Playing With / Circle of Shame

Basic Trope: Someone, in a humiliating position, is surrounded by the derisive laughter of the mob.

• Straight: Clumsy Callie falls down the stairs at school. The onlookers surrounding her laugh.
• Exaggerated:
  • The onlookers laugh as above, but editing or animation plays it up as much as possible.
  • Clumsy Callie snags her dress on a door and is stripped naked. Onlookers surround her, laugh at her and take photos of her.
• Downplayed: Clumsy Callie stumbles on the stairs. A few who saw it chuckle, but move along.
• Justified:
  • Generally speaking, Callie's classmates aren't exactly nice.
  • Callie's fall was exaggerated enough where it was Actually Pretty Funny.
• Inverted:
  • Instead of the onlookers laughing at Callie, Callie herself is Laughing Mad, disturbing the others.
  • Upon seeing Callie fall, everyone goes from laughing to concerned.
• Subverted: After Callie's fall, we cut to everyone laughing...at something completely unrelated.
• Double Subverted: After everyone notices Callie's fall, however, all eyes are on her.
• Parodied: Callie's fall sparks derisive laughter among people who weren't even there to see it.
• Zig Zagged: Callie falls Once per Episode, where it pans out to laughter. Depending on the day, laughter is directed at her, something unrelated, or both.
• Averted: Callie gets back up after she falls, as if nothing ever happened.
• Enforced: "Callie's just an Informed Loner in this draft. Showing she gets laughed at will go a long way to sell that."
• Lampshaded: Callie: "Cue the laughter."
• Invoked:
  • Callie is a Class Clown and wants to cheer everyone up.
  • Brittany and her Girl Posse follow Callie in hopes of catching her tripping so they can laugh at her.
  • Brittany trips Callie in the hallway so she will be humiliated.
• Exploited:
  • Someone in the background uses this distraction to adjust their clothes while no one's looking.
  • Alice and Claire are trying to steal something from Brittany. Alice sets herself up to be stripped naked and acts embarrassed so Claire can pickpocket Brittany while she’s busy taunting Alice.
  • Alice is attempting to steal something from Brittany. She sets up Callie to trip on something so she can pickpocket Brittany when she’s distracted by mocking Claire.
  • Claire trips herself so her crush Diana will feel sorry for her and help her up when people laugh at her.
• Defied: "Don't you dare laugh at her misfortune!"
• Discussed: "We really shouldn't be laughing at this. I hope she's ok."
• Conversed: "I hate when they give everyone the Jerkass Ball for an episode to hammer in the humiliation."
• Implied:
  • The work starts of with Callie's friend consoling her
    Callie: It was humiliating, everyone laughed at me!
  • Alternatively,
    Teacher: And why exactly were you late?
    Student: Pile-up of hysterical laughter kept me from going anywhere. Callie seemed pretty embarrassed.
• Deconstructed: Callie's humiliation goes from bad to worse after being laughed at and breaks down. The onlookers undergo a Jerkass Realization and feel awful about it.
• Reconstructed: Callie calms down and decides that situation was Actually Pretty Funny.
• Played For Laughs: In a case of Laser-Guided Karma, the derisive laughter comes at the end of a well deserved Humiliation Conga for Callie.
• Played for Drama: Callie's clumsiness is the result of her health problems. Mass "Oh, Crap!" once people find out.
• Played For Horror:
  • To emphasize how traumatizing this moment is for Callie, everyone around her gets contorted and freaky looking.
  • Callie is being brutally raped or beaten while being laughed at.

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