Basic Trope: A valuable item (e.g. a vase) gets destroyed for comedic effect.
- Straight: A drunken party guest bumps a table with a vase on it, knocking the vase to the floor and smashing it.
- Exaggerated: The drunk smashes a whole warehouse's worth of vases... with the total value equivalent to centuries worth of the world's GDP.
- Downplayed: The drunk knocks the vase down, but only chips it.
- Justified: The drunk is an alcoholic and thinks that there is liquor in the vase.
- Inverted: The drunk glues together a vase that someone else knocked down.
- Subverted:
- Someone catches the vase.
- The vase is a replica and is consequently of no value.
- The vase is tougher than expected and doesn't even chip when it hits the floor.
- Double Subverted:
- Someone catches the vase, but it breaks in his/her hands.
- But the impact ruined the would-have-tasted-great drink that was being prepared in it and was the real source of the vase's value.
- Parodied: The vase is made of rubber and bounces around the room, and knocks several valuable objects over the course of its bounce.
- Zig Zagged: The vase falls to the ground, everyone expects it to shatter. Someone then catches it, fumbling about and accidentally knocking over another valuable item. They turn around and try to save the other item, managing to catch it but shattering the original.
- Averted:
- No one breaks the vase.
- There is no vase.
- Enforced: "You know the vase in the corner? We should have someone get drunk and smash it."
- Lampshaded: The host's wife says, "I knew we shouldn't have invited Darren. He always gets drunk at parties, and now look what he's done to our vase."
- Invoked: Someone who hates the vase steers the drunk in the direction of the table with the vase on it. The drunk then smashes the vase.
- Exploited: The Big Bad is at the party and takes advantage of the commotion caused by the broken vase.
- Defied:
- The drunk stumbles toward the table with the vase on it, but another guest gently "steers" him away from it.
- The drunk is terrified that the vase is going to cut him. He won't go near it, and begs the host to put a guard rail around it.
- Discussed: "We should move that vase out of the way before someone bumps it. There is alcohol at this party, you know."
- Conversed: "Why does the narration draw so much attention to the vase? Is someone going to get drunk and smash it?"
- Implied: Early on in the party scene, a vase with a price tag on it is shown standing on a small table in the corner. Later, there is nothing on the table, but the floor is covered in shards.
- Deconstructed: The drunk is cut and seriously injured by shards of the broken vase.
- Reconstructed: The drunk bumps the vase and then falls backward, so the vase shards don't cut him.
- Played For Laughs: The drunk tries to bump into the vase, but can't bring himself to do it. Finally, he gets someone to give him a push.
- Played For Drama: The vase's owner sues for compensation and wins, thereby bankrupting the drunk and ruining his life.
- Played For Horror:
- The vase's owner murders the drunk in a rage.
- The drunk accidentally slashes his throat on one of the vase's shards and bleeds to death.
Back to Priceless Ming Vase
