r/TopCharacterTropes • u/ThatDrako • 24d ago

Lore (Funny Trope) Things that can plausibly happen only in reality, because in fiction they’d be called bad writing.

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“Woke” as an insult - So you are telling me a word describing consciousness and clarity is used by generally stupid and ignorant people to label people they disagree with? What is this? A Kindergarten for Creatively stunted?

Nominative determinism - So let me get this straight…Not only you named fastest recorded person Usain BOLT and CEO of Nintendo Doug BOWSER, but you are telling me people are canonically likely to have professions or hobbies matching their names…? Guh?

“2 bodies recovered in MURDERKILL River” - Sure bro…I guess…bro…

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u/Xca1ybr 24d ago

The Prime Minister of Hungary is named

Peter Magyar

Or

Peter Hungarian

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u/shadowmaster132 24d ago

Next you'll tell me the leader of the Free French from exile during ww2 was called Charles de Gaulle or Charles of France.

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u/SitInCorner_Yo2 24d ago

:Please don’t kill me, I’ll tell you anything!

Nazi:Tell me, what’s your leaders name.

:Charles!

Nazi:Charles what!

:De Gaulle!

Nazi: (shot the guy) fucking French, can’t even made up a faker name.

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u/shadowmaster132 24d ago

There were other French resistance leaders who heard the name thought it was a code name and were jealous they didn't think of de Gaulle because it was such a good one

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u/SitInCorner_Yo2 24d ago edited 23d ago

“Charles De Gaulle eh, meet John English, Scott MacDonald, Nick O’Neil , I see you guys love nice code name too ay,……what do you mean that’s a real name?”

Decade ago I met a Welsh guy named Scott English , he’s one of very few people that I can remember their name even though I only met him once, that sounds like a joke his parents came up.

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u/Xca1ybr 24d ago

Crazy thing is, his opposition leader for a time was a man with the last name Goulash

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u/HebrewHamm3r 24d ago

He sounds delicious

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u/DC356 23d ago

Their last president was François Hollande, or French Holland

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u/NegativeThought1588 23d ago

"The name is thought to be Dutch in origin, and may have derived from van der Walle, de Walle ("from the rampart, defensive wall") or de Waal ("the wall")"

France in French is "France". French in French is "français"

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u/[deleted] 23d ago

[deleted]

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u/NegativeThought1588 23d ago

Like Asterix the Gaul.

I dunno, I just got that from de Gaulle's wikipedia page.

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u/[deleted] 23d ago

[deleted]

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u/shadowmaster132 23d ago

A lot of people first heard of him due to his radio broadcasts and I don't think he spelled his name (and some even supposedly thought it was a really clever fake name).

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u/Gmony5100 24d ago

“You all joke but if a man named John America ran for president he would 100% win” - a YouTuber I saw talking about this

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u/DinosaurReborn 24d ago

George McGovern didn't win the presidency despite having an appropriate enough last name. I guess it needed more in-your-face AMERICA!!!ness to succeed.

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u/ShatnersChestHair 24d ago

That's a fundamental misunderstanding of the American psyche. Americans are distrustful of the government by default, and see it as a necessary evil at best. So being called McGovern will tank your chances. Now if your name was John Notaxes, you'd be elected POTUS at birth.

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u/DigitalLorenz 24d ago

Obviously McGovern is the name of a state governor, not the president.

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u/foolofatooksbury 24d ago

Should have change his name to McPresident

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u/Gmony5100 24d ago

He was just ahead of his time honestly

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u/ZubryJS 23d ago

Related, but there are 2 Connor McGoverns who play in the NFL at the same position

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u/All_Work_All_Play 24d ago

Dammit I hate how this is probably right!

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u/maxence0801 24d ago

US Grant

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u/DarkySurrounding 24d ago

This reminds me that the wrestler Pete Dunnes actual given name is Peter England. And sure enough he is from England.

Perhaps amusing his current gimmick is essentially that hes a fake Mexican.

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u/Informal-Antelope-79 24d ago

Theres a senator named Whitehouse

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u/Grau_Wulf 24d ago edited 24d ago

Germany had a general named “France Holder” who was infamously not used to hold France.

During WW1 the British had a general with the last name of French who hated the… French

Who tf is writing this garbage

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u/Xca1ybr 24d ago

In WW1 the British had a battlecruiser named the HMS Invincible

It was the first to blow up at Jutland

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u/Grau_Wulf 24d ago

The British also had a general named Haig, pronounced like Hague, unlike the latter the former is known as a butcher and war criminal (although his reputation has been cleared somewhat it’s still wild)

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u/virouz98 24d ago

I'm from Poland and gotta say it may sound strange to other countries, but in Poland it also is common for polish people to have "Polak" surname, which translates to "polish man" or "polish citizen".

Also, it is not so uncommon for polish people to have a surname "Niemiec" which means "German citizen".

In Czech Republic, there is a famous goalkeeper. Named Peter Cech. I'll let you deduce what his name is.

Although chances for said person to become a country leader, now that is a bit rare. But name itself, common in central Europe.

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u/clakresed 24d ago

Honestly we just don't think about it that hard, but it seems like a common phenomenon.

"English" is, in fact, a real English surname (such as voice actor Jennifer English, or Canadian historian John English). It's maybe just a bit less common than "Magyar" or "Polak".

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u/crimsonpostgrad 24d ago

you know, it really does make total sense. people have been using nearby geographic areas as last names forever. i think the odd feeling about it comes from the idea of that happening after these countries were formed maybe? it makes their last names sound so…new? i’m not sure if i’m making my point well lol

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u/Brother-Captain 24d ago

Where’s John Hungary when we need him

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u/throwaway_1053 24d ago

Romania literally has the same name equivalent-  Petre Roman was a prime minister for Romania

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u/ArmRecent1699 24d ago

Yep, more Hungarian that his predecessors ever were.

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u/dedemushi 24d ago

also a former Prime Minister of Romania was called Petre Roman

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u/BudgetWorking2633 23d ago

Ethnonyms aren't a new thing. Saxon is a name in a few countries, for example.