Basic Trope: Someone lists the symptoms of a medical condition, and someone else nearby shows them as they're said.
- Straight: Alice, The Medic, says, "And the symptoms of this disease are sneezing, itching, chills and nausea", while Bob sneezes, scratches his back, shivers and complains of feeling sick in the order of Alice saying the symptoms.
- Exaggerated: She recites them to a whole lot of people, who all exhibit the symptoms.
- Downplayed: Alice says few symptoms of the disease and is forgotten by everyone, Bob, while not displays the said symptoms immediately, he slowly exhibits all of the symptoms much later on.
- Justified:
- Bob has the disease.
- Bob sneezed because it was dusty and he had the itching, chills and nausea because he has a suggestible mind.
- Inverted: Bob is having a sneezing fit, feels very nauseated, has a very strong itch and is very chilly but when Alice lists those symptoms, they go away one by one.
- Subverted:
- Bob sneezes when Alice mentions sneezing, but doesn't itch when she mentions itching.
- Bob is a movie projection that the doctor included in his presentation on a new illness to the masses.
- The fact that Bob showed symptom #6 is proof that he's faking it, as Alice made it up on the spot.
- Double Subverted:
- But he starts shivering when she mentions chills.
- Accidental Truth: Bob suffers from a worse illness, that has #6 in addition, that Alice isn't familiar with.
- Parodied:Alice: "And the symptoms of this disease are sneezing,—"Bob: "Achoo!"Alice: "Itching,—"Bob: *scratches his back*Alice: "Chills,—"Bob: (shivering) "I'm cold."Alice: "Nausea,—"Bob: "I feel sick."Alice: "And displaying symptoms as soon as they're said."
- Zigzagged: Bob sneezes when Alice mentions sneezing, but doesn't itch when she mentions itching. However, when she mentions chills, he starts shivering, but seems fine when she mentions nausea.
- Averted:
- Alice doesn't recite the symptoms.
- Alice recites the symptoms, but Bob doesn't display them.
- Lampshaded: "Wow, I just displayed every symptom in that order, I must have the disease!"
- Enforced: Rule of Funny.
- Invoked: Alice recites the symptoms to see if Bob will display them.
- Exploited: Alice, an evil doctor, uses her power to intentionally make Bob suffer through the symptoms until she kills him.
- Defied: Alice was about to start listing the symptoms, but decides to write them down and hand it to Bob instead.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: "Either that character's sick or he's got a suggestible mind what with the displaying symptoms in the order they're said."
- Implied: ???
- Deconstructed: ???
- Reconstructed: ???
- Played for Laughs: Alice starts making up symptoms that aren’t part of the list, and Bob suffers from them.
- Played for Drama: Alice lists something really serious (like loss of mobility) as a symptom and Bob does it.
Back to Sequential Symptom Syndrome.
