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* DidNotThinkThisThrough: Once upon a time, Eddie Smith had it all: a prestigious career as an officer for a cruise line, and a close-enough resemblance to Creator/KevinCostner to "score" with dozens of women. He particularly enjoyed sleeping with married passengers, ''"but like most men whose brains are in their dicks, he was not really thinking things through."'' His career came to a screeching halt when one of his conquests had a guilt attack and confessed everything to her husband.

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* DidNotThinkThisThrough: Once upon a time, Eddie Smith had it all: a prestigious career as an officer for a cruise line, and a [[CelebrityResemblance close-enough resemblance resemblance]] to Creator/KevinCostner to "score" with dozens of women. He particularly enjoyed sleeping with married passengers, ''"but like most men whose brains are in their dicks, he was not really thinking things through."'' His career came to a screeching halt when one of his conquests had a guilt attack and confessed everything to her husband.
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Phrasing


* UndercoverCopReveal: [[spoiler:Fay the cocktail waitress]] is an undercover officer for the Coast Guard Investigative Service. Both the readers and the other characters find this out when the officer pulls a gun on the bad guys.

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* UndercoverCopReveal: [[spoiler:Fay the cocktail waitress]] is an undercover officer for the Coast Guard Investigative Service. Both the readers and the other characters find this out when the officer pulls they pull a gun on the bad guys.
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Added The Stoner example

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* TheStoner: Wally and his bandmates are regular pot smokers, and all besides Wally are essentially comic-relief characters. Downplayed in Wally's case, since he has fewer pot-smoking scenes and at one point seems to be vaguely ashamed of how much he smokes.
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* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: One of Lou Tarant's Mafia subordinates has been a bit distracted lately because his wife has cancer. This is the same guy who was supposed to be keeping tabs on Bobby Kemp, which is one reason Kemp's plan got as far as it did.
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A novel by Creator/DaveBarry. Like his previous foray into fiction, ''Literature/BigTrouble'', ''Tricky Business'' is set in Miami and concerns the interlocking stories of several quirky characters. It's another spoof of the crime drama, this time set on a casino cruise liner and involving a man dressed like a giant conch shell, air bag deployers that spray garbage on you instead of air bags, and the world's most valuable lifeboat.

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A 2002 novel by Creator/DaveBarry. Like his previous foray into fiction, ''Literature/BigTrouble'', ''Tricky Business'' is set in Miami and concerns the interlocking stories of several quirky characters. It's another spoof of the crime drama, this time set on a casino cruise liner and involving a man dressed like a giant conch shell, air bag deployers that spray garbage on you instead of air bags, and the world's most valuable lifeboat.
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* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: When of Tarant's mooks was a teenager, he chose to join TheMafia, ignoring his mother's pleas to follow his elder brother's example and become a CPA, on the grounds that he didn't want to spend the rest of his life sitting behind a desk. This choice eventually leads to him driving a cigarette boat carrying himself, Tarant, and a crew of heavily-armed mooks out to sea to intercept the ''Extravaganza'', in a tropical storm. The experience is so miserable that the mook reflects on his life and regrets not taking the desk job after all.

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* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: When one of Tarant's mooks was a teenager, he chose to join TheMafia, ignoring his mother's pleas to follow his elder brother's example and become a CPA, on the grounds that he didn't want to spend the rest of his life sitting behind a desk. This choice eventually leads to him driving a cigarette boat carrying himself, Tarant, and a crew of heavily-armed mooks out to sea to intercept the ''Extravaganza'', in a tropical storm. The experience is so miserable that the mook reflects on his life and regrets not taking the desk job after all.
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minor phrasing tweaks


* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: When of Tarant's mooks was a teenager, he chose to pursue a life of crime, ignoring his mother's pleas to follow his elder brother's example and become a CPA, on the grounds that he didn't want to spend the rest of his life sitting behind a desk. This choice eventually leads to him driving a cigarette boat carrying himself, Tarant, and a crew of heavily-armed mooks out to sea to intercept the ''Extravaganza'', in a tropical storm. The experience is so abjectly miserable that the mook reflects on his life and regrets not taking the desk job after all.

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* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: When of Tarant's mooks was a teenager, he chose to pursue a life of crime, join TheMafia, ignoring his mother's pleas to follow his elder brother's example and become a CPA, on the grounds that he didn't want to spend the rest of his life sitting behind a desk. This choice eventually leads to him driving a cigarette boat carrying himself, Tarant, and a crew of heavily-armed mooks out to sea to intercept the ''Extravaganza'', in a tropical storm. The experience is so abjectly miserable that the mook reflects on his life and regrets not taking the desk job after all.
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Restored and reworded Be Careful What You Wish For example because I realized that the quotation with the word "wish" in it was not the wish in question.

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* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: When of Tarant's mooks was a teenager, he chose to pursue a life of crime, ignoring his mother's pleas to follow his elder brother's example and become a CPA, on the grounds that he didn't want to spend the rest of his life sitting behind a desk. This choice eventually leads to him driving a cigarette boat carrying himself, Tarant, and a crew of heavily-armed mooks out to sea to intercept the ''Extravaganza'', in a tropical storm. The experience is so abjectly miserable that the mook reflects on his life and regrets not taking the desk job after all.
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Removed bad example. Be Careful What You Wish For covers wishing for something, getting it, and then regretting it. In the given example, the wish was not granted, and the regret was the cause of the wish instead of the effect.


* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: One of Tarant's mooks is tasked to drive the cigarette boat carrying himself, Tarant, and a crew of heavily-armed mooks out to sea to intercept the ''Extravaganza'', in a tropical storm. He is so abjectly miserable that he flashes back to his teenage years, when he ignored his mother's pleas to follow his elder brother's example and become a CPA, saying he would never spend the rest of his life sitting behind a desk.
-->''I wish to God I was sitting behind a desk right now.''
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* CovertGroupWithMundaneFront:
** The Chum Bucket bar and restaurant ([[WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants no relation]]), which is a front for Lou Tarant's organization and the casting-off point for the ''Extravaganza of the Seas''. The Coast Guard knows all about it (referring to "our friends at the Chum Bucket"), but they haven't been able to prove anything yet.
** The ''Extravaganza of the Seas'' itself is a downplayed example. It's a legitimate casino as far as the customers are concerned, and most of the employees are just ordinary workers who aren't in on the secret. Still, most of the employees who have been there long enough have figured out that ''something'' shady is going on, even if they aren't eager to find out the details.
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Specifying that Totally Not A Criminal Front is for poorly-veiled fronts.


* TotallyNotACriminalFront:
** The Chum Bucket bar and restaurant ([[WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants no relation]]), which is a front for Lou Tarant's organization and the casting-off point for the ''Extravaganza of the Seas''. The Coast Guard knows all about it (referring to "our friends at the Chum Bucket"), but they haven't been able to prove anything yet.
** The ''Extravaganza of the Seas'' itself is a downplayed example. It's a legitimate casino as far as the customers are concerned, and most of the employees are just ordinary workers who aren't in on the secret. Still, most of the employees who have been there long enough have figured out that ''something'' shady is going on, even if they aren't eager to find out the details.

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Legitimate Businessmens Social Club TRS cleanup, disambiguating when appropriate.


* LegitimateBusinessmensSocialClub:
** The Chum Bucket bar and restaurant ([[WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants no relation]]), which is a front for Lou Tarant's organization and the casting-off point for the ''Extravaganza of the Seas''. The Coast Guard knows all about it (referring to "our friends at the Chum Bucket"), but they haven't been able to prove anything yet.
** The ''Extravaganza of the Seas'' itself is a downplayed example. It's a legitimate casino as far as the customers are concerned, and most of the employees are just ordinary workers who aren't in on the secret. Still, most of the employees who have been there long enough have figured out that ''something'' shady is going on, even if they aren't eager to find out the details.

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* LegitimateBusinessmensSocialClub:
** The Chum Bucket bar and restaurant ([[WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants no relation]]), which is a front for Lou Tarant's organization and the casting-off point for the ''Extravaganza of the Seas''. The Coast Guard knows all about it (referring to "our friends at the Chum Bucket"), but they haven't been able to prove anything yet.
** The ''Extravaganza of the Seas'' itself is a downplayed example. It's a legitimate casino as far as the customers are concerned, and most of the employees are just ordinary workers who aren't in on the secret. Still, most of the employees who have been there long enough have figured out that ''something'' shady is going on, even if they aren't eager to find out the details.


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* TotallyNotACriminalFront:
** The Chum Bucket bar and restaurant ([[WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants no relation]]), which is a front for Lou Tarant's organization and the casting-off point for the ''Extravaganza of the Seas''. The Coast Guard knows all about it (referring to "our friends at the Chum Bucket"), but they haven't been able to prove anything yet.
** The ''Extravaganza of the Seas'' itself is a downplayed example. It's a legitimate casino as far as the customers are concerned, and most of the employees are just ordinary workers who aren't in on the secret. Still, most of the employees who have been there long enough have figured out that ''something'' shady is going on, even if they aren't eager to find out the details.
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* PartingWordsRegret: Wally and the wounded Faye are lost at sea, trying to stay alive until help comes. He's kept it together reasonably well, until he remembers that the last thing he said to his mother as he left the house was to shrug off her offer of an umbrella (''"Mom, for God's sakes, it's purple"''), and then to drive away without saying goodbye. Then he starts sobbing like a baby.
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* DidNotThinkThisThrough: Once upon a time, Eddie Smith had it all: a prestigious career as an officer for a cruise line, and a close-enough resemblance to Creator/KevinCostner to "score" with dozens of women. He particularly enjoyed sleeping with married passengers, ''"but like most men whose brains are in their dicks, he was not really thinking things through."'' His career came to a screeching halt when one of his conquests had a guilt attack and confessed everything to her husband.


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* FalseRapeAccusation: Eddie Smith was drummed out of the cruise ship business when one of the female passengers he seduced confessed to her husband, claiming Eddie [[DateRape drugged her first]]. The Miami District Attorney decided not to file criminal charges, since it was fairly obvious (to everyone except the husband) that she was a willing participant, but Eddie still couldn't save his job.


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* HookersAndBlow: How Eddie Smith spent the entirety of his earnings as a drug mule, before getting caught and arrested. It becomes a major source of self-loathing for him later, when he falls in genuine love with a woman whose son needs a heart operation that he could have paid for if he'd saved even a fraction of his earnings.


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* WasItReallyWorthIt: Eddie Smith lost his job as a cruise ship officer after it came out that he had seduced a passenger's wife. He was condemned to working as a mate on a tourist fishing boat, reflecting ruefully:
-->''He had traded his career for a sexual experience that had lasted maybe eight minutes. And it hadn't even been particularly '''good''' sex.''
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* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: One of Tarant's mooks is tasked to drive the cigarette boat carrying himself, Tarant, and a crew of heavily-armed mooks out to sea to intercept the ''Extravaganza'', in a tropical storm. He is so abjectly miserable that he flashes back to his teenage years, when he ignored his mother's pleas to follow his elder brother's example and become a CPA, saying he would never spend the rest of his life sitting behind a desk.
-->''I wish to God I was sitting behind a desk right now.''


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*CheeseEatingSurrenderMonkeys: Lou Tarant orders his assistant to assemble a crew of heavily-armed thugs on a speedboat to intercept the ''Extravaganza of the Seas''; by the time Tarant arrives to take personal command of the crew, they have amassed ''"enough firepower to invade a small Third World country. Or France."''


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* RevengeBeforeReason:
** Bobby Kemp hates Lou Tarant's [[TheDragon dragon]] Manny Arquero so much for humiliating him during a previous encounter that he eagerly embraces the part of Tark's plan that involves Kemp sneaking aboard the boat and shooting Arquero during the heist - which is a crucial component of Tark's plan to kill Kemp and frame him for the heist.
** Mafia ''capo'' Lou Tarant is so enraged by the news that Kemp is attempting to hijack a shipment of drugs and money that he insists not only on sending a crew of heavily-armed thugs to intercept him, but on accompanying them himself. Several of his underlings advise him not to send a speedboat out in a tropical storm, or to at least let them unload the boat's own shipment of cocaine before it leaves, but he dismisses them - which leads to the boat flipping over and marooning them at sea, to be captured red-handed by the Coast Guard. Several police and prosecutors unwittingly lampshade the trope, remarking that they can't understand how someone as smart as Tarant could ever let himself come within a mile of the actual dirty business he has long been suspected of.
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More accurate descriptor of his behavior.


* VileVillainSaccharineShow: Well the book isn't exactly saccharine, but Tark is noticeably played far more seriously, with most of his scenes emphasizing his psychotic nature, rather than funny things happening to him.

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* VileVillainSaccharineShow: Well the book isn't exactly saccharine, but Tark is noticeably played far more seriously, with most of his scenes emphasizing his psychotic psychopathic nature, rather than funny things happening to him.
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* EvilPlan: [[spoiler: This is one the main villains main mode of operating. Unfortunately for him his plan has the pleasure of being interrupted by several SpannerInTheWorks. This forces him to try out XanatosSpeedChess... He isn't very successful]]

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* EvilPlan: [[spoiler: This is one of the main villains villain's main mode of operating. Unfortunately for him his plan has the pleasure of being interrupted by several SpannerInTheWorks. This forces him to try out XanatosSpeedChess... He isn't very successful]]

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added more Politically Incorrect Villain material


* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Tark is openly racist and uses a slur against Juan, who is Hispanic.

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* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: PoliticallyIncorrectVillain:
**
Tark is openly racist and uses a slur slurs against Juan, who both Juan (who is Hispanic.Hispanic) and his own usual crew (black Bahamanians).
** Bobby Kemp flings a few anti-Italian slurs at Lou Tarant once he catches on that Lou is a member of TheMafia. Lou soon frightens him into stopping.

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Added The Casanova, with detailed examples, as a replacement for The Pornomancer.


* TheCasanova:
** Jock, the drummer in Wally's band. He's not a clever man, but he's very physically attractive and he makes that work for him. Many of the women he sleeps with (the book lists a few) are annoyed with their man or ex-man, and are looking to let off some steam.
--->Jock's approach to women was: Move in close, keep talking, allow the women to be overcome by his studliness. This didn't always work, but it worked often enough that Jock had no reason to try another approach.
** Eddie slept with many women, both single and married, in his days working on cruise ships. He actually ''preferred'' sleeping with married women because the risk made it more exciting. But that was decades ago; by the time the story begins, he is in a committed long-term relationship.



%%* ThePornomancer: One of the bandmembers.

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Fixed the alphabetical order


* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Tark is openly racist and uses a slur against Juan, who is Hispanic.



* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Tark is openly racist and uses a slur against Juan, who is Hispanic.
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* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Tark is openly racist and uses a slur against Juan, who is Hispanic.
Is there an issue? Send a MessageReason:

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* BleakAbyssRetirementHome: Downplayed. Phil and Arnie live in a retirement home called the Beaux Arts Senior Living Center—or as Arnie calls it, the Old Farts Senile Dying Center. Not as bleak as some other examples of the trope, but certainly less pleasant than living independently. The staff isn't too rude or insulting (except for one guy who threatens to put Phil and Arnold in the Assisted Living wing, aka the loony bin), but they're not used to having their residents being very active, which could be chalked up to the large numbers of pills they hand out to every senior. Phil and Arnold bribe an orderly by giving him their allotted drugs, which he then sells at parties.
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* WeakBossStrongUnderlings: After Manny Arquero humiliates Bobby Kemp in front of his date (well, remains calm while Kemp looks like the whiny little bitch he is), Kemp buys the ship Manny works on and fires him. Unfortunately, Manny actually works for the mob and is very quickly rehired ([[ShameIfSomethingHappened and Kemp informed of how things work from then on]]).
--> The first thing he did, as owner, was go to the ship and personally fire Manny Arquero, from behind two bodyguards. Arquero did not seem troubled at all.
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Loads And Loads Of Characters is no longer a trope


%%* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters
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* BigBadWannabe: Bobby Kemp is so furious at being made an unwilling partner in the Mafia's money laundering and drug trade (especially since he isn't getting a cut) that he decides to ''"mastermind"'' a hijack of the next shipment; being, in Tark's estimation, ''"the perfect combination of greedy, confident, and stupid"'', this doesn't end well for him.

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