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Veanne
Since: Jul, 2012
2024-06-09 22:07:11
I think there're at least two, if not three tropes or trope-like concepts here:
- I Do Not Like Green Eggs and Ham for the kid hating carrots thing, possibly subverted if the kid does not buy it; and for the guy disliking things (ditto);
- Spotting the Thread for the detective;
- politicians acting the way you described is, unfortunately, People Sit On Chairs in our day and age.
Mac_R
(Experienced, Not Yet Jaded)
Veanne
Since: Jul, 2012

A parental technique in fiction: The child claims to hate something (like carrots) despite never having tried it. So, the parent pretends to play along, and offers the kid "space cake". The kid eats it, enjoys it, then the parent reveal it was carrot cake all along.
The plan is the kid will realize carrots are good all along. The result often is the kid asking I Ate WHAT?! and spitting it out.
It also happens when an adult is a Manchild, and another adult (his Wet Blanket Wife) is trying to get him to try new stuff - not necessarily food, could be anything, a book, a person...
Or, it can even be Played for Drama - a detective figures out someone is guilty when he's shown to enjoy something he claimed not to. Or, a Straw Hypocrite will claim to support a certain politician's policies, until the interlocutor reveals they're actually a rival's policies.
So, is that a trope?