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To-do list:

  • Clean up wicks that still do not fit the revised definition (the original definition of casting choices that feel wrong was expanded to cover cases that were initially well received pre-release). This does not allow on-page examples, so only wicks need to be looked at in this case. Note that redirects other than the main WTH, Casting Agency? redirect (the old name) have wicks of their own (more specifically, What The Hell Casting Agency and WTF Casting Agency).

    Original post 
WTH, Casting Agency? (which is already a No On-Page Examples trope) is for casting choices that feel wrong for a reason or another, but I noticed a trend of complaining and misuse. So I did a wick check and these are the results:

  • 16 wicks that correctly use the trope (Actor was cast as a role many thought they didn't fit very well)
  • 16 wicks that were just complaining (Good actor was cast in bad product! How could they accept?)
  • 14 wicks that lacked the context (Actor, of all people, as character)
  • 4 wicks that feel all like some kind of misuse (one is "This show's dub was badly directed and they had to redub it after complaints", one is a generic complaint for the lack of ethnic voice actor in a cast, one is complaining because the English voice cast reuses some voice talent from the seasons before on different characters and the fourth is "this deliberate Stylistic Suck web video deliberately casts men in female roles")

The usage of this trope to complain, by the way, it's very commonly found in So Bad, It's Horrible examples, where it's often used to whine how this or that horrible media completely wastes the talent of its cast as if for example Rob Paulsen was some kind of deity who committed an unforgivable sin by voicing the titular characters of both the Bubsy pilot and Coconut Fred's Fruit Salad Island, the drama!

What to do? My main ideas are either making it Flame Bait or move on Darth Wiki, other ideas?

Wick check:

Wick check for WTH, Casting Agency? to control if it has too much gushing or misuse.

Wicks: 50/50

    Correct usage (16/50) 
  • YMMV.The Angry Birds Movie: Downplayed with Terrence: while it's strange that Sean Penn was chosen to play him, seeing as he's The Quiet One, he's been noted as having anger issues of his own, so the jokes work on another level.
  • YMMV.Anna Karenina: Several reviews for the 2012 film criticized Aaron Taylor-Johnson's portrayal of Count Alexei Kirillovich Vronsky, noting that he seemed out of place in comparison to Keira Knightley and Jude Law.
  • YMMV.Argo: Though Ben Affleck’s performance was hailed by critics for his realistic demeanor as a spy, the real Tony Mendez had dark skin, dark hair, was average height, had ordinary features, and a normal build. In short he could blend in almost anywhere in the world as the kind of person nobody would notice. Ben Affleck is quite tall and very handsome, the kind of person that easily sticks out in a crowd.
  • YMMV.Batman 1989: Michael Keaton so thoroughly proved the naysayers wrong that, in hindsight, it's hard to remember just how bizarre it seemed at the time to cast a famously mild, unimposing comedic actor as a grim, Frank Miller-inspired version of Batman. Thousands of fans wrote letters to Warner Bros. protesting the choice before the movie's release, and Keaton himself initially thought that his being cast for the part meant that the film would be taking its cues from the TV series.
  • YMMV.Batwoman 2019: A minor example; no one ever expected Rachel Maddow to act (even if merely as a radio host) in a superhero TV show, but it's mostly because she's a news personality/talking head first and foremost.
  • YMMV.Black Lightning 2018: Some fans of Grace Choi have taken issue with the fact that her actress is much less muscular than her comic counterpart, pointing out that women, and especially Asian women, usually aren't allowed to have that body type in media.
  • YMMV.Bonekickers: The final episode casts Dexter Fletcher, best known for his Cockney geezer persona, as a country gent.
  • YMMV.Castle In The Sky: While the English dub is widely regarded as being very good, many fans felt James Van Der Beek and Anna Paquin to be ill-fitting choices for Pazu and Sheeta, respectively, with the most common criticism being that their performances make them sound more like teenagers/young adults, even though they were intended to be kids in the original Japanese version and the Streamline dub.
  • YMMV.A Discovery Of Witches: With Trystan Gravelle, who played the role in Seasons 1 and 2, unavailable to return as Baldwin Montclair for Season 3, he is Other Darrined with Peter Mc Donald, who looks nothing like him and is noticeably older, and gray-haired. More than one viewer wondered who he was supposed to be.
  • YMMV.A Fairly Odd Movie Grow Up Timmy Turner: Most glaringly casting Daniella Monet to play a conventionally attractive, glasses-less, adult Tootie.
  • YMMV.Home 2015: Rihanna's voice really does not fit a character that's intended to be a young teen; Rihanna was in her late twenties at the time and didn't make much effort to make her voice sound younger, while Tip is supposed to be fourteen. That said, some people were still won over by her performance regardless.
  • YMMV.Interview With The Vampire: Anne Rice took out full page newspaper ads criticizing the choice to cast Tom Cruise as Lestat. She thought he was too short and didn't have the ability to play someone aristocratic. She had originally envisioned Rutger Hauer or Julian Sands in the part. Once she saw the film, however, she did a full 180.
  • YMMV.King Kong 2005: Jack Black, an almost exclusively comedic actor, in the serious role of Carl Denham, though his performance is enjoyed by some.
  • YMMV.A Midsummer Nights Dream 1935: The only issue here is that these two subbullets are repeated verbatim on the page for the original opera
    • Mickey Rooney as Puck was criticised for favoring Box Office clout over acting ability, and to this day there are debates over whether he was atrociously miscast, tolerable or good in the role.
    • Dick Powell viewed his own performance this way and asked to be taken off the film - even admitting to not knowing what any of his lines meant as he said them. His performance is seen in a better light than Mickey Rooney's however.
  • YMMV.Pippi Longstocking: Astrid Lindgren was not happy with the 1949 film partially due to nine-year-old Pippi Longstocking being played by then-26-year-old Viveca Serlachius.

    "THEY WASTED THE TALENT OF MY FAVOURITE ACTOR!" (aka complaining) (16/50) 

     "Actor as role" (aka ZCE) (14/50) 

    Misuse (4/50) 
  • YMMV.AICO Incarnation: The English and Brazilian Portuguese dubs became infamous for its poor acting and directing, and it makes the viewers wonder what Netflix was thinking when they chose a different studio to have the dub done. Both dubs were done in different locations than usual, the English dub was produced in Florida, and the Portuguese one was produced in Southern Brazil, contrary to the usual regions of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Jason Kesser, Kazuki's English VA, later pointed out that Netflix used only the first takes of the dub despite doing their best to perfect it. Quite a few voice actors in the first dub were Spanish-language actors (and Brazil-based Alex Alvarez Neto, who voiced Yuya Kanzaki) who have never done an English dub before in anime. Eventually, Netflix took the hint and a brand new English dub was produced by Bang Zoom! Entertainment, but the same didn't happen in the Brazilian dub. This is about a dub as a whole and not about a specific casting of certain characters
  • YMMV.Brother Bear: Admittedly, the actors that the filmmakers cast turned in superb performances, but given that this story is based on proto-Indigenous lore, it arguably would have made more sense — and lent a shred of authenticity — if they cast Indigenous (preferably Alaskan Native) actors for the human characters, in both the original film and the sequel. This is more a generic complaint on everything than anything else
  • YMMV.Digimon Frontier: Occasionally, the dub can get weird with this, likely as an aftereffect of Saban's demise and Disney's treatment of the franchise as a burden. Snimon sounds like Myotismon from Adventure, Cherubimon like Leomon from the same, and a Toucanmon and Mushroomon sound like they're channeling Kazu from Tamers and Davis from Adventure 02, respectively. Then there's Lucemon sounding like Izzy/Koushiro's dub voice. This is complaining about... the voice cast reusing some people from the earlier series?
  • YMMV.Harry Potter And The Dark Lord Waldemart: Hermione is (badly) played by a guy, as is Umbridge. This is presumably a joke. Judging by everything else on the page, this is supposed to be a Stylistic Suck product so it feels sort of misused

Edited by GastonRabbit on Jun 8th 2023 at 2:36:54 PM

GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
#76: May 16th 2023 at 11:35:47 AM

In plain numbers, yes. But if you looks at the ratio of [tup] to [tdown], QC is higher.

Correct. That's why Questionable Casting is what we went with. A 13:1 ratio beats a 7:1 ratio.

I'm pretty sure How Crowners Work discusses this already.

Edited by GastonRabbit on May 16th 2023 at 1:37:32 PM

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
Bubblepig Boon Pink from Sentai universe (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: is commanded to— WANK!
#77: May 20th 2023 at 1:37:08 PM

The mod brought me here. So apparently in the YMMV of Beef, the actor who is surrounded with controversy is considered to be a WTH, Casting Agency?. Does it really count though or is it a misused? Here's the example that I'm talking about.

“Boom! Boomboom! Boomboomboom! Bakuage Tire! Gogogo!"
PhantomDusclops92 Wick checker for hire from Italy (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Plastic Love
Wick checker for hire
#78: May 21st 2023 at 11:11:21 AM

Yes, that's a very large form of misuse. With a bit of rewording it could be moved to Overshadowed by Controversy, try asking the cleanup thread for that trope to see if it can go there or it's a cut.

The best character is always the one-shot disguise.
GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
#79: May 21st 2023 at 1:14:47 PM

I might work on the sandbox in the near future, since we're only changing a little bit of the definition.

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
#80: May 21st 2023 at 1:22:31 PM

Double posting because I went ahead and made some changes and I couldn't think of any changes other than tweaking the first paragraph a bit.

Original text:

We've all seen it. Sometimes, when watching a movie or TV show, you see an actor portraying a character and you can't help wondering how the hell they wound up in that role and/or entire production. "What the Hell, Casting Agency?" happens when you know quite well who the actor is – you just can't understand why they're in this.

New text:

We've all seen it. Sometimes, when watching a movie or TV show, you see an actor portraying a character and the casting choice feels wrong for one reason or another. Questionable Casting happens when audiences know quite well who the actor is — they just can't understand why they're in this. Sometimes the casting choice was initially well received, but comes to be seen as questionable post-release.

The last sentence in the new text is the main addition. I'm going to go ahead and move the sandbox in three days if nobody objects, since I feel that not too many changes were needed, and the fact that there are no on-page examples to clean up means the description is the only part of the page that needs to be changed.

Edited by GastonRabbit on May 21st 2023 at 3:23:12 AM

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
PhantomDusclops92 Wick checker for hire from Italy (4 Score & 7 Years Ago) Relationship Status: Plastic Love
Wick checker for hire
#81: May 21st 2023 at 1:58:18 PM

I suggest a little edit, it should be like this:

We've all seen it. Sometimes, when watching a movie or TV show, you see an actor portraying a character and the casting choice feels wrong for one reason or another. Questionable Casting happens when audiences know quite well who the actor is — but their presence feels out of place. Sometimes the casting choice was initially well received, but comes to be seen as questionable post-release.

The original "they just can't understand why they're in this" line had the same feeling as the common "wasted talent/HOW COULD FAMOUS ACTOR ACCEPT A ROLE IN THE SHITTIEST MOVIE EVER?" complaining usage of the trope I did the wick check and the TRS to begin with.

The best character is always the one-shot disguise.
GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
#82: May 21st 2023 at 3:20:03 PM

[up]That's a good point, so I changed it to that.

Edited by GastonRabbit on May 21st 2023 at 5:20:57 AM

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
Bubblepig Boon Pink from Sentai universe (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: is commanded to— WANK!
#83: May 21st 2023 at 5:23:13 PM

[up]x 5 What kind of clean up page should I got to and what to say?

“Boom! Boomboom! Boomboomboom! Bakuage Tire! Gogogo!"
GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
#84: May 21st 2023 at 5:30:54 PM

[up]The suggestion was to ask the cleanup thread for Overshadowed by Controversy whether it would fit Overshadowed by Controversy and whether any changes are needed, since it doesn't fit Questionable Casting. Here's the thread.

Edited by GastonRabbit on May 21st 2023 at 7:32:47 AM

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
Bubblepig Boon Pink from Sentai universe (Experienced, Not Yet Jaded) Relationship Status: is commanded to— WANK!
#85: May 21st 2023 at 9:33:18 PM

Got it thanks.

“Boom! Boomboom! Boomboomboom! Bakuage Tire! Gogogo!"
GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
#86: Jun 8th 2023 at 12:35:53 PM

I moved the sandbox into place since the thread kind of stalled. Since there are no on-page examples. we just have wicks to sort through. I'll just link to the Related page for the new name since some of the redirects have wicks of their own.

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
Berrenta How sweet it is from Texas Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
How sweet it is
#87: Jun 16th 2023 at 6:41:54 PM

Good to move to new name or no? From YMMV.Dragon Ball Z:

  • WTH, Casting Agency?:
    • Having Masako Nozawa voice Bardock, Scholar Gohan, and Goten. Hearing an old woman's raspy man voice as a ruthless warrior and a bespectacled adult man can be rather jarring. Raditz also got away with having a different voice, so why not those two? For Goten, he's already a miniature Goku, so him having the exact same voice as his father even as a teen keeps him from being little more than a clone and a Replacement Scrappy. Her flagship role, Adult!Goku, is infamous for this; while she was fitting for his child voice, some, mostly Western fans, felt such a high-pitched voice coming from a masculine character was head scratch worthy.
    • Hikaru Midorikawa as Tenshinhan, from 2006 onwards. While Midorikawa is an excellent voice actor, more than competent and has a very quirky, recognizable voice, he sounds absolutely nothing like Hirotaka Suzuoki. Plus he already plays Android #16.
    • Pauline Newstone from the Ocean dub and Linda Young from Funimation as Frieza. It made the gender confusion worse in the West since Frieza already have many girly qualities. This was subverted with the casting of Chris Ayres for Dragon Ball Z Kai onwards.

she/her | TRS needs your help! | Contributor of Trope Report
rjd1922 he/him | Image Pickin' regular from the United States Since: May, 2013 Relationship Status: Love is for the living, Sal
he/him | Image Pickin' regular
#88: Aug 2nd 2023 at 8:25:35 AM

[up]I think those are fine.

Examples that are just complaining about good actors in bad works should be zapped, not moved to the new name. I removed such examples from YMMV.Rapsittie Street Kids Believe In Santa and YMMV.Freddie As FRO 7 (the latter was a commented-out ZCE).

Keet cleanup
Wyldchyld (Old as dirt)
#89: Aug 10th 2023 at 1:53:45 PM

Just double-checking whether this in-universe example is okay to keep:

Red vs. Blue:

  • WTH, Casting Agency?: In-universe. Sarge complains that his role played by Matthew McConaughey is a total miscast- "The guy has no shoulders!"

If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.
MacronNotes (she/her) (Captain) Relationship Status: Less than three
Wyldchyld (Old as dirt)
#91: Aug 11th 2023 at 12:23:49 PM

Excellent, thanks. I've switched the name.

Edited by Wyldchyld on Aug 11th 2023 at 8:26:58 PM

If my post doesn't mention a giant flying sperm whale with oversized teeth and lionfish fins for flippers, it just isn't worth reading.
AudioSpeaks2 He/Him (Greenhorn) Relationship Status: Oh my word! I'm gay!
Berrenta How sweet it is from Texas Since: Apr, 2015 Relationship Status: Can't buy me love
How sweet it is
#93: Oct 22nd 2023 at 11:12:05 AM

Sent a notifier to someone trying to put a subverted case of What The Hell Casting Agency...in Trivia. A violation hat-trick, if you will (playing with a misplaced YMMV item with a defunct name on top).

Since the spelled out redirect has low amount of wicks, I'll handle those.

she/her | TRS needs your help! | Contributor of Trope Report
taotruths Since: Oct, 2014 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#94: Dec 20th 2023 at 8:23:01 AM

This is misuse of this trope, right? It's fine to cut? (Originally added as WTH, Casting Agency?)

From YMMV.Super Smash Flash

  • Questionable Casting:
    • The Original Characters and Mr. Incredible in the first game. Even the developers put their foot down with those in 2.
    • A common criticism is that the games feature anime characters. Once the second game started getting more popular in The New '10s, Ichigo in particular started being seen as an odd choice; while Goku, Naruto and Luffy at least have lots of staying power in the anime/manga fandom and continue to be popular,note  Ichigo is considered a relic of the game's early stages in the late 2000s due to Bleach drastically dropping in popularity since then.

Edited by taotruths on Dec 20th 2023 at 8:23:27 AM

Blegh Since: Jan, 2021 Relationship Status: Owner of a lonely heart
#95: Dec 20th 2023 at 9:45:20 AM

[up] Examples need to be about casting an actor as a character, not about whether characters "fit" a work. Not to mention, the first example is a ZCE and the second is problematic for multiple reasonsnote 

taotruths Since: Oct, 2014 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
#96: Dec 20th 2023 at 10:18:45 AM

Cool, thought as much. Dewicking it.

AudioSpeaks2 He/Him (Greenhorn) Relationship Status: Oh my word! I'm gay!
He/Him
#97: Dec 20th 2023 at 3:52:19 PM

For some reason, there are Questionable Casting entries about unexpected/weird music crossovers/collaborations. I feel like those should be split into its on trope.

Art Museum Curator and frequent helper of the Web Original deprecation project
GastonRabbit Sounds good on paper (he/him) from Robinson, Illinois, USA (General of TV Troops) Relationship Status: I'm just a poor boy, nobody loves me
Sounds good on paper (he/him)
#98: Dec 25th 2023 at 7:46:20 AM

I saw that the page had a banner at the bottom of the description saying it's a Definition-Only Page. I removed it because it's inaccurate, because it's not definition-only; it only forbids on-page examples.

Edited by GastonRabbit on Dec 25th 2023 at 11:04:00 AM

Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.
AudioSpeaks2 He/Him (Greenhorn) Relationship Status: Oh my word! I'm gay!
He/Him
#99: Dec 30th 2023 at 3:27:12 PM

Ok, the wick cleaning is done besides a few ghost wicks which will be cultisted. We can close.

Art Museum Curator and frequent helper of the Web Original deprecation project
Ayumi-chan Aramis from Calvard (Apprentice) Relationship Status: Serial head-patter
#100: Dec 30th 2023 at 4:16:56 PM

Closing up shop!

She/Her | Currently cleaning N/A
Add Post

Trope Repair Shop: WTH Casting Agency
12th May '23 8:32:12 PM

Crown Description:

Consensus was to rename WTH Casting Agency and expand it to include cases where the casting was initially received OK but then considered the weak link post release. What should WTH Casting Agency's new name be?

Total posts: 100
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