It's Probably Nothing/Playing With


 * Basic Trope: Dismissing something as just one's imagination, no big deal, etc.
 * Played Straight: Alice and Bob hear a noise one night, and Bob just writes it off as the house settling, and they go back to sleep. In the morning, they find out they've been robbed.
 * Exaggerated: Bob gets up to go get a midnight snack, actually sees the burglars, and pays no attention to them.
 * Justified: Old houses really are quite noisy sometimes.
 * Every other time Bob has gotten up to investigate, it was just the house settling. Why should this time be any different?
 * Inverted: Alice and Bob hear a noise. Bob thinks it's a burglar, grabs his gun, and goes to investigate... only to determine that it was just the house settling.
 * Subverted: The noise they heard really was just the house settling
 * Double Subverted: But then the burglar sneaks in
 * Exploited: The burglar makes a lot of noise that could be written off as normal noises (house settling, wind, animal outside, etc.) so that he can get into the house more easily.
 * Deconstructed: After hearing the noise, taking no action, and getting robbed, Bob gets mad at himself for not doing anything about it and suffers a Heroic BSOD.
 * Reconstructed:
 * Zig Zagged: Sometimes Alice and Bob get worked up about things that go bump in the night, other times they don't.
 * Parodied: Bob sees a burglar carrying things out of the house and dismisses it as the house settling.
 * Lampshaded: It's Probably Nothing. Go back to sleep, honey.
 * Averted: Alice and Bob know what noises are normal and what aren't.
 * Enforced:
 * Invoked:
 * Defied: Alice and Bob get out of bed, grab weapons, and head downstairs to investigate.

Wait, was that the main page I just heard? (Beat) ...Nah, couldn't be.