'''Basic Trope''': An outline is made in the ground around a corpse.
* '''Straight''': In a crime scene, there are many body-shaped outlines of chalk on the pavement.
* '''Exaggerated''':
** The apocalypse has occurred. Most have died. And those people ''all'' have a chalk outline.
** A boy stomps on an ''ant'', and it gets an outline.
* '''Downplayed''':
** The location of important body parts such as the head is indicated with a dot of chalk.
** The chalk outlines were made pre-photography in a different location while detectives pondered the implications of the relative positioning.
** The outline is not on the scene itself, but edited onto a photo of the scene.
* '''Justified''': The outline will help the authorities to get an accurate picture of the crime scene as they saw it.
* '''Inverted''': Someone dies on a chalk outline.
* '''Subverted''': Even though there are police tape and chalk outlines, it turns out to be just an [[TrueArtIsIncomprehensible artist's]] newest piece.
* '''Double Subverted''': The artist was using the work to cover up a murder.
* '''Parodied''': A chalk outline is made around a person hanging from a noose. Somehow.
** Chalk outlines are made for all sorts of other random crimes including a series of chalk footprints for jaywalking.
* '''Zig Zagged''': A crime scene with chalk outlines is revealed to be an art show. An art show that was covering up a murder. Of crows. That turn out to have killed a bunch of people.
* '''Averted''': A person is killed, but is left there with no outline.
* '''Enforced''': Showing a dead body is not allowed, so a chalk outline is substituted and it is just implied that the corpse was ugly.
* '''Lampshaded''': "Why are you doing that? No one outlines a body in chalk anymore!"
* '''Invoked''': Golems have chalk embedded into their frame so that if destroyed they will leave a chalk outline of their rough shape after they disintegrate.
* '''Exploited''': ???
* '''Defied''': The cops take pictures of the crime scene and leave a numbered marker to indicate where the body was.
* '''Discussed''': ???
* '''Conversed''': ???
* '''Deconstructed''': All that chalk contaminates the crime scene, making the investigators' job that much harder.
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