History Main / WordSaladTitle

* ''[[WebVideo/BackstrokeOfTheWest Star War The Third Gathers: Backstroke of the West]]'' is a TranslationTrainWreck and RecursiveTranslation of ''[[Film/RevengeOfTheSith Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith]]''. It has spawned several memes, especially [[http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/do-not-want DO NOT WANT]]. Its {{Fan Sequel}}s ''WebOriginal/TheStarWarGatherings'' are no better.

* The band Music/JimmyEatWorld. The name came from the caption on a crayon drawing by guitarist Tom Linton's younger brother Ed in the aftermath of one of Ed's fights with their other brother, Jim, depicting...[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Jimmy eating the world.]] Linton saw AGoodNameForARockBand and went with it.

* Wet Leg - they got their name from a game members were playing revolving around trying to make band names out of randomly chosen emoji combinations, where at one point they got the pairing "💧 🦵". There's no meaning beyond that, though they have said having such a silly name helps them not take themselves too seriously.

* ''Anime/SerialExperimentsLain'': Lain is our protagonist. The series spans a short manga and a Platform/PlayStation game, the latter of which involves reading case files on Lain's 'progress' throughout laboratory tests. Also, each episode of the show can be seen as Lain experimenting with something new, progressing serially from the simple (trying out a new computer) to the mindblowingly, cosmically profound. Metatextually, the episodes can be seen as a series of experiments with storytelling technique, each one trying something different.

* ''Anime/SerialExperimentsLain'': Lain is our protagonist. The series spans a short manga and a UsefulNotes/PlayStation game, the latter of which involves reading case files on Lain's 'progress' throughout laboratory tests. Also, each episode of the show can be seen as Lain experimenting with something new, progressing serially from the simple (trying out a new computer) to the mindblowingly, cosmically profound. Metatextually, the episodes can be seen as a series of experiments with storytelling technique, each one trying something different.

* ''Real Bout VideoGame/FatalFury Special: Dominated Mind'': The UsefulNotes/PlayStation port of ''Real Bout Fatal Fury Special'', which is an {{Oddly Named Sequel|2ElectricBoogaloo}} to ''Real Bout Fatal Fury'' (and not really a sequel, strictly speaking), itself an {{Oddly Named Sequel|2ElectricBoogaloo}} in the series lineup. The port gets its own name because it gets [[UpdatedRerelease lots of extra stuff, including a story]]. The "dominated mind" in question is Billy Kane, whom White brainwashes into fighting you.

* {{Shoddy Knockoff Product}}s often try to skirt around trademark law by changing a word into something that ''sounds'' similar or trying to use synonyms. This is how products and brands like the Nintendo Poly Station (UsefulNotes/PlayStation knockoff and not affiliated with Nintendo in any way), Arm and Hatchet (Arm & Hammer), Michael Alone (UsefulNotes/McDonalds), and Cavern Kernel (Calvin Klein) manage to exist.

** The word symphony, depending on the context, can imply harmony. And given that [[spoiler: a major part of your quest is resolved with the harmonious merger of two worlds]] it makes some sense. It's been confirmed that the [[spoiler: reunified world]] is called Symphonia before its name is changed to [[spoiler: Aseria.]]

* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' had its name derived from Creator/TiteKubo not wanting to name his manga ''Black'' after the color of the shinigami uniforms and so titled it ''Bleach'' as the inverse of black, in order to evoke the meaning of white. Prominent fan theories for its naming were Ichigo's light red hair, which supposedly looks bleached, the band Music/{{Nirvana}} of which Tite Kubo is a fan, whose first album was titled ''Bleach'' or the "bleaching" purification effect a Shinigami's sword has on a Hollow fallen ghost. And then there's the rumor [[EpilepticTrees that he called it bleach because in his cleaning supplies the bleach was right next to the Resolve, and resolve is a major character trait]].\\\
Many of the chapter titles make very little sense without context. "Four Arms to Killing You" and "Superchunky from Hell" for example. The former involves an Arrancar with [[MultiArmedAndDangerous four (later six) arms]] trying to kill Kenpachi Zaraki. The latter is about a [[spoiler:giant blob-shaped hollow coming from Hueco Mundo to aid in Aizen's attack]]. In the ''Bleach'' [[AllThereInTheManual character data books]] there are sections to translate the titles.

* ''Series/OrphanBlack'' refers to Sarah's existence outside the system ("in the black") before she was adopted by Mrs. S. Lampshaded in the series finale where it's the title for Helena's memoirs, and none of the other characters can figure out what it's referring to.
* The British show ''Series/PeakyBlinders'' can come across this way particularly to Americans. A "peaky" is an old-fashioned kind of hat with a peak. The series concerns a gang who would stick razor blades in the seam of their hats so that they can whip them at an enemy's eyes as a surprise attack.

** "...Press Coverage" is a quote from a Creator/ChuckPalahniuk novel, ''Literature/Survivor1999''.

* Helms frequently use song titles that have nothing to do with the lyrics, though they've explained at least some of them as band in-jokes: For instance, "Sno-Cone Lizard" got its title from an incident where, as a teenager, a member surreptitiously put a Music/TheJesusLizard sticker on the family car - his mother found the band's name offensive, and rather than have to scrape the whole sticker off, she just partially covered it up with a "sno-cone" sticker.
* Letters to Cleo, who got their name from the fact that lead vocalist Kay Hanley had a pen pal named Cleo growing up - she happened to find an old box of returned letters to Cleo while they were still deciding on a name. ''Wholesale Meats And Fish'' was supposedly something they saw on a sign and just decided would be an amusing thing to call an album.

* Tommy Stinson's ''Village Gorilla Head'', as well as its title track. In one interview Stinson said that "Village Gorilla Head" was originally just a WorkingTitle for the song, which he thought sounded like a cross between the Music/VillagePeople, Music/{{Gorillaz}} and Music/{{Radiohead}}.

* Lauren Bousfield's song titles tend to read like indecipherable [[ClickbaitGag clickbait headlines]] mixed with sinister WordSaladHorror - examples include "Debtors Prison Click Here Disney Needs To See This" and "Clean Strategic Narratives With Relatable Messaging Murder Them Violently Make Their Children Watch".

* Early in their recording career, Minus The Bear were very fond of using strange, {{Non Appearing Title}}s for their songs, such as "Monkey!!! Knife!!! Fight!!!" and "I'm Totally Not Down With Rob's Alien". Sometimes the titles ''vaguely'' line up with the lyrics - "Absinthe Party At the Fly Honey Warehouse" at least mentions drinking absinthe, but no parties, "fly honeys" or even warehouses appear in the song's content. They fully broke with this tradition entirely starting with the 2005 album ''Minus El Oso'', where all of the songs have proper title drops.
** While the titles still have nothing to do with the content, a trio of instrumentals with the word "bug" in their titles are all [[ShoutOut direct quotes from]] ''Film/StarshipTroopers'', where the protagonists refer to the aliens they're fighting as "bugs": "You Kill Bugs Good, Man", "Damn Bugs Whacked Him, Johnny", and " You're Some Sort of Big, Fat, Smart Bug, Aren't You?".

** It Took the Night to Believe, by Sunn O))); instrumental.