Basic Trope: An awkward situation is Played for Laughs.
- Straight: Bob asks Alice to marry him, in the middle of the halftime show at the Super Bowl. He holds up a sign on the Jumbo-Tron, asking Alice to marry him... and her name is spelled wrong.
- Exaggerated:
- Not only that, but Bob isn't wearing pants. And the ring is a cheap mood ring from a Slacker-Jax Box and when Alice reluctantly puts it on, it instantly turns black. Carol then arrives with a DNA test and reveals to everyone that Bob and Alice are actually long-lost siblings. As Alice tries to leave, she accidentally snags her dress on the seat and is stripped naked on the Jumbo-Tron.
- Alternatively, it happened not at the Super Bowl, but at their friends' wedding. The bride and groom are not impressed, and neither are most of their other wedding guests. And Bob still misspelled Alice's name, presented a tacky ring, and somehow failed to wear pants.
- Downplayed: Bob proposes to Alice, and she says no.
- Justified:
- Proposing is really nerve-wracking, especially if the relationship wasn't all that stable, or hasn't been going on for very long. With all that stress, pressure, and anxiety, it's easy to make a mistake.
- Bob is proposing for the wrong reasons, or in an inappropriate social situation.
- The way in which Bob proposes shows that he's been paying more attention to Rom Coms than to his girlfriend.
- Inverted: Bob proposes to Alice. Alice isn't wearing pants.
- Subverted:
- In spite of all that, Alice graciously accepts the proposal.
- It's All Just a Dream, because Bob is super nervous about how this is going to go. Fortunately, he's not doing a pantsless proposal at the Super Bowl, but in his own bed, in his pajamas, with Alice sleeping soundly next to him.
- Bob proposes to Alice in the privacy and comfort of their shared apartment.
- Bob's Super Bowl proposal goes off without a hitch.
- Bob isn't at the Super Bowl. He is pantsless, but he's at home.
- Alice is more than okay with being proposed to at the Super Bowl halftime show. In fact, she's been dreaming about that her whole life.
- Double Subverted:
- The very next day, she returns her engagement ring and has the Breakup Talk with Bob, saying that his proposal was super embarrassing for her, and that she'd been having second thoughts about this relationship for a long time and this awful proposal was the last straw, but she didn't want to humiliate him on national television, even though he did exactly that to her.
- Except when Super Bowl Sunday rolls around, and he's ready to do it for real, everything goes wrong. Alice's name is misspelled, the ring is on backorder and he had to improvise with a cheap plastic ring from the gas station, and he isn't wearing pants.
- During Dinner and a Show with their... interesting families.
- Alternatively, he proposed with a diamond ring, when Alice repeatedly told him that if they ever got engaged, she wanted a sapphire ring, or would rather he put that money towards a down payment on a first home instead. Because of that, Alice says no.
- Alice feels very uncomfortable and put-on-the-spot, because she's in a stadium full of football fans, on national television (and the most-viewed show on American television to boot!) She would rather he propose in private.
- He orders pizza, and comes to the door in an old T-shirt and his embarrassing Goofy Print Underwear.
- She would rather that Bob wear pants, and would it kill him to spell her name right on that sign?!
- Parodied: No one in the entire stadium is wearing pants, not even the players, yet somehow Bob is being laughed at for his lack of pants.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted:
- Bob doesn't propose to Alice.
- Alice wants to be proposed to on the Jumbo-Tron at the Super Bowl during halftime, and Bob is fully prepared. The proposal goes off without a hitch.
- Enforced: Rule of Funny, Lowest Common Denominator.
- Lampshaded:Bob: Alice, will you marry me?Alice: Uh...is there any particular reason you're not wearing pants? Also, you spelled my name wrong...
- Invoked: Bob plans a high-pressure proposal for his girlfriend, without considering how she'd feel about being proposed to at the Super Bowl, and with more than a little, erm, "liquid courage."
- Exploited: Bob is playing a mean-spirited April Fools' prank on Alice.
- Defied: Bob makes sure he's prepared, he's doing it for the right reasons, he's sober, and he's considered how Alice would like to be proposed to.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Deconstructed: What some people find as cringingly funny, Bob finds not so much "cringing" as "mind-shatteringly traumatic", and what makes it worse is everybody else thinking he's being a drama queen.
Bcak to Cringe Comedy
