Basic Trope: Something minor or personal that regularly sends a character into a rage.
- Straight: Brad, normally a rational and non-aggressive person, beats the shit out of someone because they jokingly insulted his mother.
- Exaggerated:
- Someone touches Brad's shoes. Brad, normally an Extreme Doormat, goes on a murderously psychotic rampage that results in the deaths of the people responsible.
- Hair-Trigger Temper
- Brad is normally an Incorruptible Pure Pureness guy, but when someone mocks or says their hate for his favorite show, Alice and Bob, he becomes the angriest person to ever exist and vents his anger by destroying that person's home and eventually their entire family.
- Downplayed:
- Brad is normally the Only Sane Man, but he'll go into a long and brutal rant if someone calls him a bastard.
- While Brad remains as calm as ever in spite of the comments about his mother, small signs such as a slightly Twitchy Eye, a furrowed brow, or more flippant manner of speaking betray the fact that he is indeed provoked by them.
- Brad would stay mostly calm but he would give anyone who insults his mom a death stare that makes them think twice about doing it again in the future.
- Justified:
- Brad deeply loves and cares about his mother and that cause him to over-react to anyone that dares to say something rude about her.
- The insults directed at Brad's mom are that rude.
- Brad's mother was brutally murdered in front of him.
- Brad's mother is the closest this podunk town has to a living saint. That jackass deciding to turn her into collateral damage to his emnity to Brad is way over the line.
- Bob would be more okay with people making fun of his favorite show if it wasn't popular culture to brand everybody who expresses even the smallest amount of love for it as the most braindead of idiots, which of course the jerks constantly, inevitably use as ammunition to make fun of him.
- Inverted:
- Brad being called a bastard causes him to mope.
- Alternatively Brad is The Berserker when he's not baking, referring to pastries really mellows him out.
- Brad usually has Hair-Trigger Temper when it comes someone talking to him unless someone calls him imbecile at which point he doesn't care.
- Kindness Button
- After Brad has several mental breakdowns and traumatic events, Eric insults his mom. Brad's mother was abusive, so Brad agrees with the insult and is cheered up.
- Subverted: Brad looks like he's going to snap, but he doesn't...
- Double Subverted:
- ...but then some more jeering sends him down the deep end completely.
- Or it just looks like he didn't snap, because he went into Tranquil Fury.
- Parodied:
- Brad's occasionally driven to violence, even to the point of challenging someone to a chicken race once, whenever someone messes with his shoes.
- Brad is a robot with a button labeled "Berserk" on his back. Pressing it will make him angry.
- Zig-Zagged:
- After being pushed too far, Brad picks a fight with the scoundrel but is horribly outmatched. Now his face makes his shoes look intact by comparison.
- If someone insults Brad's mother, Brad will pretty much goes to them, gets on his knees and talks to them that they are cool, rational guys that do a whole lot for the community and thus everybody, incuding Brad himself, loves them, so he is struggling deep down inside and catching at straws to keep himself from jumping onto them like a mad dog and tearing their throats out with his teeth before stomping their heads into mulch... but he has managed, so he's giving them this warning to please don't do it again. And not understanding how truthful his words are, they do...
- Averted:
- The things that would be Brad's berserk buttons don't bother him at all.
- He may be pissed, but he's still a wimp. The man who insulted Bob's mother has Might Makes Right on his side and Bob can either swallow his pride or his blood.
- Enforced: The writers want to show that even nice guys can break.
- Lampshaded: "Don't do that. He'll break your neck if you do."
- Invoked: "I heard that he's sensitive about his shoes. Let's spill mustard on them and see what happens!"
- Implied: Someone says the name of Bob's mother in the middle of an angry drunken rant and everybody freezes in terror (even if Bob is nowhere nearby).
- Exploited:
- Jack, the hero, uses Bob's Berserk Button to take down the Dark Lord.
- A villain uses Bob's Berserk Button to get him in serious trouble with the authorities or get him killed.
- Defied:
- "You think that's going to piss me off?! Ha! You're wrong!"
- "Yeah, I just insulted your mother. And what are you gotta do about it?!? Oh, yeah! NOTHING!!!" yells the bully built like a Liefeld drawing of the Incredible Hulk (and with the strength and toughness to match) and his fifty friends who are equally tough and heavily armed.
- Discussed: "Just...don't mention that one thing around him. Trust me on this one, okay?"
- Conversed: "Oooh, that character is being set up as an idiot." "How do you know?" "He just called Brad a bastard... a second time."
- Deconstructed: Brad's reaction to his Berserk Buttons get him into deep trouble with horrifying consequences for all.
- Reconstructed: ...but he has made sure NO ONE will ever make fun of his shoes again.
- Played for Laughs:
- Bob's Berserk Button itself and/or his reaction when it gets pressed is utterly ridiculous.
- Bob sees an advertisement for weightlosing/skincare. He goes to the advertiser and kills them in a violently hilarious way.
- "Uh... hang on, I think I'm having a delayed reaction this time. Just give me a minute so I can get angry properly."
- Played for Drama:
- Bob's Berserk Button leads to someone getting hurt or even killed, leading to everything going to hell for him.
- Brad is self-aware of his reaction to his Berserk Button, and feels somewhat guilty for it, but at the same time can't bring himself to forgive anyone who insults his mother.
- Played for Horror:
- Bob is a Serial Killer and he chooses who to slaughter by reviewing every conversation they ever had for insults to his mother, either outright stated or implied... or that he imagines they implied...
- Bob is a perfectly functional man until you insult his mother, and then you find out that his functionality was just a part of his Mask of Sanity and you just metaphorically yanked it off his face. As for the carnage that ensues, you're the only one to blame.
Don't go back to Berserk Button, OR I WILL BREAK YOUR FACE BITCH!
