Concepts That Shouldn't Work but Do

[Deleted]

Pretty self-explanatory. What are some ideas behind shows and games and such that on paper should be terrible or at least really weird but manage to function?

The example that brings me to ask is this anime I'm binging on at the moment with the awkward title There's No Way My Sister Could Be This Cute. I won't go into detail, but it's weird.

Of course, all kinds of things can be rendered weird if you think about them. Who would guess without prior knowledge that "An insane man puts on a bat costume and beats up other insane people" would have a shelf life of six months, much less 70 years?

[jagilki]

Magnets.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

See, it's this forensics analyst, right? But see, he moonlights as this serial killer who goes after really bad people and stuff and the cops can't catch him, and his sister's a tool!

[Pervy Stone Cold]

Waffle Crisp. It only, barely is any good.

[Abadebe]

You see, there's this wrestler who's actually an immortal zombie who draws supernatural power from an urn containing the ashes of his dead parents.

[Red Impact]

"See, some humans randomly mutate to add an extra gene in their genome. That gene, which is the same in everyone, gives out a wide variety of different superpowers! From the ability to heal quickly to... umm... the ability to control weather and make things explode by touching them..."

[YAKMAN is ICHIBAN]

You can make any concept sound stupid if you boil it down this way.

[Sharpy Snow]

"Ok, so we take this Italian bloke. Plumber or something."
"So it's a puzzle game where he fixes pipes to keep the flow going?"
"Oh no no no. See, he never actually does Plumbing. Instead he's trying to find a princess."
"A princess?"
"Yeah, a princess of the mushroom people. Cept she's not a mushroom person, she's a hit brunette."
"Make her blonde."
"Good call."
"I know it is."
"But to save her he's gotta fight his way through fields of umm... evil mushrooms, living bullets and.... TURTLES!"
"Why turtles?"
"Well duh, the big boss is like King of the Turtles. So he kidnaps the princess for some reason or another."
"I'm still not sold."
"Well, ok, you have his little brother who helps him. But he's taller and not so fat. And the turtles can vary like... flying turtles. And turtles on clouds. And turtle American Football players."
"I have one more suggestion and we're good to go."
"Shoot."
"The plumber and his skinny brother can ride on Dinosaurs that eat everything."
"We're awesome."

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

Ok, so there's these monsters of different element types, and people collect them by throwing these balls at them. The balls will fire a beam upon impact that will shrink the monster and suck it into the ball. But it's quite comfy inside for them.

The real fun comes in having the monsters fight each other. Since the monsters enjoy the sport, it's not really a cockfight. Oh, and in different cities a trainer will be appointed to a high school gym, where they give out a badge if you can beat them in these monster fights.

[blackmegaman]

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"........just that name alone should spell disaster.

[Bang Bang Bart]

"Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers", essentially a redub of this Japanese show with these multi-coloured guys using kung-fu to beat up on rubber monsters. Only this time, we add original footage of high-schoolers having to contend with their school life when not saving the world. Also, let's have this gigantic floating head who tells our heroes about their duty to saving the world, who's assistant is a robot who constantly yelps out, "Ai-yi-yi-yi-yi!" for no good reason. Sound good?

[Bam Neeley]

Two people are fighting in the ring but it's not a real fight but rather an choreographed performance. And let's keep on saying it's real for 100 years.

[Bo Rida]

A group of ex-footballers sit around watching games that you can't see and describe what's going on. Soccer Saturday shouldn't work but has become a football institution.

A Vampire a Werewolf and a ghost share a house in Bristol.

I'd also love to have seen the pitch for Total Wipeout.

[Ryback on a Pole!]

An eccentric alien who looks just like a human travels through time in a 1950's police box.

[Soultastic]

A group of guys goes around hurting themselves.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

Two eight-year-old boys, one a domestic terrorist and the other a hoodlum, live with their pervy grandfather next door to a whiny lawyer and a crazy old racist man. And they all know kung fu.

[The Line]

An obscure prop comic from MinneapolisA Janitor makes fun of bad movies alongside two robot puppets. On a spaceship. In space.

[Bang Bang Bart]

A jobless bass-playing Torontonian has to defeat his new girlfriend's ex-boyfriends to win her heart. And get this, it all happens in some insane video-game version of Toronto. Whoooooooooah.

[Raging_Demons]

See there's this guy who's actually a doctor. But he walks with a cane & he hates people.

Now this doctor doesn't solve your normal cases, oh no! He solves medical cases that nobody has ever heard of!

Now get this! The doctor with a cane has a team of doctors that work with him, and just for the hell of it they look like supermodels & we'll throw in at least one that's a decent actor.

Oh & here's the kicker. The doctor is addicted to Vicodin!

[Bang Bang Bart]

Okay, there's this time-traveling alien, who travels in time by using a telephone booth, and he's a hero and all that. Also, for some reason, this alien has a doctorate of some sort. "Who" would watch this? I hope you do!