Basic Trope: Someone else ties a guy's tie for him.
- Straight: Alice helps Bob tie his tie.
- Exaggerated: Bob has been trying to tie his tie for several minutes now, and it's a mess. Alice tries for a moment, then has to take it off and start again.
- Downplayed: Alice slightly adjusts Bob's tie.
- Justified:
- Bob is a young man with a Disappeared Dad, and no one else around him that could teach him how to tie a tie.
- Alice has a job related to clothing or is otherwise very fashion-minded — even if Bob knows how to tie the tie, they both believe she would do a better job with it.
- This tie requires back-side adjustments, Bob can't reach, but Alice can.
- Bob works a blue-collar job where he doesn't wear a tie, so he never learns how to tie one.
- Inverted: Bob managed to put the tie on but needs help untying it. Alice helps him take it off.
- Gender-Inverted: Zip Me Up
- Subverted:
- The Vamp offers to tie Bob's tie… then strangles him with it.
- "Can you help me with my t—wait, no, I think I got it!"
- Double Subverted: "…no. No, I don't got it. Please help me."
- Parodied:
- After several repeated failures, Alice offers to tie Bob's tie for him—and winds up with a tangled knot worse than when Bob was trying.
- Bob gets himself tangled up in a clip-on tie.
- Zig Zagged: Bob attempts to tie his own tie, but fails. Alice gives it a go and fails as well. Then Bob decides to go for a bow tie instead — while he almost gets it, Alice ends up trying to help him again…
- Averted:
- Bob is capable of tying his own ties.
- Bob doesn't wear ties.
- Bob wears clip-on ties.
- Enforced: ??
- Lampshaded: "Why do most women know how to tie ties, when most men don't?"
- Invoked: Bob, in an attempt to seduce Alice, asks her to tie his tie. Bob is actually a competent tie-wearer on his own.
- Exploited:
- Alice offers to tie Bob's tie. He says no… Claire can do it.
- Alice is a spy; while she is tying Bob's tie, Alice attaches a tiny tracking device to it.
- Alice, a hitwoman, squeezes the tie so tightly that Bob chokes to death or falls unconscious.
- Defied: "No, stop Alice, I've got it!"
- Discussed:Alice: What, have you seriously never worn a tie before?
Bob: Just once, for a school play... And then my mum said I had bungled it up and tied it for me in front of all the other kids. - Conversed: "Did you see the latest episode of Alice and Bob? Yeah, she helped him dress up and everything... They sure are starting to act more like a married couple each episode."
- Implied: "Hey, sorry we're late—Bob needed help with his tie."
- Deconstructed: Bob asks how Alice to help him tie his tie. She says no, of course she can't help him—she's a woman who doesn't wear ties, how would she know how to tie one?
- Reconstructed: …but Charles wears ties. Ho Yay ensues.
- Played for Laughs: Bob is wearing a clip-on tie and still claims he needs help.
- Played for Drama: Bob is suffering from a disease which reduces the control he has over his hands, so he legitimately needs help for some garments he used to be able to put on himself. Alice is less excited about their close proximity and more saddened by the reminder that they may not have much time left together.
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