Basic Trope: A character gains a good trait (or loses a bad one), but the changes disappear when some time has passed.
- Straight:
- Cynthia starts taking a new brand of meds which enhances her concentration and even her intelligence... However, she stops taking them for whatever reason and reverts to her old self.
- The thief Daniel decides to turn over a new leaf and reintegrate into society. But after one too many people refuse to forgive him for his actions in his past, he thinks "Then Let Me Be Evil" and goes back to his old ways.
- Exaggerated:
- Cynthia could always keep herself under control as long as she took her meds; now, she is a Cloud Cuckoo Lander even while on them.
- Daniel would always let people go after taking their money; now, he kills people if it means taking their stuff.
- Downplayed: The character does keep some of the changes, albeit not all of them.
- Justified:
- The method used to better the character would be unhealthy,or even deadly, to them in the long run. Cynthia's medicine causes neural degeneration, or Daniel doesn't have the money to live normally except by going back to crime on account of no-one hiring him.
- The character became an outcast after the change, and feels lonely.
- On the flipside, the character got a lot of unwarranted attention due to the change, and would rather just be part of the crowd again.
- Inverted: A character temporarily turns for the worse, only to snap back at the end of the plot.
- Subverted:
- Cynthia is just Obfuscating Insanity.
- Daniel is seen robbing someone in the street... Then gives an old person their wallet back. You see, he started using his experiences as a thief to undo the damage other thieves have made.
- Double Subverted:
- Cynthia is eventually taken to an asylum where she goes mad for real. The original pills help her to function, but they stop working after a few months.
- Daniel makes sure that all the contents of the wallet are in place and skims a little off the top, justifying it to himself as a public service. Daniel grows overly attached to these ill-gotten gains and backtracks into serious robbery again.
- Parodied:
- The change doesn't matter at all — the character suddenly gained an Idiot Hair, that's all. But the narrator and character both Wangst over the character's fate as said Idiot Hair falters and blends in with the rest of the character's locks...
- Cynthia becomes so insufferably arrogant that the Reset Button comes about because of the entire cast beating on her ass.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: The character neither gains a good trait nor loses a bad one.
- Enforced:
- "If Cynthia is too normal, we'll lose a good source of comedy on this show. Let's make it so she has to go back to her old form of medication sooner or later."
- "The whole plot of the next segment hinges on Daniel getting killed, and we don't want too many people to sympathise with him. Let's have him go back to being an evil bastard."
- Lampshaded: "Wasn't there a period where Cynthia was less... You know...?"
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied:
- Cynthia: "I'm not swapping my meds! Haven't you guys learned anything from that one story where the test subjects of a new drug died earlier?"
- Daniel: "People still assume I'm gonna rob'em blind, huh? ... Like hell I'd prove'em right! I'm a noble man now!"
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: "So he's a good man now? I'm gonna bet it won't last long on this show."
Back to "Flowers for Algernon" Syndrome... on second thought, never mind.
