But He Sounds Handsome/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A person compliments themselves while disguised as someone else.

  • Straight: Bob is disguised as Charlie. When Alice mentions Bob, "Charlie" pretends never to have met him, but adds that he's heard Bob is a great guy.
  • Exaggerated: "Charlie" goes on at length about how Bob must be so brave, strong, good-looking, brilliant, talented, kind to animals, good at darts, modest...
  • Downplayed: "Charlie" agrees with nice things other people say about Bob, but doesn't volunteer any himself.
  • Justified: Bob is in disguise so he can find out what his friends really think of him. He says nice things about himself to see if they'll disagree.
  • Inverted: Bob insults himself to preserve his cover.
  • Subverted: Alice insults Bob while he's present as "Charlie", but he doesn't respond.
  • Double Subverted: At least not until later, when he takes her aside to ask why she hates a great guy like Bob so much.
  • Parodied: "Charlie" reacts with obvious hostility to the smallest insult to Bob, and several times refers to Bob in the first person.
  • Zig Zagged: "Charlie" is Bob's attempt to make himself sound good, but he starts to get the impression that Alice likes Bad Boys, and starts trying to describe Bob as such. He gets carried away and quickly becomes a mouthpiece for Bob's insecurities - when Alice berates "Charlie" for being cruel, he goes too far the other way and gives her the impression that the two of them are really good friends...
  • Averted: Nobody talks about Bob while "Charlie" is around.
  • Enforced: ???
  • Lampshaded: "You know, Bob, your disguises would be a lot more effective if you didn't go around telling everyone that Bob is the most amazing man you know."
  • Invoked: Alice knows it's Bob in disguise, and decides to mess with his head by loudly saying how ugly she thinks Bob is.
  • Exploited: Alice knows that Bob is a Master of Disguise, and insults him whenever she thinks he might be present so he'll reveal himself by his reaction.
  • Defied: "As Charlie, I'm not even supposed to know who Bob is! I'll react as if they're talking about a total stranger."
  • Discussed: "That's obviously Bob in disguise. Let's see how he reacts if we trash-talk him."
  • Conversed: ???
  • Deconstructed: Bob is insecure and can't stand to hear anything bad about himself. He's a terrible spy because he always blows his cover by complimenting himself while in disguise.
  • Reconstructed: ...Which is part of his Xanatos Gambit-he's mainly a decoy for the real spies, and he's an excellent operative otherwise.
  • Played For Laughs: "Charlie" is humorously blatant in praising Bob.
  • Played For Drama: ???

No, I've never been to But He Sounds Handsome...but it sounds like that's a great trope page.