Basic Trope: Instructions are printed when they're not supposed to be.
- Straight: Bob is getting a cake for Alice. He asks the baker to write the phrase "Happy Birthday Alice", and to write it in purple. The cake ends up saying "Happy Birthday Alice and Write it in Purple".
- Exaggerated:
- The cake ends up reading "Happy Birthday Alice and Underneath that Write I'm So Proud of You Oh and Write it in Purple Cursive Lettering". The baker doesn't even use purple, or cursive, lettering.
- Bob ends up getting the instructions printed as well every time he asks for something to be printed.
- Downplayed: The cake ends up reading "Happy Birthday Alice and I'm So Proud of You", when Bob just meant for it to read "Happy Birthday Alice" with the text "I'm So Proud of You" underneath.
- Justified:
- The baker is The Ditz.
- Bob wasn't clear enough that the additional phrases were instructions, and not what he wanted the cake to have on it.
- The baker is Literal-Minded in some way, causing them to misunderstand instructions.
- The baker has a beef with Bob.
- Inverted: The baker somehow interprets "Happy Birthday Alice" as part of the instructions in spite of Bob not actually telling them to add it.
- Subverted: It turns out that Alice really did ask for her cake to say "Happy Birthday Alice and Write it in Purple", because she thought it would be funny.
- Double Subverted: The cake also ends up with the phrase "And Write it in Cursive Too", which wasn't actually part of what was ordered.
- Parodied: ???
- Zig-Zagged: ???
- Averted: Alice's cake simply says "Happy Birthday Alice".
- Enforced: Rule of Funny
- Lampshaded: Alice's cake ends up reading "Happy Birthday Alice, and also can you send me a picture of the cake before you deliver it to me?"
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Implied: Alice looks askance at the cake and asks Bob "Did you mean to write that?"
- Defied:
- The bakery has a form to fill out when ordering a cake, with separate lines for special instructions and what the customer wants the cake to read.
- Before decorating the cake, the baker asks Bob whether he's saying what he wants on the cake, or just giving instructions.
- Bob avoids giving any special instructions for the cake, and just says what he wants the cake to read.
- There's a special application on the bakery's computer that allows for Bob to design the cake, and when Bob makes his design, it's given to the baking robot who bakes the cake down to the last detail.
- Bob triple-checks the order and how the baker is going to fulfill it and adds “and if you are stupid enough to be so super-literal about it I will make damned sure you end up homeless."
- Discussed: "I don't know if I'd want that bakery decorating my cake. I asked if they could put sprinkles on the cake I was ordering, and all they did was write I Want Sprinkles on it."
- Conversed: "I love that joke in TV shows where someone tries to get something printed, and they end up getting the instructions printed along with it."
- Deconstructed: The baker's incompetence causes the bakery to fail as people are not happy with paying a lot of money and receiving badly decorated cakes.
- Played for Drama: Alice thinks Bob is making fun of her by giving her a badly decorated cake.
Back to Overly Literal Transcription, use CamelCase to link back to the main page. Oh, and could you use a cool font?
