Basic Trope: Cheering someone up when they're upset by making them laugh.
- Straight: Alice is upset over having lost her job. Bianca starts making a silly dance to make Alice laugh.
- Exaggerated:
- Bianca recruits the whole town to dance weirdly and tell jokes, so they together can cheer Alice up.
- Alice finds Bianca's dance so hilarious she doesn't stop laughing for days.
- Downplayed:
- Bianca's dance doesn't make Alice laugh but she stops crying.
- Alice doesn't feel cheered up but is glad to have such a good friend.
- Justified: Cheering lonely people up with comedic routines is Bianca's job.
- Inverted:
- Alice is happy because she got promoted. Bianca is The Killjoy and makes her cry by pointing out some unexpected downside.
- Bianca's goofiness only makes Alice feel worse because she feels Bianca is being insensitive / throwing her happiness on her face.
- Subverted:
- Alice laughs but promptly breaks into tears again.
- Alice doesn't think Bianca's dance is funny and keeps being in a gloomy mood.
- Double Subverted:
- However, that emotional breakdown releases all of the negativity, so she does feel better in the end.
- Charlotte passes by and tells a joke that does make Alice laugh.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig-Zagged:
- Bianca's dance remembers Alice that she got fired from a dance instructor position, so it makes her cry harder. Charlotte points out the absurdity of it — with the irony making Alice scoff good-naturedly, but she proceeds to wail again. It's not until a few days later, when she's in a better mood, that she finds the whole ordeal funny.
- Averted: Alice is upset and nobody tries to cheer her up with laughter. Bianca comforts her in another way.
- Enforced:
- It's a Sitcom, so the mood cannot get too bleak without someone lightening it up with silly jokes.
- The book's premise is that this is Alice and Bianca's schtick. Something bad happens to Alice, so Bianca acts goofy to amuse both Alice and the audience.
- Lampshaded: Alice says to Bianca that "I didn't think I was even capable of laughing right now".
- Invoked:
- Bianca has several jokes in stock for when her friends suffer misfortune.
- Alice asks Bianca to do something silly because she feels she needs a good laugh.
- Exploited: Bianca's dance causes Alice to laugh so hard that she agrees to do Bianca a solid without giving it a second thought.
- Defied:
- Bianca tells Alice that she won't try to make her laugh because she knows it won't make Alice feel better.
- Alice says that there's nothing that will cheer her up but she appreciates the effort nonetheless.
- Discussed: Upon seeing Alice so upset, Bianca asks Charlotte how she can comfort her friend. Charlotte says that "laughter is truly the best medicine".
- Conversed: At work, Alice complains that people always try to cheer others up with laughter. Her coworker and friend, Bianca, thinks it shows real caring and empathy. Neither of them is upset.
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