Basic Trope: A rich cheapskate.
- Straight: Mr. Scrooge is a wealthy investment banker. Despite his wealth, he grossly underpays his employees, refuses to donate to charity, and only has a basic heating system set up in his home and office.
- Exaggerated: Mr. Scrooge is one of the richest men in the world, but lives on the streets begging for money.
- Downplayed: Mr. Scrooge pays his employees a below average, but livable, wage, and while he's not unwilling to spend money, he's definitely very frugal.
- Justified:
- Mr. Scrooge only became rich because he knows how to save every cent of his money.
- Mr. Scrooge grew up poor, and as such, is used to trying to save every cent of money he can.
- Mr. Scrooge just loves money.
- Inverted: Mr. Scrooge is poor, but generous to a fault with the money he has.
- Subverted: Though Mr. Scrooge has a reputation for being a tightwad, he is actually quite generous.
- Double Subverted: An employee of Mr. Scrooge asks for a raise. At first, Scrooge says yes, but it turns out he was just mocking his employee for thinking they actually deserve a raise.
- Parodied: Literally the only thing Scrooge cares for in the world is his money. He keeps it in a secure safe in his house, and angrily chases off anyone who goes anywhere near it. Though there's a slot Scrooge can use to easily put money into the safe, there's an elaborate locing mechanism that takes Scrooge fifteen minutes to open whenever he wants to take money out.
- Zig-Zagged: Scrooge is extremely cheap on some matters, but quite generous on others.
- Averted:
- Scrooge is a man of about average wealth.
- While Scrooge is rich, he's reasonable with how he spends his money.
- Enforced:
- The writers want to tell An Aesop about greed.
- He's kinda required if you're going to lampoon Dickens' classic.
- Lampshaded: "Maybe we can get a loan from Mr. Scrooge?" "Scrooge? No way, that miser hoards his money like a dragon hoards treasure."
- Invoked: One of Mr. Scrooge's business partners and mentors encourages him to try and hoard as much money as he can.
- Exploited: Bob hires Mr. Scrooge as a partner, to help his business make more money. Scrooge would certainly be able to make some money off the deal, and Bob hopes learning how Mr. Scrooge makes money will help him become rich too.
- Defied:
- Scrooge makes a huge donation to charity, just so nobody thinks he's cheap.
- The local IRS has a 500% "asshole miser" tax increase law and it would cost exactly the same in lawyer and miscellaneous fees (and attached taxation) for Scrooge to fight it off in court.
- Discussed: "What do you mean you won't let me borrow five bucks? You've got millions! Are you being one of those rich misers?"
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: Some of Scrooge's employees complain about having trouble making ends meet, and the people at the heating company wonder why he's using such a cheap heater when he can afford a better one.
- Played for Laughs: One of Scrooge's secretaries has to write everything with a feather quill, because Scrooge is too cheap to buy a computer, or even a ballpoint pen. His employees have to stand because Scrooge refuses to invest in chairs. The workplace is drafty, because Scrooge didn't want to pay to repair the massive hole in the back wall. His borderline-poor nephew refuses to borrow a single cent from Scrooge, because the things Scrooge has done in retaliation for him being late at paying Scrooge back that one damned cent would make Mafia Loan Sharks call Scrooge a psycho.
- Played for Drama: Scrooge's cheap ways alienate him from his friends and family, and he becomes a lonely man.
- Played for Horror:
- Scrooge was captured by a madman, who proceeds to brutally torture and mutilate him. The madman demands Scrooge pay him money to stop, but Scrooge refuses.
- Turns out that Scrooge do has a particular item that he loves to squander money on: the decimation of the poor. Nay, the extinction.
I'm not paying you a cent! Go back to The Scrooge already!
