Character Name and the Noun Phrase

GREAT! Now do the same title format six more times!


"It will be called Harry Potter and... something. Catchy, don't you think? And I think I'll follow the same model for seven."
—J. K. Rowling on the title of the sixth book before it was announced

This is a standard way to name individual works in a loosely-linked series; it is currently most common in childrens' books. Frequently the noun phrase in question will be of The X of Y form.

A common variant is to use the possessive instead of "and the", giving Character Name's Noun Phrase.

If ever bored, amuse yourself by taking the "And The Noun Phrase" part and adding it to a different "Character Name". For instance: Indiana Jones and the Chocolate Factory. Another variation is to add the title of a movie that doesn't follow this pattern to a Character Name from a series that does: Indiana Jones and the Minority Report. (Inspired by the retitled video releases of Raiders of the Lost Ark.)

Examples of Character Name and the Noun Phrase include:

Anime and Manga

Comic Books

  • The first volume of The Unwritten is titled "Tommy Taylor and the Bogus Identity". The in-universe Tommy Taylor novels also follow this naming pattern, more likely than not to specifically evoke the Harry Potter series.
  • Bryan Lee O'Malley's Scott Pilgrim series uses the character's name in all six volume titles - the strictest example of this trope is the third volume, Scott Pilgrim & the Infinite Sadness.
    • Which, in turn is a reference to a Smashing Pumpkins album titled in the same format (Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness).
  • Uncle Sam and the Freedom Fighters
  • The Atomic Robo series. The first collection is Atomic Robo and the Fightin' Scientists of Tesladyne.
  • A lot of the Asterix books have this format: Asterix and the Golden Sickle, Asterix and the Chieftain's Shield, etc.

Fanfic

Film

Literature

  • Edgar Rice Burroughs is pretty much the Lord of this trope.
    • Well, for Tarzan, at least. His other series tend to be of the form X of Y, where the "X" changes but "Y" stays the same for the series: Carson of Venus, Pirates of Venus, etc. with the occasional minor variation (Lost on Venus).
    • The first Tarzan novel was also an X of Y: Tarzan of the Apes.
  • Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day
  • The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents by Terry Pratchett.
  • After the first, the Artemis Fowl books follow this form. They were originally subtitles, but have switched to the "and the" format since the new covers came out.
  • Roald Dahl sometimes titled his books like this (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, James and the Giant Peach).
  • The Danny Dunn books
  • Almost all Target novelisations of Doctor Who published between 1973 and 1982 insisted on the 'Doctor Who and the' format. This occasionally required retitling the story to make it fit, as when "Spearhead from Space" became Doctor Who and the Auton Invasion, or "The Moonbase" became Doctor Who and the Cybermen. The practice probably stems from the fact that the scripts were usually titled "Doctor Who and The Whatever" with the first part dropped from the onscreen titles.
    • The story "Doctor Who and the Silurians" was supposed to be just "The Silurians" but a production error led to the aforementioned title. Target renamed it Doctor Who and the Cave Monsters because, as noted in a later story, the titular Cave Monsters couldn't have come from the Silurian Era.
      • There are next episode captions at the end of various black and white stories that use the same form as well.
    • And his name isn't "Doctor Who", anyway, so none of these titles make sense.
  • Some of the Encyclopedia Brown books follow this format strictly (e.g., Encyclopedia Brown and the Case of the Dead Eagles), while others deviate slightly (Encyclopedia Brown Strikes Again).
  • The Underland Chronicles starts off with Gregor the Overlander, then continues to Gregor and the Prophecy of Bane, then Curse of the Warmbloods, and so on.
  • Harry Potter
    • Spoofed in the Barry Trotter parody trilogy: Barry Trotter and the Shameless/Unauthorized Parody, Barry Trotter and the Unnecessary Sequel, and Barry Trotter and the Dead Horse.
    • Similarly spoofed in the science-fiction webzine "Axxón" in a fake book review, where the main character is called "Hewlett Packard" and some titles (translated from Spanish) are: Hewlett Packard and the Cold-Storage Chamber, Hewlett Packard and the Loyal Order of Water Buffaloes, Hewlett Packard and the Recalcitrant Bastard. More (in Spanish) here.
    • Another suggestion, courtesy of the author of Get Medieval: random historical events. It works quite well.
  • Subtly subverted (or inverted?) in C. S. Lewis's The Horse and His Boy. It seems he was spoofing the 'pony-book public'. (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a shout-out to E. Nesbit novels with similar titles.)
  • Jacob Two-Two and the Hooded Fang and its sequel Jacob Two-Two and the Dinosaur, by Mordecai Richler.
  • Kitty And The Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn
    • Also, the fourth Kitty Norville Book, Kitty and the Silver Bullet. Books two and three are variants of this (Kitty Goes to Washington and Kitty Takes a Holiday).
  • Just about every episode of the British courtroom mystery series Rumpole of the Bailey had its title in the form of "Rumpole and the...".
  • The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death and The Snarkout Boys and the Baconburg Horror by Daniel Pinkwater.
  • The Star Wars Expanded Universe novel Luke Skywalker and the Shadows of Mindor. The book mentions a number of in-universe pulp adventures that also use this trope in their title. It's lampshaded, as at the end it's suggested that the novel itself was one of those adventures. It's apparently the published version, following the revisions Luke demanded, as none of his grievances were actually in the novel.
    • The Lando Calrissian Adventures trilogy follows the more specific formula "Lando Calrissian and the Compound Noun of Place": Mindharp of Sharu, Flamewind of Oseon, and Starcave of Thonboka.
    • Han Solo had one: Han Solo and the Lost Legacy.
  • Quite popular in Thomas the Tank Engine, with episodes such as "James and the Red Balloon" or "Toby and the Stout Gentleman". In recent years, a lot of them are of the form "Thomas and the...".
  • The first two sets of Tom Swift books are all named like this, and are probably the Ur Example.
  • The Trixie Belden series
  • Children of the Red King - in the U.S., all but the first book follow this pattern. In the U.K., only the later ones do.
  • Percy Jackson and The Olympians: Subtitle Here x5
  • Nancy Drew books often have titles like this where the case is the noun phrase. The video games often follow the pattern as well.
  • The vast majority of Biggles books fall into this category.
  • Older Than Print: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, a King Arthur tale written in the 14th century.
  • The Baby Sitters Club series loved this trope.
  • Stephen King's "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption".
  • SkyClan and the Stranger
  • Lisa See's Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.

Live Action TV

Music

  • In musical groups, especially pop/rock, it's quite common for them to be named "<group leader> and the <something catchy>". Probably the most notable is the group that was briefly called Long John and the Silver Beetles (after Buddy Holly and the Crickets), before shortening their name to The Beatles.
  • David Bowie's "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars," anyone? Possibly his best-remembered album.
    • And T.Rex, featuring Bowie's pal Marc Bolan, put out an obscure LP called "Zinc Alloy and the Hidden Riders of Tomorrow," likely attempting to capitalize on Bowie's success with an "alter ego" musical act.
  • Markie Mark and the Funky Bunch.
  • The Smashing Pumpkins's "Melon Collie and the Infinite Sadnees"
  • Hootie and the Blowfish. Subverted in that "Hootie" is not a character name, even if a lot of people think it is.
  • Parodied by the groups Jump 'n' The Saddle and Phil 'n' The Blanks.
  • "By-Tor and the Snow Dog", a famous Rush song.

Newspaper Comics

Radio

Tabletop Games

Video Games

Web Comics

  • The Girl Genius bound collections (Kaja Foglio has said that this is a Shout-Out to Tom Swift); in the series itself, the Heterodyne Boys books are apparently all titled like this.
  • In Narbonic, storylines featuring Lupin "Wolf" Madblood were often titled like this. ("Professor Madblood and the Doppelganger Gambit", "Professor Madblood and the Lovelace Affair", etc.)

Web Original

  • All the Phase novels in the Whateley Universe have titles like this. "Ayla and the Late Trevor James Goodkind", "Ayla and the Blackmailer", ...

Western Animation

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