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{{quote|''A gimmick or storyline may be reused freely and safely after a few years of dormancy.''}}
[[File:
The unwritten rule that, after a given number of years, there has been enough turnover in the fanbase that a writer can re-use the same gimmicks and storylines with impunity.
The general principle applies to any work that is enough of a [[Long Runner]] and/or has enough of a [[Fleeting Demographic]] to outlast most of its initial fanbase.
For example, during the [[Silver Age]] of comics, the writers assumed that their demographic was kids ages
Not the same as [[Older Than They Think]], this trope's influence extends to tropes, plots, lines and gimmicks of more recent vintage, that the viewer can be reasonably expected to have seen since it was The Big Cool New Thing just a couple of years ago — and a couple of years before that, and a couple of years before that, and...
Compare [[Recycled Script]]. Contrast [[Spiritual Successor]] where the writers don't have to pretend this isn't a rehash - because it isn't ''truly'' a rehash.
{{examples}}
▲== Anime & Manga ==
* The ''[[Pokémon (anime)|Pokémon]]'' anime is particularly bad about this. Easily done because most of it is [[Filler]].
** Probably the most obvious is that (starting with Hoenn) every time Ash goes to a new region, he meets a girl who will soon be his new traveling companion and accidentally destroys her bicycle,<ref>Subverted with Iris - Pikachu shocked ''her'' instead of a bicycle.</ref>
** And just picked up on this year with the ''Pokémon: Best Wishes'' season, Ash's Pikachu's power level gets reset back to one for some reason. In Hoenn, the cause was a big magnet; Sinnoh didn't have an explanation; but Unova on the other hand sees Pikachu getting overloaded by the new Legendary Pokémon Zekrom, and now can't use electric attacks. He recovered them later although Pikachu still inexplicably loses to low-leveled Pokémon from time to time.
*** ''Best Wishes'' worsens the problem in particular, as Ash (who supposedly has four regions' worth of traveling experience under his belt) is making stupid mistakes once again - mistakes that one would typically expect a ''rookie'' Trainer to make.
** One of the most blatant (and non-filler) examples: In Hoenn, Ash enters a PokéRinger event in which flying Pokemon compete to collect rings and place them on goal posts. Ash uses his Taillow, a bird Pokemon, which evolves during the competition and surprises its opponent by hitting the ring onto the goal with its wing, rather than carrying it in its beak. An episode that aired about five years later repeated this plot exactly; just replace Hoenn with Sinnoh. Both episodes even use the ''exact same background music'' during their respective climaxes.
** The series in general is a bit weird about this, since despite the recycled plots, there's still quite a bit of continuity, with references to episodes that aired over ''ten years'' prior being made. It gives the impression that the writers are trying to have their cake and eat it too.
* ''[[
==
* The rule of thumb in the comics business used to be "No one has a memory over five years old." It was believed that readership would turn over in five year cycles, as older kids stopped reading comics, and younger kids started. The notion of a significant number of fans reading comics well into their late teens or adulthood was never really considered in the Golden Age or Silver Age.
** ''Reprints'' were more common in the Silver Age, though still relatively rare in superhero comics. The "five year rule" was probably a more reliable guide for, say, "teen humor" comics, where a story would probably be just as good (or not-so-good) in 1970 as it was in 1965. This was particularly common in Marvel's various ''[[Millie the Model]]'' titles. A story first printed in ''Millie the Model'' might turn up in ''Mad About Millie'' or ''Chili'' several years later.
** Note that this ''really'' no longer applies in mainstream superhero comic books, where referencing a minor plot point from decades ago is now considered normal and good. "When did Amanada Waller get her hands on a Manhunter robot?" "During the Millenium crossover, 23 years ago. Try to keep up, dude."
*** Cartoons of comics are even worse about this, but at least have an excuse. They can simply say that they are trying to popularize a comic to a younger generation by making a new series. Hence, X-Men is followed by X-Men Generations, Batman by Batman Beyond (which at least makes an ''attempt'' to redo the plotline), and numerous Justice League/Superman incarnations.
* In old-school [[Silver Age]] ''[[Superman]]'' and ''Superboy'' comics, plots were [[Recycled Script|reused frequently]], and not just in a "this bears a passing resemblance to that other story" way. More like, Jimmy becomes a werewolf under circumstances that are similar to but completely unrelated to the time it happened three years ago. (Real years, not [[Comic Book Time|comic years.]]) Superboy also became the leader of a wolf pack twice. And Lois or Lana [[Sidekick Glass Ceiling|got Supes' powers]] on enough occasions you may as well consider them reserve superheroes.
** Craig "Mr. Silver Age" Shutt, in his book ''Baby Boomer Comics'', cataloged 53 "duplicated" Superman stories. Typically, the rewrites would be printed
** Eventually the writers caved and Lana ''did'' become a superhero in her own right - Insect Queen. While this has since been retconned away, there is a current Insect Queen in the DC Universe...with the name of [[Mythology Gag|Lonna Leing]].
** This happened in the golden age too, when THE EXACT SAME STORIES were sometimes used only with new drawn pictures.
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** Also [[House of M]]. ''How'' many times have the heroes woken up one morning to see [[Reality Warper|reality has been changed drastically]] and they need to fix it? Enough that Cap and Hawkeye's reaction back in "The Morgan Conquest" was basically, "Not again!"
* [[Spider-Man]] examples:
** Used as justification by the [[Executive Meddling|editors]] of ''[[Spider-Man]]'' for the "[[One More Day]]" continuity reboot, under the theory that if they stick to their guns through reader complaints for five years, no one will have enough of an attention span to remember it ever happened. ''One More Day'' was published in 2007 and is still canon several continuity shattering events (that didn't change it) latter, people still hate it.
** "[[The Clone Saga]]" hit the Spider-books in the early 90's, with a similar goal. It was widely considered a huge failure, and Marvel ended up backtracking on its big changes.
* Wonderfully averted in ''[[52]]''. Booster Gold's storyline was originally going to be finding evidence that the time line was broken, falling apart at the seams, and he would need to fix it to restore order. As the four writers of the book got to work though, they realized each of them had been through this before and none of them really wanted to do it again ("Unless there was a prize for being the hundredth people to write one"). Thus before they got too far into the story, they reworked Booster's storyline so that he spent it butting heads with a new hero called Supernova {{spoiler|who turns out to ''be'' Booster (isn't time travel fun?)}}, which led into a conspiracy about a time-traveling superhero.
* In ''[[The Beano]]'', ''[[The Dandy (comics)|The Dandy]]'' and other [[British Comics]] the seven year rule can sometimes apply to reprints. In that they were seven years until they begin to reprint the strip. This is because the usual reader only reads the comic for 4 or 5 years and so there is a lot of reader turnover.
* ''X-Men'' as an entire franchise has arguably been doing this since 1991. Whatever changes are made to characters, most last five or so years before going back to the [[My Real Daddy|status quo that Chris Claremont had before he left the book]]. It's notable that Claremont 'himself' did not subscribe to this, and things kept changing constantly during his run, and never went completely back to normal most of the time.
* The original run of long-running (
== Film ==
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** Not to mention, it came out eight years after the prior entry in the series, ''Spy Kids 3D'', and ten years since the first one. The children who were in the target audience when the original films came out are all grown up while the children currently in the target audience will have probably never heard of the series before (after all, it didn't exactly stay in the public consciousness after it left theaters). As such, the franchise was essentially remarketed as though new.
* Pretty much the only differences between ''[[The Karate Kid]]'' and ''[[Sidekicks]]'' are that the second one has [[Chuck Norris]], and was made eight years later.
== Literature ==
* Used in-universe in ''[[Watership Down]]'', due to rabbits' short lifespan. The main events of the novel are the stuff of legend some five years later, and humans are portrayed as driving cars and smoking cigarettes in the mythic past.
* The production notes for episodes of ''[[Stationery Voyagers]]'' employed several tropes from earlier Dozerfleet Literature stories ''specifically counting on'' the fact that almost nobody had read those earlier stories, so the [[Author Appeal]] got a free pass.
== Live Action TV ==
* Some ''[[Star Trek]]''s overused their stock plots ad nauseam. The [[Negative Space Wedgie]] turning the Holodeck into a death trap is a favorite of ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation|Next Generation]]'' and ''[[Star Trek: Voyager|Voyager]]''. Just which character is trying to eat them changes... the formula doesn't. Would that it ''only'' happened once every two years. And ''[[Star Trek: Enterprise|Enterprise]]'' basically ate itself this way. Oh, look, ''more'' aliens in Nazi uniforms.
** Parodied on ''[[Futurama]]'' when Kif shows Amy the HoloShed. He states that nothing in the simulation will hurt her, unless there's a malfunction and everything comes to life again, but that [[Tempting Fate|hardly ever happens]]. Several minutes later, the greatest villains in history (including an ax-wielding [[Historical Hilarity|Evil Lincoln]]) show up just after a malfunction. They know the drill and start smashing stuff.
*** In another episode, a ''[[Star Trek: The
** Lampshaded in ''[[Deep Space Nine]]'':
{{quote|'''Worf:''' We were like warriors from the ancient sagas. There was nothing we could not do.
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** ''Voyager'' and ''Enterprise'' were ''especially'' bad at this, leading to criticism that both ignored their premises to be "Next Gen lite" and [[Recycled Script|recycle old episodes]] in the belief no one would recall episodes from any prior series. Hence why many ''Enterprise'' episodes features technology and species wildly inappropriate for the time; they were introduced back in 1987, and ''nobody'' would remember back that far. [[They Just Didn't Care|Not that they cared]]. And why ''Voyager'' did things like base an episode around the legal issue of the rights of artificial lifeforms, even though TNG had resolved that early on.
*** Parodied in Voltaire's "USS Make-Shit-Up". One verse expresses deja vu over Voyager, then has a flash of memory-it was "way back in the sixties, when they called it 'Lost In Space'."
** The villain from ''[[Star Trek: The
* ''[[Stargate SG-1]]'' self-consciously makes use of this by having similar plotlines (time travel, alternate dimensions) refer to or even depend on previous episodes with similar plots. A [[Genre Savvy]] bunch, SG-1.
** Each time they encounter the same phenomena they will always recap the events of the previous mission, and try to figure out if what they learned that time can be useful again. In ''[[Stargate Atlantis]]'' sometimes the same solution is used again (or the same problem), with a twist.
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* Virtually every episode from the last few seasons of ''[[Bewitched]]'' (the [[The Other Darrin|Dick Sargent]] years) re-used the plot of an episode from the Dick York era.
* Sometimes played straight in ''[[QI]]''. If watching the show from the beginning, you will occasionally hear the same joke twice (''not'' as a [[Running Gag]]), or hear a question based on something that was already discussed at length in a previous episode.
** One example is the story about how Kangaroos got their name and what it means. This <s> story</s> myth was told twice at length in two different episodes. The second time offers no reference to the first, so it isn't an [[In
** In Series H, Stephen Fry finished one episode with a scat joke about pathologists and dead bodies. This joke was already told by Alan Davies, several seasons back.
* ''[[Buffy]]'': Season seven episode "Him" rehashes the plot of season two episode "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered" (a love spell gone wrong causes many women to fall blindly for the same guy, with terrible consequences), only written much, much worse. Xander even reminisces fondly about the prior event (including ''his best friend leading a mob of women and [[If I Can't Have You|trying to kill him with an axe]]'').
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* A related version happens in TV made for toddlers. In the cases of ''[[In The Night Garden]]'', only 100 episodes were ever commissioned, despite being wildly popular. The logic is that the demographic will only watch for two years then grow out of the show, meaning after 100 episodes you can start from the beginning again and nobody but adults will notice. This is also the reason why the show has no overarching plot or a an episode that acknowledges itself as the first or last.
** This is similar to many studios only commissioning 65 episodes for its kids', tween, early and late teen shows. It takes a monumental push by fans to get more of the same show instead of using the same 65 scripts for the next one they churn out. This was a pretty big issue in the mid 2000s where the hugely popular [[Lizzie McGuire]] ended at 65 episodes in just 2 seasons and [[Kim Possible]] needed an obscure contract from a German television station to get a 4th season. [[Hannah Montana]], [[Wizards of Waverly Place]] have over 85 and [[The Suite Life On Deck]] has over 100 when you count both series.
** Originally, this practice started as something of an insurance policy for all
== [[Pro Wrestling]] ==
* Coined by [[Professional Wrestling]] promoter, writer, on-air personality, and general jack-of-all-trades Jim Cornette, the Seven Year Rule is the unwritten pro wrestling rule that, after seven years, there has been enough turnover in the fanbase that a writer can re-use the same gimmicks and story lines with impunity. As the theory goes, any wait shorter than seven years may result in fans noticing the rehashing, and calling the promotion on the re-use. After that, a few diehard longtime fans may notice and become upset, but almost everybody will accept the product as new.
* Certain character stereotypes occur so often in [[Pro Wrestling]] that it is not unusual to have more than one example thereof existing at the same time - albeit necessarily on different TV shows or in different promotions. Whereas [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] boasts a mentally unstable "monster" who uses the Chokeslam finisher named [[Kane (wrestling)|Kane]], [[TNA]] has a mentally unstable "monster" who uses the Chokeslam (okay, "Black Hole Slam") finisher named Abyss. And in late 2004/early 2005, this mimicry was seen within WWE itself as Gene Snitsky and Jon Heidenreich each performed the role of an intense monster [[Heel]] with [[This Is Sparta]] speaking patterns on ''Raw'' and ''SmackDown'', respectively. They even [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] this fact at the 2004 ''Survivor Series'' when they met for the first time.
* "The Narcissist" Lex Luger was recycled as "The Reflection of Perfection" Mark Jindrak after 11 years, complete with a hammy manager to talk him up.
** See also "The Masterpiece," Chris Masters, in 2005-07.
** Though the name similarity isn't there, many people see the similarities between [[Curt Hennig|Mr. Perfect]], and [[Dolph Ziggler]]: long blond hair, tan skin, and an obsession with "perfection." His manager is also an authority figure(see Triple H and Steph below)
* The Four Horsemen first formed in 1986 with [[Ric Flair]], Arn Anderson, Ole Anderson, and Tully Blanchard, and at one time held the world, tag, and television championship belts in the NWA. They disbanded in 1991, and reformed from 1995-1997 in WCW. Arn Anderson and Flair were still members, adding Steve McMichael, [[Chris Benoit]], and Brian Pillman. After Arn's neck injury in September 1997, Flair disbanded the group once again, only to have Arn reform it as their manager in September 1998, with Benoit, McMichael, and Flair joined by Dean Malenko. They split up in May 1999 for the last time. WWE had their own homage to the group with Evolution in 2003, with [[Triple H]], [[Randy Orton]], Dave [[Batista]], and [[Ric Flair]] holding the world, intercontinental and tag championships all at one time.
* In 1997, [[Kane (wrestling)|Kane]] started tormenting [[The Undertaker]], and at the following Wrestlemania (XIV), Taker defeated Kane. This was followed by a long period of general peace and cooperation between them, including a reign as the tag champs. In 2003, Kane buried Taker in a Buried Alive match, and at the following Wrestlemania (XX), Taker defeated Kane, leading to a general period of peace with some cooperation over the past four years.
** Speaking of [[The Undertaker]] and Kane, when [[The Undertaker]] first debuted, he was announced as "Cain The Undertaker." They didn't call him by that name again for over seven years, and then his brother "Kane" debuted.
** In 1994, there was an infamous "Undertaker vs. Undertaker" feud. Or more accurately, "Undertaker vs. Guy In Undertaker Costume Who Is Visibly Shorter And Less Muscular Than Undertaker". Fast forward to 2006, and there was a "Kane vs. Guy In Kane's Old Costume Who Is Visibly Shorter And Less Muscular Than Kane" feud.
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*** And now the feud has led to a Buried Alive match with Undertaker losing due to outside interference, leaving Kane to ask for a bulldozer to dump soil into the grave, almost seven years since the last time this happened.
* Recently, the WWE redid the [[Montreal Screwjob]] angle, wherein the referee, the owner/manager, and a smarmy wrestler conspire to screw a fan favorite out of a title. The original screwjob was apparently a shoot (IE, not faked), while the remake is most definitely kayfabe. Anyways, the wrestler who got screwed over is [[The Undertaker]], who then proceeded to abduct Teddy Long, in a manner reminiscent of the [[Not My Driver]] portion of the maligned "[[Shocking Swerve|Higher Power]]" storyline when he abducted Stephanie in much the same way. Not only are they reusing old storylines, they're mixing them together.
** The [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]] ''loves'' to reference and re-enact the [[Montreal Screwjob]]. It was repeated merely a year later at the 1998 Survivor Series, with Vince screwing over [[Mick Foley|Mankind]].
*** Other companies like to reference it, too. Less than two months after the original, [[Bret Hart]] came out after the main event of Starrcade where [[Hulk Hogan]] pinned [[
** And now they've done it again, but this time with a [[Subversion]]. At Money in the Bank 2011, controversial heel [[CM Punk]] threatened to leave the company with the belt after beating then current champ [[John Cena]]. When Cena had Punk locked in his signature submission, Vince and the head of talent came down trying to screw Punk out of the title; however, Cena knocked out Vince's crony, saying that he was going to win this his way, only to have Punk use the distraction to hit Cena with the [[Finishing Move|Go To Sleep]], [[Shocking Swerve|pin him]], and leave the company with the championship.
* In late 1999, [[Triple H]], the top heel, married [[Stephanie McMahon]] and used her power in the company to rule the roster with an iron fist as the McMahon-Helmsley Regime, allowing him to keep a strangle hold on the Championship. Cut to 2008 and the same thing is repackaged with [[Edge]] and Vickie Guerrero. Ironically, back in 2000, Edge and his tag team partner [[Christian]] voiced confusion on whether the group was a regime or a faction (both terms were used throughout the stable's history) and settled on "Fac-gime."
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* 1997-ish, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_4WJA_4R0s Mini Mankind & Mini Vader]. 2009-ish, [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rFxtf3j2do&feature=related Mini Everyone]
* Like the popularity of [[Stone Cold Steve Austin]] leading into the [[Attitude Era]] in the late 90s, it's happening all over again now with [[CM Punk]] being the straight-talking, Pepsi drinking [[Anti-Hero]] who rebels against the WWE's management. Punk being likened to Austin, as well as a new [[Attitude Era]] coming, certainly help in making the comparison to the late 90s. Whether this is all an elaborate storyline/gambit on the part of [[Vince McMahon]] and the creative team is unknown, but if it is, it makes this one hell of a [[Batman Gambit]], and Vince one hell of a [[Magnificent Bastard]] / [[Chessmaster]] for him to know the fans would immediately love Punk. Luckily, with the much derided and reveiled PG era coming to an end, this is a prime example of why [[Tropes Are Not Bad]].
* Around 2004 former WCW wrestler Ernest "The Cat" Miller made his WWE debut, basically a joke character who danced in the ring to the song "Somebody Call My Mama", and provided the 2004 [[Royal Rumble]] with it's very own [[
* In 2002, Hulk Hogan and The Rock finally met in the ring for the first time at ''WrestleMania X8''. It was touted as a meeting of two legends from two eras. Ten years later, The Rock and John Cena meet under the same terms at ''WrestleMania XXVIII''. It would be no surprise to see John Cena and the then-current force in professional wrestling having the same encounter at the 38th ''WrestleMania''.
* Rock & Wrestling Era: a mega-heel called the One Man Gang (a big white guy from Chicago) is transformed into the "African Dream" Akeem after "discovering his African roots". WWE, Inc. Era (a return to the cartoonish-ness of the Rock & Wrestling Era): A-Train (a huge white guy; before that, he was known as Albert) returns after 8 years as Lord Tensai, having "found himself" in Japan.
** This one actually has some basis in reality, since Matt "A-Train" Bloom did spent several years wrestling in Japan as Giant Bernard.
== Tabletop Games ==
* ''[[Warhammer
* Played with in ''[[Magic: The Gathering]]'' with functional reprints. Also, Standard never uses cards that have not been printed in the past two years.
== Toys ==
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** ''[[Transformers]]'', in particular, makes absolutely no attempt to hide this. In fact, in the franchise's first year, several sets of characters who were just each other in different colors came out ''all at once'', with the toys sold on shelves right next to each other and the cartoon and comic book making no effort to disguise their identicalness. In fact, [[The Transformers (animation)|the cartoon]] took it [[Up to Eleven]], using variously-colored [[The Starscream|Starscreams]] as generic [[Mooks]].
▲== Webcomics ==
* [http://www.shortpacked.com/2008/comic/book-7/09-rock-band-week/airbrushed/ This strip] from ''[[Shortpacked]]'' shows a toy fan [[Genre Savvy|realizing]] the frustrations inherent when companies take advantage of this trope because [[Viewers are Morons|the fans]] [[Truth in Television|let them]].
* Expect [[Multiplex]] to inform you when this trope is in play with a current movie. Jason being a movie snob requires him to point them out.
* The [[Ciem Webcomic Series]] was plagued with problems, and gave way to an [[Ultimate Universe]] in the form of Comprehensive Gerosha. Which is deliberately taking advantage of its time in [[Development Hell]] to make fans of the original less sensitive to the idea of a [[Continuity Reboot]].
== Web Original ==
* ''[[Loading Ready Run]]'' parodied this by pretending to be remaking a sketch that had been released just a few weeks earlier. As it turned out one of their members was manipulating them into position so he could use them for his own sketch, which the others had shot down.
== [[Western Animation]] ==
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* ''[[Family Guy]]'' had an episode in 2001 where Lois begins fighting using "Tae Jitsu" because Peter runs all over her and doesn't respect her. Fast forward 9 years, and there's another episode where Lois becomes a boxer because Peter runs all over her and doesn't respect her.
* During [[The Golden Age of Animation]], this trope was employed partly due to the fact that movie theaters wouldn't rerun older cartoons anyway, particularly if they were from the black and white era once Technicolor became the standard. So plots could be re-used after enough years had gone by. The ''[[Popeye (comic strip)|Popeye]]'' series was particularly guilty of this, once [[Famous Studios]] took over.
== Real Life ==
* [[Photographic Memory|Eidetic memory]] is the exact opposite of this. But cases of it are extremely rare. Yet, even if it were more common, most have a built-in [[Weirdness Censor]] that prevents [[It's Been Done]] warnings from being taken seriously.
* To an extent and modified for regional issues, ''all'' politicians love to abuse this trope, worldwide, making promises to attract votes that they more likely than not won't keep, even if they actually intended to do so when making them.
* Anything aimed at a university or college audience on-campus inherently has an audience with a collective memory of four years - if that's the length of the undergrad programme. Those who remember graduate and leave, a fresh class of students replaces them, everything is new again. Back when the Internet was primarily an academic research network, Usenet was infamous for an influx of new, inexperienced users every September; the 1993 entry of commercial providers (such as AOL) who could flood the net with inexperienced new users year-round was nicknamed the "[[Eternal September]]".
* Scammers also love to abuse this trope, hoping that their potential victims won't recall reports of every other time the scam they want to attempt has harmed others.
* The
** Most economic
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Meta Concepts]]
[[Category:Fleeting Demographic Rule]]
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