Basic Trope: Saying something ridiculous to check if another person is really paying attention to you.
- Straight: Alice is telling Bob about her day, but he's busy reading. She tests him by saying, "I ate cat food for lunch", but he just nods.
- Exaggerated: Alice claims she got abducted by aliens, ate cat food, got bitten by a werewolf, and danced with an elephant.
- Downplayed: Alice tests Bob by saying she ate ice cream for lunch, which she actually does on occasion.
- Justified: This is Alice's sense of humour, while Bob's often quite oblivious.
- Inverted: Alice really did eat cat food for lunch, but lies that she didn't so that Bob won't pay attention to her.
- Subverted: As it turns out, Alice really did eat cat food.
- Double Subverted: ...Because she hates lying, and she wanted to be able to say she did something crazy so that Bob would pay attention.
- Parodied:
- Zigzagged:
- Averted:
- Bob pays attention to Alice.
- Alice just checks Bob by calling his name or tapping his shoulder.
- Enforced:
- Lampshaded: "Y'know, saying something crazy to check if someone's listening is just as rude as not listening."
- Invoked: "Gah, how do I get him to pay attention?!" "Just pretend you did something weird."
- Exploited:
- Defied:
- Alice thinks of doing this, but decides it's too cliched.
- Bob makes sure to pay attention so Alice won't tease him.
- Discussed: "My wife's so annoying! If I get distracted, she says something dumb to test me instead of just asking me to pay attention."
- Conversed: "Those characters think they're funny, but checking someone's paying attention by saying something stupid has been done to death!"
- Implied:
- Deconstructed:
- Reconstructed:
- Played for Laughs:
- Played for Drama: Alice is saying Non Sequiturs to try to snap Bob out of a Heroic BSoD.
- Played for Horror: Bob is under mind control and Alice is saying crazy things to try and un-brainwash him.
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