Basic Trope: Pictures with numerical signs between them in a thought or speech bubble.
- Straight: Alice walks into Bob's house, where Bob has a Priceless Ming Vase. Alice is a bit clumsy, so Bob gets a thought bubble which reads "[picture of Alice] + [picture of the vase] = [picture of the vase being knocked over]."
- Exaggerated: All the thought bubbles read like this, even those of babies and pets, who logically shouldn't be able to do math.
- Downplayed: Bob's thought bubble has words instead of pictures, but still numerical signs, i.e. "Alice + breakable objects = trouble."
- Justified: Bob is actually imagining the numerical symbols.
- Inverted: Bob is calculating in his head, but there are no numerals or symbols, it's all in words.Bob: (thinking) "Seven times six equals forty-two..."
- Subverted:
- Double Subverted:
- Parodied: Alice can read Bob's thought bubble and says, "That's not how arithmetic works!"
- Zigzagged: Bob's thought bubble reads "Alice + [picture of the vase] equals trouble."
- Averted:
- There are no thought bubbles.
- None of the thought bubbles read like this.
- Enforced:
- The writer had a word limit, so they decided to opt for this method to decrease the word count.
- Iconographs are much more universal than words, making it much easier to reach an international audience.
- A left-side-only Rebus Bubble can be used for Not that Clumsy Copyright Censorship by requiring the reader to work out what is meant (EG: a singer's speech bubble consists of a picture of a five cent coin, a picture of a saw and a picture of a pair of shoes)
- Lampshaded: "Now I'm thinking in math!"
- Invoked: A witch gives Bob a potion that makes him think in math.
- Exploited:
- Defied: Bob starts to imagine the plus sign, then thinks, "That's silly" and corrects himself.
- Discussed: "Sometimes I imagine numerical symbols."
- Conversed: "These comic book characters take 'mental calculations' to a whole new level!"
- Implied:
- Deconstructed:
- Reconstructed:
- Played for Laughs:
- Played for Drama: Alice is in danger of dying, so Bob's thought bubble has a picture of her death after the equals sign.
Back to Rebus Bubble.
