r/TopCharacterTropes • u/KalzK • Sep 06 '26

miscellaneous Tropes that became problematic

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The Persistent Suitor: A guy who is after the girl and just wont take no for an answer. Nowadays we just call stalking and harassment, but it used to be romantic. Example: The Notebook (2004), Noah asks Allie out while she's on a date with another man. She refuses, but he threatens to let go and fall unless she agrees to go out with him.

Comedic Woman On Man Violence: Mostly seen in anime, recently it has decreased a lot but years back every show had a woman hitting a guy and showed it as funny. Example: Toradora!, where the quintessential tsundere, Taiga, beats up the MC regularly.

Kid Bags Adult Baddie: I remember a few of these, sometimes it was to show how cool and awesome a kid was because an adult woman fell for him, now it's just seen as problematic shit. Example: Blank Check, the woman likes the kid and kisses him telling him to look for her in 10 years.

14.2k Upvotes

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1.1k

u/Zealousideal-Tax-937 Sep 06 '26

the sassy black woman. was funny back then, is now considered a racist and lazy trope

1.2k

u/Craiques Sep 06 '26

698

u/Acheloma Sep 06 '26

Community is a weird mix of calling out harmful tropes and also falling into them, like the "we try not to sexualized annie" joke

497

u/Situation-Busy Sep 06 '26

It's a comedy staple. You can get away by using cheap tropes as long as you make it a joke at the same time. TONS of comedies do that.

185

u/Salarian_American Sep 06 '26

The only way to deconstruct a harmful trope is from the inside

14

u/AgentCirceLuna Sep 06 '26

That’s why I’m co-leader of the Republican Party. I just didn’t expect to become Veep.

9

u/Draffut Sep 06 '26

Guys look! It's Jorken Dapenis Vance!

3

u/AgentCirceLuna Sep 06 '26

No, fucking way… that’s… no.. no, that can’t be his real name?! This guy is s JOKE!

128

u/OmecronPerseiHate Sep 06 '26

Best example, again in Community, is the Christmas episode when Annie gets all dumb and sexual and Jeff is NOT into it but that's the joke so it happens anyways

76

u/No_Helicopter1378 Sep 06 '26

Boopy doopy doop bop SEX!

32

u/pajamakitten Sep 06 '26

"I think you hit a point of diminishing returns on the sexiness."

"What's a dimininier?"

14

u/An_Sach Sep 06 '26

I think jeff is into it considering it successfully convinced him to sing but he's just weirded out because Annie doesn't act normal

11

u/Greyjack00 Sep 06 '26

There's also the UN episode that shows that Jeff is into Annie acting naive and stuff and it is weird. Having that joke where when Annie's throwing a tantrum he declares "your acting like a schoolgirl and not in a hot way" before panning to show everyone staring at him.

16

u/wrathy_tyro Sep 06 '26

By the end of the song she’s not even speaking actual words. It’s hilarious

10

u/RemnantsPast Sep 06 '26

This is a great in example community of what you're saying
sadly the irony of this joke being lost on people and getting the episode pulled

8

u/autumnalreign Sep 06 '26

That's basically 30 Rock's entire shtick and people love that show

7

u/petrichorax Sep 06 '26

Lamp shading

3

u/PunningLynguist Sep 06 '26

Sometimes not even limited to comedy

As recently as this year, The Boys early in the last season had a character who was talking about a Vought movie that had a controversial ending and having to fanservice many main characters to explain why his work didnt stick the land

Definitely a bit of social commentary on how the season ended up

3

u/milkymoony611 Sep 06 '26

it's called lampshading

1

u/c05m05i5 Sep 06 '26

Lampshading?

21

u/YuushyaHinmeru Sep 06 '26

I mean, Allison brie was 27 during season one. That joke only makes sense in universe.

113

u/Krunksicle Sep 06 '26

That's the joke, that they're hypocrites.

166

u/Happy-Telephone9483 Sep 06 '26

I can excuse racism, but I draw the line at hypocrisy.

90

u/prdcroftme Sep 06 '26

you can excuse what

69

u/HeiressOfMadrigal Sep 06 '26

22

u/mbanson Sep 06 '26

Oh... Britta's in this thread? =/

7

u/1-800-COCAINE Sep 06 '26

Lmao @ the people not realizing this is a quote from the show

7

u/JasonVeritech Sep 06 '26

that's because the worst part was the hypocrisy

6

u/funguyshroom Sep 06 '26

My favorite part is how they wrote Pierce to closely resemble Chevy Chase IRL so that his actual asshole personality would be getting made fun of.

19

u/Hilgy17 Sep 06 '26

In order to be a good satire you have to know and be good at what you’re satirizing.

Starship troopers is a good dumb action flick while making fun of militarized action movies and propaganda

Princess Bride is an awesome romantic adventure while making fun of fantasy romance novels

Blazing Saddles is a wholesome “everyone comes together to beat the bandits” western while poking fun at hokey white washed wholesome westerns

9

u/Mookies_Bett Sep 06 '26

I mean yeah, cuz they're making fun of them. It's a comedy, that's the whole point

7

u/Galle_ Sep 06 '26

Isn't the whole point of the "we try not to sexualize Annie" joke that she is in fact a grown woman?

4

u/Tariovic Sep 06 '26

Yvette's delivery of that line is the best thing in the whole show.

-2

u/ZapMaster117 Sep 06 '26

I didn't like her character a lot of the time. She could be pretty racist against other characters, like some of her comments about white people.

11

u/Ok_Dragonfruit_8102 Sep 06 '26

They wrote her to be unlikeable on purpose

1

u/AAHHAI Sep 06 '26

The point of community is that all of the characters are the worst