tvtropes.org

Reader's Digest - TV Tropes

  • ️Sat Nov 16 2024

Reader's Digest (Magazine)

Founded in 1922 by DeWitt and Lila Acheson Wallace, Reader's Digest initially condensed articles from other publications to deliver accessible content to readersnote . Its scope slowly evolved throughout the years until it became the general-interest magazine renowned for its compact format and diverse content that it is today. By the mid-20th century, it had become one of the most widely circulated magazines globally, with editions in numerous languages. The digital era posed challenges, prompting the publication to evolve its delivery model through websites and e-readers, ensuring its relevance in the modern media landscape.

Reader's Digest offers an eclectic mix of articles spanning personal finance, health and wellness, travel, humor, and inspiring human-interest stories. There are some regular features such as "All in a Day's Work", "Laughter, The Best Medicine", "Life in These United States", and "Word Power". A key element of these pieces is an emphasis on uplifting and inspiring narratives and universal themes. They frequently highlight stories of human triumph, personal growth, and community contributions. On top of that, the magazine also includes abridged versions of novels, short stories, and pieces by prominent authors. As a result, it's turned into a platform for introducing literary works to wider audiences.

The magazine's 21st-century issues enjoy a multimedia format enriched by online blogs, videos, and interactive content.

Provides examples of:

  • Accidental Art: A collegiate art student knocked over a jar of rubber cement, resulting in a terrible mess. Thinking that it would be easier to clean up after the cement had dried, the student left it and returned a few hours later only to find that it was gone. Upon questioning the teacher, the student learned that someone else had taken the pile of cement and turned it in as a project.
  • Accidental Unfortunate Gesture: An army officer saw a truck coming towards him with three soldiers in the cab; a violation of the safety rules. He held up two fingers to indicate that there were only supposed to be two people in the cab. A confused-looking driver returned the peace sign as he drove past.
  • Acronym Confusion: A new graduate's parents were visiting on base and saw a van pull up that said SWAT on the side. The parents were concerned until the graduate informed them that it was the landscapers and stood for Seeds, Weeds, And Trash.
  • Afraid of Needles: The "All In A Day's Work" or "Humor In Medicine" columns frequently feature stories told by nurses or doctors of a patient covered in tattoos and/or piercings freaking out upon being told that they're going to be stuck with a needle for a blood test or IV placement.
  • Anthropomorphized Anatomy: A series of articles are written from the perspective of human organs. They have titles like "I am Joe's Heart". ("I am John's Heart" in the UK editions for some reason.)
  • Armed Farces: A section specifically made for military humor has always been a tradition for the magazine.
  • Billy Needs an Organ: One of the sidebar stories tells the tale of a woman who received a heart transplant and (unknowingly) struck up a romance with the grieving widower, wondering why he'd always caress her chest where her heart lay.
  • Crash Course Landing: One anecdote is about a husband-and-wife who went up in his small plane. During the flight, he has a heart attack and falls unconscious. The wife, getting instructions from the aircraft control tower, successfully landed the plane.
  • Fake Charity:

    "In our college post office, a collection box appeared marked: Help The Blind Fund. It filled up rapidly with small change. One day it was replaced by a card which read: Thank you for your contributions. The Venetian blinds for our dormitory room have now been purchased."

  • Freaky Fashion, Mild Mind: In a letter to the UK version, a businessman describes being on the way back from work when he realised he was alone in the train carriage with a "gang" in biker gear. He tried to concentrate on his crossword, especially when he realised they were whispering to each other and glancing at him. When one of them finally moved towards him, he thought he was about to be mugged, until the man said "That The Times, mate? Any idea about six across? We're stumped."
  • From Dress to Dressing: One of those incredible true stories of a 115-pound girl dragging her 160-pound injured boyfriend down a steep waterfall trail. She stripped off her surf shorts for his head wound, and her bikini top for his arm wound, and said "My bikini bottoms would have been off if I'd needed to." Props, lady.
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff: [invoked] Brad Pitt is a celebrity who is big among young adult women in Japan for some reason unknown to the rest of the world. Reader's Digest has records of Japanese women naming their Tamagotchi after him.
  • Hold Your Hippogriffs: In a 'story, a student of medieval history explains that she was far too busy to do something by saying "I've just got too much on my trenchernote ."
  • The "I Love You" Stigma: A man recounts his decision to say "I love you" more. It was funny in a rather sad way — his wife wondered if he was covering up an affair, and his mother reacted as though he was expecting her to drop dead at any moment.
  • Lightbulb Joke: One anecdote was sent by a guy who tried to tell his friend the truck driver the lightbulb joke that begins with "How many Teamstersnote  does it take to change a lightbulb?", but before he could say the standard punchline—"Ten. You got a problem with that?"—his friend replied, with a completely straight face, "None. Teamsters shouldn't be handling lightbulbs."
  • Loophole Abuse: The magazine once printed this apocryphal story about a cricket match somewhere in England:

    "The captain of the batting team was facing the first ball of the innings, with the opposing captain as wicketkeeper. The ball was almost a wide down the leg side, but broke back viciously and bowled him out. The astonished batsman exclaimed, "Well, I declare!" The opposing captain overheard and took him at his word, so the innings were closed at one for naught. After the teams changed round, the first bowler began running round and round the boundary with no apparent intention of stopping. When asked what was going on, the captain of the fielding side explained to the umpire, "There is no rule limiting the length of the bowler's run. He's the local marathon champion, and he's running until bad light stops play". The match was drawn with one ball bowled."

  • Made of Iron: A teacher wrote in about how she used to work at a school and warned the kids that they were climbing a little too high in the tree. Not long after she turned around to watch the other kids, she heard screaming because one of the kids had, sure enough, fallen a good six meters (twenty feet) out of the tree, landed on his back, then stood up and ran over because he hurt his finger. When he was alerted to the numerous cuts on his leg, he simply said "Oh. That."
  • Mondegreen Gag: There was an article in a 1980s edition in which the author recounted how, as a child, she thought that the first line went off The Star-Spangled Banner, "O say can you see, by the daunserly light" and kept "daunserly" as her secret, magical word. She was eventually corrected on this by her family when she decided that it couldn't hurt to share that magical word with her sister who, of course, initially had no idea what she was referring to.
  • Mundane Luxury: According to an article, David Milgaard, who spent years in prison before being cleared of the murder he was wrongfully convicted for, marvelled at finally seeing a sunset.
  • One-Letter Name: In an issue from 1958,:

    "My friend R.B. Jones doesn't have a first or middle name — only the initials R.B. This unusual arrangement was never a problem until he went to work for a government agency. The government is not accustomed to initialing employees, so R.B. had a lot of explaining to do. On the official forms for the payroll and personnel departments, his name was carefully entered as R (Only) B (Only) Jones.

    Sure enough, when R.B. got his pay check, it was made out to Ronly Bonly Jones."

  • Phony Article: Ads have been known to be disguised as jokes, condensed readings, comic strips, and essays about the product in question. They are written with the same conservative, tongue-in-cheek tone as any other article in the magazine.
  • Secret Test: The magazine once did a worldwide honesty test by leaving wallets out in the open and seeing if the person who finds it returns it or not. The editors commented that people who looked like they needed the money often returned the wallet (the most notable case being a person so poor that he went through dumpsters to find bottles to sell who nonetheless returned the wallet, saying that he thought it might have belonged to a handicapped person who needed the money more than he did) whereas people who looked rich enough to not need the money often didn't return the wallet. One such candidate passed with flying colors by returning a wallet... but only after replacing the money someone else had stolen from it with his own.
  • Slice of Life: The magazine's humor sections draw on situational comedy and shared cultural absurdities such as workplace mishaps or family dynamics.
  • Spoonerism: A brilliant and beloved university professor who frequently spoke in spoonerisms because, according to the article, his mind worked so fast that his mouth simply couldn't keep up. Possibly the most charming incident the article related was when he addressed a woman who had taken his seat in chapel: "I beg your pardon, but you are occupewing my pie. May I sew you to your sheet?"