Basic Trope: A homemade gift that turns out to be... not so good.
- Straight: Alice tries to make Bob some origami flowers for his birthday. Unfortunately, they don't turn out well: most of them are unintentionally asymmetrical, some have obvious tears in the paper, some are awkwardly held together by tape, and some look pretty crumpled up.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice gives Bob one "origami flower" that is indistinguishable from a crumpled sheet of paper.
- Alice gives Bob a lot of homemade gifts, all of which are terrible: a bad attempt at an origami rose, a shoddy clay pot, an ugly portrait of Bob, a Homemade Sweater from Hell...
- Alice says that her gift for Bob is writing a poem for him, but she's clearly making it up on the spot while "reciting" it, and it turns out as a bland description of Bob that gives up on meter halfway through.
- Downplayed:
- Alice's origami flowers turned out all right, but the gift was still a little disappointing because Bob knew that making it probably only took her about 30 minutes, and everyone else got him something expensive.
- Bob thinks Alice's origami bouquet of his favourite flowers turned out ugly, but he's not too disappointed because at least she tried to put time into it and make him something personal.
- Alice's unimpressive origami flowers were given in the same parcel as an expensive gift Bob did want, so he's pretty happy with it overall.
- Justified:
- Alice had forgotten Bob's birthday. By the time she remembered it, it was so late that even Convenience Store Gift Shopping was not possible. As she didn't happen to have anything at home that would make an okay gift, and the only hobby supplies she had available were some sheets of paper, looking up origami tutorials on a YouTube analogue was probably her best option.
- Alice is six years old. Of course her homemade gifts aren't going to be masterpieces.
- Inverted:
- Alice spends months making Bob a lot of intricate, beautiful origami flowers. As a result, he likes her gift more than the numerous expensive toys he received.
- The gift itself is fine, but the wrapping paper uses one of Alice's terrible self-made designs.
- Alice buys Bob a cheap Shoddy Knockoff Product, which disappoints him. Everyone else put a lot of effort into crafting well-done, personal gifts for him.
- Subverted: Alice makes some origami flowers and plans to give them to Bob, but changes her mind because she's not really happy with how they turned out.
- Double Subverted: Instead, she decides to regift a shoddy stuffed animal that has sentimental value to her, but is pretty much worthless to him.
- Parodied:
- Alice puts a lot of effort into an origami sculpture that spells out, "I didn't put any effort into this".
- Alice crumples up a piece of paper, calls it an origami snowball and tries to use it as a gift.
- Zig-Zagged:
- Alice's origami flowers turned out great, but her gift is seemingly Overshadowed by Awesome — almost everyone else got Bob some expensive toy. However, Bob still likes it a lot because Alice put so much effort into making him a personal gift.
- Alice gives Bob a knitted pair of shorts. They're competently made, but who would wear something like that?
- Averted:
- Alice's origami flowers turned out nice.
- Alice doesn't try to make Bob a homemade gift.
- Enforced: It's lead in to this episode's DIY lessons.
- Lampshaded: Bob blatantly says that the origami flowers are ugly.
- Invoked: Alice intentionally makes Bob a Homemade Sweater from Hell as a gag gift.
- Exploited:
- Defied: Alice decides to find a different gift for Bob after it becomes obvious that her attempts at origami aren't working out.
- Discussed: "I can't think of a gift for Bob." "Maybe you could try making him something?" "No. It wouldn't turn out good anyway."
- Conversed: "Why can't these characters just buy each other items they know they want instead of making crappy homemade stuff?"
- Played for Laughs:
- Bob genuinely loved Alice's ugly origami flowers, and Alice is utterly embarrassed and mortified because she thinks his super-enthusiastic reaction is just him being super sarcastic.
- The crappy origami flowers result in a Toilet Seat Divorce.
- Played for Drama: Alice did make a serious effort to make her origami flowers look good, but Bob thinks she slapped them together at the last minute because she was too thoughtless and lazy to put any effort into the gift. This leads to a fight.
Back to Crappy Homemade Gift.
