Special Episode 30: Tropefest: Fake Relationships

 
 
Episode cover: a photograph of the a floral centerpiece and place settings at a wedding reception. White fan logo in top corner.

In the newest installment of the “Tropefest” special episode series, Flourish and Elizabeth tackle a beloved and often beautifully farcical trope: fake relationships. They survey its many variations in fanfiction and pop culture more broadly, including married for a case, meeting the parents, and needing a date for a wedding or reunion, as well as offshoots like woke up married, bets, amnesia, and time travel. What makes these kinds of stories work—and why is the action of the farce often more pleasurable than the resolution?

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Show Notes

[00:00:00] As always, our intro music is “Awel” by stefsax, used under a CC BY 3.0 license.

[00:00:45] This is our NINTH “Tropefest” episode. Previous installments are:

[00:02:00] The oral history was of the season 10 episode “Wildlife,” about animal trafficking. Writer Mick Betancourt said of the “married for a case” elements: 

I wanted to really speak to the Eliott and Olivia shippers, all the people writing fan fiction about Benson and Stabler getting together, and I thought, "Well, how can I do that?" Everybody that's ever wanted to see them kiss—I'm going to take that up a notch.… I'm going to put them, like, half-naked, like they were just making love to prove to the smuggler that they were a real couple—I wanted it to hit the deep fandom on a couple levels.

Animated gif of Detectives Benson (in a bra) and Stabler (shirtless) hugging suggestively.

Please note: no sexy wig! 

[00:05:43] IMPORTANT CORRECTION: All-time greatest fake-relationship movie BORROWED HEARTS was not a Hallmark movie at all—it was originally on CBS!! (Elizabeth probably saw it on Lifetime, actually.) Treat yourself and glory in the 1997-ness of it all: 

 
 

[00:08:44]

Animated gif of Sandra Bullock from While You Were Sleeping sitting in her ticket booth, hitting herself in the head.

[00:10:16] That’s “Sink or Swim” by endingthemes, and it is, in fact, the most-kudosed omegaverse Cherik fic on the AO3.

[00:21:40]

Animated gif from the X-Files episode "Arcadia": Mulder and Scully nudging each other with the caption "We just spooned up and fell asleep like little baby cats, isn't that right honeybunch?"

[00:25:22]

The four images of the "Marriage Story" meme: two on left are Daisy Ridley from Star Wars, two on right are Adam Driver from the original film.

[00:38:19] The Dorothy L. Sayers story is called “Talboys” and is in a variety of collections, but it’s not available online.

[00:49:44]

 
Two still images from Frasier: Top is Frasier holding the shoulders of Faye with the caption "JESUS!", second is a Niles dressed as Jesus, freezing with his arms outstretched.
 

[00:49:53] “Out With Dad,” from the seventh season of Frasier, was written by the inimitable Joe Keenan. Frasier’s best farces—most of which have fake-relationship elements, many of them gay—were written by Keenan, including:

  • Season 3: “The Matchmaker” and “Moondance”

  • Season 4: “The Two Mrs. Cranes”

  • Season 5: “The Ski Lodge”

  • Season 11: “The Doctor is Out”

[00:52:33] That’s “Far Beyond the Stars,” and the story is Sisko’s dream. 

Still from "Far Beyond the Stars" of the DS9 cast in mid-century outfits in an office

[00:54:09]

Animated gif of Jonathan from the Buffy episode "Superstar," with the caption "If you really want it, you can make anything happen."

[00:54:06] The Sherlock omegaverse fic is “A Fold in the Universe” by darkest_bird and Engazed.

[00:55:34] THERE ARE MANY OVERBOARD AUS, FLOURISH!!! TAKE THAT!!! (And there even seem to be a few based on The Money Pit!)

Animated gif from The Money Pit in which Tom Hanks bangs on the door until it falls off its hinges.

[01:02:26] Our outro music is “Making it look easy” by Lee Rosevere, also used under a CC BY 3.0 license.

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