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.

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u/Craiques Sep 06 '26

699

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

493

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.

129

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!

31

u/pajamakitten Sep 06 '26

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

"What's a dimininier?"

15

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

10

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.

14

u/wrathy_tyro Sep 06 '26

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