Basic Trope: Someone has a really bad and scary dream.
- Straight: Melissa dreams that she is trapped in a room with walls closing in on her.
- Exaggerated:
- Melissa dreams that the world is on fire, all her loved ones have died, she gets raped, and she doesn't have any clothes on.
- The whole work is a nightmare of Melissa's.
- Everyone in the world has a nightmare at the same time.
- Downplayed: Melissa has a brief scary moment in her dream.
- Justified:
- Melissa watched a horror movie before heading to bed.
- Melissa read or heard something about being trapped in a room and she has an active imagination.
- She was nervous before falling asleep.
- Melissa just randomly had the bad dream (that can happen).
- Inverted: Melissa's normal dream is treated like a nightmare.
- Subverted: Melissa's dream starts out spooky, but becomes pleasant.
- Double Subverted: Only to turn back into Hell minutes later.
- Parodied: "I sure hope watching this horror movie won't make me dream I'm on fire again."
- Zig-Zagged: Melissa's dream constantly switches from nightmarish to nonthreatening.
- Averted: Melissa doesn't have a nightmare.
- Enforced: The studio demands that the episode feature Melissa having a bad dream.
- Lampshaded: "Of course you had a bad dream, Melissa! You watched Chainsaw Hands 4 last night!"
- Invoked:
- Melissa wants to have a nightmare, so she watches a horror flick.
- Paul tricks Melissa into watching a horror movie to make her have a nightmare.
- Exploited: Paul tries to make Melissa have a nightmare, so that she'll be on edge and he can scare her into doing something he wants her to do.
- Defied:
- Melissa uses magic or whatever to make herself unable to feel fear.
- Melissa learns how to lucid dream and controls her dream to make it fun and happy.
- Discussed: "Good lord, Melissa! You need to stop watching scary movies late at night!"
- Conversed: "Why does Melissa watch horror movies if she can't handle them? She's stupid."
- Implied: Melissa is seen waking up abruptly as though she's had a Catapult Nightmare, but we never see or hear about the nightmare.
- Played for Laughs: Melissa has a nightmare about her specific pet peeves that she treats as horrific but seem mundane to the viewers.
- Played for Drama: Melissa has a nightmare about failing to protect her loved ones from danger, and having to watch them die.
- Played for Horror: Melissa's nightmares start to come true.
Back to Nightmare Sequence
