The creators of a work can't always predict (let alone control) how the audience will receive it. Dramatic moments cause laughter. Titillating scenes cause discomfort. Attempts to appease the fanbase only lead to more complaints. The following is a list of tropes dealing with unexpected reactions to media.
Note that sometimes these reactions, paradoxically, are what the creators intended.
See also It Sucks, Scrappy Index, and What Do You Mean, It's Not an Index?.
- Accidental Aesop: Viewers read a moral you didn't intend.
- Accidental Innuendo: Viewers get distracting and dirty mental images.
- Accidental Nightmare Fuel: Viewers are scared by something that wasn't intended to be scary.
- Alternate Aesop Interpretation: Viewers see the story's Aesop in a different way than you intended.
- Alternative Character Interpretation: The audience examines a character's motivations in a way you didn't intend.
- Alternative Joke Interpretation: The audience examines a joke in a way you didn't intend.
- Aluminum Christmas Trees: The audience thinks a Real Life reference is something you just made up.
- Americans Hate Tingle: Foreign countries or cultures strongly dislike your work.
- Arc Fatigue: "Can we get to the next storyline already?"
- Audience-Alienating Ending: The audience hates the ending you thought was a fitting conclusion for the story.
- Audience-Alienating Premise: The very idea of your work drives viewers away.
- Audience-Coloring Adaptation: Your work permanently colors the franchise.
- Baby Name Trend Starter: People start naming their kids after your characters.
- Base-Breaking Character: Your fans either hate or love one character, even when you didn't design the character to be hated OR loved.
- Best Known for the Fanservice: Your work's merits are ignored because people only watch it for the pool party scene.
- Black Sheep Hit: You get new fans because of the one song that sounds nothing like the rest of your music.
- Breakout Character: One of your minor characters is so popular that s/he becomes a major character.
- Breakout Villain: A minor villain gets a bigger role through popularity.
- Broken Aesop: Viewers mock your Aesop because you undermined it yourself.
- Broken Base: Your fans turn on each other.
- Captain Obvious Aesop: Viewers mock your Aesop because it's something everyone should already know.
- Captain Obvious Reveal: You intended The Reveal to be surprising, but the audience easily saw it coming.
- Clueless Aesop: Viewers mock your Aesop because of the clumsy presentation.
- Creator's Pet: Viewers suspect that the only people who genuinely like the character are the creators.
- Damsel Scrappy: Viewers hate the character for being useless and only being trouble to others.
- Designated Hero: The audience thinks the good guy isn't actually that good.
- Designated Villain: The audience thinks the bad guy isn't actually that bad.
- Designated Love Interest: The audience thinks the Official Couple isn't much of a couple.
- Disappointing Last Level: The players have no interest in finishing the game.
- Do Not Do This Cool Thing: That horrible thing you warned people not to do looks really freaking awesome!
- Draco in Leather Pants: The villain is just too sexy/cool/sad to be truly evil.
- Eight Deadly Words: A Fan Speak term for the phrase "I don't care what happens to these people," i.e. the audience isn't emotionally invested in the characters.
- Emergent Gameplay: Players find more depth and strategy in a game than the developers intentionally put there.
- Ending Fatigue: "It's still not over?"
- Ensemble Dark Horse: A minor or supporting character attracts major audience attention.
- Esoteric Happy Ending: You, the creator, are the only one who thinks the ending's happy.
- Estrogen Brigade: Your work gains a significant number of female fans, even though it was intended for males or to be gender-neutral.
- Ethnic Scrappy: Viewers hate the character for being an ethnic stereotype.
- Failure Hero: Viewers aren't emotionally invested because the character never wins. Ever.
- Fan-Preferred Couple: Viewers become emotionally invested in a romance you're not writing (probably in lieu of the one you are).
- Fantastic Aesop: Viewers mock your Aesop because it has no real world application (e.g. "Never stop time to save your love interest.")
- Faux Symbolism: Viewers don't understand the symbolism you put into the story, or they see symbolism where you didn't intend it.
- Fetish Retardant: Disinterest or disgust at something meant to arouse.
- Game-Breaker: Beating the game much faster than intended or utterly destroying Player Versus Player balance.
- Generic Doomsday Villain: A villain with no backstory to flesh out his character.
- Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Foreign countries or cultures really like your work.
- Ham and Cheese: Your actors realize the movie's bad and make the most of it.
- Humor Dissonance: Boredom or offense at something meant to be funny.
- Iconic Sequel Character: A character introduced in the sequel becomes one of the most prominent parts of a franchise
- Iconic Sequel Song: A song introduced in a later work becomes iconic of the franchise it originated from.
- Inferred Holocaust: The viewers realize that your Happy Ending isn't happy because everyone's still doomed.
- Internet Backdraft: You said something innocuous and somehow touched off a flamewar.
- The Inverse Law of Fandom Levity: Your dark work isn't taken seriously and your silly work mostly consists of an audience who take things too seriously. What a surprise.
- Invincible Hero: Viewers aren't emotionally invested because the character never loses. Ever.
- Invincible Villain: Will someone beat this guy already?
- Iron Woobie: Viewers believe that it is admirable that heroes and other good guys keeps continuing on their journey, despite many hardships they endure.
- Jerkass Dissonance: Affection and/or admiration for a Jerkass character.
- Jerks Are Worse Than Villains: Viewers hate the Jerkass character more than they hate the actual villain, usually because the former's actions are more difficult to disassociate from Real Life bullies, and/or the villain has a charisma to them and makes valid points that earn them a Love to Hate status, while the common bully has no such charm.
- Jumping the Shark: The moment — usually perceived in hindsight — when a work goes into fatal decline and/or alienates most of its fanbase.
- Just Here for Godzilla: Viewers tune in for the stunt-casting, special effects, or some other flashy thing that has nothing to do with the plot.
- "Just Joking" Justification: "Hey, don't get mad, I was kidding when I said that extremely offensive thing!"
- Like You Would Really Do It: The audience fails to respond to a dramatic or emotional moment because they aren't fooled.
- Lost Aesop: Viewers mock your Aesop because it was unclear just what you were going for.
- Magnum Opus Dissonance: The work that you poured your heart and soul into gets tepid if not nasty reviews, while the work you threw together in five minutes makes you famous and successful.
- Mexicans Love Speedy Gonzales: A cultural group embraces a caricature of themselves.
- Misaimed Fandom: Misdirected audience sympathy.
- Mis-blamed: Fans blame the wrong person(s) for something that goes wrong.
- Narm: A moment meant to be serious or tragic made the audience laugh instead.
- Narm Charm: The audience thought this supposedly serious moment was silly, but they still appreciated it.
- Nausea Fuel: Viewers are sickened.
- Never Live It Down: You did it once, but they've never let you forget it.
- Nightmare Retardant: Viewers groan or laugh at a moment intended to scare them.
- Not Badass Enough for Fans: The audiences thinks a character isn't badass enough and dislikes them as a result.
- Obvious Judas: The audience is not surprised when this character 'unexpectedly' betrays the hero or turns out to have been Evil All Along.
- Opening a Can of Clones: You've introduced Doppelgangers, and now dramatic scenes have no impact because there's a built-in Reset Button.
- Overshadowed by Controversy: The general public is more invested in the controversy surrounding your work than they are in the actual work.
- Periphery Demographic: Your work has a fanbase, possibly a very large one, outside of the target audience.
- Periphery Hatedom: Everyone outside a very limited demographic hates the character.
- Pet Fad Starter: A work that features a certain type of animal creates demand for that animal as a pet, which usually (though not always) has bad consequences for the animal.
- Poe's Law: Your audience can't tell whether your work containing extreme opinions is meant to parody those opinions or represent them sincerely.
- The Red Stapler: A work which features a real-life product affects consumer demand for that product (usually by increasing it).
- Replacement Scrappy: The new actor or substitute gets hate simply because he isn't the old one.
- Ron the Death Eater: The hero is demonized by the fanbase despite doing nothing truly evil.
- Rooting for the Empire: Viewers find your villains more noble or sympathetic than your heroes.
- Running the Asylum: You have creative control over your favorite show, but the audience hates your self-indulgent characters and plotlines.
- The Scrappy: Viewers hate the character, who wasn't intended by the writer(s) to be hated.
- Scrappy Mechanic: Players are infuriated when you wanted them to feel intrigued or challenged.
- Shipping Goggles: Viewers have decided two characters are sexually attracted to each other, and nothing you do can change their minds.
- Smurfette Breakout: Your token female character becomes the Ensemble Dark Horse
- So Bad, It Was Better: You tried to fix what was terrible about a work, but your audience thinks you removed the unintentional hilarity while failing to add merit, resulting in a work that's merely So Okay, It's Average.
- So Bad, It's Good: Viewers enjoy your show for its flaws, not its merits.
- So Okay, It's Average: Viewers don't find your show to be notable for its merits or its flaws.
- Space Whale Aesop: Viewers mock your Aesop because the consequences are ridiculous (e.g. Don't drink and drive because you might hit a time-traveling Thomas Edison).
- Springtime for Hitler: Oh, Crap! This intentionally terrible, horrible show is a hit!
- Squick: Viewers are disgusted.
- Starter Gear Staying Power: The starter equipment is so unexpectedly useful that for the players the whole game becomes centered around it.
- Strawman Has a Point: Fridge Logic turns the author's victory in The War on Straw to a standoff or defeat.
- Stupid Sacrifice: Viewers are angry instead of moved.
- Testosterone Brigade: Your work gains a significant number of male fans, even though it was intended for females or to be gender-neutral.
- That One Boss: Controller shot-put.
- That One Level: Controller skeet shooting.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Viewers are disappointed that a character did not get as much focus as they thought he/she deserved.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Viewers who followed your show to its conclusion are disappointed with the payoff.
- Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: A work on 'dark' or serious topics alienates the fanbase because it's just too depressing.
- Took the Bad Film Seriously: An actor gives a more-dramatic-than-needed performance.
- Tough Act to Follow: Your work has become successful, but the reception of its sequels or any other work you make will suffer because they'll be perceived as inferior in comparison.
- Unconventional Learning Experience: Viewers "learn" from your work when you didn't intend it to be educational.
- Unexpected Character: An character that few considered likely to appear in a work makes an appearance.
- Unexpectedly Realistic Gameplay: Viewers find the game is more realistic than they expected.
- Unfortunate Implications: Viewers are offended.
- Unintentionally Sympathetic: Sympathy for a character who was supposed to be unsympathetic.
- Unintentionally Unsympathetic: No sympathy for a character who was supposed to be sympathetic.
- Unintentional Uncanny Valley: Fear or disgust when the line between 'visibly human' and 'visibly nonhuman' is too blurred.
- Unpleasable Fanbase: Changing the work to satisfy fan complaints leads to more complaining (possibly even from the same fans who complained before).
- Unpopular Popular Character: A character who is unpopular in-universe is beloved by the fanbase.
- Unprovoked Pervert Payback: A character's abuse of an Accidental Pervert seems excessive and/or jarring.
- The Un-Twist: Your work's straightforward ending surprises viewers who expected a Twist Ending.
- Values Dissonance: Your work offends viewers outside the culture in which it was written, or after a major shift in general attitudes within a culture.
- Viewer Gender Confusion: Carries Unfortunate Implications no matter which way you mistake it.
- Viewers in Mourning: Fans treat the death of a fictional character as if a real person had died.
- Villain Decay: People take your villains less seriously than you wanted them to.
- What an Idiot!: No sympathy for a character who makes a bad choice because they grabbed the Idiot Ball when they made it.
- What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: Assuming a work is for more mature audiences.
- What Do You Mean, It's Not Didactic?: Assuming a work is all about analyzing it.
- What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Assuming a work is family friendly.
- What Do You Mean, It's Not For Little Girls?: Assuming a show is intended for young girls because it's cute and sparkly.
- What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?: Assuming a work has political overtones.
- Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things: You have to stop interacting with your fanbase because they treat you like crap.
- Why Would Anyone Take Him Back?: The viewership isn't invested in the Official Couple's reunion, thinking that at least one of them was probably better off single.
- X-Pac Heat: The audience hates a particular wrestler so much that they won't support him even when he's playing a good guy.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: The viewers know that when something good happens to a character, it's not gonna last.
