Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2015 January 17

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January 17

Is there a serious dictionary of recurring things in entertainment?

I think it's a great idea to have a comprehensive database, dictionary or list of recurring themes in mainstream entertainment. I've searched but all I can find is tvtropes.org which is too wanna-be funny and negative. Is there a serious alternative? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.245.202.14 (talk) 09:25, 17 January 2015 (UTC)

I think we're stuck. Mainstream entertainment is generally wanna-be funny and negative. You watch enough of it to build a comprehensive database, it's going to rub off.

There's this thematic dictionary of allusions I like, but it's not very deep, and tends toward entertainment that used to be mainstream. Seriously, though. InedibleHulk (talk) 09:31, 17 January 2015 (UTC)

what you need is something like the Aarne–Thompson classification system. Maybe searching that term might lead to works on more modern tales. Rmhermen (talk) 17:17, 17 January 2015 (UTC)

Or one of these motif indices. InedibleHulk (talk) 22:12, 17 January 2015 (UTC)

There is a whole wiki about that, TV Tropes. It details everything, from the "happy ending" or "an aesop" items, to more specific ones such as "Luke, I am your father" or "Bolivian army ending" Cambalachero (talk) 00:00, 18 January 2015 (UTC)

Yeah the OP specifically mentioned that website and said he wanted something more serious. --Viennese Waltz 09:40, 19 January 2015 (UTC)

Reading is Cool. InedibleHulk (talk) 00:34, 18 January 2015 (UTC)

Hi. I'm the OP. I was led to TV Tropes again tonight. And now I know more about yaoi than I have ever wanted to know. Darn you Tv Tropes, your name should be "thewebsitewhereeverylittlethingleadstoyaoi.com" because that's 90% true. That's why I didn't want to use the site, I knew from ending up there in the past that clicking around that site regardless if I was looking up perfectly manly superheroes or perfectly masculine video games that TV Tropes would offer me link after link leading me down a rapidly deteriorating path of yaoi stuff. Heck, you can even look up a girl there and the site will eventually lead you to gay sex. And the term I saw that led me there? "Foe Yay". I saw it and I thought to myself, "I've been on Cracked for hours, I'll Google this little ditty then go to bed. I bet it's something funny - maybe some kind of funny kung-fu." Oh, how wrong I was. Now I know all kinds of yaoi-related things including that the Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged Series which they claimed was a fun mocking parody on a DBZ page, quickly devolved from being slightly humorous to being gay porn fan fiction about the character I really rooted for as a kid. Thanks, TV Tropes and my dogged pursuit of comedy tonight, for taking something innocent and ruining it for me with internet pervert's imaginations. NOT! If only I could rewing about 5 hours, not get on Cracked and instead just go the eff to sleep. I just really wanted to cheer up tonight and now I feel even worse. Oh well. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2602:306:8051:4D60:7917:4287:7704:886E (talk) 11:14, 20 January 2015 (UTC)

So when you say "serious alternative", you really just want "the same, but no gay stuff"? APL (talk) 17:01, 20 January 2015 (UTC)