Basic Trope: Someone does something mundane, but it's set up in a frightening way.
- Straight: Bob is seen raising a knife... only to chop a carrot.
- Exaggerated: The work makes everything Bob does look creepy, like making Bob look like he's raping someone when he's just walking.
- Downplayed: Bob aims a knife at Alice and throws it... but then it's revealed he killed the poisonous scorpion that was about to attack her.
- Justified: Bob sometimes can be creepy during mundane situations — he has a morbid sense of humor which makes him do things in a way that deliberately makes it look creepy, as a joke.
- Inverted: Bob appears to be carving a pumpkin... but it's revealed he was carving Alice's head as she screams in pain and despair.
- Subverted: Bob raises a knife... and chops a carrot. However, the "carrot" is made from Alice's flesh painted orange, and her hair painted green for the leaves. He loves to make food made from his victims.
- Double Subverted: However, it's actually a carrot; Charlie, who ate it and disliked the taste of it, just claimed that it tasted like flesh and hair and Bob pranked him by pretending it actually was.
- Parodied: Bob raises a knife at Alice... then puts it down on a table. Alice asks him what's he doing, and Bob says he was just practicing his upcoming murder of Alice.
- Zig-Zagged: Bob is seen pointing a gun at what seems to be Alice's head... then it's revealed to be a dummy in a shooting range. Alice then walks in, but Bob shoots her instead. Then it's revealed to be seemingly another dummy... but it is actually Alice.
- Averted:
- Bob chops a carrot, but the work doesn't make it look like he's stabbing someone instead.
- Bob does stab Alice.
- Bob never goes anywhere near any knives.
- Enforced: The creator wanted to add a funny moment in a tense scene.
- Lampshaded: "Bob, I thought you were going to kill someone instead of chopping that carrot."
- Invoked: Alice suggests that Bob deliberately hold up the knife dramatically to scare Charlie.
- Exploited: Bob sees this as another way to scare people, so he starts doing the same thing in front of people to get their reactions.
- Defied: Bob hears suspenseful music playing in the background while chopping a carrot, so he quickly puts the knife down.
- Discussed: "I freaked out when I saw Bob with that knife, but he was just chopping a carrot! I must be getting paranoid!"
- Conversed:
- "Alice told me he saw Bob stabbing someone in the kitchen. I doubt that he actually stabbed someone, because he could be chopping a carrot instead, like in movies."
- "Bob might be a murderer, but I don't think so because in movies they always make people look like they're murdering someone when they're just doing something mundane instead."
- Implied: Bob is seen serving some carrots to a family dinner. Alice looks confused, and she says that she thought she saw him stabbing someone.
- Deconstructed: Alice begins to get paranoid after seeing Bob creepily cutting a carrot, so she hides all the knives and other sharp tools in the house, causing Bob to not be able to cook anything, leading them to starve to death.
- Reconstructed: Bob beings to explain to Alice that he just likes doing things creepily, which calms her and she puts back all the knives and the sharp tools to their original place.
- Played for Horror: There's a murderer on the loose, and everyone looks like they could be the killer because they're holding up knives, etc.
I'm going to kill someone... in a race of going back to Stab the Salad as fast as possible!
