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Except for extreme cases such as paranoid schizophrenia, or conditions with sympathetic social connotations (Down syndrome; severe autism), there is a tendency in media to regard mental disorders as some kind of put-on or character flaw, that is at best amusing, at worst annoying. (Not that the extreme illnesses are exactly treated like cancer-victims; in fact they can be treated worse than milder forms.) The two most "comical" conditions are Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Tourette's Syndrome, both of which can be significant, sometimes disabling problems in real life.

At the very worst, a person is portrayed as being completely able to break out of their illness if they were to simply try hard enough — in other words they're just plain lazy in addition to the behavior itself. Depressive? Cheer up (and stop being lazy)! Manic? Just take a deep breath and calm down. Obsessive-compulsive? Relax already. Delusional? Get a grip on that overactive imagination. An eating disorder? Please. You look fine! Hyperactive? Control yourself, my God. Paranoid? It's not all about you, you know! Anxiety with panic disorder? Suck it up, coward! Severe trauma from abuse during infancy? Grow up and get over it!

A genuinely good character will, however, treat the mentally disturbed with kindness and will nicely ask whether they went off their meds and that's why they're acting up again.

This prejudice contributes to the mentally disturbed being Acceptable Targets for the most merciless cruel humor and parodization. This pertains to sociological stereotypes that most people will tend to blame the victims of misfortunes, in order to take credit for their own good fortune, rather than owning it up to plain luck of the draw (often because luck runs out, and this means that it's only a matter of time for them).

Note that this also pertains to the illusion of control that society presents regarding one's mental state, vs. one's physical state; i.e. few, if any, will blame victims of cancer (except for lung cancer), leukemia, or similar organic physical illnesses or injuries, telling the person to "toughen up and get over it," or otherwise calling them "weak" or "lazy."

See also: Hollywood Personality Disorders, Insane Equals Violent, Funny Schizophrenia, Categorism as a Phobia, Black and White Insanity, Acceptable Target. If the exact nature of the disturbance isn't spelled out it may be a case of Ambiguous Disorder.

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Examples:

Anime and Manga

Sayonara, Zetsubou-Sensei takes this one to its logical extreme. Half the cast, or more, suffers from some form of severe mental disorder, which is usually played for laughs (albeit intentionally dark and disturbing laughs).
Alphonse and Edward from Fullmetal Alchemist display all signs of PTSD when confronted with their old teacher, who was a firm believer in Training from Hell. Naturally, we're supposed to laugh. Meanwhile the trauma from the botched resurrection of their mother, which resulted in the loss of Al's entire body and two of Ed's limbs, is portrayed with the weight it deserves.
Sakon Daimaru from Gamaran used to be sane, but became mentally disabled after the Training from Hell he suffered. Add his incredible martial arts to the lot and you get an Handicapped Badass and a Screaming Warrior in battle.
Yukishiro Enishi of Rurouni Kenshin is severely disturbed because he witnessed the death of his older sister Tomoe at the hands of the protagonist Kenshin, who killed her by accident and the trauma is very apparent. His hair went white soon after, he hallucinates seeing Tomoe, and if he tries to harm young women he becomes physically ill. To say nothing of his violent behavior.

Film

Mr Jones

Live Action TV

Scrubs usually plays right into this one for a cheap laugh but takes a long look at individual characters to find some genuine problems. This ranges from the psychologist's two o'clock client running into a shot just long enough to inform characters that "they've landed" to a surgeon ~~unwilling~~ unable to leave the operating room hours after performing surgery because he's still washing his hands.
- This latter scene developed into a serious, very well done, and poignant scene in which the main character sees just how much the surgeon with OCD actually suffers because of his condition, while prior to this it had been played mostly for laughs.
As a kid watching Sesame Street, Forgetful Jones is quite funny. But when you look back at it as an adult, you are wondering what person thought it would be great to make fun of a man suffering from advanced dementia, who appears no longer be able to do anything unsupervised.
In a throwaway joke in Extras, Andy balks at the prospect of being set up with a woman with bipolar disorder and says something like, "She'll forget to take her lithium and kill me." Granted, he is an Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist, but still.
In Glee, Emma Pilsbury's OCD is mostly shown as a strange character quirk instead of the debilitating mental illness that it is. The show also keeps making jokes about how Emma's OCD and germphobia has caused her to be a virgin at her age, as she can't make herself get intimate with people. It took until the end of season 2 for the show to actually treat her OCD seriously, by having her go to a therapist to get help, at which point she admits that she's actually ashamed of it and that it's basically destroying her life.
In one episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Grissom befriends the schizophrenic sister of the victim, who was driven insane by the same circumstances that led to the vic's death and is now a rambling bag lady. The end of the episode shows Gris walking next to the sister as she pushes her cart, having a lovely and surprisingly philosophical conversation with her regarding her delusions (she believes she's searching for something important, and when she finds it she can finally rest).

Web Original

In The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, the trope is maybe criticized with Lizzie's views about Mrs. Bennet. Lizzie sees her as this, but everyone else insists that she is pleasant and kind, whatever annoying opinions and form of interest she takes in her daughters's current love life, which makes clear that Lizzie may be actually projecting her anxiety over her life on her mother, the only one to share it. The best example is the spinster/witch costume, leading to much Alternate Character Interpretation.
On the humor website Something Awful, Asperger's Syndrome is apparently considered a great punchline, and this is starting to catch on in other places around the web. At least some of the humor is derived from the tendency of non-professional internet denizens to self-diagnose for the condition, as a way of stating that social ineptness is not their fault. Obviously, it takes more than just social ineptness to be diagnosed with Asperger's, but that doesn't stop the self-diagnosed from leaping to conclusions.
In the Whateley Universe, there's a disease that some mutants have. Diedrick's Syndrome. It makes the sufferers sometimes break down into 'crazed supervillain' ranting and such. The best-known case at Whateley Academy is a popular target of the school bullies and elitists.

Western Animation

Ren from The Ren & Stimpy Show is probably the most famous example from Western animation. However, unlike most examples, his psychotic freak-outs weren't always played for laughter. While he did display Insane Equals Violent behavior, it was always when he was being normal; when his manic side was triggered, that's when he snapped into batshit terrifying, yet non-violent mode. Examples include "Stimpy's Fan Club", in which a quite long and elaborate scene is dedicated to him considering killing Stimpy (complete with rambling that "his hands are dirty, the dirt won't come off" and that "with these hands, he holds the fate of millions"), but he doesn't lay a finger on him throughout all of it. There's also "Sven Hoek", in which he becomes furious with his cousin Sven and Stimpy, leading to another disturbing monologue. It truly gives a twist to Ren's personality, at least before he was flanderized post-season 2.
In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, "Screwloose", a clearly insane patient in a mental hospital, is literally barking mad. Fortunately, in a recent episode, Screwloose has a cameo that shows she's recovering, now living in a regular house with having a nurse to look after her.
On Total Drama Revenge Of The Island, Mike has "multiple personality disorder" that is pretty much Played for Laughs and a Loves My Alter Ego-style love square.
In Adventure Time, the Ice King suffers from an Alzheimer's-like dementia; while he's usually Played for Laughs, he has some truly heartbreaking moments.
- The Royal Tart Toter and Lemongrab, as well. Tart Toter is senile and schizophrenic, and Lemongrab was intentionally to come across as severely autistic.

Real Life

For much of human history, any behavior frowned upon by the majority or elite was considered to be a sign of mental illness, and before that a sign of evil (e.g. association with the devil or demonic possession). For example, drapetomania, a common mental illness among 19th century American slaves that irrationally compelled them to run away from their owners. However, it was considered easily treatable by flogging.
- And in the Soviet Union, being opposed to Communism was considered a sign of mental illness, as well— and was used as a thin veil for torture in "mental hospitals," disguised as "treatment."
  - And not only in the Soviet Union; Hitler's first euthanasia victims were 28 mental patients, while the United States likewise sometimes classified non-conformity to various legal requirements as mental illness— and subjected victims to similar treatments, despite later being proven wrong.
  - In modern America, teens who disobey their parents are sometimes diagnosed with Oppositional Defiant Disorder, which is usually given when the disobedience is very extreme and goes against even basic logic. If you hold up a candy bar in front of a kid with ODD and say "If you clean your room, you can have this. If you don't, I'll break your arm." They will tell you to go fuck yourself anyway, even if you make good on your threat, and will do it with just as much eagerness the second time.
Evidently, and fortunately, the use of the word retarded as a pejorative term or insult, even among "normal" people, is still common vernacular even on this very site, and in genres like Black Comedy.
- That's just the latest term in a long line thereof. "Idiot" was a medical term once.
- Even earlier than that, "Idiot" was a political slur that meant a person who was uninterested in public affairs.