Basic Trope: Nocturnal monsters that live under children's beds or in their closets, usually with the intention of eating and/or scaring the kids.
- Straight: Little Alice finds a monster under her bed that wants to eat her up.
- Exaggerated: There's a whole army of monsters under the beds and in the closets of every child, or possibly even everyone, in the setting.
- Downplayed: The monster under Alice's bed aims to scare her, but is mostly harmless.
- Justified: The monsters see humans as a source of food and the reason they go after children is because children are physically weaker and thus won't put up as much of a fight as adults.
- Inverted: Humans hide under the beds of monster children to troll them.
- Subverted: There appears to be the shadow of a monster in Alice's room, but it's actually the shadow of a tree.
- Double Subverted: But there is still a monster under Alice's bed.
- Parodied:
- Monsters get paid to scare children and can risk being fired if the child isn't scared.
- The monster is more afraid of Alice than she is of it.
- Having a monster under one's bed is considered a minor inconvenience, somewhat akin to a rat infestation.
- Alice looks under her bed and is disappointed at not finding a monster there.
- Alice sees a monster under her bed and instantly starts trying to study it.
- Alice's room is such a cluttered mess that the monsters complain about not having enough space under her bed or in her closet.
- A much older (and perhaps more perverted) Alice seeks monsters under her bed so they can have wild sex.
- Zigzagged: It's left ambiguous whether the monster exists or if Alice just thinks it does.
- Enforced: Alice is already certain that there is a monster under her bed and refuses to turn off the lights or even sleep at all.
- Lampshaded: "Monsters really do live under beds!"
- Invoked: Emperor Evulz deliberately puts the monster under Alice's bed.
- Exploited: Alice feeds food she doesn't like to the monster, so that she doesn't have to eat the food she doesn't like, and it won't be hungry enough to eat her.
- Defied: People come up with ways to ward off and/or kill the monsters.
- Discussed: "So, do monsters really live under beds?"
- Conversed: "Remember how when you were a kid you thought there was a monster under your bed? Well, in this show, there is one!"
- Implied:
- Strange green slime is seen oozing out from under the bed.
- We see a pair of glowing eyes under Alice's bed, and it's unclear if it's a monster or just a cat.
- Growling can be heard from under Alice's bed.
- Deconstructed:
- Reconstructed:
- Played for Laughs: The monster tries with all its might to scare Alice, but it just can't.
- Played for Drama:
- Alice is severely traumatized and visibly scarred from the encounter with the monster that hid underneath her bed.
- Alice simply has a nightmare where a monster is under her bed and wakes up crying, yet her parents yell at her and ground her for waking them up.
- Alice begs for help dealing with the monster under her bed, yet no one believes what she says.
- Played for Horror: The monster eats Alice and then lunges at the viewer.
Back to Things That Go "Bump" in the Night.
