History Main / BlackComedyBurst

* TheCupheadShow:

* ''Series/TheMaryTylerMooreShow'' has the episode "Chuckles Bites the Dust", in which the staff of WJM-TV has humorous reactions to the absurd death of Chuckles the Clown.

'''Kelso''': No, because his depression finally led him to commit suicide.

** "[[Recap/SouthParkS5E4ScottTenormanMustDie Scott Tenorman Must Die]]" (And viewers can't even pretend it didn't happen, because Cartman likes bringing it up). It starts out normally enough, with the teenager Scott scamming Cartman out of money by convincing Cartman to buy Scott's pubic hair. Cartman soon tries getting a refund, but Scott either tricks him again or outright refuses. It continues to escalate until Cartman is intent on publicly humiliating Scott with absurd ploys, like training a pony to bite off Scott's penis. Scott keeps outsmarting Cartman at every turn, until the climax, where [[spoiler: Cartman reveals the cartoonish plot he told his friends about (that they told Scott about) was actually a misdirection, and Cartman's actual ploy, which he only reveals after it succeeds, was to kill Scott's parents, mix their flesh into chili, and feed it to Scott]]. To [[UpToEleven Take This to 11]], in "Episode 201", it turns out [[spoiler:Scott's father was also Cartman's father, meaning Cartman killed his own dad and fed him to his half-brother.]]

* Despite being a cop sitcom, ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'' manages to be a light-hearted and fun show without going into BlackComedy. However, there are two episodes that fall into BlackComedy. The first episode involves the main character, Jake, getting kidnapped and being held hostage by a stoned ex-lawyer seeking revenge. The second episode had Jake suffering through multiple injuries (three cracked ribs, three broken toes, a hairline fracture, etc...) within one week.

** The end of the movie has a downplayed example where Vanellope engages in this. When it's revealed that [[spoiler:she's a princess]], the other racers who had bullied her prior to this knowledge beg for forgiveness. Instead, she says she'll sentence them all to execution. As the racers expectedly freak out, she assures them that she's just pulling their leg and gladly complies to their apologies. It becomes downplayed when you remember DeathIsCheap in a character's native game and they'll just resurrect good as new like nothing happened.

** A particularly magnificent example is the song "Foil". At first, it appears to be a simple song about preserving leftover food in aluminum foil (which would be right up Weird Al's alley). But then halfway through the song, it suddenly veers into conspiracy theories and alien mind-control rays. What makes it particularly noteworthy is that it comes ''[[MoodWhiplash completely out of nowhere]]'', with absolutely no build-up whatsoever.

** In "Roger's Baby" Francine tells Hayley that she's been pregnant four times. Hayley counts that she, Steve, and [[ContinuityNod the baby that Francine was a surrogate for]] are her only kids, the implication being that the other pregnancy was a miscarriage or abortion.

** In "Band Geeks", Squidward is leading his band on a march through town and demands that the two flag twirlers spin their flags even faster. They spin hard enough to turn their flags into propellers and propel themselves into a blimp, which [[MadeOfExplodium explodes]]. One of the members of the band plays {{Taps}} on a trumpet while Squidward lays on the ground and everyone else mourns.

* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' is a fairly child-friendly (for a web-toon at least) but in one Strong Bad email while Stong Bad is listing off Cereals named after sound effects, the [[BreadEggsMilkSquick last one]] is "Gunshots in a Crowded Mall".

* On ''Series/{{Friends}}'', when Rachel's Bloomingdale's boss Joanna was killed offscreen by getting hit by a cab, right after agreeing to give Rachel a promotion, Rachel was shocked when she first heard the news, but then quickly started asking if Joanna had said anything or left any paperwork about a promotion. She hadn't, and Rachel was clealy more upset about the loss of her promotion than Joanna's sudden death. Then Joanna's other (former) assistant Sophie walked in looking very happy and Rachel asked if she heard what happened. She gleefully answered, "I sure did!" Joanna had been horrible to her.

** "Nasty Patty" features [=SpongeBob=] and Mr. Krabs believing they've accidentally ''killed'' a health inspector with a tainted Krabby Patty and spend the entire episode [[DisposingOfABody trying to hide the body]]. What increases the comedic aspect is the fact that the health inspector is actually still alive and just keeps getting knocked unconscious by [=SpongeBob=] and Mr. Krabs' antics, with the latter two none the wiser.

** "Nasty Patty" is all-but a child-friendly version of ''Film/WeekendAtBernies'', where [=SpongeBob=] and Mr. Krabs believe they've accidentally ''killed'' a health inspector with a moldy Krabby Patty and spend the entire episode trying to [[OfCorpseHesAlive keep it a secret.]] (The health inspector in this episode isn't actually dead, only unconscious, but still...)

* ''WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine'': In one episode the viaduct is under repair, making main line trains late to the junction. Henry criticizes Thomas for complaining, and Thomas leaves with a fairly dark zinger.

But then along comes a moment when the series brings in a topic it would normally never touch with a ten meter pole (abortion, suicide, rape, Nazis, what-have-you) and treats it with just as much casual, lighthearted humor as it does recipes gone wrong or a TwoTimerDate. For that one moment, that one joke, the series becomes a BlackComedy... then it goes right back to being nice and innocuous again.

A subtrope to both GenreShift and MoodWhiplash since they include all possible ways to change the main emotional reactions that are invoked and the type of the story.

** After several seasons of mostly lighthearted cop comedy, Season [[spoiler:4]] opens with several episodes[[spoiler: Rosa and Jake]] in prison, where the comedy stems from such [[SarcasmMode light and airy topics]] as guard corruption, prison politics, and [[spoiler: Jake's]] cellmate's [[WouldHurtAChild child]] [[ImAHumanitarian cannibalism]].

** In "Are You Happy Now?", there's a brief moment where Squidward is holding a rope to hang a scallop cage, but it initially looks like [[SuicideAsComedy he's going to use it to hang himself]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' short ''Mabel's Guide to Color'', pictured above, [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Mabel]] claims everything was black and white until a [[AWizardDidIt wizard invented color]]. To illustrate, she takes a picture from ''the Great Depression'' and draws said wizard, which she named ''Crandalf the Fabulous'', on top of it, covering all the unemployed and miserable men in the picture with rainbows.

** At the end of the ChristmasEpisode of all places, when [[spoiler:they reach the final of the Ice King's tapes, which is an ApocalypticLog detailing the slow descent of Simon Petrikov into madness as he becomes the Ice King]]. It's a massive TearJerker[=/=]horror moment, yet the first reaction to it?

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Frozen|2013}}'': Kristoff's family, [[spoiler:the trolls]], lightly suggest offing Anna's fiancé while trying [[ShipperOnDeck to get Kristoff and Anna together]]... in the middle of a cheery CrowdSong no less! And while Anna was slowly dying of her frozen heart... not that anyone mentioned it until afterwards.

* When ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'' and Maui reach the entrance to Tamatoa's lair, Moana says that she doesn't see anything to indicate an entrance.

-->-- '''[[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/3179812/South-Park-episode-angers-viewers-with-scenes-of-Hollywood-titans-raping-Indiana-Jones.html Catherine Elsworth]]''', on [[Recap/SouthParkS12E8TheChinaProblem "The China Probrem"]]

* The first movie was already rife with [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar adult jokes]], but one of the darkest jokes in any Dreamworks film comes early in ''WesternAnimation/Shrek2'' when, in the middle of a fairly sweet romantic montage, Shrek and Fiona are [[Film/FromHereToEternity making out under beach waves]] and Shrek accidentally finds himself making out with [[LawyerFriendlyCameo pseudo]]-[[WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989 Ariel]]. Fiona then grabs her by the fish tail and hurls her back into the sea, where she gets ''eaten by sharks.'' Neither Shrek nor Fiona [[ComedicSociopathy shows much concern about this.]]