Basic Trope: Someone holds a surprise party, and something shocking happens in that party.
- Straight: Alice holds a surprise party, and her boyfriend breaks up with her in front of everyone.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice holds a surprise party, and Bob dies in the party.
- Alice holds a surprise party, and Godzilla attacks the city.
- Alice holds a surprise party. Her boyfriend, super-spy Bob, startled by the lights going on and fearing a deadly ambush, reflexively draws a gun and blows Alice away in front of everybody before he can compute what is really happening.
- Downplayed: Alice holds a surprise party, and she... stubbed her toe there.
- Justified:
- Alice's boyfriend decided to break up with her on the date of the party, thinking that it would help him let her off gently.
- Alice's boyfriend was aiming for maximum suffering.
- Alice just had the Very Bad Luck that the Very Bad Thing that happens during her party happened in her birthday — it would have been a Very Bad Thing regardless of the day.
- Inverted: Alice holds a surprise party. Her boyfriend proposes to her there in front of everyone.
- Subverted: Alice holds a surprise party, and her boyfriend breaks up with her in front of everyone. But it was all a Practical Joke.
- Double Subverted: Alice gets so hurt that she decides to really break up with her boyfriend.
- Parodied: Alice stubs her toe at the party. Everybody acts as if she got her foot severed.
- Zig Zagged: Alice's boyfriend breaks up with her.. but it's a joke. But Alice breaks up with her boyfriend anyway... Then she meets another boyfriend at the party...
- Averted: The party goes as expected.
- Enforced: "We need to add some drama, but how? Let's just make Alice's boyfriend dump her at her party."
- Lampshaded:Alice: "Why, this day of all days, you decide to break up with me?"
- Invoked:
- Alice's boyfriend decides to break up with Alice on the date of the party.
- Bob wants to kill Alice. Knowing there will be a surprise party, he will pretend he got frightened and shoot her, hoping to shift the blame to the guests.
- Exploited: The local Jerkass posts a video of the breakup on the Internet.
- Defied:
- Alice's boyfriend decides to not break up with Alice.
- The birthday party is planned and the organizers refuse to make it a surprise.
- Discussed: "That poor Alice... something happens to her almost all the time.."
- Conversed: "I bet her boyfriend is going to break up with her at this very party."
- Implied: Alice is seen going to a party. When she returns home from said party, she is seen crying.
- Deconstructed: Alice's party ends, her social life dies and she gets shamed for it by months to come.
- Reconstructed: Her boyfriend turns out to be a Jerkass who breaks up with all his girlfriends for petty reasons.
- Played For Laughs: Bob breaking up with Alice is showcased as part of a Humiliation Conga montage while Alice is talking about how much of a shitfest her year has been so far.
- Played For Drama: Bob breaking up with Alice is the start of a Drama Bomb barrage (Alice says she's pregnant, Bob states That Thing Is Not My Child!, her father disowns her because of having sex out of wedlock, Alice gets in a Surprise Car Crash while driving away in tears that doesn't hurts her or the baby but kills her mother, the only person in her life that still gave a shit about her...)
- Played For Horror: The "shocking" thing is a brutal, sudden death which makes everybody suffer a Freak Out.
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