Basic Trope: When a character grows up, a construction team destroys a physical structure that represents their childhood memories.
- Straight: When Bob turns 12, the old playground he used to play on is destroyed to make way for a road.
- Exaggerated: The entire town where Bob grew up is destroyed to make way for a new one.
- Downplayed: One of the trees in the woods where Bob used to play is cut down.
- Justified:
- The construction team needs the space to build something.
- The playground is near the end of its structural lifespan.note
- The place has become associated with a downright gruesome murder. note
- Inverted:
- The construction team destroys the roads and rebuilds a playground like the one where Bob used to play when he was little.
- Bob is furious that the Boarding School of Horrors that traumatized him is not only still up as a building but still running despite all the horrifying scandals.
- Subverted: The playground is replaced with an identical playground...
- Double Subverted: ...but then that playground is destroyed a few days later.
- Parodied: The construction trucks are labelled with the name "Childhood Memory Destroyers, Inc."
- Zig-Zagged: The construction team destroys the playground and builds another one. But then they replace the new playground with a road, which is then replaced with an ice cream shop, which is replaced with another playground.
- Averted: Nobody loses any location associated with childhood memories.
- Enforced: The producer wants to show what happens as people age.
- Lampshaded: "Those builders are here again! Why do they always go for people's childhood memories?"
- Invoked: Mayor Alice calls for a new road to be built where the playground is.
- Exploited: Charlie puts his lemonade stand beside the road to raise money for a new playground. Or he sells lemonade to the construction workers because it's hot outside and makes a nice profit.
- Defied: Bob tries to stop the construction team.
- Discussed: "Those guys sure love destroying our childhood memories..."
- Conversed: "Why do builders always choose wherever people's childhood memories are on these shows?"
- Implied: The playground is shown, and then a road is shown a few episodes later where the playground was.
- Deconstructed:
- The destruction of the playground causes Bob to become depressed.
- Building the road there achieved nothing good.
- Reconstructed:
- Bob copes with his depression by thinking about all the new memories he will create.
- The road is a part of new development that brings new people into the neighborhood. Though Bob is still sad about losing the old playground, he sees the new one built in its place and the new children there playing and he comes to terms with a new chapter in his life as the adult to help the kids form the kind of memories he had for his old one.
- Played for Laughs: The construction crew puts up funny road signs beside the new road.
- Played for Drama: Bob tries to get a new mayor because Alice apparently hated his childhood memories.
Back to Childhood Memory Demolition Team.
