Basic Trope: A very ugly homemade sweater.
- Straight: Timmy's grandmother Karen knits him an ugly sweater with uneven stripes in clashing colours. To make matters worse, Timmy's Embarrassing Initials "TMI" are knitted onto the back.
- Exaggerated: Karen knits Timmy an extremely garish princess-themed sweater full of glitter and bows even though Timmy is 17 and has always hated princesses. Even worse, the damn thing's so impossibly itchy that it feels like bullet ants angrily biting and stinging into Timmy.
- Downplayed:
- Karen knits Timmy a bright red sweater. It's not Timmy's favourite colour, but the sweater itself isn't bad.
- The sweater looks a bit silly, but Timmy doesn't really mind.
- Justified:
- Karen is so out of touch that she believes the thing in the straight example looks good. She knits equally ugly items for herself all the time.
- Karen made do with the few pieces of thick yarn she still had lying around, as the thin yarn was ill suited for a sweater.note
- Inverted: Timmy loves the cool superhero-themed sweaters Karen makes him.
- Subverted:
- Timmy opens a Christmas present from Karen and finds a princess-themed sweater. It turns out that he accidentally got one of his little sister Tina's gifts, and she adores it.
- Karen tells Timmy that she has made him a sweater for Christmas. Timmy fears the worst, but finds a tasteful black sweater when he opens the gift.
- Double Subverted:
- Then Timmy opens his gift and finds the ugly sweater from the straight example.
- Then Timmy tries it on and discovers that one of its sleeves is too long while the other is too short. It's also pretty itchy.
- Parodied:
- Karen knits Timmy a perfectly fine black sweater, but everyone acts like it's the most disturbing thing ever.
- Karen makes Timmy an extremely garish princess-themed sweater full of glitter and bows. He thinks it's awesome.
- The sweater was homemade by Satan.
- A store sells a book titled Ugly Sweaters for Dummies.
- Zig-Zagged:
- Karen alternates between knitting ugly and tasteful sweaters for Timmy each year.
- Karen knits Timmy a sweater that he considers ugly at first but which grows on him. But then she knits him an equally ugly or uglier sweater the next year.
- Karen knits Timmy an ugly sweater, but the ugly pattern wears off in the wash; however, the sweater itself has also shrunk, so he can't wear it anymore, so she knits him another ugly one.
- Averted:
- Karen knits Timmy a tasteful black sweater.
- For any number of reasons, Karen doesn't knit a sweater for Timmy.
- Enforced:
- The executives forced the writers to make a Christmas Episode where Timmy learns An Aesop about gratitude.
- It's a simple way to show that Karen's mental faculties are leaving her.
- Lampshaded: Timmy blatantly says that the sweater is incredibly ugly.
- Invoked: Karen finds Timmy annoying, so she intentionally makes him an ugly sweater to embarrass him.
- Exploited: Timmy's parents evaluate his reaction to Karen's gifts as a Secret Test of Character to find out whether he's worthy of the gift they know he wants most.
- Defied:
- Karen goes out of her way to ensure that the sweater will fit and be tasteful.
- Karen discusses Christmas presents with Timmy's parents. She suggests knitting him a sweater, but they tell her that he's not interested in clothes and advise her to buy him a new basketball instead.
- Discussed: "I hope I won't get an ugly sweater for Christmas."
- Conversed: "How come people on TV always lose their taste in clothes when they make or buy sweaters for other people?"
- Implied: Timmy mentions that he "accidentally" lost the sweater from Karen a few days after getting it.
- Deconstructed: Despite Timmy's polite requests for something besides a sweater for Christmas, Karen never bothers to make or buy him anything new, causing a rift in their relationship.
- Reconstructed:
- Eventually, the sweaters grow on Timmy, or he at least decides that the fact that Karen was thinking about him is more important than what she gave him.
- Karen gives Timmy a gift that he likes and he forgives her for the sweaters he didn't.
- Played for Laughs: The sweater has a joke on it. Other people think it's So Unfunny, It's Funny, while Timmy thinks it's just unfunny.
- Played for Drama:
- Karen is genuinely hurt when she find out that Timmy hates the sweater she knitted specially for him.
- Timmy is forced to wear the ugly sweater to school, and is bullied for it.
- Timmy sentimentally keeps the ugly sweaters after Karen's death.
- Played for Horror: Karen knitted something onto the sweater that is Accidental Nightmare Fuel for Timmy, but she insists on his wearing it every time she sees him.
Back to Homemade Sweater from Hell.
