"This comes as no surprise: It's a cliché that Superman's glasses are the most laughably ineffective costume ever, but who cares? Changing that part of the mythos would be like taking the stars off the American flag. So screw suspension of disbelief: Superman predates it. He's got a free pass to be wearing the same completely unbelievable disguise 70 years later."
— Cracked on why Superman continues to get away with Clark Kenting, "The 9 Stupidest Superhero Secret Identities"
A character uses a trope which may be clichéd, discredited or even dead at this point, but is allowed because it's tied into the character's legacy. Using the trope during the creation of any more recent character however, is noticeably avoided. Having the character's use of the trope slowly disappearing is also possible, if the writer decides to break the trend.
It has a high chance of occurring with "classic" characters, but not necessarily their sidekicks. This usually happens with tropes that the characters are tightly tied into, making it difficult to separate them from it, and where the basic idea of the trope isn't so stupid that the fans will be turned off by it. Attempting to take away one of these tropes may force the character into an Audience-Alienating Era, or at least necessitate an Author's Saving Throw. Compare to The Artifact, where it seems like the creators have misgivings about them. Reimagining the Artifact and Evolving Tropes can be seen as compromises, where later creators keep the grandfathered tropes, but revise them to make them fit modern sensibilities. If an outdated trope or concept is met with disdain later in its life rather than allowance, then it's Seinfeld Is Unfunny.
The name "Grandfather Clause" comes from the so-called "Jim Crow" laws passed in the American South at the end of the Reconstruction Era (the period following The American Civil War), which legally mandated racial segregation and sought to break the political power of Black Americans by depriving them of many basic civil liberties and legal protections. The Jim Crow laws included a number of legal measures that greatly restricted Black Americans' right to vote, forcing them to pay poll taxes (which were deliberately set at a rate that they couldn't afford) and/or pass "literacy tests" (which were deliberately designed to be impossible to pass) before they could cast a ballot. But since these measures would have violated the Fifteenth Amendment if they explicitly applied only to Black people, they were ostensibly written to apply to everyone. So to ensure that they didn't affect poor and/or illiterate White Southerners (like sharecroppers), most of them included a clause stating that a person was exempt from the new voting restrictions if their grandfather had been able to vote. And since most Black Southerners in the post-Reconstruction era were the grandchildren of slaves, well...
Nowadays, "Grandfather Clause" is more of a general term for clauses written into new laws or regulations that permit certain preexisting exemptions to remain under the updated rules. If someone is ruled eligible for certain privileges as a result of being exempt from updated restrictions, they're often said to have been "grandfathered in".
No relation to the Grandfather Paradox. Contrast Breaking Old Trends, where the Clause gets revoked for good.
See the Wikipedia article here.
Example subpages:
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Advertising
- The usage of stereotypical black characters as advertising mascots, such as Uncle Ben's, Aunt Jemima and the "Y'a bon" guy for Banania (a French brand of powdered chocolate). Introducing such a mascot today would lead to a lot of controversy, but these companies still used their mascots for many years without much issue (although it does help that their later designs tried to minimize their historical stereotypical aspects, such as Aunt Jemima looking more like a housewife than a maid and the Banania guy being depicted as a cartoon). The Black Lives Matter Movement eventually resulted in several such mascots (such as the aforementioned Uncle Ben and Aunt Jemima) being dropped, however.
- The jingle for Juicy Fruit gum, featuring lyrics such as "Take a sniff, pull it out, the taste is gonna move you when you pop it in your mouth!" Suffice to say that didn't sound nearly as bad in The '80s as it does now. The fact that such a stale theme song was still in use was satirized in the 2000s with a series of ads where the guy playing the song is attacked, or has his guitar smashed everytime he played the song. But come the 2010s, and new commercials played that use the song unironically.
Anime & Manga
- Most Magical Girls can't get away without at least tinting their hair and parting it differently nowadays, but people actually complained that Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon made the girls look different when de-transformed, because the original Sailor Moon didn't do it. Of course, this problem doesn't exist in series where magical girls don't have secret identities to begin with. The original English dub of the anime did their best to Hand Wave by banking on the familiarity of the audience with superhero logic, explaining their civilians selves look different from their transformed selves.
- Dragon Ball has a lot of examples, pertaining to its Long Runner status:
- In an age where keeping the Japanese names is generally done for the sake of accuracy, a number of dubs keep the inaccurate names and terms that originated in the original syndicated Funimation/Ocean Group dub (Saiyan mispronounced as "say-an" instead of "Sai-an" or left as Saiya-Jin, Special Beam Cannon instead of Mankankosappo, Destructo Disk instead of Kienzan, etc.), which have become the default English localizations of those names, while new characters retain their Japanese names. With Dragon Ball Super, the series was being simulcast with subtitles, so any dub name changes would be known to much more of the audience.
- Funimation's dub of Dragon Ball Z Kai is a good example of this, as it reversed the majority of changes the old dub had included (such as Mankankosappo and Kienzan), but still kept many of the well known dub name changes (so Saiyan remains mispronounced, and Kaio still becomes 'King Kai').
- Totally averted with Funimation's DVD subtitles, which (after fans complained about the first couple of discs) always use the original names. Viz's manga translation also uses the original names (so long as they're not Mr Satan).
- In the earliest installments of the series, one notable quirk of the setting was that all animals could talk (even non-anthropomorphized ones). While this idea quietly fell by the wayside after a few issues, Master Roshi's sea turtle companion Turtle retained his speaking ability, since he was a fairly prominent supporting character who'd been a part of the series since the beginning.
- Blackface and anything that resembles it has long been out of style for its racist depiction of Black people, and a character who resembles blackface today would get nothing but backlash. Despite this, Mr. Popo (who has been around since before Dragon Ball Z) still manages to keep his original design unaltered — even in Anglo-sphere localizations — to this day (that being said, there have been attempts to work around the resemblance — 4Kids Entertainment's edit of the Kai dub recolored his skin blue and his lips yellow; while certain cuts of the Funimation dubs distributed in the UK and Australia cut him out entirely), whereas characters in Japanese media with similar designs would at least have their designs altered in Western localizations — or even in later incarnations of the original media — to downplay the resemblance to blackface. Even within Dragon Ball itself (where actual Black people initially had thick puffy lips), more modern works generally have Black characters with more realistic designs. It helps that Mr. Popo not only is not human, but that Dragon Ball is, for the most part, generally targeted at older audiences in the west.
- In an age where keeping the Japanese names is generally done for the sake of accuracy, a number of dubs keep the inaccurate names and terms that originated in the original syndicated Funimation/Ocean Group dub (Saiyan mispronounced as "say-an" instead of "Sai-an" or left as Saiya-Jin, Special Beam Cannon instead of Mankankosappo, Destructo Disk instead of Kienzan, etc.), which have become the default English localizations of those names, while new characters retain their Japanese names. With Dragon Ball Super, the series was being simulcast with subtitles, so any dub name changes would be known to much more of the audience.
- Pokémon the Series:
- Brock's main Running Gag in the anime is to fall in love and embarrass himself in an attempt to flirt with any pretty girl he sees. Such a character trait can't be tacked on to later characters in a children's series without it coming off as creepy or demeaning to the woman in question, but Brock can get away with it since that's his most well-known character trait (which doesn't flare up if he senses a criminal disguised as the pretty girl in question, and because he keeps getting thwarted in embarrassing and/or painful ways).
- In the 90s and early 2000s, it was typical for English anime dubs to alter character names. The Pokémon anime is a well-known case: the majority of character and Pokémon names (with Pikachu being one of the few exceptions) were changed, and this was standard practice for companies like 4Kids Entertainment at the time. But now that the Internet has made information more accessible, viewers are more aware of upcoming anime and prefer that English dubs keep the original names, and dubs usually stick to the original names unless there’s a reason to change them, such as when the name is a pun or could be mistaken for a curse word. Still, Pokémon continues to change names in its dubs, not out of negligence, but as part of a tradition that The Pokémon Company prefers to uphold. Since the games use localized names for the majority of characters, the anime often follows suit — Western fans are accustomed to hearing these names in Pokémon, and abandoning that practice would feel unfamiliar.
- Early manga tankoubons tended to have covers with a plain background and text, as well as some sort of square or rectangular image showcasing the series. While covers have gotten more elaborate designs over the years and expand as far as the whole page, some series collections have grown to be more iconic with the old cover layout. This is why long-running manga like Osamu Tezuka Classics Collection, Dragon Ball, Super Mario Bros. Manga Mania, and Glass Mask can stay so recognizable long after their respective publisher templates have been retired.
- Yu-Gi-Oh!:
- The franchise, in just about every incarnation since the Battle City era, has featured the theme deck as an important part of its design—both the card game and the anime almost invariably have characters or new sets sticking to some manner of archetype or theme. The big exception to this? Yugi himself, who played a complex blend of all kinds of cards, with a mild focus on the Dark Magicians throughout the run of the anime.note Even in modern appearances, such as video games or Yu-Gi-Oh! The Dark Side of Dimensions, while other Duel Monsters-era characters have shifted towards more defined themes, Yugi still tends to be depicted as playing a little of everything, even as the idea of "the best player in the world" using such a deck has become increasingly improbable.
- Even long after Western anime localization largely moved on to being more faithful to the original source material, the Yu-Gi-Oh! animes are still localized in an "Americanized" form to this day, in the same manner that 4Kids Entertainment was known for when it still existed, often including an Alternative Foreign Theme Song and localized character names. It also helps that Konami Cross Media NY was formed from the remnants of 4Kids Productions, the unit of the company that specialized in dubbing and localization, and still has staff on from the days of the Duel Monsters dub (such as Darren Dunstan and Arthur Murakami), meaning the tradition is upheld in a much stronger manner.
Comic Strips
- The Beetle Bailey characters have worn the same solid olive green (sometimes Sarge's is tan) uniforms since the strip began in 1950, no matter what the situation. Just during war games they put on helmets instead of caps.
- Jon Arbuckle of Garfield is still wearing his "powder-blue Oxford shirt" and modest 1978 sideburns most of the time (though this could be due to Limited Wardrobe or Disco Dan).
- Jason in FoxTrot continues to exhibit Girls Have Cooties due to the strip being around when the trope was still common. Newer works featuring kids (including comic strips such as Phoebe and Her Unicorn and Wallace the Brave) would feature boys and girls being friends without anyone finding it unusual. That being said, later FoxTrot strips downplay this trope heavily, likely because the author is becoming aware it's now considered outdated.
- Ming the Merciless in Flash Gordon is a classic Faux Manchu villain who could never be created nowadays. However, since he plays a vital role in the Flash mythos, and couldn't be written out without a replacement, he largely gets a pass (it helps that various adaptations have tried working around the issue, such as making him white or green.)
Fan Works
- On the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic fanblog Equestria Daily, fan fiction set in the fanon universe Fallout: Equestria frequently contains X-rated topics and thus violates their content submission guidelines, but are still allowed because of how iconic in the fandom some of them have become (and because they skip the pre-readers entirely).
- Prehistoric Earth: While some exceptions are made either to account for changes in science or because the original version wasn't cool enough, most examples of Misplaced Wildlife and Anachronistic Animal for the original Walking with… franchise remain because of how iconic they are (for example, Utahraptor in Europe). A note by author Nathanoraptor has shown some regret here after reading another fanfic that did adjust the animals to be more temporally and geologically accurate.
- The Rugrats Theory is a by-the-book Darker and Edgier All Just a Dream fan theory about an innocent kid's cartoon. Most of these theories get scoffed at, but The Rugrats Theory is popular because it's one of the earliest, and inspired a lot of similar theories.
Films — Animation
- Bambi II, released 64 years after the original, could still use the song "Let's Sing A Little Gay Spring Song" in its original lyrics, because the original was released at the time when the word gay was used as a synonym for "jolly" or "fun".
- The Hobbit (1977) would never had the gall to write a song so utterly morbid, violent, and orc-like as "15 Birds", if the words hadn't been written by Tolkien half a century earlier. Perhaps having used that gave Rankin/Bass Productions the courage to double down in The Return of the King with "Where There's a Whip There's a Way," an original song that makes perfectly clear why the orcs... even those who don't particularly want to... are fighting for Sauron.
- Pinchcliffe Grand Prix: The character of Sheikh Ben Redic Fy Fazan is a stereotypical Arab Oil Sheikh who runs a company called "Aladdin Oil", is accompanied by the Bedlah Babe Soline and speaks in broken Norwegian. If the film were made today, he'd be written out on sight for being an offensive stereotype. However, since he plays the vital role of financing the building of Il Tempo Gigante, and couldn't be written out without a replacement, his appearance in this film and its associated Licensed Games largely gets a pass, though he's absent from all subsequent Pinchcliffe films.
Films — Live-Action
- Not many film franchises go on long enough for this to kick in. Up until the later Pierce Brosnan films, however, it was in full force for James Bond — we knew the premises were ridiculous, the baddies were Card Carrying Villains, the sexual politics were very one-sided and sexist, Bond One Liners were worthy of an enormous Collective Groan... and that was the point — as formulaic as it seems, it was all part of the series' appeal and charm. Then the late 90s incarnations flipflopped between Darker and Edgier and tongue-in-cheek Indecisive Parody, while the Continuity Reboot kicked the whole thing squarely into part post-Bourne part novel Bond (though in the wake of Skyfall and Spectre, the series went on to reinstate some of the old mainstays, including the slightly comedic tone).
- This trope is why the only people who get a pass for using a Toothbrush moustache (a.k.a. Adolf Hitler's moustache) are Charlie Chaplin and Oliver Hardy (in fact, a case can be made that Chaplin wore it first and Hitler merely (de)-popularized it). Unless, of course, an actor is deliberately parodying Hitler, which has become a lot more tolerable in recent decades, but is often still frowned upon. Though Barty Crouch in Harry Potter got away with it, mostly because it's described as a "toothbrush mustache" rather than a "Hitler mustache," so a lot of people probably didn't realize what his mustache looked like. As evidence of that, people were quick to make Hitler comparisons with the movie version of the character.
- In the years since Jurassic Park (1993) came out, new scientific discoveries have changed the accepted look of many dinosaurs, most notably with the fact that theropods such as T. rex and Velociraptor had feathers, and pterosaurs like Pteranodon had pycnofibres. However, Jurassic World didn't change the dinosaurs and pterosaurs to fit these new discoveries in order to keep them in line with their looks in the previous films (though the raptors in Jurassic Park III had a few feathers, it was a male-only trait, and JW's Raptor Squad are all female). This is even invoked and justified in-universe, with Dr. Wu pointing out that the park's animals are genetic hybrids built from various creatures rather than 'real' dinosaurs, and that they were designed to be marketable crowd-pleasers that matched the public perception of dinosaurs rather than scientifically-accurate representations of the actual animals. Jurassic World Dominion, though, does have feathered dinosaurs and pycnofibred pterosaurs (albeit only in newly introduced species such as Therizinosaurus, Pyroraptor, and Quetzalcoatlus, with the T. rex, Velociraptor, and Pteranodon still being under the clause), showing that this trope has limits (even the prologue set during the Mesozoic got away with having feathers on species under the clause by showing that their unmodified forms, rather than the revived versions, had them). At the very least, more research has shown that T. rex most likely had feathers only as juveniles before shedding them when they reached sexual maturity. Jurassic World Rebirth defies the clause with Spinosaurus, which instead of pertaining to the popular, yet outdated design from Jurassic Park III, follows the new discoveries that it had shorter hindlegs, a concave sail, and a paddle tail.
- 2010: The Year We Make Contact, the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey, may be the only movie to use Also sprach Zarathustra seriously since 2001 used it.
- The idea of radiation creating monsters, a convention which was popular in the 1950s and 1960s when it was token Phlebotinum du Jour, has largely been discredited nowadays (as also noted in the comic book section). The Nuclear Mutant has been reduced to parody or z-grade movies, with more recent giant monster movies like Pacific Rim and Rampage using either the explanations of aliens or genetic engineering (or in the case of the former, both). The exception is Godzilla, being a Long Runner that was created when the trope was at its peak and born as an explicit nuclear allegory, who can continue using this origin straight because it ties so heavily into his characterization, the MonsterVerse incarnation has a different origin where he is a type of giant creature that has existed since prehistory and feeds on radiation.
- Indiana Jones:
- Given the increased controversy about how most ancient artifacts were forcibly uplifted from their native countries to be stored in Western museums, the Adventurer Archaeologist archetype is considered to be rather tone-deaf nowadays. However, Indy himself is still looked on fondly. George Lucas has reinforced that it was always the original intention behind Raiders of the Lost Ark for Indy to be a greedy grave robber who becomes a more noble figure when confronted with true evil, and that the Hovitos were completely in the right to reclaim their stolen idol.
- Dial of Destiny has John Rhys-Davies reprising the role of Sallah. Even though Rhys-Davies is a Welshman playing an Egyptian, as the tendency to cast white actors as non-white characters has come under greater scrutiny in recent years, Sallah is such a beloved and popular character among fans of the series that casting another actor wouldn't work at all.
- On a meta-example, the franchise's distribution rights are an example of this. Namely, when Disney bought Lucasfilm in 2012, Disney agreed with Paramount to have the latter retain the distribution rights to the previous four films in the Indiana Jones franchise. Meanwhile, Disney will distribute future installments of the franchise, including the aforementioned Dial of Destiny.
- The Living Dinosaurs trope (and the closely related Lost World trope) became much less popular in the 1980s and 1990s after new discoveries about the extinction of the dinosaurs made it harder to take seriously; the idea of dinosaurs surviving into the present day seemed a lot more plausible in a time when scientists believed that the dinosaurs gradually died out due to climate change, rather than being wiped out in a sudden mass extinction caused by an asteroid strike. Nevertheless, modern films generally get a pass to use the trope if they're adaptations or remakes of older works (like the 2005 remake of King Kong), homages to old-fashioned pulp sci-fi (like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow), or installments in a long-running franchise where it's integral to the premise (like the later Godzilla movies).
- The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Nowadays, the term "transvestite" is seen as a slur against transgender and gender-fluid people. Nevertheless, the song "Sweet Transvestite" is simply too iconic to drop from the film.
- Star Wars:
- In all films made after the original, written text visible onscreen is always written with the fictional alphabet of "aurebesh" so as to avoid use of the Latin alphabet — which would amount to a tacit acknowledgement of Real Life Earth culture. The few exceptions are the names of the droids (R2-D2 for example) and the famous "X-wing" fighter (and the Rebels' "Y-wing", "A-wing", and "B-wing" starships, which follow its naming convention), which has a Latin character in its name. But George Lucas and co. came up with those names before they decided on that rule, and they are way too iconic to change now.
- The Italian dub slightly changed the names of many characters in the original saga, mostly because the modified versions were judged to be more easy to remember and pronounce for Italian viewers back in the 70s. For example, Darth Vader became Dark Fener, Han Solo became Yan Solo, Leia became Layla, R2-D2 became C1-P8 (pronounced in Italian, so "chee-oonoh-pee-otto", with the additional intention of making it sound like the real name Pinotto since R2 was similar to Arthur), C-3PO became D-3BO ("dee-treh-bee-oh"). When the prequel trilogy came, in 1999, the dubbers kept the original English names for accuracy — for example, R2-D2 was called by his original name ("erre-dooeh-deeh-dooeh" in Italian pronunciation). However, fans that were used to the original names protested — a petition called for Darth Vader's name to changed back to "Fener" ended up convincing the dubbing studio otherwise (this was not the case for the new trilogy in 2015, where Darth Vader was still called Darth Vader).
- Barely anyone uses an Opening Crawl these days, at least not without some kind of voiceover, due to being seen as a boring Infodump by most audiences…but it has to be in a Star Wars film, because it wouldn’t be the same without the big yellow text and the opening theme. Even the anthology films use an abridged version of this.
- Christopher Robin has Pooh and Tigger be reprised by the American Jim Cummings despite the movie being explicitly set in Britain like the original books (previous Disney works until Winnie the Pooh (2011) made it more ambiguous) and the rest of the cast (sans Eeyore, who's voiced by Brad Garrett, who previously voiced Eeyore in some video games) being played by British and Irish actors. This is likely because he's been voicing and associated with the characters for so long now (he's been playing them since The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh in the late '80s) that hearing them with different voices would just feel wrong. Tigger was originally planned to be voiced by Irish actor and comedian Chris O'Dowd, but backlash from audiences over the decision led to Cummings reprising his role instead.
LARP
- The Otakon LARP has a rule that only anime and Final Fantasy characters are allowed. Final Fantasy characters were allowed when the LARP first opened, and while the rules have tightened up against any other video games, characters from the games are still allowed on the strength of tradition.
Literature
- A number of old Science Fiction stories retain some energy in their now old and tired plot devices by presenting them with an innocent earnestness from the time when they were new inventions. This one, for instance.
- It would be hard to imagine someone less renowned than Agatha Christie getting a pass with modern readers when so many Unfortunate Implications are in her works. Christie toned it down later in life, but her personal prejudices clearly made it into her writing, and indeed sometimes become part of the charm. When reading her novels, watch for characters who aren't blueblooded but are trying to pass as high class; shortlist them.
- Perhaps helping the case is that her books can be seen as portraying the biases and prejudices the characters themselves would have had at that time. Many of her ensemble characters were of a similar class to Christie's own, so it's entirely feasible that they would have felt the same way regardless of the author's opinions.
- There is one prominent exception to this particular Grandfather Clause: the title of the book And Then There Were None. Originally, it was published under the title of Ten Little Niggers. This was later changed to Ten Little Indians, before landing on a title which doesn't reference race in any way whatsoever. This also goes for the nursery rhyme the title references, which plays a prominent role in the story. In current editions, the title "Ten Little Soldiers" is used for the rhyme.
- Anita Blake: When discussing Jean-Claude's business and his age as compared to when the laws were written. With Vampires, it matters.
- Gilgamesh of The Epic of Gilgamesh gets a free pass to use many of the most stereotypical and overused tropes and cliches all in one main character. Why? Because in many cases he is the Ur-Example (almost literally; technically the "Uruk" example) of the tropes. No author today would get away with combining them all together in one character, but with him it just comes off as awesome.
- In-Universe in Robots and Empire:
- After the Auroran society refused to accept humaniform robots, the entire production run of fifty was mothballed. However, Daneel, who was already part of a prominent citizen's establishment, remained there.
- Seems to be the case with the colonization treaty signed by Fastolfe. The treaty forbids Earth to settle worlds within twenty light years of Spacer systems. The first Spacer world is in the Tau Ceti system.The first colony of the new wave is Epsilon Eridani; not a third of the minimum distance away, even accounting that a few thousand years have passed. However, it has already been settled by the time the treaty was signed.
- In-Universe example in the Discworld series, it's pointed out that after the Night Watch has grown from a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits into an actual serious policing organisation Sergeant Colon and Corporal Nobbs don't really fit in anymore. But they've both been with the force for such a long time (Colon has been a watchman for longer than Commander Vimes, and Nobby is only slightly more junior), and through thick and thin that even if they wouldn't necessarily hire any more Colons or Nobbs the ones they have aren't going anywhere.
- Winnie the Pooh: The title character's name was originally drawn from an archaic expression of dismissal during Pooh's debut that has since fallen into disuse, leaving his name to become a well of juvenile Toilet Humour. Pooh is so well-known and beloved by now that there simply is no renaming him just to shut up all the prudes and immature jokesters.
- In-Universe example in The Green Mile: in the Georgia Pines nursing home Paul Edgecombes is residing, Howland is among the five patients who are still able to smoke due to him entering when it was still allowed.
- The Lord of the Rings:
- The name of the volcano where the Ring must be destroyed is called Mount Doom. No work nowadays would use a name like that seriously, but since the work codified the High Fantasy genre (and given the fact the mountain is located in the Trope Namer for Mordor), it's accepted.
- Tolkien's writings on the evidently non-European cultures of Middle-Earth were the product of a rather old-fashioned man in the 40s and 50s trying to emulate how medieval Europeans wrote about foreign cultures: that is to say, a bit of a mess, with "the Easterlings and Southrons" being firmly aligned with Sauron, getting far less fleshed-out than their rivals, having few to no sympathetic representatives (or even named representatives), and receiving descriptions of how swarthy, squint-eyed, cruel, and even troll-like they were. Though Tolkien spoke against racism in his life (including famously disavowing anti-Semitism), and the narrative does make it clear that they were ultimately still human and caught in a war that many had no desire to be in, it's hard to imagine a modern mainstream fantasy work playing it as straight as he does. Nonetheless, adaptations and licensed or unlicensed works set in Middle-Earth tend to still run with Tolkien's descriptions (albeit perhaps expanding the other cultures to be somewhat less flat), simply because they come from a time when those tropes weren't as discredited and they're mostly all we have for a large swathe of the world.
Live-Action TV
- Chiquititas (2013): Neco was created for the 1997 version as the replacement for Binho after he left the show, in order to continue with the plotlines of his original Argentinian counterpart Roña. In this version, Binho remains present during the show's whole run, yet Neco is also introduced later on anyways. Even the plotline of helping Lúcia was given to Neco in this version, even though he only starred it in the 1997 version because Binho was absent, with the original version also having Roña responsible for the role.
- Doctor Who:
- Many aspects of the franchise — both new and old — do this. From Timey-Wimey Ball to Space Is Magic to Planet of Hats to Limited Wardrobe... and the list just keeps going on. Nostalgia is one thing Doctor Who has in abundance, and they have no intention of giving it up. Most iconic must be the TARDIS exterior "disguise" as an old police telephone box of the sort which has long since become obsolete now the police use two-way radios or mobile phones to communicate, though it was at times justified by the "chameleon circuit" used to generate a disguise getting stuck. The box has now become more synonymous with the show than its original usage — and it was already old-fashioned when the show first aired, since the TARDIS disguised itself as a police box because it was hidden in a scrap yard.
Eleventh Doctor: "Every time the TARDIS materializes in a new location, within the first nanosecond of landing it analyzes its surroundings, calculates a twelve-dimensional data map of everything within a thousand mile radius and determines which outer shell would blend in better with the environment... and then it disguises itself as a police telephone box from 1963."
- Jack Harkness' WWII-era Iconic Outfit is an in-canon example of this — though we do first meet up with Jack in the '40s, he's actually from the 51st century. Though he wears more modern clothing for the rest of series 1, after his return two years later and into his spinoff, Torchwood he keeps his braces and greatcoat. ("Period military is not the dress code of a straight man.") In a flashback to British India in 1909, he wears the uniform of a British Army captain of that era.note
- Doctor Who's extreme and distracting You Look Familiar right from the very early days - such as having Peter Purves play both a Wacky Wayside Tribe Eaglelander and the new companion Steven Taylor in the same story for no reason, or having the Chancellery Guard Commander who shoots the Fifth Doctor go on to play the Sixth Doctor - allowed it to carry on doing this in the new show, even though the No Budget that made this forgivable in the Classic days has been expanded to a level that this casting would be considered laughable. For instance, since 2005, two companions (Martha and Amy) and the Twelfth Doctor himself have been played by actors who first showed up in one-shot rolesnote .
- The trope of the male, middle-aged Insufferable Genius and his sexy Closer to Earth female sidekick (and their UST) was very fashionable in the 00s, but fell out of fashion in The New '10s due to widespread criticism of the Unfortunate Implications. But Doctor Who ploughed on straight ahead with it, in part because the show has been doing this since the companion team was slimmed down into a single Parent Service female sidekick in 1970. The 2018-2022 period buckled the trend by teaming up the first ever female Doctor with three different companions, two men and one woman (which as previously mentioned was something of a throwback to the very first season in 1963), but the status quo returned after she left the show.
- The classic series Blu-ray box sets are the last pieces of Doctor Who merchandise allowed to use the show's Chris Chibnall era logo past the broadcasting of his (and the aforementionned female Doctor's) final episode, "The Power of the Doctor", in October 2022, and ensuing immediate rebranding for the reason of spine consistency on the shelves of home video collectors, the range's primary consumer base. The trailer of the Season 9 set, the first post-Chibnall release and the 13th season of 26 to be released, makes a point of opening with the first post-Chibnall show logo before showing the set's packaging with the same but now-outdated branding as prior releases in the range to drive home the grandfathering.
- Many aspects of the franchise — both new and old — do this. From Timey-Wimey Ball to Space Is Magic to Planet of Hats to Limited Wardrobe... and the list just keeps going on. Nostalgia is one thing Doctor Who has in abundance, and they have no intention of giving it up. Most iconic must be the TARDIS exterior "disguise" as an old police telephone box of the sort which has long since become obsolete now the police use two-way radios or mobile phones to communicate, though it was at times justified by the "chameleon circuit" used to generate a disguise getting stuck. The box has now become more synonymous with the show than its original usage — and it was already old-fashioned when the show first aired, since the TARDIS disguised itself as a police box because it was hidden in a scrap yard.
- The Shocker Combatmen of Kamen Rider were mooks dressed in black skeleton-themed wrestling suits, shouting "YEEE!!!" whenever going into battle, and for 1971, they looked and felt pretty menacing. The franchise has since updated its monsters and henchmen to look more modern, intimidating, and monstrous, but the original Shocker Combatmen often return in Crisis Crossover films featuring Shocker or its remnants (beginning with Kamen Rider Decade's movies). Their retro design and ridiculous cries persist because they have become an enduring icon of the franchise alongside the heroes.
- Today, by virtue of being a superhero, The Lone Ranger is the only western hero who can get away with all the more outrageous Western cliches, such as wearing a white hat, riding a white horse, or Blasting It Out of Their Hands without irony.
- Stargate SG-1: Stargate Command eventually advanced its technology to the point when it would be possible to retire Engaging Chevrons, but by that point it became a tradition (and in "Heroes", it was mentioned that the personnel liked Walter doing his job).
- Stargate Atlantis, by virtue of being a new show, had a chance for a fresh start and didn't use it — which was, of course, given a Lampshade Hanging in the very first episode.
- Super Sentai/Power Rangers:
- These are the only shows allowed to use the "Super Sentai" Stance with any attempt at seriousness. Any other work that tries to use the stance without it being part of an in-universe Sentai show had better be lampshading or making fun of it unless the producers want viewers to cry foul.
- As for Power Rangers, it is not a dub of Super Sentai—far from it. While it uses stock footage (mainly fight scenes), costumes, and props from Super Sentai, it incorporates an entirely original American storyline, mythology, and characters. In today’s digital era, no company would risk dismantling and reworking an imported series with their own content, even if they had permission: fans of the original wouldn’t tolerate it, and general audiences would discover the original after minimal research and likely find the practice to be disrespectful or outright xenophobic. But Power Rangers sticks to this practice. The reason? It’s a long-standing tradition that dates back to 1993 when most people were unaware of Super Sentai, and these changes were part of what made Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers a hit. To this day, Power Rangers has the green light from Toei Company to borrow Super Sentai’s costumes and footage while adding original content to keep the show relevant today.
- Star Trek:
- The franchise gets far more leeway than almost any other non-parody sci-fi show with many of the tropes it popularized because they are seen as intrinsic to the show's history: Planet of Hats, Proud Warrior Race Guy, Techno Babble, Space Is an Ocean, Humans Are Special, and all manners of Phlebotinum Abuse to name just a few. It is almost easier to name the Speculative Fiction Tropes Trek can't get away with by claiming "that's the way it worked for Kirk."
- In the original series, Gene Rodenberry instructed Walter Koenig to "ham up" Chekov's Russian accent as much as he could, and it was more or less played for comedy. Koenig was certainly capable of doing a more accurate Russian accent, but the exaggerated version became iconic. So when Russian-born actor Anton Yelchin took on the role in the 2009 film, he maintained the wildly over-the-top accent because it just wouldn't be Chekov if the character didn't have a bad Russian accent.
- Mystery Science Theater 3000: Started off with virtually no budget, so they had to use cheap props. Though once it became a massive hit, they still kept the sets low budget looking for the sake of tradition.
- The modernization of the Sherlock Holmes stories in Sherlock led to a series of copycat series such as Elementary and Instinct, in which private individuals solve murders and other crimes, occasionally with the cooperation of the police. This continues even though even the most inexperienced of defence lawyers would have the work of a private consulting detective dismissed as evidence tampering, thus letting demonstrably guilty parties go free.
- The Jiggle Show is a completely Discredited Trope today, but the Trope Maker Charlie's Angels is still pretty fondly remembered. Values Dissonance aside, the show is well-liked for its campy charm and for Farrah Fawcett's charisma, and it was popular enough to spawn two feature films in the 2000s, one TV revival in the 2010s (albeit a very short-lived one), and a 2019 film Continuity Reboot. Baywatch comes pretty close, though its sole film revival was an infamous critical flop (in no small part because it couldn't decide whether it was a parody of the original or a nostalgia trip for the original's fans).
- Parodied on Saturday Night Live. When Steve Martin and Martin Short co-hosted in 2022, they did a sketch showing a trailer for the fictitious Father of the Bride Part 8, with the pair reprising their roles as George Banks and Franck, and the trailer voiceover describing Short as "Doing an accent that I think is still okay. Let's all agree that it's okay."
- In Wheel of Fortune, Vanna White's job as co-host is to turn the hidden letters on the puzzle board after contestants correctly guess them, a job that became redundant after the show switched from having physical trilon boards to an electronic screen controlled by computers. However, Vanna White is a beloved figure who's synonymous with the show so the board is designed to still reveal letters at by her gestures, first through touchscreens and currently through motion detection.
- Soap Opera fans and soap opera writers are all well aware of how overdone Easy Amnesia is in the genre, not to mention the unrealistic way it's portrayed. But it happens to make a compelling plot twist, either as a complication or as a way to deconstruct an established character's personality, and it's such a time-honored part of the genre that soaps can still get away with its unironic usage.
- Despite CGI being the industry standard today, tokusatsu franchises like the Ultra Series still films kaiju and battles inside studios, featuring miniature buildings, oversized rubber costumes, and intentionally cheesy explosions. It's pure practical effects. Even Christopher Nolan wouldn't push practical effects this far, but, in the Ultra Series' case, it has done so since the 1960s, and its early seasons set new standards for special effects. They can shoot with miniature cities for as long as needed. CGI isn't off-limits, though—they just use it to complement the usual practical effects.
Music
- While many musicians eventually face criticism for sounding the same with every album, there are some long-runners that are able to get away with never seriously deviating from their style, because it remains so unique and innovative that any significant change just wouldn't "sound right", which is seen whenever a New Sound Album by any established artist flops either commercially or critically - or both. Two particularly famous examples are AC/DC and Motörhead.
- Any song written before 1970 with the reference of gay meaning jolly or fun is perfectly acceptable to still sing today without alterations because it meant something different at the time. These days, however, if somebody used it in the same context, it would be hard to take them seriously and might suggest something about the singer or songwriter's sexuality.
- Any song written before 1970 can get away with a man calling a woman their "little girl" without complaint. If a modern song tried that, it would probably suggest unfortunate implications of pedophilia.
- It's not uncommon for artists that have switched genres (a singer switching from Country to Pop like Taylor Swift or LeAnn Rimes is a common one) to continue to be listed as the genre they started as, as long as their sound doesn't become too alien.
- A singer or band (e.g. The Beatles) who started their career in teen pop music may, at least in a few years' time, change their sound, image, and/or lyrical or musical content as they grow older and they opt for a Darker and Edgier or Hotter and Sexier approach. The trope may still apply when they still have to perform their teen pop hits onstage, or should a portion of their fandom or marketing still contain traces of their previous image, and may provide Mood Whiplash if a Greatest Hits Album is released. One interesting case in particular is Lesley Gore, who first became famous in 1963 at the age of 16, during the Girl Group era, with hits such as "It's My Party", "Judy's Turn To Cry", "You Don't Own Me" and "Sunshine, Lollipops And Rainbows". She re-emerged on occasion after her hit-making period as a singer-songwriter, sporadically releasing albums and playing oldies revues and the supper club circuit until her death in 2015 — and her later shows, often accompanied by an intimate jazz combo, were often a mixture of her 1960s hits, her own songs and an eclectic mix of cover versions, often of jazz standards like "How Insensitive", "Fascinating Rhythm" and "A Nightingale Sang In Berkeley Square" — but she still maintained, in spite of her eclecticism, that it would not feel right for her to do a concert without singing "It's My Party" or her other teen pop hits.
- Glam Metal, aka Hair Metal, used to dominate the Rock Music scene during the second half of the 80s. But by the 90s, the genre experienced a massive backlash, especially as a result of its over-commercialization and stagnation that became apparent to everyone. Nearly every hair metal band failed to have continued success in the new decade along with failing to evolve with the times, especially when Grunge and Alternative Rock dominated much of the 90s. However, there were several bands who had thrived during the late-80s Hair Metal craze but managed to stay relevant and successful largely because they predated the craze in the first place, such as Aerosmith, Def Leppardnote , KISS, and Van Halen.note
- Hip-hop is unique among music genres in that rappers from previous decades are allowed to keep making new music in the "old-school" style that made them famous without being criticized for sounding stale. For instance, Jay-Z, Nas, and Eminem continue to perform '90s-style rap three decades later. It helps that at this point, their primary listeners are diehard fans from the '90s, and changing their style to current trends would reek of Totally Radical.
- When Devo came on the scene in the late-70s with their "de-evolution" philosophy, they were seen as purveyors of mordantly satirical social commentary. If they were to have debuted a decade later, they would have been accused of promoting eugenics or similar ideologies.note However, since the whole "de-evolution" idea is purely tongue-in-cheek and used as a narrative for satire, they can still base their image around it decades later. Likewise, they can still get away with referencing The Beginning Was The End (a racist, pseudo-scientific book) without concern, given their endorsement of it has been wholly ironic from the get-go.
Print Media
- The UK women's magazine Take A Break still gets away with things like Broken Aesop, Missing White Woman Syndrome and Purple Prose, plus other tropes that are classified as a Discredited Trope or an Undead Horse Trope, as it's what readers have come to expect of it, even though this wouldn't fly in other women's magazines.
Professional Wrestling
- Even when E\CMLL runs 300 shows a year and cross promotes with dozens of other enterprises, it can't drown out the fact lucha libre, and especially the wider pro wrestling business, has largely not adhered to its straight sport presentation. Closed fist strikes, illegally entering the ring and tampering with the opponent's ring gear are not particularly horrible offenses in most places. Still, Super Libres, which have long been among the tamest of no holds barred contests, and their annual cage of death, which doesn't seem that deadly without electricity, barbed wire, fire or provided weapons, are still enjoyed by the fans because of what they mean to CMLL specifically (plus failing to escape the cage can still kill careers).
- Every last Brass Knuckle title and corresponding division in Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling. The point of a Brass Knuckles title was to allow wrestlers to legally punch each other, sometimes to the point of actually discouraging grappling. But not only had disqualifications for punches become increasingly rare over the years (though Japan had more "Pure Wrestling" holdouts than most regions), FMW was the trope namer for Garbage Wrestler, as disqualifications for anything up to and including live explosives almost never happened. The brass knuckle belts were there mainly because fans loved them for the prestige they had become associated with over the years.
- The National Wrestling Alliance is run by a board of directors, excepting times when they give emergency powers to a single "president". The board of directors are so iconic and such a convenient Plot Device that most promotions who leave the NWA keep using them to resolve inconvenient angles, even if the newer boards don't actually have the final authority in these splinter companies (Vince McMahon of the WWE was a law unto himself with 90% of the vote, answering only to stockholders, but was still overruled and — in one angle — fired by his board of directors), or no such board truly even exists (Total Nonstop Action Wrestling had no clear or consistent hierarchy during its "prime" era beyond Dixie Carter as the boss, but a board would step in on occasion during "power struggle" angles).
- Certain finishing moves become mundane after a while. For instance, the basic DDT was once considered a devastating finisher, but over the years, many wrestlers began using the DDT as a regular move that rarely, if ever, ended a match and those who wanted to use a DDT as a finisher began to modify the move in order to maintain credibility (e.g. Sting's Scorpion Death Drop reverse DDT, Mick Foley's double-underhook DDT, jumping DDTs, diving DDTs, etc.). By the early-2000s, it had gotten to the point where no new wrestler could use a simple DDT as a match ender. However, stars that used it as their finisher before everyone started using (and kicking out of) it, such as Tommy Dreamer, Raven, and especially the move's inventor Jake "The Snake" Roberts, could still use it as a finisher.
- Sometimes, a wrestler's theme music becomes so identified with the wrestler himself that changing it just wouldn't work. For example, Shawn Michaels may have remained attractive, but "Sexy Boy" didn't really fit his persona after he became a born-again Christian. Yet he kept using the song because it was too iconic to change.
- The Undertaker had a couple aspects that wouldn't work for a younger wrestler new to WWE:
- Outlandish gimmicks had been out of style in pro wrestling since at least the late '90s, especially old-timey and/or supernatural ones. But because of the Undertaker's popularity and longevity with the WWE, he was allowed to keep his 1800s mortician/wrestling zombie schtick all the way until his retirement in 2020, as most attempts at updating the character never really caught on (his transformation into a biker from 2000-2003 was the only one to really stick in the long run, being brought back on occasion since it's a real-life hobby of his.) Supernatural characters made a comeback in wrestling after Taker's retirement, however, they almost never make it to main event level.
- Undertaker's Tombstone Piledriver managed to remain even after WWE banned piledrivers starting in 2000. If not done perfectly, a piledriver can give the opponent a concussion and/or break their neck: an example of this is Owen Hart nearly breaking "Stone Cold" Steve Austin's neck with a sit-out version of the Tombstone during their match at SummerSlam 1997, from which Austin never fully recovered and ultimately had to retire in 2003.note 'Taker was allowed to keep using the Tombstone because A) it had been his finishing move since 1990note , B) he had proven that he was skilled and experienced enough to do it safelynote , and C) The Tombstone involves the attacker dropping to their knees instead of their backside, lessening the chances of any trauma to the opponent's head or neck. Despite the Tombstone being safer than other piledrivers, it was still just 'Taker and his almost-as-experienced brother Kane who got to use it. Now that 'Taker is retired and Kane is semi-retired, it's unknown if another prominent WWE wrestler will be allowed to use the Tombstone on a regular basis, especially since the move is so closely associated with the Brothers of Destruction that most up-and-comers wouldn't dare use it.
- The Brothers of Destruction, along with The Dudley Boyz, are pretty much the last people in wrestling to get a pass for playing Unrelated Brothers straightnote . This trope has pretty much died off completely as of the 2010s due to A) the prevalence of the Internet makes it easy for fans to find out that the wrestlers aren't really related, and B) there are so many real-life relatives in wrestling nowadays that fake ones are unnecessary. Even Edge and Christian, who were initially billed as brothers, were later retconned into lifelong best friends, as they are in real life. The Brothers of Destruction and the Dudley Boyz get a pass because their status as fake brothers is far too ingrained into their gimmicks to abandon it.
- One of the main staples of wrestling storylines is when heel wrestlers distract or incapacitate referees in order to cheat their way to victory. This was easy to get away with when wrestling shows were exclusively in-person live events and the only evidence to misconduct was eyewitness testimony but after the rise of television it became almost impossible to explain why heels were allowed to get away with cheating when all their rule breaking was caught on tape and broadcast to the world. Due to this, most wrestling promotions adopted a "no replay" policy that states a referee initial decision is final, no matter how blatantly wrong it is, and the company higher ups are almost always portrayed either too corrupt or apathetic to intervene.
- Mass violation on the part of wrestlers, as well as Executive Meddling forcing the bookers into corners, led to the code in Ring of Honor being rendered all but useless and done away with. Despite having little purpose left, it was brought back because fans wanted it back.
- Not as dramatic, but ROH's pseudo-spinoff EVOLVE also ran into this. As FIP/Dragon Gate stable Premier Athlete Brand basically destroyed the idea of EVOLVE being a realistic, strictly regulated promotion devoid of pro wrestling cliches, The End Of Evolution was still treated as a serious feud ender, in spite of there no longer being anything to distinguish it from any other No-Holds-Barred Contest, because fans still reacted as if they were a big deal.
- Despite the WWE spending a half a decade trying its hardest to avoid referring to its content as "[professional] wrestling" or its performers as "wrestlers" (instead preferring "sports entertainment" and "Superstars", respectively), WrestleMania retains its title likely due to it being considered too iconic to change — though since Vince McMahon left the company, they've lightened up on references to "pro wrestling". The "Mania" part is also considered a relic of the 1980s (i.e. Hulkamania) — if someone were to suggest the name "WrestleMania" for a wrestling event in the modern day, they'd likely be laughed out of the building, but the event's longevity has ensured that the name isn't viewed as corny.
Puppet Shows
- Sesame Street:
- Although the term "Muppet" is now owned and trademarked by Disney as of their purchase of The Muppets in 2004, Sesame Workshop — the owners of Sesame Street — was granted permission to continue referring to their non-human puppet characters as "Muppets". This is because they've used the term since the show's beginning (since they were created and owned by Jim Henson and his company until 2000) and The Jim Henson Company allowed Sesame Workshop to use the term before Disney bought The Muppets.
- Oscar the Grouch still lives in a metal trash can even though they've mostly fell out of favor and have been widely replaced with plastic bins.
- Punch and Judy, despite the show's premise essentially being about a man beating up and sometimes even murdering his wife and kid, has been a major part of British culture for over three centuries, and even today remains a staple of many seaside resorts in the UK. It also likely helps that all of this Domestic Abuse and Murder is done by a little hand puppet with giant stick and a squeaky over-the-top voice.
- Despite the Laugh Track falling out of vogue midway into The New '10s, the 2026 revival of The Muppet Show still features one played straight, since it was a staple of the original 1976 show. It does help that, part of the conceit of The Muppet Show is that it's a live performance in front of an audience, meaning that it can justify a laugh track as fully diegetic.
Radio
- Although most radio stations wouldn't get away with it (due to Values Dissonance rather than legality issues or broadcasting authority codes), the UK's Real and Smooth's RealRadio network got away with being a "best-of-both-worlds" mix of Heart and Capitalnote , yet it remained male-slanted, and had done since its launch in Wales in 2000 as Real Radio Wales, expanding to Yorkshire and Scotland in 2002, and then Northern England in 2008. The format was seen to be better than Heart and Capital, which are seen as crass, no-personality stations by the public - who often have no other listening choices in many regions, like Cambridgeshire, Essex, Kent, and Sussex. Listeners prefer personality presenters and "local" radio (i.e. no syndication or very little), like RealRadio and other stations such as Hallam FM (Bauer Media) and Stray FM (UKRD), and they remain(ed) widely popular. In the end, however, Real and Smooth were bought out by Heart and Capital's owner, and the Real network was merged into Heart's network.
- It's not uncommon for a station dedicated to a certain genre(s) to play music they wouldn't otherwise if it's performed by an artist that has/had a following in their usual genre.
- Until his death in 2009, most AM stations aired Paul Harvey without fail at 8:30am and noon and later on in the day "The Rest of the Story", even as the surrounding programming became coarse or partisan. A few chain stations canceled it earlier before his death by corporate edict, and found their ratings and standing immediately plunge among listeners for removing a longtime tradition.
- Most "active rock" stations don't play music from before the mid- to late-'80s, but a handful of pioneering hard rock and metal bands from the '70s still get rotation. Black Sabbath is the band that most frequently gets grandfathered in, but Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, Jimi Hendrix, and Aerosmith might get a pass as well.
- In a similar case, alternative/modern rock radio generally doesn't play music from before The '90s, but some bands considered highly influential to alternative rock can still get airplay. The Ramones and The Clash are the most likely to be grandfathered, but the Pixies, David Bowie, Blondie, New Order, and (strangely) Bob Marley may get in as well.
- Alternative radio is meant to play alternative/indie music that isn't, well, mainstream. It's its own format with its own hits that largely remains there. However, if an alternative hit ends up becoming a mainstream pop crossover, such as Imagine Dragons' "Radioactive" and Lorde's "Royals", chances are it will still remain in rotation on alternative radio, despite the fact that it's not really "alternative" anymore.
- Most popular "alternative music" in general. Most major rock bands to achieve radio success since the '90s have been labeled "alternative" in some fashion (e.g. Creed, Foo Fighters, Nickelback, Disturbed, Coldplay, Arctic Monkeys, Three Days Grace, etc., basically any rock band that wasn't deliberately retro rock (and even sometimes them as well, a la Buckcherry and Wolfmother)), which completely flies in the face of what "alternative" rock originally meant. Following the indie boom in the 2000s and 2010s, "indie rock" (which originally meant rock music produced and released entirely independently and which often had a punk-esque DIY garage ethos) has played the role of "radio pop rock", further diluting the term. At this point, the genres and styles that alternative rock replaced are technically more "alternative" than alt-rock itself!
- The Pogues song "Fairytale of New York" plays on the radio, uncensored, every Christmas in the UK and Ireland despite containing the words "slut", "arse", and "faggot". It's iconic enough that when BBC Radio 1 did censor it, they were hit with backlash and reversed it within the day.
- Many American radio stations play "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" uncensored on Thanksgiving. The use of the slur "faggots" would normally incur an FCC fine, but no station has ever been fined for playing it. Arlo Guthrie has changed this lyric in live performances, however.
- When Newfoundland and Labrador joined Canada, any radio stations with pre-Confederation VO— callsigns were allowed to retain them. Today, three stations broadcasting since pre-Confederation times — VOCM, VOAR-FM (which moved to the FM band in 2020) and VOWR — retain their call letters, while a later FM station, VOCM-FM, took its sister station's callsign, which FM stations in Canada may do, by adding the "-FM" suffix.
Roleplay
- The roleplay Into the Black (from the creators of Darwin's Soldiers) had a gritty Cyberpunk setting with a focus on realistic science and technology. Its sequel, Racing the Storm, had a new GM who introduced psionics and space ships and took an unpopular direction with the players. When a new sequel to Into the Black was planned, the GMs specified that psionics were not permitted under any circumstances. The only exceptions were Lily and Flora, characters from the previous role-plays whose abilities were heavily tied into their appearance and backstories.
Software
- One of the most interesting quirks about Microsoft Windows is that you can't name a file or folder "CON". That's because on Windows, "CON" is actually a reserved name for device filesnote . These device files were introduced in the DOS era, so that various devices could make use of them to communicate with the PC e.g. printers. Nowadays, modern devices — even printers — communicate with PCs using USB ports and protocols. You might think that with this in mind, there's no need for device files — but latest versions of Windows still retain the device files, because it needs to ensure backwards compatibility with old devices. This is why many companies and people — who still rely on old devices in their workflow — stick with Windows.
- Another notable, though surprising, example from Microsoft is the Excel leap year bug. This issue dates back to when Microsoft designed Excel to be compatible with Lotus 1-2-3, a widely used spreadsheet program at the time. Lotus 1-2-3 incorrectly designates 1900 as a leap year, even though it isn't (not divisible by 400), and Microsoft deliberately continued this mistake to ease the transition for users switching from Lotus 1-2-3 to Excel. To this day, Microsoft has chosen not to fix it, as doing so could break compatibility, causing problems with formulas and workflows in existing files. The bug is even officially codified in Office Open XML standards, including ECMA-376 and ISO/IEC 29500.
Sports
More are available here.
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- Several stadia (and parallels) often are beneficiaries of this sort of clause, likely because the leagues want to keep playing at iconic venues and the changes would require those venues to be either completely demolished or significantly altered.
- The Monaco Grand Prix is one of the most dangerous races in Formula One history, due to the narrow streets and lack of runoff. Had it been proposed today, safety regulations would not allow it to be built. However, since it's one of the oldest and most prestigious motor races in existence, it's still in the championship.note
- Modern F1 regulations also require tracks to measure between 3.5 km and 7 km. Monaco is only 3.337 km, but is again exempted (it helps that, as a street circuit, there's not really much that can be done to make it longer). On the other end of the scale, Spa-Francorchamps is just barely over the 7 km limit, but like Monaco, it's grandfathered in due to its historical significance and general popularity.
- Major League Baseball requires at least 325 feet of distance along each foul line to the nearest obstruction... except for fields that had shorter distances prior to 1958. Only two parks currently in use are that old: Boston's Fenway Park (built in 1912) and Chicago's Wrigley Field (built in 1914). The shortest distance in the latter, however, is 353 feet, so this exception presently only applies to Fenway's two foul lines: the left field wall known as the "Green Monster" (310 feet at its shortest) and "Pesky's Pole" in right (302 feet). Old Yankee Stadium (built in 1923, demolished after 2008) had only 296 feet in right field, but was grandfathered in too. This proved to be a point of contention with Charles O. Finley when he purchased the Kansas City Athletics in 1960 — he wanted to bring the right field fence at Municipal Stadium in to 296 feet, but was vetoed by the American League, so he instead brought the fence in to the minimum 325 feet, had a line painted at 296 feet, and had his PA announcer declare that any fly balls landing in the zone between the line and the fence would've been home runs at Yankee Stadium. This practice would be ended rather quickly, once Finley realized that visiting teams were hitting far more to that area than the A's were.
- Wrigley Field is the only ground in Major League Baseball that doesn't have padding on the outfield walls, instead having the iconic ivy that's been growing there since the 1930s. When the rule mandating padded outfield walls was introduced, Wrigley Field was exempted to allow it to keep the ivy.
- In 2007 the International Cricket Council ruled that the distance from boundary to boundary of an international ground must be at least 150 yards square of the wicket and 140 yards straight (measured from centre of pitch), that square boundaries must be at least 65 yards (which allows the pitch to be a little off centre, because a cricket ground has several parallel pitches to allow grass time to recover), and that no boundary can be more than 90 yards from the centre of the pitch. However, all grounds that were built before 2007 are allowed to have shorter boundaries. A few grounds, such as Eden Park in Auckland, New Zealand, fall well short of the minimum.
- The Monaco Grand Prix is one of the most dangerous races in Formula One history, due to the narrow streets and lack of runoff. Had it been proposed today, safety regulations would not allow it to be built. However, since it's one of the oldest and most prestigious motor races in existence, it's still in the championship.note
- For fans of American Football, and the National Football League in particular, do you think Green Bay, Wisconsin has a guy who could pay for a franchise? Yet most Americans know of the city of Green Bay, and its Packers... who are publicly owned by stockholders. The stock has some pretty severe restrictions on it, and the team is operated as a not-for-profit company (legally, they are a for-profit company, but revenues that aren't being used to fund football operations are given to charity; unlike other types of stocks, Packers stockholders don't get returns on the stock). The NFL doesn't allow teams to sell shares of NFL teams anymore—every team must have a fairly small group of owners (24 or fewer, with one principal owner holding at least 30% of the franchise)—but the Packers are still allowed to do thisnote , ensuring that the Green Bay Packers are unique in their league in regards to the ownership situation. Fans of other NFL teams whose ownership is deemed incompetent often lament the fact that they can't band together and buy the team in a Packers-style arrangement.
- The government of Harris County, Texas (home to Houston) owns 5% of the Houston Texans. The NFL officially banned governments from owning any stake in NFL teams in 2007, but grandfathered in Harris County's stake in the team.
- British and Irish international sports teams present a unique situation: Virtually every sport works by the rule of one team per country, and when countries split (USSR, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia) or unite (Tanzania, Germany) the teams follow. But Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland have their own teams in almost all sports, even though the countries are the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, because they began most international competition. The divided loyalties of Northern Irish people (see Northern Ireland) complicate matters further.
- Football (and futsal) is a rarity, in that Ireland is split Republic/North (the NI team stubbornly styled themselves "Ireland" until 1950), but there are separate Scotland/Wales/England/Northern Ireland teams. Great Britain teams went to the Olympics from 1904 to 1972, but when amateurs left the Olympics, so did Team GB. At the Olympics in London "Great Britain" qualified automatically to field a team in every sport, leading to 'temporary' mergers of the Scotland, England and Wales teams in many sports. However, as many other European countries resent the UK's current set-up resulting in 4 times as many votes in governing body forums and 4 automatic spots on the board of FIFA (as the 4 oldest associations), Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all refused to agree to a combined team, fearing it would set a precedent and FIFA would force them to permanently merge into a team dominated by English players. The Olympic teams ended up fielding teams with only English and Welsh players in the men's team, and only English and (two) Scottish players in the women's team.
- At the Olympic Games, there is "Great Britain" and "Ireland", and athletes from Northern Ireland can compete for either — even some from a Unionist/Protestant background, who feel stronger allegiance for Britain, have competed for Ireland because Team GB wouldn't take them.
- In cricket, there is "England" (which represents England and Wales), Scotland and Ireland.
- Unsurprisingly, Gaelic games use a single Irish team, who play Scotland in compromise rules shinty-hurling, and Australia in international rules football (a fusion of Aussie Rules and Gaelic football).
- There is a single GB team in korfball, kabaddi, hockey, ice hockey, handball, volleyball, Aussie rules, but Northern Irish players are with Ireland.
- In basketball, there are separate "Great Britain" and "Ireland" teams — the GB team was only formed in 2005, and England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland still play each other.
- In rugby, Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales have separate teams. Northern Irish unionists object to both the Irish tricolour flag and the Republic's anthem "Amhrán na bhFiann", so a special "Four Provinces" flag and a special composed anthem ("Ireland's Call") is played.note Conversely, Irish players objected to the name "British Lions" for the four-team selection, so they're now the "British and Irish Lions".
- In 1999 Gibraltar, a tiny dependency of the UK on the edge of Spain, applied for membership of UEFA, the European football (soccer) governing body. Based on UEFA's membership rules at the time, there was nothing barring Gibraltar from joining. But Spain, which deeply resents British control over Gibraltar, threatened to withdraw from UEFA if Gibraltar were accepted. To keep Gibraltar out, UEFA altered its membership criteria in 2001 so that only independent states as recognised by the United Nations could become members, but granted an exemption to the five already-existing non-independent teams (the four British teams, plus the Faroe Islands). After a decade-long legal battle, the courts ruled that as Gibraltar had made their application before the rule change, UEFA had to allow them to join anyway, removing the original purpose behind the change. However, the new rules now act as a bar to places like Jersey, Guernsey and Greenland, who would probably have been allowed to join UEFA had they applied before the Gibraltar debacle.
- Internationally competitive gymnasts usually compete as a unified team from Great Britain (Ireland not included), except at national meets (all four constituent countries have their own national championships, with an overall British Championships also held) and the Commonwealth Games.
- A rare non-British/Irish example is the West Indies cricket team, who represent 10 independent countries (Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago), 3 Crown dependencies (Anguilla, Montserrat, British Virgin Islands), the US Virgin Islands and Sint Maarten (the Dutch half of St Martin) — 15 Caribbean "countries" in all, competing internationally as a single team. In fairness, all of these save Guyana, the US Virgin Islands, and Sint Maarten were all part of the West Indies Federation, which was a single country from 1958-1962.
- The NHL had several of these:
- New league rules mandated that new players wear helmets in August of 1979, but allowed players that were already playing without them to continue to play helmetless. Craig MacTavish was the last non-helmeted player to play in the NHL (he said it was "a comfort thing"). He retired in 1997. (A waiver provision was added in 1992, allowing younger players to go helmetless if they chose; as the only players that went helmetless after the provision was added were MacTavish and Brad Marsh, who also qualified under the 1979 grandfather clause, the provision was dropped in 1996.)
- The 1996 update to the helmet rules mandated that incoming players must wear CSA-certified helmets. Veteran players were still permitted to retain their non-certified Jofa 235 helmets, largely because it was Wayne Gretzky's helmet of choice. Only four other players at the time (Marty McSorley, Jari Kurri, Esa Tikkanen, and Igor Larionov) still wore the 235 at the time, and by 2001, they had either retired, or in Larionov's case, switched to a certified helmet.
- The NHL banned not wearing visors beginning with the 2013-14 season, but those in the league already playing without visors were allowed to continue playing without them.
- The single bar facemask was officially banned by the National Football League by 2004, though it had been abandoned by every position except kickers and punters long before that. (QB Joe Theismann was the last non-kicker/punter to wear one when he retired in 1985.) Punter Scott Player was granted an exemption by the league and allowed to continue wearing just one bar until his retirement in 2008.
- Major League Baseball retired the number 42 in honor of Jackie Robinson, the first black player to play in the major leagues, in 1997, but allowed players who were already wearing that number to continue using it. Mariano Rivera of the New York Yankees, who retired after the 2013 season, was the last remaining active player to still wear that number. The grandfather clause was permitted even if the existing player wearing 42 was traded to, or signed with, another team, allowing a few players (Mo Vaughn, Jose Lima, and Mike Jackson) to wear 42 for multiple teams after 1997. It also gets inverted on Jackie Robinson Day (April 15) as every player, coach, manager, and umpire wears #42 since 2009.
- The spitball was banned in baseball in 1920, but pitchers who specialized in throwing spitballs were allowed to keep doing so for the rest of their careers. The last spitballer was Hall of Famer Burleigh "Ol' Stubblebeard" Grimes, who retired in 1934.
- The Hall of Fame and the Baseball Writers' Association of America (BBWAA), whose members vote on recently retired players, agreed that, starting with the election for the class of 2015, players would be eligible for election on 10 annual ballots instead of 15.note The three players on the 2015 ballot who had already appeared on 10 or more ballots (Don Mattingly, Alan Trammell, Lee Smith) remained eligible for the full 15 years as long as they got enough votes to stay on the ballot.note
- The NCAA has a couple of these clauses that relate to teams "playing up" — i.e., schools that are members of a lower division (II or III) but play select sports as Division I members. For background, the NCAA did not split into divisions until 1956, and didn't adopt its current three-division format until 1973. A decent number of lower-division schools had played at the highest level of certain "non-revenue" sports (i.e., those other than football and basketball)* before either or both splits, and wanted to keep playing those sports at the highest level.
- Grandfather Clause #1: In 2004, the NCAA specifically allowed eight Division III institutions to continue to play select sports in D-I and award scholarships in those sports; the latter practice is otherwise prohibited in D-III, whether or not a team "plays up". Each covered school could only award scholarships in one men's and one women's sport. Of these eight schools, five still play the covered sports in D-I; the other three have either moved the covered sports to D-III or dropped them entirely.note Postscript
- Grandfather Clause #2: In 2011, the NCAA cut off the ability of lower-division teams to "play up" in sports that had a championship for the school's own division. The teams covered by the 2004 grandfather clause, several playing in sports that did have D-III championships, were allowed to continue fielding their D-I teams, and all other schools that had been "playing up" were allowed to continue doing so.
- The NBA retired Bill Russell's #6 league-wide in 2022. Like with the retirement of Jackie Robinson's #42, the league allowed all active players wearing #6 to continue wearing it for the remainder of the careers, although LeBron James chose to switch back to his old #23 in honor of Russell.
- In 2002, the Houston Texans joined the NFL, leading to the league realigning from 3 divisions per conference (East, Central, West) to 4 divisions (East, North, West, South), that tried to balance out each team's geographical proximity with their historical rivalries. Thus, the Miami Dolphins are still part of the AFC East instead of the AFC South, with their division rivals being the Buffalo Bills, New England Patriots, and New York Jets, and the Dallas Cowboys are still part of the NFC East instead of the NFC South, with their division rivals being the New York Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, and Washington Commanders (formerly Redskins), because each division's rivalries are so well-established and intense.
- The Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, an NCAA Division II conference made up of historically Black colleges, was founded in 1912 as the Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association, but changed the first word in the name in 1950 so it could retain the CIAA abbreviation while getting rid of a term that had become offensive by that point.
- Monster Jam gradually streamlined the building of its fleet trucks throughout the years, with all trucks gradually switching to standardized chassis (initially built by Patrick Enterprises, and later by Paul Cohen and then Carrol Racing Development). However, some drivers were given more freedom in regards to this, largely because they had been building their own chassis before or after they were hired by the tour.
- The Anderson family have generally built their own chassis at their Digger's Dungeon shop in North Carolina (barring Krysten, who's first chassis, Grave Digger 34, was actually built in Palmetto, Florida at Monster Jam's main shop).
- Tom Meents almost always built his own chassis for him and Neil Elliott during their careers, utilizing the front-engine, "boxy" chassis design commonly nicknamed the "Meents chassis" — a design largely taking after a similar kind of chassis built by Jack Willman for his Taurus operation (it was only when Kreg Christensen re-joined the Maximum Destruction team in 2011 that "Team Meents" added a full-time rear-engine truck).
- Even after Grave Digger was bought out by Monster Jam in the late-90s, Pablo Huffaker continued building his own chassis — for both Grave Digger and the "B-truck" his would be paired with for tours — at his Racesource shop in Texas until his retirement from driving, as he had been working with Dennis Anderson as early as 1993 — although he did switch to using a standard FELD-provided "B-truck" chassis towards the end of his team's run in the league.
Stand-Up Comedy
- Gilbert Gottfried was famous for his iconic high-pitched "squawking" vocal delivery, which was completely different from his normal speaking voice. When he first broke out in the 1980s, it was actually fairly common for comedians to use exaggerated stage personas, often including fake voices—as seen with a few other popular stand-up comics of the era, such as Sam Kinison and Bobcat Goldthwait. Notably, Gottfried continued to use his famous fake voice up until his death, long after that trend had fallen out of fashion, since it had become far too essential to his public persona to drop it. It probably helped that he also used it in interviews and acting roles, making it a lot easier to believe that he actually talked like that.
Tabletop Games
- Few fans of Dungeons & Dragons would consider the Tomb of Horrors to be a genuinely good module, only enjoyable in a masochistic or So Bad, It's Good way. It was designed by Gary Gygax with the sole purpose of killing players, and as such is specifically designed to be obtuse and unfair. It’s also usually the first classic module to be updated for a new edition of the game because it was the first module of its kind and was created by the man who made D&D. It’s since become an icon of the game, and received a few sequels and spiritual successors, most notably Tomb of Annihilation.
- About the only reason why Sol Ring hasn't been banned in the Commander format in Magic: The Gathering is because it has been a staple of the format from the beginning, having been printed in virtually all preconstructed Commander decks.
- Warhammer 40,000: The evolution of Chaos as a faction has seen what was once the single overarching Chaos Space Marines list divide into five largely separate factions, with the Death Guard, World Eaters, Emperor's Children and Thousand Sons splitting off from the core list into their own independent armies. By and large, these armies mostly do their own thing, with even Chaos mainstays like Helbrutes or Daemon Princes having their own special rules, and units from the four monogod Legions cannot be taken in standard Chaos Marine lists - no Mutalith Vortex Beasts, Blightlord Terminators, Exalted Eightbound or Flawless Blades can be brought by people running the standard Chaos Space Marines army...except that Plague Marines, Noise Marines, Khorne Berserkers and Rubric Marines remain accessible to the core Chaos list because up until the armies were split off those were how you fielded Death Guard, World Eaters etc. (The sole exception, as of late tenth edition, is that one specific Detachment intended to represent recent traitors can't use them because they're awkward thematically, and even that was added in errata.)
Theatre
- More objectionable bits in The Mikado are often bowdlerised out (several references to "niggers" in lyrics are usually removed), but the basic premise of Caucasian actors in yellowface, kimonos, and black wigs in a gross mockery of Meiji's Japan remains intact despite how outrageously offensive the concept would be today. It should be noted that The Mikado is satire at its finest, using a patently absurd version of Japan to mock both general British culture and a faddish obsession with Japan that was sweeping through the country at the time. Prince Komatsu Akihito, who saw an 1886 production, took no offence, nor did he find the depiction of the Mikado demeaning, and when Prince Fushimi Sadanaru of Japan (a relative of the Emperor and a confidant of Crown Prince Yoshihito, who became Emperor Taisho) made a state visit to Britain in 1907, and all productions of The Mikado were shut down for fear of offending him, a proscribed performance was staged for him (he was "deeply and pleasingly disappointed" that he found "bright music and much fun" instead of "real insults" to Japan). The Mikado is still very popular in Japan; evidently, the fact that the society is obviously more British than Japanese makes it easier to get Gilbert and Sullivan's point. In fact, there have been a few productions that have found workarounds to try and get the satire across without being seen as offensive.note
- The works of William Shakespeare may in many cases be saved due to this trope and his considered greatness as a playwright and influence on the English language and culture. For example, the ideal of submissiveness of women in The Taming of the Shrew or the fact that in Romeo and Juliet the heroine is only thirteen and already being considered for marriage, whilst rare and a plot point intended for drama even back then, would be virtually unthinkable in a modern play given present-day age-of-consent laws and attitudes/fears surrounding sex with the now-underage. In the former case, attempts are generally made to work around the awkwardness of such attitudes but in the latter, it often seems to go on with only the slightest of comment.
Theme Parks
- Many parks keep attractions that are outdated by today's standards, in part for historical significance, in part for families and people wanting less intense rides, and in part because it's usually cheaper to maintain an old ride than to build a new one. The first and third categories definitely fit the bill. One example was formerly lampshaded on the Six Flags website.
"In 1966, the summer debut of the Runaway Mine Train was an overwhelming success. By today’s standards, the height and speed appear pretty tame, but for the 1960s, it was state of the art."
- Marvel Super Hero Island continues to exist at Universal's Islands of Adventure despite Walt Disney World being down the road because of this. The contract for Marvel's theme park rights as it was sold in the 90's is extremely favorable to Universal; they give the company full exclusive rights to use Spider-Man, The Avengers, X-Men, and Fantastic Four plus their respective supporting characters and rogues galleries at parks "east of the Mississippi" in-perpetuity, as long as those parks are in a state of good maintenance, and later as long as those characters had a presence in the park before the Disney acquisition. This is why Avengers C.A.M.P.U.S. only exists in Anaheim, as Disney must make-do with secondary Marvel properties like Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, Black Panther and Big Hero 6 (the last one being heavily divorced from mainstream Marvel nowadays) for the area. Even then, Disney is forbidden to use the "Marvel" name for their parks anywhere in the United States (especially east of the Mississippi) and Japan, as that was also signed away by Marvel to Universal.
- The Simpsons Ride and the Springfield areas continue to exist at Universal Studios Florida and Hollywood despite Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox for this reason; as the theme park rights to The Simpsons were signed away to Universal in the mid-2000s, several years beforehand, and they weren't set to expire yet when Disney bought Fox.
Toys
- Nearly everyone is aware of Santa Claus and how and he and his elves make toys for the world's good children in their workshop in the North Pole. This made sense in centuries past when toys were mostly handmade and sold by merchants without any particular branding to identify where they had come from. However, this changed starting in the 1900s as licensed toy brands from recognizable companies took over the market, quickly followed by the rise of video games and other electronic devices. Many would assume he spends untold billions paying for gifts every year or that his workshop has become the biggest source of bootleg products and video game piracy in the world, but nevertheless the idea of Santa's Workshop making all toys and games in-house remains a staple of nearly all depictions of the character.
- BIONICLE came about in a time where LEGO was in an incredibly messy and experimental phase, and indulging in a lot of wasteful practices. In 2004, the company decided to clean up its act, and placed very harsh restrictions on things like creating new pieces and colors. However, BIONICLE was able to keep up these practices—for instance, creating entirely bespoke molds for masks or weapons that might only ever be used for one character, with no intention of reuse—because it had always been doing them, and uniquely among LEGO's themes at the time, had consistently turned a profit while doing so. This is especially visible when comparing it to the short-lived reboot, which lacked that same level of faith and was forced to cut back substantially on new parts.
- Bratz continues to play various facets of its 2000s-era image straight (e.g. the pre-Recession themes of flaunting wealth, nightclubs, partying and shopping, along with its reliance on 2000s fashion trends), likely because the line helped popularize the trend of "hip" fashion dolls that also relied on those ideals. In fact, there was considerable backlash from fans when MGA Entertainment tried to drop those themes in favor of emphasizing friendship and empowerment.
- Transformers:
- The franchise has a lot of designs that have remained the same in modern imaginings despite being clearly dated to the 1980s. While reboots tend to change things up, most revisitings of G1 feature things like Soundwave turning into a tape deck or Grimlock's very old-fashioned T-rex design.
- In the early days of the franchise, due to the line being composed of a mishmash of Japanese imports, several characters had vastly out-of-scale altmodes, meaning characters like Astrotrain (space shuttle/train) often had similar-sized or even smaller figures compared to characters like Blaster (boombox). Media followed suit, depicting most of these characters as either growing or shrinking to be close in size to one another. Most future installments have avoided this kind of overt size-changing weirdness; large altmodes like space shuttles, trains, and large ships have more or less vanished, small altmodes like handheld guns and appliances are even less common, and when exceptions are made and a character does have an unusually-sized altmode, the character is depicted as that size in fiction consistently. However, the G1-era cast tends to still be depicted with their original altmodes (or somewhat modernized equivalents) in the modern day, because they're too tied to them for any future update to really stick: you can't make Astrotrain not turn into a train and a spacecraft, because it's in his name.
- During the early days of Transformers in Japan, many characters went by different names, with Optimus Prime most famously called Convoy, a name borrowed from Takara's Diaclone Battle Convoy figure because "Optimus Prime" was too long for children. Later media iterations of Optimus often used variants like Lio Convoy, Fire Convoy, or Galaxy Convoy. After the 2007 movie's success, Japanese media largely stopped renaming characters,note with Optimus Prime keeping his original name, except for adult-focused toy lines like Masterpiece, which are based on the G1 show.
- The original G1 toyline's early years often sold a single toy in different colors as separate characters, most notably Starscream and the various Seekers. This practice became comparatively rare in later years, with most instances of it usually adding some physical differences to the toy besides color, or marketing it as a Super Mode of an existing character. But with Starscream, his recolors are so iconic that virtually every new toy of him, no matter the series, receives at least a Thundercracker or Skywarp redeco, if not more.
Web Animation
- SMG4 videos began as Machinimas of Super Mario 64, that eventually evolved into actual animations using SM64 and editing techniques. Garry's Mod would also started to being used along with the SM64 engine, but as the years went by, Garry's Mod would become the main source for the animation, with SM64 only being used for the "classic" characters. This is due to Super Mario 64 character models are seen as too essential for SMG4's animation style, that if they were removed, it would cause a negative reaction from fans, especially among veterans. This of course, only applies to the "classic" characters, as new characters (More specifically, every character after Meggy's introduction) can use original character models and get better animations without any inconvenience. In other words, if it wasn't by the "classic" characters, Super Mario 64 would be dropped from the series at this point.
Webcomics
- The long-running Bob and George got away with such Sprite Comic cliches as an all-powerful Author Avatar and other characters that were mere recolors of existing sprites, absolutely No Fourth Wall, and comically one-dimensional characters (to be precise, one-dimensional versions of Mega Man characters) because it either started or popularized almost all of these tropes for webcomics.
By the time this comic originally ran, the spriting community was large enough that recolors were definitely frowned upon. If you didn't have enough talent to modify sprites more than that, you didn't deserve to make a comic. I got a pass cause I did it first.
- Even though the concept is now all but dead, Penny Arcade and other webcomics that started before 2000 can still be excused for using the Two Gamers on a Couch concept that they popularized in the first place.
- Another Gaming Comic
- In one of the real-life Extras, the campaign GM has instituted a flat ban on dwarf PCs (finding them too powerful for his taste), but the one existing dwarf PC is allowed to stay in play until the GM finally manages to kill him.
- Along the same lines, Jill's character Mercutio uses a third-party class that is an absolute Game-Breaker (he effectively has the combined powers of a cleric and a wizard, who are already the two most powerful classes in Dungeons & Dragons, especially in the hands of a Munchkin), but Jill was able to very carefully manipulate things so that Steele did not discover her class's actual abilities until Mercutio was too integrated into the campaign for his class to be retconned into something less broken.
Web Original
- SCP Foundation:
- SCP-076 (Able) and SCP-105 (Iris) — submitted early in the site's history, the quickly-growing community treated them as iconic, to the point of writing fanfic about them. As the site was restructured and formalized, the community shifted strongly against Original Character traits, and formed a generally-accepted canon on how the Foundation treated its wards, both of which were at odds with the pair. Though their general OP-ness has been toned down over the years (Able is now a force of nature rather than an anti-hero, Iris's power is less Cursed with Awesome), their popularity (especially Iris's) has waned considerably over the years, and they would probably risk deletion if they were submitted today. However, they're considered too important to the site's history to let go. The creators of the site even created "the Able Line": Able is exactly as Sue-ish as any character is allowed to be, and can stay, but anything more has to go.
- Probably the biggest sign of Grandfathering, though, is the tendency for reports involving them to call them by their real names rather than their numbers: a supreme faux pas for anyone else, but Able and Iris are too established in those names to stop using them. In Able's case, at least, this has been justified in-universe by saying that the reason why SCPs are referred to by number is that it is important to dehumanize sentient SCPs to prevent people from interfering with their containment out of sympathy; since there's nothing remotely sympathetic about Able, it's OK to refer to him by name.
- SCP-682's main gimmick is the Foundation trying to destroy it at all costs, constantly introducing increasingly convoluted and powerful means of killing it. This originated from a time when the general feel and standard practices of the Foundation were still being worked out. Today, many later stories and guidelines feature the idea that the Foundation will not try to destroy an SCP unless there's no other option to permanently contain it: even if the SCP in question is hostile to humanity, many such attempts just make things worse, as demonstrated by the many failures to destroy 682. If it were introduced today, its containment procedure, keeping it submerged in an acid bath so it's too weak to escape, would be all that the Foundation would do, no endless list of attempts to kill the thing needed. However, the Foundation's singleminded desire to see the reptile burn is so iconic to the site that it sticks around. Some stories feature the idea that one of 682's anomalous properties is the fact that people are so determined to see it destroyed.
- After all licensed images were purged from the site, one remained: the artwork that represented SCP-173, the first article in the series and one of the most iconic. The entire website therefore had a copyright notice applying to just the image on that article. This was only temporary, however, and eventually they had to get rid of that image as well.
- SCP-076 (Able) and SCP-105 (Iris) — submitted early in the site's history, the quickly-growing community treated them as iconic, to the point of writing fanfic about them. As the site was restructured and formalized, the community shifted strongly against Original Character traits, and formed a generally-accepted canon on how the Foundation treated its wards, both of which were at odds with the pair. Though their general OP-ness has been toned down over the years (Able is now a force of nature rather than an anti-hero, Iris's power is less Cursed with Awesome), their popularity (especially Iris's) has waned considerably over the years, and they would probably risk deletion if they were submitted today. However, they're considered too important to the site's history to let go. The creators of the site even created "the Able Line": Able is exactly as Sue-ish as any character is allowed to be, and can stay, but anything more has to go.
- Many Image Boorus choose to still classify Bridget from Guilty Gear as a male character for the purposes of sorting fanart even after the character (who was a male who dressed as a girl) came out as a trans woman in 2022's Guilty Gear -STRIVE-. While some people are fine with this, others are more than happy to point out the Unfortunate Implications of this.
- The Metal Archives:
- The Metal Archives does not allow most bands that fall under Alternative Metal and its various subgenres (such as Nu Metal, Funk Metal, and Rap Metal) on its website, as they don't consider them to be "metal" enough. However, bands that started out playing an "appropriate" genre but later shifted to one of those styles can still be listed. Two examples are In Flames and Lacuna Coil. This also goes for bands like Def Leppard, who started as New Wave of British Heavy Metal before shifting to Glam Metal. The basic rule is that you have to have at least one full album that's considered metal to be listed, so as long as you have one album playing an accepted form of metal, you're eligible regardless of your other material.
- Though the site won't list artists the staff doesn't consider "metal enough," some bands, such as Arditi or Rush were accepted onto the site for their importance to the metal scene. A few exceptions were also made for side projects of predominandly metal musicians, such as Wongraven. Though no new exceptions are to be added, the ones already listed get to stay.
- Unlike virtually every other Wiki, which semi-frequently promotes new administrators and desysops those who have not edited in a while (usually a year, as is the case on The Other Wiki), the Homestar Runner Wiki still has the same set of admins that it did in 2007, despite more than half of them having become inactive since then (not helped by Homestar Runner's hiatus). It is also one of the few Wikis that is still compatible with older browsers, largely due to still using an older version of MediaWiki; this, however, can be attributed to most of its custom extensions not working with newer versions.
- Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections, one of the oldest online election databases, dates back to 1992 and is still actively updated. As 'blue Democrats and red Republicans' were only codified in the 2000 election, this website steadfastly sticks to portraying Democrats with red and Republicans with blue just because it always has, making it one of the very few sources to still do so. This does, however, put the website in line with other Anglophone countries — like the UK, Canada and Australia — which use blue to represent conservative parties and red for liberal or socialist parties.
Web Videos
- Atop the Fourth Wall:
- Linkara is one of the few individuals who can still wear his signature trilby unironically because it's part of his Iconic Outfit and taking it away wouldn't be right. That, and he started in 2008, at a time when the trilby was still considered retro and not commonly associated with jerkasses, particularly misogynists — both of which he's staunchly against. It would be difficult in this day and age for an Internet reviewer to wear a trilby with complete seriousness.
- Title cards for the show were provided by artist Dr. Crafty until 2021, when he moved on to do his own web series. After Crafty admitted to raping someone and vacated the internet in disgrace, Linkara confirmed that the title cards would remain, as they were an iconic part of the series, but his other contributions would cease immediately.
- Discussed by YouTuber Gomotion in her Sonic PC Port review. Regarding how .exe games and small indie horrors invoke Addressing the Player for the sake of horror being very overdone, gomotion remarks that even PC Port is guilty of its use of the trope amid its authentic and deliberate Game-Breaking Bug in-universe and presentation of its grotesque horrors, but in the context of what it's trying to be towards Sonic.exe, it'd be too important to leave out.
gomotion: But especially in the context of what it's trying to be, I'd argue it's too much of an iconic piece of Sonic.exe to leave out of a fleshed out reimagining. Same goes for some familiar music here and there, as well as the Kefka laugh.
- Hitler Rants were once a significant part of internet meme culture, but they no longer hold the same relevance today. Although comedic portrayals of Nazi Germany, such as Taika Waititi's Jojo Rabbit, still exist, Downfall parodies face difficulty being appreciated due to YouTube's censorship, which often assumes these videos are pro-Nazi, even though they are meant to ridicule Hitler and the Nazis. Public tastes have also changed over the years. The channel Hitler Rants Parodies is the only one still producing Downfall parodies consistently (by that, we mean uploading videos every 3 to 5 days, which is far more frequent than other channels that post only once every 9 months to a year), with HRP being one of the longest-standing and most well-known parody creators, thanks to strong support on Patreon.note Parody-making has become HRP's de facto career, and his fans now expect fresh content from him on a regular basis.
- Trying to create something that involves Slender Man anytime after 2014 is guaranteed to be met with disapproval from the Internet. Not only because people were tired of the character by this point, but because of the infamous stabbing incident that happened that year, which heavily soured interest. However, the biggest and longest running projects associated with Slendy such as Tribe Twelve and Everyman HYBRID get some leeway in this area because they started way back in 2010, when Slender Man's popularity was just rising.
- James Rolfe admits in "The Making Of An AVGN Episode" that, while swearing is a tradition of The Angry Video Game Nerd that he has to keep going, it's exhausted its vocabulary. He even states outright he far prefers it when he's reacting with facial expressions without swearing and finds that to be something he's much better at, and only really keeps the swearing up since fans expect it.
Western Animation
- Modern-day Looney Tunes revivals tend to keep many of the classic tropes alive (Anvil on Head, "Take That!" Kiss, Cartoon Bomb, Painted Tunnel, Real Train, etc), along with various characters based on long-forgotten trends or figures, simply because they're so much a part of the fabric of what the franchise is that getting rid of them would make it unrecognizable.
- Recent Disney TV shows based on Winnie the Pooh give it a Setting Update. The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is vaguely set in The '80s, and My Friends Tigger & Pooh is definitely set in the 21st century. Honey, however, still comes in stoneware pots, rather than glass jars or squeezy bottles, because the imagery is too iconic to the Pooh franchise to change it.
- American Dad! continues to feature the color-coded "Terror Alert" indicator on the family fridge, despite the fact that the Obama Administration retired it. Perhaps as a satire of the changing attitudes of a new decade, the Terror Alert level was only on red, orange or yellow in episodes from the 2000s. But in episodes from 2010 and onwards it's either blue, green (two colors it never was lowered to in Real Life), or missing an arrow; they even had an episode where the color code changed to blue and everyone in the CIA acted like it was a major cause for celebration.
- Scooby-Doo:
- The gang's outfits, especially Fred's, became horribly outdated just a few years after their introduction. While Fred did lose the ascot for a while, it's back as of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, even though pretty much no one wears ascots anymore. It's become such an Iconic Outfit for Fred that Warner Bros. seems loathe to get rid of it completely. Shaggy's shapeless jeans and t-shirt are a G-Rated Stoner classic even today, but Daphne's and Velma's outfits were supposed to convey Daphne's fashionable persona and Velma's geekiness. Nowadays, both outfits would make their wearer look more like a hipster.
- The Mystery Machine, being a green and teal colored van covered with orange flower decals, would stick out like a sore thumb in today's society, but because it's so iconic to the Scooby Doo franchise, the design has remained unchanged, even in more darker incarnations.
- The "Scooby-Doo" Hoax formula has long been considered trite and ridiculous, and no mystery-solving show today would dare use it seriously. But with how integral the trope is to the franchise, it still remains in use. It helps that even the franchise itself doesn't play it completely straight anymore, often parodying, lampshading and deconstructing it, and there are occasions when the monsters will turn out to be Real After All.
- Muppet Babies (2018):
- This version is the only modern cartoon allowed to play the Spin-Off Babies straight since it was its predecessor who codified it in first place. Straight attempts at this by other franchises after the 2000s are often frowned upon by many due to how cliché and ridiculous the premise is.
- Despite the trope of parents or authority figures in cartoons being only shown from the neck down, or being outright faceless, having been mostly eschewed post-1990snote , Miss Nanny is one of the few modern examples of this being played straight, with her being shown exclusively from the neck down, just like the original character from the original 1984 cartoon. This is because the character of Nanny is such an iconic part of the original, it'd be hard to not have the new version of her still remain faceless.
- Bulldogs have largely had their aggression and large size bred out, and have had their position as the stereotypical Angry Guard Dog usurped by Pit Bulls, Doberman Pinschers, Rottweilers and German Shepherds. Despite this, bulldogs from classic cartoons, like Spike from Tom and Jerry or Hector from the Sylvester and Tweety shorts, still appear prominently in their respective franchises. It should be noted that Tiny Toon Adventures had a Pit Bull instead of a Bulldog, reflecting the changing stereotypes on dogs.
- The simplistic designs of the veggies in VeggieTales were due to the limitations of CGI technology in the early 1990s, and to this day they remain looking largely the same as they did back in 1993 in spite of how much CGI has advanced since then, even within the show itself. This is likely due to the characters' designs being seen as too iconic to change at this point, as attempts by the show's creators to update them for The New '10s (for the Netflix spin-off VeggieTales in the House) received a negative response and led to them later scrapping the redesigns in 2019 in favor of slightly-touched up versions of the characters' original 1993 designs.
- The Simpsons:
- Krusty the Clown is based on Rusty Nails, a clown performer that hosted a local children's television show in Portland, Oregon that Matt Groening grew up watching. The genre of "locally produced children's programming hosted by costumed performers" was already on its way out by the time of the show's first season, and it's long since been dead and buried, but Krusty's show remains popular within the show's universe.
- The Simpsons was created during a time when events like the Three Mile Island incident and the Chernobyl disaster were still fresh on everyone's mind, resulting in Springfield's Nuclear Power Plant being depicted as a half broken mess of a facility that pumps out radioactive pollutants, is staffed by unqualified incompetents and is owned by an evil, corrupt billionaire. Nowadays, it's well known that nuclear power is one of the cleanest and least wasteful forms of energy production and is highly regulated. It is unlikely that the show, which usually takes a relatively progressive stance on social issues, would have portrayed nuclear power the way it does if it had been created in the 21st century.
- Blue's Clues & You! is one of the only modern preschool cartoons that can get away with Fake Interactivity (which has become less popular and common over time) today, since its predecessor was the one that made it popular to begin with. Dora became another exception for similar reasons, despite the PC game aspect from Dora the Explorer that justified it being eschewed out. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse+ is another exception, again because it was a main part of the original show.
- El Chavo Animado: The show kept many jokes from the original series, even if they wouldn't fly today. Running Gags such as Don Ramón hitting El Chavo in the head and pinching Quico in the arm would be seen as child abuse if they weren't trademark jokes of El Chavo del ocho. That said, as the series went on, all the slapstick humor diminished until it was completely removed from the series (including slapstick that did not involve the children), with very few leftovers of this remaining, such as Don Ramón, being the major Butt-Monkey of the series, getting hurt for laughs. Jokes about Señor Barriga and Ñoño's weight, Prof. Jirafales and Don Ramón's thinness (and the former's tall height) and Doña Clotilde's old age would be seen as body shaming if they weren't also trademark jokes of the original show, and unlike the previous point, these ones stuck around for the whole show.
- Molly of Denali: "Not a Mascot" has an In-Universe example. Randall, who used to be on the Sitka War Chiefs, explains that the coach wouldn't change the offensive name of the team because it's been around for a long time. Eventually, Molly convinces the coach to change the name to the Sitka Sundogs.
- Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy were the first humans to appear in SpongeBob SquarePants, and they're very different from how humans would be depicted for the rest of the series, being animated and the same height as the undersea creatures (who are VERY small). Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy would continue to be portrayed this way even though subsequent humans would be portrayed through live-action and larger, making them also an example of The Artifact. However, this is no longer the case, as they have officially been retired from the show following their voice actors passing away.
- While narrators have fallen out of fashion in most kids' shows since the '90s/early 2000s, Thomas & Friends continued to have one long after it switched to CGI and full voice-acting, as the narrator is too ingrained into the show's storybook-like identity to get rid of entirely. It wouldn't be until Thomas & Friends: All Engines Go, a full Continuity Reboot, that the narrator would be rid of (and even then, works based on the original show, like Thomas & Friends: Wonders of Sodor, still had a narrator due to tradition).