History Main / PseudoCrisis

* Subverted and played straight in one issue-ending cliffhanger of ''[[ComicBook/SpiderMan Amazing Spider Man]]''. 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.
* ''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.)

* ''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."

* 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.
* ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' did the exact same thing. Example, from ''Why I'm Afraid Of Bees'': Kid who's been [[ForcedTransformation turned into a bee]] gets bitten in half by a dragonfly! ...Except it was just his overactive imagination.
* And ''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.

* 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).
** Some viewers remain convinced that Angel was just screwing with Darla's head, but then decided he didn't want to admit to being that petty.

* ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'':
** Midway through "Anne", Buffy gets hit by a car. At the end of the commercial break, she gets right back up and keeps walking.
** 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.

* ''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).
** 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.]]
** 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.
* ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' did this a few times.
** 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.
** 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.
* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
** 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.
** 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.
** 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.

* ''Webcomic/SluggyFreelance'' has used these between daily strips.
** 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.)
** 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.]]

* 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]].

* The ''WesternAnimation/MegaManRubySpears'' cartoon [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAWL6GdQ2pE uses this trope]] in the final episode.

* 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.

* 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.

* ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' did the exact same thing. Example, from ''Why I'm Afraid Of Bees'': Kid who's been [[BalefulPolymorph turned into a bee]] gets bitten in half by a dragonfly! ...Except it was just his overactive imagination.

-->-- ''Machinima/RedVsBlue'', most episodes of which are ~8 minutes long

* 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:
-->''(The CD, predictably, plays harsh static.)''\\

''(The Nerd tosses the game aside before moving on with the actual focus of the episode.)''