Basic Trope: One or more characters runs up a check they can't pay, so they have to work to pay it off.
- Straight: Alice and Bob can't afford their bill at Chez Troper, so they have to wash dishes until they've paid it off.
- Exaggerated: Alice and Bob can't afford anything; they have to work off anything they buy. They even have to pump gas to afford the gas they buy.
- Downplayed:
- Charlie, the owner of Chez Troper, agrees to settle with Alice and Bob if they agree to tell several friends about the restaurant.
- Charlie lets Alice and Bob pay for the meal the next time they come in.
- Justified:
- Charlie is fair-minded and doesn't want to deal with the potential fallout of having a customer arrested.
- The restaurant specifically bills itself as one where you can wash dishes in exchange for a meal.
- The coupon that Bob was banking on using to afford the meal has expired, and he didn’t realize until he went to pay.
- Bob and Alice don’t have their credit cards or any cash on them, and their house is too far away for them to go get it.
- Inverted: Alice and Bob are overcharged at Chez Troper, so Charlie comes and cleans their house to make up the difference.
- Subverted:
- Alice and Bob say they can't pay, and they expectantly look at the pile of dishes in the kitchen...but they're instead arrested.
- Bob looks over the receipt and realizes that he’s been charged incorrectly. He has enough cash for the correct bill.
- Bob looks over the bill, smiles, and tells the owner that while he doesn’t have the money, he’d gladly do some work around the restaurant if the owner would call it square. While the owner is looking for something for him to do, he sneaks out.
- Double Subverted:
- After being processed, they're put on a work release...washing dishes in Chez Troper's kitchen.
- Bob had enough cash to cover what he thought was the correct bill, but he did the math wrong: the bill comes back even higher.
- Bob snuck out so he could run back to his house and get his toolbox — he saw some fixtures at Chez Troper that needed repair.
- Parodied:
- Everyone at Chez Troper is only working there because they couldn't pay their bill. Yes, even Charlie.
- Bob can’t pay, so he gleefully bounds toward the kitchen over Charlie’s objections. Several plates are immediately heard breaking.
- Zig-Zagged: Alice and Bob are arrested for nonpayment, where they're put on a work release in Chez Troper's kitchen. But it's made clear that the work release is unrelated to the nonpayment.
- Averted:
- Alice stays at the restaurant while Bob goes to grab a different credit card, or vice versa.
- They have enough money, either by cash or credit.
- Enforced: The episode is Based on a True Story about Amy's and Ben's experience working off their debt from a restaurant meal.
- Lampshaded: “I see you’re sweating at the price of your dinner. Would you like to borrow some dishwashing gloves, or did you bring your own?”
- Invoked: Chez Troper has a confusing menu with unclear pricing.
- Exploited:
- Chez Troper intentionally advertises to lower-income customers so they'll essentially always have a cheap workforce at the ready.
- Alice and Bob can’t pay, so they offer to wash dishes. Charlie says they have enough dishwashers, but he has another task in mind for Alice…
- Defied: Alice and Bob mention they can't pay, and offer to wash dishes to make up the difference. Charlie refuses and kicks them out.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: “That’s so unrealistic.” “Yeah, but it would sorta kill the mood if they got put in jail.”
- Played for Laughs: Alice and Bob dine at Chez Troper and are unable to pay so often that everyone in the kitchen knows them by name. Bob is even Employee of the Month.
- Implied: Bob and Alice walk into Chez Troper. Several hours later they walk out, sweaty, wearing aprons and rubber gloves. Alice tells Bob to remember the credit card next time.
- Played for Horror: Bob and Alice can’t pay, so Charlie suggests they help out with tomorrow’s dinner service … by which he means they’ll be the main course.
- Played for Drama: Bob injures himself while working in the kitchen to pay off the debt, saddling him with something much worse than an unpaid dinner bill.
- Deconstructed:
- Alice and Bob find themselves in this situation so often that they can't make it to their regular jobs.
- Alice and Bob are not qualified to comptently wash dishes in a manner consistent with workplace safety and local health laws, and end up making even more of a mess in the kitchen and headache for restaurant management. It would have been less costly to just kick them out and ban them from the restaurant.
- Reconstructed: They find that they actually like working at Chez Troper more, so they quit and go to work for Charlie full-time.
Well, I sure as hell couldn’t afford to visit this trope page. Guess it’s back to Work Off the Debt so I can pay it off.
