Basic Trope: A Christmas special where the holiday is jeopardized in some way and must be corrected.
- Straight: Bob Saves Christmas is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Bob hears that Santa's been kidnapped by Emperor Evulz and goes out in search of him. Upon being defeated, Emperor Evulz relents and learns the True Meaning of Christmas.
- Exaggerated: Emperor Evulz blows up the North Pole, destroying Santa's Workshop. Bob arrives to assess the damage and helps the elves work overtime, all while fighting off Emperor Evulz's evil Santa robots. After Santa tells him the True Meaning of Christmas, Evulz has a full-on Heel–Face Turn.
- Downplayed:
- Santa doesn't think he can make enough toys for Christmas so he calls in some of his long-lost relatives to help get the job done.
- Bob prevents an Apocalypse How, and it coincidentally happens to be Christmas.
- Hacker Evulz enters the Santa Workshop database and places the kids of Nowhere, Kansas in the Naughty List (and himself in the good kids list). The workshop's IT team must correct this clerical error before Santa gives coal to a dozen kids by mistake.
- Justified:
- Due to his size and age, Santa is a sitting duck for Emperor Evulz.
- Christmas is an incredibly important holiday and Evulz is not the kind of man to half-ass things. The everlasting infamy that will come from turning a day that is almost universally beloved by all of mankind into one of its darkest times is sure as hell a good enough reason to attack.
- Emperor Evulz has bad memories related to Christmas, and wants to ruin it for everyone else.
- Inverted:
- Bob loses his Christmas spirit and Santa Claus visits to tell him what the holiday is all about.
- The film is all about Bob destroying Christmas.
- Subverted: Bob hears that Santa's in trouble. When he arrives, it turns out Emperor Evulz has killed Santa and that Christmas is ruined.
- Double Subverted:
- But after Bob defeats Evulz, Santa reveals he was just sleeping.
- Bob succeeds in taking on the role of Santa.
- Parodied: Santa converts to atheism and decides not to deliver toys anymore. Bob decides to snap him out of it.
- Zig Zagged: Santa is kidnapped by Emperor Evulz but escapes. The emperor's henchmen then recapture him while setting his workshop on fire which the elves try to put out. All this happens while Bob begrudgingly makes his way to the North Pole, unsure if Santa could use his help.
- Averted: Bob has a normal Christmas.
- Enforced: Executives believe that since Christmas is a joyous time of the year, all specials should end on a happy note, yet there must be a sense of danger or else the story would be boring, therefore the writers opt for Christmas being put in danger, but saved.
- Lampshaded: "What do we do? We can't let anybody just ruin Christmas!"
- Invoked: Bob's children become worried when they hear about a disturbance involving a Mall Santa and he decides to investigate.
- Exploited: Bob rounds up everyone on the "Nice List" as a means of helping Santa.
- Defied:
- Santa upgrades the security on his workshop, preventing anyone on the "Naughty List" from getting in.
- Emperor Evulz doesn't see the usefulness of attacking Santa's Workshop (whether because he has standards, because there's a more strategically useful target he could attack on that same day, or he doesn't want to deal with all of the hassle that comes from attacking an institution that would piss off 99% of mankind in some way, shape or form).
- Discussed: "Come on guys, I know you hate Christmas, but can you at least not let it be ruined for everyone else?"
- Conversed: "I hate Christmas specials. Doesn't anyone realize you can still enjoy the holiday without Santa?"
- Implied:
- Bob has to save a Santa-like figure in the winter time. While the idea that the world is better off because of this rescue, Christmas, or anything of the sort, is never outright stated.
- December 24th, late evening. Bob The Hero is interrupted as he's doing Christmas shopping when his phone buzzes and he hears something when he picks up the phone that makes him adopt combat mode.
- Deconstructed:
- Christmas is not universal, and people of other religions were happier to see it gone.
- The special plays up the commercial aspects of Christmas, and how a lot of presents are just useless junk.
- Reconstructed:
- The True Meaning of Christmas includes tolerance for those who would rather not participate.
- Not loving Christmas' religious significance doesn't mean not enjoying being with a close one (or on the more cynical side, people giving and getting presents) and whatever happy memories have come from it. It's a good enough reason to fight Evulz.
- Even if the materialistic aspects have downsides or the presents are useless, it's the underlying idea of giving that counts.
- Bob, who celebrates Kwanza, figures out that Evulz is going to destroy all holidays and Christmas is just first on the list because it is such a notable target. So Bob does not celebrates or cares about Christmas, but he will save it nonetheless.
- Bob does not cares about Christmas but telling little Timmy that he is okay with letting Santa die is a bit too damned cruel, so saving Christmas it is.
- Played For Drama: Bob's motivation for saving Christmas is to preserve the one time in the year when he can see his ex-wife and kids.
- Played For Laughs:
- Bob Saves Christmas is such a Cliché Storm of this kind of specials that one of the major running gags is how exasperated everybody is at being forced into this mess.
- Bob it just making sure that his company's Christmas party runs smoothly. Hilarity Ensues.
- Christmas must be saved by the most unlikely duo — Bob, a cynical rogue, and Alice, a scientist who doesn't believe in Santa.
- Played For Horror: The villain of Bob Saves Christmas is a Serial Killer that kidnapped Santa and the race against time is not only to save Christmas, but because nobody deserves to die in such a horrible way, doubly so on Christmas.
Go back to Saving Christmas.
