Basic Trope: In a scary scene, a character tells the others not to panic, but somewhere along the line, a character says to panic, and they do.
- Straight: When the Monster of the Week shows up, Alice says "Don't panic". More monsters show up and Bob asks "Can we panic now?" Alice says "yes" and they all go bananas and freak out.
- Exaggerated:
- The characters do this with all emotions. If something good happens, Alice has to tell them to be happy, if someone dies, Alice has to tell them to be sad, and so forth.
- The characters are Genre Savvy enough to realize that "Don't panic" is code for "We're doomed", and chaos reigns as soon as Alice says it.
- Downplayed: Alice tells her friends to not let fear get in the way of what they are doing. Bob asks if they can still be scared, and Alice says "yes", on which Bob expresses his fear a little more, but does not panic as such.
- Justified: The characters are aliens, and have to be told when to experience an emotion.
- Inverted: The Monster of the Week keeps telling jokes and Alice says "Now is not the time to laugh." Her friends are silent, until more monsters, who are clowns and comedians, show up. Bob asks "Can we laugh now?". Alice says "yes" and they all burst out laughing.
- Subverted: Alice tells them not to panic at the Monster of the Week 's appearance, but when more monsters show up, Bob asks if they can panic now. Alice says "yes", but they do not panic. The others just look at Alice and Bob weird.
- Double Subverted: But then start panicking.
- Parodied: As the Monster of the Week shows up, Alice tells her friends not to panic, but minutes later, more monsters show up. Bob asks "Can we panic now?" and either Alice says "yes" and they pretend to panic, or Alice says "No."
- Zig Zagged: Alice tells her friends not to panic when the Monster of the Week shows up. When more monsters show up, Bob asks if they can panic now, and Alice says "yes". Bob freaks out, Alice remains stoic, Charlie looks at Bob weird, Carol says that panicking is illogical, Dave is a psychologist and tells the others how panicking works and that they cannot do it on command, and while all this is happening, Melanie deals with the monsters and yells at Bob "STOP PANICKING!!!"
- Averted: There is nothing more startling than "Boo" in the show, the friends express normal, realistic emotions, they do not "panic" as they are tough and panicking's for sissies, they are used to monsters, when Alice tells them not to panic, they just don't.
- Enforced: The writers put it in for Rule of Funny or Rule of Scary.
- Lampshaded: "Can we panic now?"
- Invoked: Alice has a policy on when to "panic" and when not to.
- Exploited: Alice uses the ones she tells to panic as bait, while the Only Sane Man, The Stoic and all the non-panicking ones can trap them.
- Defied: The characters have been in training for long enough to avoid panicking.
- Discussed: "Why did you say they can panic now, Alice? You should know that they will go mad when that happens!"
- Conversed: "How come these characters can freak out on command?"
- Implied: Alice says that This Is No Time to Panic, but minutes later they are seen panicking.
- Deconstructed: Alice tells them not to panic, but more monsters show up and Bob says "Can we panic now?" Alice says they can and they go beserk, resulting in the monster eating them and destroying the town.
- Reconstructed: However, that will never happen as the Only Sane Man is always on hand and never panics, thereby permitting the others to, knowing he can save the day for them.
- Played For Laughs: As detailed under "Exaggerated", Alice gets as far as 'Okay, nobody panic...', and immediately everyone freaks out. Alice is left staring in horror and amazement as Bob shakes his head and tells her that everyone knows that "nobody panic" is just a lead-up to catastrophically bad news.
- Played For Drama: The monsters try to get Alice to tell the others they can panic by acting more scary and therefore distracting them.
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