There are plenty of nicknames and epithets we use, insulting or endearing, to describe people in our day-to-day lives. Some of these can even be rather grandiose: calling someone the "King of [X]" or the "[X] police", and so on and so forth. Everyone collectively understands that this is just hyperbole and that it's not a real position.
This trope is when such a nickname is Not Hyperbole in the slightest. It's depicted as an actual title or profession with real authority and responsibilities. The Team Mom isn't just the informal leader of the team, they're the legal guardian of everyone on it. The "fun police" aren't just people who act as buzzkills, they're a real law enforcement agency who have the authority to arrest people who have too much enjoyment in their presence. The King of the Homeless has full legal power over every hobo in his domain. And God help you if you make a typo while you're under the jurisdiction of the Grammar Nazis.
This is most often Played for Laughs as a Joke and Receive, where someone sarcastically mentions the joke title and the real role is revealed to exist shortly after. For example, Alice says that Bob should change his outfit because his jacket clashes with his shoes. He tempts fate by asking "What are you gonna do, call the fashion police on me?" before stepping outside, where he is immediately ticketed by the Fashion Police for crimes against style.
A subtrope of Literal Metaphor. Compare Not Hyperbole, Serious Business, Mundane Made Awesome, Cue the Flying Pigs, and And I'm the Queen of Sheba.
Examples:
Comic Books- Scott Pilgrim features the Vegan Police, an enforcement unit responsible for patroling the vegans, who in the series' universe gain "vegan superpowers" from their vegan diet; the Vegan Police revokes these powers from any vegan who's caught cheating on their diet. They're named after the real-life "vegan police" slang, which is used to refer to hardline vegans who impose their standards on other vegans/vegetarians and berate them for not matching up.
Live-Action TV
- King of the Nerds: At the end of each season, the winner is treated like a literal King of the Nerds, being given a coronation ceremony and seated on the Throne of Games (a throne built out of pop culture paraphernalia that resembles the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones).
- In the world of the MADtv (1995) sketch "Be-Bitched"
(a parody of Bewitched), "bitch" isn't just a term for a mean woman, but a race of magical beings similar to witches from the original show. As one such "bitch", Samantha's "bitchcraft" consists of twitching her nose to turn herself into a Sassy Black Woman who tells everybody around her where to shove it.
Louise Tate: (as she is ushered out the door) Larry, can I talk to you? I think Sam's a bitch!Darren: (to Samantha) Well, you did it again, honey. How did I get to be so lucky?Samantha: You just did what every man wishes he could do: you married a bitch! - Monty Python's Flying Circus: One famous sketch opens with Graham Chapman's character being pestered by Carol Cleveland. He gets fed up with her constant questions and says, "I didn't expect some kind of Spanish Inquisition!" Suddenly, a bunch of Spanish cardinals burst in the room while a dramatic orchestral sting plays, with their leader exclaiming "NOBODY expects the Spanish Inquisition!"
- Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide: In the "Guide to Clothes" episode, Missy forms a brigade of fashion police, who go around ticketing anyone who isn’t dressed fashionably. Moze sarcastically applies the title, which Missy matter-of-factly confirms.
- The first episode of Ripping Yarns, "Tomkinson's Schooldays", is a parody of Tom Brown's Schooldays, in which "School Bully" is an official position that comes with outrageous privileges and the unspoken expectation to insult and abuse everyone (including the teachers and headmaster). Grayson, who holds the post, demands that everyone call him School Bully, and introduces himself as such (instead of by name) when he answers the phone. At the end of the story, the battered titular protagonist inherits the position from Grayson, who has vacated it to accept the position of School Bully at Eton (because their School Bully has left to join the government).
- Sesame Street: In "Lead Away", Oscar insultingly refers to some characters as the "Lead Police" for preaching to him about avoiding lead poisoning. Then, a parody of The Police shows up and sings about how they're the Lead Police.
- The Adam and Joe Show: One recurring segment was titled Vinyl Justice, a parody of police Reality Shows where Adam and Joe would play two "Music Police" and investigate celebrities' music collections for albums of questionable taste. VH1 made it a short-lived standalone show in 1998 starring Barry Sobel and Wayne Brady.
Video Games
- Undertale: In the neutral ending where Undyne becomes the ruler of the Underground, if Papyrus is alive, he is appointed "The Most Important Royal Position", which he clarifies is his actual title. His job is to stand around and look cute.
- Fashion Police Squad: The player character is a member of the "fashion police", who, in this game, are a real police force who solve fashion crimes.
Webcomics
- Cyanide and Happiness:
- Played With in one strip◊. A literal Grammar Nazi appears in front of two men, who start begging for their lives. The Grammar Nazi starts dragging one away, and he says "Our grammar was correct! Why me?!" to which the Grammar Nazi replies "Because you're a Jew."
- Another strip shows an Old Western town's "Grammar Sheriff," who shoots the normal Sheriff dead for saying "That don't seem like no kinda Sheriff to me."
- Played With in one strip
- Sinfest: In one strip, a pair of uniformed Grammar Nazis beat up Slick for not using the subjunctive (saying "If I was" instead of "If I were"). Squigly is then arrested by the Thought Police.
Web Original
- This skit from CollegeHumor parodies the opening scene from Inglorious Basterds by making the Nazi antagonist Colonel Hans Landa a literal Grammar Nazi—he threatens to execute Mr. LaPedite for continually making grammatical errors, but when LaPedite catches him making a grammatical error, he shoots himself out of shame.
Col. Landa: Hiding under the floorboards, I have finally found you.Mr. LaPedite: Wait—you are hiding under the floorboards, or is she?Shoshanna Dreyfus: (hiding under the floor) A dangling participle!Col. Landa: A dangling participle... [shoots himself]
Western Animation
- Kim Possible: "Fashion Victim" features literal fashion police... who do seem to investigate actual fashion-related crimes (hey, it is a billion-dollar industry), but also seem to take ticketing tacky outfits just as seriously.
- In The Owl House episode "Really Small Problems", Eda is arrested by the actual, official Fun Police of a carnival fair where she was running a con. They dress in clown costumes complete with makeup and gag accessories, but take their job ''very seriously''.
- The Venture Bros.: In Baron Werner Ünderbheit's home county of Ünderland, two students becoming lab partners is apparently a sacred bond of great social and legal significance. When Werner's lab partner Rusty Venture allegedly caused an explosion that blew off his jaw, Werner declared himself Venture's archnemesis for life.
