Basic Trope: Children do disturbing grown-up things.
- Straight:
- Ten-year-old Timmy smokes and drinks.
- Fifteen-year-old Tim is a juvenile delinquent who routinely cuts class, shoplifts, and fights with other delinquents.
- Exaggerated:
- Five-year-old Timmy smokes, drinks, gets high, has a lot of sex, and kills people.
- Five-year-old Timmy sells drugs, vandalizes public property, drives a car (with a habit of speeding in residential areas) a full decade before he's even eligible to apply for a learner's permit, shoplifts, and exhibits controversial art.
- One-year-old Timmy is a mercenary working for Emperor Evulz.
- Fifteen-year-old Tim is a Serial Killer.
- Logical Extreme: Timmy is a fetus who leads a planet that meant to invade other planets, not only that, but Timmy himself is also an Evil God power enough to be capable enough to cause a Class Z apocalypse.
- Downplayed:
- Thirteen-year-old Tim sometimes plays M-rated games or watches R-rated movies, but is otherwise a well-adjusted child.
- Timmy acts normal, but keeps a level head in dangerous situations better than his own parents, especially doing things that would typically creep out other children with no problem.
- Timmy can understand taboo concepts like rape or murder well, but not enough to keep his parents concerned.
- Fifteen-year-old Tim is a Sir Swears-a-Lot, but otherwise kind and respectful.
- Fifteen-year-old Tim occasionally drinks alcohol after school but doesn't go further than that.
- Seventeen-year-old Tim is racist and would Flip the Bird non-stop, but he means well when it comes to Academics, and, Tim himself is not as bad as he seems.
- Justified: Timmy has little to no parental supervision, or his parents and/or authority figures are toxic people themselves.
- Inverted:
- Timmy respects authority and does things expected of his age, like playing E-rated video games and collecting action figures.
- Tim is a full-grown Manchild who has never used drugs, drank, smoked, or engaged in any sexual activity or crime.
- Timmy is ten, but still loves to watch preschool shows and play with stuffed animals.
- Adorably Precocious Child: Young children do grown-up things, but it's treated as cute/wholesome.
- Subverted:
- A rumor goes around that Timmy smokes and drinks. But it's just that, a rumor.
- An onlooker thinks that Timmy is a twelve-to-fourteen-year-old smoker, but he's actually way older than he looks.
- Double Subverted:
- ...He does routinely get high, though.
- Even though Timmy is older than he looks, he's very young for his species.
- Parodied:
- As soon as Timmy is delivered, he drinks a bottle of vodka and delivers a curse-filled rant about how the preschool's coat rack is broken because it doesn't stamp his timecard when he clocks in.
- Timmy's parents read his List of Transgressions to him every night as if it were a bedtime story.
- A judge reads Timmy's List of Transgressions to him. He looks to be almost enjoying himself through the judge's recitation of his drug dealing, vandalism, illicit driving, speeding, shoplifting, but loses it when the judge mentions the art.
- Timmy doing typically adult things like stamping a timecard, drinking coffee in the morning, wearing a suit and tie, and watching Monday night football with his friends is treated like this. Not disturbing adult things, just comically mundane adult things.
- Averted:
- There are no child characters.
- Tim occasionally talks back to his parents or teachers, but that's perfectly normal, if unpleasant, child or teen behavior.
- Timmy is a Child Prodigy who neither engages in adult nor childlike behavior.
- Timmy exemplifies the Children Are Innocent trope.
- Enforced: The producers demand a Very Special Episode about underage drug use.
- Lampshaded: "Seriously? A ten-year-old stole your car?"
- Invoked: Timmy, seeing his lack of authority figures, decides to light up because no one is there to stop him.
- Exploited: Bob, seeing Timmy's preference for smoking and drinking, offers to set him up in exchange for...certain favors.
- Defied:
- Timmy is offered a cigarette. He says no.
- Timmy's parents put their feet down:"Timothy Vincent Troper! You are grounded until your behavior improves! And if it doesn't ... I'm sure your grandmother will be very disappointed to hear about what you've been up to!"
- Discussed: "You know, Timmy, kids don't normally light up and down gin ever, never mind often."
- Conversed: "I often find it worrying when kids on TV act much older than they really are. It's cute when they're using big words they don't necessarily understand, but when they do things like swear, use drugs, have sex, and commit crimes, there I'm going to draw a thick. Red. Line."
- Deconstructed: Timmy faces a lot of unwanted physical consequences because his body is still too young to tolerate foreign substances or sexual activity. The adults who look after Timmy and/or take part in his criminal or sexual activities get into legal trouble themselves for "allowing" a minor to do these things.
- Reconstructed: Timmy is Made of Iron, so he doesn't suffer from having sex or consuming controlled substances. If he faces no harm, nobody will ever face sanction; such is the rationale.
- Implied: Timmy acts like a regular, well-adjusted child or teenager on screen. Several adults compare him to a hardened criminal, but it is difficult to tell if they are joking or being serious.
- Played for Laughs: Timmy is a toddler who murders other children in an over-the-top exaggerated way that could never happen in real life.
- Played for Drama:
- Timmy is a Troubled Child.
- Timmy acts this way because he's witnessed things that are Harmful to Minors.
- Played for Horror: Tim inflicts Cold-Blooded Torture and Cruel and Unusual Deaths without even a hint of humanity to him.
- Plotted a Good Waste: Timmy is a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of an Enfant Terrible who troubled the creator at some point in their lives, and they created him to show that young kids aren't immune to doing bad things.
Young man, you'd better extinguish that cigarette. What do you mean "fuck you"? That's it — get back to Troubling Unchildlike Behavior right now.
