Basic Trope: Saying something which basically implies, "You want me to do something that involves X as the main part. But if I wanted X, I would Y instead", often implying Y is the better way to get X.
- Straight: Alice wants Bob to watch a nature show. Bob, who thinks Nature Is Boring, says, "If I wanted to see a bunch of wild animals, I'd go to the zoo."
- Exaggerated: Everyone says this kind of thing all the time.
- Downplayed:
- Justified:
- Bob was in a bad mood, he and Alice are Vitriolic Best Buds, and this line is sometimes Truth in Television.
- Y is one of the legal ways of doing X, while the method offered is highly illegal.
- Inverted: Bob agrees to watch the nature show by saying, "If I wanted to not see wild animals, what's the point of going to the zoo?"
- Subverted: "If I wanted to see a bunch of wild animals....I'd watch the show. I just don't want to."
- Double Subverted: "On second thoughts, I think I'd just go to the zoo."
- Parodied:
- Zigzagged: Bob tries to make a line like that but gets too bogged up on what he would do if he did indeed want to see a bunch of wild animals.
- Averted: Bob does not say this line.
- Enforced:
- Invoked:
- Exploited:
- Defied: Bob makes an effort not to say this, or Alice tells him not to.
- Discussed: "Who invented that 'if I wanted X, I would Y' line?"
- Conversed: "Why are characters always being mean when they say that if they wanted X they would Y?"
- Implied:
- Deconstructed:
- Reconstructed:
- Played for Laughs:
- Played for Drama:
Back to If I Wanted X, I Would Y.
