(11-17-2022, 08:12 AM)Bob Schroeck Wrote: "I Was Never Here" is more for spies and men-in-black, and is basically a trope about intimidating people into being silent about their presence/participation.
Carl seems to be something more like an inversion of the Not-So-Imaginary Friend -- someone who appears to be real to everyone but is in fact a figment of Patrick's imagination. I think we might actually have a trope for something like a shared hallucination, which might apply as well, but damned if I can remember it -- or find it with how crappy the wiki is this morning.
He does become a recurring character after this, mind, but in this episode specifically he's treated like just another guy right up until the end, where he suddenly stops existing because it's what the writers considered funniest at that moment. I'll consider that trope but I'm still mulling it over...