Basic Trope: Implied exclusion from a group by separate mention.
- Straight:
- Alice invites her friends over for dinner. When her guests arrive, she says, "Thank you all for coming. I have invited you here because you are my closest friends... and Bob."
- Bob introduces a meeting at Trope, Inc. thusly, "Thank you all for coming, gentlemen... and the lovely Alice." Justified as Alice is the sole woman sitting on a once all-male board of executives.
- Exaggerated: Alice and the others give Bob this treatment many times.
- Downplayed:
- Bob is only Alice's acquaintance of a few days, while all the others are her True Companions, so his exclusion is understandable.
- "You are all my closest friends. Yes, even Bob." Bob is technically not excluded, but the phrasing suggests that he should be.
- Justified:
- Alice considers Bob to be inferior to the others.
- Bob is the Token Evil Teammate or Token Good Teammate to the Five-Man Band; Alice and the others don't really like him.
- Alice and Bob are Vitriolic Best Buds who enjoy taking swings at one another.
- The group is all one gender, except for either Alice or Bob. One person says, "He was killed by all the girls... and Bob."
- Alice is asking a Literal Genie to provide a service to her Five-Man Band. Since she only met Sixth Ranger Bob recently, she makes sure that he's included just in case the genie doesn't consider them friends.
- Bob's relationship to Alice is a familial one, which is qualitatively different from friendship.
- Inverted:
- "Sometimes I wonder if I need to get away from those nuisances... and Bob."
- Snub by Omission: "Charlie, Dan, Eve, you all are my closest friends." (Bob is present but not mentioned.)
- Being excluded is a good thing (e.g.: "You lot are nothing but a bunch of scoundrels... and Bob.")
- Alice Hates Everyone Equally... all except Bob.
- Alice mentions Bob is her best friend while the others in her friend group is "everyone else"
- Emphasis by separate mention: "Thank you all for coming. I have invited you here because you are my closest friends... and especially you, Bob. If I weren't a lesbian, you'd be the perfect husband for me."
- Subverted: "To all my friends... and Bob... who's my best friend."
- Double Subverted: "...whom I secretly hate."
- Parodied: Bob has no idea Alice thinks so little of him and keeps trying to get close to her, to no avail.
- Zig-Zagged: "...Ha ha! Just kidding."
- Averted: "Thank you, everyone."
- Enforced: "Since Bob is my series' punching bag, I will have Alice verbally exclude or otherwise separate him Once per Episode."
- Lampshaded:Bob: Hey, Alice, why did you mention me separately from everybody else?
- Invoked: Bob bullies Alice specifically to make her hate him.
- Exploited: Bob is lured to a competing faction when Annie points out to him that Alice thinks of him as less of a friend.
- Defied:
- Alice counts all her friends as equals to each other and herself.
- Bob makes clear there will be horrifying hell to pay if he's given this treatment.
- Discussed: "No, of course I included Bob when I said 'everyone'."
- Conversed: Alice and Bob are watching a movie based on their exploits and Bob comments on what he sees as the Reality Subtext transmitted by the reduced role of the actor who plays him.
- Implied: Bob is the least happy of the group after they leave a ceremony honouring them.
- Deconstructed:
- Alice gives Bob the "Zoidberg" treatment because he is a worse person than the other members of their social circle. However, he never tries to improve himself to make them like him more.
- Bob realizes he's the resident Butt-Monkey of the group, calls his "friends" out on it and leaves.
- Reconstructed:
- Even after Bob embarks on a program of physical, mental, moral, and spiritual self-improvement that is rigorous to the point of near death, he's still dismissed in this way. Now it's more like Reformed, but Rejected, and Bob ends up seeking a new circle of friends anyway.
- Bob's "friends" realize just how neglectful they've been towards him after being called out and resolve to treat him like an actual companion.
- Played for Laughs: Alice delivers a nine-minute thanking speech with a Long List of people, leaving Bob as a literal afterthought and his addition to the list is a Verbal Backspace after saying that she was done. Bob is ecstatic that she remembered him.
- Played for Drama: Bob is deeply dismayed by Alice's casual dislike of him. They part on bad terms and never repair their relationship.
- Played For Horror:
- Alice is an ungrateful, racist sociopath and Bob being so visibly left out is because she considers him so subhuman that even inanimate carbon rods deserve more recognition in her eyes.
- Bob's reaction at being so visibly left out is to pick up a gun and start a massacre with the express purpose of "teaching Alice manners".
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