Basic Trope: A character is teleported somewhere against their will while in the middle of some activity.
- Straight: Bob summons a demon to do his bidding, but the demon in question was in the middle of brushing his teeth.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob summons a demon to do his bidding, but the demon was just about to get laid.
- A Running Gag is Bob summoning demons and other magical beings when they're in the middle of doing something.
- Downplayed:
- Bob summons a demon to do his bidding, but the demon was busy reading a book.
- The demon has just enough time to quickly finish what he's doing before he gets summoned, but he still finds it inconvenient.
- Justified: Demons dislike being summoned and have ways of preventing it, so they must be summoned while their attention is elsewhere.
- Inverted:
- Bob is brushing his teeth, while a demon comes up behind him and banishes him to Hell.
- Bob and Carol are teleported to Alice, who is in the middle of a shower.
- Bob's summon comes at a particularly convenient time for the demon, such as pulling him out of a particularly dull meeting.
- A demon is about to attack Bob, so he teleports it away from him.
- Subverted:
- We see the demon brushing his teeth in the Otherworld, notices he's about to be summoned and quickly puts his toothbrush back on the sink.
- The time when Bob summons the demon and when the demon is whisked off from the Otherworld are different thanks to complex Time Travel magic made to avoid such inconveniences.
- The demon doesn't see why being summoned while brushing his teeth would be any more inconvenient than anything else.
- Double Subverted: The demon had forgotten that he had just come out of the shower, so as he's summoned, he only has a bath towel wrapped around him.
- Parodied: A montage shows that the demon only ever gets summoned while in the middle of another activity and avoids doing anything but sitting around as a result.
- Zig Zagged: Bob summons a demon while he was brushing his teeth, however the demon is always brushing his teeth (twenty mouths have a lot of upkeep), but the demon is still annoyed because he was in the middle of a hot date.
- Averted:
- The demon is summoned and is perfectly ready to serve Bob.
- The summon comes at a time that is actually convenient for the demon, such as during a situation it wants to get out of ASAP.
- Enforced: "Given that a demon can be summoned at any time, it would make sense (and/or would just be funny) if we had a scene where the demon gets summoned while he's in the middle of taking a shower or something else inconvenient."
- Lampshaded: "Every time I brush my teeth, there's a sacrifice at the Circle..."
- Invoked:
- Exploited:
- Emperor Evulz gives Bob time to summon a demon, knowing that the demon will turn up unprepared and disoriented. When Bob is busy staring at the demon, Evulz attacks them.
- Bob knows what time the demon will be taking a shower, so to cause a distraction (whether it's fanservice or Fan Disservice related) he summons the demon right then.
- Defied:
- Bob makes an arrangement with the demon about the time when it's appropriate to summon him without extra disturbing.
- The demon shunts the summon onto an underling.
- Discussed: "It must suck to be a Demon, you're always getting bossed around by mortals and never get to keep your dignity when summoned."
- Conversed: "I know it's funny, but I have a hard time believing demons in this setting do mundane and personal things and have no control over how or when they're summoned."
- Deconstructed:
- The demon is angry that he got summoned during the middle of brushing his teeth and kills Bob.
- The demon can hardly go a night without being summoned, and is perpetually sleep-deprived as a result.
- Reconstructed: As the demon's being summoned, Bob notices the toothbrush in the demon's mouth and remembers that demons don't like being summoned during their morning routine, so sets it up so it looks like Alice, the show's Butt-Monkey summoned him.
- Played For Laughs: Part of the curse of demon hood includes being summoned doing something embarrassing.
- Played For Drama: Unbeknownst to the heroes, Alice was trying to stop the Big Bad from stealing an important Plot Coupon. When they transported her to their present location, they prevented Alice from stopping him, and the Big Bad manages to take the Plot Coupon, gaining a huge advantage over the heroes.
Back to Inconvenient Summons.
