Basic Trope: The booking agent is also The Charmer.
- Straight: Talent Agent Paul Dyson from "Dyson Inc." tries coercing the world octuple (now heavyweight) champion boxer Flash Young with deals, promises of fame and fortune, and smiles, trying to have him sign a contract to pay 10% of his winning money. The very moment Flash even loses a round (not a fight, because Flash losing a fight is pretty much considered impossible), Paul ditches Flash.
- Exaggerated: Paul tries convincing Flash to sign a contract legally handing over his very soul over to Paul by telling him that he'll essentially become a god after signing the contract. Of course, the very instant Flash screws up a bet that was placed (no, it wasn't Throwing the Fight, it was KO'ing his opponent in the 3rd round, and he KO'd them in the 2nd), Paul swiftly drops Flash like a bad habit while actively making sure that he's blacklisted from every agency in the world.
- Downplayed: Paul does respect Flash's decisions and ambitions at heart, but he's always trying to promote a much nicer, more marketable side of Flash, something which Flash doesn't really feel comfortable doing, instead opting to act more like an arrogant, brutish thug who loves pummeling people.
- Justified: Flash is pretty much the greatest pound-for-pound boxer in history, so why shouldn't Paul capitalize on such incredible talent?
- Inverted: Paul is a borderline Beleaguered Assistant who tries to make Flash's wildest dreams (and Flash has some pretty damn wild dreams) come true, constantly being the Cloudcuckoolander's Minder to what essentially is a 7 foot tall monolith constructed of muscle and all the emotional maturity of a fetus.
- Subverted: ???
- Double Subverted: ???
- Parodied: ???
- Zig-Zagged: Paul's sleaziness tends to be Depending on the Writer.
- Averted:
- Paul's suggestions never veer even an inch into risking Flash's personal goals and ambitions, and he's pretty damn loyal nonetheless.
- Paul isn't a talent agent; He's just a standard Crooked Contractor.
- Enforced: Paul is a deliberate Take That! by the writers to Don King, Fred Specktor, ICM Partners or other infamous athlete and artist agents of real life with the sleaziness turned to eleven thousand and a flimsy "only inspired from headlines" shield.
- Lampshaded: "Oh, of course I'm all smiles and no soul! I was built that way!"
- Invoked: Talent Agents like Paul are trained to be this way in order to get through to their clients and make as much money off of them as possible.
- Exploited: Natch; Paul exploits the hell out of Flash because that's pretty much his job.
- Defied:
- Flash angrily shoves Paul off, and learns more about the business behind boxing so that he pretty much renders every other talent agent redundant to him.
- Flash's coach Billy (or the other boxers in Billy's gym, like Flash's girlfriend Alicia, Billy's son Clay, long-time friends Ulysses, Eddie, Harry, and Pete) threaten Paul to leave Flash alone.
- Paul, along with other promoters and talent agents, are strictly trained to be as professional yet as empathetic and well meaning as possible, because after one too many angry clients, they realized they really shouldn't be so greedy after all.
- Discussed: Coach Billy bemoans how these asshole agents are constantly swooping in and trying to take the talent that he made into legends.
- Conversed: Alice and Bob point and laugh at how depressingly low these agents go just to appeal to their client.
- Played for Drama:
- Paul constantly chatting and flattering Flash up puts a strain on Flash and his team members.
- No matter how much Paul is constantly chatting and flattering Flash up, Flash is just not budging, becoming angrier and shorter tempered the more Paul pushes him towards the edge.
- Paul is not beyond seriously injuring or even killing Flash to milk sympathy points and potential posthumous souvenir licensing profits (or the insurance money).
- Paul is a Toxic Friend Influence to Flash, and due to Flash being none the wiser, is constantly falling for Paul's pressure into doing awful deeds, destroy his friendships, wreck himself on the playing field and brutalize his opponents in the name of "money".
- Played for Laughs:
- Paul's attempts at cozying up to the others are laughably pitiful:
- For Flash, Paul uses appeal to strength and inner masculinity, often bringing in other women to try and sway Flash to his side. This has the effect of pissing Alicia off.
- For Alicia, Paul compliments her looks, though he often says that The Glasses Gotta Go and other stuff like that to make her prettier and less nerdy. This has the effect of pissing Flash off.
- For Ulysses, Paul tries to get him to either: Appeal to women (even though he's surprisingly not into women, despite his mannerisms saying otherwise) with his Pretty Boy looks and keep the Nick Carter center part (despite fighting in a similar manner as Mike Tyson) if Paul hasn't found out about his homosexuality, or make him adopt a Camp Gay persona, which Ulysses feels offended by. This has the effect of pissing Flash, Alicia, Eddie, Harry, Pete and Ulysses off.
- For Eddie, Paul props him up as the hottest thing around and appealing to Eddie's pride, managing to have the best effect on him compared to the others. This has the effect of pissing Flash, Ulysses, Harry, and Pete off.
- For Harry, Paul tends to make him laze around and live luxuriously, even though Harry's always got work to do. This has the effect of pissing of Flash, Ulysses, Eddie, and Pete off.
- For Pete, Paul gorges him with lots and lots of food, worsening the hell out of his bulimia, but Paul indirectly reminds Pete of Tommy Sharpe, who once raped Pete so badly that his bulimia swiftly spiraled horrifically, so worsening it even more is intolerable. This has the effect of pissing Flash, Ulysses, Eddie, Harry, and Pete himself off.
- For Clay, Paul urges him to take a Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll lifestyle, even though Clay so far has had the image of a Gentle, All Loving Jock, while the rest of the gym tend to view him as Everyone's Baby Brother. This has the effect of pissing just about everyone else (Flash, Alicia, Ulysses, Eddie, Harry, Pete, and Coach Billy) off.
- Paul is a literal (parodied) Satanic Archetype: a Running Gag throughout his appearances is the smell of sulfur, the smoke, the red lightning and the suspiciously apropos Latin chanting coming from the radio as he tries to tempt Flash into doing things that are morally wrong but highly profitable (such as using himself as a salesman of extremely dangerous alleged cars) and everybody says things like "selling [Flash's] soul", "Flash, listen to me, I'm your agent and the Devil's Advocate to these idiots…" and "who did you killed for Flash to get this job, Mephisto? / that air conditioner fell on its own!"
- Paul's attempts at cozying up to the others are laughably pitiful:
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