Basic Trope: Someone tries to be a Rebellious Spirit, but their rebellion is mildly inconvenient at best.
- Straight: Randy's attempts at being rebellious consist of things like ripping the tag off his mattress, using words like "frick", wearing temporary tattoos, dressing in T-shirts with his favourite rock bands, and listening to inoffensive rock songs on his MP3 player.
- Exaggerated: Randy believes that staying up one minute past his bedtime makes him the edgiest and most badass rebel ever.
- Downplayed:
- Randy likes a band that's pretty mainstream, but frequently attracts the ire of Moral Guardians.
- Randy does not publicly proclaim himself as a rebel, instead congratulating himself for his "double life" and "subtle subversion".
- Justified:
- Randy is in his fifties and believes the fairly inoffensive rock music he listens to is edgy because it really was controversial when he grew up, although it's not the case nowadays.
- Randy is out-of-touch and trying to look cool.
- Randy talks big game but is scared of actual legal consequences.
- Randy is pragmatic; he realizes that being too rebellious can work against him and that he needs to be low-key about it.
- Inverted:
- Randy is a Bomb-Throwing Anarchist who believes his attitude is perfectly conventional.
- On the surface, Randy is your typical boring square guy, wearing a suit with a tie, going to work in some cozy governmental office every day, doing paperwork, filing and mailing, then listening to some classics after work... but every day, he subtly and covertly acts to bring around a vast reorganization process within the system that will drastically change the status quo in his city or country, if not the whole world.
- Subverted: Randy's music sounds tame, but those who understand what the quaint phrasing means know that it would be be considered shocking even by today's standards...
- Double Subverted: ...except Randy only listens to it when alone at home. Not to mention he isn't doing anything more counter-cultural than that.
- Parodied: Randy is a Bomb-Throwing Anarchist who likes inoffensive rock music. He believes the former is nothing unusual while the latter is somehow edgy.
- Zig Zagged: Randy's band sometimes really is countercultural and shocking in its content, however, they also sometimes decide to play it safe, depending on their current financial situation, as well as what gets them good ratings with mainstream music recorders.
- Averted: Randy's rebellion is actually rebellious.
- Enforced: Randy was way more rebellious in the original script, but the higher-ups forced the writers to tone it down because they feared it might turn off some viewers and upset the Moral Guardians.
- Lampshaded: "Randy, eating an After Eight at seven o'clock doesn't make you tough."
- Invoked: Randy is deliberately trying to market his band as edgy and countercultural, while at the same time keeping the content safe and mainstream enough to avoid the ire of moral guardians.
- Exploited: A store sells Randy generic "rebellious" stuff.
- Defied: Randy's friends tell him to stop trying to be rebellious because it just makes him look silly.
- Discussed: "Gee, what's with all these mainstream bands trying to portray themselves as 'radical' or 'edgy'?"
- Conversed: A viewer asks, "How is Randy rebellious? Most people agree with his complaints about school cliques."
- Played For Laughs: Randy and all his friends believe they're super cool and unique because they all have the same generic green mohawk and black clothes.
- Played For Drama: Randy grew up with very strict parents. He wants to rebel, but can't bring himself to commit a truly rebellious act because he can't shake the fear of nasty consequences.
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