Fleeting Demographic Rule: Difference between revisions

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.

 

 

For example, during the [[Silver Age]] of comics, the writers assumed that their demographic was kids ages 9-11 -- which would make a two-year turnover safe -- and that their demographic rarely read comics frequently enough to notice the repetition. They also believed that even if they did read them often, they [[Viewers are Morons|wouldn't notice]]. This has been turned away from in recent times because comics are now written by people who ''[[Continuity Porn|love]]'' [[Continuity]]; if they make events repeat, then they'll eventually come up with a metaplot to explain it.

** 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>, mirroring the beginning of the first season. Likewise, starting with Hoenn he stupidly stops using all of his current Pokémon in favor of catching weaker, untrained ones in the new region. Except for Pikachu, of course.

** 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.

** 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.

** ''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."

* 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 5-15 years after the original stories, but one Lois Lane story was reused only one year after its first telling.

* 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.

** 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]]'').