Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl/Playing With

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Basic Trope: The pairing of a calm, pragmatic guy with a Genki Girl.

  • Straight: The easy-going Bob is dating Genki Girl Alice.
  • Exaggerated: Bob spends most of his time sitting down and watching Alice bounce around.
  • Justified: Alice always got into fights with guys as energetic as her, so she looked for a more mellow partner.
  • Inverted: Bob is a Keet while Alice is the calm one.
  • Subverted: Bob is introduced as being fairly calm, but it turns out he's just as crazy as Alice behind closed doors.
  • Double Subverted: ...at least, he pretends to be in their roleplays.
  • Parodied: Bob is comatose, and Alice is too busy to notice.
  • Deconstructed: Bob's calmness comes from a deep depression, to which Alice is completely oblivious.
  • Reconstructed: However, the positive energy that comes from Alice eventually pulls Bob out of his depression.
  • Zig Zagged: Bob is calm unless he has sugar; when he does, he's as Genki as Alice. However, it turns out that sugar is actually the catalyst to a Freaky Friday Flip, and that Bob!Alice just retains her energy to keep up appearances. When this is solved, Charlie notes that Bob did have enough energy to pretend being Alice, which leads Bob to become generally energetic even without sugar. And then it turns out that sugar actually makes Alice fall asleep.
  • Averted: Bob and Alice have comparable energy.
  • Enforced: The writers already have a pairing that applies Closer to Earth, and they want to compensate for it.
  • Lampshaded: Charlie asks Bob how he can possibly keep up with Alice.
  • Invoked: Daniel sets Bob and Alice up on a date to prove that the trope can work.
  • Defied: Emma prevents a date between Alice and Bob, since she believes the trope can't work.
  • Discussed: Fred and George try to find a girl for Bob, and note that someone like Alice might be good for him.
  • Conversed: Bob tries to convince Alice into going out with him, saying that they'll be just like Harry and Isabelle in her favourite sitcom.
  • Played For Laughs: Bob finds himself constantly getting dragged into things he really doesn't want to do. Due to Alice's carelessness, he suffers some Amusing Injuries.
  • Played For Drama: Bob finds himself constantly getting dragged into things he really doesn't want to do. Due to Alice's carelessness, he dies.

Back to Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl