The European Carry All: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''Alan''': ''
'''Triad boss''': ''
A joke, especially in [[
See also [[Unusual Euphemism]] when very unpleasant things are concerned. Compare and contrast with [[Insistent Terminology]]. [[Real Men Wear Pink]] is the standard subversion.
{{examples}}
== [[Advertising]] ==
* Played perfectly straight in a conversation between two bison (yes, bison) in a telephone company commercial a few years back{{when}} for camera phone support:
{{quote|
'''Bison 2:''' No! It's a murse! It's for men! It's European!
'''Bison 1:''' Uh-huh...
'''Bison 2:''' Look, my girlfriend got it for me and I have to use it a while. Let's just keep this to ourselves, okay?
'''Bison 1:''' Okay...
''*camera phone clicks*''
'''Bison 2:''' What was that? }}
* A [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRecos7TcA0 Progressive Insurance commercial] has saleslady Flo telling a couple that Progressive can compare its rate with those of other top companies, thereby sparing them from spending all day shopping around to compare.
{{quote|
'''Wife:''' (irritated) It's a European shoulder bag.
'''Husband:''' (sheepish) [[It Was a Gift
* Miller Lite's "Man Up" campaign gives men purses, lower-back tattoos, and skirts, but only [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgA4JQQhZD4 the purse ad] features this trope.
{{quote|
'''Male Bar Patron:''' It's a carry-all.
'''Female Bartender:''' (assertive) No, it's not. }}
* An ad for [[ESPN]]'s ''College Gameday'' (aired during the 2011 football season) opens with Erin Andrews signing off the 9:00 ESPNU hour and the regular ESPN team taking the set. Chris Fowler finds what seems to be a white purse and yells, "Hey Erin, you left your purse!", prompting Desmond Howard to snatch it away and say something to the effect of, "That's not a purse, it's a satchel. These are big in Europe right now, but you wouldn't know about that." Cue incredulous looks from Fowler (who also says, "No, I would not"), Kirk Herbstreit, and Lee Corso. (Watch it [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPmMhc_Eyzc here].)
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== [[Anime]] ==
* In a sort of meta-example, fans always insist on referring to [[Mobile Suit Gundam|Char Aznable]]'s [[Super Prototype|Ace Custom]] color scheme as "red" when, to many people, it looks suspiciously pink, especially in the original TV series. Never commented on in-show, but an occasional source of minor [[Flame War
** Sunrise, the company responsible for the Gundam franchise, ''may'' have been having some fun with this in their latest effort, ''Gundam00''. When one of the show's aces (in this case a female) receives their own "[[Super Prototype|Ace Custom]]" mech, it's very blatantly pink, and it is called the "Tieren Taozi". Taozi is, for the uninformed, Chinese for "peach".
*** Later on, all of the lead Gundams become capable of going into Trans-Am mode where they become sparkly, pink and, of course, three times faster.
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** ''[[Appleseed Ex Machina]]'' may be making fun of this example by giving Deunan Knute a pink LandMate prototype.
*** She only borrows it. [[Real Men Wear Pink|It's not hers.]]
** Then there's Akito Tenkawa's Aestivalis in ''[[Martian Successor Nadesico]]'', which is very
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* From ''[[Deadpool]]'':
{{quote|
'''Deadpool''': It's a motorbike! It's 100% manly! }}
* In an ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'' comic Jean Grey asks Jubilee if she still has nightmares. Jubilee responds that nightmares are for babies; she has "traumatic evening episodes".
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20171114100606/http://www.superdickery.com/
* [[Batman|Spoiler's]] costume is not purple, it's ''eggplant''. "Purple would've looked stupid"
* [[The Smurfs|King Smurf's]] costume is not yellow but ''gold''.
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* ''[[Clerks II]]'' One character insists that something is not bestiality porn, it's "inter-species erotica"
** "Fucko."
* ''[[How the Grinch Stole Christmas (
== [[Literature]] ==
* In ''Figgs & Phantoms'', the main feature of the [[Another Dimension|Alternate Dimension]] is a pink palm tree, which its lone resident insists is coral, not pink.
* In [[
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* Trope namer: In ''[[Seinfeld]]'', Jerry buys a "European carry-all" from the J. Peterman
** "It's ''not'' a purse! It's '''''European!'''''"
** This could also be a [[Shout
** In another episode, Kramer tries to sell <s>bras</s> bros to men with man-boobs.
*** "It's a manzier!"
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* In ''[[Everybody Loves Raymond]]'', Robert insists for several episodes that a bull gored him in the "upper thigh".
* In ''[[All in The Family]]'', Mike defends his habit of carrying what Archie calls a purse by insisting it's actually a "shoulder-bag for men".
* During the series finale of [[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]], Miles and Keiko disagreed on the definition of the scale model of the Alamo that Miles and Julian had built. Keiko insisted it was a toy, while Miles favored the term "miniature". Additionally, in an earlier episode, Worf observed Julian and Miles working on this model and lamented Ezri Dax's affection for Julian Bashir by grumbling "He plays with toys." Ezri insisted "It's a model."
* In ''[[
** In another episode, Rodney started to say that he was "escaping", but quickly changed it to "effecting a strategic retreat". Likely homaging Dr. Smith from [[Lost in Space]] who said the same thing.
* In ''[[Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide]]'', Ned carries a pillow- an ordinary bedroom pillow, with plain white pillowcase- around in "Guide to: Friends Moving". He refers to it as a "cushion protector", and it saves him from several head injuries and a [[Pie in
** And his 'leftie-shirt', which was a blouse.
* In ''[[That '70s Show]]'', Eric has a collection of G. I. Joe and Star Wars toys. He calls them "action figures", everybody else calls them "dolls".
* From a sketch in ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'':
{{quote|
'''Biggles (Graham Chapman):''' ''Courtesan?'' Oh, oh, aren't we grand? Harlot's not good enough for us, eh? Paramour, concubine, fille de joie, that's what we're not. Listen to me, my fine fellow, you are a bit of tail. Algy says so.
'''Miss Bladder:''' And how would he know?
'''Biggles:''' Are you calling my comrade-in-arms Algy a fairy?
'''Miss Bladder:''' Fairy? Poof's not good enough for you. He's got to be a bleedin' fairy! }}
** And what about Brave Sir Robin? He's not running away. He's not!
* In a ''[[Scrubs]]'' episode, Cox meets a doctor who likes to collect dolls. Did I say dolls? It's a collectible!
** This is a doctor, by the way, who is even more annoying than Cox and is played by [[Law and Order SVU|Detective Stabler]].
* In ''[[Malcolm in
* In ''[[Star Trek]]'', the Command officers (or Security/Engineer in ''[[Star Trek:
** The original "gold shirts" were actually green. The lighting on the set, and the kind of film used, were all that made them gold.
* [[Kamen Rider Decade|Decade]]'s outfit is not pink, it's magenta.
* The "doll vs. action figure" thing (see Real Life below) was inverted on an episode of ''[[Law and Order SVU]]''. They caught a suspect by exploiting his love of doll collecting. Finn tried to build rapport with the guy by admitting that as a child he had played with dolls, too, such as [[G.I. Joe]]. The guy corrected him that those were not dolls, they were action figures.
* In the ''[[Wings (TV series)|Wings]]'' episode "Just Call Me Angel", Joe carries around what looks very much like (and what the other characters keep referring to as) a makeup case. However, he keeps insisting it's a man's travel bag.
== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* In ''[[Bloom County]]'', Opus takes a job as a garbageman and demands to be called a "waste management artisan." Milo refuses to do this, until Opus successfully argues that if Ronald Reagan's arms shipments to Iran can be called "goodwill gifts", he can be a "waste management artisan."
* In ''[[The Boondocks]]'' A strip has Granddad defending his "Man-Bag" as being manly in a strip introducing the [[Unusual Euphemism]] "[[Brokeback Mountain|Brokeback]]", for something of dubious masculinity.
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== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[Escape
** Interestingly, the ship's figurehead, when animated, is decidedly unladylike and is in no way dainty.
* In edutainment title ''Recess in Greece'', the protagonist (a monkey named Morgan) ends up in a kid-friendly (complete with the necessary [[Bowdlerization]] and [[Attention Deficit Ooh Shiny|ADHD]]-tempting hilarious animations when you [[Pixel Hunt|click on]] [[Talk to Everyone|everything]]) version of ''[[
* In ''[[Fallout 3]]'', former childhood bully Butch becomes the hairdresser for Vault 101 (which is [[Brick Joke|the job he got]] on his [[Inept Aptitude Test|G.O.A.T. exam]]), though he insists that he's not a hairdresser, but a barber.
* In ''[[
* If you play ''Phantasy Star Online'', try telling a western [[Bishonen|FO]][[Squishy Wizard|mar]] that they're wearing a dress. Then sit back and watch the flames rise.
* It's averted with [[Ace Attorney|Miles Edgeworth]], who fully admits that the show ''Steel Samurai'' (which he secretly fanboys) is a kid's
* From ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]''
{{quote|
'''Oyo:''' It's a robe, you bastard. }}
* In [http://www.wowhead.com/quest=24705 this] [[WoW]] quest, the robed [[Bishonen|blood elf]] who's been [[Dude Looks Like a Lady|mistaken]] for a [[
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* Averted in ''[[Dominic Deegan]]: Oracle for Hire'', where when someone questions Donovan's pink shirt he just tropenames that "[[Real Men Wear Pink]]."
* Dan from ''[[DMFA]]'' wears a robe, not a dress!
* ''[[Hark!
{{quote|
"Yes it's a man's purse."
"Is this your lipstick in it?"
"Yes it's man's lipstick."
"Is this your fancy lady's hat?"
"Yes it's a man's fancy lady's hat."
"Another dead end boys!" }}
* Doubly subverted in [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2007/08/27 this strip of] [[Penny Arcade]] where Gabe takes offence to his belt-mounted carrying bag being called a fanny pack, but then calling the second bag he's wearing a fanny pack.
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In the animated series ''[[Mighty Max]]'', bird-like scholarly mystic Virgil is constantly correcting people that he is a "fowl", not a "chicken".
* Also from ''[[The Boondocks]]'': Gangstalicious starts a new line of "Gangsta" clothing and accessories, which includes a Man Bag. Gangstalicious, of course, turns out to be "On the Down Low", as it were.
* From ''[[
{{quote|
'''Katara:''' What's wrong with ponytails, ponytail?
'''Sokka:''' ''This'' is a warrior's wolftail!
'''Katara:''' Well, it certainly tells the other warriors that you're fun and perky! }}
** There's also this exchange from "The Blind Bandit" (where Sokka bought a shoulder bag and Aang won an Earthbending championship belt, and Sokka appreciated how the two went together):
{{quote|
'''Katara:''' You're the one whose bag matches his belt. }}
** Later on, Aang and Zuko learn an ancient technique that amplifies their fire powers. Zuko insists it's not a SYNCHRONIZED DANCE! It just happens to be called "The Dancing Dragons"...
* [[The Emperor's New Groove
* ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'': Dean: "My big gift is a jumpsuit???". Dr.Venture: "Speedsuit Dean, Speedsuit. I don't ever want to hear you say jumpsuit again."
* Bobo the sentient primate in ''[[Generator Rex]]'' is always peeved whenever anyone refers to his "simian undergarment" as a diaper.
* An ''[[Edgar and Ellen]]'' cartoon had Ellen calling Edgar out on keeping his important plans in "that ''man-purse."'' Edgar insisted that it wasn't a man-purse, it was a ''satchel.''
* [[Doug]] keeps a ''journal''. [[Berserk Button|Not a diary.]]
* [[Hey Arnold!|Arnold]] inverts this: he's wearing a long shirt, even though some say he's wearing a kilt.
* The "doll vs. action figure" variant shows up on both ''[[PB and J Otter]]'' and ''[[Arthur]]''
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== [[Real Life]] ==
* Nintendo is sometimes chastised for initially making purple the primary color of the Gamecube console. Some defend this decision by arguing that the Gamecube isn't purple, but indigo.
** Assuming most kids were in science class this is [
*** But Indigo is a dark blue, while the original Gamecube is closer to Old Mauve...
** Likewise the "clear pink" version of the original GBA was ''red'' to some.
** Nintendo themselves went through a period of referring to all colors by non-standard names. The aforementioned pink GBA was "fuchsia" and the orange GC was "spice" for no clear reason.
*** Try Polar White, Onyx, Cobalt, or Metallic Rose DS Lite colors on for size.
* Hot Topic peddled a denim skirt to teenage male [[Emo]] kids as a "one-legged pant." It's still listed at [https://web.archive.org/web/20130602214510/http://www.hottopic.com/hottopic/store/product.jsp?FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=2534374302028382&PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524442165228&bmUID=1190984678217 the web site], but may or may not be sold anymore.
* There are new skates now called "side-by-sides" that have, get this, two wheels in front and two wheels in back! Anyone born before 1992 may remember that these hip, ''new'' alternatives to inlines were called "rollerskates" for much of the 20th century.
** This kind of thing is more properly called a [
* The English national football team famously dropped their traditional Red away shirt in favour of what they called ''[http://www.englandfootballonline.com/TeamUnif/Unif1996A.html Indigo-Blue]'' (but appeared somewhat grey) in the mid-90s.
* Accidentally invoked by William Stroudley, Chief Engineer of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (LBSCR). During the late 19th century Stroudley famously had the LBSCR's locomotives painted in a shade of his own devising called "Improved Engine Green". It turned out a kind of toffee-brown colour as a result of his previously undiagnosed red-green colour blindness, but the effect was attractive enough that they kept it for the next 35 years.
** [[Wikipedia]] ends up playing it straight by calling the colour "golden ochre". [
*** This ''is'' ochre, a very specific yellow-brown colour. And it is not a new invention since cchre is actually one of the oldest pigments known to mankind.
* Inversion: You know those skull-crushing brass knuckles you sometimes find in American mail order catalogs? Well, stop calling them that, because they're actually ''paperweights''.
** And those big, solid billy clubs for sale at many truck stops, perfect for bashing in someone's noggin? They're actually ''tire thumpers''. Yep.
* It's not a doll. It's an ACTION FIGURE!!
** The matter needed to be decided so in 2003 the court of international trade [
** And the related "They're not toys, they're MINIATURES!!"
*** Inverted by many wargamers whose contribution to 'realism in rules' debates is "It's grown men playing with toy soldiers."
* There are some anime fans who will get very annoyed if you refer to what they are watching as "cartoons"... then again, considering [[Animation Age Ghetto|the stigma of the word "cartoon"]]. "Anime" in this context is a shortening of ''animeeshon,'' the Japanese pronunciation of "animation." And the French ''animé'' more literally just means "animated."
** The very same stigma makes western comic fans call them Graphic novels.
** On the same note: "It's not a Comic]], it's ''[[Manga]]''!"
* If you call that copy of ''[[Watchmen]]'' a Comic Book, you throw yourself into the [[Animation Age Ghetto]]. If you call it a Graphic Novel, you are seen as needlessly pretentious. There's really no way to win.
** Trade Paperback or TPB?
*** A trade paperback is a release form of a novel that really shouldn't be associated with comic books. A trade paperback is the release after the hardcover version of the novel but before the mass market release of a novel. Most non-hardcover works by post modern authors are usually this size (ie. Chuck Palahniuk, Brian Eston Ellis, Douglas Coupland, etc.). Most collected editions of comic books retain the general size of the original comic book so that they are easy to archive by collectors.
** And it gets really complicated if you point out that Watchmen was published as a limited series of comic books with no intention on the creators' part to have it packaged in the familiar collection.
*** This is particularly funny because while most people today would associate 'novel' with prose published in volumes (and therefore potentially argue for 'graphic novel' to be used for comics collected in volumes), most commercial novels used to be serialised and therefore published as periodicals, only being collected in omnibus volumes if they proved sufficiently popular. In essence, any argument that goes, "It's not a comic book, it's a graphic novel because it's published in one volume" is probably historically inaccurate.
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**** [[Web Comics]] seem to have taken up that niche.
* Every modern product will refuse to be a simple color. Just try to match the paint on your car by looking up "green". There are no "green" cars sold. NONE. No "orange" cars, but we do have "Tangerine".
** [[wikipedia:British racing green|Errr...]]
** DMV and law enforcement ignore this, of course. The color field on vehicle registrations is too small, and the police don't want technicalities because they put crimson or scarlet instead of candy-apple for vehicle color.
* It's not a skirt, it's a [[Man in
** To be more pedantic, "skirt" is a general term for a wide range of garments that consist of a length of fabric beginning at the waist and descending below the crotch, and
* Stewardesses are [[Rouge Angles of Satin|flight]] attendants nowadays.
** Is that really a fair comparison? I mean, it's not like they require male flight attendants to wear skirts...
*** The word "stewardess" already has a established male form ("steward").
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DagVklB4VHQ George Carlin] doesn't understand why there is no cockpit in airliners anymore. There is a flight deck.
* People who live in moose-heavy areas of North America are probably all familiar with news reports of tourists (usually male) being injured in the "upper thigh" by the gigantic ungulates. Since most moose injuries occur after the victim turns and runs away from the animal he was annoying most people understand what the euphemism really refers to.
* There are no wars anymore. War is illegal. We do have some 'armed conflicts' though.
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** Although we do still have wars, we don't have wars WITH countries any more, we have wars IN countries.
** Well, you know, you only have wars with sovereign nations. When you're dealing with a "terrorist state", its merely a police action. "The War On Terror" is a bit like "The War On Drugs" in that respect.
***Thus William the Conqueror (a vassal), Attila the Hun (a tribal warlord), Jefferson Davis (a rebel) and Prince Charles Edward Stuart (a pretender) did not engage in war and no one had wars with them because none were sovereign nations?
** Former Minister of Defence of Germany Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg stated that there is no war in Afghanistan. It is "a situation similar to war". ▼
*** How is a sovereign nation defined? [[Circular Reasoning|Oh wait,]] [[Asskicking Equals Authority|usually by who wins a war.]]
▲** Former Minister of Defence of Germany Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg stated that there is no war in Afghanistan. It is "a situation similar to war".
*** Which in [[Germany]] actually was the inversion of the trope. Here German politics insist on politically correct vocabulary and calling it an 'armed conflict' and suchlike. The use of the [[Bundeswehr|army]] in foreign conflicts is unpopular and a very sore theme, with people having been going 'Screw it, that's ''war'', and WTF are we doing there anyway?' for a long time. So Guttenberg actually was ''less'' euphemistic by daring to call the situation "war-like" and being "perceived as war" by those involved, resulting in one side rejoicing at his frankness and the other side ''still'' criticizing him for using the term 'war' even if only in a simile.
** All propaganda aside, a war is a very specific kind of armed conflict, defined by international law. Many modern conflicts are really not wars but rather uprisings. Think difference between murder and a manslaughter that is transparent to Joe Average but pretty important in court.
* The Blackpool FC kit is tangerine, not the
* Look up the ''official'' colors of any American sports team and it's safe to say that "yellow" will always be called "gold" instead. Because honestly, who wants to be known as the team that wears yellow?
** That's due to heraldic custom. In heraldry, yellow/gold and white/silver are considered equivalent and as such often called by the metallic "or"/gold and "argent"/silver, whether or not they're actually supposed to represent gold and silver.
** The New Orleans Saints, however, really do wear gold (officially called "old gold") and not yellow.
** On a similar note, the flag of [[
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Truth in Television]]
[[Category:The European Carry All]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:European Carry All, The}}
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