Line #66 Main/PseudoCrisis


1	->''"Ever notice how something dramatic seems to happen around here every eight minutes? I can't be the only one noticing this."''
2	-->-- ''WebAnimation/RedVsBlue'', most episodes of which are ~8 minutes long
3
4	Oh no! A bad guy has walked in on a member of a group running an ImpossibleMission, or something has otherwise GoneHorriblyWrong in the plan.
5
6	[[CommercialBreakCliffhanger This happens right before a commercial break]], usually about 40 minutes into an hour-long show. Fortunately, right after the commercials, the hero or team will quickly dispose of the crisis and it will have no effect on the rest of the episode. Note that this ''can'' be done well, as repeated uses in quick succession can lull the viewer into a false sense of security so that when the ''real'' crisis strikes, it's more serious.
7
8	It also sometimes happens in TheTeaser to get the audience interested in the show, in which case it's resolved early in the first act.
9
10	In especially egregious cases, there's no reason for the main plot to present a Pseudo Crisis, so instead a BigLippedAlligatorMoment will force one.
11
12	May lead to odd moments if you watch it on DVD without commercials.
13
14	A SubTrope of CliffhangerCopout.
15
16	----
17	!!Examples:
18	[[foldercontrol]]
19
20	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
21	* In ''Anime/YuGiOh'', a commercial break (or in extreme cases, the end of a two-parter episode) would often hit just as Yugi/Joey/whoever we're rooting for appeared to be panicking over the seemingly unstoppable card their opponent du jour has just pulled out. When we returned, our hero would then quickly produce just the cards needed to win, earlier fear forgotten.
22	[[/folder]]
23
24	[[folder:Comic Books]]
25	* Parodied (along with the CliffhangerCopout) in ComicBook/TheBlackRing. [[spoiler: Vandal Savage has wired Lex Luthor's building with explosives. During a fight he drops the remote. It falls button-first onto the ground right at the end of the issue, implying the bombs are going to detonate. Next issue we learn that the button did not depress deep enough and everyone seems rather relieved.]]
26	* Subverted and played straight in one issue-ending cliffhanger of ''ComicBook/SpiderMan''. The issue ends with Spidey in quicksand. The next issue opens with him using his web-shooters to latch on to a tree branch, immediately ending the crisis...until the tree branch breaks and falls on him, which also causes his web shooters to jam. Fortunately, immediately afterwards, Ka-Zar swings by and helps.
27	* ''Witchfinder: Lost and Gone Forever''. The first issue ends with Edward Grey and Morgan Kaler getting attacked by a monster with the body of a man and the head of a bison. In the first page of the next issue, Kaler says "Knock it off, Isaac," and the "monster" is revealed to be just Kaler's friend in a mask. (Beforehand, there ''was'' a subtle reference to Morgan Kaler having an unseen friend--so Isaac's existence was definitely planned, rather than {{ass pull}}ed.)
28	[[/folder]]
29
30	[[folder:Comic Strips]]
31	* The newspaper strip version of ''ComicStrip/SpiderMan'' pulled this off a few times. [[http://joshreads.com/?p=404 For instance]], Peter Parker/Spider-Man is about to have his medical examination, but criminals are outside and Spidey's intervention is needed now! What to do? Come next installment, the criminals have been captured off-screen, so the problem's neatly solved itself.
32	[[/folder]]
33
34	[[folder:Film — Live-Action]]
35	* ''Film/{{Babel}}'' was guilty of this trope: showing the nanny verging on panic when she realizes the children she was looking after have run away. Cut to another scene. Cut back to the nanny, now in a police station. Policeman: "You sure are lucky we found those kids, ma'am."
36	* In ''Film/OceansEleven'', one of the 11 is tasked with sneaking into the vault, jumping to avoid the sensors in the floor, then placing explosives on the door to let the other robbers in. During the last bit, he gets his hand stuck, leaving him without cover, right as the guys are on the other side of the door about to blow it. After playing it for all the suspense they can...the detonator's batteries are dead. Then, once that's been resolved, they blow the door open...and find their inside man safe inside, wondering what took them so long.
37	[[/folder]]
38
39	[[folder:Literature]]
40	* ''Literature/GalaxyOfFear'': One early, absurd example is a chapter ending with something cold and slimy going around Tash's throat, and in the next chapter it's just a flower necklace that's been dropped over her head. Lampshaded by an editor.
41	-->Every single chapter of those books had to end with a {{cliffhanger}}. It was the law. A chapter would finish with "Tash stepped off the spaceship and heard a blood-curdling scream!" Then you'd read the next chapter and it would say "But apparently it was just a bird."
42	* ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' did the exact same thing. Example, from ''Literature/WhyImAfraidOfBees'': Kid who's been [[ForcedTransformation turned into a bee]] gets bitten in half by a dragonfly! ...Except it was just his overactive imagination.
43	* ''Literature/TheHardyBoys'' was also exceptionally good at this. End of chapter 8: "A car was hurtling right for Joe!" Beginning of chapter 9: "Joe dodged the car..."
44	* In the Literature/ModestyBlaise novel ''A Taste for Death'', Modesty arrives in Panama for a time-critical mission and as she is leaving the airport she is detained by a police officer who wants to talk to her about some "irregularities" that occurred during her previous visit, and bundles her off without giving her a chance to send a message to anyone. When the narrative returns to Modesty, it turns out the police officer is an old friend and they'd staged it between them so that the bad guys watching for Modesty's arrival would think she was out of action.
45	* The novella ''No Score'' by Chip Harrison starts InMediasRes just as Chip is about to score with a girl, only to have her fiancée burst into the room and shoot him at point blank range. After a bunch of backstory recapping his life [[HowWeGotHere up until that point]] he rejoins the action - and the next chapter, in its entirety, is "THE GUN JAMMED." Harrison then spends the ''next'' chapter justifying that. "Look, it was a scary situation but that's what happened. You want me to make something up? I've been trying to think of something else but there's no other way to get from there to here. Either the gun jammed or he killed me and I'm writing this from beyond the grave, so deal with it."
46	* Almost every chapter of the children's series ''Literature/TheWerewolfChronicles'' ends like this. ''Gasp!'' Someone's grabbing the hero from behind! ... oh, wait, it's only a tree branch. Never mind.
47	[[/folder]]
48
49	[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
50	* Used regularly for commercial breaks in ''Series/AceOfCakes'': usually by playing a sarcastic comment from one of the bakers that sounds like a DramaBomb out of context, or by making it look like the bakers are late/lost during a delivery.
51	* ''Series/TheAmazingRace'' is absolutely horrible with these. Occasionally there will be a real CommercialBreakCliffhanger, but for every other commercial break, this will happen.
52	** In particular, whenever a strong team on a season finale finishes the final task way ahead of everyone else, they ''will'' show as much as they can of the first-place team struggling on the final task and/or while making the trip to the finish line. Meanwhile, they'll also show very little footage from the second-place team, to make it look like the second-place team is catching up and might overtake the leaders at the last minute. They never do.
53	* The end of the first season of ''Series/{{Andromeda}}'' had every major character incapacitated, trapped or unconscious as evil aliens attacked. The second season opens with most of them getting back up rather anticlimactically.
54	* In one episode of the '70s version of ''Series/{{Battlestar Galactica\|1978}}'', at the end of the episode the cast were hiding in a snowy valley, while a group of Cylons passed by in single file. As the last one was passing by, Muffin the dagget barked. The Cylon stopped and looked towards the noise... [[ToBeContinued TO BE CONTINUED]]. Next week, the Cylon just wandered off.
55	** Something similar happened in the [[Series/BattlestarGalactica2003 newer version]], without the dog.
56	* ''Franchise/{{Buffyverse}}'':
57	** ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
58	*** Midway through "Anne", Buffy gets hit by a car. At the end of the commercial break, she gets right back up and keeps walking.
59	*** In "Lovers Walk" (the one where Spike returns to Sunnydale), Joyce steps into the kitchen at the Summers house and finds Spike standing there. He gives her a sinister greeting before going to commercial. We come back from commercial to reveal Spike sitting at the kitchen table lamenting his breakup with Drusilla while Joyce serves him tea.
60	** In ''Series/{{Angel}}'', the title character completely despairs of being able to do good in his CrapsackWorld, and has sex with his old flame Darla hoping for a moment of perfect happiness that will end his curse and let him be the evil, soulless Angelus again. The episode ends with him clutching at his chest, just like he did the last time his soul was removed in parent show ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'', but in the next episode we find that he still has his soul: not one moment of happiness that whole night! No reason for his chest clutching is given (beyond Angel's implied love of melodrama while having a personal epiphany).
61	* The Speed Channel game/reality show ''Series/CarWarriors'' did this a few times in the second season:
62	** One of them was when one team's paint artist airbrushed a mural on the trunk showing host Jimmy Shine as the Grim Reaper standing over the graves of the other team. In a preview of the judging portion of the show (before going to a commercial), Jimmy looks over the mural and says "Is this a joke? Do you think that's funny?" In the actual judging portion, he does say this. After a {{Beat}}, he says "Yeah, I think it's funny too."
63	** Another episode had one team picking out a nitrous system and a flamethrower kit for their car, but not using either due to time constraints. In the preview of the judging portion, we see Jimmy lashing out at them for not using the items. In the actual judging portion, he follows up by saying that was the right move since the things they focused on turned out well.
64	** Another time, one of the teams was from a garage renowned for their custom paint jobs. However, the paint job they applied to their car was a simple one color repaint with no graphics. The preview of the judging portion had Jimmy criticizing them for such a plain color scheme when they have shown they're capable of so much more. Just after he says this in the actual judging portion, he tells them that an elaborate paint job wasn't needed and what they did works well enough.
65	* Happens OncePerEpisode, and is arguably the ''only'' source of tension, on ''Series/DestinationTruth''.
66	* One happened in the third season of ''Series/{{Dexter}}''. An episode ends with Dexter suddenly becoming the target of the season's BigBad, and then being violently bound and shoved into the trunk of a car. Cut to credits. Well, it looks like this season's finally starting to heat up! Next episode, it turns out that he was being taken to his bachelor party.
67	* The original ''Series/DoctorWho'' did this incessantly between parts of their serials.
68	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS5E3TheIceWarriors "The Ice Warriors"]]: At one cliffhanger, the Doctor is in the airlock of the Ice Warrior ship trying to open up negotiations with them. The Ice Warriors ask him who he is. He responds in a generically evasive sort of way. The Ice Warriors tell him that unless he reveals who he is they will drain the oxygen out of the airlock. We see the oxygen pressure gauge draining!! ...and the next episode has the Doctor say "I'm the Doctor and I'm here to open up negotiations", so the Ice Warrior switches the air back on.
69	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E3TheSeaDevils "The Sea Devils"]]: One cliffhanger culminates in the Master throwing a knife at the Doctor!! ...with the next episode revealing he just casually missed.
70	** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E4GenesisOfTheDaleks Genesis of the Daleks]]", where Sarah loses her grip on a ledge and screams as she plummets... actually, no, there's a ledge six inches below her, and she continues to climb.
71	** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS12E2TheArkInSpace The Ark in Space]]" has Harry opening a cupboard and suddenly being sprung upon by some sort of horrible wasp thing!! ...and at the start of the next episode it immediately turns out it was dead — it wasn't launching at him, it was just falling.
72	** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E4TheAndroidInvasion The Android Invasion]]" has a cliffhanger where Sarah and the Doctor are getting blasted off into space and are overcome by the G-force... and then they escape the planet's gravity and everything's fine. Particularly sloppy since the scene immediately after this shows a pod opening to reveal an [[EvilKnockoff evil robot Doctor]].
73	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E5TheBrainOfMorbius "The Brain of Morbius"]]: One episode ends with Sarah pulling back a curtain to reveal a horribly deformed headless frankenbody that sits up and appears to lunge. Cue screechy end of episode riff and goose bumps. In the next episode, the body is merely twitching a little and Sarah barely registers surprise. She doesn't even scream. Sarah Jane Smith doesn't scream. Weak.
74	** "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E3TheDeadlyAssassin The Deadly Assassin]]":
75	*** The Doctor takes a sniper rifle from a balcony, aims, and shoots the Lord President of Gallifrey dead. It's pure {{Superdickery}}, and the next episode it's revealed he was actually trying to shoot the person trying to shoot the President.
76	*** Chancellor Goth grabbed the Doctor from behind and started to drown him at the end of an episode. The next week, the man lost energy for [[DeusExMachina no apparent reason]], and the Doctor threw him off with ease.
77	** One of the most JustForFun/{{egregious}}: [[Recap/DoctorWhoS24E4Dragonfire "Dragonfire"]], where in the last few minutes of an episode the Doctor puts ''himself'' into a literal {{cliffhanger}} ending situation, for no apparent reason. He suddenly leaves a perfectly safe path to clamber off a high ledge — at which point he finds himself dangling by his umbrella handle, looking horrifiedly down at the yawning chasm below... Then at the start of the following episode he makes it back up again with no real difficulty.
78	*** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS33E13TheNameOfTheDoctor Much, much later]] this scene was retroactively explained as a consequence of the Great Intelligence messing with the Doctor's timeline in an attempt to destroy him.
79	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E4AliensOfLondon "Aliens of London"]] ends on the Doctor being electrocuted with a lethal amount of electricity! At the beginning of the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E5WorldWarThree next episode]]... turns out that amount wasn't lethal for ''Time Lords'', or even enough to seriously inconvenience them for any period of time.
80	** [[Recap/DoctorWhoS28E8TheImpossiblePlanet "The Impossible Planet"]]: In TheTeaser, the Doctor and Rose are wandering though a planetary base and are suddenly cornered by a crowd of [[{{Cthulhumanoid}} Lovecraftian-looking aliens]] chanting "WE MUST FEED! WE MUST FEED!" and we cut to the opening credits. When we cut back:
81	--->'''Ood:''' WE MUST FEED! WE MUST FEED! ''[[[PercussiveMaintenance taps translation orb]]]'' [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments ...you, if you are hungry. Do you want refreshments?]]
82	* Not uncommon on ''{{Series/Firefly}}'', eg. "Mal's dead" ([[OnlyMostlyDead he's revived immediately]]).
83	* In ''Series/HellsKitchen'' if a chef gets so much as a scratch on their body, the producers will frame a commercial break around it. Nineteen times out of twenty, they're back in the kitchen 3 minutes later (and the other one time, yeah, they're badly injured).
84	* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' ended a season 7 episode with Robin telling Barney, in no uncertain terms [[spoiler: that she was pregnant]]. Next week, she clarifies [[spoiler: that she was only a week late and hadn't even seen a doctor for confirmation. Turns out she wasn't pregnant, although the episode keeps us guessing, as Robin is telling the story to her future kids the way Ted usually does. It turns out they are figments of her imagination and she will never be able to have kids]].
85	* A jarring example from the classic ''Series/KnightRider'' episode "Trust Doesn't Rust": After KITT's EvilTwin KARR [[ItMakesSenseInContext wrecks a fast food restaurant's drive-thru,]] Michael and KITT pull up and are immediately blamed and the commercial break begins with Michael being arrested. Immediately after the commerical break ends, we see a cop in the FLAG truck sheepishly apologising for the misunderstanding, without much more effect on the plot.
86	* This happened in virtually ''every'' episode of ''Series/MissionImpossible''. The IMF always planned for such possibilities, and sometimes ''intentionally'' worked the reveal into their con game.
87	* At the end of one episode of the first season of ''Series/MysteryRoad'', it's suggested that Shevorne's house has been broken into by Larry, who was sent to jail for raping and attempting to murder her. In the resolution to the cliffhanger, it turns out to be a different and much less threatening character.
88	* The ''{{Series/NCIS}}'' episode "Mind Games" has one of the characters tied up by a serial killer right before a commercial break... The next we see, she has a broken arm and the serial killer is dead.
89	* Played for laughs in one episode of ''Series/PoliceSquad'' Just before commercial break, Frank Drebin drinks from a glass as he speaks with a woman who we saw drug someone in the teaser. Suddenly the music cues up as he starts gasping and clutching at his throat. After commercial break, it is revealed that his drink went down the wrong pipe.
90	%%* Happens often on ''Series/PrisonBreak''.
91	* ''Series/TheProfessionals''. In "The Purging of [=CI5=]", Bodie and Doyle are investigating a caravan trailer being used by a MadBomber. Said bomber turns out to be watching them through a sniper scope. He waits until Cowley enters the caravan as well, then fires into the caravan to detonate the explosives he's hidden there, resulting in a [[StuffBlowingUp huge explosion!]] Cut to the hospital where Cowley is being rolled in on a gurney and the doctor is told the blast killed two men and injured one. Bodie and Doyle (unharmed and [[DirtForcefield unblemished]] except for a slight deafness) are then revealed to be FakingTheDead so they can ambush the killer when he turns up to finish off Cowley. Why they'd bother doing so is not mentioned; the bomber would hardly let his guard down given that there are other [=CI5=] agents still alive. Cowley too is revealed to be unharmed, despite having a game leg that would have impeded him in OutrunningTheFireball!
92	* John Wayne made his TV debut in a 1950s episode of ''Screen Directors Playhouse'' directed by John Ford. Wayne plays a sportswriter covering a scandal about a baseball player. The Pseudo Crisis occurs at the ActBreak, when a character we've never seen before (played by Creator/JanetLeigh) bursts into Wayne's office and, without saying a word, aims a pistol at his head. Immediately after the commercial, Wayne simply disarms Leigh, and she sits down and explains herself.
93	* Parodied on ''{{Series/SCTV}}'''s ''Six-Gun Justice'' (a parody of old Western movie serials, the type that were not only made, but set, during WWII). An episode ends with the heroes tied up and yelling in fear as a bomb is dropped on them. Next episode: the hero says, "Lucky that bomb was a dud!"
94	* ''Series/StargateSG1'': in the teaser of "Between Two Fires", Narim secretly gives Sam an object. Back at the SGC the object is revealed to be a hologram of Narim telling them that Earth is in grave danger. Post-credits, Narim admits he had only vague worries to base that on. Worse, in the teaser he'd only just learned Earth was involved, and shouldn't have had time to make the hologram. It turns out there IS a threat, but Narim didn't know that at the start.
95	* ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
96	** ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'' had an epic one in "Up the Long Ladder", an episode that was more focused on diplomacy rather than any urgent situation (i.e. no battles or powerful evil forces). At the end of the teaser, right before the main title, Worf spontaneously faints on the bridge! After the main title, it is revealed that he just came down with the Klingon equivalent of measles. (The resulting B-plot is actually pretty all right, but still, talk about a Pseudo Crisis).
97	*** There's also a rather famous one after the first episode of "Best of Both Worlds", which worked fine when there were months between part I and part II, but kind of falls flat if you watch the series on DVD or streaming. The end of Part I has Riker ordering Worf to fire their jury-rigged weapon they expect will be able to destroy the Borg cube, sacrificing the captured Picard in order to try and save Earth. The beginning of Part II shows the weapon did squat, because the Borg knew about it before it was fired (due to taking Picard's memories, rendering ''all'' of their preparations null). This threat escalation overshadows the drama of Riker's decision to sacrifice Picard and the topic isn't really brought up again. [[spoiler: Until, in a drawn-out inversion, Riker reversing the decision by launching a rescue mission for Picard leads to the Borg's defeat just as they reach Earth.]]
98	*** A minor one in "Future Imperfect", where Riker awakes 16 years in the future with a 16-year hole in his memory, to discover that he's now captain of the Enterprise and that he has a young son. Mid-way through the episode, he gets a call from Dr. Crusher telling him that his son has been injured! Cut to commercial break, he broke his wrist. Crusher heals this injury in two minutes. It should be noted that this event does serve Riker's story in this episode, as the oddity makes him more suspicious about what's really going on, despite being a Pseudo Crisis from the audience's viewpoint.
99	** ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' did this a few times.
100	*** In the episode [[Recap/StarTrekS2E5TheApple "The Apple"]], Spock pushes Kirk out of the way to save him from the darts of a deadly-poisonous plant, but ends up being hit by the darts himself and falling unconscious. [=McCoy=]'s serum fails to help, and he says Spock must be beamed back up to the ship immediately. As they try to beam out, the transporter promptly fails, stranding the crew on the planet - implying a serious risk to Spock's life. Fortunately, after the commercial break, Spock comes to and is quite alright.
101	*** In TheTeaser of [[Recap/StarTrekS2E15TheTroubleWithTribbles "The Trouble With Tribbles"]], the Enterprise receives a Priority One distress call from space station K7, indicating a disaster has occurred. During the first act, they learn that a Federation bureaucrat sent the message because he thought a cargo of grain at the station was endangered. In a variant, this is actually a Pseudo Crisis in-universe; Kirk is angry at the overreaction, and refuses to take the diplomat seriously from then on.
102	** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
103	*** In the episode [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS04E03TheVisitor "The Visitor"]], an elderly Jake Sisko says that he's dying... and after the commercial break, adds that "at my age, that's what everyone feels like." Towards the end of the episode after the audience has likely forgotten about the line, it turns out to be a subversion, as he actually is dying, having deliberately poisoned himself just before saying the line.
104	*** In the sixth season episode [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS06E25TheSoundOfHerVoice "The Sound of Her Voice"]], the ''Defiant'''s crew is racing to save a marooned Starfleet captain with whom they are in constant radio communications. While talking with a distracted Dr. Bashir, she suddenly exclaims that there's something approaching her cave, and then begins screaming as if under attack. Cut to commercials, and when we're back we discover that this was just a ploy she used to get Bashir's undivided attention.
105	*** Only two episodes later, in [[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS07E01ImageInTheSand "Image in the Sand"]], Sisko is stabbed by a cultist behind his dad's restaurant, and his belly slashed open. We cut to commercial break as Jake is holding his dying and profusely bleeding father in his arms, crying for help. Back from commercials, and here's Sisko back from the hospital, absolutely no worse for wear.
106	* ''Series/TrueBlood'' tends to do this with its cliffhangers on ''every single episode''. One particularly annoying one had Bill walking into the Queen's room, only to see a bloody leg hanging off the side of the chair, and Bill staring in shock. End episode. Turns out, it was just sex/lunch.
107	* In the made-for-TV adaptation of ''Literature/AWrinkleInTime,'' a commercial break comes just as Meg, her father, and Calvin have landed on the planet Ixchel, just barely escaping from the grasp of The Black Thing. Suddenly, over the horizon comes horrible eyeless monsters! The music rises, oh no! Commercial. Come back, and Calvin and Dr. Murry are calmly discussing their plight with the sightless creatures, whom we automatically understand are just really ugly good guys.
108	[[/folder]]
109
110	[[folder:Video Games]]
111	* ''VideoGame/KingsQuestVIIThePrincelessBride'' alternates gameplay between Queen Valanice and Princess Rosella. At the end of the first chapter Valanice is threatened by a giant monster. As you play as Rosella for chapter two you worry how you're going to get Valanice out of this situation. Start chapter three and you realize that you can just feed a desert fruit to the monster, and he'll go away. Talk about a blatant plot device for the sake of a cliffhanger...
112	* In ''VideoGame/WolfensteinTheNewOrder'', while posing as a scientist and infiltrating [[spoiler:the Nazi Moon base]], B.J walks through a scanner and sets off a loud alarm. The Nazi guard looks at the scanner, realizes B.J has a chunk of shrapnel in his head... and then turns the alarm off and lets him go on through, with a congratulatory remark thanking B.J for his "previous service". He mistakenly thought B.J was a ''German'' war veteran.
113	[[/folder]]
114
115	[[folder:Webcomics]]
116	* Played for laughs in ''Webcomic/TheAdventuresOfDrMcNinja''.
117	** [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/20p46/ On this page.]] Doc is caught by a police officer, which would derail his mission. The [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/20p47/ following page]] shows Doc driving the police car, and explains how the situation was resolved with a header reminding readers that ''"HE IS A NINJA."''
118	** [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/23p54/ Here.]] Gordito is forced to spend detention with the teacher that he suspects to be a demon in disguise. The teacher's final comment (and dramatic lighting) implies that he knows Gordito was spying on him the night before... [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/23p55/ but on the next page.]] it turns out he was referring to something else entirely.
119	** In [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/14p52/ another issue,]] the Dr is searching a temple and becomes completely surrounded by robotic traps pointing at him from every direction. Even the AltText snarks "clearly he dies on the next page." Then over the [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/14p53/ next]] [[http://drmcninja.com/archives/comic/14p54/ two]] pages, he just avoids everything and all the traps destroy each other.
120	* ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' has used these between daily strips.
121	** In "The Isle of Dr. Steve", one strip ends with Torg being held by Oasis -- brainwashed and just ordered to "love him" -- when her controller, Dr. Steve, suddenly tells her to snap his neck instead. Actually, it ends with the sound effect we know is associated with her breaking someone's neck. Then the next strip cuts back to Zoë and Aylee elsewhere talking about something else. Then the next strip after that cuts back to show Bun-bun had just taken control of Oasis, and the snapping sound was from his eating celery. (Of course, subsequently he also tells Oasis to break Torg's neck, just ForTheEvulz.)
122	** A Friday strip once ended with Riff being [[http://archives.sluggy.com/book.php?chapter=59#2009-02-13 ambushed and bitten on the head by a zombie]]. The following Saturday and Sunday are {{Filler}} strips, so ''Sluggy'' fans had to wait three days to find out what was going to happen. And when Monday comes around ... it turns out the zombie attack was just Torg "punking" Riff with a [[http://archives.sluggy.com/book.php?chapter=59#2009-02-16 harmless zombie head on a stick.]]
123	* In ''Webcomic/WizardSchool'', Graham is threatened by school bully Gavin Gothicus and several flunkies [[http://www.meetmyminion.com/?p=1405 mocking his magical scar.]] Graham drives them away a few pages later with a [[http://www.meetmyminion.com/?p=1412 well-placed cigarette burn.]]
124	[[/folder]]
125
126	[[folder:Web Original]]
127	* The Amiga [=CD32=] episode of ''WebVideo/TheAngryVideoGameNerd'' ended with the Nerd ignoring the warning in the ''VideoGame/{{Zool}}'' manual not to play the CD in an audio player, with dramatic buildup and a "ToBeContinued" when he presses the play button. The next episode, featuring ''VideoGame/TheTownWithNoName'' opens with a sponsored segment, followed by a PreviouslyOn replaying the final scene of the previous episode, before the episode truly begins with this, the entire resolution of the cliffhanger being thus:
128	-->''[The CD, predictably, plays harsh static.]''\
129	'''Nerd:''' I guess the reason they tell you not to do it is because this game has the soundtrack, and Track 1 is the game file, so it doesn't work.\
130	''[The Nerd tosses the game aside before moving on with the actual focus of the episode.]''
131	[[/folder]]
132
133	[[folder:Western Animation]]
134	* Partway through one episode of ''WesternAnimation/AsToldByGinger'' about Ginger planning to go to Courtney's sleepover, after Carl messes up his mom's gathering and is thus grounded, she brings up that Ginger will have to stay home that night to look after Carl since her mom decided to take the night shift at the hospital. Cue commercial break. After the commercial break, it's already been arranged for Macie and Dodie to come over and look after Carl, thus allowing Ginger to go to the sleepover as planned.
135	* In the ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' episode "[[Recap/DarkwingDuckS1E59TheQuiverwingQuack The Quiverwing Quack]]", DW, Goslyn, Honker, and Launchpad are all hanging by a rope suspended between buildings. Negaduck cuts one end of the rope with a knife, our heroes start swinging towards the side of a building. Cue closeup of Darkwing's panicked face, cut to commercial... and when we return, they almost immediately crash into the building, followed by Negaduck cutting the opposite end of the rope and letting the heroes fall.
136	* The fourth ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' movie ends with [[spoiler:the main characters of the show about to go through a warp hole that will take them to a random place in the universe, most likely never coming back to known space]]. The fifth season starts with [[spoiler:Professor Fransworth explaining to Fry that they went through the hole... and ended up back at Earth]].
137	* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Littlest Pet Shop\|2012}}'' episode "Dumb Dumbwaiter", Blythe, Minka, Zoe and Pepper are stuck inside a Dumbwaiter halfway up the wall, it's up to Penny, Vinnie, Sunil and Russell to save the day... but wait, Mrs. Twombly sees them climbing into the Dumbwaiter door and puts them in a cage to keep them out of trouble... how do they escape? Penny just opens the latch... though granted, this show tends to parody a lot of things and was probably making fun of this trope itself.
138	%%* The ''WesternAnimation/MegaManRubySpears'' cartoon [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAWL6GdQ2pE uses this trope]] in the final episode.
139	* In the two-part Season Two finale of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', Twilight Sparkle and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza (she prefers Cadence) are cornered by a hypnotized trio of bridesmaids and then cuts to commercial. It's quickly revealed later that they easily distracted the bridesmaids by throwing a bouquet at the trio and letting them fight for it while they escaped.
140	* PlayedForLaughs in the ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' MultiPartEpisode "Where's Perry?". Linda and Lawernce spend most of it offscreen on a date. Then, amid a series of cliffhangers for Part 2, we suddenly see them discovering that they have no reservation at a restaurant. Oh, no!! Part 2 opens with the head waiter notifying them that their reservation is still valid, since they simply got their surname wrong. They then go back out of focus for the rest of the episode, returning at the end to reunite with the kids.
141	* In the ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'' episode "[[Recap/ScoobyDooMysteryIncS2E2TheHouseOfTheNightmareWitch The House of the Nightmare Witch]]", Shaggy is flung into a wall and knocked unconscious - a rare and dramatic event for Scooby Doo - and as the others gather around, with a frightened Scooby calling his name, we cut to the adverts... then return to have Shaggy instantly sit up, absolutely fine. It is never mentioned again.
142	* Parodied in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Dog of Death". Santa's Little Helper is looking sickly throughout the first act and eventually collapses on the floor. Grampa tells the family he's died, and they all look on sadly as the commercial break starts. When the show returns, it turns out SLH is in fact still alive (though sick), and the family all berate Grampa for "toying with people's emotions like that." Grampa still insists the dog's dead however, despite blatant evidence to the contrary, tired of the argument he leaves.
143	* The original ''[[WesternAnimation/SpiderMan1967 Spider-Man]]'' cartoon. Half the time he's falling to his death, the other half a villain's attack is approaching him. Either way, he almost always gets out of it by using his web. 90% of the time he simply swings away; the other 10%, he turns his web into a shield, sling, parachute, trampoline, or [[NewPowersAsThePlotDemands other object]].
144	[[/folder]]

Context Main / PseudoCrisis