Lowest Common Denominator/Playing With


 * Basic Trope:
 * Definition 1.: An appeal to what makes us human, to make a story more relatable.
 * Definition 2.: An appeal to animal instincts on the grounds that Viewers are Morons who cannot comprehend True Art.
 * Played Straight:
 * 1) The House Next Door features a Nuclear Family with its quirks and foibles, that anyone who has a family can relate to.
 * 2) Most of MC SixPac's raps are about "money, clothes, and hoes."
 * Exaggerated:
 * 1) The House Next Door is not only a Dom Com, but a Reality Show.
 * 2) MC SixPac doesn't seem to have a vocabulary consisting of more than a few words (generally slang terms for drugs, money, expensive items, and crude terms for women and sex)...or more than a tenuous grip on reality as it applies to where he (purportedly) comes from.
 * Justified:
 * 1) No one will watch/read/listen to something that makes no sense to them for very long.
 * 2) MC SixPac wants to get rich (and pay off that large cash advance the record company gave him), and that means the quantity of records he sells trumps the quality of those records.
 * Inverted:
 * 1) The House Next Door is a BLAM Series that makes no sense to anyone except the Emperor of Cloudcuckooland.
 * 2) MC SixPac never once mentions having money, selling drugs, gang warfare, expensive items, or women and sex in any crass terms in his raps. And he uses big words, too.
 * Subverted:
 * 1) The House Next Door has an occasional BLAM Episode or is about a rather Dysfunctional Family
 * 2) MC SixPac generally raps about life in the inner city, social and racial issues, and his Love Interests.
 * Double Subverted:
 * 1) But the BLAM Episode is Just for Fun, and, hey, who doesn't feel like their family teeters on the edge of dysfunction every now and again?
 * 2) But MC SixPac always includes a fun "party anthem" on every album he releases, partly to break from serious topics, and partly to make his album more appealing.
 * Deconstructed:
 * 1) If the family in the show is too normal, it might become boring; the viewers can already experience that in their own home, without turning on the TV. At the same time, if the family is not normal enough (i.e. too perfect or too dysfunctional), it might be hard for people to relate and enjoy. (And you can't not use tropes.)
 * 2) Appealing to this demographic tends to draw cries of It's Popular, Now It Sucks, and insults the intelligence of the target demographic(s). (In the case of this kind of rap music, may also include Unfortunate Implications.)
 * Reconstructed:
 * 1) The show makes sure that the family is relatable, but still fun to watch. Any and all tropes it uses are used in ways that they're not cliche, but still can be understood by most people. The result? Multiple Demographic Appeal...and very high ratings.
 * 2) MC SixPac raps about Life the Universe And Everything. Yes, he includes party anthems Just for Fun, but he shows that he has a brain and isn't afraid to use it. (And he doesn't give Hip Hop a bad name by glorifying drugs and violence, or by referring to women and sex in crass terms.) As a result, MC SixPac is respected and his album sales go through the roof.
 * Parodied:
 * 1) A hilarious spoof of standard Dom Com tropes and cliches.
 * 2) MC SixPac gets up to the mic, raises his arm, and...makes an armpit fart. Everyone behaves as though he just said the most profound thing ever.
 * Lampshaded:
 * 1) "The family we can all relate to..."
 * 2) "Does he even know any words for women besides "hoes", or what he wants to do with them?"
 * Averted:
 * 1) The family in the Dom Com is a family of Purity Sue types no one can identify with, and the show is nauseatingly sweet and vapid.
 * 2) MC SixPac never once mentions "money, clothes, and hoes" in any of his raps.
 * Enforced:
 * 1) "We need to hold our audience's attention, and we need characters and storylines they can relate to."
 * "Quantity of album sales trumps the quality of the albums."
 * Viewers are Morons
 * Invoked:
 * 1) "See Enforced"
 * 2) "I need someone to buy my records, or I'm not gonna be able to pay off my debt to the record label! Hmm...I know! I'll market my albums to white suburban kids who like to party!"
 * Defied:
 * 1) The show is about a family that's far from normal, and the audience is OK with that.
 * 2) MC SixPac does not want to be decried as "just another sell-out," so he puts a lot of thought into his raps.
 * Discussed:
 * 1) "Hey, they're just like my family!"
 * 2) "Why do all these rappers seem to only rap about fast cars and fast girls? Don't they care about anything else?"
 * Conversed:
 * 1) "Somewhat dysfunctional, but yeah."
 * 2) "I'm sure they personally do, but the record label only cares about what will generate the most sales. And that means raps about fast cars and fast girls."
 * Played For Laughs:
 * Played For Drama:
 * Played For Drama:
 * Played For Drama:
 * Played For Drama:

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