Basic Trope: Someone does not practice what they preach.
- Straight: Bob criticizes Alice for smoking, even though he has done so himself on occasion.
- Logical Extreme: Bob criticizes Alice for smoking, even though he was also smoking at the same time.
- Exaggerated: Bob owns several tobacco farms and runs the largest cigarette company ever, but blows his stack when he sees Alice merely touching a cigarette.
- Downplayed:
- Bob says that Alice shouldn't smoke. He has done it himself, but only a few times, years before.
- Bob genuinely believes in his cause, but occasionally he slips up out of habit. It’s never intentional, however, and he rights himself whenever he becomes aware of it.
- Justified: Bob has had bad experiences with smoking, and he doesn't want Alice to make the same mistakes he did.
- Inverted: Bob praises Alice for smoking, even though he resents it.
- Subverted:
- Bob calls out Alice for smoking. Alice retorts that Bob smokes too, but Bob is confused, as he has never done so.
- It turns out Alice is underage. As an adult, Bob won't allow her to smoke even if he himself smokes.
- Bob scolds Alice for smoking inside. "Go to the porch if you want to smoke."
- Double Subverted:
- Bob was faking the confusion, as he actually has smoked before.
- ...but he decides to do so anyway.
- It also turns out Bob is underage.
- As soon as Alice leaves, Bob lights up indoors.
- Parodied: Bob criticizes Alice for saying that 1 + 1 = 3, though he has written that equation at the chalkboard.
- Zig-Zagged: When Alice smokes, Bob criticizes her. But when Claire smokes, he doesn't.
- Averted:
- Bob does not call out Alice for smoking, whether or not he does it himself.
- Bob calls out Alice for smoking, having never smoked himself.
- Enforced: The author creates a Straw Hypocrite to prove their own point.
- Lampshaded:
- Hypocrisy Nod
- "You're addicted to cigarettes, and you interrupted my smoke; not to mention you're a hypocrite who insists that other people are hypocrites."
- Invoked:
- Bob decides he can criticize Alice for smoking while doing it himself because he holds authority over her.
- Bob claims that it okay for him to smoke, since he's a man - but that it's wrong for Alice to smoke, because "smoking isn't ladylike".
- Exploited: Alice decides she can keep smoking because Bob is a hypocrite.
- Defied:
- Bob, who actively smokes, restrains himself from making any remark about Alice's smoking habits so he won't be called out for hypocrisy himself.
- At Least I Admit It
- Discussed: "Bob's criticizing Alice for smoking. I bet that guy smokes like a chimney himself."
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: Bob complains that Alice smokes. He isn't shown smoking himself, but a cigarette lighter is his Iconic Item.
- Deconstructed: Just because Bob is a hypocrite doesn't mean he can't be right about something. Alice knows that smoking is harmful, but she decides to focus on Bob's hypocrisy rather than take his advice to heart and quit.
- Reconstructed:
- Alice comes to realize that she would probably accept Bob's advice if she heard it from anyone who didn't smoke. This causes her to realize that she shouldn't ignore helpful advice just because of who was saying it.
- Alice is well aware of the advice and the effects of smoking, but she rarely smokes in the first place and has plenty of control over her choices. Meanwhile, Bob recklessly smokes and keeps making excuses for it while still coming off as a self-righteous jerk to others.
- Bob does not care about this thing called moral consistency. He just wants to say what he feels like regardless of the fact that he doesn't practice it himself.
- Played for Laughs: Hypocritical Humor
- Played for Drama: Alice and Bob both die from lung cancer because they can't or won't stop smoking: he's a hypocrite and she thinks (erroneously) that his anti-smoking statements therefore have no merit.
Look, I'm not going to go there myself, but I highly advise you to go back to the main page.
