Follow TV Tropes

Following

Context Series / OneThousandWaysToDie

Go To

1[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/TV_Review_21506_4168.jpg]]
2->'''Warning:''' ''The stories portrayed in this show are based on real deaths and are extremely graphic. Names have been changed to protect the identities of the deceased. Some of the dead were unlucky. Many were bored. Most were incredibly stupid. Do not attempt to try ANY of the actions depicted...'' '''YOU WILL DIE!'''
3
4->''"The human body is remarkably resilient. But death is everywhere. Most of us try to avoid it; others can't get out of its way. Every day, we fight a new war against germs, toxins, injury, illness, catastrophe and calamity. There's a lot of ways to wind up dead; the fact that we survive at all is a miracle. Because every day we live, we face... 1000 ways to die."''
5
6''1000 Ways to Die'' is a docufiction anthology series that aired on [[Creator/SpikeTV Spike]] from May 14, 2008 to July 15, 2012.
7
8Each episode of the show consists of several recreations of stories of people dying in spectacular, gruesome and often stupid ways. Names were changed to avoid lawsuits, but the stories are [[BasedOnATrueStory based on actual events]] -- [[BasedOnAGreatBigLie mostly]]. Many of the people die because of dumb mistakes, some die as a result of their own misconduct, and some third-party innocent victims die because someone else did something so idiotic that the poor victim's death probably kept the other stupid person from killing ''themselves'' through pure incompetence in being alive. In a lot of these cases, you're not surprised the person died -- [[TooDumbToLive you're surprised that they lived as long as they did]]. The deaths are also accompanied with commentary from various experts on the science behind the deaths, as well as CGI animations that illustrate the extent of injuries down to bones being broken and organs being damaged.
9
10Given how grim the show's subject matter can be, it tempers the mood somewhat by taking a thoroughly tongue-in-cheek approach to its stories; expect liberal use of BlackComedy (particularly from its narration, with retellings of stories often [[{{Feghoot}} ending with puns on popular figures of speech]], on top of each death being given a PunBasedTitle) and ArtisticLicense (embellishing or changing certain details for greater entertainment value).
11
12At the end of all of the first season's episodes, the show completely inverts its premise for the last segment, and instead of showing someone dying, they show someone who miraculously ''survives'' an event which, under normal circumstances, [[NoOneCouldSurviveThat they should not have lived through]]. These segments can usually be distinguished by changes in video quality, as they use actual footage taken with personal recording devices at a lower resolution than the show.
13
14Thom Beers (owner of Original Productions, the company that produced the series) narrated the show's two pilot episodes. Creator/RonPerlman took over as narrator when the first season began regular weekly airings in February 2009; starting with "Tweets of the Dead", "Shotgun" Tom Kelly assumed narrating duties until the show's end (Perlman's voice was still used in the disclaimer and title sequence).
15
16See also [[http://www.darwinawards.com/ the Darwin Awards]], which are based upon essentially the same thing. The main difference is that the Website/DarwinAwards emphasize the "[[TooDumbToLive stupidity]]" aspect, whereas ''1000 Ways'' usually favors the "got what they deserved" variant (though there's some overlap, as there are a lot of stories on the show in which the victim was killed by their own stupidity).
17
18There was going to be a spin-off, ''1000 Ways To Lie'', which would have showed how karma bit frauds and cheaters in the butt. The pilot aired only once and the spin-off never kicked off due to negative reception.
19
20Now has a [[Recap/OneThousandWaysToDie recap]] page.
21----
22!!''1000 Ways to Die'' provides examples of:
23
24[[index]]
25* OneThousandWaysToDie/TropesAToD
26** [[AssShove/OneThousandWaysToDie Ass Shove]]
27** [[BaitAndSwitch/OneThousandWaysToDie Bait-and-Switch]]
28** [[DeadlyGas/OneThousandWaysToDie Deadly Gas]]
29** [[DistractedByTheSexy/OneThousandWaysToDie Distracted by the Sexy]]
30** [[DrugsAreBad/OneThousandWaysToDie Drugs Are Bad]]
31* OneThousandWaysToDie/TropesEToK
32** [[FanDisservice/OneThousandWaysToDie Fan Disservice]]
33** [[HighVoltageDeath/OneThousandWaysToDie High-Voltage Death]]
34** [[HoistByHisOwnPetard/OneThousandWaysToDie Hoist by His Own Petard]]
35** [[KarmaHoudini/OneThousandWaysToDie Karma Houdini]]
36* OneThousandWaysToDie/TropesLToS
37** [[StuffBlowingUp/OneThousandWaysToDie Stuff Blowing Up]]
38* OneThousandWaysToDie/TropesTToZ
39** [[TapOnTheHead/OneThousandWaysToDie Tap on the Head]]
40** [[TooDumbToLive/OneThousandWaysToDie Too Dumb to Live]]
41[[/index]]

Top