Fans Talk: TV Tropes II

Akin to references across the series, every well-known sitcom is going to have similar stories and plots and characters to other, perhaps lesser-known stories. Everybody’s human and everyone’s a critic. The popular website tvtropes.org knows a thing or two about the nuances and styles of narrative—from character types to relationship formats to how the next season finale will likely end.

A pretty useful site for How I Met Your Mother, yes?

The fans talk about what they may. Tropes the website spies in our beloved show include:

Hilarity Ensues. The common catchphrase following the main, oftentimes incredibly dire, plots. If hilarity didn’t ensue—and much of the time, it does not—the results for the character would be very grim indeed. Take our Ted Mosby. If hilarity didn’t spring from Jeanette wrecking his apartment, he’d be left homeless. If the Rule of Funny didn’t have his back, he’d spend his seasons lost and alone. Doesn’t make for very good TV.

Romantic False Lead. As the title suggests, this character either creates tension between the main character and the true romantic lead, or blindsides the audience by ending up not the actual endeavor. See: Robin Scherbatsky. For fluxuating seasons we called her the Mother. Now? We’re happy to see her blossom into Aunt Robin.

The Casanova. “The sexual predator — a man who relentlessly pursues, lands, loves and then abandons members of the opposite sex.” Gee, I-wonder-who-this-could-be.

Unreliable Narrator. One typically assumes the narrator tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth…until you land yourself Future Ted. With a memory fit for 2030, Ted Mosby often forgets small details or twists the true tale for our audience. As in the last episode…still not sure what happened there.

The best part of How I Met Your Mother? Its suit isn’t four-pieced. Check out the rest on tvtropes.org!

"Give Geeks A Chance"

I think we all noticed yesterday’s episode of The Big Bang Theory really examined stereotyping. The writers build the show entirely around stereotype anyway: four “nerds” of four different “classes” spend time across the hall from a “normal,” attractive female.
Now, in reality, the above definitions assume far too much, based on maybe the pilot episode. Any thorough BBT viewer knows they’re anything but totally true. In that regard, the last episode turned all the show’s stereotypes, as we knew them, on their heads.

All the same, I want to touch on the tropes we see in the series, but don’t actively acknowledge. We may see them as “common themes” in movies and TV shows anyplace. I see them as both helpful, and harmful, frames and boxes.

I sourced tvtropes.org for some specific idiom names and came across the most obvious series trope, highlighted by the very show itself: the “Nerd Nanny” trope.

The website explains, “You are one of Two Gamers on a Couch, enthralled by the latest noisy console game…As you are about to deliver the final blow, a mysterious figure steps between you and the television. Who could it be? Oh, it's just your extremely hot female roommate trying to get you to do something other than play video games.”

Or, for a more specific Leonard vs. Penny situation, the “Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl” idiom: “The usual gender stereotype is that guys are physically better…while girls are soft, but nice, or just smart. This averts that stereotype hard (for the most part at least): the guy is the smart but physically inept one and it seems he got himself the company of a girl who most guys would have trouble keeping up with in the first place.”

Either of these sounds familiar? In that they breach the “regular,” overplayed idea of “nerd guy” vs. “hot girl,” they create their own, equally common stereotypes. My questions are these: why would it be so unheard of for a girl to enjoy common “nerd” activities? Why is it hard to imagine that a “nerd” could possess any attractive qualities?

Do you think the last episode conveyed that yes, girls can release their inner geek? Comment with your opinions, and in the meantime, get excited for the next TBBT installment!