Basic Trope: Shooting one's television.
- Straight: Bob gets fed-up with what he's watching, and shoots his television.
- Exaggerated:
- Bob shoots his television until it's nothing more than a pile of shattered debris.
- Bob shoots his television with a Gatling Gun.
- Bob shoots his television with a cannon... That shoots out ANOTHER television.
- Bob goes on a shooting spree, blasting every television in the house (at least).
- Downplayed:
- Bob shoots his television, but only damages it without making it unusable.
- Bob shoots his television, but it was an old model and he's getting a new, better one anyway.
- Justified:
- Bob lost his remote control, and is impressively lazy. So much so, that he would rather destroy his own property than get up from his chair.
- Bob has a Hair-Trigger Temper and access to a firearm.
- Inverted:
- Bob shoots his television in order to turn it on.
- Bob's television shoots him.
- Subverted:
- Bob shoots at his television, but he misses.
- While it looks like Bob is trying to shoot the television, he's actually trying to shoot the ducks with his Famicom Zapper.
- Double Subverted: Bob shoots at his television, again, and it hits.
- Parodied: The TV is shot out of the gun.
- Zig-Zagged: Bob tries to shoot his television, but is a lousy shot, so he goes through several ammo clips until he eventually gets a hit.
- Averted: Bob just changes the channel, or turns his television off.
- Enforced: The makers of an Elvis Presley biopic are told to include a scene where Elvis shoots his television because there are stories of him doing that.
- Lampshaded: ???
- Invoked: ???
- Exploited: ???
- Defied: Bob is about to shoot his television set in a fit of rage but then realizes he paid, like, $1,200 for it, and doesn't feel like writing off the expense.
- Discussed: "If I had a gun right now, I'd probably put a bullet through it, just like Elvis would."
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: Bob's television set is shown to have bullet hole in the screen, but the events that caused it are not elaborated.
- Played for Laughs:
- Bob confused the remote control with a handgun, and is too dumb to know the difference.
- Bob does this so often that Alice Alice rolls her eyes in annoyance and rolls out a replacement television from the closet full of them.
- Played for Drama:
- Bob shoots the television after hearing upsetting news that moves him to tears.
- The bullet of Bob's gun overpenetrates and injures Tropey. Bob being eaten by guilt is strictly optional.
- Bob gets chewed out by everybody else about his overreaction, complete with a yelled "you could have just turned off the damned thing!".
- Played for Horror:
- The television is just the first thing Bob shoots dead.
- Shooting the television is the moment Bob fully transitions into violent insanity and becomes a threat to the rest of the cast.
- Bob shoots the television dead. Shooting through Alice was either a delightful bonus or a violent accident (whatever is scarier).
- Bob shoots the television dead. The bullet overpenetrates and blows little Billy's brains out.
Return to the Main page.
