The Scariest Thing Podcast Episode 145: Tropetown Showdown!

Remember who we are: Your Gateway to the Trends and Tropes of the Horror Genre. That means we had better know our tropes… like REALLY know our tropes. And as such, welcome to Tropetown! This is a speed round session where we try and come up with the best and most original example of the trope. It’s a game of can-you-top this? The winner gets to be named Mayor of Tropetown!

For those of you who might need a refresher: for the purpose of horror films, a trope is a thematic storytelling device that helps flavor the story, or provides an interesting context to the movie. There are major tropes that provide a continuous arc through the film, like “zombie apocalypse” and there are minor tropes that are probably more fun like the “Cat Jump Scare”. Tropes can be used to draw references to other films, and allow comparison and homage to their horror siblings. Some of the most famous and prevalent tropes are The Final Girl and Found Footage.

Before you listen to the Podcast, take a look at the tropes, and write down what you would select for each of the tropes. That way you can play along with Eric, Mike, and Liz, and see if you can find an original trope that we did not pick!

Each person was to pick their favorite version of the trope and give a brief description of how it played in the movie. We then compare notes, and we each selected a definitively different film that fits the trope, then we move on. If there was a collision where more than one person picked the same movie then a point gets deducted. If you can’t name a film, or if your selection didn’t fit the trope you lose a point.

The winner of the Tropetown Showdown gets to be named MAYOR OF TROPETOWN for the year! And that means the Mayor gets to pick the next topic for the other two to watch and react to. Also, the Mayor gets to break ties for the Thingy Awards. More Mayoral privileges may be added, as the population of Tropetown is only three at the moment. We will return to a Tropetown Showdown next year to select a NEW Mayor.

So, with that background, each candidate got to see all of the tropes in advance and would pick their favorite trope they could think of. Backups were not supposed to be allowed (LIZ!) but we were lenient this year because it was the inaugural Showdown.