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Reality TV Part 14

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Tropes

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[ bird caws ]

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What is a trope?

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A trope would be a pattern that recurs throughout a work of art

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or a genre of art.

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So any pattern that occurs throughout all different types of literature is a trope,

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or throughout art is a trope.

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So in reality TV,

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the tropes are things like confessionals.

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This is when a person

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turns to the camera and starts

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talking directly to the camera,

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confessing all of their deepest desires.

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This started in earnest with The Real World,

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when they would take people out of their rooms

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and say, "What are you thinking about?"

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And the person would be like, "Oh, my God.

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So-and-so's so hot." Or like, "I can't believe he said that about me." Or whatever.

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Now it's on almost every show.

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Every reality show, whether it's a competition show or not.

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So people on The Bachelor do it,

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- but people on American Idol do it. - Cooking shows.

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Cooking shows, exactly.

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You turn to the camera and you basically say how you're feeling.

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So a confessional. A judging panel

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is a trope that comes up again and again.

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And we actually have archetypes

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within the judging panel, which is

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the different types of characters that show up again and again on the judging panel.

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It started with Simon Cowell.

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So now on every -- With American Idol.

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So now on every single judging panel,

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- we have... - The cranky pants.

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- Exactly. - The airhead.

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- Yup. - Where everything's nice and awesome --

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So like the Lego Movie, everything is awesome.

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And then there's the weirdo.

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- Yep. - That's like Uncle Larry.

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Exactly. Exactly. Steven Tyler.

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- [ indistinct ] - Exactly.

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And so these archetypes form this trope

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of the judging panel.

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And it can go on and on,

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but basically all of the patterns that you see

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recurring throughout all of reality television

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serve as the tropes.

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So if you wanted to analyze

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reality TV as a type of literature,

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you can do that because you can say,

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"What is it about these confessionals

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that work across genres?

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How is it the same

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in a dating show and in a cooking show?

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How is it different?"

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And so there's a lot of analysis that can be done there.

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[ pen writing ]

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What is a trope?

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No, it's not the hair that bald guys put on their head.

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