Search/Recent Changes
DBTropes
...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!

Joke Title, Real Role

 Joke Title, Real Role
type
FeatureClass
 Joke Title, Real Role
label
Joke Title, Real Role
 Joke Title, Real Role
page
JokeTitleRealRole
 Joke Title, Real Role
comment
There are plenty of nicknames and epithets we use, insulting or endearing, to describe people in our day-to-day lives. Some of these can even be rather grandiose: calling someone the "King of [X]" or the "[X] police", and so on and so forth. Everyone collectively understands that this is just hyperbole and that it's not a real position.
This trope is when such a nickname is Not Hyperbole in the slightest. It's depicted as an actual title or profession with real authority and responsibilities. The Team Mom isn't just the informal leader of the team, they're the legal guardian of everyone on it. The "fun police" aren't just people who act as buzzkills, they're a real law enforcement agency who have the authority to arrest people who have too much enjoyment in their presence. The King of the Homeless has full legal power over every hobo in his domain. And God help you if you make a typo while you're under the jurisdiction of the Grammar Nazis.
This is most often Played for Laughs as a Joke and Receive, where someone sarcastically mentions the joke title and the real role is revealed to exist shortly after. For example, Alice says that Bob should change his outfit because his jacket clashes with his shoes. He tempts fate by asking "What are you gonna do, call the fashion police on me?" before stepping outside, where he is immediately ticketed by the Fashion Police for crimes against style.
A subtrope of Literal Metaphor. Compare Not Hyperbole, Serious Business, Mundane Made Awesome, Cue the Flying Pigs, and And I'm the Queen of Sheba.
 Joke Title, Real Role
fetched
2023-08-01T14:15:25Z
 Joke Title, Real Role
parsed
2023-08-01T14:15:25Z
 Joke Title, Real Role
processingComment
Dropped link to PlayedWith: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Joke Title, Real Role
isPartOf
DBTropes
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_3095b3a0
type
Joke Title, Real Role
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_3095b3a0
comment
Cyanide and Happiness:
Played With in one strip◊. A literal Grammar Nazi appears in front of two men, who start begging for their lives. The Grammar Nazi starts dragging one away, and he says "Our grammar was correct! Why me?!" to which the Grammar Nazi replies "Because you're a Jew."
Another strip shows an Old Western town's "Grammar Sheriff," who shoots the normal Sheriff dead for saying "That don't seem like no kinda Sheriff to me."
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_3095b3a0
featureApplicability
1.0
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_3095b3a0
featureConfidence
1.0
 Cyanide and Happiness (Webcomic)
hasFeature
Joke Title, Real Role / int_3095b3a0
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_33860f9f
type
Joke Title, Real Role
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_33860f9f
comment
Scott Pilgrim features the Vegan Police, an enforcement unit responsible for patroling the vegans, who in the series' universe gain "vegan superpowers" from their vegan diet; the Vegan Police revokes these powers from any vegan who's caught cheating on their diet. They're named after the real-life "vegan police" slang, which is used to refer to hardline vegans who impose their standards on other vegans/vegetarians and berate them for not matching up.
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_33860f9f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_33860f9f
featureConfidence
1.0
 Scott Pilgrim (Comic Book)
hasFeature
Joke Title, Real Role / int_33860f9f
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_46518682
type
Joke Title, Real Role
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_46518682
comment
Sesame Street: In "Lead Away", Oscar insultingly refers to some characters as the "Lead Police" for preaching to him about avoiding lead poisoning. Then, a parody of The Police shows up and sings about how they're the Lead Police.
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_46518682
featureApplicability
1.0
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_46518682
featureConfidence
1.0
 Sesame Street
hasFeature
Joke Title, Real Role / int_46518682
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_492240cf
type
Joke Title, Real Role
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_492240cf
comment
In the world of the MADtv (1995) sketch "Be-Bitched" (a parody of Bewitched), "bitch" isn't just a term for a mean woman, but a race of magical beings similar to witches from the original show. As one such "bitch", Samantha's "bitchcraft" consists of twitching her nose to turn herself into a Sassy Black Woman who tells everybody around her where to shove it.
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_492240cf
featureApplicability
1.0
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_492240cf
featureConfidence
1.0
 MADtv (1995)
hasFeature
Joke Title, Real Role / int_492240cf
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_58907201
type
Joke Title, Real Role
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_58907201
comment
Sinfest: In one strip, a pair of uniformed Grammar Nazis beat up Slick for not using the subjunctive (saying "If I was" instead of "If I were"). Squigly is then arrested by the Thought Police.
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_58907201
featureApplicability
1.0
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_58907201
featureConfidence
1.0
 Sinfest (Webcomic)
hasFeature
Joke Title, Real Role / int_58907201
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_5afbc0cb
type
Joke Title, Real Role
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_5afbc0cb
comment
Undertale: In the neutral ending where Undyne becomes the ruler of the Underground, if Papyrus is alive, he is appointed "The Most Important Royal Position", which he clarifies is his actual title. His job is to stand around and look cute.
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_5afbc0cb
featureApplicability
1.0
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_5afbc0cb
featureConfidence
1.0
 Undertale (Video Game)
hasFeature
Joke Title, Real Role / int_5afbc0cb
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_80942169
type
Joke Title, Real Role
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_80942169
comment
Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide: In the "Guide to Clothes" episode, Missy forms a brigade of fashion police, who go around ticketing anyone who isn’t dressed fashionably. Moze sarcastically applies the title, which Missy matter-of-factly confirms.
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_80942169
featureApplicability
1.0
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_80942169
featureConfidence
1.0
 Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide
hasFeature
Joke Title, Real Role / int_80942169
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_90a3a7f4
type
Joke Title, Real Role
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_90a3a7f4
comment
Kim Possible: "Fashion Victim" features literal fashion police... who do seem to investigate actual fashion-related crimes (hey, it is a billion-dollar industry), but also seem to take ticketing tacky outfits just as seriously.
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_90a3a7f4
featureApplicability
1.0
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_90a3a7f4
featureConfidence
1.0
 Kim Possible
hasFeature
Joke Title, Real Role / int_90a3a7f4
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_a4420d22
type
Joke Title, Real Role
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_a4420d22
comment
The Venture Bros.: In Baron Werner Ünderbheit's home county of Ünderland, two students becoming lab partners is apparently a sacred bond of great social and legal significance. When Werner's lab partner Rusty Venture allegedly caused an explosion that blew off his jaw, Werner declared himself Venture's archnemesis for life.
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_a4420d22
featureApplicability
1.0
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_a4420d22
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Venture Bros.
hasFeature
Joke Title, Real Role / int_a4420d22
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_c289250b
type
Joke Title, Real Role
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_c289250b
comment
The first episode of Ripping Yarns, "Tomkinson's Schooldays", is a parody of Tom Brown's Schooldays, in which "School Bully" is an official position that comes with outrageous privileges and the unspoken expectation to insult and abuse everyone (including the teachers and headmaster). Grayson, who holds the post, demands that everyone call him School Bully, and introduces himself as such (instead of by name) when he answers the phone. At the end of the story, the battered titular protagonist inherits the position from Grayson, who has vacated it to accept the position of School Bully at Eton (because their School Bully has left to join the government).
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_c289250b
featureApplicability
1.0
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_c289250b
featureConfidence
1.0
 Ripping Yarns
hasFeature
Joke Title, Real Role / int_c289250b
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_c3582c4e
type
Joke Title, Real Role
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_c3582c4e
comment
King of the Nerds: At the end of each season, the winner is treated like a literal King of the Nerds, being given a coronation ceremony and seated on the Throne of Games (a throne built out of pop culture paraphernalia that resembles the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones).
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_c3582c4e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_c3582c4e
featureConfidence
1.0
 King of the Nerds
hasFeature
Joke Title, Real Role / int_c3582c4e
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_ca5d97f1
type
Joke Title, Real Role
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_ca5d97f1
comment
Monty Python's Flying Circus: One famous sketch opens with Graham Chapman's character being pestered by Carol Cleveland. He gets fed up with her constant questions and says, "I didn't expect some kind of Spanish Inquisition!" Suddenly, a bunch of Spanish cardinals burst in the room while a dramatic orchestral sting plays, with their leader exclaiming "NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition!"
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_ca5d97f1
featureApplicability
1.0
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_ca5d97f1
featureConfidence
1.0
 Monty Python's Flying Circus
hasFeature
Joke Title, Real Role / int_ca5d97f1
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_fe58ae7f
type
Joke Title, Real Role
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_fe58ae7f
comment
The Adam and Joe Show: One recurring segment was titled Vinyl Justice, a parody of police Reality Shows where Adam and Joe would play two "Music Police" and investigate celebrities' music collections for albums of questionable taste. VH1 made it a short-lived standalone show in 1998 starring Barry Sobel and Wayne Brady.
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_fe58ae7f
featureApplicability
1.0
 Joke Title, Real Role / int_fe58ae7f
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Adam and Joe Show
hasFeature
Joke Title, Real Role / int_fe58ae7f

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Joke Title, Real Role
processingCategory2
Comedy Tropes
 Joke Title, Real Role
processingCategory2
What Do You Mean, It's Not an Index?
 MADtv (1995) / int_50ad748
type
Joke Title, Real Role
 Monty Python's Flying Circus / int_50ad748
type
Joke Title, Real Role
 Ripping Yarns / int_50ad748
type
Joke Title, Real Role