| abstract | - The unwritten rule that, after a given number of years, there has been enough turnover in the fanbase that a writer can re-use the same gimmicks and storylines with impunity. The general principle applies to any work that is enough of a Long Runner and/or has enough of a Fleeting Demographic to outlast most of its initial fanbase. For example, during the Silver Age of comics, the writers assumed that their demographic was kids ages 9-11 -- which would make a two-year turnover safe -- and that their demographic rarely read comics frequently enough to notice the repetition. They also believed that even if they did read them often, they wouldn't notice. This has been turned away from in recent times because comics are now written by people who love Continuity; if they make events repeat, then they'll eventually come up with a metaplot to explain it. Not the same as Older Than They Think, this trope's influence extends to tropes, plots, lines and gimmicks of more recent vintage, that the viewer can be reasonably expected to have seen since it was The Big Cool New Thing just a couple of years ago — and a couple of years before that, and a couple of years before that, and... Compare Recycled Script. Contrast Spiritual Successor where the writers don't have to pretend this isn't a rehash - because it isn't truly a rehash. Examples of Fleeting Demographic Rule include:
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