPerfector  14hr ago (text post)   537 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?

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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