Author Catchphrase: Difference between revisions

== Cross Category ==

* [[Trey Parker and Matt Stone]] have a few of these.

*** In the same vein, the DVDA (Trey & Matt's band) song "Now You're A Man", recorded for the movie ''[[Orgazmo]]'' was later used as the closing credits of a [[South Park]] episode.

** Both the episode [http://www.hulu.com/watch/56525/strangers-with-candy-hit-and-run?c=408:426 Hit and Run] and the second interview with the Grimmets in Wigfield include a debate over whether a feature of a hideously deformed face is an eye or a mouth, with one party arguing that it's a mouth because it's where the sound comes from and the other countering that whenever they tried to feed it there it would wink at them.

** Both the series finale and the first interview with Hoyt Gein include the phrase "Think about it- I haven't."

** The last--and the ''best!''

** He/she/they (will) (always) find a way to win.

** Using "scrap" to describe all fights.

** Using "warrior born" to describe someone who is good at fighting.

**** "Things are gonna get real ugly/bad/hot real quick/fast." can be heard at least four times, three of which happen successively and refer to the exact same situation.

*** [[Star Wars Expanded Universe|"Consider it indigestion and deal with it."]]

** A specific example is [[Timothy Zahn]]'s characters, in and out of Star Wars, responding to a statement with "Point."

*** Zahn also likes to ensure that everyone in the universe knows that [[The Thrawn Trilogy|Thrawn's]] eyebrows are blue-black, and that he likes [[Fascinating Eyebrow|to cock them]]. He also has [[Monochromatic Eyes|featureless]] [[Glowing Eyes of Doom|glowing]] [[Red Eyes, Take Warning|red eyes]].

** Kevin J. Anderson's Young Jedi Knight books uses the phrase 'brandy brown eyes' so many times.

*** Kevin J. Anderson also manages to work a really horrible cancer metaphor into virtually everything he writes.

* [[Mel Brooks]] has a bunch of these. There are a few that might be rather generic except for the fact they are always delivered in the exact same tone.

** "It's good to be the king!"

* Many of John Landis's films have a fictional movie titled "See You Next Wednesday" being shown in a movie theater and/or advertised on a poster. It's also a line from ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey]]'', but Landis claimed this was a coincidence.

** There really is such a movie.

* Paul WS Anderson seems to like the phrase "I don't think so."

 

 

** He also likes "s/he said ungrammatically."

* [[Rudyard Kipling]] often uses "O best beloved" to address the reader in his [[Just So Stories]].

** Quite a few characters are named Ronald: Ronald Rust, Ronald Soak, a king Ronald, Ronald Saveloy, Foul Ole Ron...

** ** And, of course, he has his [[Footnote Fever|footnotes]]. He generally uses a lot of [[Talks Like a Simile|original comparisons]] - for characters, places, things, situations, everything. You'll recognize 'em when you see 'em. "The X was like <very original, funny comparison>."

* Similarly, nearly every series by [[Anne McCaffrey]] includes a character whose name is somehow based on the name John Greene. The character Jayge in the ''[[Dragonriders of Pern]]'' series is one example. According to the official biography written by her son Todd, John Greene was a family friend who was murdered, and this is Anne's way of giving him extra lives to make up for the one he lost.

* [[Robert A. Heinlein]]:

*** And, distinctively, the context makes clear that they mean it not in the common sense of "So what?", but more in a sense of "Is that so?"

** Characters also say "Suits."- as in "It suits me." This is in most books and short stories.

** He also often uses ironclad grammatical accuracy in places where it's not appropriate, such as having Pat Bartlett say "an U.F.O." (most English speakers would say "''a'' U.F.O."), or Tom Fries's urging his niece Podkayne to use his "handky".

*** The "an U.F.O." example is not really be all that surprising, since the line before was "An oofoe. We’re an oofoe, do you realize that?" so using "I finally understood him-an U.F.O." as part of Pat's inner monologue is fairly appropriate in that case, since he's internally quoting Harry.

* Brian Jacques really, really likes writing songs and poetry, which is probably why ''every single [[Redwall]] book ever written'' turns on [[Only Smart People May Pass]].

** And every book also includes at least one [[Food Porn|Heinlein-esque description of the sumptuous Redwall fare.]] With October Ale. Can't forget the October Ale.

* [[Mercedes Lackey]] reuses several proverbs across different series, attributing them to various in-universe sources. The most common one is probably "it is easier to apologize than to ask permission."

** She also uses the phrase "hit in the back of the head with a board" more times than I ever want to think about. It seems that is the only way to describe shock in her world.

** This made the revelation of one character's last name very meaningful: with the villains aware of their identities and able to come down on them in force, there was now no reason to bothering hiding their last names, along with ages. (Jake's is {{spoiler|Berenson}}, by the way.)

* [[The Wheel of Time|Robert Jordan]] was a big fan of "arms folded beneath her breasts" and "handsome woman". The former in particular is excessively mocked in the [[Fandom]].

** Every single book begins with the phrase

{{quote| "The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend. Legend fades to myth, and even myth is long forgotten when the Age that gave it birth comes again. In one Age, called the Third Age by some, an Age yet to come, an Age long past, a wind rose [in some place]. The wind was not the beginning. There are neither beginnings nor endings to the turning of the Wheel of time. But it was ''a'' beginning."}}

** One of his stock Doctor descriptions is Fifth's "pleasant open face", which ''The Complete(ly Useless) Doctor Who Encyclopedia'' considers a [[Nightmare Fuel|disturbing disfigurement]] that thankfully wasn't present on screen.

** He also had stock descriptions for each recurring alien menace. The Ice Warriors, for instance, were "a once proud race."

** Ian Fleming is also another [[Food Porn]] writer. Every single Bond book contains descriptions of high-life cooking that puts his pulpy descriptions of women to shame quality-wise.

* It seems like every book Desmond Bagley has written has a scene where someone is found dead with their head split open and their "brains leaking out".

* German Author Wolfgang Hohlbein is really fond of "a darkness that was more than just the absence of light"

* [[Eoin Colfer]] likes this exchange:

** King also seems to have a fondness for knees that "pop like gunshots" when a character crouches or stands from a crouch.

** He has characters digging their nails into their hands so hard they draw blood in quite a few books and stories.

** It should be noted that, as a bard, Homer was speaking these stories out loud and making them up as he went along. Having a few handy stock phrases with which to stall for time or pad out a sentence so it fits the hexameter was a very handy thing.

* Despite being written instead of spoken, the Aeneid keeps in Homer's tradition with "Pious Aeneas", "Savage Juno", and "mixed with a great heap" (the last one is alliteration in Latin).

** Also "roaring rocks", "two toothed sheep chosen according to custom", and "Sacred groves". The Aenied was purposely written in the style of earlier Greek epics.

* Weiss & Hickman's Dragonlance stuff uses "the spidery language of magic" a bit too regularly.

** Especially later in the series, there are multiple times per book that Harry gets a feeling or sensation "that had nothing to do with [the current situation]" to show that his mind is elsewhere entirely.

* Simon R Green has a really, really bad habit of picking up a phrase and running with it through a series. If he uses "death's-head grin" or a variation thereof in the Deathstalker books ONE MORE TIME...

* Laurell K. Hamilton is very fond of the phrase 'red ruin' to describe lacerated bodies in the [[Merry Gentry]] series, and less frequently in the [[Anita Blake]] series.

** LKH has a ton of these, especially in her (far too frequent and recycled as the series continues) sex scenes. How many times has someone kissed someone else 'like [person 1] would eat [person 2] from the mouth down'?

** He was phobic of anything to do with fish or the sea. This accounts for frequent descriptions such as "batrachian", "ichthyic", "pulpy", "tentacled", and "stench of a cloven sunfish".

* [[Dave Barry]] really likes to write "I am not making this up", "This really happened", or "I am not making up this _______" after something that is strange but true. He uses a lot of hyperbole, so this explains that, no, he is not exaggerating for comedic effect.

* In his ''[[Chronicles of Thomas Covenant]]'' novels, Stephen R. Donaldson really likes to use unusual words like "fey", "anile" and "abnegation".

** The essay "[http://news.ansible.co.uk/plotdev.html The Well Tempered Plot Device]" suggests playing "Clench Racing" with the ''Thomas Covenant'' books by opening one at random and looking down the text until you find the word "clench". It won't take you long.

* [[Alternate History]] author [[Harry Turtledove]] uses a few. His favourite seems to be the narration, "It never even crossed their mind..." when he describes a character doing something suspect. A less common one is a character saying, "You're not wrong," or a variation thereof.

** Very common, however, is a character involved in an argument/debate telling another "Tell me I'm wrong," and the other being unable to say so. Especially in recent books, this happens virtually every time two characters have a mild disagreement or are just having a bull session about some issue of the day.

** Encountering the phrase "palm up" in a David Weber novel is a miracle of very nearly biblical proportions. Palms are nearly always "uppermost" instead.

* [[Jim Butcher]] is [[Author Catchphrase|all but]] fond of this, [[Author Catchphrase|doubtless]].

* DJ Machale's ''Pendragon'' series constantly repeats the phrase "The way it was meant to be" and variations thereupon through all ten books, especially "The Soldiers of Halla".

* [[John Green]] tends to describe things in situations in the form of semi-nonsensical lists in his novels. It's easier to show an example than to explain:

* [[Lemony Snicket]] likes to define words and phrases by saying "A phrase which here means..."

* Melinda Metz, author of the ''[[Roswell High]]'' series and the ''[[Fingerprints]]'' series, uses the sentence "[Character] wasn't going to wait for an ingraved invitation" multiple times in both works to demonstrate someone leaping to do something at the first chance they got.

** This is generally more of a thing that the narrator does; characters frequently refer to Japan.

 

 

** Aaron Sorkin likes to use the phrase "board-certified in thoracic surgery" to indicate a character's medical competence. It shows up in ''Malice'', ''[[A Few Good Men]]'', and ''[[The West Wing]]''.

* The first several seasons of ''[[Smallville]]'' almost invariably ended with one character asking another at the end of the show, "How you holding up?"

* It seems in his work, most notably [[Doctor Who]], Russel T. Davies is apparently very fond of the word "burn" to mean "be destroyed." The Time Lords burned. Skaro burned. Gallifrey burned. The Earth burns. Donna will burn. You'd think the whole galaxy was made of matchsticks.

** He also has a very noticeable penchant for giving grandiose, incredibly abstract names to things that are only mentioned in the [[Cryptic Background Reference|very, very briefest of throwaway lines]]. The Skaro Degradations, the Nightmare Child, the Could-Have-Been King, the Army of Meanwhiles and Never-Weres, the Medusa Cascade, the Silver Cloak... The list goes on.

It's a big enough umbrella, but it's always me that ends up getting wet. }}

* There's [http://holdsteady.wikia.com/ a whole wiki] devoted to keeping track of all the cross-references and recurring images in The Hold Steady's lyrics. Various characters get "high as hell" and/or "born again," tend to be in search of a "saviour," and praise drugs with a "five-second delivery;" all kinds of things are described as "hot [and] soft;" the title of their first album, ''Almost Killed Me'', appears in half a dozen songs, and even the name of the band comes up on a few occasions ("It's hard to hold it steady when half your friends are dead already.") Lampshaded in "The Cattle and The Creeping Things": "Hard drugs are for bartenders -- I think I might have mentioned that before."

* Japanese artist [[Gackt]] tends to use the phrase "Dakishimete" at least once in his songs. [[Fanon|Has evolved into a]] [[Running Gag]] amongst his fans.

* [[Ronnie James Dio]] has numerous songs with some combination of "I am/you are/life is" like "a wheel/a rainbow/a never ending journey" ("Self Portrait", "Wishing Well", "Rainbow in the Dark", among others). He also employed an "evil woman" trope about once per album (i.e., "Starstruck", "Lady Evil", "Don't Talk to Strangers"). Fittingly, he sang in Rainbow with Ritchie Blackmore, who frequently reused the riffs from "Speed King", "Smoke on the Water", "Woman From Tokyo", and "Burn" as new songs, with only slight variations.

* Pioneering Speed Metal band Riot (not to be confused with Quiet Riot) wrote two separate songs named "Run For Your Life" at different points in their career.

* The reason that the [[NI Nwiki]] has a list of [http://www.ninwiki.com/Recurring_lyrics recurring lyrics] in Trent Reznor of [[Nine Inch Nails]] works. Two examples are "a million miles away", and "nothing can stop me now".

* "Kurikaesareru shougyou mujou, yomigaeru seiteki shoudou" (impermanence repeats itself, sexual pulse arises again) is a phrase heavily featured on each of Japanese experimental rock band [[Zazen Boys]]' (led by former [[Number Girl]] frontman [[Mukai Shutoku]]) albums.

== Webcomics ==

* Whenever anyone in ''[[Sluggy Freelance]]'' is proven wrong in an argument, they'll almost inevitably acknowledge that the other person has a point by simply saying the word, "Point." (See above under [[Timothy Zahn]].)

* [[MS Paint Adventures|Andrew Hussie]] tends to use a lot of tropes. All of the tropes. All of them. He also rather likes to use the words 'Ascend' and 'Descend', and variations there of ("Rise Up", etc.)

 

{{reflist}}