History Main / BadNewsIrrelevantNews

** That depends, is [[SpeedRacer Speed-about-to-fall-off-a-bridge]] on Trixie's insurance plan?

* Being something of a {{Jerkass}} with a grudge, FBI agent Victor decides to deliver news of Firo's sentence this way at the beginning of ''{{Baccano}}'''s Alice In Jails arc. The Bad News: Firo's going to Alcatraz. The Good News: with [[{{Bishonen}} his]] [[DudeLooksLikeALady looks]], he's probably going to be [[PrisonRape very popular]] there.

A trope most easily employed with two or more characters who are in a GoodNewsBadNews scenario. After breaking the overwhelmingly bad news to the other, the messenger helpfully relays the good news: a {{breathless non sequitur}} that has nothing to do with the dire situation. This usually results in effectively crushing the raised spirits of the receiver(s).

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* From an episode of {{Hustle}}: the bad news is, the castle the team is pretending to have for sale is open to the public until 7, and TheMark is coming at 6 to look at it. The good news: if they buy a 6 month pass to said castle, they get a free ice cream.

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* Inverted in the first ''ModernWarfare'', where Gaz's "good news" is there's a civil war in Russia, with Ultranationalist rebels against government loyalists. The bad news is a new guy's joining them.

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* From {{Dragon Ball Abridged}}, the end of "Bardock: Father of Goku" has Nappa telling young Vegeta that their home planet has been destroyed. "But the good news is, we're going to DAIRY QUEEN!!"

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* In an unusual case of it actually cheering someone up for a moment, in ''{{Farscape}}'', D'Argo uses this tactic when John's about to be [[TakenForGranite frozen as a statue]] for eighty years:

* Subverted in ''{{Airplane}} 2''. Elaine informs the passengers that they are 70 million miles off course, there are asteroids smashing into the hull, and they are heading straight for the sun. Passengers remain calm. She adds that they are out of coffee. Passengers freak out.

* Subverted in [[http://www.drmcninja.com/page.php?pageNum=19&issue=3 this]] ''TheAdventuresOfDoctorMcNinja'' strip.

* A GEICO campaign (the former trope namer, as it happens) from a few years back used this trope. Spots would feature a person in a rather difficult situation becoming hopeful upon being told that there is good news. However, the good news in question was always "I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to GEICO", which of course was of no use whatsoever to the person hearing those words.

* A series of Verizon commercials has the setup of a pair of people, one of whom has just received bad news (A football player with a career-ending injury, a guy whose girlfriend that is sitting across from him is breaking up with him) and they repeatedly ask questions while the other people say irrelevant stuff about their phone [[JerkAss in the rudest way possible.]]

* From ''DragonBallAbridged'', the end of "Bardock: Father of Goku" has Nappa telling young Vegeta that their home planet has been destroyed. "But the good news is, we're going to DAIRY QUEEN!!"

A related trope is BadNewsInAGoodWay. Also compare NoSympathy.

* A series of Verizon commercial has the setup of a pair of people, one of whom has just received bad news (A football player with a career-ending injury, a guy whose girlfriend that is sitting across from him is breaking up with him) and they repeatedly ask questions while the other people say irrelevant stuff about their phone [[JerkAss in the rudest way possible.]]

* A Verizon commercial has the setup of a pair of people, one of whom has just received bad news (A football player with a career-ending injury, a guy whose girlfriend that is sitting across from him is breaking up with him) and they repeatedly ask questions while the other people say irrelevant stuff about their phone [[JerkAss in the rudest way possible.]]

** That depends, is [[SpeedRace Speed-about-to-fall-off-a-bridge]] on Trixie's insurance plan?

-->'''Malcolm''': There's no good news, David! There's only bad news and irrelevant news!

* A GEICO campaign from a few years back used this trope. Spots would feature a person in a rather difficult situation becoming hopeful upon being told that there is good news. However, the good news in question was always "I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to GEICO", which of course was of no use whatsoever to the person hearing those words.

** It's complete irrelevancy is {{fridge logic}}, since they'll be dying in a flood and all the corpses will be underwater where the vulture won't be able to get to them, probably causing him to die off because of the flood as well. Only he might die of starvation.

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* Subverted in {{Airplane 2}}. Elaine informs the passengers that they are 70 million miles off course, there are asteroids smashing into the hull, and they are heading straight for the sun. Passengers remain calm. She adds that they are out of coffee. Passengers freak out.

* From DragonBallAbridged, the end of "Bardock: Father of Goku" has Nappa telling young Vegeta that their home planet has been destroyed. "But the good news is, we're going to DAIRY QUEEN!!"

* Some of car insurance company GEICO's older commercials, which all end with the good news being "I just saved a bunch of money on my car insurance by switching to GEICO."