Basic Trope: Character spends long night out, sneaks into house, is caught by somebody waiting up for them.
- Straight: Buster was grounded, but snuck out of the house to hit the Wild Teen Party anyway. When he gets home, his mother flips on the lightswitch right as he enters the living room.
- Exaggerated:
- Buster is caught by three motion-sensing halogen spotlights, and is discovered by by his mother, his father, his grandparents, their local priest... Even the Dog Is Ashamed.
- Buster isn't even allowed to leave his room, yet he spent an entire weekend away at a hotel out of town. When he gets back, his parents are still waiting for him, with bags under their eyes, pissed off beyond belief.
- Downplayed: Buster gets back in the early hours of the morning after being told to be back by midnight.
- Justified: Buster's mom overheard some of Buster's mates talking about the party on their way home.
- Inverted:
- Buster gets bored of the party and comes home early, only to see his parents making out on the sofa. They get annoyed with him for not coming home later.
- Buster catches one of his parents coming home from an affair.
- Subverted: When Buster slips into the house, the lightswitch goes on... and it's his Cool Big Sis, who is more amused than anything.
- Double Subverted: ...but his much less amused Dad is sitting on his bed.
- Parodied: Buster was grounded, but snuck out of the house to hit the Wild Teen Party anyway. When he gets home, his mother flips on a massive array of floodlights right as he enters the living room. The origin of the lights is never explained.
- Zig Zagged: Buster is wary of his parents catching him, so he sneaks in as quietly as possible and peers into the living room... sure enough, Mom's right there on the couch. Only she's fallen asleep. Buster gingerly heads to his room, taking extreme caution not to make any noise and risk waking her... and runs into his Dad upstairs. However, his father's half-asleep, and Buster convinces him with little effort that he was just heading to the bathroom. So it seems like Buster gets away with it... until the next morning, when his mother wakes up and confronts him anyway.
- Averted: Nobody catches Buster when he sneaks back in, and he reaches his room without being apprehended.
- Enforced: This is a show where Buster Can't Get Away With Nuthin'.
- Lampshaded: "The last thing I need right now is for Mom to hit the lights and catch me sneaking back..." <click> "The irony!"
- Invoked: Buster's sister wants him to get into trouble, and tells him there's a Wild Teen Party going on down the street. When he's out the door, she wakes up their mother...
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Buster spots his parent's silhouette and slips in via his window.
- Discussed: "I'll stay up and see if he breaks his grounding."
- Conversed: "Uh-oh, our protagonist is breaking his grounding at night. What's to bet his folks will catch him?"
- Implied: Buster's mother is heard yelling at him at night and it's mostly Angrish but we hear the words "party" and "late".
- Deconstructed: Buster was supposed to be home to babysit his little sister. When he came home without a key, she was stuck outside the house, and wandered off into the neighbourhood. Nobody has seen her since.
- Reconstructed: Buster finds her in the end, but he's still in trouble.
- Played For Laughs: Buster's mom stays up waiting to catch him coming back. She's completely unaware that he's been home all night and is asleep in his bed, and so she waits in the darkness until dawn.
- Played For Drama: Buster and his mother have just had a long conversation about whether she can trust him, and she just gives him an "I'm very disappointed in you" look and goes to bed.
- Played for Horror: Buster's mother yells at him because she was afraid he'd been turned into a zombie in a zombie movie.
