Older Than the Web

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The Internet was first developed in the 1960s with projects such as ARPANET. While the exact history of the internet is complex and questionable, rules for this had to be put in place.

For the purpose, this will only focus on when the Internet was release for commercial reasons. That means Tropes first documented in the era when television was becoming common media (1940s) and before the emergence of commercial usage of the Internet by civilians, known as the World Wide Web (1990s).

Tropes created or named during this time period:

• Dancing Is Serious Business: Anyone can throw a punch, but it takes the art of dancing to really settle it. Those versions exist before, but for performance in the media… West Side Story (1957) got you covered.
• First-Person Shooter: While Wolfenstein 3D may have made it popular in the 1990s, but Maze War was one of the first example made in 1973.
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: Potentially-lewd information being missed by the censors. The name of the term came from Robin Williams during his time Mork and Mindy (1978).
• I Ain't Got Time to Bleed: Where a hero doesn’t know about an injury until it’s seen. Name for a line in Predator (1987).
• Kent Brockman News: Sesame Street had this in the 1970s with Kermit the Frog before the Trope Namer came along.
• Mrs. Robinson: An older woman who falls in love with a younger man. Trope was named after a character of the same name in The Graduate (1967).
• Non-Giving-Up-School Guy: The Huckleberry Hound Show had the title character cases a pair of truants in 1958, long before Bartholomew give his job a name.
• Teenage Death Songs: Only the good die young… as far as the story in the song is a concern. Examples of this subject goes back to mid- 1950s.
• Teenage Wasteland: Where the juveniles rules over the adult, if they are exist. Early examples of this tropes includes Lords of the Flies (1954), but the name came from lyrics in “ Baba O'Riley” (1971)
• Think of the Children: Though it wasn’t coined until Helen Lovejoy made her debut, works with this kind of aware was present following the Second World War. It’s where something in the media creates moral panic due to what can happen to children.
• With This Herring: A character must embark poorly equipped.
  • Only a Flesh Wound: A character functioning well despite a serious injury. Name for a scene in Monty Python and The Holy Grail (1975).
• You Are Already Dead: Death is delayed after a fatal injured in sustained. Coined by Kenshiro thanks to his ability to go after pressure points to cause a fatal injury (1985).
  • Manly Tears: It’s okay for someone to cry and still remain badass about it.
• You Meddling Kids: Someone who was able to foil a villain’s plans just when the plan almost went through. Coined by several of criminals stopped by Mystery, Inc. (1969).