History BlackComedy / WesternAnimation

** Almost every one of the ''New Adventures of the ComicBook/WonderTwins'' shorts has someone dying due to the twins' inability to use their powers correctly.

* ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes''. Not as regularly used, but still there. Notable examples include Lucius picking up and dropping an old lady over and over, Heloise tearing off a waitress' skin to use as a disguise, and the various Miseryvillians being harmed on a regular basis (lit on fire, eaten alive, squashed, etc.). Yet somehow, they all seem to come out with little permanent harm. Fitting considering the implications of the setting's true nature.

* ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead'': Beavis and Butthead often hurt themselves in pretty gruesome ways. One episode had them destroying all the equipment in their classroom. Then Beavis cut his finger off! Cue the panicking teacher unable to find his EHBO kit, because the two boys had destroyed everything that could help Beavis in this particular emergency situation.

* ''WesternAnimation/WelcomeToHell'': The entire short film is a BuddyPicture about an [[{{Keet}} intensely friendly]] [[OurDemonsAreDifferent murderer-turned-demon]] whose job it is to drive an apathetic high-schooler to suicide, under the orders of [[MysteriousEmployer Mephistopheles]]. And he's absolutely terrible at his job.

* ''BoJackHorseman''. ''In spades''. At least one off-colour joke per episode. Special mention has to go to [=BoJack=] [[spoiler:having sex with his TV daughter]] and, in a later episode, his roommate Todd [[spoiler:witnessing a shanking in prison after being informed he'll be "just fine" by the victim]].

** There's an episode where Bender adopts a dozen orphans and then attempts to sell them to a restaurant as meat.

* ''BoJackHorseman''. ''In spades''. At least one off-colour joke per episode. Special mention has to go to [=BoJack=] [[spoiler:having sex with his TV daughter]] and, in a later episode, his roommate Todd [[spoiler:witnessing a shanking in prison after being informed he'll be "just fine" by the victim]].

* ''BoJackHorseman''. ''In spades''. At least one off-colour joke per episode. Special mention has to go to BoJack [[spoiler:having sex with his TV daughter]] and, in a later episode, his roommate Todd [[spoiler:witnessing a shanking in prison after being informed he'll be "just fine" by the victim]].

* BoJackHorseman. ''In spades''. At least one off-colour joke per episode. Special mention has to go to BoJack [[spoiler:having sex with his TV daughter]] and, in a later episode, his roommate Todd [[spoiler:witnessing a shanking in prison after being informed he'll be "just fine" by the victim]].

* The very first episode of ''WesternAnimation/BobsBurgers'' jokes about cannibalism and pedophilia.

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** Lampshaded in one episode where a sketch shows a visit from the Tooth Fairy being interrupted by the girl's mother and father arguing, and showing MultipleEndings where some combination of the parents and the Tooth Fairy die. The characters in the sketch then win an award for [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5D_3BlOWOQ "Darkest Sketch Ever"]].

* For such a cheery, uplifting show, ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' can give ''very'' dark humor at times. The best example of this would probably be in "Steven and the Stevens", which ends with the titular character singing a song about the dangers of time-travel. Based on personal experience.
--> ''Come on now, don't be shy''
--> ''I learned how to be true to myself''
--> ''By watching myself die''

--> [[NoIndoorVoice ''DEER TEETH, FOR YOU KID! HAHAHAHA!'']]

--> ''Deer teeth, for you kid! HAHAHAHA!''

** He also invokes this type of humor in both his [[https://www.reddit.com/r/gravityfalls/comments/315yoy/im_bill_cipher_i_know_lots_of_things_ask_me/ AMA]] and in [[AllThereInTheManual Dipper and Mabel's Guide to Mystery and Non-Stop Fun.]] Some highlights include his enjoyment of bending people's fingers backwards until they break, [[ItMakesSenseInContext wanting to disassemble Time Baby's molecules to salt his margaritas]], and several other things that [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar the radar]] would probably never allow on the actual show.

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' uses this trope a lot for a Disney cartoon. Even more so in Season 2. Examples would be Preston Northwest casually mentioning in "Northwest Mansion Mystery" about eating the butler when things went badly or Bill Cipher giving Dipper a decapitated head that constantly screams as a present in "Sock Opera".

** Then there's the second movie "The Beast With a Billion Backs" where in order for the Robot Devil to provide the robots with weapons he tells Bender he must give him his first born son, so he brings him to Robot Hell and casually kicks him into a vat of molten lead saying "Here you go".

* ''WesternAnimation/JimmyTwoShoes''. More subtle than the above examples, but still there.

** One of the tamer examples: In one episode Jake is imprisoned by a Demon who weakens him by stealing Jake's blood and supplies him with various things he might need, albeit [[ForTheEvulz surrounded by a force-field that is rigged to vaporize him]]. He has a rather [[ButForMeItWasTuseday careless]] attitude towards the whole situation and takes a seat on what he believes to be a rock. It turns out to be a member of turtle-like species that apparently spends the first twelve years of its lifetime sleeping. it eventually approaches the supplies and cheerfully exclaims "I just woke up today!" before being obliterated by a quick and powerful zap. Jake picks up the shell and decides to [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain pretend its sleeping.]]. The show in general is getting much DarkerAndEdgier.

** One of the tamer examples: In one episode Jake is imprisoned by a Demon who weakens him by stealing Jake's blood and supplies him with various things he might need, albeit [[ForTheEvulz surrounded by a force-field that is rigged to vaporize him]]. He has a rather [[ForMeItWasTuseday Careless]] attitude towards the whole situation and takes a seat on what he believes to be a rock. It turns out to be a member of turtle-like species that apparently spends the first twelve years of its lifetime sleeping. it eventually approaches the supplies and cheerfully exclaims "I just woke up today!" before being obliterated by a quick and powerful zap. Jake picks up the shell and decides to [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain pretend its sleeping.]]. The show in general is getting much DarkerAndEdgier.

* Creator/TexAvery: Also used SuicideAsComedy gags often.
* WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead: Beavis and Butthead often hurt themselves in pretty gruesome ways. One episode had them destroying all the equipment in their classroom. Then Beavis cut his finger off! Cue to the panicking teacher unable to find his EHBO kit, because the two boys had destroyed everything that could help Beavis in this particular emergency situation.

** Perhaps the best example of something on the show being both dark ''and'' hilarious is in "Little Orphan Hero" in which Captain Hero ends up reenacting the rape scene from ''Film/TheAccused''. It doesn't sound funny until you consider the fact that A: He's dressed like a woman for no good reason and no one at the frat kegger questions this B: He's powerful and crazy enough to kill all his attackers with ease C: A newspaper headline later in the show reads "Best Kegger Ever!" and D: It's a ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' Expy in a tube top being gang banged by frat boys. The sheer insanity of the situation counteracts the normal DudeNotFunny.

--> '''Captain Hero:''' Captain Hero ONE! Billions of innocent Zebulonians... um... dead. Oh. I... uh...(Slinks off)

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', most infamously. In its later seasons, it's even more notorious for [[MoodWhiplash rapidly switching between this]] and [[{{Irony}} being too moralistic and heavy-handed]]. There were even dead babies during the Christopher Reeve stem cell episode. Some of the darkest episodes include:
** An episode where TheLittlestCancerVictim wants Stan and Kyle to win the hockey game for them. [[spoiler:In a horrid subversion of this tired sports cliché in the end they lose and so the child dies. The end!]]
** Cartman [[spoiler:feeding Scott Tenorman the remains of his own parents and he unknowingly eating them.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/CourageTheCowardlyDog'': Courage and his owners Eustace, and Muriel Bagge constantly run into monsters, aliens, demons, mad scientists, zombies, and island natives that Courage must fend off to save his owners. Eustace always ends up being attacked by all the horrors in the series.

-->'''Grim:''' ''(Baby voice)'' Who's gonna get reaped? Who's gonna get reaped? You are! You are!

* The classic two-reel 1936 ''{{Popeye}}'' short ''WesternAnimation/PopeyeTheSailorMeetsSindbadTheSailor'' had a rather dark running gag. Wimpy spent most of the story chasing a duck with a meat grinder, with the intention of turning it into a burger. Fortunately, the duck ends up getting away, swiping Wimpy's last hamburger in retaliation after he gives up.

** Almost inevitably, the show had one such sketch in which a crowd of visitors inside a maternity ward coo at a baby, only for a nurse to walk up and cover its face to illustrate that it's dead. Good stuff.

** Almost every one of the ''The New Adventures of the ComicBook/WonderTwins'' shorts has someone dying due to the twins inability to use their powers correctly.

** Also think about the fact that Dean and Hank are [[spoiler: clones that are constantly being killed]] (at least for the first few seasons).
* The episode "Mr. Grumpypants" of ''WesternAnimation/{{Superjail}}'' has [[ImplacableMan Jailbot]] following Jacknife into a hospital and accidentally killing some sick kids; later on, various inmates of the prison are reverted into infants by magical means, which is a probably rare instance of seeing toddlers cutting each other to pieces. Also, the driving force of the episode is the Warden's hatred of children and desire to murder the little girl who Jailbot accidentally brought to Superjail. However, the inmates treat her with dignity, and when she finally succumbs to cancer, this is treated as a [[TearJerker very sad moment]].

* In the ''HulkVs Wolverine'' direct-to-DVD animated movie, after a shot showing a bunch of fetuses-in-tubes at Weapon X HQ, the following exchange takes place:

* ''WesternAnimation/MonkeyDust'' focused on the darker side of life in Britain today, with sketches involving serial killers, terrorists, and paedo-hunting mobs; playing [[UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist all kinds of bizarre, horrible or disgusting behaviour]] for dark and disturbing laughs. Fans of the show suspect that the real reason it was cancelled after the second series was because some of the sketches were deemed to have come TooSoon. It was revived for a third series, but the [[AuthorExistenceFailure producer died soon afterwards.]]
** Perhaps the best of the lot was Ivan Dobsky, a man constantly committing murders so he can stay IN prison, which he finds a lot nicer than the modern world.

** A pre-season 4 example is ''Nasty Patty'', where Spongebob and Mr Krabs [[MistakenForMurderer think they have killed a health inspector]] and try to hide the body.

** One of the tamer examples occurs in ''WesternAnimation/AdventureTime'' In one episode Jake is imprisoned by a Demon who weakens him by stealing his blood and supplies him with various things he might need albeit [[ForTheEvulz surrounded by a force-field that is rigged to vaporize him]]. He has a rather [[ForMeItWasTuseday Careless]] attitude towards the whole situation and takes a seat on what he believes to be a rock. It turns out to be a member of turtle-like species that apparently spends the first twelve years of its lifetime sleeping. it eventually approaches the supplies and cheerfully exclaims "I just woke up today!" before being obliterated by a quick and powerful zap. Jake picks up the shell and decides to [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain pretend its sleeping.]]. The show in general is getting much DarkerAndEdgier.
* In ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' of all places, justified in that it deals with [[LivingForeverIsAwesome Vandal Savage]] and a Superman who was shot into the future. In the season two episode 'Hereafter', Savage recounts how he killed the entire Justice League and destroyed the solar system, at which point a depowered Superman beats him into the ground and raises up a rock.
-->Superman: "I should crush your skull."
-->Savage: "Go ahead, we both know [[CompleteImmortality it wouldn't work]]."
-->*Beat. Superman gets up.*
-->Superman: "What do we do now?"
-->Savage: "Lunch?"

** A later episode revolves around one of the recurring characters who [[{{They Killed Kenny Again}} meets a gruesome demise in nearly every appearance]] with the two protagonists trying to figure out how he's able to [[{{Backfromthedead}} return]]. To do this they kill him in a montage of different fatalities only to come back from each one. (It turn out that [[{{ItMakessenseincontext}} his parents clone him]].)

* ''WesternAnimation/TripTank'' is, like ''Robot Chicken'', a animated SketchComedy show that revels in this.

** The Goofy short "How to Be a Detective" opens with a guy getting thrown off a bridge, followed by a pan over silhouettes in an apartment building, each of which is displaying scenes of comically over-the-top violence. Later, there's a gag where Goofy is kicked out of the city morgue after falling down an elevator shaft, and is told "Beat it, and don't come back 'til you're ready!"

* WesternAnimation/MonkeyDust: A British animated series that had black comedy in practically every episode.
* WesternAnimation/HappyTreeFriends: A bunch of cute forest animals killing each other off in every episode.
* For such a cheery, uplifting show WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse can give ''very'' dark humor at times. The best example of this would probably be in "Steven and the Stevens", which ends with the titular character singing a song about the dangers of time-travel. Based on personal experience.
--> ''Come on now don't be shy''

--> ''By watching myself die''