Hey guys, today's video is a bit experimental so I hope you enjoyed it. Do let me know if you like the fact I've not only covered film/tv lately, but also video games and prose. If this video gets a good response I'll continue to cover a broad range of fiction, as well as less of my face, in my essays. The reason why I haven't uploaded in a whole month is because I've been working away pretty hard on my debut sci-fi novel which I am beyond excited to put out in the world and for you guys to read. I was told to keep any standalone novels of that type to no more than 90k words... well I'm at 140k right now, and I still haven't finished ;D The truth is I enjoy making these videos, they're good fun and it's encouraging to see people watching these and genuinely learning things from them, and also you know, money is nice. But back in the day when I just made these videos and nothing else, I felt kind of hollow creatively. It was just this feeling that all I was doing with my life was simply commenting on other people's work and it was so unfulfilling, I don't just make these videos on how to be a better writer for the kicks, I am trying to make myself a better writer as well so I can tell some good stories myself. Besides, how can I give out writing advice if I never write myself? My life goal, or at least where I hope to be in five years, is writing my novels with my right hand, while also I run this channel with my left. So if, when my novel comes out (in 6 months or so), you guys support me, I just want you do know that would mean the world to me and quite seriously make my dreams come true... wait, I used a cliche... Dammit! Anyway, have a great day :) - Henry

@idunnodo1142

5 жыл бұрын

How much does the sci-fi novel cost? And what's it about?

@TheCloserLook

5 жыл бұрын

Well it's a dystopian one, in the coming months I will give out the blurb and entice people like that, but I feel it's a tad too early to say exactly what the plot's about. As for price, I plan to sell it as an ebook for $4 each, and as paperback for around $13 or so :)

@idunnodo1142

5 жыл бұрын

@@TheCloserLook I know you make quality content,be it books or videos,so I'll be sure to check it out

@theodorepinnock1517

5 жыл бұрын

Gotta admit, that *was* a pretty clean segway.

@anthonys.7798

5 жыл бұрын

Keep Working hard!! We’re supporting you along the way!

Holmes and Watson is so bad, that a critic on rotten tomatoes straight up said "Holmes & Watson is bad." Usually they give some fancy explanation.

@mexido165

4 жыл бұрын

@Jani Akujärvi good one.

@nonono7620

4 жыл бұрын

@Jani Akujärvi as a poc, go away!! go back to your circle jerk pit on tumblr and don't come back, us rational people really don't like you!! you don't help, at all! just,,, revoke your typing privileges until you gain a little more common sense.

@linxilemon803

4 жыл бұрын

Leo B usually they try to explain their opinion on why the movie’s bad but in this case everyone could just look at the review “Holmes &Watson is bad” and go yep

@Goblinhandler

4 жыл бұрын

Jani Akujärvi judging by your name you think the world owes you something and that white people owe you something No one owes you anything Because you can’t get a job or become a member of society because you go to anti white parades White privilege is non existent I’m not white and I have a job, a wife,a house,a future son and an actual life You should go outside,quit tumblr AND GET A LIFE

@talaset6208

4 жыл бұрын

To say that a movie "deserves to fail" because the casting isn't "inclusive" enough is rather silly and juvenile. It's low hanging fruit and cheap, easy bait. There's plenty of good films where many or most of the characters are one race. There's plenty of bad films that are "diverse" in casting. I find it hard to believe that people who think this shallow are in any way capable of any actual thought. Such comments may be cute and charming on cesspool sites like TUMBLR, but here they are oddly reminiscent of the high school's class clown on his first day of college. Everyone here is here because they want to see what the content creator has to teach, and no one is interested in your silly virtue-signaling. It will win you no brownie points here.

The only time I’ve ever really thought the “paper-thin disguise” cliche was done in a clever and funny way was with Dr. Doofenshmirtz and Perry the Platapus

@luma4902

4 жыл бұрын

That show was a gem

@TF2Fan101

3 жыл бұрын

Luma Eh, I liked it initially, but over time, I just became annoyed how often the jokes became repeated to the point where they weren’t funny any more. That, and the characters were just kinda... blah. And I just grew out of the show.

@crillybafoon7730

3 жыл бұрын

It’s such a great tv show

@me30000

3 жыл бұрын

I liked its use in Series of Unfortunate Events

@bakeryfiskree5927

3 жыл бұрын

@@TF2Fan101 the point is they reuse the same tropes but manage to present them in a new way each time

Cliche is probably even worse in comedy, as comedy often is dependent on subverting expectations, and cliches are by definition expected

@TealTheDropster

3 жыл бұрын

That's an Awesome twist to a boring cliche joke

"It's so painfully unfunny we're not sure it can legally be called a comedy." ~Rolling Stone

@andysee6996

3 жыл бұрын

That's an incredible burn right there.

@pumkin610

2 жыл бұрын

So they were describing Amy Schumer's antics right?

Video: how to bore your audience Me: (sees the video duration) i'm scared

@VvazMHNY

5 жыл бұрын

Have you ever watched a Mauler video?

@Gyvulys

5 жыл бұрын

@@VvazMHNY Frankly, Mauler's videos feel like they are 10 times shorter. All because the material is very well researched, thought-out and presented, with some decent quality humour on top.

@commentingcommenter1230

5 жыл бұрын

@@Gyvulys Homour as in the author of the Illiad or the Simpson? Just messing with you lol

@noahcorleone1473

5 жыл бұрын

AmIgOltu I see we have a man of culture. Someone well informed. hello there

@Gyvulys

5 жыл бұрын

@@noahcorleone1473 And greetings to you as well. @Commenting Commenter There, I believe I've typed that decently now.

*Putting American comedy in a British setting* What could go wrong.

@maximeteppe7627

5 жыл бұрын

there's a crew I would trust to make a Sherlock holmes comedy though. Edgar wright. Simon Pegg. And Nick Frost.

@lonestarr1490

5 жыл бұрын

@@maximeteppe7627 Needless to mention: they're all Englishmen.

@maximeteppe7627

5 жыл бұрын

Yeah, but this has nothing to do with them being brits. I just think they're on another level than anything I've seen coming out of america, especially in terms of directing and visual gags. American comedies rely very much on dialogue and acting, but rarely have the camera and editing do much for the comedy. I blame SNL and sitcoms production style for valuing speed over comedic effect. It works well in brooklyn 99, but it is not very "cinematic". And a achieving a cinematic feel is very important for sherlock Holmes, given how many times he's been put to the screen. Sony pictures, disney, pixar or others could actually do a good job as americans streating a british setting, because animation studios care about visual storytelling a lot more than american live action comedy creators. On a side note, I guess edgar wright could pull it off with other comedians, including americans who can put on a good accents, but why bother?

@magicman3163

5 жыл бұрын

Laughing Octopus the office

@megashark1013

5 жыл бұрын

@Patrick Rowberry Will Ferrel has been in good films, but I admit he's gone to shit.

Imma be real, when you played that one clip of the "best" joke in the film, I thought the character had a mustache to begin with and that when they ripped off the in-universe fake mustache that it took the previous mustache with it and I found that joke way funnier that it really was.

@paulbrookfield4133

4 жыл бұрын

See that would have been an actual joke

@ayyylmao101

4 жыл бұрын

THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH BETTER LMAO

@bukanmatin5973

4 жыл бұрын

Whoa, even a random persen in the comment section could make a reallly good joke out of that cliche!! Just like what he described in his video, quite spot on!! XD

@thunderweirdo

4 жыл бұрын

That’s great, I wonder if anyone’s done it before? Also, thank you spooky Ougi.

@mcthuggin9803

3 жыл бұрын

@@thunderweirdo vampires suck.

THAT was the funniest joke in the movie? Oh dear.

@logicaloverdrive8197

4 жыл бұрын

I'm scared.

@doomspidey1737

4 жыл бұрын

Me too

@clementj

3 жыл бұрын

I think you mean 'Oh deer' :D

@matthewbibby8921

3 жыл бұрын

I mean, the snapshot timing was pretty solid for Holmes turning around, it was just Wattson's reaction afterwards that ruined it. If he'd just stared, absolutely unconvinced and played the straight man, I daresay it might actually have gotten a chuckle out of me.

It's hard to entirely avoid cliches. At some point in most people's lives, they're going to have two deceased parents.

@quinn9256

5 жыл бұрын

Happened to me just yesterday, scared it'll happen again.

@haohod4133

4 жыл бұрын

So at some point in most people's lives, they become batman?

@ilostmyfaithinhumanityandi6651

4 жыл бұрын

@@haohod4133 It happens to me every Tuesday

@_XR40_

4 жыл бұрын

“To lose one parent, Mr. Worthing, may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose both looks like carelessness.” -- Oscar Wilde

@BoleDaPole

4 жыл бұрын

Yes but not at the start of the film

To me, a trope is a preconceived set up, while a cliché is a preconceived punchline.

@TheCloserLook

5 жыл бұрын

That's an interesting way of putting it :)

@vixxcelacea2778

5 жыл бұрын

I really like that explanation. Which means that the trope of the ticking time bomb and a subversion of the typical conclusion to the set up, thereby making it funny. There are few things one can say that are universal in humor, but most people like subverting expectations or surprise because it's an instinct to laugh at something that could be scary due to being an unknown, but is harmless. Laughter being a sign to our tribe that things are okay, even if initially we don't know if they will be. Lampshading and subversion are actually lowest common denominators, but in a way that most can agree works, because eventually you've have to subvert the subversion.

@emmahua7020

5 жыл бұрын

that is the best way to put it 👌

@stoveburner4723

5 жыл бұрын

Preconceived: (of an idea or opinion) formed before having the evidence for its truth or usefulness. Yet aren't tropes and cliches used because they have so much evidence for working in the past which is why they get worn and tired in the first place. Also, your def of "trope" and "cliche" are vastly independent of what those words actually mean. Basically, you're Billy Madison while trying to explain economics.

2:50 oh god, I almost laughed when I saw him with the mustache but they ruined it immediately I have a stutter and terrible comedic timing and I couldn't kill a joke that fast if I tried

@nottelling9444

4 жыл бұрын

Same, mustache almost got me then they went and killed the moment.

@jadahoizer9668

4 жыл бұрын

Same. I got so disappointed by the delivery.

@lonelyrooster

4 жыл бұрын

Same happened to me

@matthewbibby8921

3 жыл бұрын

@Anonymous Cheesestick honestly I think it would have landed better if Wattson had played a straight man and just kinda deadpan stares at him. Still cliche, but the timing of the moustache DID get me, it's just the transition to Wattson's reaction that killed it before I could really get into the humor.

The first and only time I “watched” this movie I was in extreme pain, why I didn’t get medical help is a story for another time, but let’s just say I was in the worst pain of my life when my parents put this movie on, and left me be. I couldn’t get up and move to get away from this horrific movie, and I couldn’t move to get the remote. I hated every moment. This movie made the agony of going through the pain I was already experiencing SO much worse. Basically, you could say I was tortured.

@RHYD_

5 ай бұрын

Can we put that as a part in the Geneva Convention? "Under no circumstances can you put a person in severe pain through the added agony of 'Holmes and Watson' and 'Batman and Robin' as doing so is deemed a cruel, unusual, and unnecessary form of torture".

Theory: Etan Cohen is only still making movies because people confuse him with Ethan Coen

@KingJori_

4 жыл бұрын

Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaxxxxxxxx

@maximosalazar9985

4 жыл бұрын

Like Bill Murray confused Joel Cohen with Joel Coen (when he accepted to voice Garfield)

@IoEstasCedonta

4 жыл бұрын

I'm not sure this is a theory so much as an observation...

@thelurkingpanda3605

4 жыл бұрын

wait wtf their names are so similar

@-Teague-

4 жыл бұрын

This changes everything

*I had to pull out my phone to watch a video of paint drying, in order to keep myself awake for this movie*

@frogholdingmachinegun377

5 жыл бұрын

Lmao

@rawrxd7092

5 жыл бұрын

There was a period of my life where I never saw your comments anymore, life was blissful yet there was always a part of me that felt missing. Alas, this gaping hole has been filled. I have been blessed with seeing your comments on every video yet again.

@tonypeppermint5329

5 жыл бұрын

I don't think it would of been wrong to take a laptop and play a game without headphones on.

@Maid_Sate

5 жыл бұрын

You lost your mustache :O

@johnwalker4606

5 жыл бұрын

@@rawrxd7092 it's not the same guy they just have the same name

I can only think of one show that uses chliches in a good way and that’s Phineas And Ferb

@Sarboi7

3 жыл бұрын

Phineas and Ferb has a very ironic style of humor that pokes fun at itself similar to the simpsons.

@bigpapamagoo8696

2 жыл бұрын

The show is so self-aware it’s impossible not to love it. The entire gimmick of the show is that the same formula happens day in and day out.

@lucanovellino1010

2 жыл бұрын

i agree. the paper thin disguise thing with Doof and Perry is downright hilarious

"It was a dark and stormy night, which meant that Rod the Weatherman was having to apologize profusely to every single one of his two thousand viewers for getting it wrong. Again. For Rod had promised a sky full of stars, perfect for dates and astronomy and even the occasional inspirational poetry-writing." I kinda think you can do some fun things, yes.

@Blackade2000

3 жыл бұрын

Damn that was good

@_the_rizzler

2 жыл бұрын

That's because you're taking the cliché and flipping it on its head much like Galaxy Quest did with the countdown

@toasteroven6761

Жыл бұрын

@@_the_rizzler Yeah instead of the haunted house exposition/scene setting immediately after, we get a character intro and conflict instead----it's a difference that drives the story in a different way than expected. In GQ, the countdown problem is preceded by confusion and then helplessness, then the Checkov's gun fires and the timer stops at exactly 1 second-----played cliché it probably would be preceded by MC 'struggling' to stop the countdown, but moving forward. In that version, the whole sequence becomes almost a cheap waste of time because we already know they'll be fine and stop it last second---pre-fabricated hen house pieces, if you will. So by both changing the immediate set-up preceding the cliché and incorporating new structural plot elements unique to the story (the whole ship being modeled after the show idea) that are set-up before hand we get a payoff that feels a lot fresher than if there was no set-up or emotional changes to what we are used to at all.

@pompe221

4 ай бұрын

"A Wrinkle in Time" literally starts out with "It was a dark and stormy night."

Cliche makes for bad comedy because comedy is about surprise and our mind subconsciously solves the joke ahead of the punchline

@jamesthecoolguy67

5 жыл бұрын

Holmes turns his back as he puts on the moustache, then proceeds to look at Watson and immediately shoot him square on the kneecap

@the.rest.is.confetti

5 жыл бұрын

@@jamesthecoolguy67 this literally made me laugh out loud so congrats

@jacobmillen751

4 жыл бұрын

All good stories are about subverting our expectations - comedies as well as dramas and all other genres

@davetinoco

3 жыл бұрын

Yeah but if he said that, he wouldn’t hit the 10 minute mark!

I have to disagree, a cliche is not bad in of itself but how it is implemented within a narrative.

@aminahm4911

4 жыл бұрын

That's why he differentiates between cliché and trope. A trope can be implented within a narrative in original ways, whereas a cliché can't (going by his definition). Your definition of cliché seems to be his definition of trope, and in that sense, you're on the same side.

@pixelmayhem1143

4 жыл бұрын

@@aminahm4911 So you say but I do not think we are as Trope and Cliche are, far as I can tell, basically the same thing so if one can be used then so can the other. At least that's how I see it as according to the definitions I find in a dictionary.

@21coute

4 жыл бұрын

@@pixelmayhem1143 I see tropes as something more general whereas cliches are so specific that you can't really do anything with them other than copy them straight, with a little modification, or use them to subvert the audience's expectations. A strong, badass female character is a trope: tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ActionGirl. A mysterious character hidden in shadow or wearing a mask / something to conceal their identity shows up suddenly and destroys several baddies that were giving the main character(s) trouble only for a dramatic revelation that *gasp* the badass character everyone assumed is a dude is actually a lady. - That's cliche. The first is used in many stories to great effect (ex. Alien, Kill Bill) the second just makes me sigh, roll my eyes, and turn on something else. (ex. The LEGO Movie, 9 )

@caecaecream7763

4 жыл бұрын

I absolutely agree!! Like the “It was a dark and stormy night” cliche is one of the most efficient ways to establish a mood or a theme, and provides an excellent gateway into satire. The problem with cliches are when the author uses them as a crutch, rather than a vehicle to tell their story.

@tyrant-den884

4 жыл бұрын

4:06

When he showed us the “funniest“ joke in this movie I was like holy shit this must be really bad I don’t even wanna know what the other jokes were

There is a fun trick I like using cliche's for in my writing. When you really want your reader to pay close attention to a detail or moment in the story, I precede it with a small cliche to make the reader roll their eyes a bit. I then subvert the cliche in someway, snapping the readers attention fully back into what's happening in the story.

@BreakingUFC

2 жыл бұрын

He stared like a deer watching a movie

Simple explanation: Cliche is an overused phrase A trope is a recurring theme

@benfly-rinker6924

5 жыл бұрын

Depends on what you define as a theme. To me a trope can't be a theme.

@anorangewithacapybaraunder2370

5 жыл бұрын

@@benfly-rinker6924 What do you think I meant when I said what I said

@Haishi-is-a-mess

5 жыл бұрын

fight fight fight

@yukisohma19

4 жыл бұрын

a trope isn't a recurring theme you dullard

@eaglefrost6168

4 жыл бұрын

A cliche is an overused phrase, plot device, metaphor, or similar. A trope is a recurring phrase, plot device, metaphor, or similar. A cliche is a trope that has been done to death and lost its power.

Me: Can you read me a bedtime story Mom: Why don’t you just watch Holmes and Watson You’ll fall asleep twice as fast Me: Good Point

@Edax_Royeaux

5 жыл бұрын

Ugh, you'll get nightmares or at the very least aggressively bizzare dreams if you do that.

@commentcopbadge6665

5 жыл бұрын

If you don't have a copy of Holmes and Watson then just watch this video. It's equally boring.

@MrAlman8

5 жыл бұрын

The only issue with that is clichés are relatively new to kids. Plus it MIGHT wind up as their favorite childhood movie.

@ay-leck1369

5 жыл бұрын

@MrAlman8 Really? I’ve known about clichés since I was like 5 or 6. I didn’t know what they were called but I understood overused, overreacted and fake situations in movies and books.

@MrAlman8

5 жыл бұрын

@@ay-leck1369 Not every kid may feel the same way you would. That said the movie wouldve been a great bedtime story for you.

The Lego Batman movie used the ticking clock clique in a funny way as well where they were fighting the bad guys and they finally beat them. Batman then said “Let’s diffuse that bo-“ the bomb blew up cutting him off. This created a funny joke and a heart felt climax. Just another example.

I think it's okay to use cliches occasionally in your work, you just have to be aware of the frequency. The cliche in the prose you read ("he snapped his head around like a deer in headlights") actually gave me a clearer image of the scene than your re-write. I think cliches become cliches because *some* of them are really effective at conveying what it is they need to convey, and there's no shame in leaning on them occasionally in your writing to convey the same thing. You just have to be aware of the frequency, meaning, and effect each one has, as you must with every word you write.

@pumkin610

2 жыл бұрын

Yeah the cliche and the events that surround it seem more memorable

@StrawberryQuestions

7 ай бұрын

Thank you! Cliches aren’t bad by default, they are very much needed- in moderation.

"She froze, like a deer being snap-frozen in liquid nitrogen..."

@megashark1013

5 жыл бұрын

Alright, that's great.

@3Rayfire

4 жыл бұрын

I like it.

@Jojordy2312

4 жыл бұрын

ok, Mr. Freeze

@leehayes5648

4 жыл бұрын

PSIPagliacci, HEY! CHIIILLL OUT!

@18grape

4 жыл бұрын

Well it did make me chuckle. good job.

It’s not bullying of a movie. IT’S EDUCATION OF HOW NOT TO BE A BULLIED MOVIE

I literally just read Orwell’s essay that you mentioned in the video for my English class. I was connecting a lot of what you said to the essay and got really excited when you mentioned it. Sorry, that was completely random but I thought it was pretty cool

I would call the Galaxy Quest countdown scene a _subversion_ of the cliché rather than an "original take" on it. It's a joke, and like all (funny) jokes it relies on setting up a certain expectation and then subverting it. The point of the scene is that it _looks_ like it's going to be cliché'd, but then isn't. It doesn't actually use the cliché in its usual narrative function, it just evokes the appearance of it.

@ToomanyFrancis

3 жыл бұрын

You literally did not bring any new information to the table here. The entire point of the video is that you need to subvert audience expectations to make entertaining content, I'm pretty sure he uses the word subvert several times.

@christophertaylor9100

2 жыл бұрын

And, it was a great establishment of how the aliens did their research and took everything absolutely literally. It served the story by establishing characters and setting and also was hilarious

Me: Can we go to the cinema? Mom: No we have films at home Films at home:

@dead9247

4 жыл бұрын

Stop using this meme.

@jacobb.9181

4 жыл бұрын

This meme And this username _its all a cliche_

@bigsky1047

4 жыл бұрын

This meme has always sucked.

@longleaf1217

4 жыл бұрын

please for the love of all that's good let this stupid clichéd meme die already. honestly if you find yourself using a meme in a youtube comment then the meme is already dead. just let it stay in the ground.

@jacobb.9181

4 жыл бұрын

Brandon Woodyard I found it funny because the video is about cliches, yet his username, profile pic and comment were all a cliche. This was done un ironically.

I don't know what I expected from a film that found screaming funny

@hjl4204

5 жыл бұрын

Im your 100th like

@Antiformed

5 жыл бұрын

You think this is bad, try Step Brothers. Ferrell and Reilly do these painfully unfunny comedies on a regular basis. My brother and I literally couldn't even finish it, it was like an Adam Sandler movie with a slightly bigger budget.

@rekhyt656

5 жыл бұрын

@@Antiformed lmao I loved Stepbrother back then.....weird

@JH-dr4xo

5 жыл бұрын

Antiform are you serious? Step Brothers is a fuckin classic. How old are you?

@SilkfireStudios

5 жыл бұрын

Antiform what the fuck stepbrothers is hilarious

I was crossing the street while watching this and, like a deer in headlights, I got hit by a car

Though interesting, I feel like you missed the mark on this one. Trope, cliche, and stereotypes in storytelling vary in quality based on what they reveal about the human condition. Is what they reveal shallow or does it have depth? The problem with the use of tropes, cliche, and stereotypes is that they are often referential to other stories and media. Their overuse neutralizes their meaning. This can be seen in an overused needle drop or in the words, "I love you." "I love you" is the most cliche line of text in the human language, but at the right moment, it can still be used to great effect. "I love you" "I know"

Ironic use of cliche can be good. Like saying 'it was a dark and stormy night', could set the scene of an overtop campy story

@mbnhiphopmusik6429

5 жыл бұрын

Thinking of Tucker and Dale vs Evil...

@vixxcelacea2778

5 жыл бұрын

I think that's a trope though. Cliche is more like the joke itself is tired in it's expression. dark and stormy knight, dead parents etc are more tropes in my opinion. Even the ticking clock is a situational thing. They could also lampshade it by having it be a bright sunny day and that the character setting the story is just lying.

@paulcoy9060

5 жыл бұрын

The series Foamy The Squirrel has one of it's characters write, "The night was dark 'n stuff." Which has subverted my expectations of a cliche.

@tkalle1299

5 жыл бұрын

justabitofamug But it isn’t always used as that. For instance, it’s the first line in a Wrinkle in Time. And it worked.

@rhiadejong2363

5 жыл бұрын

one of my favourite childrens books is called 'a dark and stormy night'. It's about a boy who's kidnapped by pirates and has to tell them stories to stave off boredom as they wait out a storm.

I'll watch this video before it gets claimed and deleted

@Gyvulys

5 жыл бұрын

Why would it be deleted? I agree, that the movie sounds boring, but nearly everything in this video is wrong. It's grasping-at-straws to try and make somewhat content to talk about. The fact is, that there is NO difference between cliche and trope. They are one and the same. They can be good, or bad, depending on how they are presented.

@milk_1312

5 жыл бұрын

AmIgOltu There is a KZread channel called Cynical Reviews who posted a review of Homes and Watson, a few weeks later Sony claimed the video.

@peeonthepenski4729

5 жыл бұрын

@@Gyvulys the joke is that this guys videos are often claimed and deleted because of copy right abuse. Also there is a difference between clichés and tropes, clichés are just blatantly copying something that's done often where as tropes leave you room to express your own originality.

@PoloRossi

5 жыл бұрын

AmIgOltu Clichés are simply overused tropes. If the method is good (underrated) then it’s considered a trope. If the method is bad (overused) then it’s considered a trope and a cliché. On other terms, the reason this video would possibly be taken down would possibly be because it has footage from the movie.

@Gyvulys

5 жыл бұрын

@@PoloRossi Well, we seemingly say the same thing, albeit in a different manner. Indeed, cliches/tropes are not bad if they are presented well. I mean, even taking in mind all the stories we have out there now - you can find similarities in all of them, if you break them down. And yet, we are just as interested in them, provided the story is actually well made. The video, however, claims, that cliches are always bad, and should be avoided. Well, I am not even sure that's possible. Nearly every type of plot one can think of will inevitably be, in one way or another, similar to that of an already existing story.

9:13 BBC's Sherlock, Moriarty: "I will burn you, I will burn the heart out of you"

@jotunfalls4026

3 жыл бұрын

I can hear that in his voice lmao

"That segue was so clean you could eat your dinner off it" You have become the very thing you swore to destroy!

Imagine having this cast and wasting it so spectacularly! Love this video, as always :)

@alexman378

5 жыл бұрын

I actually never thought of Fiennes for Moriarti, but it’s actually perfect casting. And it was utterly wasted on a piece of shit movie like that, we’ll never see him as the real character. That’s one of the film’s biggest crimes.

@R3TR0J4N

5 жыл бұрын

Yep felt bad for the cadting they dont deserve this as scsthing their record

@solongsuicide9

5 жыл бұрын

Imagine having a terrible cast of cringey, unfunny actors, who are well past their heyday, paired with bad writing & having it predictably fail. You don't even have to imagine... you could just (skip the sleeping pills and) watch Holmes & Watson.

@tjackson220

5 жыл бұрын

I mainly meant about the supporting cast. I'm not a fan of Will Ferrell either

Phineas and Ferb actually made fun of the Paper thin disguise cliche: (Perry shows up without fedora) Doofenshmirtz: A platypus (Perry puts on fedora) Doofenshmirtz: PERRY THE PLATYPUS?!

@ossertthewozzard

5 жыл бұрын

To me, that is just usage of it

@SpyroTheGerudo

5 жыл бұрын

Thats just using the cliche bud

@silverstarlightproductions1292

5 жыл бұрын

@@SpyroTheGerudo Yeah but the whole point of the show was to make fun of cliches. The characters were always so self aware. That's why it was funny.

@SpyroTheGerudo

5 жыл бұрын

@@silverstarlightproductions1292 at the same time, the show fell into a formula that acted as its own cliche. Even if it made fun of cliches that have been done before, the show does more or less the same things at the same times. At least for me, that example where Perry isnt recognized by Doofenschmirtz without his fedora is just using the cliche, which doesnt help that the show is tiring because of its formula. I am likely missing what made that show so popular, so dont take my response as "this show is bad". I just wanted to point out that as a show that is built around playing with cliches, the concept wont always work

@Evan-bu5vo

5 жыл бұрын

@@SpyroTheGerudo The reason Phineas and Ferb is so popular is because the show is a cliche. The point of the show is that everyone is a cliche, and the episodes all play out with the same general formula with a unique spin on it everytime. Doofenshmirtz is the mad scientist with the over the top, tragic backstory. Phineas and Ferbs' parents are the cliche clueless parents from movies and tv that are completely oblivious to what their kids are doing. Baljeet is the cliche of a nerd whose life revolves around school, and Beauford is the cliche bully who, for seemingly no reason, has a vendetta against the need character. You can go on and on with the show. I can't quite remeber who it was, but someone compared the cliche of Phineas and Ferb with the show Milo Murphy's Law by the same people who created Phineas and Ferb. This show, unlike Phineas and Ferb, breaks cliches constantly. Things don't go the protagonist's way, the characters grow and develop, and the series has an overarching story. 2 shows by the same creators, but they are completely opposite of each other conceptually.

I think the very best use of the "deer in the headlights" cliche I've ever seen was in a Spanish movie named "Animals," directed by Marcal Fores. The very first shot of the film is of a deer standing in the headlights, struggling to figure out which direction to run. The imagery of the deer and of collision comes up so often throughout the movie that eventually you begin to realize that the deer represents the main character, who is facing a paralyzing fear of approaching adulthood, burgeoning sexuality, and thoughts about suicide. The movie is an incredibly beautiful and chilling movie about adolescence and uses symbolism to the extreme. I highly recommend it. And I also think that it's proof that even an over-used cliche can be used in an original and unique way.

'I bet you didn't even imagine a deer in headlights' Me: *sweats profusely* 'You don't imagine a "wooow, a fate worse than deaaath?' Me: *continues to sweat profusely*

A movie so bad NetFlix wouldn't even touch it...and they green-lit The Ridiculous 6

@Jomijo

5 жыл бұрын

ctastrophe well ridiculous 6 is ok if you watch it high

@man____moth6468

5 жыл бұрын

OCEAN Man so is peppa pig

@celtichistory

5 жыл бұрын

I love ridiculous 6

@ctastrophe

5 жыл бұрын

@Guybrush Threepweed There is ONE good scene starring John Turturro later in the flick which is a play on the origins of Baseball. It was a moment that made me think the writing staff had a decent joke idea that had nothing to do with the rest of the movie but was creative enough to shoe-horn in. It was too "clever" for the rest of the movie, so I'm not sure how it made the final cut

@123GOHANZ

5 жыл бұрын

ctastrophe I mean Ridiculous 6 is actually decent though

Honestly, there are some people who seem to think everything is a cliche. "Male and female character who are in love with one another is a tired cliche." "A character screaming in pain when they're badly wounded is a tired cliche." "Characters talking to one another or interaction in any way is a cliche." I'm glad you brought up that there is a big difference between tropes and cliches.

When I first saw this movie I thought it would be a funny twist on the story of Sherlock homes because I find the lead actors to be funny and in other movies they’re in together they’re great together but I just got up and walked away from this movie about 12 minutes in

@ToomanyFrancis

3 жыл бұрын

Will Ferrell hasn't been funny since that cat skit.

Interesting take. Perhaps to take it to the next step: When you do the same exercise over and over, you stop thinking about it. It becomes a subconscious subroutine; movements are coded in muscle memory. When it's but a menial task, that is for the better; but when the exercise itself matters to us, it loses its meaning. Like a musician whose art has turned into an automated sequence of movements and gestures. The music may be played perfect; and yet, the very soul of the music is gone. A cliche does much the same thing. Repeated exposure turns this mental exercise into a subconscious routine. There's a disturbing implication here though. It suggests that fanatical moviegoers (and especially professional critics) are likely to start seeing cliches that most people don't. It has become automated in their minds - but for most viewers, it hasn't. Thus, 99% of audiences could still enjoy a movie that critics absolutely loathe. And, as with all drugs, it suggests that such critics may constantly need a new high, a new "new experience". Which, in turn, quickly becomes cliche... as it gets weirder and weirder to normal audiences. At the same time, since cliches allow a mental shortcut, the inverse could happen. If cliches are used as shortcuts, critics may be able to take double or triple shortcuts, connecting very different ideas. To any layman however (and thus most audiences), it just looks like disjointed chaos, because they don't follow the shorthand. I don't know if it's the case, but it would explain some things lately.

Isn't calling the price on the internet service who sponsors you "an absolute steal" a...cliche?

@beholdandfearme

4 жыл бұрын

It may have been on purpose.

@razorcallahan3029

3 жыл бұрын

Are you alive Sir

@wolf1066

3 жыл бұрын

Yes, as is saying that his segue was "so clean you could eat off it".

@wolf1066

3 жыл бұрын

@@beholdandfearme Pretty sure it was deliberate.

@deederdoo

2 жыл бұрын

I'm literally dying from laughing.

I'd say that the cliche is in the execution, being cliche just means that your execution is not original, and not that the idea itself can't be used in a unique way.

@fairystail1

5 жыл бұрын

even then its not necessarily bad. Superheroes being motivated by someones death IS a cliche, it's not original and it it's self doesnt help with originality, but it is still a good motivator for said heroes. It is still a good story element

@maximeteppe7627

5 жыл бұрын

@@fairystail1 no it's a trope. You can freshen it up, by having the dead character mean something to the character and the audience. What is cliché is having the parents be dead just so they're not on the teenage character's back when they go on adventures.

@fairystail1

5 жыл бұрын

@@maximeteppe7627 no having the characters death be the motivation is a cliche having the parents be dead just so the story doesn't have to worry about responsible parents is a trope

@maximeteppe7627

5 жыл бұрын

@@fairystail1 It is very debatable. It all depends on the motivation rather than what caused it. Sure, if the character's goal is to avenge, you just ripped off batman. If they learn to be responsible instead, you got Peter Parker. But I wouldn't give up on finding other interesting ways the parent's death impacts the motivations of the character. Where you are right is that there is room for good storytelling in absent parents. In Harrry Potter, not having loving parents greatly informs harry's relationship with Ron . The impact of the parent's death on his psychology is explored in myriads of ways. It also feeds into his relationship with Voldemort, but he would still hate Voldy's guts regardless. It's more of a complicating element to their duality.

I watched Holmes and Watson but when I saw the title of this video, I had to think, “Did I watch this movie?” I legit couldn’t remember. That’s not a good sign.

Cliches are useful when they are subverted and it isn't done enough imo For example, In the movie Red Eye the antagonist is hiding in a house and the main character is hesitantly opening a door where she thinks he is. Normally in a scene like this she would fling open the door to find nothing and he would magically show up behind her but instead he's right there. It's one of the few times I saw a jumpscare actually surprise the audience

Getting lost in the weeds of your hypothetical here, but "snapped his head around like a deer in headlights" and "snapped his head around to see a face scowling in the doorway" end up giving very different mental images, and I much prefer the first version. The emphasis on his dazed reaction is much more evocative than immediately describing what he sees. You're correct that I didn't literally picture a deer in headlights, but I don't see that as a problem here. The cliche in this case tells me more about him, what he's doing, what is and isn't going through his head. The phrase only felt clunky to me because "head" and "headlights" are so close together in the sentence, and because you'd already made a big stink about "a deer in headlights" earlier in the vid, making it stick out more than it otherwise would. All in all, I agree it's extremely important to be mindful of using tropes and cliches (wherever you decide to split that particular hair), but I disagree with your blanket condemnation of them.

@patoren3gou653

4 жыл бұрын

Zack Bogucki also might I point out that Bumblebee, My little pony, Shazam and the goldbergs night as well be TvTropes in celluloid form and people like those just fine I think it more has to do with charm, earnestness, nuance as well as general execution of an idea Then again I haven’t consumed nearly as much media as anyone else here

@alisacomeaux1394

4 жыл бұрын

I actually made a comment similar to yours

@Potassiumkloride

4 жыл бұрын

This is an incredibly late reply, but I agree. I think Deer in the headlights works because it ends up using the cliche as a tool to convey a very specific meaning. Cliches are dangerous because they often have a very specific connotation to them, which can override what you had in mind for a scene, but in a case like this, they can also end up acting like a type of shorthand that can convey more information through less words, so long as the cliche's connotation actually fits. The way I would illustrate just how much cliches skip over would have been to re-write the paragraph to describe the internal dialogue of the character going through the deer in the headlights moment. Something like, "Immediately, light blasted down and stung his sensitive eyes, making him nearly slip and smash his head on the chair. Steve slammed his hand down on the table and, once he'd regained his footing, swung around to face the doorway, staggering in place. It was his wife, he realized, and froze as panic trickled through his drunken haze. She glared at the vomit on his shirt, then the bottle in his hand, and he knew he should explain himself, but his mind was stuck struggling against the liquor he'd numbed it with. Instead, he watched mutely as his chance slipped away and his wife disappeared back down the hall."

@masterwindu1234

4 жыл бұрын

calm down

@3Rayfire

4 жыл бұрын

There's the idea that these cliches are in the usage of language, effective shorthand. There is a point where something that's cliche becomes so ubiquitous that it becomes normal phraseology and a standard part of language. So while not using them may be original and creative, using them may simply be the shortest route from point A to B. There's something to be said for linguistic efficiency. Darmok.

Just because TV tropes has 'a whole article' on something doesn't mean that that thing is cliche. TV tropes has pages long articles for every conceivable idea in a movie. This is not an exaggeration.

@megashark1013

5 жыл бұрын

There is no TV tropes article about the Torture Dance, despite the fact that it's the greatest scene in animation history.

How absurdly ironic. I actually had this video on my list waiting for me to watch it, and you start it by saying you intentionally added a click-baity title to it but wanted to address a different problem in writing fiction. Now, what I find ironic is that I didn't watch it before because of that title, which I found strange and uninteresting. But now I have, I find the video and the topic utterly interesting. So, I wouldn't be sure if the click bait actually worked or not, and therefore I find it ironic. Still, I may be using the wrong word to describe it, as I am not perfect or a professional writer (at least not yet, though I intend to learn more and write my own books). Very well done, I love your videos and the way you explain.

Something interesting that I've heard about clichés is that they are just tropes that the person who is analyzing them sees as cliché. Basically there are no hard and fast clichés, it's entirely up to interpretation, and just because some tropes are so common and heavily used doesn't mean they are by definition a cliché. Food for thought

"That person... is wrong" best part of this video.

@landonhagan450

5 жыл бұрын

Who is "That person", anyway?

@RedPilgrim.

5 жыл бұрын

I swear i saw the podcast his referring to... as i listen to something like it last month or so. But not sure it was mauler or criticaldrinker... i'll browse ard until someone answers it.

@jandcstopmotion7774

5 жыл бұрын

Red Pilgrim It’s not MauLer, I’m an EFAP scholar, he isn’t that dumb.

@RedPilgrim.

5 жыл бұрын

@@jandcstopmotion7774 I'm firing off into the air though, I just couldn't recall who I've watched, based on that topic.

@meko750

5 жыл бұрын

I doubt MauLer would’ve said that, but I don’t think Critical Drinker’s that dumb, either…

I wouldn't quite say that clichés are bad and a taint on your work. Clichés become clichés because they work. Well, at least, that's true for most. Clichés are incredibly entertaining when used correctly, but when they aren't, it's quite a disaster. Clichés are "cliché" because everyone knows, or at least think they know, how a particular situation is going to play out. However, when an author, playwright, screenwriter etc. plays on the viewer's expectations and mould that cliché into something new, something they don't quite expect, something that characterizes them and their story, clichés can be marvelous building blocks. So to say that clichés are to be avoided like the plague or purged, I think is a very narrowminded view on such an interesting tool that can be used to craft wonderful stories. This i just my personal opinion.

@dead9247

4 жыл бұрын

I agree.

@movealongplease6891

4 жыл бұрын

Aren't you describing tropes there, rather than clichés? This video kinda made that same point: clichés are way too inflexible to be subverted in an interesting way. I wouldn't call them building blocks; they're more like really gaudy decorations for your facade

@blueflare3848

4 ай бұрын

Exactly. Basically subverting expectations.

Team America's take on the paper-thin disguise works for me because it's a good joke hiding in a cliche. The joke is that the disguise is so horribly done that it would cause MORE attention than a paper-thin one, but it works anyway because of course it does.

The segway into the Nord VPN plug was so spectacularly smooth this is the closest I've actually come to getting something from a KZread sponsor, simply because of how well it was done. Bravo. Also great video & channel, makes me want to write a film.

The “paper thin” disguise” can be really funny, but it must be done in a good way.

A trope is a commonly recurring storytelling element. For instance, a seasoned criminal who has to pull off one last job is a trope. Or, on a smaller scale, a seasoned character proving their superiority by staying cool and simply explaining why their enemy will not succeed ("you've still got the safety on"), is a trope. It's impossible to consider tropes bad, because it's practically impossible to avoid tropes. And there's no reason to, because tropes are more like a toolkit. They tend to communicate values we understand. In the examples, those are desperation and confidence. And the point of literally all fiction is to make an appeal to the values of the audience. A cliché is simply something that has been done so often that the audience can predict the outcome through experience. For instance, a person hastily traveling to the train/boat/airplane their lover is bound to take to never return, music swelling in the background. Or a person serenading their lover beneath their window. Clichés are more slippery, because they arise through use. And often they are also subverted. That's the term you were looking for, BTW: Subversion. That is, to build expectations based on the audience's experience of other works, only to then do something unexpected that plays with those expectations. Take our earlier example, and it would be the person being tackled by security before they even reach their lover. That's funny, because it's unexpected, but also because it's updated for modern times, and the audience SHOULD expect it to happen. The nature of a good subversion is that they apply logic to a cliché that, through overuse, has become illogical. After all, how many bombs do you expect to be diffused at the last second? And do we really expect them to blow up? Of course, once subverted, and the subversion becoming popular, that subversion stands a chance of itself being repeated, and becoming cliché. Serenading one's lover has been subverted countless times, and one of those subversion has the character standing there with a boombox over his head. This quickly became such an iconic scene that dozens of other productions have mimicked it, and playing it straight today will make you look like an unoriginal hack. And in conclusion, I don't think it's the presence of cliché that makes Holmes and Watson bad. After all, I don't think it's a cliché to knock out the queen and try to stuff her in a trunk while accidentally making it look like you're introducing your own royal member to her. But what it is, is very, very lazy. Every scene I've seen of this film breathes laziness. And that's why it's filled with lots of clichés played straight. It's a reference humor movie based on a well known character that recently had a resurgence. It's another one of those American movies set in Europe where actual European actors get some bit parts. It's got Will Ferrell in it. What's the last funny thing he has done? Anchorman? You know, the movie with a massive supporting cast of talented comedic actors? If I had to pick one representative of the absolute depths of American comedy, I would pick Will Ferrell. If you get that man into a room with something funny, you'll get pure energy conversion, is what I'm saying. As for that dude who plays Holmes, well, he was funnier in Star Trek Voyager.

One of my favorite tropes is the ancient unknowable space empire. We see these in The Expanse, Old Man's War, Halo, Babylon 5, Warhammer, etc. It offers a lot of room for creativity and is generally interesting if the sense of mystery is kept.

I think it goes like this: if the premise is all you need to know what will happen next, that’s a clichè. So for example, when you see a bomb with a timer in a movie, you know without shadow of a doubt that it’s going to be disarmed at the last second, or at the very least explode while the protagonist takes cover at the last second. Because you predicted the outcome it’s not enjoying to watch, and that’s what makes it a clichè. However if the bomb really went off and killed the main protagonist, now THAT would be something not clichè, because i’ve never seen something like that happen. So a trope can become a clichè when it’s been used so many times that it plays out exactly like you would expect. (If i made any mistakes, english is not my first language)

@spacedoohicky

4 жыл бұрын

Are some cliches not events?

I thought the eye glass thing on the video thumbnail was a loading circle for a good 10 seconds because I am an idiot.

@TheCloserLook

5 жыл бұрын

You made me laugh, thanks XD

@pblobster4936

5 жыл бұрын

The Closer Look :D

@TheKazragore

5 жыл бұрын

"Eye glass thing"...you mean a magnifying glass? :P

@pblobster4936

5 жыл бұрын

Phi Dang yesh

FINALLY SOMEONE TALKS ABOUT GALAXY QUEST!! Also: Imo every piece of fiction has at least one trope in it and unless it’s harmful, people need to stop looking down on them.

@Thessalin

5 жыл бұрын

Love that dang movie. And WOW I forgot that she was uh... uhh... I need to watch it again apparently. "Captain. We're giving her all she's got. She's going to fly apart." That scene kills me every time.

@OharaWasJustified

5 жыл бұрын

Its impossible to make a piece of fiction without a trope Too many of them And since we grow up witch fiction Some can subconciously sneak in us

@ledavalon7118

5 жыл бұрын

He very specifically says there is a difference between trope and cliche, a trope is not a bad thing and leaves room for originality. A trope is essentially a meta-motif, its almost unavoidable

@Kaiefae

5 жыл бұрын

LedAvalon i know i was agreeing with what he said and giving my opinion on the topic as well, because there are a lot of people who look down on others for implementing said tropes no matter what and it was nice to see someone presenting the value tropes have, if that makes sense?

@ledavalon7118

5 жыл бұрын

@@Kaiefae yeah I getcha, there's alot of people confusing the two so I wasnt quite sure if you were doing the same but nah yeah that makes sense

I feel like the trope/cliche line doesn't even matter, all that matters is how much creativity is applied to it.

god the worst cliche ever is when a character looks like dead, and everyone else thinks they’re dead, so they turn their back and go/start crying. and then Boom! the character who was supposed to be dead comes back to life and everyone is happy. like in jungle cruise. EUGH!!!! every time it’s so obvious what’s gonna happen next that you don’t even feel the tension

I was trapped on a 16 hour flight and still couldn't make it through this movie.

Cliche isn’t bad in itself and you can use cliches in your work because you know how the reaction and expectations to said cliche will be for your audience, the problem comes when you leave it at that and don’t expand off them or play with them. A cliche isn’t an inherently bad thing off the bat but when you use it on its own and expect it to be fresh and new then you get into bad writing. Trying to avoid any cliche ever made can also harm your work just as much as being lazy with them, the most important thing is to make sure whatever you write has a point to it. If you only write something to avoid a cliche that becomes just as pointless as including one with nothing else. It’s like “okay you avoided using that cliche….now what? Oh that’s it? You just wanted us to see you did something different and left it at that…..okay. Now get back to the actual story or do something to progress the plot.”

I'd file the Galaxy-Quest example under parody of a cliche. Parody like that tends to work well for moments of comedy: someone ends up in a deer costume, ends up in a road, sees a light, freezes in shock, and gets hit by a car. They can also work for moments of shock -- people are trying to defuse a bomb while the timer ticks down, but the bomb blows in half the time that the audience and characters expect. A moment like that probably needs an explanation after the fact, like an antagonist remarking that they "watch movies too" (that setup and quote happen to be from a filler moment in an NCIS episode)

I can just see every actor of sherlock Holmes through the years would just crawl out of their graves and would slap the living hell out of will Ferrell and John c Reily

@sydssolanumsamsys

3 жыл бұрын

the living ones would just die then and there and then come back

It thought you said Ethan Coen directed this (Fargo, The Big Lebowski), But when I Googled it, it said Etan Coen did, and I was like “OH THANK GOD!”

@dentistguba

4 жыл бұрын

If you say it with a jamaican accent.

@biegebythesea6775

2 жыл бұрын

that's like bill murray making garfield because he thought it was a cohen bros film.

I feel like avoiding cliches entirely is not only impractical but also could harm your story just as much as having cliches. They're less of a problem, and more of a tool. You can't use an alan wrench for everything, and I hate them, but sometimes it just fits the best.

I think the parody angle is what sells it. An important aspect of a good joke is subverting expectations. Everyone knows the cliche and knows how it's going to end, so when you subvert that in a way that calls out the fact that it was a cliche in the first place, that makes for a good joke. Playing it straight would be a cliche, but parodying it is not because parodying the cliche has not yet become cliche. Though I think there are some such parodies that have become cliche (not that I can think of an example at the moment).

My parents rented it and I refused to come out of my room and watch it with them

@Fanboy-rq6tv

5 жыл бұрын

DirectorG I love that

@bossman4799

5 жыл бұрын

same here

@triton2397

5 жыл бұрын

Effing relatable

@gipsymayhem6252

5 жыл бұрын

Surprised to know that people still rent...

@Marlile

5 жыл бұрын

@@VoidWatchers I found the guy who gets invited to ALL the parties, everyone.

After 15 minutes about cliches, apologizes for “going down the rabbit hole.” Totally meta. Lol.

@razorcallahan3029

3 жыл бұрын

😂🤣🏁

I think that the movie Clue uses some cliches well. Professor Plum: What are you afraid of, a fate worse than death? Mrs. Peacock: No, just death, isn't that enough?

My least favourite cliche is the whole “(insert previous time period here), do modern day things” when there’s some for of old tech that the characters use in the movies to do things like taking a selfie, but the only joke is that it’s used in the context of that era because it’s just like how WE do do things today, DO YOU GET IT? Now, in good movies, like Shrek 1 and 2, The Emperor’s New Groove, A Knight’s Tale, Warlock, Time After Time, My Little Pony: A New Generation, Hoodwinked!, Quest For Camelot, Love At Stake, We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story, How To Train Your Dragon, Blazing Saddles, Snow White And The Red Shoes, A Monster In Paris, Frozen 1 and 2, Enchanted, Aladdin, Dr Mordrid, and Ferngully, the anachronistic humour enriched the story and characters, relying more on situational comedy to not only make it funny, but making it more than just “Oh ha ha, these old-fashioned people are doing modern things just like us, they’re so silly!” But in bad movies, like Holmes And Watson, The Croods’s films, Hoodwinked 2, the animated Addam’s Family movies,Igor, Walking With Dinosaurs: The Movie, Just Visting, Shrek 3 and 4, the terrible Swan Princess CGI sequels, Horrible Histories: The Movie, the forgettable Jack Black movie Gulliver’s Travels, Leap!/Ballerina, and Brave, there are no subversions or unique twists on the cliche, or even showing how different people reacted to the then new inventions at the time, it’s just a lazy, desperate and cheap form of humour, solely there to pander to the audience.

I really enjoyed this analysis, and I think you raise some very valid points. However, I think this mindset should be approached with great caution; the absolute refusal to ever use cliches under any circumstance can be almost as poisonous to your writing as the unrefined overuse of cliches. Cliches, like anything else in writing, are a tool. Used in moderation and with care, they can be extremely effective. It is not the cliche itself that creates the problem, but rather the careless or flippant use of that cliche. To put it another way, saying that cliches make your writing bad is like saying that spoons make people fat. It isn't the spoon's fault, but rather the fault of the person using it. Now, it's all well and good to say that, but what is the actual proper use of a cliche, and what does it bring to the table as a tool? The primary benefit of a well-used cliche is *familiarity*. There are many cases in which finding a fancy, unique way of writing a particular phrase would be a distraction from the intended tone or flow of a piece; in these cases, it can be beneficial to give your readers a familiar reference point in the form of a cliche, so as to not pull them out of that flow. The nondescript familiarity of a cliche, when used carefully and intentionally, can be exactly the right choice for a given situation rather than a detractor from the quality of the writing. It's much the same concept as negative space in art, or rests in music - while certainly the most distinctive and unique parts of a piece are going to stand out the most and make that piece memorable, the surrounding parts have to fade into the background somewhat to allow those peaks to truly shine. Without that breathing room, you end up with little more than a muddled, incoherent mess. Cliches can also be useful to set up an intentional subversion or parody, as you yourself pointed out. For example, one of the most memorable scenes in The Incredibles comes from the age-old cliche of the supervillain monologue - Syndrome begins waxing poetic about his evil plans, as supervillains are wont to do, leaving Mr. Incredible the perfect opportunity to slip to the side and lauch a surprise attack... only for the attack to be foiled immediately to the tune of the now classic line, "You sly dog! You got me monologuing!" I'd highly recommend NerdSync's video, "The Incredibles: The Art of Supervillain Monologues" for a more in-depth exploration of this particular cliche, both for subversion and as a writing tool in and of itself. Above all, it's important to remember that cliches are not cliches because they're inherently bad. They're cliches because they're (arguably) overused, and used sloppily - and they're overused because they're extremely useful to begin with. With care and moderation, cliches can be an extremely powerful tool in a writer's toolbox, and writing them off as inherently bad or something to be avoided at all costs in all circumstances is a dangerous mindset to hold. When it comes to artistic expression, there is no such thing as an absolute like "cliches are always bad"; you should find the tools that work best for you in a given situation, and use them as effectively as you can. If you're not confident that you can make effective use of a cliche, then don't use a cliche, but don't let yourself fall into the trap of believing that it's impossible to use one effectively.

Well, I didn't expect your grandad to have that accent.

Director : [disrispects the Queen] The Closer Look: am gonna end this man's entire career

Cliche's are basically mini spoilers, we hate them because we know whats gonna happen the moment we notice the set-up. It's like knowing the punchline the moment somebody says " knock knock".

That was one of the smoothest Nord transitions I've ever seen. 'Wicked sick Nord Transition, brah!' - Some human.

@BrankoVT

5 жыл бұрын

Oversimplified Cold War 1

@Brian_Grant

5 жыл бұрын

C'mon, "...so clean you could just eat your dinner off it" is simply cliché!

@Vincente22

5 жыл бұрын

I actually started to clap when he switched

A cliché approaches something familiar in a familiar way. It doesn't activate the imagination because the audience already has a referent for it. We get no new information. The _opposite_ of cliché approaches something familiar in a new, novel way. It tells us something we don't already know. It makes the audience reassess their understanding of what they thought, and it's exciting.

13:05 i had the same reaction to hitchhiker's guide's "they hung in the air much in the same way bricks don't" Its such a bizarre way of describing something yet you can instantly picture it as something looking totally unnatural and out of place, unreal even.

“Cliche” is just so... Cliché.

"Avoid cliche like the plague." Christopher Hitchens

@patoren3gou653

4 жыл бұрын

I don’t know Bumblebee is tv tropes in celluloid form and it’s one of my favorite movie of all time

Cliches are not poison. Terrible Writing Advice made an excellent video on the topic. After all, “cliches are bad” itself is a cliche. OverlySarcasticProductions did a really good video on Tropes as well.

@TheCloserLook

5 жыл бұрын

Lets be honest mate, saying clichés are bad isn't a cliché, that's just common knowledge. Saying clichés are bad is the same as saying water is wet, or gravity is a thing.

@Jessie_Helms

5 жыл бұрын

The Closer Look and both of those end examples are cliches as well. “Water is wet” started as an iconic line in 1984 and nowadays it just means “it’s self evident”, exactly how you explained “deer in headlights” just means “turned around quickly”.

@Jessie_Helms

5 жыл бұрын

The Closer Look I enjoyed the video overall, but I think Cliches have a very niche place for limited use.

@ChunkyTheClown

5 жыл бұрын

The Closer Look you didn’t actually respond to his main point and I’d very much like to hear your take on it.

@skelskeleton

5 жыл бұрын

All of fiction has tropes and clichés, the only exceptions are the ones that invent them.

I'm glad you used the galaxy quest and life of brian examples. I was just about to say. There are self aware moments where you can poke fun at the cliche or be ironic. So depending on the execution cliches don't always have to be avoided like the plague. I mean sometimes people use cliches. We shouldn't have to pretend those people don't exist. I get the general rule of thumb especially for upcoming writers but like all things there are outliers and exceptions.

I disagree with a lot of what you said. I think asking writers to completely avoid cliches at all costs is not what we should focus on. Instead, we need to try and understand what made the cliche useful and attempt to use the core idea in a more interesting way. For example, the ticking clock may be an overused cliche, but done properly it can still work as intended and build suspense. What the writer has to do is find the core of how the ticking clock can benefit their story, and consider what the best alternative to it is. Maybe drop it altogether? Maybe have a time sensitive situation with a "hidden" ticking clock? And yes, perhaps it is simply better to leave an actual ticking clock in the story. Turning it into a joke about cliches is of course an amusing alternative, but it is certainly not the only method to use this device. Cliches become what they are because they are extremely useful in many situations, and we shouldn't ignore their benefits.

When I can't sleep at night, I turn on Holmes and Watson. I'm out like a light within minutes

The Closer Look! I was getting nervous that you weren't posting. I thought Article 13 took you away for good.

The other option is to overwrite the cliche or trope with original content. "He snapped his head around sharply and two angry orbs greeted his gaze. They engulfed Steve, the anger radiating from them paralyzed him with terror and made him feel small, exactly like a deer trapped in headlights. It was his wife, and she glared at the vomit on his shirt, then the bottle in his hand." Even using the cliche in this way works because you're putting in extra effort to evoke the image or feeling of the trope instead of asking the trope to do all the heavy lifting. If you do it right, the audience will be saying, "like this trope," to themselves, and all you'll be doing is confirming it to them.

The thumbnail says everything: Put Will Farrel in it and you'll bore everyone to tears.

I think one of the most original and unique death threat I've ever heard in fiction comes from Fire Emblem: Fates. Fire Emblem: Fates is terrible, but this one line is really good. It's delivered by Leo, the player character's younger brother when they first meet again after the player betrays their home kingdom. "Nohrian Law is blunt on the subject of traitors. There is but one punishment; the sentence is death"

@dead9247

4 жыл бұрын

Unique.

You made a video about boring your audience interesting. Impressive.

I think the only time a cliche is funny is if it’s hidden in another creative joke or if your making fun of a cliche

It would be interesting to see how you apply this same analysis on a satirical film that revolutionizes a genre by using its tropes/clichés like Scream.

Breaking my arm was funnier than what I´ve seen from this movie

Video Title: How to bore an audience. Me: The Expert.

Avoiding cliches is hard advice to take seriously when moments after you say “leave a comment down below” like every other KZreadr in existence

@ToomanyFrancis

3 жыл бұрын

It may seem like a cliché, but most KZreadrs actually see major increases in video interaction when they say things like "make sure you stay till the end" or "like and comment". For KZreadrs interaction is their main source of income. Getting more comments gets them more views, and views get them money from ad revenue or will give them sponsorship opportunities.

Ugh, nothing is inherently cliche. Cliche occurs when a writer doesn't understand their world: like a deer in headlights even though the world of the story is focusing on neither etc.