Bull Seeing Red/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: Bulls go crazy at the sight of something red.

  • Straight: The bull saw something red! CHARGE!
  • Exaggerated: The bull saw your tongue! CHARGE!
  • Justified:
    • This particular bull was raised and trained, Pavlov-style, to charge at anything red.
    • Actually, this particular bull was also bio-engineered so that it would be able to see in colors at all.
  • Inverted:
    • A bloody bull in a shark tank. You figure it out.
    • Alternatively, a mad bull sees something red and relaxes.
  • Subverted: The bull doesn't charge at the sight of a red cape...
  • Double Subverted: ...only because it was distracted by something else red at the time! CHARGE!
  • Parodied: A farm is filled with nothing but red stuff! CRAZY BULLS!
  • Deconstructed: The cattle's point of view that it's very inconvenient to have a bull that treats red like Monterrey Jack does cheese...
  • Reconstructed: The bulls that charge at red die out and a new breed of bull is born that does not. They charge at blue.
  • Zig Zagged: The bull doesn't charge at the sight of a red cape... only because it was distracted by something else red at the time. It turns out the bull only charged at the other thing because it was moving, as the local bull expert points out that the bull is colour-blind.
  • Averted: Bulls are treated realistically, with no reaction to simply red things.
  • Enforced: "We paid that rancher good money for this bull, and by God, he's gonna charge at that Stop sign!"
  • Lampshaded: "You had to wear red to Pamplona, didn't you?"
  • Invoked: A character paints everything red to goad bulls into charging.
  • Defied:
    • A character will not wear red under any circumstances.
    • Or he points out that bulls are colorblind and can't actually see red.
  • Discussed: "And now, to make it angry! Bring My Red Jacket!"
  • Conversed: "You wonder if cows find ways to make themselves red to get some action..."

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