Basic Trope: A moral that it's not good to skip meals.
- Straight: On an episode of Mary and Spencer, Mary thinks she's fat (even though she isn't) and begins only eating one meal a day to lose weight. This makes her tired and lethargic. Spencer tells her that it's important to eat throughout the day, and this helps her feel better.
- Exaggerated: Mary is convinced that she's obese and stops eating altogether. She faints from the lack of food and ends up in the hospital.
- Downplayed: Mary isn't intentionally skipping meals, she's just too invested in her work, to the point that she prioritizes it over everything else (such as food and sleep). She's unable to do her job effectively because she's always tired and hungry. While eating more isn't the solution to all her problems, it does help.
- Justified: Truth in Television. Skipping meals can make you malnourished and vitamin deficient.
- Inverted:
- Mary learns that skipping meals is an effective way to lose weight.
- Mary learns that she should be eating four meals a day rather than three.
- Parodied: Mary is two seconds late for dinner, and she instantly turns into a skeleton.
- Zig-Zagged: Mary learns that it's not good to skip meals. But breakfast is okay to miss sometimes if you wake up too late. Also, she's Catholic, and observes fasting during Lent. And she could stand to lose some weight...
- Averted: The show does not teach a message about skipping meals.
- Enforced: The writers had to add a moral to advertise Mary and Spencer as an Edutainment Show.
- Lampshaded: "It's not good to skip meals!"
- Invoked: Jones advises Mary to start skipping meals.
- Exploited: Jones takes advantage of Mary's tired, hungry state for his own amusement.
- Discussed: "You know, if you don't get enough to eat throughout the day, you can easily become vitamin deficient."
Remember to eat three meals a day at Missed Meal Aesop.
