Basic Trope: Repeatedly saying something to remind yourself makes the words get mixed up in your head.
- Straight: When Mary is going to the store, she recites, "A carton of eggs, a chocolate donut, and two oranges!" repeatedly. But when she arrives and steps inside, she says "A carton of oranges, an egg donut, and two chocolates!"
- Exaggerated: "A carton of oranges, a chocolate donut, two oranges, and breath mints! A carton of oranges, a breath donut, two mints, a chocolate egg! Chocolatey breath, orange donuts, a carton of mints!"
- Downplayed: Mary forgets "carton" and "chocolate", but the rest of it is intact and still makes sense.
- Justified: Mary remembered the words, but not the whole phrase.
- Inverted:
- Mary says it once and remembers it perfectly.
- Mary remembers her grocery list, but in the wrong order. She says it over and over until she scrambles it into the correct order.
- Subverted: Turns out the store does sell donut with raw eggs on them.
- Double Subverted: But who in their right mind would want those? Mary came to get eggs and donuts separately.
- Parodied: Mary keeps adding ridiculous items to the list based on what she sees on the street when walking to the store.
- Zig-Zagged: Mary recites the list over and over. Sometimes she gets it right, other times she doesn't. Ultimately, at the store, she can't remember any of it anyways. But she remembers on the way home.
- Averted:
- Mary doesn't say something to herself as a reminder.
- Mary says "A carton of eggs, a chocolate donut, and two oranges!" over and over and remembers it in that order.
- Enforced: "Why would Mary think she needs egg donuts?" "Just say she mixed up her grocery list when trying to remember it."
- Lampshaded: "This can't possibly be my grocery list!"
- Invoked: Someone interrupts Mary's train of thought so she forgets what she was going to the store for.
- Defied: Mary writes down her grocery list rather than relying on verbal reminders.
- Discussed: "You know when you keep saying something to remind yourself, then it comes out all screwy by the end?"
Repeated Rehearsal Failure, Repeated Rehearsal Failure, rehearsed repeature failal...
