Malory: Why, because I don't want my son to end up with a woman like Lana Kane? My God, a black [ swallows some pills ] ops field agent? Pam: Totally thought she was going in a whoooooole other direction with that. A form of Bait-and-Switch comedy that teases with prejudice and discrimination, where one party looks like they're about to discriminate against someone for one reason, a reason that would be appallingly un-PC race, gender, possibly leading to a Gender Scoff , religion, etc , but in reality Don't judge it till you try it!
If the accuser has some kind of unsavory character trait, expect the accused to reply with, "I don't hate you because you're [minority status], I hate you because you're [perfectly legit reason to dislike them].
Writers can play with this by switching the second reason. The character seems to be discriminated against for an unacceptable and bigoted reason, and then it turns out that they're being discriminated against for a completely different, equally unacceptable, bigoted reason.
Not to be confused with Pretend Prejudice. Also not to be confused with Persecution Flip. Also invokes Good Flaws, Bad Flaws : the snubber is still a jerk, but at least for a "good" reason. Officer : You know why I pulled you over today?
Maxwell : Because I'm a pig driving a convertible? Officer : [annoyed at the insinuation] Tail light's out. Fix it. In this commercial for the Tide To Go stain-removal pen, a gay male couple are about to head inside a church to get married when a stern, official-looking woman a parody of Kim Davis halts them at the door and refuses to let them "blemish the sanctity of marriage.
