Line #46 Main/ItWasADarkAndStormyNight


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4	[[quoteright:300:[[ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/darkandstormy_5013.jpg]]]]
5	[[caption-width-right:300:[-"Here's the World-Famous Novelist launching his latest bestseller..."-] ]]
6
7	->''"It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents — except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness."''
8	-->-- '''Creator/EdwardBulwerLytton''', ''Literature/PaulClifford'' (opening line)
9
10	Creator/EdwardBulwerLytton was [[RuleOfThree three remarkable things]]. For one, he was an author. For two, he is the inventor of such catchy cliches as "the pen is mightier than the sword", "the great unwashed" and "the pursuit of the almighty dollar". However, he is not [[PopularHistory remembered]] for either of these. Instead, his legacy is being the man who started a book with "It was a dark and stormy night..." that keeps him alive as a multimedia sensation beyond anything he could possibly have imagined — the ''ur''-touchstone for convoluted PurpleProse and campfire [[GhostStory Ghost Stories]].
11
12	The phrase, which opens Bulwer-Lytton's 1830 novel ''Paul Clifford'', has been so thoroughly mocked and re-used it should be a DeadHorseTrope if it were not an UndeadHorseTrope: it's just too much fun. In fact, not [[Literature/BulwerLyttonFictionContest one]], but [[Literature/LyttleLyttonContest two]] annual writing contests are held (and named) in Bulwer-Lytton's honor.
13
14	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 ''[[Film/Frankenstein1931 Frankenstein]]'' and before. Often used in a ScarilySpecificStory if you're telling the story ''on'' a dark, stormy night.
15
16	Not to be confused with the Larry Blamire film ''Film/DarkAndStormyNight'' or the anime film ''Anime/OneStormyNight''.
17	----
18	!!It was a Dark and Stormy Night. Suddenly... an example rang out![[note]]\
19	My plot is thickening![[/note]]:
20	[[foldercontrol]]
21
22	[[folder:Advertising]]
23	* Snoopy writes his novel ''during'' a dark and stormy night in one of the Metropolitan Life commercials starring him.
24	[[/folder]]
25
26	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
27	* Spoofed by Junpei in the English dub of ''Anime/DigimonFrontier'', when the heroes were exploring the Dark Continent:
28	-->"It was a dark and stormy night. Luckily there was this really great guy here to save you!"
29	* The official English version of ''Manga/NegimaMagisterNegiMagi'' 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.
30	* The 4Kids dub of ''Anime/KirbyRightBackAtYa'' titles the episode with Kracko 'A Dark and Stormy Knight'.
31	* The whole plot of ''Anime/OneStormyNight '' starts with Mei the goat and Gabu the wolf bonding in an abandoned barn while hiding from a storm. "One stormy night" serves as Mei and Gabu's secret phrase.
32	[[/folder]]
33
34	[[folder:Comic Books]]
35	* ''Detective Comics'' #500 turns Snoopy's short novel (see Newspaper Comics below) into a ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' story!
36	* Chantal, a character in ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'', has a dream which is a loop of a sailor telling a story that begins with "It was a dark and stormy night."
37	* One issue of ''ComicBook/WonderWoman'' has a supporting character narrating his meeting with ComicBook/{{Batman}}, beginning with: "He was a dark and stormy knight."
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
41	* ''ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}}'': Mocking this phrase perhaps began with, and was certainly [[TropeCodifier popularized by]], Snoopy's incarnation as World-Famous Novelist, with his typewriter set atop his doghouse. He eventually managed to string together an entire 'novel' out of banal dramatic clichés, including the oft-heard opening line: "It was a dark and stormy night... Suddenly, a shot rang out!"\
42	\
43	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:\
44	\
45	[-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.-]\
46	\
47	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.\
48	\
49	Snoopy's responses to Lucy's feedback:
50	** 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..."
51	** 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..."
52	** 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.
53	** Lucy wonders if "suddenly" is the right word in this instance. Snoopy changes it to "Gradually, a shot rang out."
54	** 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.
55	** Lucy tells Snoopy that all good novels begin with "OnceUponATime". Snoopy promptly reboots: "Once upon a time, it was a dark and stormy night..."
56	** Lucy complains that all Snoopy's novels begin with that line. Snoopy, ComicallyMissingThePoint, promptly changes it to "It was a stormy and dark night..."
57	** Lucy again complains that all Snoopy's novels begin the same. Snoopy writes "It was a dark and stormy noon..."
58	** Lucy says that Snoopy should write a Christmas story. He starts with "It was a dark and stormy Christmas night..."
59	** 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!"
60	** Lucy suggests he write a political novel, and he comes up with, "It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly a ''vote'' rang out!"
61	** 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..."
62	** 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..."
63	* In ''ComicStrip/PricklyCity'', Winslow starts a book like this (while sitting on a doghouse) but rejects as too doggish.
64	* A ''ComicStrip/{{Zits}}'' strip where the punchline was the character Pierce perched on top of [[ComicStrip/{{Peanuts}} Snoopy's]] doghouse in the final panel, texting "It Wz a Drk N Strmy Nite" or something along those lines.
65	* The titular character of ''ComicStrip/BigNate'' submitted one his Social studies paper that begins with "It was a dark and stormy night in the morning..." [[SternTeacher Mrs. Godfrey]] immediately gave him an F.
66	[[/folder]]
67
68	[[folder:Fan Works]]
69	* When Kyon realizes that Haruhi might end the world in ''Fanfic/KyonBigDamnHero'', he starts cursing the weather for not being dark and stormy.
70	* In ''Fanfic/TheOllivanderChildren'' 's sequel, ''The Ollivanders at War,'' Calliope Ollivander notes at the start of one chapter that it should be a dark and stormy night, but she can't quite tell, being trapped underground.
71	* {{Lampshade\|Hanging}}d in ''Fanfic/TheGlovesAreOff'' -- "It was a dark and stormy night- except that it was mid afternoon and partly cloudy."
72	* Used in chapter 1 of ''Fanfic/AllAmericanGirlShinzakura'', where it is referred to as an old cliché.
73	* The original first chapter of ''Fanfic/PokemonMysteryDungeonReflectingBalance'' begins with a lampshaded instance of this line. In the revised version of the chapter, this was changed.
74	* ''Fanfic/ThePalaververse'': ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/286938/the-end-of-the-day The End of the Day]]'': The long and short versions of the story description starts this way:
75	--> On a dark and stormy night, centuries in the past, Celestia and Luna walked into a bar.\
76	On a dark and stormy night, two perfectly normal ponies walk into a bar and alter the whole future of Equestria.
77	* In ''Fanfic/TheStoryToEndAllStories'', this trope is invoked by [[Series/RedDwarf Rimmer]] when thunder is heard outside [[TabletopGame/{{Clue}} Boddy Mansion]].
78	* ''Fanfic/TriptychContinuum'': It's {{defied}} by the use of pegasine weather manipulation in ''[[Recap/TriptychContinuumBarnyardBargeIns Barnyard Barge-Ins]]'':
79	-->What everypony else has written concerning the Riot has taken the form of a story. I have spoken to the ponies who were there. I know what truly happened and so you, as a student of the Riot, will gain that knowledge.\
80	It was a dark and storm-free night.\
81	It had taken just about all of his remaining pull with the Weather Bureau to get that storm postponed. But if ponies were going to be waiting, then they were going to be waiting in the dry.
82	* ''Fanfic/RainbowDoubleDashsLunaverse:'' The story ''Crisis on Two Equestrias'' begins with this line, followed by Trixie grumbling at herself for actually thinking it. Though it actually is dark and stormy - she's just messed up a teleporting spell and is completely lost.
83	* ''Heart of Fire'', the first part of ''Fanfic/TheHeartTrilogy'', starts with Kathryn spending her evening inside her cottage as a storm rages outside. Gandalf the Grey then knocks on her door to ask for shelter and question about her history with the dragon Smaug.
84	[[/folder]]
85
86	[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]
87	* ''Film/ThrowMommaFromTheTrain'' begins with Larry Donner having massive writer's block, unable to get past "The night was..." He discards such lame words as "foggy", "hot", even ''"moist"''. HilarityEnsues later when he finds out one of his literature students used the same phrase he did ("The night was humid"). Later, Momma picks the ''perfect'' word ("The night was ''sultry''", itself a ShoutOut to ''Literature/ATaleOfTwoCities'') which presses Larry's BerserkButton and causes him to [[TranquilFury declare quietly]] to Owen that he's getting up "to kill the bitch".
88	* ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'':
89	-->It seemed a fairly ordinary night when Brad Majors [[note]]Asshole![[/note]] and his fiancee Janet Weiss [[note]]Slut![[/note]], two young, ordinary healthy kids left Denton that late November evening[[note]]It was August![[/note]], to visit a Dr. Everett Scott[[note]]Kiss-ass![[/note]], ex-tutor, now friend to both of them. [[note]]Is it true that you fuck sheep?[[/note]] It’s true, there were dark storm clouds. [[note]]Describe your balls![[/note]] heavy, black, and pendulous, toward which they were driving. [[note]]Is it also true you fuck goats?[[/note]] It’s true also, that the spare tire they were carrying was badly in need of some air [[note]]Like your neck![[/note]] but they being normal kids and on a night out, well they weren’t going to let a storm spoil the events of their evening.[[note]]Where were they?[[/note]] On a night out… [[note]]It was a Days Inn![[/note]] …it was a night out… …they were going to remember [[note]]For how long?[[/note]] for a very long time.
90	* The horror short ''Suckablood'' takes place over a dark, thunder-ridden night. According to the opening and closing couplets, these kind of nights are the monster's preferred stalking times.
91	* ''Film/SevenMenFromNow'' starts on a stormy night, with Stride finding shelter in a cave with two men already there. Turns out he's been tracking them down to kill them.
92	[[/folder]]
93
94	[[folder:Literature]]
95	* The phrase actually predates Bulwer-Lytton, appearing in Washington Irving's satirical 1809 book ''A History of New-York'':
96	-->It was a dark and stormy night when the good Anthony arrived at the famous creek (sagely denominated Haerlem ''river'') which separates the island of Manna-hatta from the main land.
97	* Creator/EdgarAllanPoe uses the phrase in "The Bargain Lost", a 1832 short story (set in UsefulNotes/{{Venice}}) about a wannabe philosopher meeting {{the Devil}}. Poe later rewrote this tale into "Bon-Bon" (1835), in which the phrase does no longer appear verbatim, but has been replaced by an equally flowery paraphrase. In either case this seems to be satire, as throughout either "The Bargain Lost" or "Bon-Bon" Poe affects an [[PurpleProse overly ornate, flowery and long-winded style]] that signals that the story is not to be taken seriously.
98	-->''It was a dark and stormy night. The rain fell in cataracts; and drowsy citizens started, from dreams of the deluge, to gaze upon the boisterous sea, which foamed and bellowed for admittance into the proud towers and marble palaces.''
99	* Played straight in the ''Literature/TheRaven'' (also by Edgar Allen Poe).
100	-->''Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary...''
101	* ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'': Before ''Frankenstein'' became a full-fledged novel, Creator/MaryShelley began with 'It was a dreary night of November', which later became the opening of chapter 6 as the Creature is awakened.
102	* Appears in some English translations of ''Literature/TheThreeMusketeers'' at the beginning of chapter 65, in which the musketeers and their friends try Milady de Winter for her crimes. 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.
103	* One chapter of ''Literature/ATaleOfTwoCities'' starts, "The night was so very sultry..."
104	* ''Literature/AWrinkleInTime'' by Creator/MadeleineLEngle is a popular and critically acclaimed novel known for starting with the line. To her endless frustration, the UK publishers revised it to read "It was a dark and stormy night in a small village in the United States."
105	* The opening narration to ''[[Literature/{{Animorphs}} Animorphs #2 chapter 16]]'' reads as follows:
106	-->It was a dark and stormy night.
107	-->Sorry, [[IAlwaysWantedToSayThat I've always wanted to write that]]. But it really was a dark and stormy night.
108	* The only way that the 1980s horror-pastiche that was the Literature/FightingFantasy {{Gamebook}} ''Literature/HouseOfHell'' could begin on...
109	* The prologue of ''Literature/GoodOmens'' (Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman) begins "It was a nice day. All the days had been nice." Then, after quickly covering Man's Fall from Eden, the short chapter ''ends'' with "It was going to be a dark and stormy night." It then proceeds to shamelessly mock the phrase during the first chapter, with the following quote:
110	-->"It wasn't a dark and stormy night.\
111	It should have been, but there's the weather for you. For every mad scientist who's had a [[DramaticThunder convenient thunderstorm]] just on the night his Great Work is complete and lying on the slab, there have been dozens who've sat around aimlessly under the peaceful stars while [[TheIgor Igor]] clocks up the overtime."
112	* Children's author duo Janet and Allan Alberg have a truly excellent picture book that is titled for this trope and deliberately uses it. It's about TalkingTheMonsterToDeath.
113	* ''Literature/{{Bunnicula}}'', a series of AffectionateParody horror novels about, well, [[ExactlyWhatitsaysOnTheTin a vampire bunny]] who vampirizes fruits and vegetables, begins its third story thus:
114	-->"IT WAS ''[[InvertedTrope NOT]]'' a dark and stormy night. Indeed, there was nothing in the elements to foreshadow the events that lay ahead."
115	* Creator/RayBradbury's detective novel ''Let's All Kill Constance'' begins with the unnamed narrator giving this line, then apologizing to the reader and giving a more original and detailed description of the truthfully dark and stormy night.
116	** There are no doubt many stories that start with original and detailed descriptions of dark and stormy nights, but just for starters here's one by Patrick O'Brian:
117	--->The night was old, black, and full of driving cold rain; the moon and the stars had already passed over the sky. But anyhow they had been hidden since midnight by the low, racing, torn cloud and the flying wetness of small rain and sea-foam and the whipped-off top of standing water. Dawn was still far away: from the dark east the mounting wind blew in gusts; it bore more rain flatlings from the sea.
118	* The opening of Julian May's ''[[Literature/GalacticMilieu Jack the Bodiless]]'' is: "It was a dark and stormy night, as so many nights were on Denali, where topography and climate conspired to produce some of the Galaxy's worst weather."
119	* ''[[Literature/CastlePerilous Castle Murders]]'' by John [=DeChancie=] opens on a college campus, with the {{Spoonerism}} "It was a stark and dormy night..." He uses the [[LampshadeHanging line]] "It was a dark night of ''Sturm und Drang.''"
120	* One of Creator/StephenLeacock's early-20th-century parodies of Bronte-style romantic literature, the short story ''[[http://www.online-literature.com/stephen-leacock/nonsense-novels/5/ Gertrude the Governess: or, Simple Seventeen]]'', begins with a parody of this opening:
121	-->It was a wild and stormy night on the West Coast of Scotland. This, however, is immaterial to the present story, as the scene is not laid in the West of Scotland. For the matter of that the weather was just as bad on the East Coast of Ireland.\
122	But the scene of this narrative is laid in the South of England ...
123	* ''Time Pressure'' by Creator/SpiderRobinson begins with this sentence, then has a paragraph about how yes, it really ''was'' a dark and stormy night, and he's saying it even if it's cliche. He then returns to his sentence: "It was a dark and stormy night--when [[ItMakesSenseInContext suddenly the snot ran out]] . . ."
124	* Creator/RoaldDahl's short story ''The Great Automatic Grammatizator'' features Adolph Knipe, a computer engineer and aspiring writer. One of his short stories start with this phrase. Due to his failure as a writer, Knipe constructs a computer that writes successful fiction.
125	* The tongue-in-cheek opening sentence of ''[[Literature/AuntDimity Aunt Dimity Beats the Devil]]'' reads: "It was a dark and stormy afternoon on the high moors of Northumberland." Of course, at the time Lori is driving en route to an OldDarkHouse in HostileWeather...
126	* The first line of the Creator/MercedesLackey novel ''[[Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar Oathbreakers]]'' is this line running through Tarma's head. Her telepathic companion gripes at her for thinking in cliches, whereupon Tarma retorts that it ''is'' night, there's a terrific storm going on, and it's so dark they can barely see.
127	* The opening of the short story "'The Five Barley Grains" in ''[[Literature/TheRomanMysteries The Legionary from Londinium & Other Mini Mysteries]]'' starts out the way. Caroline Lawrence said that like Snoopy, she always wanted to start a story with that stock phrase.
128	* The first book of the ''Literature/KnightAndRogueSeries'' begins with "To say it was a dark and stormy night would be a gross understatement." The character narrating that chapter goes on to exaggerate the weather for the rest of the paragraph before settling into his regular snarky tone.
129	* In the Literature/{{Goosebumps}} novel ''Literature/TheBlobThatAteEveryone'', the protagonist acquires a typewriter that alters reality. So when he types "It was a dark and stormy night", it actually becomes one. In fact, the storm literally comes out of nowhere, surprising even the adults.
130	* ''[[Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo 1634: The Galileo Affair]]'' references the famous line regarding the stormy evening at the start of the fifth chapter.
131	-->The autumn night that [[TheSpymaster Don Francisco Nasi]] was musing on was a filthy one, slapping its rain and wind against the glass. It was the kind of night on which bad novels began.
132	* The first line of the sixth book in the ''Literature/SeptimusHeap'' series, ''Darke'', is "It is a '''[[YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe Darke]]''' and stormy night."
133	* In ''Write This Book: A Do-It-Yourself Mystery'', Pseudonymous Bosch begins Chapter 5 of the gothic version of ''The Case of the Missing Author'' with "It was a dark and stormy night," only to recall that it had already been established that it was morning at that point in the story, so it would have to begin another way.
134	* In ''Literature/SonicTheHedgehogAndTheSiliconWarriors'', after the intro, the first sentence is this word for word. Of course the setting is also taking part during a storm as the MadDoctor performs his latest experiment.
135	* Following on from the above book ''Literature/SonicTheHedgehogInCastleRobotnik''; for the second book in a row the story starts of with this line, but this wasn't enough for the author as the second chapter starts off with ''"It was another dark and stormy night. In fact, it was even darker and stormier than the first dark and stormy night."'' And it happens yet again with the fifth chapter, by now the author is really poking fun at himself ''"It was yet another dark and stormy night; blimey, everyone was thinking, but Mobius has had a real run of bad weather lately."''
136	* This is used as the opening lines of ''Literature/JudyMoody: Girl Detective''. Also, in ''Judy Moody: Mood Martian'', after Judy writes a story that begins with this and only gets worse from there, it convinces her that writing isn't the thing to do to improve her mood.
137	* The schoolyard rhyme compliation ''Far Out, Brussel Sprout!'' and its sequels include a few parodies. For example:
138	--> ''It was a dark and stormy night''\
139	''The dunny[[note]]AustralianSlang for an outdoor toilet[[/note]] light was dim''\
140	''I heard a crash and then a splash''\
141	''"My god! He's fallen in!''
142	* "Literature/TalmaGordon": After the initial setup and introductions, the plot kicks off with a storm that arrives in the middle of the night. Within Thornton's story, it's the second scene.
143	* The ''Literature/ZacharyNixonJohnson'' novel ''The Doomsday Brunette'' opens with "It was a dark and stormy night..." as the first sentence.
144	* Creator/MarieCorelli was very fond of this. Her great novel ''Literature/{{Ardath}}'' starts out with a dark and stormy night over huge forbidding mountains as her ByronicHero climbs to a remote monastery in search of... a cure for WritersBlock. ItMakesSenseInContext though.
145	* Literature historians have theorized that Creator/MarkTwain was specifically mocking Bulwer-Lytton's infamous line with the hilarious prologue to his novel ''The American Claimant'' in which he insists that there will, in fact, be NO weather in his entire book (although he will include a convenient appendix at the end, detailing a variety of weather that the reader may apply to the book as desired). Being Mark Twain, he cheekily fulfills both promises, to the letter.
146	-->''No weather will be found in this book. This is an attempt to pull a book through without weather. It being the first attempt of the kind in fictitious literature it may prove a failure, but it seemed worth the while of some dare-devil person to try it, and the author was in just the mood.''
147	-->''Many a reader who wanted to read a tale through was not able to do it because of delays on account of the weather. Nothing breaks up an author’s progress like having to stop every few pages to fuss-up the weather. Thus it is plain that persistent intrusions of weather are bad for both reader and author.''
148	-->''Of course weather is necessary to a narrative of human experience. That is conceded. But it ought to be put where it will not be in the way; where it will not interrupt the flow of the narrative. And it ought to be the ablest weather that can be had, not ignorant poor-quality, amateur weather. Weather is a literary specialty, and no untrained hand can turn out a good article of it. The present author can do only a few trifling ordinary kinds of weather, and he cannot do those very good. So it has seemed wisest to borrow such weather as is necessary for the book from qualified and recognized experts—giving credit, of course. This weather will be found over in the back part of the book, out of the way. See Appendix. The reader is requested to turn over and help himself from time to time as he goes along.''
149	* In ''Literature/AWorldLessVisible'', Diana asks Zeke to tell his story. He laughs for a moment before replying.
150	--> Hope you’ll forgive me for not being able to resist, but uh, it really did begin on a dark and stormy night
151	* ''Literature/NinaTanleven'': “A Dark and Stormy Night” is the highly accurate name of the first chapter of ''The Ghost Let Go''.
152	* [[WeatherReportOpening At the start of]] ''The Big Kill'' Creator/MickeySpillane puts his own spin on the line, as his AntiHero Mike Hammer waits out a rainstorm in a dive bar.
153	-->It was one of those nights when the sky came down and wrapped itself around the world.
154
155	[[/folder]]
156
157	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
158	%%* Series/{{Jonas}} mocks this in the episode "Slice of Life" (also known as "Pizza Girl").
159	* Used in ''Series/{{Martin}}'' in the season one Halloween episode when the group were telling ghost stories.
160	%%* ''The Julekalender'', a Danish TV series, starts all its episodes with the phrase.
161	* ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'':
162	** Quoth Crow T. Robot when ''Film/PodPeople'' used a lightning shot:
163	---> "It was a dark and stormy night. I had just taken a creative writing course..."
164	** Lampshaded in ''Film/TheHellcats'' when Tom is typing up his diary during a host segment right before commercial sign.
165	--->'''Servo:''' It was a fortnight ago, and it was... a -- hey! -- a '''dark and stormy''' night! Ha ha ha!
166	* ''Series/ThePrisoner1967'' episode "A, B, and C" underscores the mad-scientist dream-control experiment performed on the drugged Number Six by holding it on a dark and stormy night. And why they didn't all catch their deaths I'll never know.
167	* It's the opening line to the trashy novel ''Hotel Royale'', a simulation of which traps several characters in a ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' episode. Picard comments on how it's usually a sign of ThisIsGonnaSuck when he asks the computer to read the novel to him so they can figure a way out.
168	--> '''Troi''': Maybe it'll get better.
169	** It's worth noting that earlier in the episode, when the characters discover the diary of the simulation's previous deceased occupant, he wrote that the characters were so trite and cliche that he found himself begging for death's sweet release.
170	* Parodied in the ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' episode "A Mid-Winter Night's Dream", with a title card setting up the third act.
171	-->IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY NIGHT. ''[beat]'' NO, REALLY.
172	[[/folder]]
173
174	[[folder:Music]]
175	* The Music/{{Blutengel}} song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asfex0mTSwQ "The Oxidizing Angel"]] begins on this theme.
176	* The band Music/CreatureFeature has the song "It Was A Dark And Stormy Night" as the first song on their album of the same name.
177	* The pop standard "Ridin' Around in the Rain", recorded by Music/BingCrosby amongst others, features these lines:
178	-->Wait and pick a night\
179	A dark and stormy night\
180	And take her ridin' around in the rain
181	* Warren G's "Regulate": "It was a clear black night, a clear white moon."
182	* 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.
183	-->It was a dark and stormy night--or so the Heralds say--\
184	And lightning striking constantly transformed the night to day\
185	The thunder roared the castle round--or thusly runs the tale--\
186	And rising from the Northeast Tower there came a fearful wail.
187	* The Music/PDQBach song "Es war ein dark und shtormy Night."
188	* 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.
189	* Music/WarrenZevon's "Roland the Headless Thompson Gunner" includes the lines "The deal was made in Denmark / On a dark and stormy day"
190	* "Music/DoctorInDistress", a ProtestSong made in response to the 1985 decision to shelve ''Series/DoctorWho'' for eighteen months, describes the day the show premiered in 1963 as "A cold, wet night in November".
191	[[/folder]]
192
193	[[folder:Other]]
194	* There is also a popular story/rhyme that goes: ''It was a dark and stormy night, and the Captain said to Antonio, 'Tell us a tale, Antonio.' And this is the tale Antonio told: 'It was a dark and stormy night...'''
195	** 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.]]
196	* Another case of a never-ending story example: ''It was a dark and stormy night, and the robbers were in the den, and Bill said. 'Tell us a story.' So Ben began: 'It was a dark and stormy night...'''
197	[[/folder]]
198
199	[[folder:Pinball]]
200	* ''Pinball/StrangeScience'' takes place on such a night, with a MadScientist working out of an OldDarkHouse.
201	[[/folder]]
202
203	[[folder:Professional Wrestling]]
204	* During one WWE storyline "Sexual Chocolate" Mark Henry was receiving therapy from an inconveniently hot therapist for his sexual addiction. When she asked him about his first sexual experience, he said, "Well, it was a dark and stormy night, and I was real scared!" She asked why he was scared and he immediately replied, "Because I was all alone!"
205	[[/folder]]
206
207	[[folder:Theatre]]
208	* In ''Theatre/OnceUponAMattress'', the Minstrel sings that the Princess came to the castle "on a stormy night." He later notes, in correcting this "not quite accurate" version of the fairy tale: "That, of course, is utterly untrue. It didn't storm that night at all. In fact, it wasn't even night. And the princess only ''looked'' as though she'd come in from a storm."
209	* A comedy/mystery stage play written by [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Kelly_%28playwright%29 Tim Kelly]] is entitled ''It Was a Dark and Stormy Night''.
210	* At the beginning of the Music/RichardWagner opera ''[[Theatre/TheRingOfTheNibelung The Valkyrie]]'', Siegmund finds shelter from his enemies during a stormy night in the dwelling of Hunding and Sieglinde.
211	[[/folder]]
212
213	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
214	* ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'': the night where Weathermay-Foxgrove sisters first made contact with [[TheFairFolk the Shadow Fey]], which was also their Dangerous16thBirthday‎. Gennifer even mentions how such night would have been more fitting to have a fight with TheUndead or evil mages.
215	[[/folder]]
216
217	[[folder:Video Games]]
218	* The opening of ''VideoGame/AceCombatZeroTheBelkanWar'', "It was a cold and snowy day...", is a deliberate toying with this trope: Pixy recalls the weather during his very first mission as Cypher's {{wingman}} and in the final mission, [[spoiler:the two of them duke it out above the Avalon dam in a snowstorm]], with Pixy nostalgically remarking "Here comes the snow", making it both an IronicEcho and a BookEnds. It then [[FridgeBrilliance becomes apparent]] that Pixy chose a cheesy phrase to begin his story specifically to point out the similarities between his first and last meeting with Cypher.
219	* Lampshaded in ''VideoGame/AnimalCrossingWildWorld'':
220	-->"It was a dark and stormy night. A single figure stood alone in the downpour... Huh huh huh! It's like the opening to a [[SoBadItsGood really good bad movie.]]"
221	* In ''VideoGame/Borderlands1'', Marcus beings the introduction to the Zombie Island of Doctor Ned DLC with this quote, followed by what sounds like suppressed laughter. Seeing as the entire DLC is an affectionate parody of zombies and horror, the phrase is quite fitting.
222	* In ''VideoGame/CorpsePartyPC98'', telling a certain horror story on a dark and stormy night actually triggers Sachiko's curse, pulling them and anyone listening to the tale into Tenjin Elementary.
223	* The [[AllThereInTheManual manual introduction]] for ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry1'' starts with this phrase. While Donkey Kong and Diddy takes turns watching the banana hoard during the storm, the Kremlings managed to sneak towards Diddy and knock him out.
224	* Roberto, the protagonist of ''VideoGame/FobiaStDinfnaHotel'', is introduced driving to the titular location in the middle of a stormy night. Unsurprisingly, given the premise, St. Dinfna turns out to be a HellHotel infested by zombies and giant insects.
225	--> '''Roberto''': The rain's really coming down hard now...
226	* ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'':
227	** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast'' starts off like this. Link awakens in the middle of a dark, stormy night after hearing Zelda's telepathic plea, and goes off after his uncle to investigate his doings and ultimately rescue Zelda from the castle dungeon.
228	** ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaFourSwordsAdventures Four Swords Adventures]]'' opens with a storm, though whether it's night or not isn't clarified. The storm itself is PlayedForDrama, as [[OminousClouds it's an omen that something bad is about to happen]].
229	* The first full level of the Wii and [=PS3=] versions of ''VideoGame/TheLordOfTheRingsAragornsQuest'' begins on a rainy night in the town of Bree, where Aragorn first meets Frodo and his companions early on their quest to destroy the Ring.
230	* In the Platform/CommodoreAmiga version of the RogueLike ''VideoGame/{{Moria}}'' (which evolved into ''VideoGame/{{Angband}}'') you could encounter an enemy called "A Dark and Stormy '''K'''night". Unlike the trope this monster is no joke being fast and attacking with blinding (as it is "Dark") and lightning (as it is "Stormy") attacks as well as physically - very dangerous if you get caught by surprise by one.
231	* The opening of ''VideoGame/PaperMarioColorSplash'' begins with Peach and her assistant bringing Mario the blank body of a Toad on a stormy night.
232	* Also played completely straight in ''VideoGame/ProfessorLaytonVsPhoenixWrightAceAttorney'', this is both the setting and the title of the prologue.
233	* ''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.
234	* 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.
235	* This is how Jill narrates her awakening after being [[ZombieInfectee infected]] with the [[TheVirus T-virus]] in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis''.
236	--> '''Jill:''' October 1st. Night. I awoke to the sound of falling rain. I can't believe that I'm still alive.
237	[[/folder]]
238
239	[[folder:Visual Novels]]
240	* The following sequence occurs in case 2 of ''VisualNovel/MyLittleInvestigations'':
241	-->'''Twilight:''' It was a dark and stormy night...\
242	'''Spike:''' It was a completely ordinary day.\
243	'''Twilight:''' SPIKE! Where's your sense of adventure and mystery? A good read never starts with something like that!\
244	'''Spike:''' I thought we were taking investigative notes and stuff. Y'know... non-fiction?\
245	'''Twilight:''' Well... you still have readers. And readers ought to be entertained.
246	[[/folder]]
247
248	[[folder:Web Animation]]
249	* In Episode 6 of Season II of ''WebAnimation/InanimateInsanity'', Nickel told a scary story, starting by saying, "It was a dark and stormy night," which was enough to scare Suitcase and Balloon, causing them to run away.
250	[[/folder]]
251
252	[[folder:Webcomics]]
253	* ''Webcomic/{{Achewood}}'' features a pulp romance novel written by Ray: ''Danger at 2 1/2 Feet''. The opening paragraph is shown, a complex mess of purple prose subclauses, shoehorning backstory into every word. The alt-text is [[http://achewood.com/index.php?date=04272004 It was a dark and raunchy night]].
254	* ''Webcomic/IrregularWebcomic'' - Creator/WilliamShakespeare begins writing a {{Novelization}} of ''Film/TheLordOfTheRings'' movies with this line, [[http://www.irregularwebcomic.net/743.html here]].
255	* In ''Webcomic/FauxPas'', [[http://www.ozfoxes.net/cgi/pl-fp1.cgi?216 Myrtle starts a story with this line.]]
256	* ''Webcomic/{{Whither}}'' starts with this very line.
257	* ''Webcomic/DMOfTheRings'' [[https://www.shamusyoung.com/twentysidedtale/?p=613 introduces the [=PCs=] to the story line]] with a combination of this and YouAllMeetInAnInn. The players immediately complain about the excessive cliche-ness of it all.
258	* In one ''Webcomic/OzyAndMillie'' strip, Millie has decided to write the Great American Novel, and begins "It was a dark and stormy". Ozy suggests "night", and she tells him that's a cliche. Ozy then suggests "day", but Millie goes for "[[WordSaladHumor inflatable narcoleptic hippo]]".
259	[[/folder]]
260
261	[[folder:Web Original]]
262	* [[http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/12/09/it-were-a-dark-n-stormie-nite/ Meme Cat: "It were a dark n stormie nite".]]
263	* Creator/JohnScalzi's new fantasy novel ''[[http://www.tor.com/stories/2011/04/the-shadow-war-of-the-night-dragons-book-one-the-dead-city-excerpt The Shadow War of the Night Dragons, Book One: The Dead City]]'' [[spoiler:(which is actually an April Fool's Day joke)]] begins with the ShaggyDogStory version of this: an incredibly long sentence whose only real meaning is "it was a dark night", followed by an even longer sentence whose only real meaning is "it was a stormy night", followed by:
264	-->Which is to say: it was a dark and stormy night.
265	* ParodiedTrope on "Le Bastion Roliste" (a French website on TabletopGames): How RPG gamers start a story:
266	** ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'': It was a dark and stormy night. A thunderbolt hit Kellak the Conqueror, but with his Ring of Resistance +5 and his shield of protection from lightning, he easily made his saving throw and was left unharmed.
267	** ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'': It was a sunny and quiet night cycle, absolutely perfect thanks to the wisdom and vigilance of our Friend Computer. Rumors that the night was dark and stormy are treasonous. Please report any traitor spreading those rumors immediately. Thank you for your cooperation, citizen!
268	* In WebAnimation/TheStrangerhood, [[CloudCuckooLander Wade]] invokes this in his PrivateEyeMonologue. He then uses it to interrupt Chalmers' InternalMonologue in a later episode.
269	* In Website/SFDebris' review of ''Series/TheXFiles'' episode "Our Town" he notes:
270	--> "Our Town" begins with a couple in a parked car, in the woods, at night, which is the "It was a dark and stormy night" for modern horror.
271	* WebVideo/ScottTheWoz's ''The Dark Age of Nintendo'' series compilation video (as in, the three episodes stringed together into one big movie) retroactively sets the scene this way, adding a new opening shot of the outside of the therapist's office on a dark, stormy night.
272	[[/folder]]
273
274	[[folder:Western Animation]]
275	* ''WesternAnimation/AquaTeenHungerForce''. The opening segments to the first two seasons opened with StockFootage of Dr. Weird's castle. (The footage for the castle exterior actually came ''WesternAnimation/JonnyQuestTheRealAdventures''.)
276	-->Gentlemen... '''BEHOLD!'''
277	* The intro to some of the ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDoo'' cartoons. The Platform/NintendoGameCube game ''Scooby Doo: Night of a Hundred Frights'' parodies this: Some of the upper levels of the haunted mansion are called "A Dark and Stormy Knight". Naturally, this is where Scooby encounters the Black Knight. [[note]]The title was also used for a cartoon episode.[[/note]]
278	* When Bloo is spinning a false tale of Uncle Pocket's "evil" in ''WesternAnimation/FostersHomeForImaginaryFriends'', he begins by saying "It Was A Dark And Stormy Night...", only for Mr. Herriman to protest that it was morning and quite sunny out.
279	* Parodied and subverted by the narrator on ''WesternAnimation/SpongebobSquarepants'':
280	-->''Oh, a dark and stormy night. It's nights like these that remind me of the time Mr. Krabs and [=SpongeBob=] thought they killed the health inspector.
281	-->It was a bright and sunny morning...''
282	* In the ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' episode "Look Before You Sleep", Twilight begins a ghost story about [[HeadlessHorseman The Headless Horse]] with this phrase.
283	** The episode "Magic Duel" literally begins on one, though it lacks narration or any kind of lampshade.
284	** "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E3TheGiftOfTheMaudPie The Gift of the Maud Pie]]" has Maud Pie start off Boulder's origin story this way.
285	* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/MuchaLucha'' The Flea told his baby sister Pulgita a scary story about The Masked Toilet He begins by saying "It Was A Dark And Stormy Night...",
286	* The cowardly cat tells an origin tale of ''WesternAnimation/MightyMouse'' in "The Cat's Tale" and starts it with beginning on a "dark and stormy night."
287	* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh'' kicks off with a mystery novel that starts with this phrase.
288	* At the end of the intro to the classic WesternAnimation/TexAveryMGMCartoons short ''WesternAnimation/WhoKilledWho'', the UnreliableNarrator says, "Our story opens on a dark and stormy night..."
289	* In the ''WesternAnimation/MuppetBabies'' episode, "Romancing the Weirdo", Gonzo attempts to write a novel. He begins with "It was a hot and steamy night... ok, so I left the shower running. Sue me."
290	%%* Robin starts with this very phrase his own story in an episode where the heroes start telling campfire stories in ''WesternAnimation/TeenTitansGo''
291	* ''WesternAnimation/SonicTheHedgehogSatAM'': "Ro-Becca" starts with Rotor working on a lab assistant robot in the middle of a thunderstorm at night.
292	[[/folder]]

Context Main / ItWasADarkAndStormyNight