Basic Trope: A private detective who is Street Smart, cynical, prone to drinking, and tends to lead a risky life.
- Straight: Jack P. Daniels is a down-on-his-luck private eye who lives in a run-down part of the city, always keeps a bottle of scotch close by, appears in a fedora and a trench coat whenever he goes out, constantly makes smart remarks (aloud or not), and makes his money by solving various risky cases.
- Exaggerated: Jack is a Platonic ideal of a Hardboiled Detective, checking off every stereotype that's on the list (and even some that aren't).
- Downplayed: Jack is a well-to-do, respectable private investigator, but the story has him do the snarky Private Eye Monologue nonetheless.
- Justified: Jack is a former police detective who left the force since his colleagues were either corrupt or stupid, and lives in the 1930s, which were the heyday of the Hardboiled Detective - so his lifestyle naturally guides him towards that stereotype.
- Inverted:
- Jack is a By-The-Book, Straight Edge Great Detective.
- Jack is a Hardboiled Criminal - a stereotypical 1930s "small fry" doing odd jobs for The Mafia.
- Subverted: Jack has all visual marks of the Hardboiled Detective - a tendency to monologue, wears a trench coat and fedora - but when he actually gets to work, he proves to be more of a Holmes-style Great Detective.
- Double Subverted: However, even if Jack's methods are based on careful observation, that doesn't stop him from being hard-boiled.
- Parodied: The movie Jack is in is a modern crime comedy filmed in color - but whenever he appears on-screen, the movie turns black-and-white, it starts raining, and Jack starts monologuing like no tomorrow.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: Jack is an ordinary private detective without any "hardboiled" traits about him.
- Enforced: The author was contracted to do something in Film Noir style, and out of the options given, he liked a detective story the most.
- Lampshaded: "Sometimes I was asking myself... why was I doing all of this? Why was I constantly drinking, or wearing this coat, or getting seduced by beautiful dames in red? And the answer was simple: because that's how it was."
- Invoked: Jack deliberately emulates the style of Hardboiled Detectives, because that's what he always wanted to be.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Jack is a detective, but he thinks the "hardboiled" stereotype is damaging to his work, and so keeps a low profile.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed:
- Instead of a dramatic final fight with a dangerous criminal, what eventually does Jack in is either lung cancer, liver failure, or getting shot In the Back by one of the mafia goons.
- Jack's hardboiled mannerisms - depression, alcoholism, world-weariness, abrasiveness - are treated as genuine issues for which he needs serious mental help.
- Reconstructed: Jack is careful not to overdo the habits that are dangerous to his health, and generally plans ahead to sidestep most of the dangers his lifestyle presents.
...I tried to do something else... something different... but no matter what I did, I always came back... back to Hardboiled Detective.
