Basic Trope: Someone believes a real situation is just staged or faked.
- Straight: One night, Mary is out in the woods. She comes across a ferocious grizzly bear, but thinks it's just Spencer playing a trick on her.
- Exaggerated: Mary thinks the bear must be Spencer in costume, that rattlesnake noise is probably just Wendy playing a sound on her phone, the blood rain is just Cecil showering her with Kool-Aid, and it's not even night, and she's not even actually in the forest!
- Downplayed: Mary thinks the rustling in the bushes is just a prank, but she can tell the bear is real.
- Justified:
- Pranking Mary would be in-character for Spencer, and he does own a very realistic bear costume.
- Bears in this forest would be Misplaced Wildlife, and Mary knows they don't usually live there, so it has to be a prank.
- Inverted: And You Thought It Was Real
- Subverted: Mary was just joking; she knows the bear isn't actually Spencer.
- Double Subverted: She thinks it's Wendy in a costume instead.
- Parodied: Mary starts criticizing the bear on its "costume", pretending to see fake wires around the forest, and announcing that she's not fooled, Spencer! The bear attacks her.
- Zig-Zagged: Mary thinks the bear is Spencer. It wasn't, but she gets away. Then she runs into a bear who actually is Spencer, but she doesn't think so. After a while, she's able to tell. But she didn't notice that the rattlesnake sound she's been hearing this whole time has just been Wendy pranking her.
- Averted:
- Mary realizes that the bear is real as soon as she encounters it.
- The bear really was just Spencer in a costume, and Mary can tell instantly.
- Enforced: "Let's throw in some comedy before Mary encounters the bear."
- Lampshaded: "That's a nice bear costume, Spencer, but you can cut it out— wait, this is a real bear!"
- Invoked: Cecil tells Mary that Spencer's probably going to prank her, so she should look out for it.
- Exploited:
- Cecil is also trying to get Mary killed and doesn't want her to think she'll be encountering anything dangerous.
- Anything Mary thinks becomes true. She uses this as a tactic to get out of danger.
- Defied:
- Mary decides to treat each danger as real until she can prove otherwise.
- Cecil tosses a rock to the bear and makes it so angry it is obvious to Mary that it can't be Spencer in a bear costume (Spencer is not rich enough to buy a costume that realistic).
- Discussed: "If Mary gets into any real danger, I bet she'll just think someone's playing a trick on her."
- Conversed: "Why do characters on TV always think someone's planning elaborate pranks on them?"
- Implied: When Mary returns the next day, she says she saw Spencer in a bear costume. Spencer spent the entire day at home, and we don't realize what she actually ran into.
- Deconstructed:
- Mary is labeled Lethally Stupid because you need to be if you see a bear and the first thing you do is assume it's a guy in a costume. This leads to many people refusing to deal with her and insulting her intelligence, a with that Mary is going to end with a lot of misery.
- Mary ends up getting in a very traumatic event courtesy of walking right up to a bear thinking it's Spencer. As a result of that, Mary becomes overly paranoid.
- Reconstructed:
- Mary obtains a reputation as a Fearless Fool.
- Spencer does less spectacular jokes to bring her out of her shell and Mary does eventually assumes something odd that happens to her is Spencer pranking her and is not even mad.
- Played For Laughs:
- Mary gets in a Wimp Fight with the bear because she thinks it's Spencer, and wins.
- Mary saves the day specifically because she believed she was dealing with Spencer. The moment she is told it was a bear, Mary develops a Thousand-Yard Stare, a nervous guffaw, and faints.
- Played For Drama: Mary hears that she dealt with an actual bear instead of Spencer and starts screaming at him that how dare he decide to prank her in a fashion that could have gotten her killed. Spencer, on his end, is still not over the shock of seeing Mary in danger.
- Played For Horror: Mary approaches the bear thinking it's Spencer. The bear tears her apart.
Back to And You Thought It Was a Game— wait, that's a real link?
