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Cquote1
"I just wanna say one thing: God bless America."
Biff Tannen, Back to The Future
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The United States is somewhat popular.

There is a certain hard-to-describe quality in the idea of something being "American". It means wholesome values, hard-working Protestantism, apple pies and soda shops. So, it's only natural that some American works will put "American" in their title as a way to signify what they are all about.

But, as some people would notice later, there are some Unfortunate Implications in including the word "American" as some sort of superlative. So, nowadays, it's more likely that you'll see an American Title in an ironic fashion than not, subverting the original meaning.

Of course, there's always the less popular American idea that the term "American" refers only to the place of origin of the described term, and is not related to a truckload of ideology, but thanks to Misaimed Fandom, it might be hard to convince others of this. It also raises the question of why no-one else does it.

Compare It Came From Beverly Hills

Contrast Eagle Land—this trope refers to titles that try to induce that American idea...in America!

Not to be confused with Market-Based Title.


Examples of American Title include:

American Examples[]

Of the straightforward variety[]

Film[]


Literature[]


Live-Action TV[]

  • The American Embassy (which was set in London - ironically, the series was never screened on British television)
  • The American Girls (about two correspondents for a newsmagazine called The American Report - this series aired in the UK as Have Girls, Will Travel)
  • Love, American Style


Music[]

  • American Beauty (the Grateful Dead album)
    • One presumes the pasta brand and the flower (a type of rose, and the ultimate namesake of all the others) are also intended to be interpreted in a straightforward fashion.
  • Don Mc Lean's "American Pie" (Song and LP)
  • American Spirit
  • American Recordings (Record label)
  • "American Secrets", a song off of the Parachute album The Way it Was
  • "American Girls", a single off of the Counting Crows album Hard Candy


Radio[]


Western Animation[]


Real Life[]

  • American Greetings

Of the subversive variety[]

Comic Books[]


Film[]


Literature[]


Live-Action TV[]


Music[]


Other[]

  • American Television
  • Americano (the implication of the name is that Americans can't handle espresso unless it's watered down)


Theatre[]

  • American Dream, play by George O'Neil


Video Games[]


Western Animation[]

Examples where the name only describes a nationality[]

Art[]

  • American Gothic, a painting named after the architectural style American Gothic, which is the style of the house featured.


Comic Books[]

  • American Virgin, in the later issues


Film[]


Literature[]

  • American Girl
  • American Gods
  • The Ugly American, in which the title character is physically unattractive but one of the nicest people (not to mention Americans) in the book


Live-Action TV[]


Video Games[]


Web Comics[]


Web Original[]


Western Animation[]