View source for The Last of These Is Not Like the Others

{{trope}}
{{quote|It’s called the science of listener attention. We did repetition, we did floating opposites and now you end with the one that’s not like the others.
|Toby Ziegler, ''[[The West Wing]]'', "Somebody's going to emergency, somebody's going to jail."}}

A dialogue trope where a character makes a list of items, groups or individuals and then deviates from the pattern established with the last one, sometimes the penultimate one. Usually [[Played for Laughs]].

In literary criticism, this is called a syllepsis, or semantic zeugma.

Typically used for comedy, the last item is normally a focus of insult or [[Butt Monkey]] status. However it is possible to just delight in the subversion of the theme listing.

A [[Sub-Trope]] of [[Non Sequitur]].

A [[Super-Trope]] to:

* [[And a Diet Coke]]
* [[And the Rest]]
* [[And Some Other Stuff]]
* [[Arson, Murder, and Admiration]]
* [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking]]
* [[Arson, Murder, and Lifesaving]]
* [[Bill, Bill, Junk, Bill]]
* [[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick]]
* [[Famous, Famous, Fictional]]
* [[Flight, Strength, Heart]]
* [[Ladies and Germs]]
* [[My Friends and Zoidberg]]
* [[Odd Name Out]]
* [[The Runt At the End]]
* [[Subverted Rhyme Every Occasion]]
* [[The Triple]]

Compare [[Step Three: Profit]].

----
{{examples}}
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* [http://dash.ponychan.net/chan/files/src/133284200120.jpg This panel]{{Dead link}} has several superheroes reacting to a warning of doom for them and anyone they've touched—the rest worry about their female signifiant others; Batman worries about Robin. Of course, what makes it funny is the insinuation that the last one ''[[Ho Yay|isn't]]'' really all that different....

== [[Fan Works]] ==
* When Bella is describing the Cullens in ''[[Luminosity]]'':
{{quote|''[N]ow I had identifications for all five: Emmett the bear, Jasper the lion, Rosalie the Aphrodite, Alice the pixie, and Edward, the one who expected something to happen with or to or near me that wasn't[.]''}}

== [[Film]] ==
* The Tagline to ''[[A Clockwork Orange (film)|A Clockwork Orange]]'':
{{quote|Being the adventures of a young man whose principal interests are rape, ultra-violence and Beethoven.}}
* ''[[Bionicle]]'':
{{quote|'''Lewa''': But what will come out of this? Some claw-tooth monster? A new [[Mask of Power]]? A Matoran marching band?}}
* Played with brilliant subtlety in ''[[Ghostbusters]]'' when Peter Venkman introduces his team at the library:
{{quote|'''Roger Delacorte:''' I'm Roger Delacorte. Are you the men from the university?
'''Dr. Peter Venkman:''' Yes, I'm Dr. Venkman, Dr. Stantz, Egon... }}
* ''[[Atlantis: The Lost Empire]]'':
{{quote|Milo: What else have you got in there?
Vinny: Oh, you know: gunpowder, nitroglycerin, notepads, fuses, wicks, glue, paper clips (big ones). You know, just office supplies. }}
** Well, they're office supplies for him.
* In the [[Three Stooges]] short "Fight Night", Moe and Larry watch Shemp in a boxing match [[Behind the Black]]:
{{quote|'''Moe:''' There goes Shemp with a left jab! There goes Shemp with a right uppercut! There goes Shemp with a haymaker! ''[[[Offscreen Crash]]]'' There goes Shemp...}}
* An unintentional one in ''[[Plan 9 from Outer Space]],'' though not at the end of the list.
{{quote|We once laughed at the horseless carriage, the aeroplane, the telephone, the electric light, VITAMINS, radio, and even television!}}
* In ''[[The 40-Year-Old Virgin]]'', Andy reads out the names of some of his porno tapes, such as ''[[Hairy Twatter]]''.
{{quote|'''Dave''': And this is...''[[Everybody Loves Raymond]]''. You know, that's not supposed to be in there. It's just a good show.}}

== [[Literature]] ==
* One of the sections of ''[[Gulliver's Travels]]'' is titled "A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib, and Japan." Admittedly, at that time Japan was almost completely closed off to foreigners and thus almost as fantastic as said other countries.
* The ''[[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]]'' short story "Walkin' City Blues" by Joffy Brown has the Doctor describing a [[Femme Fatale]]'s "glamour implants" to his companion "A subtle combination of exotic pheromones, AI wetware wit-routines, genetically-enlarged pupils, and a spray-on tan."

== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* On ''[[QI]]'', Alan is always treated as the [[Butt Monkey]] of the group and there are several running gags to this effect. For instance each episode has a theme for the buzzers and then Alan will always reveal his one last as something comedically different e.g. the first three together are sections of the Westminster Chimes and his is a cuckoo clock; the first three get a cow bell, a bicycle bell, a tea bell and then Alan gets Leslie Phillips going "[[Catch Phrase|Ding Dong!]]". They also are often introduced with some extraordinary adjective or other theme and then a similar twist for Alan e.g.
{{quote|'''Stephen''' (''introducing the panel as "four people who look a bit like other people"''): Please welcome Tony Blair (Rory Bremner)... Tommy Cooper (Phill Jupitus)... Ruby Wax (Ronni Ancona)... and... Alan Davies.}}
* On ''[[3rd Rock from the Sun]]'' the Solomons try persuading an alien why he should spare humanity
{{quote|'''Dick:''' You are missing the real earth, like the happiness in a child's eye, when a loving parent tucks him in at night.
'''Sally:''' Or the wonder of two young lovers as they stroll down the beach, dreaming of what is yet to be.
'''Tommy:''' Or the quiet contentment of a couple in their autumn years as they sit and reflect on a life well spent together.
'''Harry:''' Or hookers ([[Beat]]) Cheap painted hookers. }}
*  ''[[The Daily Show]]'': In October 7, 2008, while analyzing the "stupid" vote, John Oliver broke it down into twelve sections: paste eaters, numbskulls, nitwits, fucktards, people whose hands get stuck in pickle jars when they eat pickles, people who lose arguments to babies, douchenozzles, tiger petters, people who jump up and down on frozen lakes, shaved gorillas who've somehow managed to acquire a driver's license, the voluntarily lobotomized, and [[Take That|Cubs fans]].
** In their commentaries on the television news media, they'll often show the news media's hive-mind collective latches onto a particular key-word or -phrase and repeats it incessantly by means of a montage. They'll show sometimes upward of a dozen clips of different news anchors, reporters, and pundits repeating the same catch-phrase about an item, then end it with one of the talking heads (usually a Fox News pundit) saying something ... really bizarre, though still on-topic.
* From [[The Big Bang Theory]]:
{{quote|'''Rajesh Koothrapali''': Doctor Gablehauser.
'''Eric Gablehauser''': Doctor Koothrapali.
'''Leonard Hofstadter''': Doctor Gablehauser.
'''Eric Gablehauser''': Doctor Hofstadter.
'''Sheldon Cooper''': Doctor Gablehauser.
'''Eric Gablehauser''': Doctor Cooper.
'''Howard Wolowitz''': Doctor Gablehouser.
'''Eric Gablehauser''': ''Mister'' Wolowitz. }}
* One ''[[Law and Order SVU]]'' episode had [[John Munch]] give a ''strange'' set of statements, "Yeah, and I want the troops home, the Kyoto Protocol signed, and a Tijuana oil job from Miss February." to a high school girl. He might have been playing up some [[I Take Offense to That Last One]] to the "old" part of being called a [[Dirty Old Man]].
* ''[[The Golden Girls]]'', "The End of the Curse". Dorothy insists that the minks have to go. Rose counters:
{{quote|'''Rose''': We are not giving away Fluffy, Muffy, Buffy, and Joanne.
'''Dorothy''': Rose, they are non-breeding minks who eat their weight in food every day—Joanne? }}


== Music ==
* "The Genius Next Door" by [[Regina Spektor]]:
{{quote|In the morning the film crews start arriving
With donuts, coffee and reporters }}
* "We Are the World" (the original one from the 1980s, not the remake made in light of the earthquake in Haiti) had an all-cast of musicians...and [[Dan Aykroyd]].
== Theater ==
* [[Cyrano De Bergerac]]: After Cyrano [[Sword Fight|wounds Viscount De Valvert]] [[Excuse Me While I Multitask|while singing a ballade in his honour]], Burgundy Theater's public comments about the duel:
{{quote|''(Acclamations. Applause in the boxes. Flowers and handkerchiefs are thrown down. The officers surround Cyrano, congratulating him. Ragueneau dances for joy. Le Bret is happy, but anxious. The viscount's friends hold him up and bear him away.)''
'''The Crowd''' ''(with one long shout):'' Ah!
'''A Trooper:''' Tis superb!
'''A woman:''' A pretty stroke!
'''Raguenau:''' A marvel!
'''A Marquis:''' A novelty!
'''Le Bret:''' O madman! }}
* In the opening scene of ''[[The Most Happy Fella]]'', Cleo describes what her customer left on her table:
{{quote|"Seven million crumbs and a gravy spot,
Teaspoon stuck in the mustard pot,
Napkin on the floor,
Ashes in the cup
And--''one Canadian dime!''" }}

== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' is a quest which has players delivering a package containing compressed blasting powder, a tempered mithril bomb casing, and some safety goggles. If you don't understand why this qualifies, then you don't know [[Our Goblins Are Wickeder|Goblins]].<ref>They are fans of [[Stuff Blowing Up]], but are not very big on safety.</ref>

== [[Web Comics]] ==
* ''[[Homestuck]]'': The tapestries displaying the elemental symbols of the four kids hanging in the white castle read thus:
{{quote|They wait for he who would extinguish candles whilst fanning a fire.
They wait for she who would thaw solid flesh and resolve it into a dew.
They wait for she who would breed lilacs out of the dead land.
They wait for he who would [[Snoop Dogg|drop it like it's hot whilst the pimp's in the crib]]. }}

== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In ''[[The Simpsons]]'' "Bart Gets An Elephant", Lisa ask someone if they're an ivory dealer, with the reply "Well, little girl, I've had lots of jobs in my day: whale-hunter, seal-clubber, [[Biting the Hand Humor|president of the Fox network..."]]
* ''[[Futurama]]'' in "A Head in the Polls":
{{quote|'''Morbo:''' "I now present: puny human #1, puny human #2, and Morbo's good friend [[President Evil|Richard Nixon]]."}}
* The [[Justice League]] episode "Secret Society" Had this:
{{quote|'''Gorrila Grodd:''' [We are not in it for the money] Sinestro has a blood oath against all Green Lanterns, Parasite simply hates Superman, Giganta is totally devoted to me.
'''The Shade:''' And the other one?
'''Gorrila Grodd:''' Killer Frost? She just likes to kill things. }}

== [[Web Original]] ==
* [[Mega Man (video game)|Wily Shorts]]:
{{quote|Top Man: I want to be in the Indy 500!
Quick Man: I want to break the sound barrier!
Turbo Man: I just want to sit at home and eat chips. }}
* ''[[Zero Punctuation]]'' loves to do these these in the animation. In the ''[[L.A. Noire]]'' review, there is a mention of the main character "hopping around between four different police departments", which is illustrated with four doors marked Traffic, Homicide, Vice and Biscuits.
* In ''[[Bonus Stage (web animation)|Bonus Stage]]'', the last of the [[Cool and Unusual Punishment|Cool And Unusual Punishments]] that Joel gets to choose from when going to hell is eating [[Satan]]'s mom's spaghetti, when the first two were related to watching something 24/7.
* ''[[How It Should Have Ended]]: Mortal Kombat'' has the free-for-all confrontation between Liu Kang, Scorpion, Shang Stung, and ... a guy with a gun.
* ''[[SCP Foundation]]'' has this with SCP-586:
{{quote|Results: "It it", "Is is", "If is", "Illinois", "I hiss", "Titties", "Ibis", "Iris", "Italy", "[DATA EXPANDED]".}}

== [[Real Life]] ==
* The Onion published a list of [http://www.theonion.com/articles/those-we-lost-in-2011,26896/ those we lost in 2011]. Unless you have a particular hatred for the author of ''[[Family Circus]]'', this trope is in full effect, [[Don't Explain the Joke|since boring cartoons are not akin to mass murder]].
* Australia's ''Today Tonight'' ran a story in early 2007 about a man who was, quote, "an armed robber, drug traffiker, and shonky builder."

{{reflist}}
[[Category:Dialogue]]
[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]
[[Category:Index]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Last of These Is Not Like the Others, The}}
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