Overused Cliches

***This list has been borrowed from the page on the Lost Episode Creepypasta Wiki, and has been adapted to fit this wiki.***

*If you're looking for a place to write poorly written stories on Fandom or with less severe rules, go to the Spinpasta Wiki. Please don't do it **here.***

The following is a list of what are generally considered to be overused clichés. That doesn't mean to avoid them at all costs; in fact, some of these are overused because they are prevalent in a number of stories and movies. But if the story you're planning on writing incorporates many of these, that should be a warning sign, as they tend to bring the reader out of the story, and will more than likely interfere with their suspension of disbelief.

And remember: this is a list of actual clichés, not complaints or opinions (no matter how valid they may be). If you have a complaint that isn't about clichés and more about things that generally make you mad concerning pastas, try making a blog post or discussion about it instead. However, these aren't always to be avoided. If you can work one into a story well, then for goodness sake make it.

## General Cliches

1. Stories involving the soon-to-be murderous children with cartoonishly abusive parents and/or one dimensional bullies, like a Jeff the Killer spin-off. Please don't make these.
2. Anything starting with the phrase "I know you're not going to believe this," or "I used to be a skeptic, but..."
3. Anything starting with "I used to be normal..."
4. The numbers 6, 13, and 666.
5. Satanism. That's literally it.
6. Falsely believing something is over, and then creepy stuff happening again anyway.
7. Using "This actually happened to me" or "This isn't a creepypasta, it really happened!" in an attempt to turn up suspense only kills it. Especially if "You have to believe me" or "You won't believe this" is added on. Suspension of disbelief is broken when directly addressed.
8. Pointless violence and excessive gore. Most of the time, it's just a lame attempt at shock value.
9. Ending the pasta with "YOU'RE NEXT!!!!" or implying that the audience is the next target. This typically fails to scare the audience and comes off as implausible. How would a ghost/being/killer track down everyone that read a story to murder them, and why?
10. Starting a story with "Don't read this or you'll be cursed," or similar will just make people not read it (or, they might read it and lose interest within seconds).
11. File extensions. "Supersuicide.avi", please stop using "cliches.exe." Use them with caution.
12. Using hyper-realistic eyes, empty sockets, bleeding, or black/red eyes, it's used too much.
	* While we're at it, describing ANYTHING as "realistic" or "hyper-realistic." (This goes for photos, sounds, and movie/shows, too.)
13. References to pasta monsters/memes (Smiledog, Jeff, Zalgo, Slendy, BRVR, etc.) This includes spinoff/copycat characters like Jane The Recolor... I mean, Jane The Killer. Not only is this a cliché, it totally shatters the willing suspension of disbelief.
14. Cleverbot. That is all.
15. The Unfaithful Narrator, in which the speaker of the story turns out to be evil, or possessed, or a ghost.
16. Starting or ending a story about a serial killer with the heading of a newspaper article or report. Ex. "10 DEAD, MURDERER STILL AT LARGE".
17. "No escape" either written or said constantly. I really wish I could "escape" all the pastas that use this...
18. Opening the story with "I don't have much time to write this" or "I'm going to die soon". Why would the protagonist spend their final moments doing this, especially when there are means of escape or calling out for help?
19. The "Jeff Formula", which is basically inspired by "Jeff the Killer".
20. Computer screens being accosted by horrible images after the protagonist/author plays a creepy game/visits a creepy website/opens files on an "abandoned computer/hard drive", followed by the computer blue screening, then restarting with one (or more) of those images as the desktop wallpaper, which the author can't get rid of or obscure with other windows.
21. Catchphrases. Contrary to opinion, your monster saying "GO TO NAPSVILLE" doesn't make it more terrifying.
22. There's something behind you/Don't turn around!
23. Characters with abnormal eyes (especially blood red eyes), and everyone hates them because of it.
24. Killer dolls.
25. Mentioning creepypastas in your creepypasta. Doing this isn't being meta or enhancing your story in anyway. At best it breaks immersion and at its worst, it reminds the reader that they could be reading a much better story.
26. Evil shadows.

## Object show-related Cliches

1. The host of the show goes insane or acts horrendously sadistic.

## Lost Episode Cliches

1. A lost episode numbered 0 or 000. Many creepypastas used this cliche.
2. Got it on a website that doesn't exist anymore and nobody else in the universe has a copy.
3. Obtaining the episode from a garage or yard sale or just laying on the ground.
4. "I was an inter-" SHUT THE HECKING HECK UP. How many times have I heard that? Originally from Squidward's Suicide, but used in others like Pearl.avi. Try and make it something else, since normally interns don't get to see that stuff.
5. A spike in the suicide rate of the target audience after it was released.
6. Content that could obviously never get past the FCC or YouTube censorship ending up being broadcast.
7. Using "Goodbye, (INSERT CHARACTER HERE)" as the title of the episode.
	1. (Related) Using "(INSERT CHARACTER HERE)'s Revenge" as the title.
8. Most of the episode being distorted or static, and the viewer can only see <insert character here> killing <insert character here> or aforementioned "hyper-realistic" imagery.
	* \*cough cough\* Copies of Ice Age Bootleg Tape \*cough cough\*
9. With older shows, showing or mentioning a culturally-significant event or item that hadn't yet happened when the episode was made, like 9/11 or an iPad showing up in a show made in 1983. Popularized by Happy Appy, but originally used in Seinfeld Lost Episode.
10. Zalgofied cartoon characters. (This includes characters escaping the fourth wall and killing random people and/or family members of the narrator.)
11. One character, usually a protagonist, killing all the other characters, usually for no reason.
	1. Wayyyy too common in Object Show lost episodes. In this case it's usually where the host is the one that kills everyone.
12. A cryptic message in another language appears, usually something like *"Death is our only release"*, or *"Your turn".* These messages are not scary, and putting them in another language is a VERY lazy attempt to scare an audience, as they can just use an online translator and become disappointed in what it says.
13. Actors, directors, or animators being arrested, killed, committing suicide or sent to a mental asylum after the episode airs.
14. Finding a random flashdrive only to find out it has a haunted .avi or .wmv
15. Warning the reader to never watch the tape if he/she/they find it somehow.
16. The episode only being shown in a remote area.
17. Unrelated clips placed in an episode, usually relating to graphic violence or other disturbing content (i.e. clip of IRL murder in the middle of a lost Spongebob tape)
18. Ending the pasta by vowing that you'll never watch the show ever again.

## Theory Cliches

1. Saying that all the main characters are ghosts that haunt the place where the show usually takes place, and explaining how they all died along with what year they died in. The earliest example I know of this is a theory that all the kids from Ed, Edd, n' Eddy were in purgatory which was actually pretty good, but pastas like South Park, Colorado seem to copy this concept unsuccessfully.
2. Saying that the show/video game was all in a character's imagination, or that they were hallucinating, on drugs, comatose, or mentally ill. This has been used in many theories like The Rugrats Theory.
3. In series with a fantasy setting or any other setting with fantastic creatures, saying that it takes place after a nuclear apocalypse (i.e. Mutant Future).
4. The protagonist being in Hell or Purgatory, everything in the series being a reflection of their sins. This one wore out its welcome quickly, too. (You'll notice a pattern emerging here.)
5. Comas. A-nuff said.
6. Lack of evidence to back-up your theories. Not a cliché, just saying, it doesn't make a good story if the concept appears like it wasn't thought out or well-written.