Basic Trope: Hiding something by disguising it as something unappealing.
- Straight: Mary is tired of Spencer eating her cupcakes, so she hides them in a box labeled "Brussels Sprouts", a food that Spencer hates.
- Exaggerated:
- Every time Mary wants to hide something, she labels it as something unappealing.
- Mary labels the box as something extremely disgusting, complete with several "Do Not Open" warnings, just to get people to stay away from it.
- Downplayed: Mary just disguises the box by labeling it as something mundane that she thinks Spencer is unlikely to go looking for.
- Justified: Mary doesn't know how to get Spencer to stop eating her food, so she feels that this is her only option.
- Inverted: Mary puts something unappealing in a box, and then entices Spencer to open it by claiming that there are cupcakes inside.
- Subverted: Spencer opens the box labeled "Brussels Sprouts", thinking that Mary is probably hiding something else in there. The box actually just contains Brussels sprouts.
- Double Subverted: It turns out that he Gave Up Too Soon, under the Brussels sprouts, there is another box with cupcakes in it.
- Parodied: Mary labels the box as "Not Cupcakes", and Spencer falls for it.
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Averted: Mary doesn't hide anything by claiming it's unappealing/uninteresting.
- Enforced: There's a Running Gag about Spencer stealing Mary's cupcakes, and her trying to prevent him from doing so — this episode's variation on the gag is her trying to hide the cupcakes in some way.
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: ???
- Discussed: "I bet there's actually something else besides Brussels sprouts in that box."
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed:
- Spencer ends up throwing away the box.
- Spencer searches the box because he's so curious about what's actually in there.
- Caleb, who actually likes Brussels sprouts, steals the box.
You don't want to go back to the main page, it's got mold in it.
