Basic Trope: The butler is the murderer.
- Straight: Alice, a millionaire, has been murdered. After an investigation, it turns out that Bob, her butler, did it, and everyone is genuinely surprised.
- Exaggerated:
- All the butlers in the city go on a killing spree, and nobody suspects a thing.
- A whole butler mafia of sorts is brewing.
- Bob is a serial killer that murdered all his employers, and maybe a few other people.
- Downplayed:
- Bob wasn't the actual murderer, but he was the accomplice to Charlie, Alice's enemy and her actual murderer.
- Bob broke Alice's leg.
- Bob hacked Alice's bank account and stole her money.
- Justified:
- Bob did it because he's actually an assassin that took the job to be Beneath Suspicion.
- A butler is someone who, in a wealthy household, has a great deal of access both to the 'upstairs' and 'downstairs' areas, is usually a trusted and respected part of the household and, as a servant, may receive a lot of poor treatment. They tend to know the hidden secrets of the household and the various enmities and weaknesses of those within it that can be exploited and know where various weapons, etc. are kept. They're usually organized, discreet, thoughtful, and methodical. All helpful things if you were planning to kill someone...
- Alice was incredibly cruel to Bob, who had to tolerate it because of some very shady things she did, like holding sick relatives essentially hostage, debt slavery, and so on. Eventually, Bob was the one to snap and murder her to break out.
- Inverted:
- Every suspect except Bob had a hand in Alice's murder.
- Bob is the detective.
- Bob helps Detective Charles find the real murderer.
- Bob is the murder victim, and it was Alice who murdered him.
- Bob is a bodyguard who has failed to protect Alice's life, and called in Charles to ensure that the killer doesn't get away with the murder.
- Bob killed himself.
- Alice is the killer, and upon being caught, reveals that Bob was just her in a disguise, and there was never a butler to begin with.
- Gender-Inverted: The maid is the culprit.
- Subverted:
- Bob is the prime suspect at the beginning, but is later found innocent.
- Bob accidentally killed Alice and it only looked like a murder.
- Bob was framed.
- Double Subverted:
- Bob is the prime suspect at the beginning but is then found innocent and then eliminated as a suspect; except he did do it, and the exonerating evidence is false.
- Bob did kill Alice; he only made it look like an accident.
- While Bob was framed for killing Alice, he was actually guilty of other crimes.
- Parodied:
- Bob makes a long speech about how he always wanted to be a butler.
- Putting on a butler suit brainwashes the wearer to commit murder.
- Alice doesn't even have a butler, there are no butlers anywhere around, and somehow the butler still did it.
- Butlers learn their trade at butler camp where, among other things, they are taught how to get away with murder.
- Bob is accused, despite how obvious the Frame-Up is.
- Bob does not do anything but stand around acting vaguely creepy, yet no one finds this odd and no one suspects him when Alice dies.
- Bob did it... "it" being leaving the toilet seat up, taking the last cookie from the cookie jar, and breaking the vase by accident.
- Zig-Zagged: Bob did it, but he was under Mind Control at the time. And it later turns out that the one mind controlling Bob looked exactly like him. And then we find out that it was actually his Evil Twin, who was also a butler. But it was a conspiracy and Bob has a Memory Gambit to maintain deniability.
- Averted:
- A crime occurs in Alice's family, but no butlers are involved.
- Bob is present, but no crime occurs.
- There is no crime committed and no butler to blame it on.
- Bob is present, but nobody suspects him and someone else turns out to be the culprit anyway.
- Enforced:
- Bob had to be the killer because the creator was aiming for the target audience of people who never read mysteries before.
- The creator once had a lazy and incompetent butler and writes the story to get revenge.
- The creator just doesn't like butlers.
- The work is a historical piece about someone who really was killed by her butler.
- Almost every character in the story is a butler, so the murderer must have been one of them.
- Lampshaded:
- "So the butler did it! I Always Wanted to Say That."
- "I can't believe you accused me. Next thing you know, you're probably gonna say the butler did it."
- Bob did not kill Alice. Someone exclaims in surprise, "I can't believe it's not butler!"
- Invoked:
- "We should investigate Bob the butler first. It's always the butler in the movies."
- The organization trying to assassinate someone asks Bob, his butler, for help, knowing that the butler has access to and trust from his employer.
- Exploited: Someone in need of a hitman goes to Bob, knowing he's good at killing people.
- Defied:
- "Bob was helping me clean the dishes while that guy was murdered. There's no way he did it."
- Bob is about to murder Alice, but somebody else walks in and stops him.
- Discussed: "Unlike what you may read in detective stories, Bob is an unlikely suspect in any murder investigation of this sort."
- Conversed: "These murder mysteries are too predictable. It seems like the butler is always the murderer."
- Implied: Charles rules out all the guests one by one, but in the end, he fails to find the real killer. In fact, he never bothered to investigate Bob.
- Deconstructed: Bob and Alice were lifelong friends who never got in conflict with each other. It wouldn't make sense for Bob to just murder Alice for no reason.
- Reconstructed: Bob didn't kill Alice out of personal motivation, but for a large sum of money, and the rest of the work is about figuring out who paid him to murder Alice.
- Played for Laughs: Bob did kill Alice, but it took him three hundred and seventeen tries (and we're shown twelve), all of which Alice escaped without realizing anything was happening (including the time when he walked up and shot Alice, which she passed off as "you could've hurt someone, mistaking that gun for a lighter").
- Played for Drama:
- Bob did it but is quite sympathetic, and the reasons he did it are explored in great detail.
- Because he is no longer employed, having killed Alice, Bob ends up homeless and is Driven to Suicide.
- Alice has spent her entire life in a Gilded Cage, with Bob, her "butler", serving as a thinly veiled jail guard. Once Alice tries to get free, Bob casually murders her.
- Played for Horror: A demon possessed Bob and made him kill Alice, and unless people can stop it right there and then, anyone who employs a butler could suddenly end up a victim of a supernaturally-induced Bodyguard Betrayal...
- Plotted a Good Waste: Bob did it, and the unfortunate implications of class warfare are touched upon as a result.
- Untwisted: Bob is the nicest and most sympathetic of all the suspects, so the audience doesn't expect him to be the murderer. However, he unwittingly admits that he did it after the main suspect, Alice's jealous sister Diane, is arrested.
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