Basic Trope: Characters with unnatural skin tones.
- Straight: Bob has purple skin.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob has rainbow-colored skin.
- Not only does Bob have purple skin, he also has purple hair and eyes!
- Everyone in the work has colorful skin tones.
- Downplayed: Bob simply has a more exaggerated version of a regular skin tone, such as white, red, orange, black, pink, or yellow.
- Justified:
- Bob is a being that resembles a human, such as an alien, and having unusual skin tones is regular for his species.
- A Freak Lab Accident turned Bob purple.
- Inverted:
- Everyone, even humanoids that could understandably be of different colors, has regular skin tones.
- Humans Are White
- Subverted: Bob is referred to as "Purple Guy" before getting introduced, and we're lead to believe that he has purple skin. When he finally appears onscreen, we find that he has a regular skin tone, and got his nickname from the purple clothing he usually wears.
- Double Subverted:
- And then we meet Bob's daughter Alice, who actually has blue skin.
- Bob is actually purple. He just wears makeup that makes him look like he has a normal skin tone.
- Parodied: Bob is part of a Show Within a Show that gets attacked by the masses for having too much racial diversity.
- Zig-Zagged: There are some people with unusual skin tones, and some people with regular ones.
- Averted:
- Everyone has normal skin tones.
- Alternatively, there aren't even any humanoids in the work at all.
- Enforced:
- "We need something that sets our Rubber-Forehead Alien / Humanoid Alien apart from regular people." "How about we give them an unusual skin tone?"
- "Our work is for kids, and kids like bright colors, right? Let's make the people colorful!"
- The creators couldn't decide which race Bob should be, so they took another option and made him purple.
- The character artist was challenged (or otherwise forced) to use only heraldic tinctures.
- Lampshaded: "Now that's taking the phrase 'people of color' literally!"
- Invoked: Bob's parents use Designer Baby technology just to give him purple skin.
- Exploited: Bob's lifelong enemy Carol convinces everyone that Bob is the scout for an Alien Invasion.
- Defied: Bob gets skin alteration surgery to make himself a human shade of tan or brown.
- Discussed: "Hey Bob, sorry if this is rude, but is your skin... natural?"
- Conversed: "Why do people in cartoons often have such colorful skin?"
- Played for Drama: People with unusual skin tones are subject to Fantastic Racism.
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