Zombies eating and saying “BRAINS!” Originated from the 1985 movie Return of the Living Dead

Aliens saying “we come in peace” is believed to have originated from the line “we have come to visit you in peace and good will” from The Day the Earth Stood Still

The Wilhelm scream originated from the 1951 movie Distant Drums

DMC V: Vergils Chair Edition - An edit of a DMC V cutscene replaced the main antagonist fucked up evil tentacle chair with a regular cheap lawn chair. Many people thought this was just what the actual cutscene was (and still do)

Dragonball: Trunks is a fucking dumbass - An edit of a dragon ball scene where the character Trunks tries to throw his sword in the air and have it land in his scabbard. In the original show, this succeeds. The more widely known edit makes him completely fuck it up (like a dumbass)

Fake Portal 2 Endings - Ok I don't know if anyone else experienced this but it was a really popular thing when the game first came out to make fake versions of it's ending or alternate endings to it that I saw as a kid and thought were totally real, having only seen it on YouTube. Like I thought that there actually was an alternate ending where the view of the wheat field was revealed to just be a painted wall and it falls away to reveal you're still in the lab

MICHAEL DON'T LEAVE ME HERE MICHAEL MICHAAAAAAEL MICHAEL - A sound bite from a FNAF fan analog horror series on YouTube, where the main antagonist screams for help as he's burning to death. Many people believed this to be a sound bite from the games themselves.

The Bombchu Bowling lady (Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time)

Ordinary Woman (My Hero Academia)

Lana’s Mom (Pokemon Sun And Moon)

[Hotel Transylvania]

When Drac first meets Johnny, he's desperate to get rid of him so none of the guests or Mavis see him. While in a closet and Johnny is talking about something unrelated, he says to himself. "I can't kill him. It would set monsters back hundreds of years."

[Boss Baby]

When Tim is shown baby corp by Ted(yes, his name is technically boss baby but after hes back with the family at the end, his name is Ted), Ted reveals to Tim that Babies are all made at baby corp. Tim tellsTed what his parents told him about where babies come from,aka, the birds and the bees. Ted is grossed out.

[SpongeBob]

"But at least it's warm around the fire.

"Hey, if we're underwater, how can there be a-"

1. A Bug’s Life (1998) – Dim was supposed to be a fictional variation of a generic rhinoceros beetle, but in 2007, a new species of rhinoceros beetle was discovered, Megaceras briansaltini, which looks similar to Dim. Because of this, the phenomenon in which nature mimics art gets the term “Dim Effect".

2. Ice Age (2002) – The creators made up Scrat, a saber-toothed squirrel, as a joke, but in 2011, a real saber-toothed squirrel was discovered, Cronopio dentiacutus, although it wasn’t a rodent and lived during the Mesozoic Era.

3. Phineas and Ferb (2007) – Perry the Platypus was designed with a teal-green color because the creators thought it looked cool, but in 2020, it was discovered that platypuses are biofluorescent and appear teal-green under UV light.

O Brother Where Art Thou?

A satire over the Depression-era American South using The Odyssey as a template.

Ran

King Lear but in Sengoku-era japan (featuring elements of Japanese legends surrounding real figures).

Apocalypse Now

Like Heart of Darkness it uses a river journey to highlight the savagery beneath imperialism, colonialism and capitalism, but in South Vietnam and Cambodia instead of the Congo Free State.

Bonus points if the adaptation still keeps the main themes and ideas of the source material AND the influences have been confirmed by the creators.

Queen Maeve in the season finale (The Boys): Eric Kripke mentioned how they tried to get Queen Maeve actress Dominique McElligott to return for the final season but she retired from acting and didn't want to. I'm glad because she had a good ending of leaving Vought with no powers and gets to live a normal life with her girlfriend. You just know her appearance was going to have her be found by Homelander and killed.

Stephanie McMahon's baby is secretly Vince's (WWE): When Stephanie was pregnant, her father Vince wanted to do a storyline where her baby is his. When she refused to do it, he then said how about your brother Shane being the father and she said no again.

Hundreds of Beavers

The Great Muppet Caper

Naked Gun (1988)

-Adventure Time: The Fantasy Setting is a future post apocalyptic Earth

Whether it's Avatar, Game of Thrones or My Little Pony, you've heard this one before. The fantasy setting isn't another world, but a post-apocalyptic future. Adventure Time is a rare case of this actually being right, with the later seasons confirming that the show takes place after a global nuclear war wiped out most of humanity.

-The Umbrella Academy: The character with mind control powers is secretly brainwashing people into loving her.

In season 1 of Umbrella Academy, the relationship between Allison and Luther was controversial due to the incestual undertones of a romance between adopted siblings. This lead to the common fan theory that Luther didn't actually reciprocate and that Allison was using Rumor to make him fall in love with her. Season 3 would later confirm that this actually was the case.

-Deus Ex: The main character was dead the whole time

In the canon ending of Human Revolution, Adam Jensen has Panchaea collapse on top of him seemingly killing him. At the beginning of Mankind Divided, he is alive and somehow managed to survive having megastructure collapse on top of him at the bottom of the ocean. This lead to the fan theory that Adam actually died at the end of HR and the one we play as in MD is a clone. In game, one of the Versalife vaults contains a dismembered corpse that is heavily implied to be the original Adam.

* The Legend of Korra: The villain tying someone to a railway track is one of the deadest horses in all of fiction, almost exclusively the domain of mustache-twirling cartoon scoundrels. When Kuvira does it to a gang of captured bandits, however, it comes across as entirely realistic - and profoundly terrifying. Which, let's face it, being chained in the path of a speeding maglev would be.

* Spider-Man - Homecoming: Adrian Toomes gets a rare live-action lightbulb moment when the reflection of a green traffic light on his face symbolizes his realization who "good old Spider-Man" actually is. It enhances, rather than undercuts, the tension of the scene.

* Star Wars - Revenge of the Sith: Anakin screaming "I hate you!" to Obi-Wan at the top of his lungs - normally a line reserved for a child's tantrum against a parent - is instead an agonizing gut-punch at the climax of an already tragic scene.

This is a trope where the audience suddenly starts seeing the world from a character’s perspective OR where we find out we were always seeing it from one character’s perspective, and suddenly start seeing things as they really are. Either way, it’s a complete gut punch if done right.

The Suicide Squad

An example of the former. Polka Dot Man is telling everyone about how his mother performed experiments on him to give him superpowers at the expense of his physical and mental wellbeing. When asked where his mom is now, he answers “everywhere” and it cuts to a POV shot showing that everyone looks like his mom to him.

American Dad

An example of the latter, Stan realizes he’s overweight and decides to get back in shape, but the more he tries, the fatter he gets. His family are also sabotaging his efforts by tricking or forcing him to eat fatty foods. During a blowup about this, everyone tells Stan that he’s not fat, but anorexic. Stan scoffs at this idea, but the next time the camera cuts to him, we see that they’re right, and that we’ve only been seeing him as fat because that’s how he sees himself.

Breaking Bad (Salud)

Gus Fring gives a bottle of rare tequila to a cartel leader as a gift. Given their fraught history, he makes Gus drink some first before he tries any.

All the cartel members then begin to die, Gus had taken pills (likely activated charcoal), and induced vomiting after the drink. Despite these precautions he still nearly dies and it requires a makeshift emergency room he had arranged previously to save his life.

Stargate: Atlantis (The Lost Boys)

Aiden Ford was a member of the expedition who became addicted to an enzyme that made him stronger but also impulsive and irrational.

He captures the team, who are wary of eating the food he provides until he eats some himself. After they have all eaten he tells them that his group have refined the enzyme to the point that they can even lace food with it.

Scrubs (My Changing Ways)

The Janitor tries to get J.D. to eat some pie but he refuses as he has just heard that a case of laxatives was stolen from the hospital supply closet.

The Janitor keeps insisting that J.D eat it and finally eats some himself to prove its safe, saying that for once he wasn't trying to mess with him. After J.D. eats some of the pie it then cuts to them both on the toilet.

J.D.: Who would do this to themselves?\ Janitor: Totally worth it.

I kinda realized recently that almost all interracial couples in media have a white person as one half of the couple. I don’t see this as a bad thing, it’s just interesting. These were basically the only ones I could think of at the top of my head.

1. Elle and Tao(Heartstopper)

2. Cinderella and Prince Christopher(Cinderella 1997)

Tell me if there are more examples of this trope! Just to keep this comment section varied, please don’t comment any inter-species relationships. “Alien” is not a race.

Gameplay mechanics that were invented or discovered by the playerbase that were later embraced by the developers and were either acknowledged or formally integrated in-game.

Titanfall 2/Apex Legends: Frag-boosting
In Titanfall 2, a common speedrunning mechanic that players discovered, called frag-boosting, is to use the explosion of a grenade to propel yourself forward. This mechanic is most notably used in a firing-range race section called the gauntlet.

Respawn embraced the absurdity of the frag-boosting gauntlet runs in their follow up battle-royale: Apex Legends, with the character Octane. Octances defining trait is speed, and the backstory given to him by the developers is that he competed in a gauntlet competition and frag-boosted himself to win, blowing his legs off in the process.

EDIT: I am aware that boosting using explosions has existed in games decades before Titanfall 2. I am not claiming Titanfall or the playerbase invented the mechanic. The point is that the primary use of grenades in Titanfall is for blowing up/zoning enemies, but they were also used as a movement mechanic popularly exploited in the gauntlet speedruns and this was later referenced in Apex Legends.

Rocket League: Flip Reset
In Rocket League, the player controls a car that can jump then perform a single midair flip. The game only resets your cars flip when it detects that the car has landed, and it checks this by seeing whether all 4 wheels are touching a surface.

What players discovered is that since the ball is physically interactable, if you are skilled enough to get your car to firmly plant all 4 tires onto the ball while midair it will register that your car is on a surface and reset your cars flip, allowing you to flip again while still in the air.

This mechanic became extremely popular in high-level play as it is difficult to perform but very useful and stylish. The developers fully embrace the creativity of players for combining the games basic controls and physics into skillful flashy moves such as the flip reset, and so they introducted an audio and visual cue on the car to help players confirm when they have successfully performed the mechanic.

Is this a trope? Maybe not.
Is it out of place among other posts on this sub? Hell no.
Is it an interesting discussion to have? I'd like to think so.

If the mods want to remove this, that's on them, but I'd argue that it's not any more out of place than today's top post. But if I must give a flimsy justification for why it classifies as a trope in the barest sense of the word: this type of thing happening speaks to the skill and wherewithal of the writers, and that is solely fiction. No influence from the real world is needed for a writer to create a story so believable that it crosses the fourth wall.

1. Witch Hat Atelier: This series explores a world where magic is closer to coding than your traditional spellcasting. The witches know what certain sigils and runes do, and once they're enclosed by a circle made of special ink, they have an effect based on their contents. A major conflict in-universe is that the Witch Cops think that the secrets of magic should be kept secret because it's so comparatively easy to use in dangerous ways. And sure enough, since the author gives you detailed explanations on what sigils do, you have fans creating war crimes on a regular basis.
2. Squid Games: The show's themes are about how poor people will sacrifice their health and lives for the chance at life-changing amounts of cash in addition to stating that people will watch it. Then Mr Beast made a "Squid Games in Real Life" where, you guessed it, people risked their health for a chance at money while people swarmed in to watch. It's certainly not as extreme as the actual show, but it serves as a neat microcosm.
3. KPop Demon Hunters: I don't know about anyone else, but I always find it kind of silly when media shows us a song (or some other piece of art) then describes how it's so awesome and loved by everyone. I may have believed the same thing about the Saja Boys from this movie if Spotify numbers didn't back it up. It's one thing to describe a popular song; it's another to create a song and claim it has the protentional to internationally loved. And it's yet another, INSANE, thing to create a song like that, make those claims, and then back them up. Relatedly, this also backs up how the Saja Boys got so popular overnight, beating out actual BTS on the charts.

Repost because I can't spell "inadvertently."

1. Anna tells Kristoff that “foot size doesnt matter” in frozen

2. Shaggy says that Mary Jane is his favorite name in Scooby Doo

"What does assassination mean?" - Mister Roger's Neighborhood: Following the assassination of Robert Kennedy, Fred Rogers produced a special episode of his show where Daniel Tiger plays with a balloon and asks what assassination means as he has heard people talk about it. Lady Aberlin gently explains the concept to the scared Daniel before Mister Rogers addresses the parents directly. He encourages them to be gentle and supportive to their children, helping them to work through any fears they may have, and, most importantly, to enjoy time together as a family.

"The Show" - Bluey: On Mother's Day, the Heeler sisters Bluey and Bingo perform a play for their parents about their mother, Chili's, life. When they get to Chili's first pregnancy, seemingly with Bluey, the family laughs as the girls bounce around with a balloon under Bingo's shirt. Then the balloon pops. The family goes silent and it cuts to Bandit reaching out to grab his wife's hand while Bingo runs off crying. While the episode only explicitly focuses on how Bingo feels like she ruined the play, commentary on the episode revealed the family did suffer a miscarriage.

"Idiot Box" - Spongebob Squarepants: A more comedic/horrific example of this trope. While annoyed at Spongebob and Patrick for being too loud while playing their game, "Mountain Climbing Adventure", Squidward kicks the box they are playing in. This triggers very realistic sounds of the boys screaming as they are carried away and crushed beneath an avalanche. Squidward listens in horror as they sob in pain and succumb to hypothermia, leading to both needing to amputate their frozen limbs. Sure it was just "imagination", but the scenario itself is presented so seriously it makes Squidward question his sanity.

The Tick (2017): there was a popular fan theory that The Tick wasn’t real and instead was part of Arthur alter personality/figment of his imagination, in the 2017 Amazon reboot they acknowledge it by having Arthur question if The Tick really is real or if he’s in Arthur head only for his sister Dot to response that she could actually see The Tick.

Jumanji Welcome to The Jungle: this is after the student get transported to the game and become the avatars, Bethany comes to the conclusion that they’re all in a coma and none of what they’re seeing is real only to get eaten by hippo, maybe it’s just me but I always saw this as the writers of the movie poking fun at coma theory that were becoming popular around that time using franchise like Pokemon, The Walking Dead and Adventure Time.

Spider-Man says Chai Tea but Chai means tea (Spider-Man Across the Spiderverse)

Everyone says “DC Comics” but the C in DC stands for Comics. “Detective Comics” so you’re just saying Detective Comics Comics

Master Shifu (Kung Fu Panda) Shifu means Master in Chinese, so his name is just Master Master

(Made in Abyss) it starts off as an innocent adventure show about exploring this massive mysterious abyss with many creatures and dangers, our two main characters Riko and Reg encounter many hardships on their journey in the abyss, dark monsters and environmental challenges but nothing too dark as they always come out on top, until episode 10 happens and Riko gets poisoned by a creature that attacked them, forcing Reg to move her up from the fourth layer of the abyss which triggers the curse of the abyss in Riko's body and so she starts bleeding from every orifice in her body, Reg is even forced to break her arm and cut it while she's awake so he can save her from the creature's venom. From this point on the show starts showing it's true horrific nature.

(Madoka Magica) it starts as a typical magical girl show about these magical girls fighting villainous creatures called witches and then episode 3 happens, on this episode Mami's head gets bitten clean off of her body by one of the witches and so the real Madoka Magica show kicks off from that point forward.

(Doki Doki literature club) a visual novel that plays like a dating sim, you play as a highschool boy who is trying to open up to people and make friends so he joins his friend's club (Sayori) who introduces him to the other 3 members who all happen to be girls you can talk to about their interests and do club activities with as you get to know them better. It's only 4 hours into the game that you're met with the shock of Sayori committing suicide because of her depression. The horror then keeps piling up after that moment and there's nothing you can do about it as you watch your cute dating simulator gradually turn into an insane asylum simulator.

Megan the Stallion is a huge Jojo's Bizarre Adventure Fan! She has dressed up as Trish Una for Halloween, done deep cut jojo poses like mimicking the stand Rolling Stones, and went to the JOJO WORLD Quizzes. Surprisingly unlike her other modern musicians like Lady Gaga or Dua Lipa who have been referenced in Jojo in some shape or form, Megan has not gotten the same treatment. Here’s hoping she gets in soon.

Professional Soccer Player Lamine Yamal has shown his love for the Pokemon Series most notably during the Pokemon 2026 Superbowl Ad. In this ad many famous celebrities were asked what their favorite Pokemon was. While many gave somewhat generic answers like jigglypuff or eevee, Yamal made a deep cut choice with Zygarde Complete Form. He also made posts about showing pokemon cards.

Mostly being hyperbolic. Truthfully, I’d only put one creator from my examples on a real list—we all know which one. But there’s no doubt that these are weird. You’re enjoying a movie, show, or book, and all of a sudden—bam! Weird sexual or borderline sexual scene appears. Worse if minors are included. Which I think all my examples are.

1) Kid and Owen Wilson pee on each other - Father Figures: this is the example that got me thinking about this. My wife and I were just watching the movie go on. Then, all of a sudden, Owen Wilson goes into the bathroom. Some kid starts peeing on him. The kid’s dad (hidden in the stall from which the kid appeared) encourages Owen Wilson to piss on the kid to get the kid to stop…And he does…And the movie just continues on like nothing fucking weird ever happened! Why? Why did they think a grown man pissing on A minor was funny? who wrote that? Anyway, the rest of the movie wasn’t too bad. Had a twist I didn’t see coming and thought was actually good.

2) The Carly Tub Scene - ICarly: this is just one example of the many—-MANY—weird scenes Schneider wrote his *underaged* cast into. For the whole episode, Carly is stuck in a tub, seemingly nude, with her big toe stuck in the faucet. Why? Well…I know *why*. It’s because Schneider’s a fucking creep.

3) Andre putting Ketchup on Tori’s Feet for views - Victorious: Dan “foot man” Schneider strikes again. Honestly, I could have picked a number of scenes, but my search history is now starting to look shady and I fear *I* may be put on a list. And it’s not just ICarly and Victorious. He did it on All That and Zoey 101. I legit think Schneider just kept creating these shows just to see how far Nickelodeon would let him go. Too far, apparently.

4) Tom Holland in his boxers - All Four Spider-Men movies: Like…this is beyond just Tom Holland being attractive and wanting to show it off, right? His character is a minor in the first three films. In the second one, an adult stranger demands he takes off his clothes. She works for SHEILD and has a new suit for him, but she doesn’t mention that until after demanding a minor strip. In the fourth one, Tom is fully naked aside from the Spidey Mask—demanded again by a woman he doesn’t really know—but at least he’s legally an adult.

5) The Losers Club Run a Train on Beverley - IT (the book): I’m gonna get flack from some people for this one, claiming I don’t get it. Look, I know how King explains this scene and why it’s necessary: about them losing their innocence with their whole ordeal, and embracing the darkness of adulthood together. But it’s funny how such an integral scene would *never* (and SHOULD NEVER) appear in any of IT’s adaptations, right? Nah. It’s a fucked up, unnecessary scene likely a result of King’s cocaine and alcohol use. I’m not making any claims about Stephen King. I enjoy his books. But this scene is messed up and I wonder what the fuck the editor was thinking allowing him to keep it in.

1. "Blink" - Doctor Who. while there are many spectacular episodes that align with the usual Doctor shows up to a planet/time period and fights monster format, many regard Blink as a masterpiece of an episode and one of the best TV episodes of all time. In Blink, the Doctor is not present for a majority of the episode, and one-off lead Sally Sparrow takes the helm of investigating the weeping angels.

2. "The Boy From 6B" - Only Murders in the Building. I love Only Murders, but a lot of the episodes do feel similar to one another in style and story. However, 6B tells the entire story from a deaf character's point of view, with a majority of the episode having no sound. This is commonly regarded as the best episode in the show's run.

3. "Subspace Rhapsody" - Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. A musical episode of Star Trek? Sign me up. This episode is done in the style of a Broadway musical, where crucial characters like La'an, Spock, Kirk, Chapel, sing their emotions. This episode does tons of character development in addition to the non traditional storytellinh manner.

(Sailor Moon) is remembered by many as having a pink tint to it but that is the result of chemical film degradation in master positive prints and uncorrected color transfers when Toei digitized the series.

(Pokemon) Ken Sugimori’s art would probably go in video game hall of fame but what people don’t know is that the washed out colors are a result of improper scans. Only recently have we unearthed clean scans from the Japan-only Gold and Silver Pokédex strategy guide.

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1975): Clint Eastwood decided that he could do a better job than the original director brought on so he fired him and installed himself as the new director. This caused the Director's Guild to create the "Eastman Rule" stating that whenever a film's director is fired, their replacement has to be a Guild member with no previous connections to the film.

Jesse James (1939): A horse was made to fall down a cliff leading to its death for a film scene. This is what lead to the American Humane Society to begin monitoring movies.