Basic Trope: A book is a parody of X for Dummies, The Complete Idiot's Guide to X or similar series.
- Straight:
- Alice wants to rob a museum. She reads Robbing Museums for Dummies.
- The Complete Idiot's Guide to Stealing the Hope Diamond, an oddly specific book about how to remove one object from the Smithsonian's National Museum of National History.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice has trouble understanding Robbing Museums for Dummies. Fortunately, she finds a CliffsNotes for this book.
- Alice depends on these books for mundane tasks: Climbing Stairways for Dummies, Opening Doors for Dummies, and Breathing Air for Dummies.
- After Alice robs the museum, the police are seen reading An Idiot's Guide to Solving Museum Robberies. During her trial, everyone has their nose in a copy of Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Robbery Trials But Were Afraid to Ask. Alice gets ten years and decides to read You, Too, Can Survive Prison!
- Downplayed:
- Alice reads a real book, such as The Complete Idiot's Guide to Auto Repair.
- Alice the witch reads Potions for Dummies — obviously not a real book, but it is a plausible instructional guide for a fantasy world.
- Justified: High levels of crime have created a market for books like Robbing Museums for Dummies.
- Inverted:
- Alice has lots of how-to books, but none of them parodies the For Dummies series or similar instructional guides.
- Every nonfiction book assumes that their readers are already highly competent in the subject matter.
- Subverted:
- Alice asks for Robbing Museums for Dummies, but is informed that no such book exists.
- the Robbing Museums for Dummies 'book' is a wooden effigy of a for dummies book for cinematic use.
- Double Subverted:
- However, a general Robbery for Dummies exists.
- However, they do have a book titled The Complete Idiot's Guide to Robbing Museums.
- … within the Framing Device of this year's Struhmwell Junior High Performance, not the show proper.
- Parodied:
- Alice does Throw the Book at Them. The book happens to be Knocking People Unconscious for Dummies, but Alice never reads the book.
- Alice breaks into the Smithsonian, but finds that the Hope Diamond is already missing because someone else has already read The Complete Idiot's Guide to Stealing the Hope Diamond and carried out its advice.
- Alice, who's illiterate, tries to read Reading for Dummies.
- Alice tries to read Robbing Museums for Dummies, but doesn't understand it and has to use Robbing Museums for Dummies for Dummies.
- Alice tries to rob a museum by following the advice in Robbing Museums for Dummies. Too bad the "information" found there is useless Captain Obvious statements at best and blatantly wrong at worst.
- Zig-Zagged: Alice consults Robbing Museums for Dummies. Then she asks the legendary Phantom Thief Adam for pointers. Then she skims The Complete Idiot's Guide to Stealing the Hope Diamond. Then she breaks into the museum and, despite herself, steals some priceless artifact or another.
- Averted: Alice learns how to rob a museum, but not by reading a book. Perhaps she has The Gift, or gets Improvised Training.
- Enforced: Product Placement by For Dummies.
- Lampshaded: Bob mentions that The Complete Idiot's Guide to Stealing the Hope Diamond should not exist, because the subject is too specific for an entire book.
- Invoked: Bob gives Alice a copy of Robbing Museums for Dummies so that she can use it to rob the museum.
- Exploited: The museum guards have studied Robbing Museums for Dummies and will catch anyone who attempts the methods from the book.
- Defied: Bob tries to get a work titled Robbing Museums for Dummies published. The publisher forces him to change the title to Robbing Museums, if it even allows him to publish it at all.
- Discussed: Carol sarcastically says, "If you want to rob a museum, maybe you should read Robbing Museums for Dummies."
- Conversed: "This show is so inaccurate! Of course there's no book called Robbing Museums for Dummies." "Of course there isn't. Don't you know what a parody is?"
- Deconstructed: Alice reads Robbing Museums for Dummies, but comes out with only a preliminary understanding of the topic, and is immediately arrested when she tries to rob the museum.
- Reconstructed: The world's museums are now safer with Alice locked up.
- Played for Laughs: Alice's attempt to follow the advice in Robbing Museums for Dummies is comically inept.
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