City of Weirdos/Playing With
Basic Trope: People in a big city ignore the strange stuff happening around them.
- Straight: Chordarr, the alien invader, appears in Los Angeles. Nobody cares.
- Exaggerated: Chordarr, a fifty-foot tall alien invader, appears in Los Angeles and starts smashing buildings left and right... but nobody cares.
- Justified:
- Chordarr zapped the city of Los Angeles with an Apathy Beam before appearing.
- A film crew can be seen nearby when Chordarr appears.
- Chordarr looks human, so everyone just assumes he's a guy with an odd outfit.
- Inverted:
- Everyone in Los Angeles panics when mild-mannered Charles Darr walks down the street.
- The protagonist moves to the Uncanny Village and dismisses anything strange as "local color".
- Subverted:
- The humans think Chordarr is just a guy in a rubber suit. When he displays his true power, everybody panics.
- The LAPD eventually notice Chordarr and ask him to come with them.
- Double Subverted:
- The panicking humans were extras on a movie set; actual bystanders don't think anything of Chordarr.
- The cops just pulled Chordarr aside because he's carrying a laser pistol, and they wanted to make sure he had a handgun permit.
- Parodied: After being ignored by the people of Los Angeles, Chordarr panics. He starts grabbing bystanders and begging them to pay attention to him.
- Deconstructed: The work is high on the cynical side of the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism; the people's indifference to Chordarr is a reflection of how apathetic and self-centered they are.
- Reconstructed: After Chordarr appears and menaces the city, residents realize they've been too self-centered, and work to pay more attention to things around them.
- Zig Zagged: The city starts out as normal, and then gets weirder as the series progresses.
- Averted:
- The show is a drama played straight, with no fantastic elements whatsoever.
- Or it does have fantastic elements, but witnesses react to seemingly impossible events with the expected panic, amazement, and awe.
- Enforced: The show is trying to keep things Like Reality Unless Noted, so they can't have people paying too much attention to weird things.
- Lampshaded: "Another alien in L.A.? That's, what, the fourth one this week?"
- Invoked: Weeks before Chordarr's scheduled attack, his Mooks have been appearing around the city dressed as rubber-suited monsters. Residents are already complaining about the "weird publicity stunts" when Chordarr arrives.
- Defied: Chordarr makes a huge spectacle when he lands, leaving behind a crater the size of a city block, to make it clear that he is not to be ignored.
- Discussed: "Chordarr's appearing in Los Angeles. Wonder if they'll even notice."
- Conversed: "According to Hollywood Psych, people in big cities are so jaded that they won't even care if an alien invader starts walking down the street."
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