Basic Trope: Someone doesn't like being addressed with any titles or formalities.
- Straight: President Richard Sanderson of Trope Co. prefers to be called "Rick".
- Exaggerated: King Richard of Tropestan tells his subjects to call him "Big Dick".
- Downplayed: President Sanderson tolerates being called "Mr. President" or "Mr. Sanderson" on the job, but prefers being called "Rick" after hours.
- Justified:
- Richard is inherently informal, and simply prefers to be treated as such.
- Richard's official title belongs to a certain job he doesn't actually want.
- Richard is a pragmatic man, and his title needs a gigantic poster to fit, and even then it has to be the smallest possible font size to fit it in.
- Inverted:
- Intern Bob from Accounting demands to be called "Mr. Robert Armstrong, sir", even by people who outrank him.
- Alice doesn't like how overly friendly and familiar "Rick" is being, so she will continue to call him "President Sanderson", thank you very much.
- Subverted:
- President Sanderson seems casual and informal, but when Sarah the Secretary calls him "Rick", he responds with "Don't call me 'Rick'."’
- President Sanderson is addressed as “sir” and gets annoyed -because she would rather be called “madame”.
- Double Subverted:
- "Call me 'James' instead. That's my middle name."
- And even then, she'd prefer to be called by her nickname "Rick" (her real name is Richelle, for the record).
- Parodied:
- God tells His worshippers to call Him "Big Bubba".
- Senator Zeke Jackson (Tennessee) reads a letter written to The Honorable Senator Jackson; local folks simply know him as Senator Jackson, nothing more:"The Honorable Senator Jackson"? That sounds like something a Yankee would say. Around here, people simply call me Senator Jackson, nothing more, 'cause I'm just a Simple Country Lawyer from Tennessee who's doing the best I can to represent Tennessee in the Senate. None of the locals ever called me that, 'cause they're mostly modest Southern everyday folks like me from the farms and the hills. 'Honorable', my eye.
- Zig Zagged: 'Don't call me "Sir."' 'Yes, Bob.' 'Don't call me "Bob", where's your respect?'
- Averted: Nobody doesn't like to be addressed with any titles of formalities.
- Enforced: "We don't want our main character to sound too stuffy and formal."
- Lampshaded: 'Do I look like Peppermint Patty to you?'
- Invoked: 'Yes, sir.'
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: "Call me 'Rick'. Don't call me 'Mr. President' or 'Sir'." "Yes sir, Mr. President."
- Discussed: An old retainer goes into full detail about how such respect was drilled into his/her very being, to where he/she can't even utter the name.
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: President Sanderson's employees frequently call him "Rick" and he never chastises them.
Back to Don't Call Me "Sir"
