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Multiple Choice Form Letter
- 95 statements
- 17 feature instances
- 6 referencing feature instances
| Multiple Choice Form Letter | type |
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| Multiple Choice Form Letter | label |
Multiple Choice Form Letter | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter | page |
MultipleChoiceFormLetter | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter | comment |
A form of letter or other writing where the least amount of personalization has been made via circling multiple choices or fill-in-the-blanks. The blanks are often names or dates, as these are elements that are impossible to make uniform. For example a letter might start "Dear [ ], we were happy to receive your opinions on [ ]" so that the blanks can be filled in and customized with the correct name and information later. In Real Life this trope is simply a practical way to save effort, but in fiction it is often played for laughs as a fill-in-the-blanks letter contains faux-sincere language or is hilariously inapplicable to the given situation. This is actually the concept behind the children's game, Mad Libs where a short story is told with blanks left so that a group can yell out random words fill it in creating a humorous nonsense story. A common gag with such letters is for the whole thing to be read in full, including Reading the Stage Directions Out Loud; "Dear square bracket name of recipient square bracket we are pleased slash sorry to inform you..." When the trope is verbalized it becomes Mad Libs Dialogue. Not to be confused with Multiple-Choice Past which is something entirely different. |
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2024-03-18T13:32:17Z | |
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Dropped link to AwesomeAussie: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to MarkedBullet: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
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Dropped link to TheSeventies: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter | isPartOf |
DBTropes | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_14afa9d | type |
Multiple Choice Form Letter | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_14afa9d | comment |
The very brief Sleepless Domain fic "Condolences" takes the form of a stock letter from the City Defense Department to the parents of a Magical Girl (in this case, Sylvia) to inform them that their daughter has been killed in the line of duty. The concept alone puts a disturbingly impersonal and "business-as-usual" spin on the Death of a Child, which is very much in line with the source material. | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_14afa9d | featureApplicability |
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| Sleepless Domain (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
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| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_468bebb0 | type |
Multiple Choice Form Letter | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_468bebb0 | comment |
In Discworld, Corporal Carrot doesn't seem to grasp the concept of form letters as he leads the new Night Watch recruits in taking the oath: | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_468bebb0 | featureApplicability |
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| Discworld | hasFeature |
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| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_5307b01d | type |
Multiple Choice Form Letter | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_5307b01d | comment |
In Penny Arcade, Tycho writes a comic using blanks so that he has a comic ready about a convention he has yet to attend. It's played for laughs because it results in Mad Libs Dialogue. | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_5307b01d | featureApplicability |
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| Penny Arcade (Webcomic) | hasFeature |
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| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_6ad790d3 | type |
Multiple Choice Form Letter | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_6ad790d3 | comment |
The Big Book of Top Gear includes a parody form letter for Daily Mail readers to use every time they want to complain about the show, with checkboxes for things like "I was [disgusted/enraged/sickened/aroused] to see [Jeremy/James/That girl]..." and so on. | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_6ad790d3 | featureApplicability |
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| Top Gear (UK) | hasFeature |
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| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_8a08048e | type |
Multiple Choice Form Letter | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_8a08048e | comment |
Two of the physical task letters in Series 15 of Taskmaster took this form. In "Schrödinger's egg", each contestant was supposed to write down a number between 1 and 100, a length of time between 1 minute and 20 minutes, five ingredients, a country, a noun and an adjective. Their next task was to make a [adjective] [country adjectival] [noun] using all of the ingredients they specified, and to clap their chosen number of times before their chosen amount of time runs out. Kiell won the task, even when he only had 1 minute and 21 seconds to make a cowering Kenyan bench out of sausages, buns, ketchup, mustard, and grilled onions, and clap 7 times. In the team task of "A yardstick for failure", each team had to write the name of a profession in the hole in the task before opening it... revealing that their main task is to write and perform an original lullaby for that profession. Jenny, Kiell and Mae won the task with their lullaby about an artist. |
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| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_8a08048e | featureApplicability |
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| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_8a08048e | featureConfidence |
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| Taskmaster | hasFeature |
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| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_90a885d0 | type |
Multiple Choice Form Letter | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_90a885d0 | comment |
In How The Tantabus Parses Sleep, Princess Celestia uses these to reject suitors and advises Moondog to come up with one of her own: | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_90a885d0 | featureApplicability |
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| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_90a885d0 | featureConfidence |
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| Tantabus Mark II / Fan Fic | hasFeature |
Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_90a885d0 | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_a183d57f | type |
Multiple Choice Form Letter | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_a183d57f | comment |
Futurama: At the start of "Insane in the Mainframe," Hermes does the bare minimum to celebrate Zoidberg's anniversary with the company, not even bothering to alter the template for the celebration speech. | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_a183d57f | featureApplicability |
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| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_a183d57f | featureConfidence |
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| Futurama | hasFeature |
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| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_ad283518 | type |
Multiple Choice Form Letter | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_ad283518 | comment |
There are lots of these in Private Eye, in the form of apologies from papers. For example, in a year when news about youth anorexia and obesity had been circulating, the apology would end with the note: "For God's sake, [stop / keep] eating." | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_ad283518 | featureApplicability |
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| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_ad283518 | featureConfidence |
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| Private Eye (Magazine) | hasFeature |
Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_ad283518 | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_b2700e28 | type |
Multiple Choice Form Letter | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_b2700e28 | comment |
In If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device, Belisarius Cawl speaks like this. In canon, it's mentioned that Cawl is a Mind Hive of AI copies of his brain working together, but in TTS they're a bit discordant, leaving Cawl a Mood-Swinger who abruptly switches between feminine/calm/AGGRESSIVE words mid-sentence, such as when given a kill order by his boss. | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_b2700e28 | featureApplicability |
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| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_b2700e28 | featureConfidence |
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| If the Emperor Had a Text-to-Speech Device (Web Animation) | hasFeature |
Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_b2700e28 | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_b27fdd6d | type |
Multiple Choice Form Letter | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_b27fdd6d | comment |
In Catch-22 to show how little the commanding officers cared about their men, Colonel Cathcart and Lieutenant Colonel Korn use a form letter to tell the relatives of soldiers that their [Husband / Father / Brother / Son] has been [Wounded / Killed / Captured]. | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_b27fdd6d | featureApplicability |
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| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_b27fdd6d | featureConfidence |
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| Catch-22 | hasFeature |
Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_b27fdd6d | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_bcb32dc6 | type |
Multiple Choice Form Letter | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_bcb32dc6 | comment |
Shadowrun sometimes used this with electronic form letters. The computer sending the letter decides which phrase to use depending on the recipient's status. | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_bcb32dc6 | featureApplicability |
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| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_bcb32dc6 | featureConfidence |
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| Shadowrun (Tabletop Game) | hasFeature |
Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_bcb32dc6 | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_c0d295c4 | type |
Multiple Choice Form Letter | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_c0d295c4 | comment |
Saxton Hale from Team Fortress 2 responds to events in the real world with letters of this form, with one for fans ordering items and one for inventors and invention thieves. | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_c0d295c4 | featureApplicability |
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| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_c0d295c4 | featureConfidence |
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| Team Fortress 2 (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_c0d295c4 | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_c43df4d8 | type |
Multiple Choice Form Letter | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_c43df4d8 | comment |
Doctor Who: To overcome his current incarnations Lack of Empathy, the Twelfth Doctor and Clara devised a set of cue cards with stock phrases to reassure or apologise to scared people they are trying to save. The only problem is that the Doctor will read what is written out on the card in full, without inflection. While we only see one example of this trope in action, there are multiple cue cards with the multiple choice options. | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_c43df4d8 | featureApplicability |
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| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_c43df4d8 | featureConfidence |
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| Doctor Who | hasFeature |
Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_c43df4d8 | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_d26874b6 | type |
Multiple Choice Form Letter | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_d26874b6 | comment |
In Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Greg uses a form with blanks to write thank-you notes to his relatives for their Christmas presents. It's not very personal. | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_d26874b6 | featureApplicability |
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| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_d26874b6 | featureConfidence |
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| Diary of a Wimpy Kid | hasFeature |
Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_d26874b6 | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_e235270c | type |
Multiple Choice Form Letter | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_e235270c | comment |
In Stellaris, the Contingency that may spawn as an endgame Crisis faction communicates like this, as it announces its intention to redact/offline/dismantle the sapient races of the galaxy. It's another indication that it's not functioning quite right. | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_e235270c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_e235270c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Stellaris (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_e235270c | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_f0a86c12 | type |
Multiple Choice Form Letter | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_f0a86c12 | comment |
How I Met Your Mother: Barney has a form letter he leaves to girls who he sleeps with and then walks out on. At one point, he cannot remember the girls name and simply fills in "Resident". In one episode, Marshall rereads an old Mad Libs book where every word he's filled in is some form of "fart". He still finds it pretty funny. |
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| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_f0a86c12 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_f0a86c12 | featureConfidence |
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| How I Met Your Mother | hasFeature |
Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_f0a86c12 | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_f8acc9ea | type |
Multiple Choice Form Letter | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_f8acc9ea | comment |
In Control, this is how the Board, the Enigmatic Empowering Entity, speaks, occasionally giving you several options for its lines. Usually, the options are functionally identical, which makes the ones that don't seem to mean the same... ever so slightly unsettling. | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_f8acc9ea | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_f8acc9ea | featureConfidence |
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| Control (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Multiple Choice Form Letter / int_f8acc9ea |
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