Basic Trope: A child asks a question to an adult (often a parent) that the adult considers awkward/shocking.
- Straight: Carson asks his parents, Alice and Bob, where babies come from. His parents find the question awkward and try to avoid answering it.
- Exaggerated:
- Carson loudly asks his parents what the definition of a swear word/impolite term is while in public, much to their horror.
- Carson is Constantly Curious and is regularly asking questions that his parents find awkward or shocking.
- Downplayed: Carson asks his parents where babies come from. They're a little surprised, but give him a fairly thought-out and honest explanation of The Talk for his age anyway.
- Justified:
- Carson has recently heard about babies from somewhere (e.g. he saw a baby recently, or knows someone who recently had/is about to have a baby) and wants to ask his parents about where they come from.
- Carson is too young to realize his question is awkward in the first place.
- Alice and Bob have no idea where Carson could've heard about such a thing.
- Inverted:
- Alice and Bob ask their son Carson a question that he finds hard to answer.
- Carson asks his parents a question. They're enthusiastic to answer it.
- Subverted:
- Carson asks his parents where babies come from, expecting them to find the question awkward. They don't find the question embarrassing at all and actually give him an explanation...
- Carson isn't actually asking about "where babies come from" in the sense of The Talk. He wants to know why he's randomly seen a baby somewhere unexpected.
- Double Subverted:
- When explaining to Carson, they end up chickening out and coming up with something such as saying a Delivery Stork brings babies.
- However, the explanation as to where that baby came from is also quite awkward.
- Parodied:
- Alice and Bob overreact comically to Carson asking a question they find shocking.
- Carson just asks something such as "Why is the sky blue?", and his parents are still shocked.
- Zig-Zagged: Carson asks his parents a lot of questions, some awkward/shocking, and some not.
- Averted:
- Alice and Bob are not embarrassed by the question at all and give an age-appropriate explanation to Carson.
- Carson doesn't ask any embarrassing questions.
- Enforced:
- To set up a Very Special Episode, in more dramatic cases.
- To show how Constantly Curious Carson is.
- To throw in Cringe Comedy.
- Lampshaded: "Well, uh... that's a good question, Carson!"
- Invoked: Carson is hanging out with his friend Dana, when he asks her if she knows the answer to a question. When she doesn't know, she suggests that he ask his parents.
- Exploited: ???
- Defied:
- Instead of getting embarrassed, Alice and Bob try to think of an answer for Carson that's age-appropriate.
- Carson realizes that his question may be awkward to ask his parents, so he either doesn't ask the question at all, or uses a resource (e.g. Google) that he knows won't find the question awkward.
- Discussed:
- "Our son just asked where babies come from. What am I supposed to tell him?"
- "Look, I don't care how embarrassing it is. If your kid asks what a swear word means, do not come up with an innocent lie. It'll always end badly."
- Conversed: "Why are parents in fiction always so weird about their kids asking certain questions?"
- Implied: It's unknown what Carson asked, but his parents seem rather embarrassed.
- Deconstructed: Because of how embarrassed his parents get whenever Carson asks them questions, Carson begins to feel guilty and never asks them even simple questions out of fear of how they'll react.
- Reconstructed: Carson finds a trusted individual who can give him honest answers to questions.
- Played for Laughs:
- Alice and Bob awkwardly struggle to come up with an explanation, and it ends up being full of Unusual Euphemisms.
- Carson asks what "fuck you" means. His parents don't want to explain profanity, so they say it's a fancy way of saying "thank you"... which Carson remembers, and uses in that very context. Cringe Comedy ensues.
- Carson asks the question in the middle of a Fancy Dinner or similar situation, prompting a Spit Take from several people involved.
- When Carson's parents evade the question by lying to him, Carson reveals that he actually knows more about the subject than they do.
- Played for Drama:
- Carson ends up getting in serious trouble when he uses an obscene word in an innocent context, since that was what his parents told him it meant, and he has no idea what he did wrong.
- Carson asks a question that's related to a difficult topic at this moment (e.g. a death in the family), and his parents don't think he's old enough to know the truth.
- Daddy, what's an Innocent Awkward Question?Uh... I'll tell you when you're older.
