History Main / CerebusCallBack

* During the number "A Guy Like You" in ''WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' the gargoyles give Quasimodo the Ace of Hearts card while they're trying to convince him that Esmeralda would love him. Shortly after this when he sees Esmeralda kissing Phoebus, he pulls out the card and rips it up.

* ''WesternAnimation/HowToTrainYourDragonTheHiddenWorld'' When Hiccup makes the new automatic tail fin for Toothless, Toothless rears up on his back legs to lick at his face and pull him into a hug. [[spoiler:Before taking the dragons away to the Hidden World, he hugs a crying Hiccup in the same way, and this time, it's anything but humorous.]]

* '''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBros''': In the episode "Careers in Science", Colonel Bud Manstrong shares a story with the Ventures from his days as a paperboy aboard the space station Gargantua-1; during the station’s Movie Night back in the 80s, a deranged employee nicknamed "Phantom Spaceman" went mad and [[ThrownOutTheAirLock ejected most of the station's employees out the cargo bay doors to their death]]. Six seasons later, in the episode "The Rorqual Affair", we get a more detailed, graphic account of the "Movie Night incident" from Red Death. Unlike Manstrong, who treated it like a campfire ghost story, he was ''there'' to see the horror of the whole thing.

* ''Series/Loki2021'': When Loki is first processed by the TVA, it's comedic, karmic punishment for someone who just tried taking over Earth to be treated with utter apathy by bored bureaucrats and dropped through room after room. Seeing it happen to an innocent little girl who was just playing with her toys and is terrified is heartbreaking.

* ''Series/Loki2021'': When Loki is first processed by the TVA, it's comedic, karmic punishment for someone who just tried taking over Earth to be treated with utter apathy by bored bureaucrats and dropped through room after room. Seeing it happen to an innocent little girl who was just playing with her toys is heartbreaking.

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* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' features a gag early on where examining Sans' book reveals that it's a joke book hidden in a quantum physics book, with a joke book inside the quantum physics book, with a quantum physics book behind that joke book. At first it just seems like a goof. As the game goes on, we learn that Sans has a measure of MediumAwareness...and there's almost nothing he can do to stop some [[PlayerCharacter schmuck from another dimension from murdering him and all of his friends just for the fun of it.]]

* In "Don't Let Me Go", Donkey's introductory song in Shrek The Musical, he sings, "You need a pal, my calendar's open!" to Shrek. Given the nature of the song and character, it's a silly plea to Shrek to take Donkey along with him. Cut to Shrek singing "Who I'd Be", where Donkey's line is repeated but in a much more somber context and is a more genuine attempt to reach out to Shrek and offer friendship; it's right after Shrek sings of being in the dark and alone for his entire life, before Donkey and Fiona showed him compassion.

* ''WebVideo/PhilosophyTube'''s video "[[https://youtu.be/eQNw2FBdpyE Suic!de and Ment@l He@lth]]" consists of Olly holding a very academically focused monologue about what classifies suicidality, and to what degree it's linked with mental illness, interspersed with little snippets of a conversation between a therapist and a Russian Cosmonaut, both played by Olly. Then, the conversation suddenly shifts, with Olly delivering a heartbreaking account of [[spoiler:his own two suicide attempts and history of self-harm, and how he uses the image of the Cosmonaut as a metaphor for how he feels in the moments where he wants to kill himself.]]
** The followup video, "Men. Abuse. Trauma.", has Olly recounting his first experience with a therapist. During his first session, he told her a funny story about his recent ex-girlfriend. When she moved out, she left an IKEA-cabinet behind, and Olly needed to take it apart and throw it out. He describes how, eventually, he got so worked up over it he just started ripping it apart with his bare hands, kicking it apart and throwing the pieces onto the curb. [[spoiler: His therapist then explained to him that this was a symptom of trauma as a result of abuse. Olly denied that he was traumatized... but then started recounting stories about his girlfriend's verbal, emotional, sometimes physical abuse, all while making increasingly flimsy excuses for her, to the point where he starts literally ''screaming'' at the camera that it was his own fault anyway.]]

* ''Film/SpiderManFarFromHome'' sees the BARF device from ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'' fall under this as [[spoiler:a pre-Mysterio Quentin Beck is revealed to be the one who created the device, intended to weaponize it, was fired for being unstable, hated the name Tony gave it and one of the people helping Beck is the tech Stane assigned to build the Iron Monger suit in ''Film/IronMan1''.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales2017'' has two examples:

* In ''VideoGame/PaperMarioStickerStar'', the first Thing Sticker we see in action is the pair of green scissors slicing away Bowser Jr, who ends up defeated but still whole and fine, and the whole thing is mostly PlayedForLaughs. Come ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheOrigamiKing'', and the scene repeats: the green Scissors are introduced by slicing Bowser Jr... however this time its played dead serious: the scissors are actually a supremely dangerous enemy and poor Bowser Jr ends up sliced into still-sentient confettis.

* ''Disney/{{Tangled}}'':

* During the number "A Guy Like You" in ''Disney/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame'' the gargoyles give Quasimodo the Ace of Hearts card while they're trying to convince him that Esmeralda would love him. Shortly after this when he sees Esmeralda kissing Phoebus, he pulls out the card and rips it up.

* In ''Literature/ShadowOfTheConqueror,'' [[NoNudityTaboo Cueseg]] continuously teases Lyrah about sex early on, and [[ParalyzingFearOfSexuality her intense discomfort]] is PlayedForLaughs. This humor becomes utterly ''horrifying'' when it's revealed later in the book that [[spoiler: she was given TheScarpiaUltimatum when she was fourteen, and subsequently raped dozens of times by [[SerialRapist Dayless]] [[EvilOverlord the Conqueror]]]]. Cueseg himself is [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone the first to realize it]].

** In "Glomtales!" , it's revealed that Magica is stripped of her magic and is reduced to performing for kids' parties at Funzo. The mascot then casually talks to her, as if he's completely oblivious to her evilness. Then the season 2 finale "Moonvasion!" shows that [[spoiler: he's actually the Phantom Blot, who's working for FOWL, which is being run by Scrooge's board of directors without him knowing.]]

** Glomgold being dragged into the water by his shadow is treated as just a humorous moment since it was just one scene. "The Ballad Of Duke Baloney" shows a darker repercussion to it. [[spoiler: He gets amnesia, and thinks he's someone named Duke Baloney. It turns that this is his actual name, and he slowly starts remembering how Scrooge inadvertently shortchanged him as a child in South Africa for a shoe shine, and vowed revenge on him.]]
** In "Glomtales" , it's revealed that Magica is stripped of her magic and is reduced to performing for kids' parties at Funzo. The mascot then casually talks to her, as if he's completely oblivious to her evilness. Then the season 2 finale "Moonvasion" shows that [[spoiler: he's actually the Phantom Blot, who's working for FOWL, which is being run by Scrooge's board of directors without him knowing.]]

** In "It's About Time", Cerberus having wandered away from guarding the gates of Tartarus is treated as a one-off joke. Come the series 4 finale "Twilight's Kingdom", we learn that one of the most evil beings in Equestria escaped while Cerberus was away.