8 COMIC TROPES

THAT MUST DIE

BRUCE FEIRSTEIN

(1) THE MANIC PIXIE DREAM GIRL AS DESIRABLE SPOUSE

At 40, he'll have a job and kids, and she'll still be posting pictures of waffles on Pinterest.

(5) THE MAGIC NEGRO

How about if, just once, the long-suffering black character didn't end up providing wisdom and salvation to the white folk?

(2) THE WACKY LATINA

Only in Hollywood does the hot-blooded, perennially aggrieved Latina still break into mangled English at the drop of a plot point.

(6) THE IMPLAUSIBLE HOOKUP

That frivolous one-night stand turns out to be your new boss or co-worker; a gay best friend offers the only sage counsel.

(3) DAD IS A BUMBLING LUDDITE IDIOT

Yet, amazingly, his children are a combination of Steve Jobs, Oscar Wilde, and Socrates.

(7) THE MANBOY WITH AN AMAZING WIFE

C'mon. Would you marry a guy who can't even commit to a cell-phone contract without makng a road trip to Vegas with his three equally emotionally stunted best friends?

(4) SHE’S BEAUTIFUL, BUT SHE DOESN’T KNOW IT

She's also a hooker with a Ph.D. And she just remembered her biological clock is ticking.

(8) BODY SWITCHING

The jock changes places with the geek. The married man switches out with the single rogue. Hilarity does not ensue.