20 Of The Worst Tropes in Reality TV
Reality TV, we meet again. Like fascist movements or that ex we lovingly call “the toxic one,” we cannot help but return over and over to the bottomless pit of despair that is reality TV. Only this time, we’re not Don’t even. Rom-coms? Shoot, we haven’t done that one yet…
But yeah, reality shows. Okay, so if we had to guess, our favorite reality TV trope would be that time there weren’t any. Our second favorite reality TV trope is the entropic heat death of the universe in which no trace of reality TV survives. We love those tropes. Now, as for the ones we dislike the most, well, they’re pretty much the ones defining the genre. If we wanted actual attempts at depictions of reality, we’d watch documentaries. (Note to self: documentary tropes!). And if we wanted skewed, satirical depictions of reality, we’d watch mockumentaries. As for reality TV, however, it is built on the quite specific trope that is blatantly dishonest manipulation aimed towards manufacturing artificial drama. Like fascist movements. Or that ex. Wait, where were we? Oh yeah – still, such an overall genre trope defining reality TV can be broken down into finer tropes, such as…
Racism
Villain
Sources: Best Life, The Keystone Newspaper
Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore/Wiki Commons
Pregnancy
Sources: Screen Rant
Rich Girls
Source: MsMojo/YouTube, The Keystone News
Reaction Shots
More: 5 Secrets of Making Reality TV They Don't Want You to Know
Source: Screen Rant
Drama
Source
Silences
Source: Saturday Night Live/YouTube
Girl Fights
Source: drzgangsta10031/YouTube
Girl Next Door
Sources: The Keystone Newspaper, The List/YouTube
Frankenbites
Source
Audio Cues
More: 5 Secrets of Making Reality TV They Don't Want You to Know
Repetition, repetition, repetition
Source: Jack Govier/YouTube
Sudden Focus
Source: TV Tropes
Reality TV Tropes
More: 5 Secrets of Making Reality TV They Don't Want You to Know
Eccentric
Sources: Ranker, The Keystone News
Reality TV Blindness
Source: TV Tropes
Distrust
Source: Screen Rant
Clichés
Sources: Screen Rant, TV Tropes, TV Tropes