Basic Trope: A character uses professional jargon when not working.
- Straight: Alice is a standup comedian who says, "Am I right?" even when not performing.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice never says anything that's not a joke.
- The only characters who talk normally are people who are unemployed, retired, or in school.
- Downplayed: Alice is a standup comedian who is a bit wittier than the average person but never talks exactly like a comedian unless she's performing.
- Justified: Sometimes people can get into the habit of talking a certain way.
- Inverted:
- Alice is a professional comedian who talks like a cook. Her husband, Bob, is a professional cook who talks like a comedian.
- Alice is said to be a comedian, and she tells jokes all the time ... except when she's performing.
- Subverted: "That's Bob for you, am I ... correct?"
- Double Subverted: She follows up with a joke about airline food.
- Parodied: Alice says all the stock comedian lines ("Am I right?", "Boy, my arms are tired", etc.) when not performing, but avoids them when she's actually performing due to them being cliché.
- Zig-Zagged: The times when Alice talks like a stereotypical comedian varies Depending on the Writer — sometimes all the time, sometimes only when performing, sometimes all the time except when it's serious, etc.
- Averted: Alice only uses lines like "Am I right?" when performing.
- Enforced: "We need to make sure the audience remembers Alice's profession and we need some comedy in the show! Let's have her say, 'Am I right?' all the time — that kills two birds with one stone!"
- Lampshaded: "No, you're not right, because you're not performing."
- Invoked: Alice is extremely strict about rehearsing.
- Exploited: Alice uses gag lines in day-to-day life to come up with new material.
- Defied: Alice refuses to use her one-liners unless she's actually performing lest they become unfunny.
- Discussed: "I have this comedian friend. Most of her jokes are funny but the way she says, 'Am I right?' all the time, even offstage, gets pretty annoying."
- Conversed: "As a standup comedian myself, I do not say 'Am I right?' all the time like that doofy cartoon character! No comedians worth their salt even take that line seriously anymore!"
- Implied: The characters all speak gibberish but Alice has the inflection of someone telling a joke, even when she's not performing.
- Deconstructed: Alice's friends come to find the line annoying.
- Reconstructed: She changes the line every few weeks so it doesn't become annoying.
- Played for Laughs: Alice's overreliance on this is So Unfunny, It's Funny.
- Played for Drama: Poor Communication Kills when Alice can't keep from talking like a comedian in a crisis situation.
- Played for Horror: Alice keeps talking like a comedian even upon hearing of a disaster that killed scores of people, which shows her lack of concern for human life.
- Plotted a Good Waste: Alice is trying to get out of comedy for whatever reason (she's a Sad Clown, she wants to do something more 'useful', etc.), but everybody interprets her 'leaning into' her role as a sign that she's gone crazy. Alternately, she has.
Back to Busman's Vocabulary.
