Basic Trope: A person who is genuinely affable and kind-hearted.
- Straight: Bob is a friendly, kind-hearted and well-rounded person with no overwhelming negative traits.
- Exaggerated:
- Downplayed:
- Bob isn't the most polite, but his heart's definitely in the right place.
- Bob is nice only every other episode.
- Bob has his flaws and vices but is otherwise a decent person.
- Justified:
- Bob is sociable, and wants to make friends.
- Bob doesn't see any reason to be mean to people.
- Bob thinks that being nice is the law.
- Bob was raised in a loving environment by good parents.
- Bob is an Anti-Nihilist or a Knight in Sour Armour who believes he should be nice because it's the right thing to do.
- Alternatively, Bob was abused and ostracized for a significant period of time in his life, and knows how painful and lonely being on the receiving end of such cruelty can be. He is so kind because he doesn't want anybody around him to experience what he did.
- Inverted:
- Subverted:
- Bob turns out to be a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing or Faux Affably Evil.
- Affably Evil: When a character is nice, just not good.
- Bob Wants a Prize for Basic Decency.
- Bob grabs the Jerkass Ball.
- Took a Level in Jerkass.
- Double Subverted:
- It was actually Bob's twin brother who was doing evil things behind people's backs — Bob himself wouldn't hurt a fly.
- Bob was just having a bad day. Other than that, he became nice again.
- Superdickery
- The "reward" that Bob demands is being treated with basic human decency.
- Bob has a Jerkass Realization and apologizes to those he's wronged.
- Parodied: Bob's constant attempts of being nice to people always fail miserably, due to misunderstandings that are never his fault.
- Zig Zagged: Bob has split personality disorder — one day he'll hold a door open for you, the next he'll slam it in your face.
- Averted:
- Bob is sometimes nice, but not to the point where it defines his personality.
- Bob is somehow neither nice nor mean.
- Enforced:
- Took a Level in Kindness.
- Kindness Ball.
- Bob, the main character, is intentionally made likeable so that the audience will find it easy to sympathize him.
- Lampshaded:Alice: "Bob, you're a pretty nice guy."
Bob: "I know." - Invoked: Bob acts nice, so that no one will suspect that he's secretly badass.
- Defied: Despite being taught from a young age to act this way — Bob's parents want him to be a decent, well-rounded person — Bob refuses to be a Nice Guy.
- Exploited: The villain accomplishes a Batman Gambit based on Bob's predictable decency.
- Implied: Bob is unseen, but Alice, Charles, and the other characters gush about how gentle and kind he is.
- Discussed: "Bob is such a nice guy. If this was a story he'd probably be dead long ago."
- Conversed: "Nice guys are pretty rare in fiction, aren't they?"
- Deconstructed:
- People begin to take advantage of Bob's kind nature, and manipulate him into doing what they want.
- Extreme Doormat
- Bob is so nice that everyone treat him like a pushover. This causes Bob to stop being nice and brutalizes his tormentors nearly to death, without saying a single word.
- Bob happens to be nice to everyone, even to those who don't even deserve his kindness.
- Bob is genuinely empathetic, but his Nice Guy persona is a defense. During his Dark and Troubled Past, Bob's survived by pretending to be a sugary Empty Shell. His life may be better now, but Bob remains too afraid to live more honestly.
- Reconstructed:
- Bob's real friends stand up for him and call off said people. Bonus points when they outnumber those people.
- Over time, Bob learns how to be a Nice Guy without being a pushover.
- Bob might be nice to everyone, but he is not dumb. He might treat even his enemies nicely, but when push comes to shove he is not afraid to stand up for himself and those he cares about and is smart enough to not fall for the manipulations of others. This inspires many villains to have a change of heart thanks to his kindness and those who don't know better than trying to take advantage of his kindness.
- Bob’s kindness earns him trouble but he eventually wins a Karmic Jackpot due to his kindness.
- Played For Laughs: Bob is an Extreme Doormat who will do anything anyone asks him to do, regardless of how much trouble it causes him.
- Played For Drama: Bob's niceness causes him much angst, because of all the people trying to take advantage of him.
Back to the Nice Guy page. Here, let me open the door for you…
