Basic Trope: A character resorts to extreme measures to get rid of an insect.
- Straight: A fly starts buzzing around Bob's head. He picks up a frying pan to smash it.
- Exaggerated:
- A fly starts bothering Bob and he blows up the house to get rid of it.
- Alternatively, Bob kills the fly by launching every single nuclear weapon in the entire world at it.
- Downplayed: A fly buzzes in Bob's ear. He reaches for his electrified flyswatter to kill it even though his analog flyswatter is nearer.
- Justified: Bob has a Hair-Trigger Temper and generally tends to overreact.
- Inverted:
- Bob welcomes insects.
- Bob tries to use something tiny, like a safety pin, to kill the fly.
- Subverted: Bob, who has a fly buzzing around his head, picks up a frying pan ... but it turns out he saw a giant, ferocious animal just out of sight and that was why he grabbed the frying pan.
- Double Subverted: ...However, afterwards, the fly keeps bugging him and he swats at it with the pan.
- Parodied: Bob and the fly become sitcom archnemeses.
- Zig-Zagged: When Bob is trying to kill flies, he alternates between using too-large, too-small, and appropriately sized items. Then there are times he could try to kill a fly but doesn't.
- Averted:
- Bob uses a flyswatter to get rid of the fly.
- Bob doesn't encounter any flies or doesn't pursue them.
- Enforced: ???
- Lampshaded:Alice: A frying pan for a fly? Isn't that overkill?Bob: Alice, There Is No Kill Like Overkill.
- Invoked: Bob moves somewhere with an abundance of flies and many large, heavy objects.
- Exploited: Emperor Evulz releases dozens of flies into Bob's house to cause havoc and distract him.
- Defied: Bob ignores the fly.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: Alice hears a very loud crashing noise offscreen, then Bob enthusing about finally getting "that stinking insect."
- Played for Laughs: Bob tires himself out and/or gives himself Amusing Injuries while trying to kill the fly.
- Played For Drama:
- Bob is suffering a Trauma Conga Line and the damned fly is his Rage Breaking Point. Because it's impossible/illegal for him to brutalize whoever is responsible for his misery, he'll try to make do with turning that fly into a very thin red paste.
- Bob's overkill leads to expensive collateral damage that leads to lawsuits.
- Bob injures himself while trying to kill the fly and he spends a lot of time and money getting physical therapy.
- Played For Horror:
- The damned fly is the stressor that causes Bob's Sanity Slippage.
- Bob's decision to blow up his house to get rid of the fly damages or destroys all of the other houses on the block and kills thirty people as collateral damage.
- One of Bob's attempts to kill the fly results in him accidentally bludgeoning Alice to death.
- Bob fatally injures himself trying to get rid of the fly.
Back to Fly Crazy.
