Basic Trope: At the end of an episode, characters spell out the moral of the story to the audience.
- Straight: An episode of The Mary and Spencer Show teaches an Honesty Aesop, when Spencer tells a lie that ends up getting him into trouble. At the end, Mary tells Spencer that he shouldn't have lied, and he agrees.
- Exaggerated: Mary and Spencer go through an agonizing recap of what the story was, commentating how the characters felt throughout and what the viewer should take away from it.
- Downplayed: As the episode ends, Spencer makes an aside comment that he "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot by not telling a lie in the first place.
- Justified: In-universe, Mary and Spencer are recording this as a show for their younger cousins. They want to make sure the younger audience will understand the moral.
- Inverted: The entire story seems to be setting up a moral, but at the end, admits that there's nothing to be learned.
- Subverted: Before the episode ends, Mary wants to talk to Spencer about something. It seems like a lead-in to talking to the moral, but instead, she just asks if he wants to go out for ice cream.
- Double Subverted: Mary and Spencer then discuss the moral while eating ice cream.
- Parodied:
- Mary and Spencer explain a Spoof Aesop to the audience.
- The story leading up to this was a Space Whale Aesop. It still ends with Spencer admitting to the viewers that he's learned not to exclude aliens and vampires from his volleyball games.
- During the recap, Spencer turns out to be an Unreliable Narrator who describes Mary as the one who lied instead. She gets upset at this.
- Zig-Zagged: Mary and Spencer go through various iterations of what the moral was supposed to be. Some are accurate, some are silly, and some are morals explored in other episodes.
- Averted: The show wasn't meant to teach a message, and is solely for entertainment.
- Enforced: Executive Meddling wants to be able to advertise the show more clearly as "edutainment" and forces these moments in.
- Lampshaded: Spencer says, "Boy, I sure have learned a lot today!"
- Invoked: Mary is an Aesop Enforcer who wants to make sure Spencer learned something.
- Exploited: Spencer has Aesop Amnesia. He just claims understand the moral so he can get away with doing it again.
- Defied:
- Spencer denies having learned anything from the experience.
- Mary and Spencer understand that they've learned a lesson, but neither of them want to discuss the experience any further.
- Discussed: "Geez, I guess I shouldn't have been lying about anything." "You're right, Spencer."
- Conversed: "Is this the part where the characters spell out the message just in case I didn't get it?"
I realize now I should go back to the main trope page, And Knowing Is Half the Battle!
