Basic Trope: Winking at someone to secretly get a message across.
- Straight: Alice lies about something, and then winks at Bob to remind him she's being insincere.
- Exaggerated: Alice winks at Bob multiple times after lying to make it extra clear he gets the message.
- Downplayed: Alice quickly glances in Bob's direction to remind him she's lying.
- Justified: Alice is Bound and Gagged, so she can't communicate with him through talking or hand signals.
- Inverted: Alice winks at Bob to let him know she has no secrets.
- Subverted: Alice appears to be winking conspiratorially at Bob, but it turns out she just has some dust in her eye.
- Double Subverted: The dust was getting in the way of her winking, so she gets it out and gives him a real wink.
- Parodied: Alice lies and then winks at Bob, who asks, "Is there something wrong with your eye?"
- Zig-Zagged: Alice winks after sentences sporadically, no matter who she's talking to or what she's saying. Sometimes she has something to hide, and sometimes she doesn't.
- Averted:
- Alice doesn't wink to get her message across.
- Nobody exchanges secret messages.
- Enforced: Executives tell the director that Alice is too cold and having her give Bob a wink after telling a lie would not only signal her insincerity, but also be a sign she's warming up to him.
- Lampshaded: "Wink, wink! See, I'm winking to secretly remind you that I'm actually lying."
- Invoked: Alice has seen tons of spy movies where the spies secretly wink at their assistants whenever they're lying, so she tries it to see if Bob catches on.
- Exploited: Alice winks at Bob to trick the enemy into thinking they're hiding something.
- Defied: Bob tells Alice to give him a wink as a signal. She thinks that's too obvious, so she decides to quickly nod at him instead.
- Discussed: "She just winked at him...meaning they know something we don't! But what?"
- Conversed: "Why does everyone wink in this show? Wouldn't it make an outsider suspicious?"
- Implied: We don't see Alice's face, just her head from behind and a look of realization followed by a knowing nod from Bob.
- Deconstructed: People can always tell when Alice lies since her winks give her away, so she becomes easy to bust.
- Reconstructed: Alice devises a secret code only her friends know: she winks her left eye when she's telling the truth, and her right eye when she's lying. That way, her winking won't give her away as easily.
- Played for Laughs: Alice puts her whole face into a massive wink, and still nobody else but Bob notices her doing it.
- Played for Drama: Alice gets captured by the enemy, and shoots Bob a wink as she's dragged off to tell him she'll be okay.
Back to Secret Message Wink
