Basic Trope: An episode in which the cast is split by gender with the gals having one plot and the guys having another.
- Straight:
- The main characters are Alice, Bob, Carol, Diane, Edward, Freda, Gary and Hugh. In one episode, Alice, Carol, Diane and Freda train at some sort of academy, while Bob, Edward, Gary and Hugh try to teach Bob's dog tricks.
- Along with those two plots, Izzy, Jae, Kaoru, and Lee (who are all nonbinary) are testing a video game.
- Exaggerated: None of the men ever even mentions anyone female and vice versa, while no background characters are the opposite gender of the main characters who are in any given scene are shown in that scene.
- Downplayed:
- The men and women spend some time together, but not much.
- Alice, a Tomboy, is hanging out with the boys trying to teach Bob's dog tricks together, while Hugh and the other girls are at the academy. Meanwhile, Hugh, who is In Touch with His Feminine Side, is training at the academy with the girls, while Alice and the other boys are trying to teach Bob's dog tricks.
- Justified:
- The academy that Alice, Carol, Diane and Freda go to is for women only.
- For unclear reasons, Bob's dog acts badly around women.
- Inverted: The men and the women are usually not seen together, but spend one episode together.
- Subverted:
- During lunch break, Alice comes over to see how the guys are doing training Bob's dog.
- Edward calls Diane, who knows a thing or two about animals, to come over to help train Bob's dog.
- Hugh is asked to come as a guest speaker in a class his female friends all attend.
- Double Subverted:
- That wasn't really Alice, or she only shows up for a few seconds, or she doesn't get to talk to any of the men.
- Diane says she cannot come over as she's studying.
- Hugh has to cancel his engagement because he's working — or so he claims, when he's actually with the men and Bob's dog.
- Parodied: The episode begins with a disembodied voice telling the men and women to stay away from each other for reasons it doesn't want to reveal.
- Averted:
- The cast does not split by gender for an episode.
- The show has an Improbably Female Cast or an Improbably Male Cast.
- Zig-Zagged: The ladies spend some time separated from the dudes, and other times they're together, in the same episode.
- Lampshaded:
- "Notice how it's just us guys training your dog, Bob, because all the ladies are off at the academy?"
- "Isn't it funny how we ladies are the only ones at the academy, while our guy friends are off training Bob's dog?"
- Enforced: The writers wanted to have Alice, Carol, Diane and Freda go to the academy, but it's female-only, and they decided against cutting out half of the cast for an episode so they gave the guys something to do.
- Invoked:
- Exploited:
- Defied: The group refuses to split.
- Discussed: "Is it gonna be just us guys while you go study?"
- Conversed: "Remember that episode where the dudes were separated from the ladies?"
- Implied:
- Deconstructed:
- Reconstructed:
- Played for Laughs:
- Played for Drama:
Back to Gender-Separated Ensemble Episode.
