Time Fcuk

Is Time Fcuk a superflat? I'm going to have to answer yes. I wouldn't have picked up on most of the tropes or references made in game if it hadn't been for the tropes as tools site. Anyways, I'd say it's superflat because most of the tropes seemed to be used for comedic affect, without anything deeper waiting around the corner. Now, I'm not really one to define deepness (?) because I think that changes from person to person, but I'd have to say that if a reference is made, it should at least be as parody or to evoke emotion.

I'm perfectly fine with superflat in various forms of media, and it's really fun to have that aha! moment when playing a game or watching a tv show. Hell, I picked the mind screw trope, and an example was the ending of Mystery Team, which I love. And it's because of that aha! one shot style that I'd have to say that Time Fcuk is a superflat creation.

Now, piggybacking off that last thought, I'd have to say that yeah, superflat has found it's way into Western media. There's Mystery Team, Black Swan, Inception, hell, even the latest Batman film. They all use the Mind Screw trope. The only reason I can come up with for the latter three films is that the director wants to leave the audience guessing, but other than that, it's not really contributing to anything deeper. I mean, yeah, there are tons of people who will begin to apply their own meaning, but, if that's the case, doesn't it mean that the director had no deeper meaning for the ending? The ending was left up to the audience?

Following that, if that is the case, and I understand superflat right, then the trope was just put in just because. Because it was an option, because, well, why the hell not?

COD: Black Ops was a game that had a screw ending. Mason helps to kill JFK. Why? Cause...they could mostly. It was a historical reference that was more thrown in to elicit an "oh shit" response rather than actually leading to anything more.

Pretty much, that whole site can be evidence that superflat has found its' place in Western culture. Whether intentional or not, tropes and allusions are showing up everywhere. Take the Community episode, Paradigms of Human Memory. The whole episode is an allusion to flashback episodes, for the sake of parody, so, that would make it not superflat. However, the show is flashing back to events that never happened, for the sake of humor. This might have been a somewhat meta and complicated episode, but the point still stands: there are an enormous amount of shows that follow these normal tropes, and they do it for no other reason than that every other show is doing it, and the audience will recognize it. There's no deeper meaning, just a level of comfort for viewers. I wouldn't be surprised if more examples start to become more prominent, with our culture being so fixated on popular culture, it only seems natural that more references will be made or alluded to for no other purpose than to just do it.