Basic Trope: Someone subtly asks for compliments.
- Straight: When Mary invites Spencer to dinner, she apologizes for being such a bad cook, hoping that Spencer will reassure her that he cooking is good.
- Exaggerated: Mary states that she's a bad cook, she hastily threw on her outfit, her house is a mess, and she's not good with sticking to her schedule. She wants Spencer to defend her on all of this.
- Downplayed: Mary genuinely feels that she's a bad cook. Spencer tells her that she can improve.
- Justified: Mary has low self-esteem, but doesn't want to just ask Spencer to tell her that her cooking is good. So she leads him into saying it.
- Inverted: Mary brags about being a good cook, trying to have Spencer tell her that she isn't.
- Subverted:
- Mary says that she's a bad cook. Spencer replies, "Yeah, I know!", and they leave it at that.
- Double Subverted:
- But then Spencer says, "Gosh, I'm so rude, aren't I?" as a way to get Mary to tell him he isn't.
- But then Mary laments that she "can't do anything right," leading Spencer to list the things she actually is good at.
- Parodied: Spencer assumes that everything Mary is saying is something she wants him to say the opposite of. So when she comments that she likes the clothes she's wearing, Spencer says, "Oh, don't worry, they're not that good!"
- Zig-Zagged: Mary makes multiple statements, some self-deprecating and some bragging. Spencer replies to each of them in different ways.
- Averted: Mary does not try to get Spencer to compliment her.
- Enforced: The writers wanted to throw in a scene of Mary being manipulative, while also showing her lack of self-confidence.
- Lampshaded: "Hey, were you just trying to get me to say you're not a bad cook?"
- Invoked: As Mary serves the food, she apologizes that it might be bad.
- Exploited: Mary does this to get Spencer to compliment her.
- Defied: "I know I'm a bad cook, and you don't have to sugarcoat it, okay?"
- Discussed: "Oh, I'm an awful cook. Hint, hint..."
- Conversed: "An Aesop from Mary And Spencer: it turns out Self-Deprecation is really good for getting people to compliment you."
- Deconstructed: Mary does this way too often, and eventually it leads people to exaggerate her Self-Deprecation to brutal extents, upsetting her and damaging her self-esteem.
- Implied: Spencer is often sighing, complaining about how Mary's using constant Self-Deprecation, and he says he believes she's only saying that so that others could defend her. Mary is never seen, let alone seen using constant Self-Deprecation.
Yeah, I know, this page isn't the best. You can go back to Compliment Fishing, unless there's something you wanna tell me, first...?
