Verbing Nouny
Title formula: Take the present participle of a transitive verb, and give it an object, usually (but not always) the name of a character. Not to be confused with verbing the noun.
Also known as "Gerund ProperNoun", as coined by Kevin Murphy.
Examples of Verbing Nouny include:
- Becoming Jane
- Being John Malkovich
- Boxing Helena
- "Calling America"
- "Calling Dr. Love"
- Chasing Amy
- Chasing Liberty
- Consulting Mister Puppet
- Crossing Delancey
- Deconstructing Harry
- Desperately Seeking Susan
- Disregarding Joy—the title suggested by Tina Fey in a recent piece for the New Yorker as the kind of "respectable indie dramedysemble" she could get a "strategically chosen small part" in if she decided to take full advantage of her remaining years of employability as an actress.
- Downloading Nancy
- Driving Miss Daisy may have been the catalyst for this trope, which reached peak popularity in 1990's Hollywood feature films.
- Drowning Mona
- Eating Raoul
- Educating Rita
- Feeling Minnesota
- Finding Forrester
- House: "Finding Judas"
- Finding Nemo
- Finding Neverland
- Flogging Molly
- Forgetting Sarah Marshall
- Getting Gotti
- Guarding Tess
- Hating Alison Ashley
- Judging Amy
- Keeping Mum (a Double Meaning Title)
- Killing Mr. Griffin
- Killing Zoe
- Kissing Jessica Stein
- Knowing Me, Knowing You... with Alan Partridge
- Leaving Las Vegas
- Loving Annabelle
- Loving Jezebel
- Making Money and Raising Steam (but not Going Postal, Moving Pictures or Interesting Times, thankfully)
- Owning Mahowny
- Presenting Lily Mars
- Raising Arizona
- Raising Cain
- Raising Hope
- Reading Lolita in Tehran
- Regarding Henry
- Romancing the Stone
- Saving Francesca
- Saving Grace
- Saving Private Ryan
- Saving Silverman
- Saving Zoe
- Serving Sara
- Stealing Harvard
- Teaching Mrs. Tingle
- Waking Ned Devine
- Droppin' Plates