Basic Trope: A character in a musical sings of how wonderful they are.
- Straight: Bob's introductory number has him sing a song about how he is the handsomest man in Troperia, is the best swordsman, and the smartest.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob sings that he is the best at everything, and proceeds to demonstrate so to the audience, winning a swordsmanship competition, wins a Nobel Prize for physics, and hooks up with the most beautiful chorine, all in the course of one song.
- Bob sings his song in the middle of a homeless shelter, where everyone is miserable except for Bob.
- Bob is a One-Scene Wonder and appears nowhere else in the musical.
- Downplayed: Scrappy underdog Alice sings a song about how great she is to try to convince her coach to put her on the team.
- Justified:
- Bob is that awesome.
- Bob only thinks he's that awesome.
- Inverted:
- Bob sings a song about how awful and lame he is.
- Alice sings a song to Bob about how great he is.
- Subverted: Bob starts to sing about all the wonderful things he is, but the chorus precedes to shut him up.
- Double Subverted: Bob sings his "I Am Great!" Song over the chorus demanding his stopping.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig Zagged: Bob sings about how wonderful he is, but also about how he wants to help starving children in Africa... with his awesomeness.
- Averted:
- Bob doesn't sing a song.
- Bob sings a song, but it doesn't cover how great he is.
- Enforced: "Test audiences don't really like Bob, so let's give him a scene where he explains why they should. But to make it more dynamic, put it in a song."
- Lampshaded: "I'm the most handsome man in the land, so I wrote a song about that fact."
- Invoked: Bob asks Alice for songwriting inspiration. Knowing that Bob is self-centered, she suggests that he write about himself, and he does.
- Exploited: Bob writes the song and has it played on the radio to improve his public image.
- Defied: Bob's songs have to be reviewed and approved by Alice, his manager. She turns down any song that she deems too egotistical.
- Discussed: "Wow, that Bob sounds pretty awesome!" "Of course! Have you heard his song?"
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed:
- Bob is a Small Name, Big Ego who sings about how awesome he thinks he is. Everyone else thinks he's just being a twit.
- Everyone believes Bob when he sings about how awesome he supposedly is — and then he winds up in a situation where he has to prove it. He quickly falls apart.
- Played For Laughs: Bob sings about how he is the best at something soul-crushingly lame, like being the top computer solitaire player in the state.
Back to "I Am Great!" Song
