"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"
When a list is given, sometimes the one at the end stands out. Below are various ways the list can end on an odd note.
Tropes:
- And a Diet Coke: A character orders something healthy after ordering a ton of unhealthy food.
- And the Rest: When several characters are deemed important enough to call them by name, except for a few unworthy others who are dismissed as the "rest".
- And Some Other Stuff: Summarizing ingredients, but keeping the last few a mystery.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Listing strong, serious examples and then a weak, trivial finale.
- Arson, Murder, and Admiration: Naming evil things, then mentioning something complimentary.
- Arson, Murder, and Lifesaving: Naming evil things, then mentioning a good deed.
- Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Naming three things, the third being a combination of the first two things.
- Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: Naming nice, good, or mundane things, save for the last one, which is horrible or has a greater weight than the rest.
- Clue, Evidence, and a Smoking Gun: In a crisis, two things of small importance to said crisis followed by a very big one.
- Famous, Famous, Fictional: Naming famous real-life people or things, only to have the last one be of fictional origin.
- "Five Things" Fic: A type of fanfiction that revolves around a number of times something happens, followed by the one time something different happens.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: Separating your friends from one individual, with the implication that the individual doesn't belong.
- Odd Name Out: A group with Theme Naming has one thing (usually the last one) with a completely different name.
- Odd-One-Out Protagonist: The odd one out of the group is the protagonist.
- Odd Reaction Out: Someone reacts differently than other people, and it's usually the last reaction we see.
- One Off Sync: A staged or synchronized routine, in which one character is visually out of sync with everyone else.
- The Runt at the End: The last character in a group of very similar characters looks and behaves differently.
- The Triple: Two normal items followed by a Non Sequitur or humorous third item.
- The Three Certainties in Life: Three things are sure to happen: death, taxes, and whatever third thing they picked to be the punch line.
- Uniformity Exception: The one member of a group that sticks out in the end.
- Unnecessary Time Precision: When asked to recall a date, the first few will be unnecessary calculations. The last is the answer.
