Basic Trope: A pet dies and someone else (usually the pet's owner) lies to a (usually their) child that the pet ran away or got sent to live somewhere else, usually on a farm.
- Straight: When Fido the dog dies, Alice and Bob, Fido's owners, say to their son Charlie that Fido got sent to live on a farm.
- Exaggerated:
- When Charlie's grandfather dies, his parents tell him he just moved to Florida, and no, they can't visit him.
- They even hire an actual farmer to play along and create fake photos of Fido on the farm.
- Downplayed: Fido does get sent to a farm, but then later dies on the farm. Alice and Bob know Fido is dead but lie to Charlie that he's still living on the farm.
- Justified: Alice and Bob don't want to see Charlie sad.
- Inverted:
- Alice and Bob don't want or are unable to keep Fido, so they send him to a farm. Worried that Charlie would think them mean if they told the truth, they claim Fido died.
- Alice, Bob, and Charlie's dog Fifi has puppies and Charlie asks where they came from. Not ready to explain reproduction, Alice and Bob claim the puppies were sent to them from a farm.
- When Alice and Bob start getting long in the tooth, Fido sends them to a nice farm.
- It is Charlie who tells his parents that Fido got sent to a farm, probably out of fear they will consider him a bad pet owner or something.
- Subverted:
- It turns out Fido really did get sent to live on a farm.
- Alice starts to tell Charlie that Fido got sent to live on a farm but Bob tells the truth.
- Double Subverted:
- He then dies on that farm, but the farmer claims he ran away.
- Bob says, "No, he didn't... he actually ran away."
- Parodied:
- The pet afterlife is in the form of a farm.
- Among Civilised Animal society, "being sent to a farm" is used as a euphemism for death.
- Fido really was sent to a farm... and was ran over by a tractor.
- Alice and Bob claim that Fido was sent the a farm, despite the fact that they themselves live on a farm, "a different farm" they say. Charlie then goes to all of the neighboring farms, but is still unable to locate Fido.
- Fido is truly sent to a nearby farm; however, despite Alice and Bob taking Charlie to see Fido every other weekend until he passes away, Charlie accuses them of lying about him being at a farm.
- Zigzagged:
- Alice and Bob claim that Fido got sent to live on a farm. It turns out that Fido really did get sent to live on the farm, but he died on that farm... Correction, someone thought he died.
- Fido did get sent to a farm... so they can host his funeral and/or bury him there.
- Alice and Bob keep changing the story of what happened to Fido.
- Averted:
- Everybody Lives, or at least all the pets do.
- Alice and Bob tell the truth about Fido's fate.
- Enforced: The execs tell the creator to have Alice and Bob claim that Fido has been sent to a farm because having Charlie know the truth is "too sad".
- Lampshaded: "But when people say that it means they're dead!"
- Invoked: Alice and Bob ask Diane what to tell Charlie. She replies, "Just claim he was sent to a farm!".
- Exploited: Charlie’s stepmother, who’s trying to drive a rift between Alice and Bob, suggests to Alice that she tells Charlie this little white lie to soften the blow of losing a pet.
- Defied:
- "Let's just tell him the truth."
- “Oh no, I’ve watched enough TV to know what this means. He’s dead, isn’t he?” “…Yes.”
- Discussed: "Did my dog die or was he actually sent to a farm?"
- Conversed: "Do people really say the 'sent to a farm' thing in real life?"
- Implied:
- Alice and Bob claim Fido was sent to a farm, but it's unknown what really happened to him.
- Alice and Bob are not the only ones to make such a claim, but they are the only ones to never visit the farm.
- Charlie described farm life in a highly idealized manner, consistent with the way a parent would describe it to children.
- Deconstructed: When Charlie finds out the truth, he is sad that Fido dies and mad at Alice and Bob for lying.
- Reconstructed: Though after some moments of reflecting, he comes to respect his parents trying to spare his feelings as well as accepted the fact that Fido is dead.
- Played for Laughs:
- Played for Drama:
Back to Dog Got Sent to a Farm.
