Basic Trope: A story's buildup gets its payoff. A later event renders it meaningless.
- Straight: Greg, a luckless loser, steps out of his apartment to get a hot dog from the cart on the corner. He manages to get mixed up in a bank robbery, and by the time everything is resolved, the cart is closed.
- Exaggerated: Greg ruins his life and the lives of everyone he even tangentially cares about by getting up in the morning to get breakfast.
- Downplayed: He may not have gotten his dog, but Greg does get a freebie plate of fries for his trouble.
- Justified: As the kind of guy whose life fails to come to anything remotely resembling a point, not getting a hot dog is a normal Tuesday for Greg.
- Inverted: At the merest thought of getting one, Greg is deluged with hot dogs.
- Subverted: Through hard work and a little sacrifice, Greg gets his hot dog in the end.
- Double Subverted: But then Alice comes along and pats Greg in the back so hard that he drops his hot dog. And the vendor has already left. And everything Alice does to try to repent for the dropped dog just leads to more hardship.
- Parodied: Greg decides to eat at home, since the vendor will probably be closed by the time he gets there.
- Zig Zagged: Knowing the universe likes to mess with him, Greg feigns wanting a hot dog so he can go get a slice of pizza when he's inevitably denied his first option. When the pizza parlor turns out to be closed, Greg goes for sushi instead, only to be thwarted when the sushi place burns down before he gets there. Greg ends the night fishing a half-eaten taco out of the garbage, which ends up being carried off by a rogue seagull.
- Averted: Greg has no difficulty getting his hot dog.
- Enforced: Nobody is entitled to a hot dog, no matter how much they want one.
- Lampshaded: Greg doesn't make much of a fuss when he doesn't get his dog. He's used to it.
- Invoked: Being a real jerk, Greg doesn't deserve to get his hot dog anyway.
- Exploited: The whole thing is an elaborate ploy by Charlie to make Greg commit suicide.
- Defied: Greg makes damn sure he gets a hot dog, come hell or high water.
- Discussed: The vagueries of Greg's life are examined as potential factors for his bad luck, and to see if there is any solution.
- Conversed: "Why can't I get some chow without getting my teeth pulled in the process?"
- Implied: Every time Greg tries to get something, he starts having a sinking feeling.
- Deconstructed:
- Having his luck worsen to the point where he can't even get a decent meal leaves Greg cynical, fatalistic and dejected. If he wants anything, it's not going to happen. Why bother?
- Emperor Evulz put in the hours only for all of his plotting, scheming, backstabbing and manipulations to come crumbling down. He takes it so hard that he falls into despair and tries to kill the heroes by pulling a Taking You with Me Desperation Attack.
- Reconstructed:
- After thinking on it long and hard, Greg decides the hot dog wouldn't have made him any happier, and lets it go with equanimity. The beans in his cupboard are nourishment enough.
- After briefly despairing, Emperor Evulz realizes he still had fun on his way to the top. So he passes away content or manages to escape reinvigorated to plot another day.
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