Basic Trope: Insanity leads to constant repetition.
- Straight: Bob, after losing his mind, says, "Stay away from me. Stay away from me." over and over.
- Exaggerated: Every single inhabitant of every single mental hospital in the universe spends every hour of their days either saying or writing something over and over.
- Downplayed:
- Bob is not in the best of mental conditions and repeats, "Stay away from me." four or five times before getting a grip on himself and cutting it out.
- While Bob is perfectly capable of normal conversations, his repeated statements of "Stay away from me." is a peek into his Mask of Sanity.
- Justified:
- Whatever mental condition Bob contracted has the repetition of words as a symptom in universe.
- It started as a Survival Mantra, but Bob has since crossed the Despair Event Horizon and is only repeating the phrase out of habit.
- Inverted:
- Bob repeats "Stay away from me." as a Survival Mantra that keeps him sane.
- Bob's mantra is a Brown Note that drives others insane.
- Subverted: Bob is in a mental hospital and repeating "Stay away from me." constantly...but it turns out he's using the mental hospital as a hideout and his words are a Survival Mantra to help keep a telepathic attacker out.
- Double Subverted: Even when the danger is long gone, Bob is still in "survival mode".
- Parodied: Bob uses Inherently Funny Words in his ramblings.
- Zig-Zagged: Whether or not Bob's ramblings are actually protecting him is something the story never makes clear.
- Averted: No mentally ill people appear in the story.
- Enforced: The creator wants some ominous scene setting.
- Lampshaded: "You can tell they've snapped when they start repeating things."
- Invoked: Emperor Evulz's insanity curse also has the effect of causing the person to fixate on something and repeat it ad infinitum because he likes to hear the "results."
- Exploited: Evulz catches Bob spying on him, and uses the insanity curse to prevent Bob from leaking his secrets to the other heroes.
- Defied: When it looks like Bob, who has just been driven insane, is about to start saying something repeatedly, one of Emperor Evulz's henchmen gags him so that he doesn't have to listen.
- Discussed: "People react to traumatic events in different ways. Some become completely catatonic, while others start muttering the same words over and over."
- Conversed: "It seems to have someone repeat themselves a lot is a popular way to portray madness in fiction."
- Implied: We never see Bob after he goes insane, but Alice talks about how he always repeated sentences when she met him in the mental hospital.
- Played for Laughs: Bob provides Word-Salad Humor in his ramblings.
- Played for Drama: Bob's family is upset to see him this way, and wishes he could actually hold a conversation with them instead of rambling.
- Played for Horror: Bob repeats "Stay away from me." because he's noticing an Eldritch Abomination no one but him can see.
Got to get back to Madness Mantra. Got to get back to Madness Mantra. Got. To. Get. Back. To. Madness. Mantra!
