Top 10 Highly Over-the-Top but Surprisingly Well-Executed TV Trope Examples in Fictional Media Works

The Top Ten

  1. Light Yagami in Death Note - Villain Protagonist

    "I'll show off how smart I am with my right hand and slaughter people with my left. I'll take the Villain Protagonist trope... AND(!) DEFINE IT!" - Light Yagami

  2. South Park's "mocking everyone equally" gimmick - Equal-Opportunity Offender

    iDubbbz really needs to do a better job learning the art of EOO from this show.

  3. Time-traveling directly from 1000 AD to 2300 AD near the beginning of Chrono Trigger - Mood Whiplash

  4. The Joker from the Batman franchise - Card-Carrying Villain

    Especially his Mark Hamill version in The Animated Series and Arkham Asylum (TAS's "family friendliness" censorship aside).

  5. The art style of The Ren & Stimpy Show - Deranged Animation

    This show might not have really had a whole lot of substance in retrospect, but calling it "visually expressive" barely even BEGINS to describe it.

  6. The "Wacky Delly" episode of Rocko's Modern Life - Biting-the-Hand Humor

    Making fun of Ren & Stimpy for being more critically acclaimed than Rocko's Modern Life despite RML being blatantly the better show between the two of them in "actual writing" terms? Check (most likely).

    Making fun of Rocko's Modern Life itself for being overrated, shallow, and pretentious? Probably not intentionally on the writers' part, but check.

    Predicting both the unbelievably massive popularity of SpongeBob SquarePants and the general future of Nickelodeon itself? SUPER CHECK.

  7. The overall tone of The Dark Knight when compared to most other Batman portrayals and especially most other superhero movies - Darker and Edgier

    Zack Snyder: What gives The Dark Knight the right to be treated as such a massive Sacred Cow by DC Comics' basement-dwelling Internet fanbase despite the fact that it took the Batman franchise in basically the exact same direction as Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice? Honestly, what's the difference between your film and mine, Nolan?

    Christopher Nolan: The Dark Knight is actually good and utilizes its "Darker and Edgier" gimmick in a way that actually makes sense in the context of its storyline rather than just being an excuse for its creators to act way more mature and professional than they actually are.

    Zack Snyder: You're living in a (CENSORED) dream world, ya FOOL!

  8. Courage the Cowardly Dog often being in multiple art styles at once just to show off how unique and creative it is - Art Shift and Conspicuous CG

    I haven't watched this show in a long time, but that is pretty cool, actually.

    (Cough, the show's photorealistic backgrounds and CGI monsters, cough.)

  9. The main class characters in Team Fortress 2, especially the Heavy and the Sniper - All-Stereotype Cast

    The Pyro isn't necessarily a regional stereotype, but still easily counts.

  10. The overall tone of Invader Zim when compared to most other Nicktoons - Darker and Edgier

    Rocko's suburban wasteland has NOTHING on Zim's urban hellscape.

    11. The Newcomers
  11. ?

    Satina in Hannah Daigle's Satina series - Cute Monster Girl

  12. ?

    2300 AD in Chrono Trigger - Polluted Wasteland

    13. The Contenders

  13. The overall tone of Death Note when compared to most other anime and manga franchises - Darker and Edgier

  14. Shrek in the first two Shrek movies - Jerk with a Heart of Gold

  15. The Avengers: Infinity War film incarnation of Thanos from the Marvel Cinematic Universe - Villain Protagonist

  16. The Ren & Stimpy Show in general - Gross-Out Show

    It basically popularized the trope.

  17. Kenshiro in Fist of the North Star - Invincible Hero

  18. The infamous Falcon Punch scene in F-Zero: Falcon Densetsu - Megaton Punch

  19. Giorno Giovanna in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure - Invincible Hero

  20. Ren Hoek from The Ren & Stimpy Show - Large Ham

  21. The overall tone of Courage the Cowardly Dog when compared to most other Cartoon Network shows - Darker and Edgier

  22. The cutscenes in UmJammer Lammy's main story mode - Deranged Animation

  23. The Shinra subplot in Final Fantasy VII - Green Aesop

  24. Zim from Invader Zim - Large Ham

  25. The Lord of the Rings's extremely long and flowery descriptions of nearly every possible thing in the original book series - Purple Prose

  26. Undertale's Pacifist Run - Earn Your Happy Ending

  27. The Amalgamates in Undertale - Tragic Monster

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