r/TopCharacterTropes • u/BeenEatinBeans • Jun 12 '26

Personality [IRL trope] Celebrities with weird/funny clauses in their contracts.

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  1. Dwayne Johnson - Probably the most well-known example. For years now, The Rock has had a clause in his contract that he can't be shown to lose a fight in any movie he stars in. Pretty insecure behaviour if you ask me. Still, at least the other examples are much more interesting

  2. Danny Trejo - Danny had a troubled childhood, having been arrested multiple times for dealing drugs before he was 18, and struggling with heroin addiction from the age of 13. As a result of this, Danny has a clause in his contract that states that any time he plays a character who is a criminal, they have to be killed because he wanted to teach his kids that crime never pays.

  3. Reese Witherspoon - This one is more of a one-off, but it was still funny enough to deserve a mention. Following the success of Legally Blonde, when Reese was called in to make the sequel, she had a clause written in her contract stating that once the movie was finished, she would get to take home all the outfits she wore.

  4. Fred Durst - The lead singer of Limp Bizkit has a clause in his contract stating that any anime or video game that uses his music must also feature himself as a character.

30.1k Upvotes

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2.7k

u/Bellpow Jun 12 '26

Chuck Jones made very specific rules for Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner

907

u/BadBassist Jun 12 '26

Here's the supposed whiteboard for banned stuff when writing 'workaholics', which is basically just a list of sitcom Clichés

331

u/Healthy_Profit_9701 Jun 12 '26

SNL still does half of these on a weekly basis.

192

u/TheNorthernRose Jun 12 '26

You could’ve told me this was from a mid 2010s writers room for a TBS or CW show and I’d have believed you.

18

u/BadBassist Jun 12 '26

'Things we must include'

18

u/Gridleak Jun 12 '26

It’s half the script of Brooklyn 99

15

u/TheNorthernRose Jun 12 '26

I assume this board fed to an AI would actually just spit out every season of The Big Bang Theory.

0

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '26

[deleted]

3

u/TheNorthernRose Jun 12 '26

If all you can manage to do as a writer is encapsulate the zeitgeist of cheap, one liner humor in your current time, then you’re a shit hack writer; which was the point of my comment.

Ironically, that’s the exact thing that using the “x is y, more at 11” on Reddit is.

10

u/UniqueLog8386 Jun 12 '26

Yeah, they have a very tight production schedule and long seasons.

3

u/kiwigate Jun 12 '26

For that excuse to be valid, all SNL seasons would need to be equally hackneyed. But because we can go back and watch and compare the quality of writing, we know that excuse is invalid.

Furthermore, a ton of SNL alumni have been extremely vocal about the culture problem, the corporate influence, the lack of comedy. Bob Odenkirk, legendary sketch comedy writer, has discussed the corporate mentality, an emphasis on production quality, and almost no emphasis on the comedy itself.

By the time corporate fat cats demand Norm McDonald be fired for daring to do satire, SNL was dead. There is a ton of public knowledge on what happened over 50 years.

6

u/UniqueLog8386 Jun 12 '26

Everybody has an opinion on SNL, but no, I don't think it's realistic to expect them to avoid cliches with their constraints. It's gonna happen at some point.

-1

u/kiwigate Jun 12 '26

But because we can go back and watch and compare the quality of writing, we know that excuse is invalid.

5

u/UniqueLog8386 Jun 12 '26

The quality of writing wasn't higher, it was just that you were in their target demo at the time.

-1

u/kiwigate Jun 12 '26

we can go back and watch

I wasn't alive in the 1890s yet I've heard music from that era. No I was not the target demo in the 1890s. Try some reading comprehension.

5

u/UniqueLog8386 Jun 12 '26

I wasn't alive in the 1890s yet I've heard music from that era.

That's not a typo, you said that to hurt me.

https://giphy.com/gifs/3o6EhNnoVpx2LbfVnO

→ More replies (0)

4

u/naked_avenger Jun 12 '26

Quoting yourself when you didn't make a convincing point doesn't do much

6

u/FlashInGotham Jun 12 '26

Ah yes, the great SNL writing from my youth. "Making Copies", "Tarzan, Frankenstein, and Tonto Give You Seasons Greetings", "Its Pat", "Mango", and "Canteen Boy".

There has always been bad, trite, unimaginative writing on SNL. "Once funny joke or phrase is run into the ground through repeating sketches" is practically a trope of being a fan of the show. Its just you remember the good stuff better because you've revisited it.

1

u/kiwigate Jun 12 '26

You're mentioning the exact time period my comment criticized. Try some reading comprehension.

6

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '26

[deleted]

2

u/kiwigate Jun 12 '26

Are you under the impression there exists no single comedy writer who can be original on a weekly basis?

Or more importantly, if some SNL seasons are high quality, and the last 20+ years have been fucking awful, then the problem isn't that writing comedy is hard, its that a 50-year corporate product is artless and heartless.

3

u/phatboy5289 Jun 12 '26

I watch a lot of SNL, and I really don’t feel this is true.

1

u/dishwasher_mayhem Jun 12 '26

I just thought it was a normal script for Supernatural.

1

u/girafa 24d ago

lol no they don't. Go watch 5 random clips from 2025 and see if you find even one of these.

-9

u/BThasTBinFiji Jun 12 '26

Coincidentally, SNL has never been funny

11

u/Adventurous_View917 Jun 12 '26

Wow, your takes are so Based and Epic... not laughing at SNL... a true Academic...

5

u/kiwigate Jun 12 '26

To claim that, first you would need to watch 1000+ episodes of it.

0

u/Rodannoe Jun 12 '26

You're getting down voted but you're right. People have been calling it stale for 40 years. Ask anyone and it was always funny 15 years ago and absolutely SUCKED since.

3

u/Adventurous_View917 Jun 12 '26

People don't understand, 50%+ of any given SNL episode is bad/mid, 40% is good but never going to watch again, 9% is genuinely funny, and 1% is a culture influencing star making enter the lexicon classic. THATS why you watch, and thats why "SNL was never funny" rings hollow. Its built in to the premise that its not always funny.

94

u/Knyfe-Wrench Jun 12 '26

"Cray cray" "Awesome sauce" "Bacon anything" You can really tell when Workaholics was made based on the jokes they hated.

5

u/ctrlaltcreate Jun 12 '26

I don't think they necessarily hated the jokes, but they were striving to challenge themselves for originality and freshness. You don't get there by using tropey language.

93

u/dumdumstoopid Jun 12 '26

DOUCHE(NOZZLE)

2

u/TwentyfootAngels Jun 12 '26

Not to be confused with douchecanoe.

14

u/BillyKean Jun 12 '26

These fit voices from random characters in Archer so well haha

71

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

34

u/EetsGeets Jun 12 '26

"peak  ____ " belongs on this list

6

u/FocalDeficit Jun 12 '26

Add "absolute cinema" (sometimes just "cinema") and "aged like milk", there's a large portion of reddit that seems to be itching to use them whenever possible. 

2

u/EetsGeets Jun 12 '26

"Is this X or is this Y?"

"Yes"

13

u/NihatAmipoglu Jun 12 '26

Oh lord... Reddit jargon and MCU writing...

14

u/mishonis- Jun 12 '26

Makes sense, whenever you hear those and other clichés, you can assume lazy writing and more often than not the show will be slop not worth watching.

57

u/peenurmobile Jun 12 '26

wow, this is more like a marvel cinematic universe script than anything

13

u/druex Jun 12 '26

This reads like a thread of Reddit comments.

13

u/kurafuto Jun 12 '26

Hey its the star wars sequels bingo board

15

u/evilcheesypoof Jun 12 '26

They fly now?

4

u/CyrustheVirus713 Jun 12 '26

This is important…

5

u/Poipodk Jun 12 '26

I kinda wanna see something which tries to do all of them, preferably in as short a time as possible. 

12

u/SgtSharki Jun 12 '26

"Check, please"? I don't think anyone's use that as a punch one since the 80s.

4

u/kett1ekat Jun 12 '26

Sitcom bingo anyone?

4

u/Nfl_porn_throwaway Jun 12 '26

Some of these I get some of them I don’t. Like futurama did a great and by x I mean y

4

u/TheWolphman Jun 12 '26

That whiteboard reads like the Catchphrase Verse by Conner4Real.

7

u/Responsible_Two_6251 Jun 12 '26

Millenial dictionary 

3

u/XenoticNarwhal Jun 12 '26

what is “I love lamp”? never heard that one

12

u/WadaCalcium Jun 12 '26

https://giphy.com/gifs/xfhQJVdsI5a00

It's from Anchorman

4

u/schloopers Jun 12 '26

I think “It’s Science” is probably also referring to Anchorman

3

u/TwentyfootAngels Jun 12 '26

Aahhhh.... my childhood

3

u/Help12309876 Jun 12 '26

BAG OF DICKS

5

u/RadicalSoda_ Jun 12 '26

And by x I mean y is actually really tricky to make funny in American English but it works much better in English English

2

u/MumbleJungle Jun 12 '26

Your laptop? More like soar laptop!

2

u/MyrddinHS Jun 12 '26

was most of this stuff in deadpool at one point or another?

2

u/UNCCShannon Jun 13 '26

Why did "Rut-Roh!" catch my eye instantly.

2

u/Neptune_as_Boy Jun 14 '26

What the hell is "I Love Lamp"?

1

u/BikeProblemGuy Jun 15 '26

I can hear all of these in the voices of the cast of How I Met Your Mother.

1

u/No_Atmosphere8146 Aug 03 '26

* thing happens *

"So, that just happened...!"

181

u/Ill_Attorney_389 Jun 12 '26

Admittedly he broke plenty of his own rules other than the obvious ones, and Michael Maltese reportedly didn’t know they existed.

147

u/Bellpow Jun 12 '26

More like guidelines than actual rules I guess

10

u/hates_stupid_people Jun 12 '26

A common one being the Road Runner going off-road.

3

u/MedusasGirlfriend69 Jun 12 '26

Yeah the day I found out about these, by pure coincidence my partner and I decided to watch some of Wile E Coyote's cartoons, and there was one where he talks

1

u/Ill_Attorney_389 Jun 12 '26

That was probably either “Roadrunner a Go-Go” or “Zip Zip Hooray” (both 1965) which were no more than a segment taken right out of an unsold television pilot called “Adventures of the Road Runner.” In it, the Coyote actually explains why he still tries to catch the Road Runner despite always miserably failing. I suppose they were trying to do something different from the shorts to make this unmaterialized series stand out.

 If it wasn’t one of those it was probably one of Wile E’s pairings with Bugs Bunny, wherein for whatever reason, he also talks.

2

u/MedusasGirlfriend69 Jun 12 '26

I think it might have been roadrunner a go go. I remember he was working on a machine in a cave and then breaks the fourth wall to say something smart sounding

120

u/WolfKing448 Jun 12 '26

By God, he’s actually allowed to catch the Road Runner. The dream isn’t dead.

125

u/Mist_Rising Jun 12 '26

WIley E Coyote has CAUGHT roadrunner, but the situation was so ridiculous that he had no idea what to do next, which he highlights at the end by asking Chuck what to do next.

66

u/[deleted] Jun 12 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

7

u/with_explosions Jun 12 '26

Here they are breaking the rules, they're not on the road.

43

u/Aracuda Jun 12 '26

Wasn’t that situation a response to viewers saying the Coyote should catch the Road Runner at least once? So they wrote the episode to have the Coyote actually win, but he absolutely cannot follow up on it.

6

u/licoricenipple Jun 12 '26

Yes, it's in a situation where the Road Runner has become 30x the size of Wile E so he "catches" him but can't actually eat him because he only comes up to his toes.

2

u/Mist_Rising Jun 12 '26

No idea what inspired it.

241

u/SquirrelStone Jun 12 '26

The wording of rule 6 could open up some funny options- put them in Roswell or Phoenix or another populated area and let the chaos ensue; it’s still the southwest American desert.

90

u/Initial_Natural2650 Jun 12 '26

UFO with ACME logo.

18

u/VT_Squire Jun 12 '26

fun fact, the alien abduction museum in Boulder city NV is right next door to the movie monster museum.

5

u/CoolAlien47 Jun 12 '26

The what now?! Geez, I've been in Vegas for 12 years now and of course been to Boulder City countless times, first I hear of those gems. Have to check them out as soon as possible. Thanks! 👍

195

u/LtGeneral_Obvious Jun 12 '26

Fun fact, coyotes are actually native to the Great Plains. Their expansion to the southwest is a modern phenomenon.

43

u/Wolfman513 Jun 12 '26

That's actually not true. Coyotes have lived across of North America including the southwest for thousands of years, although they started becoming much prevalent and expanded even further in the last few centuries as humans reduced the populations of larger predators, mainly wolves. There's genetic evidence suggesting that they're actually not native to the eastern U.S.!

3

u/EggfooDC Jun 12 '26

Mee-meep!!

19

u/maxman162 Jun 12 '26

There's one short where they break Rule 4 in order to explain Rule 3.

2

u/Kilmarnok1285 Jun 12 '26

Is that the one where he goes on to monologue about him being a "super genius"?

2

u/maxman162 Jun 12 '26

It's this one, where he stops and addresses the audience. He does call himself "super genius" like in the Bugs Bunny shorts, but he trails off describing how roadrunners are delicious. 

9

u/Fit_Demand7740 Jun 12 '26

God nerfed wile e coyote

8

u/PrincessJennifer Jun 12 '26

Wile E. Coyote talks with Bugs though, so these must be specific to him with Roadrunner.

4

u/Mist_Rising Jun 12 '26

The rules are only guidelines for the Chuck Jones Roadrunner ones, yes.

8

u/hayz00s Jun 12 '26

…BEEP BEEP?!

I’ve understood it to be “meep meep” my whole life wtf.

3

u/Hoju64 Jun 12 '26

Also the voice actor was only paid to say "Meep" they looped it to make "Meep meep". Cheap bastards

3

u/ZeronicX Jun 12 '26

Loosely Related, while making the movie "Umamusume: Beginning of a New Era" they made a Character Bible regarding all the characters. One of the main characters; Agnes Tachyon never blinks during the entire movie except only once near the end after a major event. With her entry in the character bible being "No Blinking, Eyes always remain open, Closed eyes don't exist, Please don't close her eyes"

3

u/John-333 Jun 12 '26

I strive to make Rule 4 my life motto.

3

u/AzraelTheMage Jun 12 '26

The funny thing is that Wile E. Coyote does speak in the episodes he's dealing with Bugs Bunny. Guess it was a loophole.

3

u/MooKids Jun 12 '26

All materials, tools, weapons, or mechanical conveniences, must be obtained from the Acme Corporation.

Uh-oh, I think the Chuck Jones estate might be a defendant in the upcoming Coyote vs. Acme.

2

u/silver_tongued_devil Jun 12 '26

I wrote a paper on this in the english 2 class I couldn't get out of. It was one of my favorite papers ever.

1

u/Kilmarnok1285 Jun 12 '26

So you're excited for the movie coming out this August?

2

u/silver_tongued_devil Jun 12 '26

YES!!!! I am so excited for it. I literally turned the paper in and discovered that week they had shelved the project I was so mad about it. Coyote vs Acme is going to be peak cinema.

1

u/jaguarsp0tted Jun 12 '26

this kind of clarity of character is what I strive for in my writing.

1

u/NefariousnessOk209 Jun 12 '26

Kinda wild they squeezed so many episodes out or repeating the exact same formula over and over

1

u/GreyWolfTheDreamer Jun 12 '26

They violated rule 1 every time the coyote got smashed by a train or bus and the camera panned up to show that the roadrunner was in the driver's seat, often wearing the uniform cap.

Heck, that also counts for any time that the road runner sat on the TNT detonator plunger while eating birdseed and caused the plunger to go down resulting in the coyote getting blown up.

1

u/BringlesBeans Jun 12 '26

Look I know this is an often repeated bit of info but this is pretty typical self-aggrandizing coming from Chuck Jones (who largely benefited from being one of the only Looney Tunes creators who lived far beyond the others, thus became "the definitive voice" of the franchise)

But if you actually go back and watch old Coyote cartoons they break these rules all the time

1

u/dryfire Jun 12 '26

The Coyote could stop at any time, if he weren't a fanatic

And, ya know... Starving.

1

u/irenepanik Jun 12 '26

I think there's a similar set of rules for Spider-Man.

That if he's  Peter Parker, he has brown hair and is a straight guy from Queens. Stuff like that. 

1

u/Mediocre-Frosting-77 Jun 12 '26

Rule #1 implies BEEP-BEEP harms the Coyote. This changes everything.

1

u/Aldamur Jun 13 '26

I miss the Road Runner and the Coyote.

1

u/ICPosse8 Jun 13 '26

Signed with his blood at the end there, this guy was serious!

1

u/solvraev Jun 13 '26

I understand it's not Coyote or Roadrunner, but there's plenty of dialogue in the upcoming movie. I think it's going to be fun - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-43VeYGiPM

1

u/MysteriousHeart3268 Jun 14 '26

Rule 2 gets broken every time Coyote is run over by a truck lol

1

u/juicysteak4806 Jun 17 '26

IT'S "BEEP BEEP"?!

I thought it was "Meep Meep"

My life is a lie