Basic Trope: A character's words are meant to get a certain response from whoever they're speaking to.
- Straight:
- Bob randomly calls Alice "Ally", just to see her response from his informality.
- Or Bob purposely mispronounces her name, knowing it's her Berserk Button.
- Exaggerated:
- Downplayed:
- Bob does this once to gauge Alice's character.
- Bob says things that aren't mean, just seemingly weird.
- Justified:
- Bob has a Freudian Excuse to his jerkassery.
- Bob says whatever comes to mind and enjoys the rise he gets out people for doing so.
- Inverted:
- Blithe Spirit
- Bob's words give everyone around him comfort or make them happy even when he doesn't intend to do so.
- Bob is a victim of teasing as everyone call him "Bobby", to tick him.
- Subverted:
- Bob actually does mean the things he says.
- Bob appears to say things just to rile up people around him, but, in truth, he just cannot keep his comments to himself.
- Double Subverted:
- After Alice calls Bob out for being this, Bob claims he actually meant everything he said ... just to see how she would react.
- Bob is mistaken for a Troll, but he is actually this trope.
- Parodied: Bob's harsh words produce various reactions in his pals other than his desired outcome (to upset them), as they start to fall asleep, coo at him, or show indifference that he himself gets annoyed on their behalf.
- Zig Zagged: Bob experiences differences in his morality, and cannot decide between verbally embarrassing Alice, or keeping those comments to himself.
- Averted: Bob's words aren't meant to get a reaction, but to simply communicate.
- Enforced: "What's a better way to establish Bob as an annoying character other than making him spew hurtful words to his friends out of nowhere?"
- Lampshaded: "Are you trying to piss me off?" "Yes."
- Invoked: Bob is hired as a Court Jester.
- Exploited: Carol wants to make her thin-skinned frenemy Alice freak out and embarrass herself, but also wants to have some plausible deniability. So she arranged for Bob and Alice to be in the same place at the same time...
- Defied:
- Alice doesn't take the bait, and instead Bob finds himself on the losing end of Snark-to-Snark Combat.
- "You make fun of me, any kind of fun at all, and I'll Kill You! I will make more painful the more you find it funny. And I will spend either the exact same amount of seconds or longer that I need to waste searching through your sentences for implications flaying your fucking skin off! Are we clear!?" "…yes."
- “I will not tease anyone, I'm a nice person and I'll make you feel good about yourself! whether you like it or not!"
- Discussed: "Bob may try to get on people's nerves with his words but this is because they always get on his first and not because he is looking for a certain reaction."
- Conversed:
- "I love how Bob's words never fail to get a reaction out of everyone, it's just so hilarious."
- "Am I the only one who thinks that Bob needs to stop trying to provoke people?"
- Deconstructed:
- Bob ruins his relationship with Alice, because his comments meant to get a rise out of her ended up seriously hurting Alice's feelings.
- This trait makes Bob look more pathetic than irritating.
- At some point, someone won't find it funny at all... Not even the first time.
- Reconstructed: Bob and Alice have a long talk. The two of them resume their friendship, and, while Bob still does mention stuff to rile up Alice from time to time, he does so with more care for Alice's feelings.
- Implied:: Bob says something to Charlie but the viewer doesn't get to know what was said. In the next few scenes, Charlie is seen choking Bob and telling him to shut up.
Back to The Gadfly.
