Line #256 Main/OutOfGenreExperience


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4	[[quoteright:350:[[Series/{{Firefly}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/out_of_genre_moment.jpg]]]]
5	[-[[caption-width-right:350:Every SpaceWestern needs a bit of MedicalDrama.]]-]
6
7	Writing drama is hard. [[StrictlyFormula Sticking to a popular formula is easy]]. That's why sometimes you can create a ''temporary'' GenreShift in a series to fill up time in your story. For example, many television shows are general drama, but... with a character who is a doctor. You [[PlotTailoredToTheParty know that soon enough]], there's going to be a [[ADayInTheLimelight central episode for that character]], complete with a [[MedicalDrama medical plot]].
8
9	This trope can be glaringly obvious or just a subtle genre that doesn't fit into the rest of the series. MedicalDrama is used as an example because it is difficult to hide.
10
11	A good test to see whether something fits this trope: If you turned on the television or opened the book at a particular point, would you be able to '''guess the main genre correctly'''?
12
13	This trope is often paired with MoodWhiplash, and an ArtShift may kick in to better fit the brief genre change. Episodes that have these experiences usually get a BizarroEpisode reputation and may have either FanonDiscontinuity or CanonDiscontinuity.[[note]]Compare the question above to the "Very Important Corollary" on that page.[[/note]] For a permanent genre change, see GenreShift; when the plot starts out as something unrelated leading up to the switch it's a HalfwayPlotSwitch; and when a work has a chronic case of this trope it's a GenreRoulette. When a non-romance story goes out of focus (either temporarily or permanently) due to a RomanceArc, that's a RomanticPlotTumor. See CourtroomEpisode, NoirEpisode, SuperheroEpisode, CowboyEpisode, and the rest of the {{Episodes}} page for common sub-tropes. For the same principle applied to video game genres, see UnexpectedGameplayChange.
14	----
15	!!Example subpages:
16	[[index]]
17	* OutOfGenreExperience/LiveActionTV
18	[[/index]]
19
20	!!Other examples:
21
22	[[foldercontrol]]
23
24	[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
25	* ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'':
26	** The second OVA, which is based on the manga's "fake previews", takes the point of view of the supporting 104th trainees, and is meant to be much more comedic and nonsensical than the rest of the series.
27	** Chapter 91 of the manga could be described as a full-on [[spoiler:World War I]]-era War Drama.
28	* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'', for the vast majority of the Golden Age arc, becomes a grim and gritty medieval story devoid of any demons, aside from the Zodd fight. After the Griffith rescue arc, shit starts hitting the fan and we return to the CrapsackWorld that is the world of ''Berserk''.
29	* In ''Manga/BlackButler'', the Weston College school arc. It [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin takes place in a school]] when previously the story had protagonist Ciel not go to any kind of official school, mostly being homeschooled by his multi-talented butler and overall having to do with murders, mysteries, and supernatural effects. Yet it opens up with [[LateForSchool Ciel running to the school's gate with a piece of toast in his mouth, lamenting how he's late]]. The manga actually ''[[LampshadeHanging lampshades]]'' this with a box stating that you are, indeed, reading ''Black Butler''.
30	* Some of the filler episodes of ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'', which turn the show into a GagSeries.
31	* "[[Recap/CowboyBebopSession20PierrotLeFou Pierrot Le Fou]]" in ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' is an out-of-place horror episode but replaces zombies with a super-powered PsychopathicManchild killer.
32	* ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'':
33	** [[spoiler:Merged Zamasu]] manages be this since while [[spoiler:Goku Black and Future Zamasu were godly beings]], they were still both trained martial artists and fought like one. Merged Zamasu, on the other hand, fights like an RPG FinalBoss with him summoning a GuardianEntity that shoots lightning, raining down energy blasts, and throwing spears that explode when they hit the ground. This is not even getting into his final form that is straight out of a CosmicHorrorStory.
34	** The ''Manga/DrSlump'' crossover turned ''Super'' into a gag anime complete with BreakingTheFourthWall, toon physics, and a surreal plot.
35	* The ''Anime/ExcelSaga'' anime is, for the most part, the epitome of a GagSeries. So naturally one of the last episodes was played completely straight.
36	* In the eighth episode of ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemist2003'', Edward becomes very determined to solve the mystery pertaining to a serial killer. Things get very ''Manga/CaseClosed''-y very fast. Especially funny because the villain in the episode (Barry the Chopper) is voiced by the same actor as Jimmy Kudo in the English dub.
37	* In ''Manga/HajimeNoIppo'', a ([[LongRunner long]]) series about the harsh world of boxing, the main characters take part in a light-hearted baseball match for a few chapters. [[MoodWhiplash Just after the bloodiest, dirtiest and least funny fight of the series]].
38	* In an episode of the [[IdolSinger idol series]] ''Anime/MarginalNumber4'', the titular group mentions that they will be starring in a mystery drama. The next episode presents [[ShowWithinAShow that drama as the whole episode]] - without warning, but you catch on quickly enough that they're acting.
39	* Halfway through ''Literature/MayoiNekoOverrun'', the viewer gets an entire episode about {{mecha}} and later about a simple game that was made so [[SeriousBusiness dramatic]] it goes on par with [[Manga/{{Saki}} a certain mahjong anime]].
40	* JustifiedTrope in ''Manga/{{Monster}}'': medical drama is the format of the first two episodes of a very long series, as the protagonist is a neurosurgeon who then turns amateur detective.
41	* ''Manga/MonsterMusume'':
42	** Chapter 12 puts the SliceOfLife comedy on hold to introduce MON dealing with a terrorist hostage crisis.
43	** Chapter 38 puts the {{Fanservice}} on the back burner [[note]]It's one of the only chapters in the entire manga that doesn't include any nudity[[/note]] and focuses mainly on [[TheGrimReaper Lala]]'s relationship with a terminally-ill child at the hospital.
44	** Chapter 40 is more of an action-comedy than SliceOfLife.
45	* Given what it's [[BoundAndGagged normally]] [[{{Ecchi}} like]], seeing ''Manga/NanaAndKaoru'' briefly turn into a high school sports manga is unexpected. The heroine and her rival ''are'' on their separate school's track teams, though.
46	* ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' is a [[GenreDeconstruction deconstructive]] DarkerAndEdgier HumongousMecha show. In episode 26 there is an alternate reality sequence where all the characters are in a SliceOfLife [[HighSchoolAU school comedy]]. Amazingly this scene became the basis for a SpinOff manga, ''Manga/NeonGenesisEvangelionAngelicDays''.
47	* ''Manga/OnePiece'':
48	** Most of the movies are action-adventures (usually with with a LighterAndSofter tone than the manga due to being [[NonSerialMovie non-serial movies]]), but ''Anime/BaronOmatsuriAndTheSecretIsland'' is [[DarkerAndEdgier much closer to a horror]].
49	** While most of the show is a colorful, goofy, fantastical action series, during the [[BreakingTheFellowship Straw Hat Separation Arc]], [[AdventurerArchaeologist Robin]] ends up on a gloomy, grey ocean spanning bridge where cruel guards abuse the slaves who are building the bridge. The scenes are cold, grey, humorless and brutal.
50	* ''Manga/{{Plunderer}}'' starts out as a fantasy story where people who hold items can use supernatural abilities [[spoiler:before a helicopter comes out of nowhere and everyone is shunted 300 years into the past to a military school set in a pre-war Japan.]]
51	* ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagica'' was a DarkerAndEdgier and [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructive]] MagicalGirl series. The beginning of ''Anime/PuellaMagiMadokaMagicaTheMovieRebellion'' is a LighterAndSofter MagicalGirl series where the tropes are played almost painfully straight. It's eerily reminiscent of the ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' example.
52	* ''Anime/{{REDLINE}}'' plays out mostly as a [[QuirkyWork Quirky Movie]] about an illegal street race, presented in a bizarre ''Anime/DeadLeaves''-esque tone. It's only during the third act that [[spoiler:[[EldritchAbomination a top-secret bio-weapon]] known as Funky Boy]] is released from containment by LaResistance, and then all of a sudden, the latter third of the movie has [[spoiler:a Kaiju movie]] going on in the background.
53	* One episode of ''Anime/SamuraiChamploo'' suddenly changes the series from an anachronistic hip hop-fueled Edo-era samurai series into a horror series. All the major hip hop and anachronistic references are removed, the soundtrack changes into a more moody, atmospheric one, the trio suddenly have to contend with zombies, and the whole thing ends on a bizarre GainaxEnding where [[spoiler: everyone seemingly dies when a meteorite crashes into the village they're in.]] Since the events of the episode are never mentioned again, it's hard to tell whether the whole thing was even canon. Given that the episode started with the characters eating mushrooms they found in the woods, you could write the whole thing off as a hallucination.
54	* Chapter 94 of ''Manga/SpyXFamily'' has Anya watching [[ShowWithinAShow Bondman]] skiing and wants the family to do that, so they head off to a mountain for some lighthearted fun. An approaching blizzard leads to the roads being shut down, meaning the Forgers have to head to a nearby hotel to spend the night, and that's where the chapter devolves into what feels like a friendly parody of ''Manga/CaseClosed'': several characters are introduced; mention of a rumored, blood-thirsty monster known as The Red Snowman occurs; a character gets stabbed [[ItMakesSenseInContext with a frozen carrot]]; and the telephone lines are cut. But since Anya can [[{{Telepathy}} read minds]], she quickly figures out who the assailant is because of her ability, and Loid is TheAce capable of fixing telephone lines and treating wounds, so the assailant gets stopped before anything can happen and the trip ends the next morning with no further harm to anyone.
55	* It's arguable whether ''Anime/TenchiMuyo'' is a HaremComedy that randomly switches to a SpaceOpera or vice versa.
56	** In a more straight example, ''Tenchi Muyo in Love 2: Haruka Naru Omoi'' (known better in the US as ''Tenchi Forever'') trades out the previous film's (and its direct predecessor, ''Anime/TenchiUniverse''[='=]s) time-travel action story for a downbeat romance drama that intensely examines the relationships between Ayeka, Tenchi and Ryoko and sheds some light on Katsuhito's (rather sad) past [[spoiler: as Yosho]].
57	* ''Anime/WeatheringWithYou'':
58	** It is impossible to miss when "Hodaka's Escape/Kid's Plot" plays, because with its heavy electronic elements, it is just so different from the rest of Radwimps's output on the soundtrack.
59	** While the supernatural has been a clear part of the film right from the first scene, the appearances of the [[spoiler:dragon-''kamisama'' feel more like something out of kaiju film or CosmicHorrorStory. What, after all, do you call entities so titanic they stretch across the sky, to which buildings are small and humans too tiny to be seen?]]
60	* ''Manga/YourLieInApril'''s episode 11 starts with a clip of what appears to be an unrelated superhero work.
61	* ''Manga/WhyTheHellAreYouHereTeacher'' is generally a LikeRealityUnlessNoted SexComedy, but shifts to more of a ScienceFiction story for the chapters focusing on Nanjou-sensei, who is a MadScientist able to invent a way to [[DreamWalker enter other people's dreams]] and pills that can temporarily and instantly [[EasySexChange change someone's sex]]. It shifts back to normal in volume 10, when the focus moves back to Kurisu-sensei.
62	[[/folder]]
63
64	[[folder:Comic Books]]
65	* ''ComicBook/{{Aquaman}}'':
66	** ''ComicBook/Aquaman1962 #54'' is a moody horror story that has Aquaman trapped inside his own mind when some gangsters capture and experiment on him, resulting in a mash-up of genres--including horror, a standard action story, a detective story as the real-world police worked out what was going on, and a Western. The incident resulted in the birth of his evil mirror-self, Thanatos.
67	** ''ComicBook/Aquaman1989'' is much more like a war epic compared to typical Aquaman adventures, with Atlantis under occupation and a resistance working to save it.
68	* Creator/GrantMorrison's run on ''ComicBook/NewXMen'' was a succession of these instead of the routine superhero stuff: high school drama, sci-fi, murder mystery...
69	** Interestingly, Morrison fled from this genre-bending as far as they could after a certain point in their run, making the good guys and bad guys as unambiguously traditionally super-hero/super-villain in their morals and adventures, despite still keeping the more exotic outward trappings introduced earlier.
70	* ''ComicBook/SinCity'' is mostly a crime-noir comic series set in a somewhat realistic world (for a comic book anyway). Despite this, we've had a few departures.
71	** Shlubb and Klump had their own short story which was a wacky little story featuring the villainous duo and an ending gag straight out of a ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' episode.
72	** The story ''Hell and Back'' features genetic tampering, espionage, a guild of assassins with high-tech weapons, and a [[http://images.darkhorse.com/covers/300/s/schab9.jpg villainess]] who could easily be mistaken as a straight-up supervillain due to her costume and gadgets. It's like a Creator/TomClancy novel mixed with ''VideoGame/MetalGear''.
73	** The Yellow Bastard was operated on by genetic scientists and even voodoo witchdoctors who turned him into what could be mistaken for a yellow ''Franchise/StarTrek'' alien.
74	** The Farm is often described as affecting the characters mentally. Every time anyone goes there, they always feel something in the pit of their stomachs and think the exact same thing, "People have died here." It's also believed to be haunted, giving it a weird horror vibe even though we don't see anything.
75	** And ''Rats'' is a creepy psychological horror story about a Nazi concentration camp guard getting his overdue comeuppance.
76	* In the 1980s, a story arc in ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' dealt with Batman fighting a villain called Doctor Fang who was an ex-boxer who was trying to take over boxing in Gotham City. One issue (''Batman'' #372) turned into a full-on boxing detail concerning a minor prizefighter getting a shot at the title and hardly had the Dark Knight in the issue at all.
77	* ''ComicBook/{{Fables}}'' did this for the first few storylines (corresponding to the trades). The first one is a murder mystery. The second is a political thriller. The third is a caper (even lampshaded as such). The fourth is a spy/war story.
78	* ''ComicBook/{{Rahan}}'' is set in paleolithic times; although full of ArtisticLicensePaleontology with dinosaurs showing up regularly (up to a [[SerialNumbersFiledOff serial-numbers-filed-off]] Franchise/{{Godzilla}} once), it is devoid of any obvious fantasy elements -- in fact, the title hero very often debunks any claim of magic in the setting. And then, an issue feature Rahan lost in a bizarre world that he thinks at first is the afterlife, with completely fantastic monsters and inexplicable forces. [[spoiler:Turns out this is all [[MushroomSamba a dream caused by hallucinogenic mushrooms]].]]
79	* ''ComicBook/{{Crossed}}'' has ''The Thin Red Line'' arc in Badlands, which temporarily drops the general post-apocalyptic horror genre in favor of a political thriller centering on the [[spoiler: ultimately doomed]] attempts of Gordon Brown and the rest of the British government to halt the unfolding outbreak as well as [[spoiler: their far more successful attempts to avert nuclear armageddon]].
80	* ''ComicBook/Robin1993'': The start of Jon Lewis's run had Tim get mixed up in a Lovecraftian plot with weird cults and an EldritchAbomination in the woods far from Gotham, not even using the "Robin" name in order to keep a low profile and with the threat left to run its course and never fully researched or understood, in a book that normally focused on street-level crime, detective work, and high school drama.
81	* The horror series ''Twisted Tales'' lived up to its name with plenty of stories about murderous lunatics, creepy monsters, and racism of the most cold-blooded and gruesome sort. There are two exceptions that eschew gory horror and instead aim for tragedy:
82	** "Roomers" is a bittersweet character study of a quiet old man who forms a strange bond with a spider in his apartment as he lives out his final days in solitude.
83	** The last full-length tale, "If She Dies", is a very potent tear-jerker story of a man who helps a sweet young orphan's ghost find peace after her untimely death in a fire, and is rewarded for this kindness when [[spoiler:her spirit finds a new home in the body of his daughter, who'd been left brain-dead from an accident and was scheduled to be taken off life support.]]
84	[[/folder]]
85
86	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
87	* ''ComicStrip/{{Candorville}}'', a strip with just enough MagicalRealism to avoid fitting into SliceOfLife, made a temporary switch to dark UrbanFantasy in February of 2009. It seems the author liked the effect because later he made another such switch. And another one. At no point has the strip [[GenreShift completely shifted over]], and only in late 2010 were the urban fantasy strips finally mixed in with the other strips rather than segregated into a few story arcs.
88	* ''ComicStrip/MotherGooseAndGrimm'' can't make up its mind whether it's going to have continuity with its title characters, or be an absurd gag-per-day strip without recurring cast members á la ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide''.
89	* Jim Davis intentionally did this around Halloween for a few ''ComicStrip/{{Garfield}}'' strips in which Garfield seemingly wakes up alone in his home, but the house looks like it's been abandoned for years. Suddenly the strip is entirely creepy and not at all funny. The storyline ends with a bit of MindScrew, so it's left to the reader to decide whether this was AllJustADream, or if perhaps the rest of the comic is just the hallucination of an abandoned pet slowly starving to death in a condemned house.
90	[[/folder]]
91
92	[[folder:Fan Works]]
93	* ''WebVideo/UltraFastPony'':
94	** Most episodes don't stray too far from the AnachronismStew fantasy setting of [[WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic the source material]]. However, the episode "Stay Tuned" transforms everything into a CopShow parody, with Pinkie Pie in the role of CowboyCop and her former {{Imaginary Friend}}s recast as DaChief.
95	** "Edgar Allen Poen" is an even more fundamental change: it turns the episode "Owl's Well That Ends Well" into a pastiche of "Literature/TheRaven", while actually staying faithful to the episode's original story and message. No AlternateCharacterInterpretation, no funny voices, no jabs at the fandom -- a marked contrast to the parodic or satirical treatment that every episode before or since received.
96	** "The Pet Games" is arranged like an in-universe sports broadcast. Most of the dialogue comes from two off-screen commentators. Rainbow Dash and Twilight serve as judges for the event. Even the show's theme song is retooled as a bit of ProductPlacement.
97	** "For Glorious Mother Equestria" is set up as a political propaganda film, with a breathless narrator [[UnreliableVoiceover wildly misinterpreting events]] in order to push the party line.
98	** "Pinkie's Day In" briefly turns into a {{sitcom}}, complete with a LaughTrack and the ''Seinfeld'' theme as transitional music.
99	[[/folder]]
100
101	[[folder:Films — Animated]]
102	* ''WesternAnimation/HeavyMetal'' for the most part juggles action, comedy, and utterly gratuitous {{Fanservice}}, with 5 of the 6 vignettes each putting more or less emphasis on one of the three. And then there's "B-17", a brief but potent serving of triple-distilled NightmareFuel about a damaged WWII bomber succumbing to a small-scale ZombieApocalypse, with ''zero'' campiness and no giant boobies anywhere to be seen.
103	[[/folder]]
104
105	[[folder:Films — Live-Action]]
106	* ''Film/ForrestGump'': Mostly a general drama, but part of the plot is a war story.
107	* In ''Film/MasterAndCommander'', the crew rests for a few days on the Galapagos Islands. Dr. Maturin explores the island with the help of an eager midshipman and the film turns into a nature documentary for a little while. Almost seems like a PoorlyDisguisedPilot for ''Film/{{Creation}}'', in which Paul Bettany plays Charles Darwin, though it's {{justified}} due to the film adapting [[Literature/AubreyMaturin a novel series where this happened all the time]].
108	* ''Film/ANightmareOnElmStreetPart2FreddysRevenge'' is often described as feeling more like a HauntedHouse / DemonicPossession story than a SlasherMovie.
109	* Some scenes from ''Film/TheGoodTheBadAndTheUgly'' can be mistaken for a war film. Especially when Blondie and Tuco are going through a Union camp to get to the cemetery on Sad Hill and are watching the war from the sidelines.
110	-->'''Blondie:''' I've never seen so many men wasted so badly.
111	* While all the films based on the ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' games were arguably a GenreRoulette, the [[Film/ResidentEvilExtinction third one]] was entirely different from the other three. It was less a zombie movie and more a DesertPunk film with zombies occasionally appearing.
112	* Creator/LuisBunuel and Creator/SalvadorDali's {{surrealis\|m}}t art film ''Film/LAgeDOr'' starts as a brief NatureDocumentary on scorpions before transitioning into... [[MindScrew whatever the hell the rest of the film is about]].
113	* Not only are none of the ''Film/{{Troll\|1986}}'' films connected, but they also can't seem to decide on a genre within the films themselves. The first film doesn't know whether it wants to be a horror film or a fantasy adventure. With ''Film/Troll2'' and ''Troll 3'' (aka ''The Creepers''), it's hard to tell whether they were supposed to be straight horror films or horror comedies, and with the other ''Troll 3'' (aka ''Quest for the Mighty Sword''), it's hard to tell whether it's supposed to be a straight fantasy adventure or partly a comedy.
114	* In ''Film/CatchMeIfYouCan'', con man Frank Abagnale Jr. works illegally as a doctor, among other things. This subplot looks almost as if it could be reused as a pilot for a television series. Which is entirely appropriate, since Frank is shown studying hospital dramas for lingo and basic protocol ("Do you concur?").
115	* ''Franchise/StarWars'':
116	** ''Film/RogueOne'' is a ''Film/TheDirtyDozen''-style war movie against the backdrop of the ''Franchise/StarWars'' SpaceOpera setting. And the final minutes of the film feel like something out of a horror movie as [[spoiler:Vader boards the Rebel capital ship and slaughters any rebel troopers in his way while trying to recover the stolen Death Star plans.]]
117	** ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'': The brief StoryArc to have Qui-Gon free Anakin from slavery eschews space opera and political intrigue in favor of a half-hour diversion into a sports film, which is only tangentially connected to what came before.
118	** ''Film/SoloAStarWarsStory'' is a heist movie set in a time of relative galactic peace, that feels more like ''Film/OceansEleven'' InSpace than a normal ''Franchise/StarWars'' movie.
119	* In ''Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory'' (The 1971 film); One of the scenes in the "Wonkamania" (everybody on Earth going crazy over getting Wonka bars to find the Golden Ticket) montage is basically a straight-up Police Procedural Show scene where detectives are trying to rescue a distraught woman's husband who was kidnapped for ransom. [[note]]It becomes ComicallySerious when the ransom turns out to be a case of Wonka bars and upon hearing that, the woman calmly asks "How long will they give me to think it over?"[[/note]]
120	* ''Film/{{Stripes}}'': [[DrillSergeantNasty Sgt. Hulka]]'s heart to heart with John (where he gives John an invitation to take a swing at him, then floors John with a single punch to the gut) is a bit out of place in a slapstick comedy. Creator/IvanReitman kept the scene in the movie because he felt it was important to establish Hulka's authority and physical strength over the men (as well as his considerably more old-school approach versus John's wild antics).
121	* The third ''Film/PitchPerfect'' movie starts off as the usual musical comedy and turns into an action movie for the climax, though a scene from the climax is also shown [[HowWeGotHere at the beginning]].
122	* ''Film/JamesBond'':
123	** ''Film/{{Moonraker}}'' was this to the ''Bond'' franchise. It was hardly the first Bond film to add ''some'' science fiction elements but never before had the franchise sent 007 into space and had the big climatic battle sequence fought by astronauts armed with energy weapons reminiscent of ''Franchise/StarWars'', which was not a coincidence as ''A New Hope'' had been released relatively recently. It was a very unsubtle attempt to FollowTheLeader that did the film no favours with critics.
124	** Before then, ''Film/LiveAndLetDie'' was the franchise's response to the popularity of {{Blaxploitation}}. Bond is sent against a Caribbean dictator/American drug kingpin who isn't out to TakeOverTheWorld, but is instead out to corner the American illegal drug market; unlike many other villains in the franchise, he's actually quite competent and comes damn close to succeeding at his plans. Not only that, but he's also got an underling who may or may not be the infamous Baron Samedi and is [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane implied to have actual magic powers]] -- something never seen before or since. There's also Sheriff J.W. Pepper, [[GenreRefugee who seems like he came straight out of]], say, a Creator/BurtReynolds movie than a Bond film.
125	* ''Film/TradingPlaces'': During the third act, Louis Winthorpe makes two back-to-back suicide attempts, and [[SuicideAsComedy while the first is played for laughs]] (he tries to shoot himself, only to have the pistol jam, then throws it offscreen when it goes off), the second is played totally seriously, as he locks himself in the bathroom and overdoses on pills before being revived.
126	[[/folder]]
127
128	[[folder:Gamebooks]]
129	* In the ''Literature/LoneWolf'' series, the book ''Wolf's Bane'' veers from the usual HighFantasy into ScienceFantasy once Lone Wolf is stranded on the far-away moon of a different planet, which features strong science-fiction elements, quite apart even from the {{Magitek}} of Magnamund.
130	[[/folder]]
131
132	[[folder:Literature]]
133	* ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' is a children's/young adult ScienceFiction series about [[KidHero Kid Heroes]]/ChildSoldiers that progressively gets DarkerAndEdgier as the [[WarIsHell war]] goes on. Several books, sometimes but not always {{Filler}}, stand out.[[note]]See also [[BizarroEpisode/{{Animorphs}} Bizarro Episode/Animorphs]][[/note]]
134	** Book 26, ''The Attack'' has them transported hundreds of light years away for a CombatByChampion fight as part of a CosmicChessGame.
135	** Book 42, ''The Journey'', is a FantasticVoyagePlot with tiny aliens thrown into the mix too, and the Yeerks barely appearing at all.
136	** The standalone book ''The Ellimist Chronicles'' takes place over millions (possibly billions) of years, and focuses on one character, the Ellimist, and how he AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence.
137	* ''Literature/TheBigFour'': This atypical Poirot story has Hercule Poirot, with the dubious assistance of [[TheWatson Captain Hastings]], in a life-or-death battle against the eponymous Big Four who are conspiring to take over the world. The Belgian sleuth, usually known for using his "little grey cells" amongst England's upper crust, engages in what's best describes as James Bond-style adventures. Poirot throws gas bombs, threatens an evil French scientist with a cigarette he claims shoots poison darts, masquerades as a non-existent twin brother, chases after a MasterOfDisguise. To top it all off, Poirot and Hastings infiltrate the secret underground lair, which blows up at the end!
138	* ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird'': The genre of the novel is probably best described as "coming of age". In the middle of it is a courtroom drama. There are some other crime elements scattered throughout, but it would be misleading to describe it as a crime or law novel.
139	** [[TheFilmOfTheBook The film]] has a higher focus on the courtroom scene and won the award "Best Courtroom Drama" from the American Film Institute. And [[ShownTheirWork the American Bar Association]].
140	* ''Literature/MobyDick'' includes chapters devoted to explaining various aspects of whaling life, as well as a cetology (study of whales) lesson that could fit into a biology textbook or encyclopedia (notwithstanding Melville's assertion that [[SomewhereAMammalogistIsCrying whales are fish]]). There's also a chapter about chowder. It's often said that the reason why these sections exist is that Melville was told the novel needed to be longer - and he couldn't think of anything else to pad it out with.
141	* Similarly, ''Literature/LesMiserables'' has extensive sections detailing the Paris sewers, the Battle of Waterloo, thieves' argot, cloistered orders of nuns...
142	* ''Franchise/HarryPotter'' in general is a mix of fantasy, coming-of-age, mystery, and boarding school-story with all the elements of these genres... and it works.
143	** Until the final chapters, ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince'' is a RomanticComedy occasionally punctuated by fact-finding trips into Dumbledore's pensieve. This was only played up in [[Film/HarryPotter the movie]], which eliminated most of the pensieve adventures. Notably, the filmmakers added the attack on the Burrow because they thought some action was needed in the middle part of the story.
144	** Similarly, ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets Chamber of Secrets]]'' is kind of a horror story and ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'' is kind of a political drama/satire. Also, anything with [[HilariouslyAbusiveChildhood the Dursleys]] leans on something of a StepfordSuburbia BlackComedy.
145	** ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets Chamber of Secrets]]'' is also sort of a murder mystery (except people aren't being murdered. [[CerebusSyndrome Yet]]) and ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire Goblet of Fire]]'' is a TournamentArc.
146	** The first half of ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' plays like an action thriller with Harry and the gang being on the run from the Wizarding government, which has been taken over by Voldemort and his followers. It also takes on elements of a heist once they infliltrate Gringots and the Ministry of Magic. [[Film/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Part 1 of the film adaptation ups the thriller aspect to 11.]]
147	* The ''Literature/ThursdayNext'' books are... [[GenreBusting sort of]] an urban fantasy mystery series about literature and the {{Metafiction}} thereof. Once per book, there's a chapter wherein Thursday teams up with Spike [[MeaningfulName Stoker]] to fight vampires, ghosts, demons or what have you, usually just so she can pay the rent. The narration shifts to a style that would not be out of place in ''{{Dracula}}'' or the more serious modern horror novel. And then things are back to normal next chapter.
148	** There's also a scene where Thursday has to cross the void between two books in the Bookworld, and the book depicts the wordless void by briefly turning into a comic.
149	* In ''Mists of Everness'', the second book in the Literature/WarOfTheDreaming, there is a chapter or two which features a switch from the present-day Urban Fantasy to Beatrix-Potteresque TalkingAnimal interlude. It's interesting and funny, and ties into the plot later on, but the unexpected change can be jarring.
150	* ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' is normally a kid's horror series, but "How I Learned to Fly" stands out as the only book in the series that plays out more like a supernatural romantic comedy (Jack learns to fly so he can impress his crush, Mia) and a satire on being famous in America (when Jack and Wilson prove that they can fly, they soon become hounded by obsessed fans, are taken in by the U.S. Army for experiments, and become so popular that they have no private life).
151	* The ''Literature/NeroWolfe'' novels and stories are usually murder mysteries. One exception to this is ''The Black Mountain'', which revolves around Wolfe's best friend and daughter being murdered by Soviet agents and forcing Wolfe to travel to his native Montenegro to locate the killer. While it still hinges on a murder, the novel is more of an adventure story with elements of a Cold War spy thriller.
152	* The ''Literature/GarrettPI'' novels were already a genre-bender by design, having started as a Literature/NeroWolfe pastiche set in a FantasyKitchenSink city. But even its usual FantasticNoir blend was one-upped by ''Angry Lead Skies'', which threw visiting ''space aliens'' into the mix.
153	* ''Literature/TheNightmareRoom'' is generally a horror seres, but ''Shadow Girl'' is a superhero story that serves as a GenreDeconstruction where the hero doesn't want to be a hero, and the villain doesn't want to be a villain.
154	* ''Literature/ExpeditionaryForce'': ''Homefront'' is very different from the rest of the series due to the fact it is less focused on humans being utterly overwhelmed by extraterrestrial forces and needing to rely on Joe Bishop being a GuileHero or Skippy being [[SufficientlyAdvancedAliens Sufficiently Advanced]]. Instead, it is full of big action scenes where the protagonists slug it out with the enemy in open battle. Skippy is also sidelined for most of the story, unable to help the others and cursed with a human who can't come up with elaborate plans on the fly.
155	* ''Literature/TheRailwaySeries'' the source material for WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriends; does this with one of the last books the creator Rev. Awdry wrote (along with his brother George), ''The Island of Sodor: Its People, History and Railways.'' The book has extensive history on Sodor from its Medieval to present day history, hotel recommendations, history on great engineering works, guides on religious sites, archeological discoveries, [[TheNeedForMead mead]] guides, and of course a detailed breakdown of railway history in the region. Many consider the book an awesome moment of [[ShownTheirWork showing off research from Awdry]], but considering the [[WesternAnimation/ThomasAndFriendsAllEnginesGo light-hearted goofy fare his characters are now famous for]], it is certainly a bit of a genre departure.
156	[[/folder]]
157
158	[[folder:Music]]
159	* ''Monsters'' from the Music/BlueOysterCult album ''[[Music/CultosaurusErectus Cultösaurus Erectus]]'' starts off as a traditional AOR track, but then by the middle it quickly switches to a Jazz-lounge sort of feel.
160	* Music/TechN9ne:
161	** "Devil Boy" jumps from HipHop to ThrashMetal for one line:
162	--->Y'all act like I'm sayin'
163	--->[[MetalScream I LOVE LUCIFER I WILL KILL ALL OF YOU]]
164	** The ''Therapy'' EP switches from his normal style of hip-hop, to (of all things), NuMetal. Justified since it was produced by [[Music/{{Korn}} Ross Robinson]].
165	* The first half of Laserdance's ''The Guardian of Forever'' was their usual synthdance, but the second half completely abandoned the style and switched to progressive trance. It was thought that this was going to be a permanent GenreShift, but they returned to form for their next album, ''Laserdance Strikes Back''.
166	* ''Red Sails in the Sunset'' by Music/MidnightOil has the track "Bakerman", a [[MinisculeRocking very short]] cheerful oompa ditty in the middle of what is otherwise a dark and very political [[NewWaveMusic new-wave]] album.
167	* Anoraak normally does minimalistic synthpop, but "Long Distance Hearts" has a more trancy sound.
168	* Music/LimpBizkit's "Douche Bag" starts off in their usual NuMetal style, then becomes a {{Jazz}} song out of nowhere at the end.
169	* Music/{{Queen}}'s ''Music/BohemianRhapsody'' abruptly breaks into HeavyMetal for about a verse before returning to its faux-operatic style.
170	* Music/{{Nightwish\|Band}} is usually a symphonic metal band, but their "The Islander" is Celtic folk-rock, and their "Slow, Love, Slow" might be described as dark cabaret/jazz. "The Crow, The Owl, And The Dove" is mostly acoustic pop.
171	* A few Music/NineInchNails songs do this. "March of the Pigs" starts off as metal, turns into techno, and then switches to clean vocals over a piano. Then it does it all over again. "Ruiner" is mostly a synth-heavy industrial track, but has a bluesy breakdown and guitar solo after the second verse. "The Becoming" has sections that almost sound like "Kumbaya," but then give way to pulsing guitars and screams of "Goddamn this noise inside my head!" The song "Everything" off of the ''Hesitation Marks'' album is a pop-punk song that is sandwiched between the usual dark/industrial NIN fare.
172	* Music/ShaniaTwain released three versions of her album ''Up!:'' red (rock/pop), green (country), and blue (world music.) The red and green are fairly similar, but the blue version is similar to popular Eastern music, unlike any previous releases.
173	* PlayedForLaughs with German PowerMetal band Music/OrdenOgan. They are known for their albums being centered on DarkFantasy themes, but in ''Vale'', one of their albums, there is a HiddenTrack called "(Who's the) Green Man", a deliberately silly Ska-style rap song in which Seeb and Nils incoherently slur about the titular Green Man.
174	* Pop-punk band Music/GreenDay has done this a couple times, most notably on the album Nimrod. They play faux-country on "Dominated Love Slave", instrumental surf rock on "Last Ride In" and ska-punk on "King for a Day".
175	* Music/{{Alestorm}}'s "Death Throes of the Terrorsquid", the SequelSong to "Leviathan", goes into Music/DimmuBorgir mode when the title beast awakens to do battle with the crew for the second and final time.
176	* Music/{{Issues}}' normal style of music is a mix of {{metalcore}} and {{nu metal}} with {{pop}} music into the mix. That is until you get to "Disappear (Remember When)", the final song on their debut album. It starts off normal, but once it gets to the end the instruments stop playing, and it suddenly becomes an ACappella gospel song complete with female choir singers in the background.
177	* Music/GeorgeFredericHandel, composer of such masterpieces as "Music For The Royal Fireworks" and the oratorio ''Messiah'' (of "Hallelujah Chorus" fame) is less famous but equally important as one of the driving forces in preservation of Irish folk music. He spent a lot of his career in Dublin (then England's second city and cultural capital) and spent a lot of his free time collecting and notating airs and dance tunes he heard in the city.
178	* Music/{{Sabaton}} is known for PowerMetal anthems about [[HorribleHistoryMetal military history]]. "The Ballad of Bull" on ''Heroes'' still follows that subject matter (it's about Australian Army Corporal Leslie Allen), but is a '70s rock-style PowerBallad.
179	* Music/SithClan is a {{nerdcore}} [[HipHop Rap]] group, but "Love Jam" on their first album ''The Beta'' is a soft hip-hop IntercourseWithYou number coming between two raps about gaming. "Video Game Store" on ''Pixels to Polygons'' isn't even a song: it's a comedy skit about shopping for video games.
180	* Music/BattleBeast is known for PowerMetal fused with '80s-style HardRock, but "Touch in the Night" is an IntercourseWithYou number that sounds like a {{synthpop}} tune from a '90s girl group.
181	* Music/SnoopDogg, who's of course best known for his GangstaRap songs about sex, drugs, and criminality, raised some eyebrows when he released a GospelMusic album, ''Bible of Love'' (2018). Despite some MoralGuardians confused at the seeming disconnect between the artist's lifestyle and a religious message, it made it to #1 on the Gospel charts.
182	* Hip-hop band The Roots' ''Phrenology'' has "!!!!!!!" [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HardcorePunk (hardcore punk)]], "Thirsty" [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/.../ElectronicDanceMusic (EDM)]] and "The Seed (2.0)", a cover/remake of Cody Chesnutt's "The Seed".
183	* Lydia Loveless' "Heaven" is a dance track and a 90 degree turn from the rest of ''Real'', which elsewhere blends Americana, country and pop/rock.
184	* Regurgitator's second album ''Unit'' mostly forsakes the band's earlier GenreRoulette for an [=80s=] pop throwback record...mostly. There's also "Modern Life" ([=90s=] indie rock), "I Piss Alone" and "1234" (hardcore punk) and "I Will Lick Your Arsehole" and "Just Another Beautiful Story" (gangsta rap and psychedelic [=60s=] pop respectively, but with slick production that evokes the [=80s=]).
185	* Music/CorrosionOfConformity, a metal band, stuck in a bluegrass number at the end of their album ''Blind'' for no apparent reason, called [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_47hPLCiZk "Jim Beam and the Coon Ass"]].
186	* Indie folk singer Music/LauraVeirs' third album has "Cannon Fodder", a big rock song with a spacey synth outro.
187	* Music/AlelaDiane's folk album ''Alela Diane & Wild Divine'' starts with "To Begin", a blue-eyed soul number.
188	* ''Music/ToyDolls'' always include a cover on every album, usually something wildly incongruous with the band's general fast-paced comedy-punk repertoire. A standout is a series of variations on [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbpHy0iIHfM "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik"]], which would not sound out of place at a music academy recital.
189	* HardRock band Music/GunsNRoses has "My World," an ''Industrial Hip Hop'' song. Its made even more weird made by the fact that it closes out the ''Music/UseYourIllusion'' duology.
190	* Music/LCDSoundsystem is primarily an AlternativeRock[=/=]DancePunk project, known for making noisy, high-energy dance music. Their sophomore album, ''Sound of Silver'', is also mostly this, but the album ends with "New York I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down", a traditional jazz-piano ballad, toning down the drums and guitars for a bittersweet, heartfelt ode to James Murphy's hometown.
191	* Music/{{Lovebites}} plays heavy metal... but metalheads might be surprised to see Miyako play Music/FryderykChopin's "Revolutionary Etude" as the lead-in to "Swan Song" (she later released a solo EP of classical piano covers of metal songs, such as [[Music/{{Helloween}} "Eagle Fly Free"]] and [[Music/{{Metallica}} "Battery"]]. For the members themselves, vocalist Asami came from a Soul and R&B background (as well as being a trained ballerina) and had no experience with heavy metal before she auditioned for the band.
192	* Music/TaylorSwift, who at the time was still a country pop artist, has the song "Better Than Revenge," a PopPunk song, which sounds nothing like anything she's done before, or since, instead sounding more like something Music/{{Paramore}} would have done earlier on in their career.
193	* Music/StockAitkenWaterman are best known for producing dance-pop songs for other artists. Under their own name they released "[[https://youtu.be/PZbAEHswIfw?si=konl8YbB-xvfE_sq Roadblock]]" in the "rare groove" style that was cool at the time.
194	* British blues singer Jamie N Commons decided to collaborate with house duo Icarus for their track "[[https://youtu.be/96n3VyETTgQ?si=cuaQGxeNuuFrQCIa Moment In Time]]".
195	* Music/Deadmau5 released "Where's the Drop?", which is an album of orchestral arrangements of his biggest hits. He later commissioned remixes of these orchestral renditions by up-and-coming electronic producers, and released it as "Here's the Drop!"
196	* Music/{{HANA}}'s song "Cowgirl Bebop" is an acoustic love song on an otherwise entirely SynthPop oriented album.
197	[[/folder]]
198
199	[[folder:Theatre]]
200	* Invoked with ''Theatre/DerRosenkavalier''. After composing ''Salome'' and ''Elektra'', two extremely dark tragedies that pushed a lot of boundaries both in terms of story and music and were very popular with the approximately ten people who could see what he was trying to do, Richard Strauss decided that his next opera was going to be, in his words, "a Mozart opera", a light, fun crowd-pleaser that would appeal to a broad audience and bring in some much-needed money.
201	* ''Theatre/{{Tsukiuta}}'' and its spinoff series tend to do this more often than not, taking their IdolSinger main cast elsewhere in the multiverse. They've done SpaceOpera (with dragons), {{Youkai}}, {{Steampunk}} (where the characters are reincarnations of their space-opera selves, and their dragons find them again), a world ruled by a Flower King selected by dance competitions, and more, all for the sake of CostumePorn.
202	[[/folder]]
203
204	[[folder:Video Games]]
205	* ''VideoGame/BaldursGateIII'': Though mostly a DarkFantasy, the game leans hard into classic horror tropes for the Shadow Cursed Lands in Act II, such as SlasherMovie antagonists, GhostFiction, NothingIsScarier, etc.
206	* ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic 7'' is a full-on fantasy RPG for the majority of the story- until the final act, whereupon our heroes take on space aliens with space blasters.
207	* ''VideoGame/DungeonSiege'' Roughly halfway through the game, after a high fantasy romp through the lands of Aranna, the party stumbles into The Goblin Warrens to find out that the Goblins roughly have the equivalent of early 20th-century human technology, where the party can loot and use some of the weapons. After it's done, the story goes back to high fantasy to the end.
208	* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'' has an interesting experience with this trope. [[spoiler:While in prison, Naked Snake can fall asleep [[NoFourthWall if you save and quit]]. When you load it back, a hack-and-slash minigame starts. After a few minutes of slicing up [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot giant mutant prison guard monsters]], Snake wakes up from his nightmare, evoking a hilarious radio conversation from Para-Medic when called.]]
209	* ''VideoGame/JaggedAlliance 2'' is a squad-based strategy/RPG, set in a BananaRepublic, where you assist an uprising against an evil queen and... WHERE THE HELL DID THE HUGE MAN-EATING BUGS COME FROM!? Apparently even the developers thought this might be [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment a bit too jarring for some people's tastes]] because there's an option to turn "Sci-Fi Elements" off when you start a new game.
210	* Also common in ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' series is shifts to Stealth Action games.
211	** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'': Happens early where you infiltrate the Gerudo Fortress, having to avoid guards and stunning them with your bow/hookshot and freeing prisoners covertly. And a simplified preview of this genre shift earlier in the same game, when young Link has to sneak past Hyrule Castle guards to meet up with Princess Zelda.
212	** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker'': Happens as early as the first dungeon by removing your sword. The tone also feels completely different from the rest of the game, being dark and dank, and you'll find yourself moving slowly, crouching, sidling along walls and hiding inside barrels a la the box from ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid''. You also have to take out the searchlight operators in order to be able to move on.
213	** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'': As soon as you reach the Hidden Village for the first time, the game puts you right into a Spaghetti Western (or a light-gun FPS, depending how you play it).
214	** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword'': While the game has elements of the stealth genre in the Silent Realm segments, the true example of this trope is the visit to the Eldin Volcano during the Song Of The Hero quest, where upon entry the volcano explodes, Link is captured and all his items are taken from him. He has to slowly sneak around the newly instated enemy camp and retrieve his items and has to use the ones he gets back to help him get the other ones as if they were gadgets like in a true stealth-action game.
215	** ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': While the game lets the player use OptionalStealth in almost every combat encounter, there are two specific sections where it is required: the mission to board Divine Beast Vah Rudania, and the mission to infiltrate the Yiga Clan Hideout.
216	* A DLC pack for ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'', "Undead Nightmare" turns the game into a ZombieApocalypse story in a new campaign mode. Oh, and it adds mythical creatures, too.
217	* The ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza}}'' series is a crime drama about life in the [[{{Yakuza}} Japanese underworld]]. A spin-off title, ''Dead Souls'', is set during a ZombieApocalypse. Oh, and Ryuji Goda has a [[GatlingGood Gatling gun]] [[ArmCannon arm]].
218	* ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'':
219	** The game is a straight Bioware RPG SpaceOpera. Commander Shepard wanders around the galaxy performing quests and beating up bad guys. Then there are two quests worth of downloadable content which turn the game temporarily into a heist movie and a detective movie respectively, with the appropriate mood, camera work, and tropes.
220	** Part of [[spoiler:Legion's]] loyalty mission bears a resemblance to a TowerDefense game, with Shepard remotely activating rocket turrets to help fight off waves of geth.
221	** ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' has The Citadel DLC, which is an intentional send-up of the series with numerous homages to other video games, movies, and books, a lot of snide commentary about the game and the multiplayer community, some good-natured shots at both the fans and the game, and a lot of series in-jokes. It completely clashes with the sharp {{Reconstruction}} of SpaceOpera which makes up the rest of the series and especially with the generally dark and moody feel of the third game, since humanity is engaged in a brutal war for survival.
222	* ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsCoded'' does this in several chapters, taking an action-RPG game and twisting it into a 2D platformer, a hall-running railshooter, and even a turn-based RPG at times.
223	* In ''VideoGame/FableIII'', once the King/Queen first sets foot on the streets of Aurora, there is a rather abrupt (and effective) switch from dark humor/fantasy to full-blown horror and it just gets scarier from there.
224	* Each of the ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' add-ons are this. ''Dead Money'' is a slice of SurvivalHorror in an Art Deco resort (not unlike ''VideoGame/{{BioShock\|1}}''), ''Honest Hearts'' swaps the struggles of the Mojave out for a religious conflict in Utah, ''Old World Blues'' is a zany romp with the MadScience and humor typical of the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series magnified. Lonesome Road is a road through a true apocalyptic wasteland while on a journey to discover your past and a final confrontation with the man who's had some involvement with all the other add-ons as well as your own history.
225	* ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' has a brief stint into the sci-fi realm in the Mothership Zeta DLC when your character is abducted by aliens, fights off the aliens, and at the end [[spoiler: actually engages another alien ship in a space battle above post-apocalyptic Earth.]]
226	* ''VideoGame/SimSettlements2'' is a mod for ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' that normally plays like an RPG/city builder hybrid, that then later adds RealTimeStrategy warfare elements. However, the "Flickering Lights" quest that starts off Chapter 3 goes firmly into horror territory, complete with an unknown assailant and a puzzle that wouldn't feel out of place in ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil''.
227	* In the NES ice hockey game ''Blades of Steel'', the first intermission entertainment is a short, simplified game of the space-shooter ''VideoGame/{{Gradius}}'' on the arena scoreboard. Then the puck drops for the second period.
228	* At one point ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' turns into ''CSI: Dantooine'', with the PlayerCharacter asked by a Jedi Master to investigate a homicide among the settlers through witness interviews and forensic evidence (the analysis of the latter is handled by a droid). Meanwhile, three portions of the player's activities on Manaan have CourtroomEpisode components (two are part of the main quest, the third is Jolee Bindo's companion sidequest).
229	* ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'' loves delving into different genres during the course of the game.
230	** Acts 1 and 2 are your standard crime-noir, with some tease of a GenreShift into occult horror territory near the end of Act I before revealing that no, Lupino's not into dark magic, he's just tripping balls on Valkyr.
231	** The nightmare sequences throughout the game inject a tone of surreal horror into the game when they occur.
232	** Act 3 introduces elements of espionage/technothriller stuff early on, with Max battling heavily-armed mercenaries and infiltrating a military bunker in order to get to the bottom of Valkyr, along with a brief detour back to the usual crime-noir in Chapter 4, where [[spoiler:Max confronts B.B., the backstabbing bastard who actually murdered his partner and set him up to take the fall for it]]. Then after that, we go into espionage mode again, this time with what seems like some kind of AncientConspiracy [[spoiler:but which is actually, according to Max Payne 2, a very old criminal syndicate]] culminating in a final confrontation at the top of Aesir Plaza.
233	* The entire ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' franchise (since ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'' at least) typically have zombie apocalypse-themed DLC packs. There are so many that they've now developed their own universe/continuity.
234	* The first mission of ''VideoGame/SaintsRowIV'' is a seriously-taken pastiche of ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare''-style modern military shooters, unlike the more comedic tone of the rest of the game, down to the breaching scene and using a knife for melee attacks rather than {{Groin Attack}}s or pro-wrestling moves.
235	* ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle'':
236	** The game flirts with this in the fight against Matt Helms, who's basically one giant slasher villain homage, and who's backstory is one of the few times the game and its predecessor deals with supernatural elements (his stage is even reached through an Akashic Point, another one of the rare supernatural elements).
237	** The ranked battle against Charlie Macdonald is more akin to a 2D FightingGame with [[SuperRobot Super Robots]].
238	* ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroesIII'': The fight against the Rank 3 boss (Sonic Juice) is presented as a turn-based RPG fight. [[spoiler:Then Travis destroys the RPG menu and interface during battle and makes the fight switch back to a typical hack-and-slash combat akin to the rest of the game and the series]].
239	* ''Train Simulator 2012'' has the infamous Trains vs. Zombies DLC... which is just the same game as before, except now there are zombies that the player has to try and not let on the train. And a witch. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayju_YvAhUY It must be seen to be believed.]]
240	* The ''VideoGame/NancyDrew'' series are mostly straightforward mysteries, as you would expect from the title character, but every third game or so, they decide to take a hard left turn and tell stories that are almost outright horror. Various haunted buildings (''Message in a Haunted Mansion,'' ''The Haunting of Castle Malloy''), ghosts (''Shadow at the Water's Edge,'' ''Ghosts of Thornton Hall''), a creepy cult-like family (''Curse of Blackmoor Manor'',) and just general creepiness abound. Most have ''Scooby-Doo''-esque rational explanations, but it's still surprising that a video game series based on Nancy Drew of all characters has gained a [[NightmareFuel/NancyDrew Nightmare Fuel]] page, and ''earned it.''
241	* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries'':
242	** ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'' features a fairly standard but well-told Batman plot, but a sudden case of MoodWhiplash and MindScrew hits whenever The Scarecrow's fear toxin causes Batman to have some rather disturbing hallucinations. For many players, these sudden horror sections were the high point of the game. The gameplay was unchanged, but the tone was completely different.
243	** ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'':
244	*** There's an entire, darkly surreal section devoted to the Mad Hatter's insane fantasies, where Batman winds up in another hallucinatory world. Also like Arkham Asylum, the gameplay was unchanged.
245	*** Another occurs with Ra's al Ghul's section of the game, where yet another unreal battle takes place in a theme park Middle Eastern fantasy world before jumping right back into post-Dark Knight grim-and-gritty Gotham
246	** ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'' takes the cake with the ending sequences which involve [[spoiler:Batman's worst nightmare played out in his head: Joker possesses Batman, who uses his body to hunt and kill scrambling victims in an apocalyptic Gotham - and turns the game into a third-person shooter! Then Scarecrow injects Batman with another round of fear gas and Joker gets his worst nightmare in FPS horror format.]]
247	%%Hmm, shouldn't these go under UnexpectedGameplayChange?
248	%%No, that refers to when GAMEPLAY, not PLOT, changes.
249	%% In this one, both plot and gameplay change as you play from Joker's violent and explosive point of view.
250	* ''VideoGame/RuneScape'' has a few quests in it that seem to be in a different genre, but one quest that is especially notable is the quest "Broken Home", which is very SurvivalHorror inspired. It actually plays like the early ''Franchise/ResidentEvil'' games. Almost the entire quest takes place in a mansion which the player cannot bring any items into, and none of the enemies in the quest can be attacked, only avoided or run from. "Broken Home" is also currently one of the only quests in the game that can be replayed an unlimited number of times, and has extra rewards for [[SpeedRun Speed Running]] it.
251	* ''VideoGame/WanganMidnightMaximumTune'' soundtracks are known for being trance or at least having electronic music elements. But then there's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_NAANoEOfA "The Race Is On"]] from ''Maximum Tune 5DX'', which is entirely a ''rock'' song.
252	* ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'' has an in InUniverse example: Pearl is usually the [[AWildRapperAppears rapper who appears]] on Off the Hook's songs. However, in one of the chat longs, a clip of one of her first music demos is posted. Turns out that before Pearl and Marina formed their pop group, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dh4ay5gdEk Pearl tried her hand at Metalcore.]]
253	* ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarOnline2'' has two [[BrokenBase rather infamous]] examples of this. ''Reborn: EPISODE 4'' is an UrbanFantasy with a MetaFiction-esque story, due to it taking place in the real world and featuring the game itself as a major plot point. ''Heroes: EPISODE 5'' meanwhile takes place in a MedievalEuropeanFantasy world with elements of an [[TrappedInAnotherWorld Isekai]] work. The game went back to ScienceFiction with ''Stars: EPISODE 6''.
254	* ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'' is normally an RPG about adventuring and fighting bad guys with heavy elements of platforming, but Chapter 6 has Mario helping to solve a mystery on a train. Similarly, ''VideoGame/PaperMarioColorSplash'' eventually puts Mario in the Dark Bloo Inn, the site of a GroundhogDayLoop that Mario has to break in order to proceed.
255	* ''Tiny Barbarian DX'' is a ''Rastan Saga''-esque fantasy action platformer game, as one would naturally expect, so it's pretty shocking when Episode 4 changes up the formula in favor of [[spoiler:having the barbarian abducted by aliens in the apparent final level, then later rescued by his laser firearms-toting damsel (who was the designated kidnapping victim up to that point). In-between those two occurrences, the game becomes a RunAndGun platformer for a while, although the sci-fi switch sticks until the end]].
256	* ''VideoGame/StoryOfSeasonsPioneersOfOliveTown'': One of the romance options is a noble from a foreign land who moved to the ThrivingGhostTown in which the game is set to escape DecadentCourt level politics in which he wanted no part. The plot of his RomanceSidequest involves encounters with an assassin who was sent after him, resulting in a plotline that is quite action-packed and has quite high stakes for a FarmLifeSim.
257	* ''VideoGame/{{Ultrakill}}'' is a ScienceFantasy FirstPersonShooter, but its {{Bonus Level}}s all shift the game into a new genre for the duration of that level.
258	** Something Wicked This Way Comes is a SurvivalHorror experience of navigating a [[BlackoutBasement pitch-black maze]] while pursued by an endessly-respawning OneHitKill monster.
259	** The Witless is a puzzle game (and pastiche of ''VideoGame/TheWitness'').
260	** All-Imperfect Love Song is a parody of dating sims.
261	** Clash Of The Brandicoot is a third-person 3d platformer and pastiche of the ''VideoGame/CrashBandicoot'' franchise.
262	** I Only Say Morning is a Fishing Game parody with unusually obtuse mechanics and increasingly bizarre and [[ShoutOut referential]] "fish".
263	* ''VideoGame/LikeADragonInfiniteWealth'': Kiryu's LimitBreak, Dragon's Resurgence, allows him to temporarily throw out the turn-based aspects of the game and beat on enemies in real time, much like in the preceding ''VideoGame/LikeADragon'' games. What makes this part of an Out-of-Genre Experience is that the Chapter 12 boss fight against [[spoiler:Daigo Dojima, Goro Majima, and Taiga Saejima]] makes it so that the bosses can ''also'' do this once their health is low, turning the game into a full-on brawler until either Kiryu or the boss's health is depleted.
264	[[/folder]]
265
266	[[folder:Web Videos]]
267	* ''Podcast/ChuckleSandwich'': While the podcast usually just consists of the hosts having a conversation, the Chuckle Dungeon episodes temporarily turn it into a Dungeons and Dragons podcast, with Charlie running small campaigns for Ted and Schlatt to play.
268	* ''WebVideo/DrGlaucomflecken'': These are medical humor video skits, but sometimes swerve into horror territory.
269	* ''WebVideo/GirlfriendReviews'': The duo is know for their comedic and meme-filled approach to game reviews, focusing on making fun of games and their experience playing them. Their video "Understanding ''VideoGame/TheLastOfUsPartII''", is a thoughtful video essay that, while having a little comedy, is an overall serious video in which Shelby analyzes the game's controversial plot points and structure rather than their experience with the game, which they felt was necessary due to the massive controversies and discourse happening around the game. They would later make their usual review of the game.
270	* ''WebVideo/MaggieMaeFish'': Maggie usually makes good humored video essays where she analyzes pieces of media through an academic and critical lens. "Change", however, is a video essay that focuses on no piece of media in particular (though she refers to ''Series/{{Hoarders}}'' and ''Film/Weekend1967''), and is more of a personal meditation in which Maggie talks about her recent personal experience with grief after losing her grandmother, and her dislike for unchanging things.
271	[[/folder]]
272
273	[[folder:Western Animation]]
274	* Occurs often in ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'', due to the show's fondness for parodies.
275	** "The Others" turns the show in a parody of TeenDrama, with plenty of references to ''Series/MySoCalledLife'', when Gumball and Darwin try to help the saddened Claire when she suddenly has to move.
276	** "The Test" turns the show in a sitcom, and a bad one at that, when Gumball decides to change his ways, the group's lives are shifted so now the show is a sitcom with Tobias as the main character.
277	** "The Sweaters" turns the show in a parody of sports movies, specifically ''Film/KarateKid''. Where as the town bends itself backwards for the parody to be played as straight (and over the top) as it possibly can, Darwin and Gumball realize the oddness and decide to just ride this one out.
278	* ''WesternAnimation/AmericanDad'':
279	** The alien Roger once pooped out a turd made of solid gold; pretty standard fare for the show. But then a couple scenes in two different episodes were devoted to people finding the golden turd and engaging in ''FilmNoir'' style crime out of greed over it, without a joke to be heard. These scenes would even switch to a widescreen format back when the show was still aired in fullscreen just to make them look more cinematic.
280	** "Lost in Space" is an almost serious science-fiction story focused on Jeff.
281	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}''
282	** "Space Race", the two-part finale of the third season, stands out for being a full-on ScienceFiction story about a mutiny on a space station and [[spoiler:a plot to colonize Mars]] in a [[WorkCom workplace comedy]] about [[SpyFiction spies]]. Justified, as it's a direct spoof of [[Film/{{Moonraker}} a specific James Bond film]] that was also an example of this trope.
283	** The 8th season is an [[ExaggeratedTrope entire season]] of straight-up FilmNoir, justified as being Archer's [[AdventuresInComaland coma dream]]. It's also [[CerebusSyndrome considerably more dramatic]] than the rest of the series.
284	** The 9th season continues this trope with a shift to classic 1930s pulp adventure for Archer's next coma dream, although this was closer in tone to the first seven seasons of the show than the eighth season was.
285	** The 10th season does this a third time for Archer's last coma dream, with a shift to much harder ScienceFiction than the Season 3 "Space Race" two-parter, complete with alien pirates, space gladiators, black holes, and its version of the villain Barry being a full killer robot with no human features whatsoever aside from having the same voice as the previous human Barrys. It is darker than Season 9, but lighter than Season 8.
286	* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'' has a couple of episodes like this. "Zuko Alone" is a Western, complete with a ShowdownAtHighNoon. "The Beach" is a TeenDrama, complete with {{Fanservice}} and a WildTeenParty. "The Puppetmaster" is horror, conveniently aired near Halloween.
287	** This is even lampshaded their pre-finale summation episode; when the Gaang takes a break from training to go see a play based on their previous adventures, Sokka comments that this exactly the kind of random time-wasting activity he misses since the show shifted to more serious and plot-driven episodes.
288	* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'':
289	** We're all familiar with the classic Batman episode formula. Classic Bat rogue hatches zany scheme related to their particular motif, some detective work, track to abandoned factory, defeat. Several episodes in the series departed rather drastically from this pattern:[[note]]Though, that said, they wouldn't be too out of place in the ''comics'', where anything goes.[[/note]]
290	** Any episode that features advanced technology, like robots or gene-splicing, comes off as sci-fi to the point of being out of place in the dark deco FilmNoir setting.
291	** "[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE38HeartOfSteelPart1 Heart of Steel: Part 1]]" and "[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE39HeartOfSteelPart2 Part 2]]" feature Bats fighting a computer (made by a well-meaning futurist) whose plot is to replace the entire species with {{Robot Me}}s.
292	** "[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE42TygerTyger Tyger, Tyger]]", in which Catwoman is abducted by a mad scientist who turns her into a literal CatGirl to mate her with his latest creation.
293	** Most episodes with Ra's al Ghul will feature Bats actually ''leaving'' Gotham to have a globetrotting pulpy adventure.
294	* ''WesternAnimation/DanVs'', a show focused on wacky revenge schemes, has had two episodes involving this:
295	** "The Dentist", where Dan and Chris fight a dentist supervillain.
296	** "Wild West Town", where the genre jump shouldn't be even remotely difficult to guess.
297	* ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'', a sci-fi gag comedy, has:
298	** The episode "Framed", where Dexter's glasses are cracked. It's very dialogue-heavy, Dexter's lab isn't even ''mentioned'', and feels more like a school slice-of-life story.
299	** "Filet of Soul" is a fairly straightforward horror story about Dexter and Dee-Dee being haunted by the ghost of their pet goldfish.
300	** "[=DiM=]" has no dialogue and no music and is simply about a trip to the store to replace a broken light bulb. There are also no gags or jokes whatsoever and appears to simply be experimental storytelling.
301	** The lion's share of "Better Off Wet" is of an elaborate synchronized swim sequence. As a result, it's less of any genre in particular and more an isolated BusbyBerkeleyNumber with a few pool-related gags before and after it.
302	* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'':
303	** "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS10E3ScreamsOFSilenceTheStoryOfBrendaQ Screams of Silence: The Story of Brenda Q.]]", which actually shows domestic abuse in a serious light and barely has any jokes in it.
304	** The BannedEpisode "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS8E21PartialTermsOfEndearment Partial Terms of Endearment]]" was also a traditional VerySpecialEpisode (save for the end) that focused on abortion and the right to life vs. pro-choice argument (which actually was handled well, according to Creator/SethMacFarlane and many critics who managed to see the episode, despite that it went direct-to-DVD and, as of 2013, has not aired on television in full[[note]]Scenes of and discussion about this episode were included on a 200th episode retrospective, with Seth [=MacFarlane=] explaining why FOX won't air the episode[[/note]][[note]]It has, however, aired on the BBC at least[[/note]]).
305	** "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS9E1AndThenThereWereFewer And Then There Were Fewer]]", an hour-long homage/AffectionateParody of murder mysteries.
306	** "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS2E3DaBoom Da Boom]]", a BizarroEpisode where the Griffins deal with [[MillenniumBug [=Y2K=]]].
307	** "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS4E26Petergeist Petergeist]]", a WholePlotReference to ''{{Film/Poltergeist\|1982}}''.
308	** "[[Recap/FamilyGuyS8E17BrianAndStewie Brian & Stewie]]" is also mostly a dead-serious episode with the two locked in a bank overnight and Brian confessing his lack of purpose in life and suicidal thoughts.
309	* The ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' episode "Sentinel" marked a brief foray into SpaceOpera, when Goliath and Angela go to Easter Island and run into an alien warrior who mistakenly believes that the Gargoyles are aliens as well. Though we don't see its direct consequences, the episode makes it clear that Earth is an outpost in a massive intergalactic war.
310	** WordOfGod says that the aliens that the sentinel was guarding against actually ''would'' have invaded Earth two centuries after the events of the show, with the descendants of the main characters (and the members of the cast still alive at that point) forming a resistance against them. Honestly, the show was already such a FantasyKitchenSink that aliens weren't much of a stretch...but since the proposed spin-off about the alien invasion was never actually made, "Sentinel" still sticks out like a sore thumb.
311	* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'':
312	** While a supernatural-themed show, any episode with [[TimeTravel Blendin Blandin]] is much straighter sci-fi.
313	** The three-part series finale goes in a different direction entirely, [[spoiler:becoming a post-apocalyptic alien-vs.-mecha show.]]
314	* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'':
315	** In [[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS4E26TwilightsKingdomPart2 "Twilight's Kingdom Part 2"]], the fight between Twilight and Tirek looks like something out of a {{Shonen}} anime, often being compared to ''Anime/DragonBallZ''. This is especially noticeable with the climax of the episode, which is more in line with previous finales.
316	** "[[Recap/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicS6E10TheSaddleRowReview The Saddle Row Review]]". With this episode, the show dips its hoof into {{Mockumentary}}-style comedy, with the diner interviews taking the place of talking-head confessionals. To further drive the point home, the working title of this episode was [[Series/ParksAndRecreation "Saddle Row & Rec".]]
317	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'':
318	** The episode "Schoolworld" adds sci-fi to the SliceOfLife comedy.
319	** The [[WesternAnimation/RecessSchoolsOut theatrical film]] goes into the territory of spy thrillers and 1960s counter-culture, among others, to the point of being GenreBusting.
320	* ''WesternAnimation/SamuraiJack'', usually a more serious show, has a few comedic-driven episodes with little in the way of action, most notably "Jack is Naked" and "Jack's Sandals".
321	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E24TheSimpsonsSpinOffShowcase The Simpsons Spin-Off Showcase]]" transplants characters into new genres - Chief Wiggum and Seymour Skinner are a pair of street-smart private investigators ([[HyperCompetentSidekick well, at least Skinner is]]), the eponymous family performs in a song-and-dance variety show, and Moe and Grampa star in a FantasticComedy in which Grampa's soul is stuck in a love-tester giving Moe dating advice.
322	* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' has the episodes "Kenny Dies," "The Return of Chef" and "Stanley's Cup," all drama-driven episodes featuring very little comedy. The former two, in particular, featured the deaths of two beloved characters (even though Kenny eventually came back, despite the fact this death was intended to be permanent, unlike his [[TheyKilledKennyAgain many past deaths]]).
323	* ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003'': [[InUniverse Ultimate]] [[CompositeCharacter Draco]] uses the time scepter to send the turtles to different times and places. Michaelangelo was sent to an alternate universe where the turtles are more traditionally cartoonish superheroes. Raphael was sent to a motorcycle race on an alien world. Donatello was sent to a dystopian future where Shredder had conquered the world. Leonardo was sent to the world of ''ComicBook/UsagiYojimbo''.
324	* ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' is well-known for its {{slapstick}} GagSeries nature. The short ''WesternAnimation/BlueCatBlues'', however, is a romantic drama where Tom tries to win back a GoldDigger's love, only to fail and end up SpurnedIntoSuicide.
325	* ''WesternAnimation/VoltronLegendaryDefender'' is mainly a sci-fi action-adventure series but it has the space horror episode "[[Recap/VoltronLegendaryDefenderS1E09CrystalVenom Crystal Venom]]" and the comedic "[[Recap/VoltronLegendaryDefenderS4E4 The Voltron Show!]]".
326	* In the ''WesternAnimation/WanderOverYonder'' episode "The Bad Neighbors", the wacky sci-fi hijinks turn into a parody of generic suburban {{sitcom}}s when Lord Hater and Emperor Awesome both end up hiding out in a cul-de-sac on Suburbicon IV and get into an EscalatingWar with each other.
327	* ''WesternAnimation/WeBareBears'' is usually a light-hearted SliceOfLife comedy, but the "Icy Nights" episodes are an action-packed {{homage}} to the [[FilmNoir neo-noir]] genre.
328	[[/folder]]

Context Main / OutOfGenreExperience