I just found something pretty cool that’s been around since 2004. It started as a place to collect well-known television writing tropes but has since expanded to include film, comics, and video games.
For instance, a Character Derailment is “when an established character becomes largely different, exhibiting behavior contrary to what has been previously shown. This is not a matter of organic growth.” Prime example (although not included in the wiki), George Costanza in “The Opposite” episode of Seinfeld.
There are hundreds of these. And when you start to get into it, you uncover a whole lexicon thriving in the wiki, providing something resembling validity to what is essentially just a really fun exploration of the stuff of story.
And the ads are a trip. The entry on Makeover Montage sold me defrizzing hair product and bare abs. And the one on Paranoia was rife with ambiguous banners for Scientology.
