History Main / DarkParody

Quite often, the work being parodied is [[SugarWiki/SweetDreamsFuel very upbeat]] and they make it dark for absurdist or if not absurdist humour. There are a lot of typical ways writers could make a parody dark:

** ''Roberto Manfinfla'' is a Chilean {{Widget|Series}} CultClassic Flash animation, 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.

* 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.

* ''Series/StrangersWithCandy'' is a dark parody of 1970s Series/{{Afterschool Special}}s and anti-drug [=PSAs=]. [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed Its protagonist, Jerri Blank, was inspired by Florrie Fisher]], a former socialite turned motivational speaker that visited high schools in the 1960s and early 1970s to talk about her fall from socialite to heroin-addled prostitute in the 1940s. Many lines from the show are taken directly from a talk Fisher gave at a New York high school, including "I was a boozer, a user and a loser.".

** ''Roberto [[ADateWithRosiePalms Manfinfla]]'' is a Chilean {{Widget|Series}} CultClassic Flash animation, 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.

** Their ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' parody had the government raid Free Country, USA due to mistaking Strong Badia as a sepratist enclave. Several characters die in the ensuing chaos.

Quite often, the work being parodied is [[SugarWiki/SweetDreamsFuel very upbeat]] and they make it dark for absurdist humour. There are a lot of typical ways writers could make a parody dark:

* If a character is very cute and/or virtuous, the parodist might [[KillTheCutie kill that character off]] or [[AdaptationalVillainy rewrite him/her]] [[CuteIsEvil 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.

** Rusty's father, Dr. Jonas Venture, is one to Franchise/DocSavage, an uber-macho world-traveling crimefighter and super-scientist, but Jonas was also an AbusiveParent and ManipulativeBastard.

* ''Webcomic/GarfieldMinusGarfield'' is a webcomic where Garfield strips are edited to 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''.

* ''Anime/PantyAndStockingWithGarterbelt'': The show is very vulgar and a lot of the jokes are made to cross as many lines as possible while referencing a lot of Western media which include high school movies, ''Franchise/{{Transformers}}'', ''Film/Ghostbusters1984'', Creator/{{MTV}} songs, ''Film/SavingPrivateRyan'', ''Theatre/RomeoAndJuliet'' with the artsyle looking like ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfTheWonderTwins'' consists of a send-up of ''WesternAnimation/{{Superfriends}}'' where the Wonder Twins Zan and Jayna, thanks to being completely incompetent as well as the series sharply averting TalkingIsAFreeAction, horribly screw up their attempts at rescuing people and the teens they try to save dying as a result.

* TabletopGames/Warhammer40000: One of the Literature/CaiaphasCain novels mentions a children's song called "The Tracks on the Land Raider". Fans figure it is based on "The Wheels on the Bus", and some have supplied [[https://www.reddit.com/r/40kLore/comments/6vxrii/mvf_the_tracks_on_the_land_raider_song/ lyrics.]]

* ''FanFic/DayOfTheBarneyTrilogy'', a genocide-themed parody of a TastesLikeDiabetes [[Series/BarneyAndFriends series]].

** One [[ShowWithinAShow TV show the children watch]] is called ''WesternAnimation/TheItchyAndScratchyShow'', which is a parody of ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' and ''WesternAnimation/HermanAndKatnip'' that turns the [[ToonPhysics cartoonish]] [[{{Slapstick}} violence]] into [[BloodyHilarious actual]] [[DeathAsComedy violence]], with [[TheChewToy Scratchy the cat]] [[TheyKilledKennyAgain dying gruesomely in every episode]].

* ''WebAnimation/FlashGitzAnimation'' can be summed up as making everything they touch BloodierAndGorier.[[WesternAnimation/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer1964 Rudolph]]'s nose being an exploding tumor [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] being a racist murderer are just some examples.

* ''WebAnimation/FlashGitzAnimation'' can be summed up as making everything they touch BloodierAndGorier.
[[WesternAnimation/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer1964 Rudolph]]'s nose being an exploding tumor [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] being a racist murderer are just some examples.

* ''WebAnimation/FlashGitzAnimation'' can be summed up as making everything they touch BloodierAndGorier. Notable examples include [[WesternAnimation/RudolphTheRedNosedReindeer1964 Rudolph]]'s nose being an exploding tumor [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] being a racist murderer are just some examples.

** In the one for ''Literature/{{Cinderella}}'', the prince decapitates the stepsisters, so Cinderella marries a greengrocer instead.

** ''WebVideo/FriendshipIsWitchcraft'' is a parody of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' where, among other changes, Twilight is a narcissistic sociopath who has a crush on her [[FlirtyStepSiblings step-brother]], Spike is a universally-hated ButtMonkey, Fluttershy not-so-secretly leads an apocalyptic cult that worships "the Smooze", Pinkie Pie is a StepfordSmiler who was raised by "gypsies" after her parents died in a fire and who dabbles in the dark arts and sings [[LyricalDissonance upbeat songs with dark lyrics]], and Sweetie Belle is a robot.

** A sketch parodying ''Series/GullahGullahIsland'' has Binyah Binyah turn out to be a fugitive criminal who was wearing a tadpole costume and living with the Gullah family to hide from the cops.

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