If the eye of a cadaver is gouged out, but there is no living sentient being around to witness the event, does it still invoke a well-known trope provoking primal squeamishness?
— Eye-Scream Koan
"Chocolate Coated Truth Tastes Better" Fridge Logic: The truth is often bitter. Just ask anybody who's eaten a Feedback Sandwich from HR.
The animal crossing examples should be changed, or the entry removed. Both of the examples are actually incredibly insightful observations on reality. I don't think they count. "The more you learn, man, the less you know" is paraphrasing this: ”The more you know, the more you know you don't know.” -Aristotle "The best things in life are free, but if you try to sell them, you always seem to make a killing" selling family time is the business model of any amusement park.
I'd like to get rid of the Burma-Shave entry under advertising, for two reasons: 1) It suffers from Conversation In The Main Page, breaking from the tone the wiki should have. 2) It's not really an example, as the last bullet point explains.
One of the paragraph mention the cream had no calories. But cream is what gives the most energies in an ice cream.
AgProv
"Of course, some would argue that all koans are Ice Cream Koans, but then again others would argue that all Ice Cream Koans are genuine Koans. It's most likely a difference in intent (and/or pretension) that distinguishes the two. "
To use the ice cream metaphor, there is fine Italian gelato using the finest ingredients made with love by people who really know ice-cream.
And then there's cheap artificial crap using cheap synthetic ingredients, bulked out with fresh air, which remains Margaret Thatcher's contribution to food science. Thank you, Margaret.
Male, early sixties, Cranky old fart, at least two decades behind. So you have been warned. Functionally illiterate in several languages.
- The Like Likes in The Legend of Zelda are supposedly named for the fictitious proverb "Shield Eaters and World Leaders have many likes alike."
Again, this isn't nonsense. It makes perfect sense. "Shield eater" is a kenning for "berserker," the Viking warriors who would chew on their shields to control their frenzied anger. In other words, both berserkers and world leaders like war.
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"Shield eater" does not refer to vikings it refers to the fact that Like Likes eat Link's shields in the games. Here's a page on the translation
and the translated proverb is called "indecipherable" in Smash Bros.
- "The more you know, the more you Kohl's." -Utterly nonsensical slogan that plays over the PA in Kohl's department stores every five minutes.
This makes perfect sense. The more you know about the world, the more you go to Kohl's (as opposed to going to the competition).
True False Prophet
How many light bulbs does it take to change a man?
If it ain't broke, fix it 'til it is
Another example is in the TV series Banacek, his "old Polish proverbs". The one about the red dress is the only one that makes sense.
Editing just looks too scary for me, if someone wants to edit that in please go ahead.
Some of these are neither Koans nor Ice Cream Koans, but maxims we're just unfamiliar with.
"An ass may do the work of an ox in a time of no horses"
—Make do with what you've got. A bad tool may be the best you have. We phrase this as "Any old port in a storm".
and ""When many expect a mighty stallion they will find hooves on an ant".
—You see what you expect to see. This one's about confirmation bias. If you expect to see a horse, you might mistake an ant for a horse.
The Trope Namer has no listed source, though it vaguely resembles something Jesus said: "To the one who has, more will be given; to the one who lacks, even what he has will be taken away."
Seven Seals: Removed this:
- Supposedly a zen koan, this exchange from the Halo expanded universe novel Ghosts of Onyx:
- Halsey: LIFE IS THE PATHEndless Summer: CAN THE PATH BE SEEN?Halsey: OBSERVE THE PATH AND YOU ARE FAR FROM ITEndless Summer: WITHOUT OBSERVATION HOW CAN ONE KNOW THEY ARE ON THE PATHHalsey: THE PATH CANNOT BE SEEN, NOR CAN IT BE UNSEEN. PERCEPTION IS DELUSION; ABSTRACTION IS NONSENSICAL. YOUR PATH IS FREEDOM. NAME IT AND IT VANISHES
Regarding the Ambassador Kosh example, the chosen phrase is actually one of his most intelligible statements in the series. Two aliens are trying to get legal support to prevent a life-saving operation on one of their people, Kosh is alive because a life-saving operation was carried out on him against his wishes, hence "The avalanche has already started, it is too late for the pebbles to vote."
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