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[[quoteright:350:[[WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/joy_virus.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:It's a ZombieApocalypse... [-[[JustForFun/RecycledInSPACE WITH RAINBOWS AND HUGS!]]-]]]

->''"YOUR MOTHER ATE MY DOG!"'' [[note]]Not ''all'' of it.[[/note]]
-->-- '''Paquita''', ''Film/BrainDead''

Lightmare Fuel is when NightmareFuel is PlayedForLaughs or your genuine laughter is coming from the scariest of places. In short, it is the perfect combination of the truly scary with the truly funny. This often happens in comedy works, typically BlackComedy, but can just as often occur in [[HorrorComedy horror stories]].

This is a staple of HorrorComedy works.

A SubTrope of MoodDissonance. Compare FauxHorrific, BloodyHilarious, and {{Bathos}}, which similarly involves a juxtaposition of the serious and the silly but with less emphasis on horror. Not to be confused with SceneryDissonance, which is when genuine horror happens in broad daylight.

----
!!Examples:

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]
* ''Manga/FrankenFran'' runs on gore and giving characters terrifying AndIMustScream scenarios, but it pretty much plays it all for [[BlackComedy dark laughs]] and caustic satire. It helps that those who get it the worst ''usually'' [[AssholeVictim deserve it]].
* ''Manga/JunjiItosCatDiaryYonAndMu'': Creator/JunjiIto does a manga about him, his fiancée (now wife), and their cats. Drawn in the traditional Junji Ito style, but completely harmless.
* ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'' does this a lot, emphasizing comedic moments with {{Art Shift}}s that would be far more at home in a horror anthology.
* ''Manga/TheKurosagiCorpseDeliveryService''. Most of the series features a lot of this trope. In the first book, one of their stories features a corpse [[spoiler: made from parts of seven different girls]] who gets vengeance on her killer by telling him a joke. It drives him insane.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comedy]]
* Creator/SusieEssman once recounted how, after watching a scary movie, she searched her entire house for any conceivable place the villain could possibly he hiding (including her dollhouse) before finally turning off the lights, climbing into bed, and pulling the covers up to her chin, still too terrified to sleep because she keeps hearing this soft, rhythmic chirping noise that she can't identify... until she realizes that her nose is whistling.
* Creator/EmoPhillips: "They say public speaking is the number-one fear in the country. I would've thought the number-one fear would be being BuriedAlive... with a severed head. And just before your flashlight's battery dies, the eyes open. [''{{Beat}}''] But no, apparently it's the public speaking thing."
* Creator/BillCosby tells a story about a disembodied, mutant chicken heart that is Coming to Get You -- or rather, being a kid and listening to the ''Radio/LightsOut'' episode [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxYglyZUV8o "Chicken Heart"]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Strips]]
* ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'', due to Calvin being a six-year old boy with a big imagination, regularly holds conversations with [[ThingsThatGoBumpInTheNight hideous things under the bed who want to eat him.]] There's also the time his dad told him a bedtime story that wasn't ''Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooey'' again. It involves a disembodied hand that strangles people. And then there was the time Calvin created a [[SnowLems demonic living snowman with two heads that wanted to kill him.]] This never goes beyond family-friendly.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* The climax of ''WesternAnimation/TheBadGuys2022'' has a psychopathic MadScientist use the power of a meteorite to fuel his MindControl helmet and control numerous creatures all across the city, giving the creatures GlowingEyesOfDoom. He then uses the creatures to attack the Bad Guys in an attempt to leave them cold and buried. How do you make all of this kid-friendly? [[spoiler:You make the mad scientist and the creatures he controls ''guinea pigs.'']]
* Basically anything Creator/TimBurton has done. ''WesternAnimation/CorpseBride'' is probably the best example, with its undeniable highlight being a maggot [[EyeScream popping out of the female lead's eye socket]] entirely PlayedForLaughs.
* Similarly, much of the humor in ''WesternAnimation/ParaNorman'' revolves around [[DeathAsComedy dead people]]. Its funniest ''and'' scariest moment comes in the climax, where the ZombieApocalypse plot is played completely straight, with the twist that [[spoiler: [[{{Irony}} it's the out-numbered, terrified, and unarmed]] ''[[InvertedTrope zombies]]'' (plus the living [[GuiltByAssociation main characters]]) fleeing from the [[TorchesAndPitchforks vicious, bloodthirsty hordes]] [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters of living townspeople]]]].
* Lord Farquaad's first scene in ''WesternAnimation/Shrek1'' has him supervising a scene of horrifying ColdBloodedTorture on an unfortunate prisoner, waterboarding the poor bastard and ripping his legs off. Of course, the victim in question is an animated gingerbread man made of cookie dough (and he’s being waterboarded with ''milk''), so it's [[PlayedForLaughs still funny]] instead of being horrible.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
* Creator/SamRaimi films drift back and forth along the SlidingScaleOfComedyAndHorror, and sometimes [[TheHorseshoeEffect folds the scale in half, mashing both ends together]]. ''Film/{{The Evil Dead|1981}}'' started with doses of Lightmare, ''Film/EvilDead2'' increased both Horror and Comedy, ''Film/ArmyOfDarkness'' slid to slapstick extreme, the ''Film/DragMeToHell'' snapped to the other extreme but added a few tension-breakers.
** The scene where Ash's room [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_xJUQxE9tY starts laughing at him]] is probably one of the best examples of this trope in cinema. It's disturbing to watch this demonic force tormenting a likable protagonist, and to watch his sanity [[SanitySlippage fraying at the seams]] as he starts [[LaughingMad laughing along with everyone else]], and yet, at the same time, it's hard not to laugh ''with'' him thanks not only to the [[CrossesTheLineTwice ludicrously over-the-top carnage]] he's had to deal with over the past 24 hours, but also the hilariously cartoonish voices (especially that Porky Pig-sounding lamp) and the goofy special effects. Then it swings ''back'' to disturbing when Campbell's genuinely infectious laughter gives way to believably agonized howls of fear and exhaustion, and when he frantically blasts at something on the other side of the wall, not knowing [[NothingIsScarier what's waiting for him]] on the other side, that it's genuinely terrifying again. [[MoodWhiplash Sweet]] ''[[MoodWhiplash lord.]]''
* ''Film/AbbottAndCostelloMeetFrankenstein'', equal parts MonsterMash horror and screwball comedy. The Franchise/UniversalHorror monsters (including Dracula, the Frankenstein monster, the Wolf Man, and a brain-swapping mad scientist) are real and played quite straight, but they're balanced out by Creator/AbbottAndCostello's wisecracking antics.
* ''Film/AceVenturaPetDetective'': Ace sneaks into a tank believing the missing dolphin to be in there, only to discover a ''great white shark'' instead and he falls into the tank. After narrowly avoiding getting mauled by the shark, Ace emerges from the bathroom completely soaked and his clothes torn.
-->'''Ace:''' Do NOT go in there!
* ''Film/AnAmericanWerewolfInLondon'' is seemingly made of this in some parts. Griffin Dunne and David Naughton are laughing it up, joking about the superstitious villagers as they walk along the moonlit road one second and in the next second, Dunne's throat is ripped out on-camera and Naughton is slowly bleeding out from a werewolf bite. Later, Dunne reappears as an increasingly-rotten corpse to confront Naughton, yet the duo can't help but revert to the same snarky buddy-buddy humor.
* ''Film/{{Beetlejuice}}'' essentially runs on this trope, raging from its depiction of the afterlife as a trippy CelestialBureaucracy with deceased workers that look both bizarre and unsettling (especially a man SquashedFlat by a car that ran over him and the explorer with the ShrunkenHead) to the people being possessed into singing Music/HarryBelafonte's cover of the ''Banana Boat'' song around the dinner table before it suddenly and jarringly ends with them being violently grabbed by monstrous hands emerging from their shrimp cocktails.
* ''Film/BrainDead'' is a textbook example of this, since the amount of gore and horror is so ludicrous mixed with dumb humor that it's pretty damn funny. A notable example is Lionel finding his mother ate Paquita's dog:
-->'''Paquita:''' ''[[LargeHam YOUR MOTHER ATE MY DOG!]]''\\
'''Lionel:''' Not ''all'' of it.\\
''[[[BlackComedy pan to show blood and bits of dog on the bed]]]''
* The 1989 comedy ''Film/TheBurbs'' on the surface seems to be a wacky "mistaken identity" comedy about three childish protagonists who suspect that their next-door neighbors are a family of serial killers. The protagonists' wives, of course, think they're just being stupid. [[HilarityEnsues Wacky hijinks fill the rest of the movie]], until the protagonists discover that the trunk of the next-door neighbors' car is filled with decomposed human remains. Because the neighbors really are a family of serial killers.
* The final segment of ''Film/CatsEye'' is something of a Creator/StephenKing primer for kids, combining King's penchant for horror elements from out of left field (the villain is a vicious little troll trying to suffocate a young girl in her sleep) and some amusing slapstick woven into an otherwise tense final confrontation with the heroic feline protagonist (who defeats the troll with a record playing [[Music/ThePolice The Police's]] [[SuspiciouslyAproposMusic "Every Breath You Take"]] at 78 RPM).
* ''Film/DungeonsAndDragonsHonorAmongThieves''. The scene in which the protagonists visit a spooky barbarian cemetery in the dark of the night in order to perform a spell to [[DeadPersonConversation resurrect the dead and ask them important info]]. What's otherwise a dark scene with great looking undead barbarians pulled off with PracticalEffects quickly becomes comedic when you can only ask five questions before they return dead and Edgin accidentally wastes his forcing the group to repeat the process, and some barbarians reveal that they have died in battle while being KilledMidSentence. And then there's the whole part in which they're frantically escaping from [[DragonsAreDemonic Themberchaud]]... who turns out to be a ''morbidly obese dragon''. It's equal parts terrifying and hysterical given how Themberchaud proves to be a SuperPersistentPredator despite his size, but he's nonetheless a ridiculously chunky dragon who at one point provides an IndyEscape via ''barrel rolling'' towards the heroes.
* ''Film/{{Ghostbusters|1984}}''. The Librarian scene. In the DVD commentary, Creator/HaroldRamis and Ivan Reitman stated that they achieved the perfect balance at that moment, with people in the audience during the first screening both laughing and screaming at the same time.
* ''Film/{{Gremlins}}''. The little monsters are hilarious... until they start killing people in messy, messy ways...and sometimes still are then.
* ''Film/TheInvisibleMan1933'' can be considered one of the earliest examples of this trope, as it isn't afraid of incorporating a good dose of humor with its scares. One moment you'll have Creator/ClaudeRains' Griffin [[{{Troll}} moving the inkwell]] of the disbelieving official and splattering the ink in his face before violently killing him terrorizing those present, and how he throws everyone into ParanoiaFuel while he gleefully goes from [[LargeHam over the top]] to DeadpanSnarker in his murderous, megalomaniacal madness.
* In ''Film/{{Jaws}}'', the scene where Brody is complaining about having to dump chum (chopped up fish and fish blood) into the ocean begins with the line "Slow ahead. I can go slow ahead. Come on down here and chum some of this shit," and ends with the line "You're gonna need a bigger boat", having gone from funny to scary in a nanosecond when the shark abruptly appears.
* In the "musical comedy" version of ''Film/LittleShopOfHorrors'', we go from laughing to cringing, especially once Seymour starts feeding Audrey II whole human beings.
* "[=MacGoogles=] the Scottish Frog" in ''Film/MaxKeeblesBigMove''. He ''is'' genuinely creepy-looking... and yet you won't be able to stop laughing.
* ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'': Once they finally get refuge in the local pub, they are quickly besieged by zombies. As Shaun and the others try to keep the zombies at bay with a rifle, Shaun's mother admits to Liz (Shaun's ex, although his mother isn't aware of the breakup) that she was bitten by a zombie earlier in the movie, dooming her to death and resurrection. She dies in Shaun's arms as he begs her not to leave him. This is followed by a genuinely tense Mexican standoff over what to do with Shaun's mother - David reckons they have to shoot her, Shaun and Ed are hysterically protective, Liz reluctantly sides with David (calling him a "twat" in the process) - which is punctuated with some of the movie's funniest dialogue.
* In ''Film/{{Sleuth}}'', the story jumps from funny to horrifying within a second. Some scenes you might alternate between smiling and being afraid for the characters' lives several times within one moment. You could even find yourself grinning while thinking "I think something horrible is going to happen any minute".
* ''Film/{{Zombieland}}''. The explanation of Rules #1 ("Cardio") and #2 ("DoubleTap") are accompanied by a visual of people being graphically attacked and killed by zombies. They are hilarious and tragic and scary all at the same time.
** The various "zombie kills" (especially the "Zombie Kill of the Week").
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]
* ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'' enters this territory when Augustus Gloop falls into the chocolate river, gets sucked up a pipe, and is subsequently faced with the threat of being turned into fudge. From then on, what started as just another light ComicFantasy for kids is in BlackComedy territory as the other HateSink brats receive similarly wacky-creepy comeuppances. While the sequel ''Literature/CharlieAndTheGreatGlassElevator'' plays its threats more seriously, with potential victims given a bit more sympathy, it still has a lot of this trope: for example, Willy Wonka taunting a carnivorous alien who tried and failed to deliver the elevator a LiteralAssKicking with a song about its now-swollen rump.
* Any ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' novel involving the Things From The Dungeon Dimensions, or similar LovecraftLite monstrosities, will make it clear they're a serious and disturbing threat and, at the same time, completely ridiculous, often making the point that a creature seemingly made of the bits left over once everything else was created is probably going to fall over a lot.
* Creator/HPLovecraft's short story "The Statement of Randolph Carter" reads as a fairly typical example of the author's CosmicHorror oeuvre, right up until the last line, when instead of his friend Warren, Carter hears a hideous unearthly voice speaking on the other end of their radio line from the depths of a foul and monstrous pit: "[[spoiler:{{You fool}}, Warren is DEAD]]!"
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live-Action TV]]
* ''Series/AmericanHorrorStoryMurderHouse'' has a moment of this. In one episode, [[PsychoExGirlfriend Hayden]], Ben's former mistress and student, discovers where he lives and threatens to reveal to Ben's pregnant wife that she is [[TheBabyTrap pregnant with her and Ben's love child from the affair]]. When Ben agrees to go someplace with her to discuss the pregnancy, [[PsychoSidekick Harvey]] comes out of the blue and ''[[ShovelStrike hits her dead in the face with a shovel]]''. Upon realizing that she's ''not'' dead, [[DoubleTap he hits her again]].
* ''Series/{{Being Human|UK}}'' ([[Series/BeingHumanUS both versions]]) constantly whips between wacky sitcom hijinks and extremely gory supernatural horror, which can be more than a little jarring.
* ''Series/BrooklynNineNine'':
** Season Three ends with Jake and Holt being forced to [[spoiler:enter witness protection to avoid a mafia leader]]. On the one hand, the thought of abandoning everything you know, including your home, your job, your friends, and your NAME, whilst also having to act like everything is totally normal, is quite ominous. On the other hand.... they get sent to a nice, sunny suburb in UsefulNotes/{{Florida}}!
** In the episode ''[[Recap/BrooklynNineNineS8E04Balancing Balancing]]'', Jake and Charles figure out that one of the babysitters Jake and Amy interviewed was actually the serial killer Jake's been hunting, ''and'' the stuffed toy he gave them was bugged with a recording device. This would be a lot more horrific if Jake and Charles didn't realize it while speaking {{to the tune of}} Brahms' lullaby.
-->'''Jake:''' If you sing everything as a lullaby, Mac won't wake up.
* ''Series/DoctorWho'' has been doing this for longer than most series could dream of. Granted, it ''also'' dishes out plenty of outright {{Comedy}} (all flavours), HamAndCheese and high octane NightmareFuel, as well. Being able to do all of this at once, though? It's an art, which individual writers occasionally get horribly wrong. But, when it goes right, it goes ''very'' right indeed. Creator/DouglasAdams' run is still held up as ''the'' benchmark for getting Lightmare Fuel right, for all it was going on ''before'' he pitched up and has continued since. For just cause, however. One other great example is [[Recap/DoctorWho2014CSLastChristmas "Last Christmas"]], which contains Facehuggers, ParanoiaFuel DreamWithinADream shenanigans, and... SantaClaus.
* ''Series/RedDwarf'' wouldn't be what it is without its capacity to make you both laugh and shudder. Often at the same time: the Polymorph, anybody? MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily... masquerading as a pair of increasingly tight boxers. And, that's just ''one'' instance. If the EndingTheme doesn't convince you after that, nothing will.
%%* Frequently, ''{{Series/Supernatural}}'' dips into this.
* ''Series/{{Lexx}}'' did a fairly good job of balancing on the midpoint between Horror and ''Sex'' Comedy.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]
* Music/{{Eminem}}'s signature theme is making very funny songs about extremely dark topics. He's able to pull this off largely via his rapping techniques - it's hard to be so upset by violence when it's delivered in a bunch of [[LeastRhymableWord bizarre and unexpected rhymes]], [[PainfulRhyme contorted syllables]], and with [[ActingForTwo silly voices for the horrified onlookers]].
** ''Music/TheMarshallMathersLP'' '''opens''' with a song about [[BlackComedyRape raping]] and murdering his own mother that's played completely for laughs.
** ''Encore'' is one of Eminem's silliest albums but it was made during a severe CreatorBreakdown which was leading him to quit rapping - so even the silly songs have subtext about how much he wants to die. It ends with Slim Shady [[MurderSuicide mass shooting his audience and then killing himself]], though he's [[HeroicComedicSociopath having such a good time]] that it turns into slapstick.
** ''Relapse'', his {{Horrorcore}} concept album about the antics of a pill-addicted SerialKiller, is even darker than the rest of his discography and graphically describes torture, mutilation, incest rape and cannibalism, but handles them in a surreal, comedic way, with scenes of [[VillainsOutShopping the serial killer masturbating in front of the TV]], or getting haunted by the ghost of Creator/ChristopherReeve.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* The universe of ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'' is a cruel and unforgiving one, with madmen given power to burn everything they see as heretical, daemons invading worlds through the nightmares of the psychic, where merely surviving to adulthood is an accomplishment... Unless you're the Orks, in which case the universe is a permanent excuse to fight, get drunk, shoot impossibly cool guns and drive really fast without caring where you're going. Where other armybooks get lurid descriptions of the slaughter caused by daemonic incursions or waking up tomb worlds, Orks get things like defeating daemon princes with a defiant gesture involving a power claw and the daemon's groin, or a Waaagh travelling back in time and (possibly) defeating itself. Orks have it ''made''.
** One Eldar philosopher (admittedly known as "the Perverse") actually noted this, seeing as the Eldar already fell, the humans are close to falling, but the orks never will.
-->The Orks are the pinnacle of creation. For them, the great struggle is won. They have evolved a society which knows no stress or angst. Who are we to judge them? We Eldar who have failed, or the Humans, on the road to ruin in their turn. And why? Because we sought answers to questions that an Ork wouldn't even bother to ask! We see a culture that is strong and despise it as crude.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]
* ''VideoGame/BaldisBasicsInEducationAndLearning'' is supposed to be a StylisticSuck {{Parody}} of low-quality {{Edutainment Game}}s. When Baldi gets mad at you and the game [[DisguisedHorrorStory turns into a horror game]], he will chase after you with a ''ruler'' and if he catches you, he will JumpScare you and a black screen with a spinning fidget spinner (or some other item) appears. You'll meet absurd characters along the way, such as Principal of the Thing sending you to his office for [[DisproportionateRetribution running in the hallways]].
* Between {{Shout Out}}s to several horror franchises, the ([[DeadpanSnarker rather unique]]) player character's [[BloodKnight attitude]], the game [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential mechanics]] and [[BloodyHilarious mood]], ''VideoGame/{{Blood}}'' has ''plenty'' of this to go around.
* The entire shtick of the ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion'' series, with some regions listing "comic horror" on its ContentWarnings rather than actual horror. However, this isn't to say that there aren't also plenty of [[NightmareFuel genuinely scary moments]] in this series as well.
* ''VideoGame/CultOfTheLamb'' is a Lovecraftian cult sim with adorable animal cultists.
* ''VideoGame/{{Eversion}}'' has [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jypTXWnBUco the background "music" of World X-6]]. It's a [[DarkReprise horribly distorted version]] of the otherwise [[SugarApocalypse cheerful]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRvoOqpEk_Q World X-2 music]].
* ''VideoGame/EliteBeatAgents'', a very light hearted Rhythm game rife with silly humor, has a zombie-themed level. It features a [[VideoGame/{{Doom}} Doom Guy]] expy fighting smiling, purple-with-green-polka-dots zombies by throwing peanuts at them (portrayed in first person perspective with a HUD and effects reminiscent of VideoGame/HouseOfTheDead). Not silly enough? The whole thing is set to ''[[Music/DestinysChild Survivor]]'', while three guys in snazzy suits and funky haircuts dance cheerfully to it (presumably right next to this poor guy fighting for his life).
* ''VideoGame/PizzaTower'': The main trio of levels in the fifth world are all based around either horror or horror tropes, but with Pizza Tower's signature humor giving them all a twist. "Pizzascare" is a [[HalloweenEpisode Halloween-themed twist]] on the earlier "Pizzascape" level, "Don't Make A Sound" is a parody of [[KillerRobot killer animatronics]] (and more specifically, seems to be a nod to ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys''), and the latter half of "War" features an unnerving (albeit still amusing) twist on CloneDegeneration.
** There is also the boss of the fourth world, [[spoiler:an utterly bizarre OddballDoppelganger that looks like something oozy trying to puppet a bootleg Peppino and failing at it]].
* ''VideoGame/SunkyMPEG'', the titular main character, a red-eyed entity masked as a popular video game character (Sunky) just wants to give his friends a party and feed them.
* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'': [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WUhOnX8qt3I Meet the Pyro]] reveals that for all the horrific murders the Pyro commits, he's completely unaware of it- he thinks he's living in a SugarBowl shooting rainbows at little winged babies.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''WebAnimation/HomestarRunner'' has Marshie and Senor Cardgage, characters who radiate nightmare fuel played entirely for laughs.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* ''Webcomic/StandStillStaySilent'': This comes packed with hilarious, top-quality character interplay... that just happens to have a threat or two skulking quietly undercover if you [[FridgeHorror pause to think]]. We know for certain the [[SceneryPorn utterly gorgeous scenery]] ''definitely'' has oodles of [[BodyHorror horror]] just waiting to pounce, even while we're up to our eyeballs in such wonderful things as kitties and [[CoolTrain sawblade-trains]], too. And, when you do see the NightmareFuel and its frenetic action and/or creeping dread either played for drama or, you guessed it, comedy (often at the same time), it's timed to knock your socks off with a barrage of complicated feels before ducking back under the cover of character-based comedy. Yup: if this work doesn't count, nothing does.
* Much of ''Webcomic/{{Erma}}'' consists of the title character, an insanely powerful [[HalfHumanHybrid Half-Human]] StringyHairedGhostGirl, playing horror movies scenarios for laughs via the intersection of Erma's sweethearted and innocent nature and love of the macabre. A Poltergeist sending furniture flying around a kitchen as a helpless young woman takes cover? Horrifying. That helpless young woman being [[https://tapas.io/episode/262207 the babysitter of the poltergeist that snuck a sip of her coffee]]? Hilarious.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Original]]
* Website/{{Cracked}} [[http://www.cracked.com/funny-1934-spiders/ would like you to know]] that SpidersAreScary.
* Quite a few articles from the ''Website/SCPFoundation'' are simultaneously somewhat scary and ''hilarious''.
** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-426 SCP-426:]] I am a toaster that can only be spoken of in the first person. My entire article is consequently written in this manner, which leads to a great deal of amusement. However, prolonged exposure to me also has some... ''[[PsychologicalHorror unpleasant]]'' side-effects, leading my previous owners to, be respectively, electrocuted attempting to eat an electrical socket, eating so much bread their stomach exploded, dying of blood loss after attempting [REDACTED] with me, and finally, to suffer from malnutrition after inserting two slices of bread and waiting for them to pop.
** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-914 SCP-914]]'s experiment log, in between straight-up funny.
--->Input: 1 lb. raw ground beef\\
Setting: Very Fine\\
Output: [DATA EXPUNGED]. Appeared to be [DATA EXPUNGED] ██████████ started mooing ██████████ bitten subject [DATA EXPUNGED] ██████████ escaped into ██████████ screaming ██████████ [DATA EXPUNGED] hungry for [DATA EXPUNGED]. Subject immediately terminated.
** Similarly, [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-447 447.]] It's perfectly safe as long as it doesn't come into contact with dead bodies. It's a good lubricant, salad dressing and improves gasoline efficiency as long as doesn't come into contact with dead bodies. It seems to be entirely benevolent but ''[[NoodleIncident must never come into contact with dead bodies]]''.
** [[http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-1839 SCP-1839,]] a book about fish that causes readers to begin to think they are fish as long as they read it and either hold their breaths while in the air or try to breathe underwater, causing them to drown. Note that this will not happen to you as you are a fish.
** [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-1545 SCP-1545,]] a two-person llama suit that causes the wearers to continue playing their characters until their deaths. If the back dies, the front continues to walk around and play the act. If the front dies, the back will keep dancing.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Web Videos]]
* The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GukmQE-WIlM Mr. Bucket]] episode of ''WebVideo/BoardJames''. A genuinely creepy story, played completely straight, about a man being stalked through his own home by a deranged rapist... and said rapist just happens to be a candy-colored children's board game, cheerfully singing in a SimpletonVoice. You won't know whether to laugh or scream!
* This trope is partly the reason why ''WebVideo/BuzzfeedUnsolved'' is so popular. Disturbing murders and haunted places are interspersed with a lot of comedy, often at the genuinely scary situation's expense.
* WebVideo/JonTron does this a fair amount. One of the more memorable examples comes in his [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl2X6vSdIlM Magfest 2014]] video, where Jon commits a violent murder and it's played totally straight, complete with Jon's [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone horror at his impulsive actions]], desperately dismembering the body and [[DisposingOfABody tossing it in the harbor]]. The "murder victim" in question is a [[ItMakesSenseInContext cardboard cut-out of]] Creator/MattSmith.
* WebVideo/{{Caddicarus}} also does this pretty often, particularly once he started shifting to longer-form videos - for example, he addressed lockdown by having the world turn into bricks and brainwash him into staying inside. At first it's PlayedForHorror, with Caddy becoming increasingly distressed as videos went along, before re-entering comedy territory with him developing a healthy relationship and eventually ''marrying'' the bricks.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]
%%* ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' often falls into this. Given that Pendelton Ward worked on ''Flapjack'', it was probably inevitable.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheAmazingWorldOfGumball'' dips into this frequently. The best example of this is in the episode "[[Recap/TheAmazingWorldOfGumballS3E4TheJoy The Joy]]", where a ZombieApocalypse virus is played completely straight, even though said virus makes everyone puke rainbows and act ridiculously happy. Also, the virus is spread through hugs. This episode currently provides the page image.
* ''WesternAnimation/{{Archer}}'' loves this. Highlights include Malory casually killing the ISIS cleaning lady staff in "The Rock" by sabotaging the lift to collapse, Ray [[spoiler:bloodily losing his hand]] in "Pocket Listing", and just about any scene involving Krieger, an AffablyEvil MadScientist.
* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'' is pretty much ''made'' of this, being a genuinely creepy cartoon played for absurdity.
* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' had traces of this in its first season, went full force in the second. The highlight being [[BigBad Bill Cipher]], a genuinely sinister OmnicidalManiac who, [[spoiler: when he manages to take over the world]], treats it all like it's one big party.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'': Most of the series' comedy is derived from the disturbing content and horrible things that happen to the characters. The shining example of this is the RunningGag of Billy getting his face ripped off. Horrifying? Yes. Hilarious? Also yes.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheMarvelousMisadventuresOfFlapjack'' is prone to bouts of some seriously scary imagery that's played entirely for laughs.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheRenAndStimpyShow'' was all about this, at least up until [[Creator/JohnKricfalusi John K.]] was kicked out from it. The episodes produced by Games Animations also stepped in the territory of Nightmare Fuel frequently - however, with these, it was unintentional and more prone to be genuinely horrifying rather than just used for comedic effect.
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''' WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror episodes can dip into this. Many of them manage to be genuinely creepy while still having all the hallmarks of the show's humor.
* In ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', pretty much anything that gives the audience NightmareFuel will also end up [[RuleOfFunny making them laugh]] at the same time such as [[TheyKilledKennyAgain Kenny's multiple deaths]], and [[Recap/SouthParkS5E4ScottTenormanMustDie Cartman making Scott Tenorman eat his own parents]].
%%* Peri stalking Entree in the ''WesternAnimation/{{Spliced}}'' episode "Stuck Together" is portrayed as this.
%%* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'' does this a lot, especially after TheMovie.
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