Basic Trope: A character pulls out a small portion of a whole, only to take the rest.
- Straight: Alice cuts a slice out of a pizza, then puts the rest on her plate.
- Exaggerated: Alice removes a piece of pepperoni from the pizza, then takes the box.
- Downplayed: The pizza is down to three slices. Alice cuts one, and takes the other two.
- Justified:
- Alice is a big eater, while Bob, with whom she's sharing, is barely hungry.
- Alice doesn't like the toppings on the slice she cut, which are for whatever reason only on one part of the pizza, but likes the toppings on the rest of the pizza.
- Inverted: Alice cuts a slice out of a pizza to eat, and gives the rest to Bob.
- Subverted:
- Alice plates a slice of pizza, takes the box...then gives a slice to everyone else.
- Alice takes the rest to the second table as of those seated at the first table only Bob asked for Pepperoni.
- Double Subverted: She then pulls out a second box, and eats all but one slice.
- Parodied:
- Alice deliberately cuts as small of a slice possible, so she can have the rest.
- Alice brings out a box of pizza and a stack of plates. Alice then devours the pizza, box and all, intending for everyone else to eat the plates.
- Zig Zagged: Alice determines how much she divies up her food on a dice roll.
- Averted: Alice cuts a slice of pizza, takes it, and leaves.
- Enforced: The writers needed an excuse for Bob and Charlie to fight over the last slice of pizza.
- Lampshaded: "Gee Alice, save some for the rest of us."
- Invoked: Bob, albeit full and seeing Alice ready to eat a whole pizza, asks her to save him a slice, because he only wants to taste the pizza, not eat it with her.
- Exploited: Bob wants to murder without drawing suspicion to himself, so he poisons the pizza in a dose only fatal in large quantities.
- Defied:
- Bob makes Alice agree that whoever doesn't cut the pizza chooses which half they get.
- Bob tells Alice that she will tell him exactly how much of the pizza she desires right now and she will not get a single square inch more, and there will be hell to pay if she tries to get greedy in any way that term works in this instance.
- Discussed: "Seriously Alice. We all paid for this pizza, we should be splitting it evenly."
- Conversed: "Alice's friends do realize they can just get a second pizza, right?"
- Implied: We see Alice and Bob eating dinner. Bob is eating a slice of pizza, while Alice's portion resembles Pac-Man.
- Deconstructed:
- Bob gets frustrated with Alice for constantly eating more than her share of the pizza, despite splitting the tab evenly.
- Eating most of a pizza whenever she's with Bob, Alice's health starts to go downhill.
- Reconstructed:
- Alice agrees to just buy the pizza herself, since she eats most of it anyway.
- Alice takes on a new workout routine to compensate for her large appetite.
- Played For Laughs:
- Alice, being slim and soft spoken, cuts a slice of pizza with a fork and knife, then gently sets it on her plate, only to eat the rest of the pizza like a dog.
- After a comically disastrous march to get to the pizza parlor, Alice eating the whole thing and leaving her friends with scraps is a hilarious "Shaggy Dog" Story ending.
- Played For Drama:
- Alice's habit of hogging the pizza leaves her friends hungry, indirectly making them more irritable.
- After a very painful march to get to the pizza parlor with many members of the cast embracing this Humble Goal to steel themselves against the terrors they endured, Alice gobbling down the whole thing and leaving her friends with scraps feels like a Shoot the Shaggy Dog ending.
- The "slice" that was left behind was a teeny-tiny bit of prize money while the taxman nabs 99.9% for Uncle Sam. While some members of the cast may find it funny in the Kafkian sense, others (who really, really needed that money to keep their heads above water) are left in tears.
- Played For Horror:
- The pizza was poisoned and Alice dies a very painful death because she ate a humongous dose.
- Alice hogs human remains, or a pizza made of human flesh (in the latter case, Alice did not know about it until she had already eaten the whole thing).
- Bob decides Alice's little showcase of greed is worth an extremely violent death.
- Alice kills her friends for their pizza slices and leaves hers untouched.
Back to Cut a Slice, Take the Rest.
