Basic Trope: Pretending not to know someone so you aren't judged for being with them.
- Straight: Billy's Amazingly Embarrassing Parents start causing a scene in front of his friends. Billy tries to deflect this by saying "I've never met these people before."
- Exaggerated: "I was completely unaware that these people even existed until this very moment."
- Downplayed: Wendy and Damien are a couple. Fearing judgment from Wendy's Boyfriend-Blocking Dad, Damien merely claims that Wendy is his "acquiantance."
- Justified: Billy has a reputation to keep up and his parents are acting embarrassing. If his friends think those people are Billy's parents, they won't want to be around him (or so Billy thinks), so he denies being related to them to protect his reputation.
- Inverted: Billy sees two people do something amazing near him. Someone asks if they're his parents, and he says "They sure are!", even though he doesn't actually know them.
- Subverted: Turns out Billy was talking about two other people he actually doesn't know.
- Double Subverted: But once he realizes, he deflects the embarrassment away by claiming he doesn't know his parents.
- Parodied: Billy claims he doesn't know his parents. This Ret Gones him out of existence.
- Zig-Zagged: "That's not my real mom! Well, I mean... sometimes she is. But that's never my dad! That guy is!"
- Averted: Billy takes responsibility for his parents' actions.
- Enforced: "Let's throw in a bit of Cringe Comedy, but show Billy's willingness to lie to save embarrassment."
- Lampshaded: "I've never met these people before!" "What, your parents?"
- Invoked: To give him an escape route, one of Billy's friends asks, "Hey, are those really your parents?"
- Exploited: Billy does this to avoid embarrassment by association with his parents, and it works.
- Defied: Billy's parents tell him that he's not allowed to claim not to know them in public.
- Discussed: "If you ever act like that again, I'm gonna say I don't actually know who you are."
- Conversed: "Kids on cartoons aren't the best at avoiding embarrassment, are they? I mean, 'I don't know them'? Your friends have seen your parents before!"
- Played for Laughs: Billy says this even though he looks exactly like a smaller version of his dad.
- Played for Drama: Billy denies being related to his parents in an overly venomous way (including screaming) which leads to his parents' feelings being severely injured. For additional symbolism, Billy will probably deny them three (increasingly hostile) times.
- Played for Horror: The thing is, Billy's parents have been replaced by Pod People. He's not lying, but nobody will take him seriously.
- Deconstructed: The resulting lie gets Billy in a lot of trouble when someone calls the cops to arrest his "fake" parents.
I'm not friends with Acquaintance Denial. Nope. Never seen it before.
