Exploding Closet/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: A closet or cabinet door is opened, and an avalanche of junk spills out.

  • Played Straight: Alice opens the closet to put a box away or get something, and is subsequently buried under junk.
  • Exaggerated:
  • Inverted: Alice stuffs her Trash of the Titans into the closet.
  • Justified:
    • The closet is Bigger on the Inside
    • The closet is simply filled with old items, and haven't been checked since 108 years ago.
  • Subverted:
    • Alice opens a drawer, not a closet.
    • Alice opens the closet, sees the junk about to fall out, and closes it quickly.
  • Double Subverted:
    • But the drawer is overstuffed and explodes.
    • The junk bursts through the door anyway, leaving a giant mess.
  • Deconstructed: Alice is a compulsive hoarder, or a very unhealthily messy person.
  • Reconstructed:
  • Parodied:
    • A skier skis down the slope of junk.
    • A Camp Gay guy struts over the junk pile and out of the closet.
    • A bomb is heard, and the room is once again messy.
    • Alice opens the closet and sees stock footage of a landfill.
    • Alice suffers Amusing Injuries from this.
    • Alice is not opening a closet per se, but some form of Hammerspace
  • Lampshaded: "Bob, how many times do I have to tell you, don't overstuff the closet!"
  • Averted: Alice opens the closet and nothing happens.
    • Or, she doesn't open the closet.
  • Enforced: Rule of Funny.
  • Invoked: Bob overloads the closet, knowing Alice will open it later.
  • Exploited: Alice tricks Charlie into opening the closet, which she knows is overfull.
  • Defied:
    • Alice refuses to open the closet.
    • "I'm pretty sure I need the Hammerspace cabinet, I don't want shoes and all to explode on me!"
  • Discussed: "Alice, you have a serious shoe problem. I went to get my coat, and I got buried under an avalanche of heels."
  • Conversed: "How did they even manage to close the door?"
  • Played For Laughs: Almost always is.
  • Played For Drama: Alice's family stages an intervention for hoarding.

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