Basic Trope: A character uses one excuse for pretty much everything.
- Straight: Whenever William, the TV Genius, is asked how he knows something outlandish, he says, "I read it on TV Tropes."
- Exaggerated: William does this in all situations, such as when asked "Why do you hate spinach?", he says "Because I read on TVTropes that kids hate it."
- Downplayed: William does it whenever asked how he knows thing X about a show, even when the show isn't mentioned on TVTropes.
- Justified: The other characters don't know what TVTropes is, and assume it's a site with a lot of funny and strange material that William is interested in, but they don't bother to check it out themselves because they prefer more "normal" pages.
- Inverted: The Book Dumb William is often asked "Why did you fail that test?" He makes up new excuses every time.
- Subverted: William uses "I read it on TVTropes" a couple of times before saying "I read it ... in a book."
- Double Subverted:
- "I read it in a book" becomes his new default.
- "I read it in a book, or more correctly, I read on TVTropes that a book said so."
- Parodied:
- William's Wild Card Excuse is "Because I recycle one excuse all the time."
- William Time Travels to a time period before TVTropes existed. He uses the same excuse as always, and people believe him.
- William uses "I read it on TVTropes" when it's a complete Non Sequitur, and people accept it as true.
- Zig-Zagged: William recycles some of his excuses, while others are only used once, and on other occasions he just tells the truth.
- Averted:
- William does not recycle his excuses.
- William tells the truth and thus doesn't need excuses.
- Enforced: "Let's make William saying 'I read it on TVTropes' a Running Gag!"
- Lampshaded: "William always says 'I read it on TVTropes.' I should check it out myself one day." "Do you seriously believe him?"
- Invoked: Stanley tells William about TVTropes, how much info there's there, and that he can always say he read it on TVTropes if he says something weird.
- Exploited:
- Hearing that William isn't too good at creating new excuses, Tim tries to sell him The Great Book of Excuses.
- William's parents catch on to the fact that William is just using TVTropes as an excuse. Instead of calling him out on it, they keep track of what he uses that excuse for, and connect the dots.
- Defied: "How did you know that? Don't say 'I read it on TVTropes' because I know it isn't true."
- Discussed: "What will you do if you get caught?" "I'll just say 'I'm looking for my lost cat.'" "You've used that three times already. Won't people get suspicious if you use that all the time?" "They won't always..."
- Conversed: "People on Alice and Bob are so stupid. Carl always uses that same excuse, and yet they fall for it every time!"
- Implied: William says "I read it on TVTropes" for the first time that we hear him say it. Alice says, "You read that on TVTropes, too?"
- Deconstructed: Eventually, so many people hear William's 'I read it on TVTropes' excuse that someone decides to check whether it can be true, quickly finds out it isn't, and decides to find the true reason William knows outlandish things.
- Reconstructed: Someone investigates William's 'I read it on TVTropes' excuse and is so overwhelmed by the vastness of the site that even though they fail to confirm his excuse, it sounds plausible.
- Plotted a Good Waste: William's regular invocations of TVTropes as the source of his knowledge are a Cassandra Truth.
- Played for Laughs: William uses this to say where he gets the jokes he tells.
Where did you find the main page? Uhh ... Internet?
