History Main / SlidingScaleOfSillinessVersusSeriousness

** This doesn't stop the series from doing serious, or semi-serious, story arcs, as with The End of the World or Golden Week. This happens more in the manga than the anime, though even then there is only one truely serious story arc and they keep the comedy.

** This doesn't stop the series from doing serious, or semi-serious, story arcs, as with The End of the World or Golden Week.

* On the flip side, ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' has to be one of the most serious anime out there.
** ThisTroper begs to differ. It just gets really serious in TheMovie (i.e. ''TheEndOfEvangelion'') and in the later episodes.
*** The movie was an interesting case. The beginning was undoubtedly serious. The second half was more so: it became so serious that it [[MindScrew circled back, not to silliness, but to a weird anti-sliding scale where nothing makes any fucking sense whatsoever.]]
** ''Neon Genesis Evangelion''... has issues. It starts out a somewhat good note, spiraling into incomprehensibility and angst, all the while giving the discerning otaku viewer loads of Fanservice... suffice to say it's a {{Deconstruction}}.
** [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation Evangelion can be]] '''[[AlternateCharacterInterpretation hilarious]]''' if you watch it with the understanding that [[ButtMonkey the entire universe exists only to torment Shinji]]. Which is actually not too far off from the [[WMG/NeonGenesisEvangelion third WMG entry for the series]].
** Evangelion is a complicated case, because it is a {{Deconstruction}} of a silly genre (SuperRobot), effected by playing the genre's tropes seriously, inverting them or subverting them. It also uses a lot of silly comic relief early on.

*** Unless you count [[{{Thelegend Of Zelda CDI Games}}Zelda: Wand of Gamelon and Link: Faces of Evil]].

--> '''Ipslore the Red:''' And where would people be without love?
--> ''Death:''' [[AC:Rare]].

* ''{{Goblins}}: Life Through Their Eyes'' started as a light hearted parody poking at DnD rules. Then [[CerebusSyndrome all hell broke loose]].

** Not to mention the election night sketch, where the results of various elections were announced, mostly between the Silly Party and the Serious Party, with a few third party candidates from the Slightly Silly Party and the Very Silly Party, taking the title of this page quite literally.

* The various ''StarTrek'' series. While ''StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' was pretty serious overall (with of course a few good jokes and comedic episodes here and there), the [[StarTrekDeepSpaceNine two]] [[StarTrekVoyager following]] series were pretty much a mixed bag of dead-serious episodes and pure comedy examples (some being BreatherEpisodes), such as Quark and family on {{DS9}} and The Doctor on [[StarTrekVoyager VOY]]) episodes.

* No mention of Star Trek yet? While StarTrekTheNextGeneration was pretty serious overall (with of course a few good jokes and comedic episodes here and there), the [[StarTrekDeepSpaceNine two]] [[StarTrekVoyager following]] series were pretty much a mixed bag of dead-serious episodes and pure comedy characters (Quark and family on DS9 and The Doctor on VOY) and episodes.

*** I believe that's, 'Belgium', which should only be used in an artistic sense. Otherwise it's just plain rude.

** It also lambasts the serious end of this trope with the Roary, a small silver award given for the most gratuitious use of the word "fuck" in a serious screen play.

* The ''WarioLand'' series is the most extreme representation of the silly end of the scale. You've got ''WarioWare'' which is pretty much rule of silly and fun defined, which is pretty much random character stories with even more random microgames which deliberately make as little sense s possible, and ''WarioLand'' which pretty much does away with a story so to speak and has Wario exploring extreme ThemeParkVersions of places and fighting some extremely weird bosses (Evil cuckoo clock? Basketball playing rabbit? What looks like a French duck chef riding a frying pan and randomly attacking the character from the ceiling or the side of the screen?) And with treasure that includes well...literal metaphors and random items with punny names?

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* {{Metroid}}, or at least the [[MetroidPrime Prime games]], is almost always very serious, even with it's humor, which mostly revolves around the SpacePirates being TooDumbToLive.

** [[TheUntelligible Rowley Birkin QC's]] sketches are [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Cwyq3XWeHE almost]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqSGmVlqR24 always]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XDwDtUGDgTU entirely]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PICVTFfuOCg silly]], as he drunkenly recalls episodes his lifetime of [[TheNoodleIncident Noodle Incidents]], always ending with the CatchPhrase "I'm afraid I was very, very drunk!". However, in one sketch he recalls losing his true love, and Paul Whitehouse's delivery is, well... impossible to watch and be left with a dry eye. [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlQ9KLrC4Us See for yourself]].

* Much like ''Avatar'' above, ''DannyPhantom'' is all over this scale. It goes from various degrees of complete silliness (the Box Ghost in general, Danny being split into two stereotypical and wacky [[{{Flanderization}} Flanderizations]] of his personality) to incredibly serious (anything involving Danny's [[AxCrazy alternate]] [[BadFuture future]] [[PsychoForHire self]] for a start, Vlad's cloning, Danny becoming Public Enemy Number One). Many times, the scale flucutates repeatedly in a single episode, where humor will be placed into an extremely serious episode.
* I can't believe no one mentioend ''TeenTitans'' yet. You'd have episodes with really serious and dark stuff like Slade's Scary MindRape closely aired in order to an ExtremeOmnivore episode. Not to mention ADayAtTheBizarro episodes always airing RIGHT BEFORE the DarkerAndEdgier SeasonFinale.
** Head Injury Theater even [[http://www.headinjurytheater.com/article12e.htm notes]] that seasons tend to go up and down the scale correspondingly. For example, Season 1 was relatively low on plot, and the episodes tended to mostly stay in the middle. Season 4 was heavy on a dark and apocalyptic plot, but the episodes not having to do with that plot were about [[TrappedInTVLand Control Freak leading them through TV shows]], Cyborg going back in time to fight with barbarians, the other members dressing like Robin while he trains with animals, tofu aliens, a redneck who can duplicate himself, and a bizarre re-enactment of Hansel and Gretal.

** There's a good number of jokes scattered throughout the EncyclopediaExposita. Especially the Morganite quotes. On the subject of black holes: "Yes, yes, we've all heard the philosophers babble about 'oneness' being 'beautiful' and 'holy'. But let me tell you that [this] kind of oneness certainly isn't pretty and if you're not careful it will scare the bejeezus out of you."

** Not to mention the election night sketch, where the results of various elections were announced, mostly between the Silly Party and the Serious Party, which a few third party candidates from the Slightly Silly Party and the Very Silly Party, taking the title of this page quite literally.