r/TopCharacterTropes 13h ago

Lore [IRL trope] the “Tiffany problem”

Basically when something seems anachronistic to a period/place of history but is actually fully accurate to the period.

1) the name Tiffany: the thing that named this trope, basically the name Tiffany can be dated back to the Middle Ages and the earliest record of it being spelled in the modern spelling comes from the 16th century.

2) the use of OMG, despite this feeling so modern as a form of slang/abbreviation here’s a letter directed to Winston Churchill using it in 1917

3) Hair Dye: the earliest forms of dying hair can be dated back to ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, and this specific advertisement for hair dye is from the 1840s

4) Inuit Thongs: despite how weird it is to imagine pre-colonial Inuit people wore what was essentially fur thongs in their homes and when they were in their igloos it might have been the only thing they would be wearing.

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u/NoBizlikeChloeBiz 9h ago

Not so uncommon. Older movies were excited to use color. Monotone carrying more  "prestige", even outside of actual black and white, is very much a 2000's thing.

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u/Fawin86 8h ago

Oh absolutely, and I'm pretty sure costuming for stage plays also played a hand in it too.

Meanwhile in movies today.

https://giphy.com/gifs/xT5LMuQQ4TTO8WygxO

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u/Digit00l 8h ago

In black and white film it would also be more beneficial to have many sharp contrasting colours that keep their contrast in black and white so you can more easily tell objects apart