History Main / WordSaladTitle

* ''Manga/ExcelSaga'' is the saga of the title character whose name is Excel. The full title of the [[Anime/ExcelSaga anime adaptation]] is "Quack Experimental Anime Excel Saga", which ''also'' [[WidgetSeries says it all]].

* ''Manga/BoboboboBobobo'' is named after the main character, and both he and the series are [[WidgetSeries every bit as weird as the name]].

* ''Manga/TheLuciferAndBiscuitHammer'' has an unusual word order; it would typically be ''Lucifer and the Biscuit Hammer'' [[RuleOfCool but the former looks cooler]]. The "biscuit hammer" is an enormous hammer in space that could destroy the world. "Lucifer" refers to [[spoiler:Samidare, one of the main characters]], though she doesn't have much in common with her Biblical namesake. [[WidgetSeries So, it's exactly as goofy as the title makes it sound.]]

* ''Literature/DateALive'': Can be [[JustForFun/XMeetsY described]] as ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' meets ''Manga/TheWorldGodOnlyKnows'', [[WidgetSeries and is as weird as that sounds]]. While dating is sometimes involved, it's more likely to get the main character killed than keep him alive. Makes slightly more sense if you follow the Japanese pronunciation, where ''deitoaraibu'' is a clear {{Pun}} on "dead or alive".

* ''Webcomic/DresdenCodak''. Being primarily a WidgetSeries, this actually makes a bit of sense, such as it is.

Not to be confused with ColonCancer or InWhichATropeIsDescribed. {{Mad Lib Thriller Title}}s follow a set of rules that may or may not be this.

* The Creator/AdultSwim show ''Brad Neely's Harg Nallin' Sclopio Peepio''. [[WordOfGod According to Brad Neely himself]] the title is "intentionally meaningless"; it's just arrangment of the staff's "favorite collection of syllables".

** The title of the album ''Bee Thousand'' at least sort of has an explanation - Supposedly Robert Pollard passed a theater that was showing ''{{Film/Beethoven}}'', but on the marquee the title was misspelled as "Beethouen" [[note]]Most likely the theater just didn't have any v's left among it's sign letters[[/note]]. "Bee-thow-en" stuck in his mind, and then gradually turned into "bee thousand". Another motivation for the title choice was an obtuse ShoutOut - "Bee Thousand" sounds similar to [[Music/TheWho Pete Townsend.]] And ''Vampire On Titus'' is sort of SelfDeprecation - Pollard lived on a street called Titus Avenue, and someone he knew referred to him derogatorily as "the vampire on Titus."

* ''Videogame/AmongTheSleep'' never offers a direct explanation for it's title, but considering how you play as a straight up two-year-old progressing through a world of surreal PsychologicalHorror, it may be intended to evoke a developing mind still learning how to string their words together.

* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'' may seem like a confusing title for people with little familiarity with the series, possibly only knowing it exists thanks to ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'' However, there is actual meaning behind the title. The “Xeno” prefix, means “strange,” or “foreign,” and in the main games, the main character wields a magic sword that is integral to the main plot, so in a way, the games are called, “The Chronicles of the Strange Blades.” This is even further evident since the first game was originally called “Monodo, Beginning of the World” with the Monodo being the sword in question.

* ''VisualNovel/SteinsGate'' is name-dropped constantly by protagonist [[{{Chuunibyou}} Okabe Rintarou]]. (In-game, it's just "Steins Gate", the semi-colon is a quirk of the [[VisualNovel/ScienceAdventureSeries series]].) It's probably fate or [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext something]]. Pretty nicely summed up by an exchange in the true ending:

->''Franchise/KingdomHearts II.8 Final Chapter Prologue manages to do the impossible in being an even more ludicrous title than VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2.''
-->-- '''{{LetsPlay/Chuggaaconroy}}'''

->''"[[Literature/TheTalesOfBeedleTheBard Babbity Rabbity and her Cackling Stump]] is the stupidest title ever written by man or beast and of course when I wrote it... when I gave [[Literature/HarryPotter Ron]] that title, I didn't imagine for a second that I was actually going to write the story."''
-->-- '''Creator/JKRowling''', on combining this trope with {{Defictionalization}}.

* Lauren Bousfield's song titles tend to read like indecipherable spam email 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".

* Lauren Bousfield's song titles tend to be modeled after indecipherable spam email headlines, often with a sinister dose of WordSaladHorror mixed in - 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".

* "Bruised Water" by Chicane and Natasha Bedingfield, named so since it's a mashup of Chicane's "Saltwater" and Bedingfield's "I Bruise Easily".

* 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" - they broke with this tradition starting with the 2005 album ''Minus El Oso'' though.

* Lauren Bousfield's song titles tend to be modeled after indecipherable spam email headlines, often with a sinister dose of WordSaladHorror mixed in - 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".

* ''Film/TheRoom'' mostly takes place in a two-floor apartment, but no particular room is given any specific plot importance or thematic weight. A far more appropriate title could be ''The Building''. Writer/Director/Star Creator/TommyWiseau's rambling, barely coherent explanation is that he had the idea of a room people could relate to that was a place of privacy and safety where they could go to revel or brood. Of course, how this ties to the actual events of the film is still anybody's guess. Greg Sestero, the actor who played Mark claimed that the film was originally written as a play, and all of the action would take place in a single room, which is at least a WordOfSaintPaul.

Contrast with ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, this trope's direct opposite. See also NonIndicativeName, for characters and in-story objects with similarly unintuitive names, albeit ones that still carry meaningful communicative significance; and NeverTrustATitle, for titles that are grammatically sound, but misleading. Related to JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant. For an example of a "TV Tropes" title that follows this formula, see NinjaPirateZombieRobot. Frequently results in an LongTitle.

* Jaime Brockett's "[[LongTitle Talkin' Green Beret New Yellow Hydraulic Banana Teenybopper Blues]]"

* The various installments of ''WebOriginal/SpaghettiIce'' combines this trope with LongTitle. The work's titles are written as if they were [[spoiler:a cryptic CrosswordPuzzle clue, and thus, are meant to be decoded to reach their true meaning]].

See also GoryDeadlyOverkillTitleOfFatalDeath, for when horror movies do this. A SisterTrope would be WordSaladLyrics, often performed by [[AGoodNameForARockBand suitably named bands]]. Also very closely related to MeaninglessMeaningfulWords, which sound impressive in any haphazard order.

* The various installments of ''WebOriginal/SpaghettiIce'' combines this trope with LongTitle. The work's titles are written as if they were [[spoiler:a cryptic CrosswordPuzzle clue, and thus, are meant to be decoded to reach their true meaning]].
** ''Awkwardly Step Around Him for a Fresh Herb''
** ''It's Cardinal He's in the Common Era''

* ''{{Literature/Trainspotting}}'' has absolutely nothing to do with trains and train enthusiasts. Rather, the title is an ArtifactTitle from the original "Trainspotting at Leith Central", the meaning being that Leith Central Station is abandoned, derelict, and squalid, and going there to trainspot is a stupid, filthy and completely pointless activity... much like the protagonists' lives.

* ''Anime/SSSSGridman'' is nearly a WordPureeTitle, but does have an explanation. "Gridman" is the main HumongousMecha, and "SSSS" is a reference to ''Series/SuperhumanSamuraiSyberSquad'', which also had a robot called Gridman, and is this show's [[SpiritualSuccessor predecessor]].

* ''[[WebOriginal/SpaghettiIce Awkwardly Step Around Him for a Fresh Herb]]'' combines this trope with LongTitle. The title is written as if it were [[spoiler:a cryptic CrosswordPuzzle clue, and thus, is meant to be decoded to reach its true meaning]].

* ''Awkwardly Step Around Him for a Fresh Herb'' combines this trope with LongTitle. The title is written as if it were [[spoiler:a cryptic CrosswordPuzzle clue, and thus, is meant to be decoded to reach its true meaning]].

* ''Octopus Pie'' is a story about two women in Brooklyn and their relationships therein, and does not contain an octopus.

*** Actually "Pink Floyd" is a shortened version of their earlier name: "The Pink Floyd Sound", derived from the names of two blues musicians founder Syd Barrett liked: Pink Anderson and Floyd Council.

** ''Jude Law And A Semester Abroad'', ''I Will Play My Game Beneath The Spin Light'', ''Okay I Believe You But My Tommy Gun Don't'' (a quote from ''Film/{{Home Alone 2|Lost In New York}}'''s [[ShowWithinAShow film within a film]] ''Angels With Even Filthier Souls''), ''Good To Know That If I Ever Need Attention All I Have To Do Is Die''[[note]]A friend of the band hadn't been seen in quite a while, and there were rumors of his death; the song title was his response when he suddenly showed up at a social gathering and learned why everyone seemed so happy to see him[[/note]], ''Last Chance to Lose Your Keys'', ''Logan to Government Center'' (a reference to Boston's subway system - the lyrics do mention New England).

* Music/{{Nirvana}}'s seminal song "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Music/KurtCobain took the phrase from some graffiti that a friend had scrawled on his wall: "Kurt Smells Like Teen Spirit," which poked fun at Cobain for having sex with his girlfriend so frequently that he smelled like her deodorant. Cobain didn't know what Teen Spirit was, so he thought the phrase had something to do with youthful rebellion. He didn't find out the phrase's real meaning until after he'd written the song.

* The Buzz Of Delight, an early project of Music/MatthewSweet, got their name from a conversation between [[Music/{{REM}} Michael Stipe]] and Linda Hopper of Magnapop (both of whom were friends of Sweet): Hopper was complaining about a buzzing light bulb in her kitchen and Stipe heard "the buzz of the lights" as "the buzz of delight".

* IdolSinger units in Japan could have a wiki on their own. One example among dozens can be [[https://jpop.fandom.com/wiki/Chameleon_Republic Chameleon Republic]], supposedly named after the concept of "continually transforming idols". Also counts as a NonIndicativeName, since nothing about them changed after their
establishment.

* ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'': In the show, ''winx'' has no meaning--Bloom just made it up. (The [[Creator/FourKidsEntertainment 4Kids]] dub changed it to the term for fairy magic.) Apparently, though, it's derived from the English word "wings."