Basic Trope: A terrible setting to live.
- Straight: The world is full of corruption, betrayal, despair, hopelessness and angst, and villains are often Karma Houdinis, Jerkasses, or even Hate Sinks and there is always a traffic jam.
- Exaggerated:
- Everyone in the entire world, whether good or evil, dead or alive, or even non-existent, endures intense suffering - every waking moment consists of pure torment.
- Death World
- Mordor
- Hell on Earth
- An entire galaxy of crapsack worlds.
- In a World… chalk full of nightmarishly horrific complete monsters, over-the-top cartoonishly evil card carrying villains motivated by evil alone and Jerkasses who will happily betray and sacrifice everyone they know for a moment of power, if you want a vision for the future, imagine a boot stomping on the human face forever, there is no hope under the black sun, a brief life burns brightly but is a retinal afterimage that will be obscured by a million brighter lights, and the mere idea of trying to fix this world will give birth to more insanity than man can handle, and it is true that man has no control, even over his own will. The world is a Orwellian thousandth-world shithole, unscrupulous and outright insane megacorporations and hyper-totalitarian superstates that would give George Orwell nightmares are all around, evil is omnipresent and always wins, karma houdinis are everywhere, to be kind and selfless is to be abominably stupid and anyone who dares to display traits associated with an All-Loving Hero is doomed to an eternity of rape, humiliation, exploitation, and suffering, the closest thing to a sympathetic faction are the terrorists- ahem, freedom fighters, who are really just non-descript, glorified thugs, humans are bastard morons, Aliens Are Bastards, citizens are apathetic lemmings, God Is Evil and so is Satan, Heaven does not exist and somehow this world has a Hell, the economy is pretty much dead and what wealth is left to the poorest of society only flows around because of criminals stealing from other criminals, there is no such thing as a 'good' crook, the police are just as corrupt and violent and are too busy mind raping dissidents and eating donuts to care about your problems, morality, ethics and charity are unheard of, the closest thing to utopia is an insular dictatorship where The Evils of Free Will have been thoroughly quashed, everyone lives in abject destitution and eternal fear of having their souls eaten or enslaved by eldritch abominations, Magic Is Evil, all corporate executives are corrupt bastards, the infrastructure is falling apart, healthcare is non-existent, every country is at war and always have been, millions are perishing like flies round the clock in disease-ridden, urine soaked, industrial death camps with No OSHA Compliance, their souls will be bound to their bodies, which will be melded into steel and they will be made to work forever as Brainwashed servitors, the rivers and air are choked with pollution, their homes are collapsing inwards, the cities look like the median between Gangster Land and a giant concentration camp, everyone's depressed and motivated only by The Power of Hate, and the local Domino's Pizza takes forever to deliver.
- Downplayed:
- Justified:
- The world is portrayed After the End.
- The government in charge is dangerously incompetent.
- The government in charge is evil.
- The government running this is both incompetent and evil.
- The Powers That Be in charge of the world are monsters.
- It's Hell
- Cosmic Horror Story
- Inverted: Sugar Bowl.
- Subverted: A World Half Full.
- Double Subverted: At the last moment, the writers Yank the Dog's Chain and snatch away the happy ending the heroes had worked so hard for - Craptown ends up just as crappy as ever.
- Parodied:
- Everyone is either an extreme Jerkass or a Butt-Monkey.
- The Rich Bitch is in a suburb which has a few problems, but is otherwise okay. She acts as though she's been put on Hell on Earth, because she was just given a compliment from a gentleman.
- Zig Zagged:
- The heroes earn their happy ending, but then Yank the Dog's Chain leads it to be taken away. Then they discover a section of the world that's a great place to live, until it turns out to be a Crapsaccharine World.
- Depending on the Writer, sometimes the world is a crappy place to live in, while at other times, it isn’t.
- Averted: The world in question isn't a particularly good or bad place to live.
- Enforced:
- The author is living in a real-life Wretched Hive, which warped the worldviews that became the model for his fictional worlds.
- The author's a pessimist.
- The author is creating a horrible place as a part of his sociopolitical commentary.
- The author knows that these kinds of worlds produce lots of conflict, and thus plot.
- Lampshaded: "This place sucks."
- Invoked: A villain declares that Dystopia Justifies the Means and starts to work to turn the Sugar Bowl into a crapsack world.
- Exploited: A god creates a Crapsack World to benefit himself.
- Defied: Alice and Bob immediately start working to make the world better.
- Discussed: "Why does this place have to suck?"
- Conversed: "Hey, 'realism' does not necessarily mean 'ugly hellhole full of crime.'"
- Implied: The alien protagonists are discussing on a planet to explore new species. When taking about Earth, they decide not to, but it’s never explained on why they don’t want to visit Earth.
- Deconstructed:
- Because life in the world is so terrible, many people fail to see the point in living and are Driven to Suicide as a result. Those that aren't Driven to Suicide simply end up loathing the world more, and are further entrenched in their hopelessness, and even snap and want to set it on fire just to make some kind of difference.
- The government running such a Hellhole find keeping everybody oppressed and miserable much harder than they thought, with constant rebellions, strikes, and people just wanting happiness or just a square meal on the table.
- The horrible conditions of the world makes the tiniest glimmers of the most ephemeral happiness treasured beyond anything. The people of the world are driven to become hedonistic, unfettered Ubermenschen, caring little for what happens to other people or a world beyond saving, just so long as they can be happy for just one moment.
- The horrible conditions of the world cause people to develop a sociopathic, nihilistic, darwinistic worldview, and even devolve into Always Chaotic Evil.
- Too Bleak, Stopped Caring.
- Reconstructed:
- The heroes tries their hardest to make the world a better place, and after a long time of hardships they actually do make it better... But not without great sacrifices and casualties.
- Running a dystopian government would be hard if the place wasn't full of Apathetic Citizens who are only looking out for themselves.
- The world is such a terrible place because of people like that, thus creating an endless cycle. Some people realize this and become Knights in Sour Armour. No matter how small the difference is, it is still a path to the right direction. Even if they failed, others may be determined to better the world and its people.
- Played For Laughs: Black Comedy or Crapsaccharine World.
Welcome to Suckyville, population, you.
