Basic Trope: If a person or thing is reasoned into thinking it shouldn't exist, it disappears.
- Straight: A zombie is chasing Alice and Bob, but then Alice declares, "There's no such thing as a zombie!". The zombie then disappears.
- Exaggerated:
- It's a whole lot of mythical creatures but Alice denies them all so they all disappear.
- The zombie somehow never existed after Alice says that there's no such thing.
- Downplayed: The zombie turns into a regular human after Alice says that zombies don't exist.
- Justified:
- Alice and Bob were trying to escape a world where imagination can come true. Bob imagined the zombie and Alice imagined it away.
- In this universe, zombies actually do exist, but they cover up their tracks very well and are rare enough so that many people can still think they don't and not seem crazy. However, being in contact with someone who doesn't believe in them makes them disappear.
- It's a world where Clap Your Hands If You Believe is in effect, and if someone doesn't believe zombies exists, well...
- Inverted:
- Alice and Bob are just hanging out, when Alice says that she believes in zombies and one appears.
- Alice says that there's no such thing as zombies, which causes more of them to appear every time she says it.
- Subverted:
- It turns out the zombie was just teleporting.
- The zombie appears again.
- Alice tries to make the zombie disappear by saying it doesn't exist, but it doesn't work.
- Double Subverted:
- But when Alice says, "Even if they do exist, they don't teleport!", the zombie disappears.
- But she makes it disappear again by saying, "Still no such thing as a zombie!".
- It only doesn't work because that's not a real zombie. Real zombies can be reasoned out of existence.
- Parodied: People can make anything they want not exist. Alice Does Not Like Spam, so she wishes it didn't exist.
- Zigzagged: ???
- Enforced: As a way of setting up The Reveal that they're in a world where Your Mind Makes It Real.
- Lampshaded: Afterwards, they have this conversation:Bob: "But there clearly was such a thing as zombies before."Alice: "Well, now there isn't."Bob: "But humans can't decide what exists and doesn't."Alice: (shocked) "That's true! We can't! Or rather, shouldn't! Ugh! Nothing makes sense anymore!"
- Invoked: Alice deliberately says this in order to make the zombie disappear.
- Exploited: This is Alice's go-to way of dealing with the paranormal.
- Defied:
- Alice decides that she's not the boss of what exists.
- The zombie refuses to disappear.
- Discussed: "So can you really make zombies disappear by denying their existence?"
- Conversed: "That TV show has different rules about existing than the real world."
- Implied: We don't see the zombie disappear, but it's gone in the next scene.
- Deconstructed: Since anyone can decide something/somebody doesn't exist, the villains just say, "Alice and Bob don't exist!".
- Reconstructed: It only works on mythical creatures.
- Played for Laughs:
- Alice and Bob have an Argument of Contradictions over whether zombies exist and the zombie disappears when Alice says they don't but reappears when Bob says they do.
- The zombie disappears in a different fashion. After Alice points out there's no such thing as a zombie, it awkwardly tries to explain how it's even here before yelling "Carl, they're on to us!" Another zombie shows up in a car and they drive away.
- Played for Drama: Not all zombies are evil, and Alice and Bob accidentally killed all zombies by saying they don't exist.
Back to Puff of Logic.
