Basic Trope: A letter which must be sent to a certain number of people lest its recipient suffer bad luck.
- Straight: A character refuses to continue a chain letter and gets bad luck, like the letter said would happen if they don't continue the chain.
- Exaggerated: From the very moment the character refuses to continue the chain, an anvil falls on their head.
- Downplayed: Bob refuses to send the letter and slips on a banana skin.
- Justified: The fear of bad luck for not sending the letter makes Bob anxious and unable to actually do his job properly, leading to mishaps.
- Inverted: The character continuing the chain gets bad luck for doing so.
- Subverted: Bob receives the letter from Alice but doesn't send it. Nothing happens to him.
- Double Subverted: But Cindy, who also didn't send the letter, gets in a car accident.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig Zagged: Some people who don't send the letter get bad luck, and some don't, leaving us to wonder whether the letter had anything to do with it.
- Averted: Nobody is sent a chain letter in the first place.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: A hacker uses the letter to send a computer virus, or find gullible people for scams.
- Defied: ???
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Played For Horror: A chain letter promises a gruesome fate to those who do not send it to those new and ends up causing a horrific end to a society.
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