Tropescilloscope: Bait-and-Switch

Subversion as humor. (read more at tvtropes.org)

More Tropes Homage Dark Reprise Fat Bastard From Bad to Worse Good Is Not Nice Camera Abuse Babies Ever After Fanservice Anti-Hero Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday Chekhov's Gunman Cloudcuckoolander Manly Tears Pimped-Out Dress Book-Ends Framing Device Break the Cutie N-Word Privileges Mr. Fanservice Animal Title Index Closed Circle Hair-Trigger Temper The Sociopath Idiot Ball Bury Your Gays As You Know Pay Evil unto Evil Anguished Declaration of Love Pretty in Mink Shown Their Work Faux Affably Evil Meaningful Echo Antagonist Title Artistic License – Physics Butt-Monkey Star-Crossed Lovers Dogged Nice Guy Extreme Doormat Anti-Villain Spanner in the Works The X of Y All Girls Want Bad Boys You Have Outlived Your Usefulness Blonde, Brunette, Redhead NO INDOOR VOICE Posthumous Character What You Are in the Dark The Dreaded Expository Hairstyle Change Spiteful Spit Car Fu No Ending Film Noir Male Frontal Nudity The Bad Guy Wins Not What It Looks Like In Name Only Cluster F-Bomb Training Montage May–December Romance Implacable Man Psycho for Hire Brother–Sister Incest Downer Ending Screw This, I'm Outta Here! Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other Karmic Death Dissonant Serenity Rewatch Bonus Once More, with Clarity! The Vamp Silence Is Golden Adaptational Villainy Beard of Evil Mind Screw Faking the Dead Even Evil Has Standards Big Fancy House Scenery Porn More Dakka For Want of a Nail Thriller Happily Married Ambiguously Gay Light Is Not Good Everyone Has Standards Big-Bad Ensemble It Can Think Cool Car Death by Adaptation Failed a Spot Check Not So Different Villain Ball Vomit Indiscretion Shot Affably Evil Flashback Chekhov's Gun Artistic License – Law Title Drop Overly Long Gag Action Prologue Bring My Brown Pants Catapult Nightmare Unspoken Plan Guarantee Comically Missing the Point Off with His Head! Pretty Little Headshots All for Nothing Getting Crap Past the Radar The Voiceless Straight Gay Police are Useless Slap-Slap-Kiss Redemption Equals Death Jitter Cam Show Within a Show Cool Shades Humiliation Conga Tempting Fate Animal Motifs Disproportionate Retribution Dark Is Not Evil Dressing as the Enemy Skewed Priorities Card-Carrying Villain Not So Stoic Red Right Hand Adaptation Distillation Villainous Breakdown Evil Is Hammy Daddy's Girl Token Minority Based on a True Story Villain Protagonist O.O.C. Is Serious Business Knife Nut Wham Line Improbable Weapon User No-Holds-Barred Beatdown Naïve Newcomer Groin Attack The Load No Antagonist Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! Mighty Whitey Market-Based Title Diabolus ex Machina The Stoner Major Injury Underreaction Destination Defenestration Berserk Button Deadpan Snarker Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane The Mafia Beauty Is Never Tarnished Fan Disservice Take That! Adorkable timeperiod Adaptation Dye-Job Madness Mantra Extremely Short Timespan A Father to His Men Big Damn Heroes Index of Film Westerns Final Girl Henpecked Husband Creative Closing Credits Captain Obvious Real Life Very Loosely Based on a True Story It Will Never Catch On Ship Tease Heterosexual Life-Partners Demoted to Extra Eyepatch of Power Early Installment Weirdness Truth in Television Neck Lift Big Brother Instinct Badass Grandpa Blatant Lies Dramatic Irony Developing Doomed Characters Only a Flesh Wound Wham Shot Be Careful What You Wish For Took a Level in Jerkass Humans Are Bastards 20 Minutes into the Future Mugging the Monster Darkest Hour Agony of the Feet Men Are the Expendable Gender Sequel Escalation MacGuffin Arch-Enemy Mystery and Detective Films Badass Boast Whole Plot Reference Unusually Uninteresting Sight Distracted by the Sexy Victoria's Secret Compartment Laughing Mad Lock and Load Montage Stuff Blowing Up Reality Is Unrealistic Heel–Face Turn Fainting Big Bad Duumvirate Alpha Bitch Epic Fail All There in the Manual Hoist by His Own Petard Brick Joke Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas Cool Old Lady Morality Pet Villain Song An Arm and a Leg She Cleans Up Nicely Parental Abandonment The Starscream Defiant to the End The '80s Non-Indicative Name Pun aka: Incredibly Lame Pun Mr. Exposition Black Comedy Rape Cruel and Unusual Death The Quiet One Made of Iron Rule of Symbolism Offscreen Moment of Awesome Nothing Is Scarier Important Haircut Playing Gertrude Dark and Troubled Past Fun with Acronyms Imagine Spot Gorn The Chick Vacation Films Manipulative Bastard Parental Incest Every Car Is a Pinto Video Credits I'm a Humanitarian Adaptation Expansion Never Found the Body Put on a Bus Guile Hero Film Series Femme Fatale Adapted Out Friend to All Children Coming-of-Age Story Race Lift Rule of Cool Last-Name Basis Cool Old Guy Historical Villain Upgrade The '60s Screw the Rules, I Have Money! Unreliable Narrator Real Life Writes the Plot Jump Scare Television Movie Index Suspiciously Similar Substitute This Is Gonna Suck Only Known by Their Nickname Department of Redundancy Department Establishing Character Moment Cain and Abel Greater-Scope Villain Translation Convention Redshirt Army Moment Killer Leave the Camera Running You Killed My Father The Smurfette Principle Same Language Dub Pet the Dog Despair Event Horizon Continuity Nod Tagline Blood from the Mouth Abhorrent Admirer Corrupt Corporate Executive Dual Wielding Shower Scene Bolivian Army Ending Villain with Good Publicity Death of a Child Slasher Movie Film Noir Index Black Dude Dies First Big Eater Make It Look Like an Accident Earn Your Happy Ending Oh, Crap! Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping Our Zombies Are Different Eldritch Abomination Conspicuous CG Boom, Headshot! Sports Stories Only in It for the Money Suspiciously Specific Denial Neck Snap Daylight Horror Stalker with a Crush Ms. Fanservice Fiery Redhead Chuck Cunningham Syndrome Children Are Innocent Well-Intentioned Extremist Gone Horribly Right Death by Sex I Have Your Wife Works Set in World War II Driven to Suicide Properly Paranoid Becoming the Mask Danny Peary Cult Movies List There Is No Kill Like Overkill Storming the Castle Advertised Extra Fish out of Water Freudian Excuse Green-Eyed Monster The Musical Badass Longcoat The Reveal A Minor Kidroduction Recycled IN SPACE! Visual Pun Room Full of Crazy Artistic License – History "Well Done, Son!" Guy The Cameo No Celebrities Were Harmed Russian Films Big Applesauce Apocalypse How Annoying Younger Sibling As Himself Dark Action Girl Really Gets Around The Faceless Cat Fight An Aesop Cat Scare Hell Is That Noise Eagleland Shout-Out Older Than They Look Bittersweet Ending The Alcoholic Pre-Mortem One-Liner Sanity Slippage After the End Death Glare Almost Kiss Tap on the Head Cassandra Truth Flipping the Bird Zombie Stories Fire-Forged Friends My Greatest Failure Sealed Evil in a Can Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! Artistic License – Military Karma Houdini Military and Warfare Films Evil Cannot Comprehend Good Belligerent Sexual Tension Easily Forgiven Woman in White Amusing Injuries Exactly What It Says on the Tin Gainax Ending Facial Horror Roger Ebert: Great Movies List Killed Mid-Sentence Genre Shift No OSHA Compliance Empathic Environment Maybe Ever After What the Hell, Hero? Shut Up, Hannibal! The Place Blackmail Disguised in Drag Fantasy Films Bullying a Dragon Damsel in Distress Slasher Smile She's Got Legs Breaking the Fourth Wall Immune to Bullets Darker and Edgier Did Not Get the Girl Curb-Stomp Battle War Is Hell Insistent Terminology Never Trust a Trailer Beware the Nice Ones Funny Background Event Evil vs. Evil The '70s Disappeared Dad folderlabel Insult Backfire Wicked Cultured The Hero Bad "Bad Acting" Foregone Conclusion Sci-Fi Horror Twist Ending Never My Fault Air-Vent Passageway Due to the Dead Action Genre Hero Antagonist Yandere Smug Snake Black Best Friend Throwing Your Sword Always Works Instant Death Bullet He Knows Too Much Domestic Abuse Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" Anachronic Order The Stoic Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome Retcon Disney Villain Death Dutch Angle Red Shirt Auto Erotica Unresolved Sexual Tension Precision F-Strike Deconstruction As the Good Book Says... Lighter and Softer Hate Sink Death by Irony Let's Get Dangerous! Psychological Thriller The Cavalry Character Development Depraved Bisexual Rape as Drama Asshole Victim You Have Failed Me An Axe to Grind Dying Moment of Awesome Off-into-the-Distance Ending Superhero All There in the Script Improvised Weapon Shipper on Deck Japanese Films And Starring Batman Gambit Celebrity Paradox Pragmatic Villainy Catch-Phrase Accidental Misnaming The Hero Dies Nice Guy Jerkass Heel Realization Improbable Infant Survival aka: Infant Immortality Pragmatic Adaptation Impaled with Extreme Prejudice Unwitting Instigator of Doom Refuge in Audacity Only One Name Mistaken for Gay Composite Character Plot Hole Does This Remind You of Anything? Badass Bookworm Ragtag Bunch of Misfits Race Against the Clock Genre Throwback Fanservice Extra Tranquil Fury Screw the Money, I Have Rules! Stock Footage Sinister Minister Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? Chewing the Scenery Captain Ersatz Artistic License – Biology Black Comedy One-Man Army The Chessmaster The Ditz Ambiguous Disorder Fourth Date Marriage Stepford Smiler Spell My Name with an "S" Politically Incorrect Villain La Résistance Exact Words Grievous Bottley Harm Manic Pixie Dream Girl Fantastic Racism Action Girl Blood Knight Decoy Protagonist Historical Hero Upgrade Honor Before Reason Sole Survivor World of Ham The Ace Colour-Coded for Your Convenience aka: Color Coded For Your Convenience Ass Shove Serial Killer Love at First Sight Face–Heel Turn Taking the Bullet Funny Foreigner Jerkass Has a Point Age Lift Vampire Fiction Time Skip Beta Couple BFG The Un-Favourite aka: The Un Favorite Author Appeal Kill 'em All Parental Substitute Alliterative Name Casting Gag Stealth Hi/Bye Combat Pragmatist Body Horror Creator Cameo B-Movie True Companions What Happened to the Mouse? Mad Scientist Kubrick Stare The Stinger Frame-Up Action Survivor Aside Glance Hooker with a Heart of Gold A Date with Rosie Palms Scary Black Man Documentary Foil Artistic License – Gun Safety You Have Got to Be Kidding Me! A.I. Is a Crapshoot Bloodless Carnage Determinator Anachronism Stew Mood Whiplash Double Entendre I Just Shot Marvin in the Face Word of God Eureka Moment Jerk with a Heart of Gold Anyone Can Die The Un-Reveal Crazy Jealous Guy Police Brutality Stealth Pun "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue Would Hit a Girl Cowboy Cop Undying Loyalty Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Ascended Extra Bond One-Liner No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Vitriolic Best Buds Unusual Euphemism Your Head A-Splode It's Personal Insane Troll Logic Sassy Black Woman How We Got Here Animated Credits Opening Double-Meaning Title Didn't Think This Through The End... Or Is It? Spiritual Successor The Remake Canon Foreigner The Atoner Arranged Marriage Chase Scene Ripped from the Headlines As Long as It Sounds Foreign Aluminum Christmas Trees Hypocrite Defrosting Ice Queen Together in Death Genre Savvy Girl-on-Girl Is Hot My Beloved Smother Intrepid Reporter Ironic Echo Bilingual Bonus The '50s Mexican Standoff Alas, Poor Villain Enemy Mine Red Herring Country Matters "The Reason You Suck" Speech Big Bad Knight Templar Heroic Sacrifice Only Sane Man Fate Worse than Death In the Back Serious Business Left the Background Music On Loads and Loads of Characters Reality Has No Subtitles Meet Cute Bare Your Midriff Evil-Detecting Dog Super Strength Break the Haughty Award-Bait Song Black and Gray Morality And the Adventure Continues Obstructive Bureaucrat Your Cheating Heart Bound and Gagged Does Not Like Shoes From Nobody to Nightmare Accidental Murder Costume Porn No-Sell Science Fiction Films Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking Totally Radical The Dog Bites Back Revenge Papa Wolf Biopic Ambiguous Ending Martial Arts Movie Adaptational Attractiveness Ugly Guy, Hot Wife Determinator aka: The Determinator I Did What I Had to Do The Big Guy Cold-Blooded Torture I Need a Freaking Drink Line-of-Sight Name Meaningful Name Made of Explodium Dramedy One-Word Title Obviously Evil Soft Glass Crazy-Prepared Badass Normal Male Gaze Evil Plan Kick the Son of a Bitch Kick the Dog Random Events Plot Spared by the Adaptation Get Out! Mercy Kill Noodle Incident Drowning My Sorrows Overprotective Dad Novelization Informed Ability Married to the Job Dramatic Gun Cock Soundtrack Dissonance Bottomless Magazines Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass Nice Job Fixing It, Villain! Bi the Way Evil Sounds Deep The Mole Hidden Depths Sacrificial Lion Sir Swears-a-Lot Those Two Bad Guys Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique Australian Movies Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? Dull Surprise Lampshade Hanging Improbable Aiming Skills Too Dumb to Live Adaptational Badass Hypocritical Humor Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil Loophole Abuse Evil Counterpart Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene French Films All Just a Dream Retirony Wretched Hive Obfuscating Stupidity Chiaroscuro Woman Scorned Stylistic Suck "Shaggy Dog" Story The Lancer "Awesome McCool" Name Not Quite Dead Early-Bird Cameo Historical In-Joke Rasputinian Death Horror Comedy Broken Pedestal Artistic License – Geography Kids Are Cruel Amoral Attorney Re-Cut The Oner The Ghost Fingore Dwindling Party Sadistic Choice Eiffel Tower Effect Toilet Humour aka: Toilet Humor Wrong Genre Savvy Shirtless Scene Romantic False Lead Bowdlerise Curse Cut Short Trailers Always Spoil Crucified Hero Shot Protagonist Title Bait-and-Switch A God Am I Rule of Funny Needs Wiki Magic Love Rule of Three Rousing Speech Gender Flip Contrived Coincidence Red Oni, Blue Oni Monumental Damage Reality Ensues Better to Die than Be Killed Punny Name Dirty Old Man Deliberate Values Dissonance Gory Discretion Shot Took a Level in Badass Dumb Blonde Horror Films Sequel Hook Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer It's All About Me The '90s Bond Villain Stupidity Grey and Gray Morality Dirty Cop Vomit Discretion Shot Not Even Bothering with the Accent Shell-Shocked Veteran Expy Bad Boss Adaptation Name Change Brutal Honesty Drill Sergeant Nasty Broken Aesop Wounded Gazelle Gambit Attempted Rape Riddle for the Ages The Power of Love Worthy Opponent Guns Akimbo Actor Allusion Hope Spot Evil Brit Logo Joke Bloodier and Gorier The Dragon German Films Ax-Crazy Bunny-Ears Lawyer Gilligan Cut Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold Motor Mouth Leitmotif Canadian Movies Deliberately Monochrome Those Two Guys Punch-Clock Villain Ungrateful Bastard Drives Like Crazy Awesome, but Impractical I Want My Beloved to Be Happy Retired Badass Drugs Are Bad Rated M for Manly Foreshadowing Malevolent Masked Men Mama Bear The Great Depression Call-Back Large Ham Epic Movie Author Avatar Those Wacky Nazis Sexy Discretion Shot He Who Fights Monsters Never Trust a Trailer aka: Trailers Always Lie Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds The Casanova Kill It with Fire And I Must Scream Smoking Is Cool Fake Shemp Affectionate Parody Nice Hat Hollywood Darkness Corpsing Calling the Old Man Out Irony Historical-Domain Character Missing Mom Disney Death Abusive Parents Handicapped Badass Interrupted Suicide Brainless Beauty Adults Are Useless Bloody Hilarious Rich Bitch Have a Gay Old Time Arc Words For the Evulz Bland-Name Product Ominous Latin Chanting Intergenerational Friendship My God, What Have I Done? Villain Opening Scene Public Domain Feature Films Camp Gay Christmas Movies Index Face Death with Dignity The Film of the Book Cool Guns Would Hurt a Child Hollywood Law All Men Are Perverts The Smart Guy Gratuitous English Demonic Possession Recap / RiffTrax aka: Riff Trax Movies Scenery Gorn Silent Movie Actually Pretty Funny Italian Films Half the Man He Used to Be Names to Run Away from Really Fast Taking You with Me Not Using the "Z" Word Naked People Are Funny Meaningful Background Event Ghost Fiction Pre-Asskicking One-Liner Four-Temperament Ensemble Romantic Comedy Armor-Piercing Question Running Gag No Name Given Outrun the Fireball Offscreen Teleportation Slashed Throat Jerk Jock British Films Bavarian Fire Drill Freeze-Frame Bonus Leaning on the Fourth Wall Bar Brawl Dirty Coward Fatal Family Photo Setting Update Plucky Comic Relief Dies Wide Open '80s Hair Mundane Made Awesome Peek-a-Boo Corpse Laser-Guided Karma The Alleged Car Betty and Veronica Covers Always Lie Product Placement Roaring Rampage of Revenge Red Eyes, Take Warning Creepy Child Fatal Flaw Paper-Thin Disguise Bald of Evil Back from the Dead Five-Man Band Heroic BSoD Authority Equals Asskicking Mooks Match Cut Famous Last Words Credits Gag Badass in a Nice Suit Small Name, Big Ego Pyrrhic Victory Up to Eleven Punctuated! For! Emphasis! Call-Forward Deal with the Devil Music Stories Evil Laugh Take a Third Option Crapsack World The Bully Narrator Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism Even Evil Has Loved Ones Suddenly SHOUTING! Reckless Gun Usage In Medias Res Love Triangle Toplessness from the Back Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy Say My Name The Brute One Steve Limit Heroes Want Redheads Adaptational Heroism Death Seeker Poor Communication Kills Evil Is Petty Reasonable Authority Figure Hero of Another Story Our Vampires Are Different Gold Digger The Lost Lenore Scare Chord Manchild Hong Kong Films Psychopathic Manchild Not So Above It All Adult Fear Parental Neglect Shoot the Shaggy Dog Chekhov's Skill Dropped a Bridge on Him Man on Fire Central Theme Mythology Gag Eye Scream Big "NO!" Self-Deprecation Broken Bird Here We Go Again! Deus ex Machina