Basic Trope: A character misses an important (sometimes obvious) detail.
- Straight: Bob, looking for his cell phone, doesn't notice it sitting on the table right in front of him.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob, looking for his car, doesn't notice that he's just gotten into it.
- The phone's brightly-colored and ringing, and Bob still doesn't notice it.
- Bob is going berserk because he can't find his glasses. He's currently wearing them.
- Downplayed: Bob doesn't see his cell phone in front of him initially because it's the same color as the table it's sitting on.
- Justified:
- Bob was distracted, or isn't too bright in the first place.
- Bob was in a heated argument with a close one, and was too upset to pay attention to his surroundings.
- Bob is farsighted.
- Bob is legally blind and isn't wearing his glasses.
- Bob lost his green cellphone entirely and replaced it with a red one. He forgot that his new cellphone is red and is still looking for the green one.
- Inverted:
- Bob has Hyper-Awareness and/or the ability to Sherlock Scan.
- Bob insists his phone is still in front of him even though it's not.
- Subverted: Bob initially seems not to notice his cell phone in front of him, but then he grabs it.
- Double Subverted: ...While not noticing Alice stealing the remote from him.
- Parodied: The cell phone rings and Bob still has trouble finding it, and Alice is endlessly mocking him about it.
- Zig-Zagged: Bob finds his cell phone right where he left it the night before, but forgets where he puts it when he goes to tell Alice he's ready to go. The process repeats itself several times.
- Averted: Bob sees and gets his cell phone without any fuss.
- Enforced: The plot hinged on Bob not being able to make a call in time, but they didn't have time to move the cell phone out of shot.
- Lampshaded: "Huh, how did I miss that?"
- Invoked: Alice deliberately moves Bob's phone to a place he doesn't usually place it.
- Exploited: Alice hides Bob's phone in plain sight, then makes use of the time he spends searching for it to steal his wallet.
- Defied: Bob keeps an eye on his cell phone to make sure he doesn't lose it.
- Discussed: "Ever notice how people can't find things even when they're staring them right in the face?"
- Conversed: "How is he missing the fact that his cell phone's right in front of him?"
- Implied: Bob loudly asks if anyone else has seen his cell phone. Alice says, "Probably right in front of you" without even looking.
- Deconstructed: Bob fails to notice a plane crashing into the building he lives in.
- Reconstructed: Serendipitous Survival
- Played for Drama: The fact that Bob keeps failing to notice obvious things accentuates the fact that he's slowly slipping into dementia, causing the series to take a darker turn.
- Played for Laughs: Bob fails to notice a Zombie Apocalypse going on right outside his windows.
You do realize the link back to Failed a Spot Check is right here, right?
