Basic Trope: One character does something without being punished; another imitates them and immediately gets into trouble.
- Straight: Lucy likes to play pranks and tease others; Alice tries pulling a prank herself and is caught and punished.
- Exaggerated: Lucy is a Karma Houdini who does horrible things; Alice accidentally misses the trash can while throwing a wrapper away and is busted for littering.
- Downplayed:
- Both Alice and Lucy play pranks and both are punished, but Lucy gets off much lighter.
- Neither girl really gets punished, but Alice gets a stern talking-to.
- Justified:
- Lucy learned when to time her pranks so nobody saw, they were on her friends, and they were by no means serious. Alice didn't meet all those requirements, so Alice gets busted because she honestly might have upset her victim, when Lucy's friends just tease and prank back.
- Lucy has gotten in trouble. But once she was punished, they stopped. Alice just got the same thing, but is unaware that she could try again and avoid trouble.
- Lucy's parents or some other relatives are powerful, so nobody wants to upset them; Alice has no such advantage and thusly is fair game.
- Lucy is filthy rich, and the cops of her town have a habit of losing their rigidity when money are around. Alice, however, is poor, so...
- Alice was designated as to be watched more closely than Lucy because of some reason other than power or money.
- Inverted: Sweet Alice can do no wrong while nasty little Lucy Can't Get Away with Nuthin'.
- Subverted:
- After seeing Lucy pull a prank, Alice copies her and gets away with it.
- Newbie Alice didn't stay long enough to find out that it was a Chew-Out Fake-Out prank back.
- Double Subverted: ...But then tries it again and gets caught, and blamed for everything Lucy did to boot.
- Parodied: Lucy kills a dog and gets away with it. Alice tickles a dog and gets chased by an angry mob.
- Zig-Zagged: Both Alice and Lucy get punished for some pranks, but not for others; sometimes they're punished equally for pranks of equal magnitude, sometimes not.
- Averted: Everyone, even Lucy, gets in trouble for their crimes. Justice Will Prevail!
- Enforced: It's a kid's show, and while the writers can sometimes get away with showing "bad" people doing bad things, the protagonists must be punished or else Moral Guardians will complain. In a sense, this applies the trope to the writers.
- Lampshaded: "Oh, come on! There's no such thing as justice in the world. Get used to it — or get out of it."
- Invoked: Alice is caught, then asks Lucy while she's still doing it because she could get caught too. Lucy dismisses this because she knows she's just too lucky to go to jail.
- Exploited: Turns out Lucy was actually an Anti-Hero.
- Defied: Alice says that Lucy did it first and the police arrest both.
- Discussed: "I don't care if you've never been caught, it's bound to happen eventually!"
- Conversed: "The characters never both get in trouble. One has to be a Karma Houdini to make the other seem more like a Butt-Monkey."
- Deconstructed: After getting punished one too many times while Lucy gets away scot free, Alice finally snaps and takes matters into her own hands, beating the ever-loving crap out of Lucy — if she's going to get into trouble anyway, why not go all the way?
- Reconstructed: Lucy counters the attack and ends up beating the ever-loving crap out of Alice, Alice then gets in trouble for starting a fight with Lucy on top of everything else.
- Played for Drama: Lucy the Big Bad kills Alice and gets away with it. When Bob tries to avenge her death, he gets arrested, leading to the poor fella deciding Then Let Me Be Evil and entering a crime syndicate to finish his revenge...
Whaddya mean, I have to go back to Selective Enforcement?! Carl did the same thing I did!
