History YMMV / TalesFromTheDarkside

** "If the Shoe Fits". On iMDB, the episode is summarized as such: "Gubernatorial candidate Bo Gumbs fervently believes that politics is nothing more than entertainment, and he shows his true colors graphically during his campaign." Now, from that description, did you expect the episode to involve [[spoiler:Bo ''literally'' turning into a clown]]?

* CrazyIsCool: The mummy in "The Grave Robbers". [[spoiler: When he challenges the robbers to a game of [[ChessWithDeath poker]] he outsmarts them by ''counting the cards'' the whole time. The mummy is freed after winning the game and [[KarmicTwistEnding places the robber in his position as the cursed guardian of the tomb.]] For extra points, the mummy also takes his girlfriend.]]

** "The Grave Robber" is about a mummy fighting against people who stole from his tomb. The mummy would eventually regain his human side, his only cherished memory is that of a girl in his past who he lost, [[spoiler: and he gained an interest in the main protagonists love interest because she resembled the woman he loved.]]. A few years later ''Film/TheMummy1999'' was made and introduced a character with the same story. [[spoiler: However, that mummy was unsuccessful at the end of his story, while the one in ''Tales'' won.]]

** [[spoiler:[[BitchInSheepsClothing Linda]]]] in "Parlour Floor Front" crosses it by [[spoiler: killing her cat, lying that her unborn child was killed by a curse, and causing [[TheWoobie Mars]] to be DrivenToSuicide, all just to get Mars to move out of her apartment building because she thought he was a burden. She suffers a KarmicTwistEnding for her cruelty. If that isn't enough, when her husband Doug finds out about her plan, he leaves her on the spot.]]
** Gale's landlord from "Inside the Closet" passes it when [[spoiler: it was revealed that he took her in his home to ''feed his monstrous daughter''. Throughout the episode she pleads for him to help her and argues that there's something inside the closet trying to harm her, but he dismisses her ''intentionally''. After his monster kills her and her mother calls him out of fear that something has happened to her daughter, he lies about her whereabouts to cover his tracks. In the end, he gets away with murder, and it's implied that Gale was not the first victim of his daughter, nor will she be the last.]]

--->'''Emily''': (near tears) Did your whore leave?\\
'''David''': What?\\
'''Emily''': (pulls out gun)\\
'''David''': (holds hand out; [[{{Narm}} no emotion]]) Em. (is shot)

** Mars Gillis. He's DrivenToSuicide when he thinks that he's killed a baby, when he never did. [[spoiler: He later gets revenge by killing [[BitchInSheepsClothing Linda]] for making him kill himself after she caused his suffering to begin with.]]

* ContrivedCoincidence: Karen in "I Can't Help Saying Goodbye" correctly predicts the deaths of two people close to her, driving her sister and the sister's fiance' into a paranoid state, thinking they are next. In truth, Karen does not cause the deaths, she only sees them coming, feels she cannot stop what will happen, and says a strange Goodbye to those who will soon be gone. In the end, her sister resolves to kill the young girl and apparently does, which Karen accepts, saying goodbye to her own reflection as she sees herself drowning in the near future. Problem is, Karen can communicate her real power - she does so to her doll. But the two deaths in quick succession make her seem like a dangerous entity, making the sister's fiance so paranoid, he dies of an asthma attack, cementing Karen's fate. An explanation of some sort might have spared her. To be fair, either Karen was a bit slow on the uptake, or her power made it hard to really tell people what it was all about. But it just seems an avoidable fate.

** "Love Hungry" is about this lady who buys a magic hearing aid and pair of glasses as a weight loss treatment and begins to see and hear her food talking to her, that episode aired in 1988, 21 years later we got WebVideo/TheAnnoyingOrange, even funnier, two of the fruits she made friends with were an apple and a pear making this even funnier.
*** Many people are starting to compare this episode to 2016's WesternAnimation/SausageParty. And in fact, the episode acts as a counterpoint to that film, as it points out that [[spoiler:food ''needs'' to be eaten, otherwise it just ''rots'']].

** The monster from "Inside the Closet" looked like an aborted Muppet...

* TheWoobie: Mars Gillis. He's DrivenToSuicide when he thinks that he's killed a baby, when he never did. [[spoiler: He later gets revenge by killing [[BitchInSheepsClothing Linda]] for making him kill himself after she caused his suffering to begin with.]]
** '''Mary Jones.''' The poor girl suffers from cripplingly low self-esteem, to the point where she can only handle conversations with her mannequins and uses stuffed animals as pets. Even when a handsome neighbor finds her attractive, she feels that she can't please anyone, let alone the neighbor. It gets to the point where she somehow turns into a mannequin at the end of the episode, simply because of how worthless she felt as a person.

** "Barter", for whatever reason, is in essence an episode of ''Series/ILoveLucy'' involving an alien salesman.
* CrazyIsCool: The mummy in "The Grave Robbers". [[spoiler: When he challenges the robbers to a game of [[ChessWithDeath poker]] he outsmarts them by ''counting the cards'' the whole time. The mummy is freed after winning the game and [[KarmicTwistEnding places the robber in his position as the cursed guardian of the tomb.]] For extra points the mummy also takes his girlfriend.]]

** "The Grave Robbers" is about a mummy fighting against people who stole from his tomb. The mummy would eventually regain his human side, his only cherished memory is that of a girl in his past who he lost, [[spoiler: and he gained an interest in the main protagonists love interest because she resembled the woman he loved.]]. A few years later ''Film/TheMummy1999'' was made and introduced a character with the same story. [[spoiler: However, that mummy was unsuccessful at the end of his story, while the one in ''Tales'' won.]]

** Luther Mandrake from "The Devil's Advocate". Full stop. He's an absolute asshole to everyone he comes into contact with, his cynical view of the world and personal insults often driving his callers to tears, and (somehow) driving them to Satanism. The halfway point of the episode ''does'' share a little background about him: his parents died horribly, his son died horribly, and his wife is in a coma. Is it any wonder that he's such an asshole?
* MagnificentBastard: "[[Recap/TalesFromTheDarksideS4E6TheGraveRobber The Grave Robber]]": Tapok is the Lord Chamberlain of the Pharaoh. Awakening from his slumber when archaeologist Doctor Harold Gormley and his girlfriend Aileen enter his tomb, he kills their guide Ahmed before revealing himself to be more AffablyEvil enough to engage the two in a series of games. Despite being dismissed as a brainless monster, Tapok proves himself to be [[ObfuscatingStupidity smarter than he looked]] by reading the cards during a round and successfully switches places with Harold as well as taking Aileen, nothing that she reminded him of his lost love.

** [[spoiler:[[BitchInSheepsClothing Linda]]]] in "Parlour Floor Front" crosses it by [[spoiler: Killing her cat, lying that her unborn child was killed by a curse, and causing [[TheWoobie Mars]] to be DrivenToSuicide. This was all to get Mars to move out of her apartment building because she disliked him. She suffers a KarmicTwistEnding for her cruelty.]]
** Gale's landlord from "Inside the Closet" passes it when [[spoiler: it was revealed that he took her in his home to ''feed his pet monster''. Throughout the episode she pleads for him to help her and argues that there's something inside the closet trying to harm her, but he dismisses her ''intentionally''. After his monster kills her and her mother calls him out of fear that something has happened to her daughter, he lies about her whereabouts to cover his tracks. He gets away with murder and it's implied that Gale was not the first or last victim for his monster.]]

** Betsy Cowland is another fine example. Hearing that her high school crush has come back to town, she tries to lose weight in the hopes of him finding her beautiful again. The mysterious weight loss program she signs up for delivers her a hearing aid that makes her hear the screams of agony of food as it's chewed and swallowed, as well as a pair of glasses that make her see her own food as sentient beings. By the end of the episode, she's sewn her mouth shut and starved to death in an attempt to keep her food (which by this point has long since rotted) alive. What's worse is that her crush, Elmo Shroud, was a short, stocky, bald guy who doesn't care about how he looks now, or even if Betsy is a tad overweight, and was willing to love her for who she is instead of her appearance. Betsy unfortunately never got that message. Her self-confidence was just '''that''' low.

** '''Mary Jones.''' The poor girl suffers from horribly low self-esteem, to the point where describing how miserable she is just isn't enough. You'd have to watch her episode to see yourself.

** Gale's landlord from "Inside the Closet" passes it when [[spoiler: it was revealed that he took her in his home to ''feed his pet monster''. Throughout the episode she pleads for him to help her and argues that there's something inside the closet trying to harm her, but he dismisses her ''intentionally''. After his monster kills her and [[AdultFear her mother calls him out of fear that something has happened to her daughter]], he lies about her whereabouts to cover his tracks. He gets away with murder and it's implied that Gale was not the first or last victim for his monster.]]

* ContrivedCoincidence: Karen in "I Can Only say Goodbye" correctly predicts the deaths of two people close to her, driving her sister and the sister's fiance' into a paranoid state, thinking they are next. In truth, Karen does not cause the deaths, she only sees them coming, feels she cannot stop what will happen, and says a strange Goodbye to those who will soon be gone. In the end, her sister resolves to kill the young girl and apparently does, which Karen accepts, saying goodbye to her own reflection as she sees herself drowning in the near future. Problem is, Karen can communicate her real power - she does so to her doll. But the two deaths in quick succession make her seem like a dangerous entity, making the sister's fiance so paranoid, he dies of an asthma attack, cementing Karen's fate. An explanation of some sort might have spared her. To be fair, either Karen was a bit slow on the uptake, or her power made it hard to really tell people what it was all about. But it just seems an avoidable fate.

** '''Mary Jones.''' Describing how miserable she is just isn't enough. You'd have to watch her episode to see yourself.

* JerkassWoobie: Both protagonists in "Snip, Snip."