Should these keywords be merged?

@Peter_pbn​ 

whodunnit-mystery is from IMDb's list of subgenres.

Good point.

https://help.imdb.com/article/contribution/titles/keywords/GXQ22G5Y72TH8MJ5?ref_=helpms_helpart_inline#special

As far as I can tell, many if not all of these "subgenre" keywords were user-created in the first place. In other words, IMDb staff simply compiled their list of "acceptable" subgenre keywords from the existing keywords, rather than creating the list from scratch. 

And it seems fairly obvious to me that staff compiled the list by searching for the keywords using the broad genre words as bases for their search. For example, they found "whodunnit-mystery" by searching for "-mystery" keywords. But because they compiled their list in this way, they made some mistakes, like including "giallo-thriller" but not "giallo" itself. 

All that is to say that the list of "acceptable" subgenre keywords is not sacrosanct by any means. 

@Peter_pbn​ p.s. Interesting that the list of "acceptable" subgenre keywords does not include "murder-mystery." 

Aren't "whodunit" and "murder-mystery" the same thing?

I think they created many of the listed keywords from scratch.

@Peter_pbn​ Which ones, for example?

Most obviously things like winter-sports-sport or costume-drama-history, which you would only think of if you had a specific wish to create keywords that include genre labels.

Michelle said, "these keywords have been created to drive new search experiences to aid title discovery for users" (my thread)

@Peter_pbn​ Those are good examples, and I think you are right (about some of the subgenre keywords).

The keyword page for "I, Tonya" shows that "winter-sports-sport," "domestic-drama," "docudrama-drama" (a really stupid keyword) and "timeframe-21st-century" were all added together, and at some point fairly recently. 

Speaking of "docudrama-drama," seems like all these keywords should simply be merged into "docudrama."

When I think of "whodunit", I do expectedly associate it with murder mystery, but I'm not sure that a mystery of non-homicidal violations couldn't also be a whodunit. I mean, we could easily have a story about townsfolk or even housemates trying to identify a serial rapist, a serial arsonist, a serial burglar, a serial vandal or so, who strikes again every so often and yet rationally must belong to an established suspect pool.

The blend of drama and documentary can and perhaps ought to be narrowed down to two keywords like "docudrama" (for dramatization of real events) and "dramatic-documentary" (for captured events compiled in such a way as to present or feel like a dramatic story).

@jeorj_euler​ So, in those cases, you could have "whodunit" as a keyword without "murder"as a keyword and possibly without Mystery as a genre.

And, "docudrama" would be appropriate for the first situation, but, in the second, Drama and Documentary should both be genres.

@jeorj_euler​ I wondered about whether there could be a "whodunit" involving a crime other than murder, so I checked the dictionary definition, which specifically identifies murder in the first part of the definition, but then also includes "detective story." 

a narrative dealing with a murder or a series of murders and the detection of the criminal; detective story.

So I guess technically "whodunit" could be something different from a "murder mystery," but it would seem those would be rare.

The Wikipedia entry for "Whodunit" also focuses on murder mysteries, while leaving the door open to other crimes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whodunit