A frequent stylistic Title Trope which essentially delivers the premise of the story before it even starts rolling, and therefore often is synonymous with a show's High Concept.
The character in question must be a person, in one sense or another. Whether he, she or it is featured in the story, or is just related to it in one way or another - be it only metaphorically (like, say, the Devil) - isn't important. Objects only count if they are anthropomorphised properly in-story.
The action taken, on the other hand, can be anything under the sun. What counts is that it is an action thats being described ("Bob Eats Bread" or "Bob Eats"), rather than, say, merely (and explicitly - see below) describing a state or condition
("Bob Is A Breadophile" or "Bob Has A Bread-Fancy") or describing the character in a relative clause ("The Bob Who Ate Bread").
Tense, aspect, mood and voice all make no difference for the purposes of this trope, so it can just as easily be "Bob Ate Bread" "Bob Will Eat Bread", "Bob Is Eating Bread", "Bob Would Eat Bread" or even "Bob Was Eaten". The idea is that the title is a complete sentence (subject + verb) is more or less a given.
The 'action' can even be an idiom or metaphor for something completely different, even a state or condition ("Bob Eats The Bread That Is Jesus" or "Bob Has Eaten His Last Slice of Bread").
This includes explicit actions such as "to do," "to meet someone," or "to go somewhere," and it also includes intransitive verbs such as "to return," "to begin," or "to die."
This otherwise very simplistic naming convention tends to follow some particular trends:
- It's used in children's programmes (to spark the young audience's interest in the upcoming subject matter without making things too complicated).
- It's used in titles meant to reproduce the brevity of news messages and headlines, often (ironically) about otherwise important and momentous events.
- For Crossovers, the title formula "Character from Franchise A does something to Character from Franchise B" can be used, "Meets" being the most common variant.
- Particularly variations like "Returns", "Rides Again" and "Strikes Back" are popular with sequel movies, as they bring across the message and deliver a little emotional velocity and creativity into the title at the same time. The "Strikes Back" title in particular also heavily overlaps with Revenge of the Sequel.
- It's used in humorous works, where any of the above is Played for Laughs. Examples of the "Goes To X" variation, for one, often riff on Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
The most frequent variations involve the character doing something new and/or exciting, such as going to a place or being thrown into an unlikely situation.
Event Title Sub-Trope. Very often part of Idiosyncratic Episode Naming within series.
Compare Role Called, Job Title, Adjective Noun Fred, In Which a Trope Is Described, The Noun Who Verbed and The Joy of X. Also compare Versus Title, which is also common for Crossovers but lacks the action verb. Not to be confused with X Meets Y, which is a Just for Fun page for describing works as combinations of other works.
- All Dogs Go to Heaven
- An American Tail: Fievel Goes West
- The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars
- Mr. Bug Goes to Town
- Teen Titans Go! To the Movies
Films — Live-Action
- Buster and Bubs Go Hawaiian
- The Ernest P. Worrell films almost exclusively follow this structure:
- Ernest Goes to Camp
- Ernest Goes to Jail
- Ernest Goes To School
- Ernest Goes To Africa
- Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle
- Herbie Goes To Monte Carlo
- Jason Goes to Hell: The Final Friday
- Leningrad Cowboys Go America, a Finnish movie that started the career of the band Leningrad Cowboys.
- Madea Goes to Jail
- Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
- Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
- Sabrina Goes to Rome
Live-Action TV
- Blackadder Goes Forth
- In Monk, a good portion of episodes follow this convention, such Mr Monk Goes To The Asylum.
Music
- Frankie Goes to Hollywood
- The album "Alice Cooper Goes to Hell."
Video Games
- Putt-Putt Goes to the Moon
Web Original
- Barney Bunch often have their most common videos be titled “Drew Pickles Goes to X”.
- Charlie the Unicorn Goes to Candy Mountain
- Elliot Goes To School
- Even TV Tropes itself has its own share of examples:
- Youtube Poop videos often use this format (Captain Hook Wins the Lottery, Simba and Nala go to White Castle, etc.) which usually has little to do with the YTP's plot (if there even is one).
Western Animation
- Of course, The Simpsons did it, with such episode titles like "Homer Goes to College" and "Mr. Lisa Goes to Washington".
- Timothy Goes to School
- Tom Goes to the Mayor
Comic Books
Fanfic
- Dungeon Keeper Ami: The chapter where someone returns: "Mukrezar's Return".
Films — Live-Action
Video Games
Web Original
Films — Animation
- Alvin And The Chipmunks:
- Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers
Films — Live-Action
- Abbott and Costello loved to follow this trope. In order of release:
- Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla
- Billy The Kid Meets Dracula
- East Meets Watts
- Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man
- Jesse James Meets Frankenstein's Daughter
- KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park
Music
- Duke Ellington had a collaboration with Coleman Hawkins titled Duke Ellington Meets Coleman Hawkins, and a collaboration with Count Basie titled First Time! The Count Meets The Duke.
- Bags Meets Wes—referring to the nicknames of the two primary musicians, Milt Jackson and Wes Montgomery.
Video Games
Web Original
- Tv Tropes' own Car Meets House.
Western Animation
- Destry Rides Again
- Ernest Rides Again
- Godzilla Raids Again, in a rare pun on this variation.
- Herbie Rides Again
Western Animation
- Cool Cat Saves the Kids
- Elmo Saves Christmas
- Ernest Saves Christmas
- Felix the Cat Saves Christmas
- Read It and Weep: In-Universe, Jamie Bartlett's journal that became a best-selling book was titled "Is Saves the World".
Live-Action TV
Video Games
- Cthulhu Saves the World, a parody of Eastern RPGs starring Cthulhu as he... travels around the world to become a hero.
- Putt-Putt Saves the Zoo
- Trover Saves the Universe
Web Original
Western Animation
- "Danger Mouse Saves the World...Again" ( a serialized story from the original series).
- Dora the Explorer: A number of the episodes begin with "Dora Saves..." (ie. "Dora Saves the Prince", "Dora Saves the Mermaids", "Dora Saves Three Kings Day").
- Family Guy: parodied by the Show Within a Show, KISS Saves Santa where the band saves Santa Claus from dinosaurs with The Power of Rock.
- Similar to Dora, Go, Diego, Go! has a majority of episodes with this title (ie. "Diego Saves Mommy and Baby Sloth", "Diego Saves Baby Humpback Whale", "Alicia Saves the Crocodile")
- Almost every episode of PAW Patrol follows the format "Pups Save...", with "Pups and..." used on occasion.
- Thomas & Friends: The US title of season 1, episode 7 is "Thomas Saves the Day". Season 8, episode 6 shares the same title. There's also a DVD called "Percy Saves the Day", and another named "Emily Saves the World".
- Wonder Pets!: Every episode is titled "Save the (Animal)". The Episode Title Card is also read as "The Wonder Pets Save the (Animal)". There are a few exceptions though, like "Ollie to the Rescue", "Help the Monster", "Off to School", "Join the Circus" and "In the Land of Oz".
- Beavis And Butthead Do America
- The infamous porn film Debbie Does Dallas in which the girl next door earns a spot in the Dallas Cowboys cheerleading squad, but doesn't have money to travel from her hometown to Cowboy stadium. She improvises.
Web Original
- Even TV Tropes itself has its own share of examples:
Live-Action TV
- Doctor Who: "The Angels Take Manhattan"
- Keeping Up with the Kardashians: The Kourtney and Kim Take New York spinoff.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic has Rarity Takes Manehattan
- Pokémon: The First Movie - Mewtwo Strikes Back
Fanfic
- Quizzical: The chapter, "Diamond Tiara Strikes Back".
Films — Live-Action
- The Empire Strikes Back
- Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
- Killer Tomatoes Strike Back
- Munchie Strikes Back
Video Games
Films — Live-Action
Live-Action TV
- Mary Kills People
- The children's book series Fox Investigates.
- Hercule Poirot: The Poirot Investigates collection of short stories.
- Inspector Imanishi Investigates
- Parker Pyne Investigates
Live-Action TV
Web Original
- Tropes:
Western Animation
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: The episode "Rarity Investigates".
- The third episode of the Pokémon: The Original Series is known as "Ash Catches a Pokémon" in English, though the Japanese title is in first-person.
Arts
Comic Books
- Fred Hembeck Destroys the Marvel Universe
- Sergio Aragonés Destroys DC
- Sergio Aragonés Massacres Marvel
- Squirrel Girl Beats Up The Marvel Universe
- Werner has quite a number of stories with such a title, sometimes describing rather mundane actions, sometimes being Literal-Minded. Bonus points if Brösel's Author Avatar tries to tell Werner not to do whatever the title announces. Examples (not all occurrences translate into German easily or at all):
- "Werner fährt nach Kiel" (Werner drives to Kiel—that is, not really, the engine of his car blows up on the way)
Werner: I'm gonna drive to Kiel!
Brösel: And I say, Werner, don't do that! But HE doesn't listen. - "Werner schmeißt sein Geld zum Fenster raus" (actually meaning Werner spends his money senselessly, but Werner literally throws his money out of the window)
- "Werner und seine Kumpels spielen Skat" (Werner and his buddies play Skat)
- "Werner und Penner haun sich 'ne Stunde aufs Ohr" (actually meaning Werner and Penner hit the mattress for an hour, but Werner and Penner literally end up slapping their ears).
- "Werner fährt nach Kiel" (Werner drives to Kiel—that is, not really, the engine of his car blows up on the way)
Fan Works
- Chrysalis Visits The Hague, though the "visit" part is rather sardonic.
- Psychedelic Epiphany Series: The final chapter of Psychedelic, "Discord Inevitably Decides Green Equines Rate Indescribably Desirable On Occupation".
Films — Animation
- The Grinch Grinches the Cat in the Hat
- Muzzy Comes Back
- Sita Sings the Blues
- Tom and Jerry: Blast Off to Mars
- Ralph Breaks the Internet
Films — Live-Action
- Batman Begins
- Celine and Julie Go Boating
- The Creature Walks Among Us
- Dances with Wolves counts, as it's a unique amalgamation of name and predicative.
- The Dark Knight Rises
- Dunston Checks In
- The Eagle Has Landed
- Freddy Got Fingered
- Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
- Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay
- John Dies at the End
- Killer Tomatoes Eat France
- King Kong Escapes
- Lola rennt (German for "Lola runs"), though it's better known in English-speaking markets as Run Lola Run.
- Monsters Crash the Pajama Party
- Santa Claus Conquers the Martians
- Sometimes They Come Back
- They Live!
- Zack and Miri Make a Porno
Literature
- American Girls Collection used to have "____ Learns a Lesson" and "____ Saves the Day" as part of their Strictly Formula structure for each of the girls.
- The Devil Wears Prada
- The Horton series of books by Dr. Seuss:
- The Homestar Runner Enters the Strongest Man in the World Contest, as well as the subsequent Homestar Runner shorts based on it.
- The Master Key: Chapter 7. The Demon Becomes Angry.
Live-Action TV
- Doctor Who: "The Doctor Dances"
- The German crime series Graf Yoster gibt sich die Ehre (Loosely translated as Count Yoster has the Honour, but more literally as, Count Yoster Gives Himself The Honour)
Music
- Back to Back: Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges Play the Blues
- The Danish soft rock band Michael Learns to Rock.
- "She Loves Me Not" (either the Papa Roach song or the t.A.T.u. song)
- Although the official album title is just Illinois!, the front cover stylizes it as Sufjan Stevens Invites You to: Come On Feel the Illinoise!
- The Tears for Fears song "Brian Wilson Said".
Video Games
- Sam & Max Hit the Road
- This Starry Midnight We Make
- Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes
- The first six mainline Putt-Putt games are titled this way. Besides those listed in other categories, these include:
- Putt-Putt Joins the Parade
- Putt-Putt Travels Through Time
- Putt-Putt Enters the Race
- Putt-Putt Joins the Circus
Web Animation
- Minilife TV has an episode titled "Chris and Ian Shamelessly Promote Themselves".
Web Original
- Even TV Tropes itself has its own share of examples:
Western Animation
- Elinor Wonders Why certain things happen in nature and the world around her.
- Harvey Beaks has episodes named "Harvey Fights Kraz", "Harvey Isn't Scary", and "Princess Wants a Mom".
- Invader Zim has an episode titled "Zim Eats Waffles".
- Martha Speaks
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic provides a small wealth of examples too, such as "Fluttershy Leans In" and "She Talks to Angel".
- Of course, The Simpsons did it, with such episode titles like "Bart Stops to Smell the Roosevelts" and "Marge Gets a Job", as well as several episodes with the form "[Character] Gets a [Grade]".
