History Main / ItWasADarkAndStormyNight

* Appears in some English translations of ''Literature/TheThreeMusketeers''. The original: "C'etait une nuit orageuse et sombre." Literally, "It was a stormy and dark night" (the primary meaning of ''orage'' is "thunderstorm"), but a translator could hardly be blamed for changing it just a little bit to match the cliché.

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* Music/TearsForFears: The play in the "[[https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x10otut Closest Thing to Heaven]]" music video begins ''exactly'' like this: it's nighttime with torrential rain, strong winds and lightning.

** Which eventually led to a variation that ends in a subversion. After several loops to build up the tension, the Captain said to Antonio, 'Tell us a tale, Antonio.' [[spoiler: So Antonio shot him.]]

* In Website/SFDebris' review of ''TheXFiles'' episode "Our Town" he notes:

* In Machinima/TheStrangerhood, [[CloudCuckooLander Wade]] invokes this in his PrivateEyeMonologue. He then uses it to interrupt Chalmers' InternalMonologue in a later episode.

* The pop standard "Ridin' Around in the Rain", recorded by Music/BingCrosby amongst others, feature these lines:

Not to be confused with the Larry Blamire film ''Film/DarkAndStormyNight''.

* Music/TearsForFears: The play in the "[[https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x10otut Closest Thing to Heaven]]" music video begins ''exactly'' like this: it's nighttime with torrential rain, powerful winds and lightning.

* Music/TearsForFears: The play in the "[[https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x10otut Closest Thing to Heaven]]" music video begins ''exactly'' like this: it's nighttime with torrential rain, strong winds and lightning.

* Music/WarrenZevon's "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" includes the lines "The deal was made in Denmark / On a dark and stormy day"
* Creator/MercedesLackey wrote a song entitled "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night" set in her ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'' universe. The song is a BlackComedy about a Countess -- a [[DreadfulMusician woeful singer]] -- who is evidently murdered by her HenpeckedHusband when he can't take her "singing" anymore. ''Everyone else'' in the estate helps establish the Count's alibi, and the Heralds shrug and conclude it was accidental suicide... though they can't understand why she'd try to ''eat'' her lute.
-->It was a dark and stormy night--or so the Heralds say--\\
And lightning striking constantly transformed the night to day\\
The thunder roared the castle round--or thusly runs the tale--\\
And rising from the Northeast Tower there came a fearful wail.
* The Music/PDQBach song "Es war ein dark und shtormy Night."

* [[Creator/DeathRowRecords Warren G]]'s "Regulate": "It was a clear black night, a clear white moon."

* The [[AllThereInTheManual manual introduction]] for ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry1'' starts with this phrase. While Donkey Kong and Diddy takes turns watching the banana horde during the storm, the Kremlings managed to sneak towards Diddy and knock him out.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Despite being in a ''visual medium'', ''VideoGame/{{Wild ARMs 3}}'' opens with the words "It was a dark and stormy night," overlaid on animated storm clouds unironically.
* The opening of ''VideoGame/PaperMarioColorSplash'' begins with Peach and her assistant bringing Mario the blank body of a Toad on a stormy night.
* Also played completely straight in ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonVsPhoenixWrightAceAttorney'', this is both the setting and the title of the prologue.

* ''VideoGame/RealmsOfTheHaunting'' starts off literally in a dark and stormy night, and in fact the weather in Heled (Earth, the mortal realm) stays that way throughout the game. It's not narrated, however.

* Creator/MercedesLackey wrote a song entitled "It Was a Dark and Stormy Night" set in her ''Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar'' universe. The song is a comedy about a Countess who is a GiftedlyBad singer, who is apparently murdered by her HenpeckedHusband when he decides he can't take her nagging or nightly "singing" practice anymore. She was apparently so unpopular that ''everyone else'' in the estate helps establish the Count's alibi.

A SubTrope of WeatherReportOpening. Not to be confused with HostileWeather or StopMotionLighting. Thanks to the [[LightningCanDoAnything power of lightning]], of course, opening on a stormy night scene or at least featuring one has been a Horror trope since Universal's ''Frankenstein'' and before. Often used in a ScarilySpecificStory if you're telling the story ''on'' a dark, stormy night.

** Lucy complains that all Snoopy's novels begin with that line. Snoopy, CompletelyMissingThePoint, promptly changes it to "It was a stormy and dark night..."

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The first "dark and stormy night" Snoopy strip was in 1965, and according to WordOfGod, the original joke was that you have a dog doing something incredible like using a typewriter, only to type such a notorious cliché. From there Charles Schulz built it into a RunningGag. The full opening of Snoopy's perennial novel was:\\
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[-It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a shot rang out! A door slammed. The maid screamed. Suddenly, a pirate ship appeared on the horizon! While millions of people were starving, the king lived in luxury. Meanwhile, on a small farm in Kansas, a boy was growing up. Part 2: A light snow was falling, and the little girl with the tattered shawl had not sold a violet all day. At that very moment, a young intern at City Hospital was making an important discovery.-]\\
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After which he fears that he may have written himself into a corner. He ''does'' manage to weave this together: the intern finds a comatose patient has awoken -- the sister of the boy from Kansas, who loves the girl with the tattered shawl, the daughter of the maid who escaped the pirates. Then Linus asks [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse "But what about the king?"]] and gets a typewriter to the head.\\
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Snoopy's responses to Lucy's feedback:
** Lucy, having read a draft of the aforementioned novel, tells Snoopy that his writing lacks subtlety. His new draft commences with: "It was a kind of dark and sort of stormy night..."
** Lucy tells him he has to focus on the characters more, and create an iconic hero protagonist. So he changes it to "''He'' was a dark and stormy knight..."
** Lucy complains that he's never tried to write anything romantic, Snoopy changes "Suddenly, a shot rang out" to "Suddenly, a ''kiss'' rang out". This is punnier in German, where "Plötzlich hallte ein Schuss!" becomes "Plötzlich hallte ein Kuss!" Perhaps not a coincidence since the author knew a little German.
** Lucy wonders if "suddenly" is the right word in this instance. Snoopy changes it to "Gradually, a shot rang out."
** Snoopy attempted to write a sequel to ''Literature/GoneWithTheWind'', focusing more on Rhett and Scarlett's relationship. He got as far as "It was a dark and stormy marriage" before deciding it was a bad idea.
** Lucy tells Snoopy that all good novels begin with "OnceUponATime". Snoopy promptly reboots: "Once upon a time, it was a dark and stormy night..."
** Lucy complains that all Snoopy's novels begin with that line. Snoopy, CompletelyMissingThePoint, promptly changes it to "It was a stormy and dark night..."
** Lucy again complains that all Snoopy's novels begin the same. Snoopy writes "It was a dark and stormy noon..."
** Lucy says that Snoopy should write a Christmas story. He starts with "It was a dark and stormy Christmas night..."
** Speaking of holidays, she also suggests he write a Thanksgiving story. Snoopy gets as far as "It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a ''turkey'' rang out!"
** Lucy suggests he write a political novel, and he comes up with, "It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly a ''vote'' rang out!"
** He tried to change it once without Lucy, writing, "It may have been dark. It may have been stormy. But one thing was certain, it was night." Then, after rereading it, he thought, "I think that could be shortened somehow..."
** Another strip, Snoopy is typing a letter to his mother to wish her a happy Mother's Day, which includes, in part, "I remember the night I was born. It was a dark and stormy night..."

* ''The Julekalender'', a Danish TV series starts all its episodes with the phrase.

* The official English version of ''Manga/MahouSenseiNegima'' translated the title of chapter 68 into a pun based on this: "It Was a Dark and Stormy Visitor". And yes, it does take place during a dark and stormy night.

* Used in chapter 1 of ''FanFic/AllAmericanGirl'', where it is referred to as an old cliché.

* In ''FanFic/TheStoryToEndAllStories'', this trope is invoked by [[Series/RedDwarf Rimmer]] when thunder is heard outside [[TabletopGame/{{Clue}} Boddy Mansion]].
* ''FanFic/TriptychContinuum'': It's {{defied}} by the use of pegasine weather manipulation in ''[[Recap/TriptychContinuumBarnyardBargeIns Barnyard Barge-Ins]]'':

A SubTrope of WeatherReportOpening. Not to be confused with HostileWeather or StopMotionLighting. Thanks to the [[LightningCanDoAnything power of lightning]], of course, opening on a stormy night scene or at least featuring one has been a Horror trope since Universal's ''Frankenstein'' and before.

* Despite being in a ''visual medium'', ''VideoGame/{{Wild ARMs 3}}'' opens with the words "It was a dark and stormy night," overlaid on animated storm clouds. Unironically.

* Lampshaded in ''[[VideoGame/AnimalCrossing Animal Crossing: Wild World]]'':

* In ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands}}'', Marcus beings the introduction to the Zombie Island of Doctor Ned DLC with this quote, followed by what sounds like surpressed laughter. Seeing as the entire DLC is an affectionate parody of zombies and horror, the phrase is quite fitting.

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