miscellaneous
[Loved Trope] The Comedy Suddenly Stops Joking Around
Spoiler
There's nothing I love more than being in a comedy, and you get that one moment, usually a single look from a character, and all of the sudden we stop joking around. Whatever's going on from this point forward is played completely straight in stark contrast to everything that came before.
1). A moment from the comedy show Scrubs. Our man Dr. Cox is exchanging jokes with his best friend when he is asked "Where do you think we are?" Suddenly it is revealed Cox's best friend isn't actually there, and they are at his funeral.
2). An dark comedy called Haunted Hotel. The whole show specializes in dark humor with ghosts, demons, and plenty of death. But when near the end of season 1, it is revealed that always happy go lucky ghost Nathan died from suicide, everything slows way down. Suddenly the whole show gains this tiny bit of underlying seriousness they never joke about.
3). From an anime called Gintama. One two episode story arc involves an old alien dog that wants to conquer the earth now that his old owner is hospitalized. Near the end, suddenly all jokes are off as the two old timers struggle to avoid dying of old age as neither wants the other to feel lonely.
South Park: You're Getting Old's depiction of depression
On Stan's 10th birthday, he grows a cynical mindset where everything he used to enjoy, very literally, starts to feel like sh*t. When Kyle tries to help him, he acts abrasive and pushes him away. Eventually, Stan's parents get divorced, which only reinforces Stan's nihilistic worldview.
Oh! I completely forgot another one of my favorite examples of this trope. Besides this moment, there's also the "I don't remember what she looked like," moment from the cash for gold episode. Great example
I remember this episode. It made me realize I had been living with depression my whole life. I saw it on a rerun, and had attempted suicide twice previously. After the second time I decided to get help.
I still have depression but I learned how to still enjoy life through others. It brings me joy to see others enjoying things. There is so much joy and worth in life, it's worth sticking around, I've found.
Tell you're friends "you know, I really want you to know how much joy you bring me. Even when I'm annoyed at you, I still appreciate you being here because my life is just so much better knowing you're around."
If anyone out there is having trouble, please know it can get better. I tried to end it when I was 17, then again when I was 23. I'm 37 now, have a wife and a child who mean so much to me. Life really is worth it
I could be wrong, but it felt like some of the dialogue involving Kyle and Stan's argument along with the conversation later on where they address the argument was taking from an actual fight between Matt Stone and Trey Parker about the direction of the show.
Hats off to the movie makers who successfully made an enjoyable ascent to the peak of Mulan's rollercoaster. Then launched us straight into the ground like we were on an unfinished track in Rollercoaster Tycoon.
I rewatched Mulan as an adult which let me officially ride that rollercoaster. Yaaaay~ Anyways, my neck is still broken from that crash.
Futurama, the hilarious whacky sci-fi cartoon that every now and again says "We need to give our viewers a laser-guided emotional gut punch that'll have them reeling for years on end", and does exactly that with the precision of a neurosurgeon, for seemingly no reason.
Oh, it's even sadder than that! The original VA for Iroh had to leave the show because he had cancer. This episode is the last episode with the original VA before the new one took over. This is essentially the original VA's farewell to the show and the character.
Episode 7 of Dandadan interrupts your regularly scheduled sex jokes and tsundere love quarrels with a backstory so heartbreakingly moving it might as well have come from a Satoshi Kon movie.
Itâs so brilliantly executed. You have the contrast between the joy and love she feels for her daughter, and the struggle of her jobs and working as a prostitute to make ends meet. And over the course of the montage, the struggles sort of recede, still there but with more of the focus on her daughter. You see what she goes through to give her daughter a good life, see her borrowing and borrowing to give her daughter little luxuries. And the whole time, youâre just waiting for the turn, waiting for the moment where everything falls apart, because of course it has to. After all, you go into it with the knowledge that this woman is going to become a ghost with an irrational fixation on finding her daughter. You know it canât end well. God, Iâm actually crying just remembering it
And then, as if to cut any ambiguity and any shred of hope, sheâs met with her daughterâs spirit unaged waiting for so they can go into the afterlife together.
I cry thinking about this scene. When I first saw it I thought she dies collapsing in the street chasing the car, then her spirit is doing the ballet on the surface of the water. In the manga it's a little more clear that she's still alive dancing on a rain covered roof top and then jumps to her death.
This episode happened to be on TV a couple months ago and I caught it. Such a well done piece of television. The entire episode is a grand send off to the character who gets to go home and live with his wife again complete with elaborate gifts and stag party vibes, only for the rug pull. Â
The Death of Stalin - The trial of Lavrentiy Beria
The climax of a great comedy about the buffoonery of Soviet autocracy and the infighting of the politburo following Stalinâs death. The scene eventually cuts to a (comparatively) humorless depiction of Beriaâs trial in which his many sexual crimes are laid out including abductions, assaults and murders of women and âchildren as young as 7â. There is a bit of comedy as once the charge is read aloud the rest of the politburo make clearly fake surprise at his actions (they 100% knew) and throw some insults but the rest of the scene is Beria being bound, gagged, beaten, and then dragged outside and shot as he cries and pleads for his life.
How I Met Your Mother has a decent amount of these, by my pick is when Barney meets his dad
For context, he never knew his dad growing up, but after his friends dad dies (in another moment like this), he finally decides to ask his mom about him, and learns his "Uncle Jerry" was his dad the whole time
When the two meet again (with both knowing the truth now), his dad invites him to his house to get to know each other better. While Barney expects him to be the same fun, party going man he knew as a kid, his dad reveals he gave that life up, and after a tense dinner with his family, Barney storms out. When his dad goes to talk to him about it, the two have the following exchange
"I thought you'd still be cool, but you're not. You're just some lame suburban dad"
"But why does that make you so upset?"
"Because, if you were going to be some lame suburban dad, WHY COULDN'T YOU HAVE BEEN THAT FOR ME!?"
That scene in Scrubs kicked me in the gut like a son of a gun. Also another scene from Scrubs with JD and Michael J. Fox where Fox gets piss of about his OCD.
Yeah, Scrubs is one hell of a show. You know a show is great when its consider one of the most medically accurate tv shows out there, and its a comedy.
The movie JoJo Rabbit is a great satirical comedy highlighting the stupidity and blind hatred of fascism and how it relies on keeping people dumb and bigoted towards any other form of ideals or beliefs.
I think the issue was Peterâs identity was leaked, and a hitman kingpin sent after Peter took out May instead, or something along those lines. He was so pissed that is not his shirt heâs grabbing, thatâs his skin. (Also I think he broke *into* prison to beat his ass)
Bob's Burgers does this so well, best example for me is Hawk and Chick. A great episode of wacky hijinks that also reveals that Louise is fearful of her relationship with her Dad becoming fractured in the future after finding out the titular Hawk and Chick have been estranged for years.
Trigun is a silly lighthearted comedy up until episode 12, with the introduction of Legato Bluesummers. From that point on, while there are still jokes, everything gets a bit darker, and whenever Legato is around, all joking ceases.
Romeo and Juliet does this too, weirdly enough. It is pretty much a full blown comedy up until Mercutio's death, at which point it becomes a lot more serious.
Show can go one episode about boobs and zombies until the narator gets turned themselves, and the next can be a 20 long phylosophical voyage on a dead planet.
I forget the exact premise of the episode, but I believe Stewie and Brian get locked up in a vault so they start chatting. Instead of the normal humor from Family Guy, the topic of suicide comes up and how Brian carries a gun with him in case he needs a way out.
As a side note I believe a showrunner was having a difficult time in his life which is what brought this scene to the show, but I could be misremembering
Futurama did this a lot. A couple of the earlier examples were Jurassic Bark and Luck of the Fryrish. It's usually a light-hearted, hilarious show, but damn if it doesn't make you cry, too.
Barry does a weird job of balancing the comedy, as the show goes on it starts becoming more drama than comedy. The best example is the Season 4 finale which was written without a single joke, there is one in it now but according to the showrunners it was added in post production.
I want to say that Catch-22 mostly does this, I believe when Yossarian goes back to Rome toward the end of the book after most of the characters have died. There is still the usual absurdity, but it is played more seriously/tragically than for jokes.
S1 and the first couple of episodes of S2 were just a goofy comedy about an overprotective dad with his wacky family.
And then John Ritter died.
The show switched up a lot, and they had a few very, very sad episodes mourning his character. Even as the show went on and tried to switch back to comedy, out of nowhere you'd get a character experiencing a rush of grief. Which is very true to life, honestly. You're okay...until you're not okay.
SIX is a musical based entirely off the concept of "what if Henry VIII's six wives formed a girl pop band ala the Spice Girls", and as such is 95% a silly, raunchy comedy full of dick jokes and sequins and 90s-esque Girl Power vibes. There are two moments where the mood turns serious:
1: Jane Seymour's song, which unlike the other songs is a slower, melancholy ballad about how she never got to know her son due to dying shortly after his birth. She never got to hold him, hear his first word, or see his first steps, and he would live a tragically short life as well.
2: Catherine Howard's song, which starts right off the bat with some lyrical dissonance as she cheerfully says that she "drove the boys wild" ever since she was a young child. With every verse she tells a story about another man who took advantage of her, and by the time she even mentions Henry she's struggling to force a smile on her face. In the final verse she finally breaks down and expresses despair that she'd been used for her body and looks all her life, leading directly to her execution, finally ending with her sobbing on stage with a single spotlight focused on her.....and then the comedy comes back!
The song âDear Billâ, from the Operation Mincemeat musical, which is mostly a comedy. Hester composes a love letter to the fictional pilot theyâve created to fool the Nazis. But itâs not really to him at all.
100 Girlfriends is almost always an absurdist manga that focuses on its comedy more than anything. Even more 'serious' chapters often involve things like alternate universes or absurdly powerful drugs. None of that happens in chapters 134 and 135, where there is little levity against the simple existence of an ableist and abusive mother.
Shrinking is more of a dramedy, with penty of serious scenes in with the funny ones, but one that really stands out is the last scene of the s2 premiere, where Jimmy confronts Louis, the guy who killed his wife in a drunk driving accident.
Horrible Histories is a British book series that can probably be best described as what it would be like if Mothy Python wrote a children's history text book (even more for the TV series). Here's some quotes:
-"No one who goes goes over the edge ever comes back. No one. Wasted. Whole life."
-Why is it that the ones who most need to remember are the ones most likely to forget?
-"Grampa, I forget. Which one was supposed to be the war to end all wars?"
-Having to kill somebody you like, that's the horriblest history of all.
The story of the German spy who was allowed to play their violin one last time throughout the night up until the morning of their execution from Frightful First World War still remains in my mind to this day.
There were several of these instances. The first is after Bonnie makes up with Christyâs estranged father, and he has a heart attack in bed. Another is when they are helping a young woman get out of her addiction, but she keeps hanging out with her ex-boyfriend who does not want to seek help. During Margeryâs wedding, Christy gets a call that the girl overdosed and died.
the show did a phenomenal job depicting the pitfalls of addiction, even when making light of it.
Edit: I donât know why the last line got spoiler tagged. I didnât use the brackets.
The Final moments of Blackadder Goes Forth: the comedy about someone trying to get out of active duty suddenly becomes poignant as all of the cast (aside from General Melchett, who always is seen in comfortable surroundings as opposed to the infantrymen) are implied to have been killed after they go over the top, finishing the tradition of Blackadder always dying at the end of a season.
In the episode of How I Met Your Mother when Robin is talking to her teenage children, she reveals she never wanted them and then they just fade away. As a woman trying very much to become a mother this always makes me burst into tears.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia has done this a few times and they can absolutely hit like a truck.
The most prevalent ones to me are when Mac performed a gorgeous interpretive dance as his way of coming out to his father. Came out of left field and also features a great moment from Danny DeVito's character.
The other is when Charlie has a breakdown in Ireland while trying to carry his deceased father to his final resting place. Alone and struggling in the rain, he vents his frustration at his absent father.
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u/Watchdog_the_God 4h ago
South Park: You're Getting Old's depiction of depression
On Stan's 10th birthday, he grows a cynical mindset where everything he used to enjoy, very literally, starts to feel like sh*t. When Kyle tries to help him, he acts abrasive and pushes him away. Eventually, Stan's parents get divorced, which only reinforces Stan's nihilistic worldview.