History Main / RockBottom

* Subverted (or at least lampshaded) in ''WesternAnimation/TheBraveLittleToaster'':
-->'''Radio''': Things could be worse, you know.\\
'''Lampy''': How?\\
'''Radio''': How what?\\
'''Lampy''': How could they be worse?\\
'''Radio''': They couldn't; I lied.

* Subverted (or at least lampshaded) in ''TheBraveLittleToaster'':

* The classic example in Creator/MelBrooks' ''Film/YoungFrankenstein'', where Frederick Frankenstein and Igor are digging up a grave, leading to the page-quote above. [[[DramaticThunder A crash of]] [[ThunderEqualsDownpour thunder and]] [[GraveClouds it starts]] [[CueTheRain to pour]]]

* The ''CloneHigh'' election episode had a subversion and LampshadeHanging. The Gandhi clone says, "At least things can't get any worse." Abe replies, "How many times have I told you not to say that? Now something worse is going to happen. I've seen it on ''Series/HappyDays''. 3, 2, 1..." Cleopatra (who Abe has a crush on) comes in to say that she wants to spend time alone with [=JFK=]. Gandhi then says "Things can't get any '''better'''." Abe says "It doesn't work that way," and leaves. A butterfly flies by Gandhi and gives him a dollar.

* ''HeyArnold'', "The Baseball", Arnold and Gerald complain about bad seating at a baseball game, and then a section of roof suddenly falls onto the two.
* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d, in ''TheSimpsons'': after a run of bad luck, Homer laments to Lenny and Carl that "Things can't get any worse". All three look around expectantly, then when nothing happens Homer says with more emphasis, "Yep, things ''definitely can't get any worse''". Immediately after that, Smithers comes on the PA and orders Homer to report for "much worse duty".

* The ''CloneHigh'' election episode had a subversion and LampshadeHanging. The Gandhi clone says, "At least things can't get any worse." Abe replies, "How many times have I told you not to say that? Now something worse is going to happen. I've seen it on ''HappyDays''. 3, 2, 1..." Cleopatra (who Abe has a crush on) comes in to say that she wants to spend time alone with [=JFK=]. Gandhi then says "Things can't get any '''better'''." Abe says "It doesn't work that way," and leaves. A butterfly flies by Gandhi and gives him a dollar.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' has a variation on this trope when the kids [[ItMakesSenseInContext end up switching brains with a gang of alien prisoners and find themselves in an extraterrestrial prison]]:

* Played straight in Disney's ''Disney/{{Tarzan}}''.
-->'''Jane''': It can't get any worse, can it?\\
''[[ThunderEqualsDownpour Thunder crashes, rain begins.]]''\\
'''Jane''': Obviously it can.

[[folder:Films -- Western Animation]]
* In ''WesternAnimation/TheRoadToElDorado'' our heroes Tulio and Miguel end up stranded in a rowboat with a horse, hundreds of miles from land, with limited supplies.
-->'''Miguel''': At least things can't get any-\\
(A thunderclap sounds and it is suddenly pouring rain)\\
'''Tulio''': Excuse me, were you about to say WORSE?
** They then talk about how at least they're in a rowboat, and the screen fades out [[EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks with black fins approaching them]].
[[/folder]]

A form of TemptingFate. Tightly related to {{Retirony}}. Often leads to YouJustHadToSayIt. A DiscreditedTrope by now, it's frequently [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] or parodied these days.

* ''Film/Bridesmaids'' has a few moments like this.

* In ''{{Greek}}'', after living with super-annoying by-the-book consultant Lizzie for a month, Casey comments that "We've hit rock bottom, and there's nowhere to go but up." On cue, Lizzie announces she's arranged a mixer...with the geekiest frat on campus.

* In ''SanfordAndSon'' the pair have a disastrous camping trip and Lamont notes that it could be worse. When his father asks how, Lamont notes "It could snow." Sure enough, it instantly starts snowing right there and then.

* Played straight in ''TheTenthKingdom'': Virginia despondently sits down on a set of steps in Kissing Town after [[spoiler:she finds out Wolf spent all the money he'd won at gambling on dinner instead of buying the Traveling mirror, and subsequently walks out on him, thinking he's a selfish bastard who doesn't really love her.]] She decides, and says aloud that at least things can't get any worse. At exactly that moment, her father Tony, climbing around on the roof, loses his hold on [[spoiler:the Traveling mirror, and it falls off to smash into a thousand pieces at Virginia's feet.]] The fact that this [[spoiler:gives Tony seven years' bad luck]] ''really'' shows she [[TemptingFate shouldn't have said that.]]
* ''ThatsSoRaven'': Raven got stuck in a limo's moon roof when going to prom. Then it started raining on her. "Well at least it can't get any worse"...cue the gale force winds.

* Occurs on ''TheWire''. Most prominently at the end of season 4 when [[spoiler: Bubbles accidentally kills Sherrod, leading him to finally enter rehab and get sober.]] Also at the end of season 5, [=McNulty=] seems to realize just how much he's screwed up and how much it is costing those around him. It's strongly suggested that he'll finally clean up his act.

CueTheRain covers the specific variant where this comes in the form of [[HostileWeather a sudden downpour]]. See also FromBadToWorse, for when things in a series really, truly go to hell.

* Happened in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'' when Mojo Jojo kidnapped the narrator and took his place. If I remember correctly, he at one point forces the girls to walk somewhere rather than fly, leading to this:
-->'''Bubbles:''' At least it's not raining...
-->'''Mojo Jojo:''' Hm...Good idea! ''(It starts raining)''

-> "[General Slim] tells another story. One day he entered a jungle glade in a tank. In front of him stood a group of soldiers, in their midst the eternal Tommy. Assuming an optimism which he did not feel, Slim jumped out of the tank and approached them. "Gentlemen!" he said (which is the nice way that British generals sometimes address their troops) "Things might be worse!"
->"‘Ow could they be worse?" inquired the Tommy.
->"Well, it could rain" said Slim, lightly. He adds "[[CueTheRain And within quarter of an hour it did]].""

* The classic example in Creator/MelBrooks' ''Film/YoungFrankenstein'', where Frederick Frankenstein and Igor are digging up a grave, leading to the page-quote above.
[[[DramaticThunder A crash of]] [[ThunderEqualsDownpour thunder and]] [[GraveClouds it starts]] [[CueTheRain to pour]]]

** {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d and subverted in a later episode, where The Simpsons lose their house. Tossed out unto the street, Homer says, "well, it could be worse. At least it's not raining." Just then....nothing happens. "See?" says Homer, "told you it could be worse."

->'''Frederick:''' What a filthy job!\\
'''Igor:''' Could be worse.\\
'''Frederick:''' ''How''?\\
'''Igor:''' Could be raining.\\
''[Thunderclap, followed by torrential rain]''
-->-- ''Film/YoungFrankenstein''

* In an episode of ''The SuperMarioBrosSuperShow'', Mario and friends are thrown into a dungeon. Mario tells Luigi that things could be worse. Luigi asks him how, and Mario tells him that the ceiling could flatten them like a pizza. Right on cue, [[DescendingCeiling the ceiling starts descending on them]]. Mario, undaunted, says that water could flood the room until they drown like rats. [[RiseToTheChallenge You know what happens next.]] Mario, still keeping his cool, says he could think of other things that could be worse, but Luigi promptly shuts him up.

* In ''Film/AustinPowers: The Spy who Shagged Me'', Austin visits his frozen self after losing his mojo, saying that at least things couldn't get any worse. Cue a GilliganCut to Felicity sleeping with Fat Bastard to plant a tracking device on him.

* Subverted in ''Christmas Vacation'': "Worse? How could it get any worse? Take a look around you, Ellen, we're at the threshold of Hell!" Things do actually start to get better at that point, and ultimately Clark Griswold gets his one true happy ending of the whole series.
* ''LookWhosTalking'', with the mother complaining about the chores of motherhood, and then being visited by her mother.

* ''[[Film/{{DEBS}} D.E.B.S.]]'' When Janet, Max, and Dominique are trapped in the bank vault, Janet says "This could not get any worse!". Cue [[SpikesOfDoom spikes]] extending from the ceiling and the [[DescendingCeiling ceiling starting to lower]] toward our heroines.

* Repeatedly used in a particularly dark fashion in ''SchindlersList''. As the persecuted Jews are forced to live under increasingly more inhuman and nightmarish conditions by the Nazis, they try to cheer themselves up because their situation couldn't get even ''worse'' than it already is. That is before they discover what the Holocaust [[FinalSolution entailed]].

* In ''TheRoadToElDorado'' our heroes Tulio and Miguel end up stranded in a rowboat with a horse, hundreds of miles from land, with limited supplies.

* An episode of ''SpongeBobSquarePants'' (called, oddly enough, "Rock Bottom") had a plot based on this. After taking the wrong bus, Spongebob gets stranded in a town called Rock Bottom in a deep sea trench, and has a few moments like this as he struggles to get home.

* Creator/JRRTolkien's ''TheSilmarillion'' contains this phrase:

* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d [[spoiler:and subverted]] in ''GarfieldAndFriends'', "The Incredibly Stupid Swamp Monster": Orson, Booker, and Sheldon run into the weasel, who ties them to a tree and leaves them for the barnyard to nab the chickens. Orson delivers the "Things can't possibly..." version, but Sheldon tells him not to say that, because when people say things like that in cartoon shows, things always get worse. Orson compounds the error by delivering the "How could...?" variation, and Sheldon points in the direction of some rumbling. Cue the titular Incredibly Stupid Swamp Monster (really a robot that keeps spouting random incorrect phrases and which has been covered in swamp stuff from submerging itself in it). [[spoiler:This turns out to be a good thing, however, as the monster undoes the rope (to play jump rope) and stops the weasel (in a scene reminiscent of WesternAnimation/BugsBunny's [[AndCallHimGeorge Abominable Snowman]]).]]

* In ''TheRealGhostbusters'' episode "The Halloween Door," after the Containment Unit explodes:

* Annabel in ''Webcomic/YetAnotherFantasyGamerComic'' after Glon [[http://yafgc.net/?id=332 abducted]] her as a vengeance for mocking him before he became important.
-->'''[[http://yafgc.net/?id=335 Annabel]]''': (running away) What could possibly be worse than being held prisoner by an orc? (collides with one very unamused drow)

* This trope is exploited by ''{{Ranma}}'' in an old fanfic from the 1990s, ''Smartarse 1/2'' when he beats up Kuno for the first time and writes something on Kuno's forehead, the twist is that it was the phrase '''"At least it can't possibly get any worse."'''. When Kuno reads the phrase out loud, suddenly a real battleaxe of a nurse walks in while [[AssShove putting on a rubber glove]] and orders Kuno to bend over... [[BigNo much screaming occurs]].