Basic Trope: A song is sung to encourage someone to achieve their goals.
- Straight: Mary doesn't have the courage to ask out a boy she likes. Spencer sings her a song that she should go out and try, and that Mistakes Are Not the End of the World.
- Exaggerated: Spencer's song doesn't only address Mary's shyness, but her fractured relationship with her mother, her grades in school, and her need for a purpose in life.
- Downplayed: Spencer sings a general Silly Love Song, which makes Mary realize that being in love isn't that bad.
- Justified: Spencer's a talented songwriter and knows that Mary likes music, so it's an easy way for him to communicate the idea.
- Inverted:
- Spencer sings about why Mary shouldn't try to get over her fears and instead just live with them.
- Spencer sings a song to make Mary feel worse.
- Subverted: We know that Spencer is a Nice Guy who likes to cheer up his friends, so we're expecting the song to be about Mary's situation. Instead, it's about something completely irrelevant.
- Double Subverted: Until the last verse, where it finally connects to the plot, telling Mary to ask the boy out.
- Parodied:
- Spencer is an Anti-Role Model whom Mary does not want to listen to. His song is full of joke-y bad advice.
- Spencer sings a grand, orchestral song convincing Mary that the world is beautiful after Mary accidentally loses her pen.
- Zig-Zagged: The song is a duet between Mary and Spencer. Verses alternate between Mary singing about her fears and worries, and Spencer trying to encourage her.
- Averted: Nobody in the work sings a song to encourage another.
- Enforced: Audiences found that Spencer came off as not as kind as Mary said he was. To fix this, they threw in a scene of him trying to encourage Mary when she's nervous.
- Lampshaded: "Wow, that song's pretty encouraging!"
- Invoked: "Mary, I've written a song that I think will help you feel better!"
- Exploited: Spencer uses this as an opportunity to shill his musical talent and convince Mary that he's actually a good singer.
- Defied: Mary just wants to be alone with her thoughts. She doesn't want anyone singing to her.
- Discussed: "You wrote a song just to encourage me?"
- Conversed: "I always like songs that are about one character trying to cheer up another."
- Played for Laughs: The song is played for Stylistic Suck since Spencer isn't that good at songwriting.
Back to Pep-Talk Song.
