Basic Trope: A character gets an item that isn’t candy on Halloween. At times, they'll vandalize the giver's house as retribution.
- Straight:
- Exaggerated:
- Benjamin receives enough rocks to fill his entire bag.
- Benjamin receives a large boulder.
- Benjamin receives all the rocks on his street.
- Benjamin receives a rock from every house he goes to.
- Johnny’s house is absolutely covered in a pile of eggs & toilet paper after the vandalization.
- Downplayed:
- Benjamin receives a small rock in a mix of many other delicious sweets.
- Johnny’s house has been hit by 1 single egg, and it has 1 small crack in it.
- Justified:
- Johnny had gotten the rocks as a child, and hadn’t gotten a chance to give them away until now.
- There were no other houses celebrating Halloween around that area.
- Johnny is an asshole. Whether he's singled out Benjamin as the target of his joke or he's done it to all of the other children that have come to his home depends on the writer.
- Inverted:
- Subverted:
- What seems like a rock is actually a fudge ball with a rough grey wrapper...
- …or a gold nugget painted as a rock…
- The eggs that are thrown turn out to be eggshells with happy faces drawn on them, and the toilet paper is covered in thank you notes...
- Double Subverted:
- …but the fudge ball is filled with pebbles.
- …but specifically fool’s gold.
- …but upon closer inspection, the thank you notes are death sentences. And the eggs are cleverly disguised grenades.
- Parodied:
- Johnny literally gives Benjamin the real Dwayne Johnson (AKA The Rock)
- Johnny gives Benjamin hard rock candy.
- Benjamin throws a dozen chickens & a toilet at Johnny's house.
- Zig Zagged:
- Johhny plans to give Benjamin a rock, but accidentally gives him candy instead. Benjamin eggs Johnny's house anyway.
- (From Double Subverted #2) Benjamin still finds value in it; Fool's Gold is still a shiny, valuable metal. Benjamin tries to sell it as actual gold, but fails. He then gets the perfect idea of having his dad make a ring out of the pyrite nugget he was given by Johnny. It nabs Benjamin $40 bucks, which means the pyrite nugget wasn't so worthless after all.
- Averted: Benjamin does not receive a rock.
- Enforced:
- The producer likes depressing stories, so he tells the writers to include Benjamin receiving a rock.
- The producer hates adults, so he demands the writers to make Johnny's house get vandalized.
- Benjamin is the show's Butt-Monkey and/or Cosmic Plaything. The writers make clear that it being Halloween makes no difference.
- Lampshaded: “Who gives out a ROCK on Halloween?”
- Invoked:
- Benjamin collects rocks, intentionally stopping by Johnny's house, of whom he knows gives rocks for Halloween.
- Johnny targets down Benjamin since he really needs to get rid of the pile of rocks in his bedroom.
- Benjamin is Johnny's personal prank monkey and the rock is a "special present" just for him.
- Exploited:
- After receiving rocks, Benjamin realizes he can use them to wreck Johnny house.
- Johnny scrapes off all the eggs & toilet paper, using it normally.
- Defied:
- Benjamin refuses the offer of a rock.
- Benjamin's Papa Wolf threatens to smash Johnny's teeth in if he hands Benjamin a rock.
- Discussed: ”Are you really giving me a rock? Put some originality into it.”
- Conversed: ”I’m gonna get a rock, I just know it! I’m the kid that gets a rock every Halloween special!”
- Implied: Benjamin is seen going trick-or-treating. The next time we see him, he’s in bed with a tipped over bag of rocks next to him.
- Played For Laughs: Back at Benjamin's house, he puts the rock on top of a large pile of other rocks.
- Played For Drama: The other kids find the rock(s) as something Actually Pretty Funny but Benjamin, barely containing his despair and rage, screams that they better stop laughing at him or else he will do something with the rock(s) that they will definitely not find funny.
- Played For Horror:
- Benjamin kills Johnny because he gave him the rock.
- That little rock is the humble beginning of Johnny's relentless, merciless, destructive and demented campaign to bully Benjamin. When Benjamin opens his desk drawer and notices that tiny pebble he put there thirty scenes later, he breaks down screaming and shaking like a leaf and his parents try unsuccessfully to calm him down.
Back to I Got a Rock
