Kids Prefer Boxes/Playing With
Basic Trope: A character opens a box containing something valuable, but prefers the box instead.
- Straight: Jason opens a birthday present containing a Super Megaroid X-11 Spaceship, then tosses it aside and starts playing with the box.
- Janet opens up her Christmas gift to find a Super Deluxe Barbie, but decides that the nice packaging is better.
- Exaggerated: Jason opens a birthday present containing a Super Megaroid X-11 Spaceship, then kicks it to the curb and calls the box the coolest gift he's ever received.
- Janet takes her Super Deluxe gold plated, ultra rare Barbie doll to the dumpster and proceeds to constantly play with the box non stop.
- Justified: Jason has a box fetish.
- Jason has a very active imagination.
- Janet doesn't like dolls.
- Inverted: Jason gives boxes as presents to his friends.
- Subverted: Jason squeals with delight at the box, since he can use it as a Cool Garage for the Super Megaroid X-11 Spaceship.
- Janet can use the box for a house for her Barbie.
- Double Subverted: Jason spends so much time decorating the box to be a suitable Cool Garage that he forgets to take the Super Megaroid X-11 Spaceship out of its packaging.
- Janet decides that she likes playing with the dollhouse more and uses her old dolls instead.
- Parodied: Kids everywhere around the world ask their parents/family/friends/SantaClaus for boxes as gifts.
- Deconstructed: After Jason ignores the Super Megaroid X-11, his parents decided to give him boxes as presents in the future.
- Reconstructed: Jason is ecstatic that his parents keep showering him with more boxes to play with.
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: Jason loves all of his gifts, and leave the boxes for his parents to clean up.
- Enforced: The show's producer is a Child-Hater who wants to demonstrate the vapidity and ungratefulness of children.
- Lampshaded: Jason's grandfather notes that Kids Prefer Boxes must be some kind of universal law of parenting.
- Invoked: Jason's uncle Troper gives him socks inside a gigantic, ornate box.
- Defied: Jason's parents forbid him from receiving gifts for personal reasons.
- Jason's parents give him his present without a box.
- Discussed: "You know Jason's going to ignore that fancy toy of yours and play with the box instead."
- Conversed: "Since it's a kid's birthday party on a sitcom, you can bet he'll ignore the biggest present and go for the box instead."
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