Basic Trope: The coloring for a character inexplicably changes.
- Straight: In The Spencer Show, Spencer is recognized by his signature green striped shirt. In tie-in merchandise and earlier episodes, it's a red striped shirt instead.
- Exaggerated:
- Spencer's shirt changes color mid-episode for no reason.
- Not only is Spencer's shirt different, but his blonde hair has been changed to white and he's wearing yellow pants instead of blue.
- Downplayed: Spencer's shirt is drawn a darker or lighter shade of green for one scene.
- Justified:
- Spencer is a painter, and some paint accidentally spilled on his shirt. That explains why it's different for this episode.
- Spencer forgot to separate the colors from the whites when he did the laundry. note
- Spencer ran out of clean green stripe shirts, but he still had some red stripe shirt
- Inverted: Spencer's character design and line work is inconsistent, but his coloring is always the same.
- Subverted: We think it's a coloring error when Spencer's shirt is red, but it turns out it's actually Jones disguising himself as Spencer. Mary can tell it isn't him because his shirt is different.
- Double Subverted: Mary points out that Spencer always wears a blue shirt.
- Parodied:
- Spencer's skin is randomly green in one scene.
- Mary comes in and says that she doesn't like green. Spencer tells her not to worry; the colorists are bound to mess up.
- Zig-Zagged: Spencer's always colored the same, Mary's hair color changes between shots, Jones has a few different colored shirts and sometimes the colors don't correspond to ones he owns.
- Averted: Spencer's coloring does not change for no reason.
- Enforced: The marketing team found that the red shirt design looked better on toys, and went with it even though it's not the same as on the show.
- Lampshaded: "Did my shirt just change color?"
- Defied: The colorists use a color key to ensure that Spencer's coloring is consistent.
- Discussed: Mary asks Spencer why his shirt just changed color.
- Conversed: "Hey, isn't Spencer's shirt supposed to be green?" "Well, this is one of the earlier episodes."
- Implied: Spencer's green shirt has a more blue tone to it during a scene taking place at night. Whether it's because of the lighting or an actual coloring error is ambiguous.
- Played for Laughs: Spencer's shirt changing color is a Running Gag, and an inside joke the fans look for.
- Played for Drama: Spencer's shirt changing color is done to represent his lack of identity, and how he feels like he's becoming disassociated with his real self.
Tell me, is the link back to Inconsistent Coloring blue or purple?
