History Main / DarkParody

** The episode "Fear of Flying" had Homer, who is looking for a new bar to drink, enter ''{{Series/Cheers}}''. The whole cast were [[TookALevelInJerkass just a little bit more jerkish]], with Norm getting the worst of them all, being a hostile and barely-coherent drunk.

* ''Roberto [[ADateWithRosiePalms Manfinfla]]'' is a Chilean {{Widget|Series}} CultClassic [[UsefulNotes/AdobeFlash Flash]] animation made at the beginning of the TurnOfTheMillennium, but that lasted six episodes. ''The New Adventures of Roberto Manfinfla'' made in TheNewTens introduced new characters, one of them is none less than WesternAnimation/{{Clarence}} as an adult, being a embittered fat guy with the face full of pimples who works in a fast-food restaurant as a cook.

* The ''ComicStrip/MigraineBoy'' animations made by Creator/{{MTV}} were parodied by a Chilean UsefulNotes/AdobeFlash unofficial animation series in the 2000s, that used the MTV version as base and made it BloodierAndGorier and with a lot of VulgarHumor and local ClusterFBomb, becoming a success in Chile at the point of overpassing the original animation and becoming a CultClassic years later.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' is a DenserAndWackier spin-off of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' with a heavy reliance of BlackComedy and the main cast frequently suffering AdaptationalJerkass and/or AdaptationalVillainy.

* ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo'' is a DenserAndWackier spin-off of ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitans'' with a heavy reliance of BlackComedy and the main cast frequently suffering AdaptationalJerkassery and/or AdaptationalVillainy.

* ''ComicBook/BratPack'' is a vicious TakeThat towards ''ComicBook/YoungAllies'' and the [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComics Silver Age]] ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' in which the ComicBook/{{Robin}} analogue is molested by the BatmanParody, the ComicBook/WonderGirl analogue is a promiscuous airhead, the [[ComicBook/GreenArrow Speedy]] analogue is a drug addict, and the ComicBook/BuckyBarnes analogue is a racist steroid-abuser. And their mentors are all horrible degenerates who regularly abuse them and [[spoiler:intend to kill them just so they won't have to [[CorporateSponsoredSuperhero share royalties]] once they turn 18.]]

* ''ComicBook/BratPack'' is a vicious TakeThat towards ''ComicBook/YoungAllies'' and the SilverAge ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' in which the ComicBook/{{Robin}} analogue is a child-molestation victim (with his molester being the ComicBook/{{Batman}} analogue), the Wonder Girl analogue is a promiscuous airhead, the Speedy analogue is a drunk, and the Bucky analogue is a racist steroid-abuser. And their mentors are all horrible degenerates who regularly abuse them and intend to kill and replace them with a new batch of kids.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' frequently makes dark parodies of movies, TV shows, etc., particularly during their {{cutaway gag}}s. For example, "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS5E18MeetTheQuagmires Meet the Quagmires]]" has a parody of the intro to ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons'' where George throws Jane out of their flying car because she took too much money.

* ''ComicBook/BratPack'' is a vicious parody of ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' and ''ComicBook/YoungAllies'' in which the ComicBook/{{Robin}} analogue is a child-molestation victim (with his molester being the ComicBook/{{Batman}} analogue), the Wonder Girl analogue is a promiscuous airhead, the Speedy analogue is a drunk, and the Bucky analogue is a racist steroid-abuser. And their mentors are all horrible degenerates who regularly abuse them and intend to kill and replace them with a new batch of kids.

** The "After Ever After" series, which pokes dark fun at Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon, as the characters sing about what happened "after" their films ended. The jokes often mirror modern-day issues, such as Simba's pride going extinct, and they're all sung to the tune of an actual Disney song: like, in ''Disney/TheLionKing'''s case, "I Just Can't Wait to Be King".

** The episode "Fear of Flying" had Homer, who is looking for a new bar to drink, enter ''Series/{{Cheers}}''. The whole cast were [[TookALevelInJerkass just a little bit more jerkish]], with Norm getting the worst of them all, being a hostile and barely-coherent drunk.

** One [[ShowWithinAShow TV show the children watch]] is called ''Itchy and Scratchy'' which is a parody of ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' and ''WesternAnimation/HermanAndKatnip'' that turns the cartoonish violence into actual violence with Scratchy the cat [[TheyKilledKennyAgain dying in every episode]].

!! Examples

[[folder: Films -- Animated]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/BeeMovie'', when the bees are locking up the bears because bears kill bees, one of them is Literature/WinnieThePooh.
* With a heavy emphasis on dark, the first segment of ''WesternAnimation/WhereTheDeadGoToDie'', "Spoiled Milk", was intended to be a BlackComedy parody of ''Series/{{Lassie}}'', with the Lassie parody being... outright demonic in nature. However, when it turned out to actually terrify viewers, the rest of the film was made as a straight horror flick.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* A popular online comic based on ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' involves Calvin taking pills which cause him to stop imagining Hobbes.

* ''Webcomic/GarfieldMinusGarfield'' is a webcomic where Garfield strips remove the eponymous character, leaving Jon Arbuckle imagining he has the cat and making the same dialogs and reactions but alone. A dark and depressed version of the original one but PlayedForLaughs and even [[ApprovalOfGod approved by Jim Davis, Garfield's creator nonetheless]]. And this goes UpToEleven with ''Webcomic/SquareRootOfMinusGarfield''.

* ''WebVideo/LasagnaCat'' is a ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' parody with a lot of SurrealHorror and dark mockery of the source material, which is acted out with a creepy-looking Garfield costume, and then mocked further in a weird skit. "Sex Survey Results" took it even farther, with the ending consisting of nightmarish imagery and the suffering of an older Jon Arbuckle/Jim Davis.

* ''[[http://www.darksimpsons.com/ Dark Simpsons]]'' does this to ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', but in what ways varies between comics/videos. Either RealityEnsues on a particular throwaway gag, or a happy, friendly character is recharacterized as a murderer or a rapist (or even just suicidally depressed).
* ''WebVideo/FiftyPercentOff'' is a parody of ''Anime/{{Free}}''. While the original anime does occasionally tackle dark topics, it remains a relatively optimistic anime about four friends forming a swimming club. Notable changes in the parody include giving the main character SplitPersonalities, turning the optimistic and cheerful CloudCuckooLander onto a trash-talking {{Gayngster}}, and characterizing the ComicallySerious new recruit as a SerialKiller.

* PETA has made a few parodies of popular Video Game franchises, taking an innocuous, family-friendly work and turning it into a gory story about animal abuse. Examples include "[[VideoGame/{{Pokemon}} Pokemon Black and Blue]]", where the Pokemon are abused and trying to escape from their cruel owners, "[[VideoGame/CookingMama Cooking Mama: Mama Kills Animals]]", where you play as Mama slaughtering a dead turkey, or "[[Franchise/SuperMarioBrothers Mario Kills Tanooki]]", where you play as the skinned Tanooki trying to get their pelt back from the evil Mario.

* ''Webcomic/GarfieldMinusGarfield'' is a webcomic where Garfield strips are removed the eponymous character, leaving Jon Arbuckle imagining he has the cat and making the same dialogs and reactions but alone. A dark and depressed version of the original one but PlayedForLaughs and even approved by Jim Davis, Garfield's creator nonetheless. And this goes UpToEleven with ''Webcomic/SquareRootOfMinusGarfield''.

* A majority of parodies made by ''WebAnimation/{{Dorkly|Originals}}'' tend to rely heavily on BlackComedy. Among a few notable examples include one with Bowser shooting the guy who makes his guns to rant about the guns being big and slow, the [[VideoGame/PlantsVsZombies Wall-Nut]] [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie turning into a zombie]] after being bitten, and Princess Peach getting kidnapped by realistic kidnappers. That's not even getting started on their parodies that are [[WebAnimation/PokemonRusty series]] [[WebAnimation/PokemonRalphie in and of]] [[WebAnimation/BodybuildersGo themselves]].

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' has a parody of the intro to ''WesternAnimation/TheJetsons'' where George throws Jane out of their flying car because she took too much money.

** The obligatory ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'' short involves the Krusty Krab using fish meat as the secret ingredient, essentially turning everyone in Bikini Bottom into cannibals.

** One [[ShowWithinAShow TV show the children watch]] is called ''Itchy and Scratchy'' which is a parody of ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' that turns the cartoonish violence into actual violence with Scratchy the cat [[TheyKilledKennyAgain dying in every episode]].

[[folder: Films- Animated]]

* With a heavy emphasis on dark, the first segment of ''WesternAnimation/WhereTheDeadGoToDie'', "Spoiled Milk", was intended to be a BlackComedy parody of ''Series/{{Lassie}}'', with the Lassie parody being...outright demonic in nature. However, when it turned out to actually terrify viewers, the rest of the film was made as a straight horror-flick.

* One popular parody of "Joy to the World" involves students celebrating their teacher's death.

** Their attempt at a ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory3'' trailer (released long before the real one was starting production at Disney) followed the same idea of Andy being grown up... the difference being that he became a junkie and used Buzz as a makeshift bong, causing so much damage to him that Woody is forced to give him a MercyKill.

* If a character is very cute and/or virtuous, the parodist might [[KillTheCutie kill that character off]] or [[RonTheDeathEater rewrite her as evil]]. Stock ways of rewriting characters as evil include turning them into mass murderers, having a pet turn out to be sapient and evil, and making them prejudiced (antisemitism is a common one due to the association with Adolf Hitler). Also, characters who are antagonists but not all bad (such as the HeroAntagonist, AntiVillain, or HarmlessVillain) will be made more evil.

* If a character is [[CloudCuckooLander eccentric]], he'll be rewritten as actually insane, sometimes AxCrazy. Similarly, if someone [[TheEeyore is a pessimist]] or [[ProneToTears cries easily]], the parody might show him with full-blown depression, and if a character scares easily, it might show him with an actual anxiety disorder.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers''' take on Hanna-Barbera classics like ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'' and ''Franchise/ScoobyDoo'' is absolutely merciless, the former by way of constantly deconstructing how living a life like Jonny's is highly traumatizing (even showing a grown-up Jonny at one point, who had turned into a nerve-wrecked drug addict) and the latter by having an Expy group show up who were quite visibly supposed to be the Scooby gang but also were composites with well-known scumbags of the Seventies like Patty Hearst (a violently feminist "Daphne"), David "the Son of Sam" Berkowitz (a "Shaggy" who is the only one who can "hear" what "Scooby" said) and Charles Manson ("Freddy").

* If two characters are in a romantic relationship, the parody might have them break up or turn one into an abusive partner and/or [[YourCheatingHeart adulterer]] or both.
* If a character is very cute and/or virtuous, they might [[KillTheCutie kill them off]] or [[RonTheDeathEater rewrite them as evil]]. Stock ways of rewriting a character as evil include turning them into mass murderers, having a pet turn out to be sapient and evil, and making them prejudiced (antisemitism is a common one due to the association with Adolf Hitler). Also, characters who are antagonists but not all bad (such as the HeroicAntagonist, AntiVillain, or HarmlessVillain) will be made more evil.

* If a character is [[CloudCuckooLander eccentric]], they'll be rewritten as actually insane, sometimes AxCrazy. Similarly, if someone [[TheEeyore is a pessimist]] or [[ProneToTears cries easily]], the parody might show them with full-blown depression and if a character scares easily, it might show them with an actual anxiety disorder.
* If there's an [[ButtMonkey unlucky character]], the parody might have them either "snap" and [[FaceHeelTurn turn evil]] due to frustration or be even unluckier than in canon.
Other things that happen a lot in dark parodies include [[InnocentInaccurate a character mistakenly thinking nothing bad is happening]] and goofy characters continuing to act goofy even when serious things happen. See also DarkFic, which can overlap with this trope if it's a ParodyFic. For dark things that happen in the work itself, see CerebusSyndrome, DarkerAndEdgier, and UnexpectedlyDarkEpisode. Also see SubvertedKidsShow which is a dark parody of a whole genre and CorruptedCharacterCopy for cases where a character darkly parodies another. Compare FracturedFairyTale, although do note that the original versions of some fairy tales were pretty dark and not all Fractured Fairy Tales are dark.

[[folder: Comic Books]]

[[folder: Literature]]

[[folder: Live-Action TV]]

[[folder: Music]]

* "[[http://www.amiright.com/parody/70s/cyndigrecco3.shtml Laverne and Shirley Lose Everything in a Catastrophic Fire]]" is a parody of the ''Series/LaverneAndShirley'' with lyrics such as "every dream we had cannot come true" and "There is nowhere for us to go now."

* ''Music/{{Koit}}'' did a dark parody of "Heads, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" by revealing at the end that the body parts were disembodied.
* ''Music/{{Songdrops}}'':

[[folder: Video Games]]

[[folder: Web Original]]

* ''Roberto'' ''[[ADateWithRosiePalms Manfinfla]]'' is a Chilean [[WidgetSeries Widget]] CultClassic [[UsefulNotes/AdobeFlash Flash]] animation made at the beginning of the TurnOfTheMillennium, but that lasted six episodes. ''The New Adventures of Roberto Manfinfla'' made in TheNewTens introduced new characters, one of them is none less than WesternAnimation/{{Clarence}} as an adult, being a embittered fat guy with the face full of pimples that works in a fast-food restaurant as a cook.

** The "After Ever After" series, which pokes dark fun at Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon, as the characters sing about what happened "after" their films ended. The jokes often mirror modern-day issues, such as Simba's pride going extinct, and they're all sung to the tune of an actual Disney song- like, in ''Disney/TheLionKing'''s case, "I Just Can't Wait To Be King".

[[folder: Western Animation]]

* ''WesternAnimation/TheVentureBrothers''' take on Hanna-Barbera classics like ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuest'' and ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo'' is absolutely merciless, the former by way of constantly deconstructing how living a life like Jonny's is highly traumatizing (even showing a grown-up Jonny at one point, who had turned into a nerve-wrecked drug addict) and the latter by having an Expy group show up who were quite visibly supposed to be the Scooby gang but also were composites with well-known scumbags of the Seventies like Patty Hearst (a violently feminist "Daphne"), David "the Son of Sam" Berkowitz (a "Shaggy" who is the only one who can "hear" what "Scooby" said) and Charles Manson ("Freddy").

Other things that happen a lot in dark parodies include [[InnocentInaccurate a character mistakenly thinking nothing bad is happening]] and goofy characters continuing to act goofy even when serious things happen. See also DarkFic, which can overlap with this trope if it's a ParodyFic. For dark things that happen in the work itself, see CerebusSyndrome, DarkerAndEdgier, and UnexpectedlyDarkEpisode. Also see SubvertedKidsShow which is a dark parody of a whole genre. Compare FracturedFairyTale, although do note that the original versions of some fairy tales were pretty dark and not all Fractured Fairy Tales are dark.