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Adaptational Karma

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An adaptation of a story changes the fate of a character who was a Karma Houdini in the original work, by having them receive a fitting karmic punishment. This trope was mandated by The Hays Code, and thus, often sprung up in films made during that period. Similarly, it can sometimes occur to appease other Moral Guardians.

Sometimes, however, it may simply be used by directors who think that the story is strengthened by a Karmic Twist Ending, or are simply responding to fan complaints about how the villain should have been punished. In any event, it adds an element of Not His Sled for adaptations of very well-known stories.

In some instances, the film is an adaptation of the first installment of a series, and the change allows for finality when sequels are unplanned or uncertain. This may overlap with Death by Adaptation and Superhero Movie Villains Die.

Not just limited to official adaptations — a lot of Fan Fiction does this, as disgruntled fans who want to see the villain get comeuppance but have no official material to supply this may decide to write their own.

Examples are sorted by medium of adaptation, not by medium of the source material. If the Karma Houdini eventually gets their comeuppance within a subsequent installment set in the same continuity, then it's Karma Houdini Warranty.

Due to the trope's nature, unmarked spoilers abound in the examples below.

Examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Akame ga Kill! ended later than its anime adaptation. In the anime, General Esdeath, the most dangerous of all villains, dies, but gets rewarded for her obsession with Tatsumi by freezing herself and his corpse so they can always be together. In the manga, Tatsumi outlives her, and she dies lamenting about how she can never be with him.
  • Black Lagoon's anime adaptation of the "El Baile de la Muerte" arc, "Roberta's Blood Trail" does this to Roberta. While she still gets to go home and retire in peace after a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, she does so minus an eye and several limbs.
  • The novel and anime versions of Candy♡Candy never show the fall-out of Neil Legan's failure to get Candy for himself. In the manga, he is publicly humiliated due to Albert's intervention and is last seen literally crying to his mommy about it, much to his sister Eliza's secondhand embarrassment.
  • Doraemon: In "The Truthbeaker", Nobita lies to his friends about his dad being able to perform amazing feats, such as smashing a boulder with his bare hands, so Doraemon him gives a gadget that turns all of his lies into truths. In the manga and 1979 anime, Nobita suffers no consequences from this, and even makes his dad buy a telescope and bike for him (this is a callback to the beginning of the story. When Nobita is about to ask his dad to smash a boulder, his dad assumes that he's going to ask him for a bike or telescope). In the 2005 anime, after saying that his dad is a super hero, Nobita says that his his dad has zero tolerance for those who deceive others. His dad then flies towards him and punches him in the face, ending the episode.
  • Dragon Ball Super: In the anime, Goku Black is an Invincible Villain who never lost a fight and a Karma Houdini who fused with Future Zamasu so he never paid for his crimes as an individual. In the manga, he isn't so lucky, getting beaten and humiliated by Vegeta twice and driven into a Villainous Breakdown.
  • In the first anime adaptation of Fullmetal Alchemist, Envy got away with a lot of his evil deeds, including temporarily killing Edward and permanently killing fan-favorite Maes Hughes. While he does die in the Finale Movie The Conqueror of Shamballa, it's only after he achieves his life dream of killing Hohenheim, meaning he still goes basically unpunished even in death. Manga author Hiromu Arakawa must've really taken notice of fan complaints, as in the manga and subsequent Brotherhood anime, Envy suffers a lot of humiliation once the heroes understand how to fight him, culminating in Mustang flaming him repeatedly in revenge for Hughes' death to the point that he's forced to revert back to his pathetic smaller form and ultimately taking his own life when he realizes he can't manipulate the heroes anymore.
  • Les Misérables: Shōjo Cosette: In the original book, M. Thenardier manages to escape to America with Marius' money. That does not happen here, since Javert decided (at the last second) not to commit suicide and was able to arrest him.
  • Cyrus from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl suffers nothing beyond frustration at his plan to destroy and remake the universe failing. But in the anime, he ends up Deader than Dead when he jumps into his new universe as it's fading from existence.
  • Persona 5: The Animation: In the original game, during Makoto's Confidant, the harasser Tsukasa's only comeuppance was that he got his plan exposed that he had to stop on that, and nothing else. In the adaptation, however, Eiko proceeds to put his misdeeds on her in the Phan-Site and then his other victims follow suit. This made him a target for the Phantom Thieves, who proceeded to eventually defeat his Shadow in Mementos.
  • In Shaman King, the Big Bad, Hao/Zeke, obtains the Great Spirit, making him invincible which eventually makes him as the Shaman King. In the anime (the first one at least, the series got a remake later), Yoh defeats him by cutting him in half despite Hao still getting the Great Spirit.
  • In SiN, Elexis Sinclaire always escapes from getting caught, usually using her sex appeal to distract Blade long enough for a getaway. In SiN: The Movie, after Blade has defeated the monstrous mutant form of her father, the ensuing explosion throws Elexis off the SinTek tower, and she presumably falls to her death. There is no indication she survived, making this the one time Elexis is directly punished for her crimes.
  • In Sorcerer Stabber Orphen, Azalie Cait Sith was a Broken Bird character in the first anime but she still got away with a lot of her misdeeds, particularly when she took over Childman's body and engaged in all sorts of shady acts. Despite all that, Orphen would continue to defend her and try to help her, no matter what evidence to the contrary was presented or how much Claiomh tried to tell him Azalie wasn't the same person he once knew. Towards the end, Azalie is brought back to normal and gets to sail off into the sunset without really having to answer for much of anything. In the 2020 anime, the Bloody August story with Azalie is resolved relatively early on and towards the end of it, Orphen finally comes around to seeing the kind of person Azalie is and calls her out for her wrongdoings against him and Childman, culminating in a sword fight where Azalie is beaten down.
  • In Tegami Bachi: Letter Bee, Colbasso, Rei's senior maid, is a Jerkass who treats Kimidori, the younger maid, like dirt and is rather cold to Lag Seeing. She listens in on Lag's conversation with Kimidori and finds out that while Kimidori was the one who anonymously sent the picture postcards to Rei, Kimidori has no intention of revealing herself. Colbasso then lies and says that she was the sender, so she can ask Rei for a reward, prompting Lag to use his Shindan to show Rei the feelings Kimidori put into her postcards. In the manga, Colbasso is never seen again, and the end of the chapter focuses on Rei recognizing Kimidori as her old friend, as well as Lag considering sending a picture postcard to his friend Gauche. In the anime, there's a brief scene of Colbasso swearing revenge on Lag, and the fact that she's wearing civilian clothes and carrying suitcases implies that Rei fired her for her deception.
  • The 1981 Animated Adaptation of Urusei Yatsura contains a downplayed example. In all of her manga stories, Ryoko Mendo gets away with any plan she concocts to indulge her sadist tendencies, and likewise she does the same in most of the anime. However, in episode 133, the second half of the adaptation of the arc introducing Asuka Mizunokoji, she experiences a never-before-seen karmic backlash: after she petulantly takes some of the Mendou family's private military to attack the Mizunokoji estate out of anger that her brother Shutaro is being considered for an Arranged Marriage, she accidentally finds herself put in the role of piloting a suit of Powered Armor called the Octopussy, which turns out to have no special powers whatsoever. She spends several minute in an unprecedented state of panic as the entirety of the Mizunokoji army concentrates its fire on her, forcing her to run for her life to avoid being shot or blown to bits.

    Comic Books 

    Films — Animation 

    Films — Live Action 
  • Inverted with Uncle Ben's killer in The Amazing Spider-Man Series. Unlike other versions, Peter never managed to catch him at all in either film.
  • In the book it is based on, Napoleon and pigs get away with taking control of the farm, with animals unable to tell difference between them and humans. In Animal Farm (1999), we get Flash Forward as the farm collapses from their tyranny, with them presumably dying.
  • In The Bad Seed, the Devil in Plain Sight Enfant Terrible Rhoda manages to survive her mother's attempt to kill her when she discovers what kind of being her daughter is and it is implied that she has a new victim in her sights. The 1956 movie adaptation, because it was made during the Hays Code era, wasn't going to allow such a monster to live... and because her mother failed, Rhoda was struck down by lightning on the very last scene (an epilogue right after that has the actresses of Rhoda and her mother break character and, in a pretty comedic moment, Rhoda's actress gets spanked).
  • Thanks to the fact that Joker Immunity wasn't in play, The Joker is actually killed in Tim Burton's first Batman movie rather than being sent to a Cardboard Prison.
  • The Chocolate War: In the original book, Archie gets away with manipulating everyone and setting Jerry up to suffer a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown at the hands of Emile Janza. In the film, his luck runs out when he draws a black marble and is forced to take Janza's place in the boxing match he himself set up. The end result: Archie himself suffers a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown at Jerry's hands, and Obie takes his place as the Vigils' Assigner with Archie himself demoted to Obie's secretary.
  • The 1987 adaptation of Flowers in the Attic had this enforced by the studio. In the book, Corrine marries another man and doesn't get any form of comeuppance until the third in the series (where she tries to win back her children's love and dies in a fire). The higher-ups felt the audience would want to see Corrine get punished, and so she is exposed by her children and hung on her wedding day. Understandably, the sequels where she plays a big role never got adapted.
  • Gone in 60 Seconds (2000): In the original film, the people who hired Maindrian Pace to steal fifty cars end the film completely untouched by the law (and aside from the scene in which they hire Pace, not appear any further in the film). Raymond Calitri, however, ends this film very much dead and it's heavily implied that the people who hired him to get the cars will have the LAPD on their tails in very short order.
  • In the film adaptation of The Handmaid's Tale, Offred kills the Commander (one of the movers and shakers of the intensely awful Republic of Gilead, who has been keeping Offred as a breeding slave) before she is taken away. In the original novel, the Commander is still alive and in power at the end.
  • In the original version of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies, Alfrid, the greedy servant of the corrupt Master of Laketown, escapes with a haul of money and is never seen again. In the director’s cut, Alfrid dies in a hilarious way when he hides in the launching arm of a catapult. The weight of his gold triggers the catapult and he is launched into the mouth of a troll, killing both himself and the troll.
  • The three villains of Holes are arrested by the Texas attorney general's office at the end of the movie, while the book doesn’t mention their fate (and furthermore, the continuation has the Camp reactivated a few years later and them getting back their old positions).
  • The novel In This Our Life saw Stanley framing Parry for her drunk driving accident and getting away with everything. Per the Hays Code, Roy and Craig find out what she did and she dies in a fiery car crash while being chased by police.
  • Kind Hearts and Coronets is a case of this in regard to the source novel Israel Rank: in the film, the Villain Protagonist narrowly escapes being executed for a death in which he had no involvement, but then the film ends with him realizing that he left his Memoirs (in which he had confessed to everything) in his cell. In the source novel, Israel Rank, there isn't this kind of twist (the Villain Protagonist is on trial for the murders he did commit), but an Adapted Out love interest kills herself and takes the blame for the crimes.
  • In the 2019 remake of Lady and the Tramp, Aunt Sarah and her cats are forced to leave the house after Jim Dear and Darling find out about her mistreatment of Lady. In the original, they don't get much punishment, and Aunt Sarah apparently learns her lesson after realizing she misjudged Lady and sends a gift of dog biscuits for Christmas.
  • A Little Princess (1995) does this to the evil Miss Minchin, who was a Karma Houdini in the original novel, by having her lose the school and forced to become a chimney sweep.
  • In the original musical version of Little Shop of Horrors, Audrey II is able to kill Seymour and the original Audrey, sell itself to every household in the world, and start an apocalypse. This was the plan for the movie, too, but test audiences didn’t like the ending, so they changed it so that Seymour is able to save Audrey, then destroy Audrey II by electrocuting it, making a case of two characters having switched the role of Karma Houdini and Karma Houdini warranty with Audrey II gaining the punishment he had previously avoided, and Seymour getting no punishment for murdering people to feed Audrey II.
  • Subtly done in Matilda with the setting change from the UK to America. In the end of the book, the Wormwoods flee the authorities to Spain. At the end of the film, they flee to Guam. But since Guam is a US territory, it's likely that the FBI might catch up to them, thus giving them a direct comeuppance for their abuse of Matilda.
  • Les Misérables (2012) has this with the Thenadiers in regard to both the original novel and the source musical:
    • In the novel, M. Thenardier, who is the evilest character in the book, is given money by Marius to settle a debt, and the narration indicates that he became a wealthy slave trader in America.
    • In the musical, Thenardier and his wife (who is Spared by the Adaptation) have the role of Plucky Comic Relief but still do the same evil stuff as in the novel. At the end, they crash Marius' wedding and are paid by him as in the book, and sing a cheery song about how people like themselves who scavenge off society without moral compunction always win.
    • In the newer film (which is mostly an adaptation of the musical but is also in some respects more faithful to the novel), the Thenardiers are physically thrown out of Marius' wedding and don't receive any payment (although oddly, they still sing the same song about "winning"). This may have been a case of What Could Have Been, as set photos show the pair crashing the cake and generally having a good time of things.
  • Notes on a Scandal: In the book, Barbara's plan worked and she got Sheba all to herself, with no end in sight and Sheba's completely emotionally broken. In the film, Sheba finds out about Barbara's behaviour, gives her a blistering "Reason You Suck" Speech, and leaves her alone. It's not what she deserved, but it's still a change from the book.
  • Adaptations of Pride and Prejudice tend to do something regarding Wickham who, after nearly ruining Lydia, is bribed into marrying her to save the family's honour. Joe Wright's film implies that Domestic Abuse might be in their future, Bride and Prejudice has him getting busted by Darcy before he can do anything harmful to Lydia, and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has Lizzie stabbing him in the chest.
  • The George Sanders film The Private Affairs of Bel Ami has the Villain Protagonist Georges Duroy get in trouble for posing as an aristocrat. In the novel the film is based on, Guy de Maupassant's Bel Ami, Duroy gets away with everything and the "posing as aristocrat" is a minor detail (he is from a town called Canteleu starts calling himself Du Roy de Cantel).
  • Ready Player One:
    • The book's climax suggests that Nolan Sorrento may get away with his many wrongdoings due to lack of solid evidence and very good corporate lawyers (on the other hand, the protagonists now have enough wealth to get lawyers of their own along with the support of millions of people that can act as witnesses). In the film, the last we see of him is getting locked away in a police car and getting socked in the face by a disgruntled ex-employee that was arrested with him, making it clear that no lawyer is going to save him.
    • This also applies to one of his henchmen, I-R0k. In the book, he disappears from the plot after giving Sorrento the location of one of the keys. But in the movie, Sorrento activates a bomb that wipes out all the avatars in the area- and I-R0k is the first to be killed.
  • Rebecca had Mrs. Danvers escaping Manderly after she burns it to the ground. The film — by order of the Hays Code — shows her dying in the fire.
  • In A Streetcar Named Desire, Stanley was able to win back Stella, despite being an abusive husband and raping Blanche and getting her sent to a mental institution. In the film, it cuts to the credits after he kept crying "Stella," heavily implying that she was finally going to leave him.
  • Topkapi ends with the band of thieves and the protagonist Arthur Smith breaking rocks in prison, but on good terms and plotting escape/future jobs. In the source novel The Light of Day, the thieves escape and Smith (who in both versions was planted as a Sixth Ranger Traitor by the Turkish police) who is a much more anti-heroic character, leaves with a small reward, but is essentially stateless. At the end of the sequel novel Dirty Story (written after Topkapi), he ends up in a slightly better position.
  • In Treasure Island, Long John escapes with some loot, is believed to have settled down after that, and the protagonist makes no effort to pursue him. In Muppet Treasure Island, Long John Silver escapes with the loot, but his previous warning to Arrow about unsafe lifeboats turned out more accurate than he expected. He ends up trapped on a desert island with its annoying inhabitants. An interesting example because Silver in this version is much more affable.
  • The Hong Kong film The Warlords is a remake of the Shaw Brothers war epic Blood Brothers (1973). Both movies revolve around a trio of blood brothers joining a war and getting promoted, only for a Plot-Inciting Infidelity to strike in the form of a love affair between the oldest brother and the second brother's wife. This leads to the two brothers betraying and killing each other, with the youngest of the trio eventually seeking Revenge causing the brotherhood to end in ruins. Blood Brothers (1973) ends with the three brothers dead and the wife, whose flirtation leads to all the mess, alone but alive; but in The Warlords, the unfaithful wife ends up being stabbed by the youngest brother in the third act.
  • In Witness for the Prosecution, Christine Vole commits perjury in her husband Leonard's murder trial, and deliberately gets caught doing so, in order to sabotage the case against him and get him acquitted. The Agatha Christie short story it was based on ends with her admitting what she did to Leonard's defense attorney and the reason she did it: she knew he was guilty. In the movie, Leonard abandons Christine for another woman shortly after his acquittal, and she murders him in rage.

    Literature 
  • In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, the eunuch, Huang Hao, is one of the few people responsible for the downfall of Shu by manipulating Liu Shan into his favor. After Shu surrendered to Wei, Sima Zhao had the eunuch executed. In historical records of the Three Kingdoms Era in Imperial China which the novel is based from, Deng Ai wanted to execute the eunuch after he heard of his reputation, but he escaped by bribing his officials.
  • Star Wars: In Legends continuity, the last that is heard of Mas Amedda after the Empire's formation in which he was a direct accomplice is him being demoted but taking delight in collecting Sith knowledge for the Empire. In Disney's continuity, the Aftermath Trilogy and Lost Stars show that after Palpatine's downfall, Mas is driven to despair and becomes suicidal as his influence wanes and the Rebels refuse his surrender, and whilst he is pardoned of his war crimes, he's consigned to be nothing more than a puppet ruler for the rest of his days and is remembered by history as a weak-willed sycophant of Darth Sidious.
  • The Bulgarian adaptation of The Wolf and the Crane by Ran Bosilek. Yeah, the ungrateful bear had managed to get out of paying the stork with the usual excuse... but what happens when she needs to get another bone out? Well, the stork doesn't want to be fooled a second time, so, just in case, he's going to pull out the bear's teeth first.

    Live-Action TV 
  • After episodes of Alfred Hitchcock Presents ending with a criminal still at large, Hitchcock's closing remarks would often dish out some Offscreen Karma by stating that they were brought to justice afterwards; this was generally not present in the original short stories being adapted. It should be noted, however, that Hitchcock himself did not actually want to include these in his closing remarks and only did so in order to placate the sponsors.
  • In Horton Hears a Who! and most adaptations of the work, Jane Kangaroo is Easily Forgiven for harassing Horton the entire story, and a Happy Ending ensues without forcing so much as an apology from her. In The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss however, a lot of Jane's nastier or more careless moments backfire onto her, to the point of nearing Can't Get Away with Nuthin', with her nearly always displaying remorse and trying to make amends. This is an unusual case where the trope also leads to Adaptational Nice Guy, since these consequences often made the show's version of Jane rather sympathetic.
  • Happens in both the BBC and the ITV adaptations of the Miss Marple novel At Bertram's Hotel by Agatha Christie. In the original novel, the murderer is not seen to be apprehended, although Chief Inspector Fred "Father" Davy vows to go after her. In both screen adaptations, she is exposed by Miss Marple and taken into custody.
  • The Sandman, "Collectors": In the original comic book story, Morpheus rescues Rose from the serial killer Fun Land by using his supernatural ability to render Fun Land unconscious; a later comic book issue confirmed that Fun Land survived to continue his career. In the TV adaptation, Morpheus has not yet arrived and instead there's a Villainous Rescue by the Corinthian, who wants Rose alive for his own purposes, and simply knifes Fun Land in the back, killing him instantly.
  • Saturday Night Live adapted the final scene of It's a Wonderful Life (which ended with Mr. Potter being a Karma Houdini) for one of their sketches... which immediately goes this route by having Uncle Billy finally remember that he had accidentally left the missing $8,000 in the newspaper he gave to Potter and then learning from a bank teller that Potter deposited the cash in his own account after he left. George mobilizes everyone gathered at the Bailey house to confront Potter and he, Mary, and Harry proceed to take turns beating Potter into a pulp.
  • A Series of Unfortunate Events (2017):
    • In the books, Mr. Poe placed the Baudelaires in one abusive home after another throughout the first seven books (except Book 2) and never got punished for either doing that or just being an incompetent moron. Here, he has to face the consequences for his incompetence when the Baudelaires run off at the end of The Wide Window and almost loses his job at the beginning of The Miserable Mill.
    • In the books, editor in chief of the Daily Punctilio Eleanora Poe got away with publishing libel, incredibly inaccurate stories, and grammatical mistakes without a single consequence. The final episode of the series shows Eleanora Poe behind bars, with the final issue of the Daily Punctilio claiming it's going out of print for false reporting.
  • In the Sherlock Holmes story "The Disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax", the villains get away. In the adaptation by Granada starring Jeremy Brett, they are caught — although Lady Frances also suffers brain damage.

    Video Games 
  • In the All Grown Up! episode, "Susie Sings the Blues", a con artist poses as a record producer who swindles Susie out of $1,000.00. In the Express Yourself game for the Game Boy Advance, Angelica follows her around and calls the police on her, getting her arrested for her actions.
  • While Uncle Ben's killer in The Amazing Spider-Man Series is an inversion, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 game does see Uncle Ben's killer die at the hands of a pre-Carnage Cletus Kasady.
  • Todd Ianuzzi of Beavis And Butthead never got any punishment in the show and the one on-screen moment he got decapitated in the second movie only took place in a daydream. However, in the video game Virtual Stupidity, Todd is legitimately humiliated by the duo and then arrested, being the only time he's received any comeuppance in any media format whereas he got away with just about everything in the series proper.
  • In Disney's Cinderella, the wicked stepmother and stepsisters don't face any punishment for their treatment of Cinderella besides losing their live-in servant. Conversely, the silliest of the villains, the stepmother's Righthand Cat Lucifer, gets the closest to a comeuppance (being chased by the dog Bruno, who previously got in trouble for doing so), and falling out the tower window (he survives and returns in the sequels). In the level it inspired in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Lucifer is merely chased off by the protagonists, whilst the stepfamily try to murder Cinderella out of hatred with a summoned Unversed, and one of the monster's bombs ends up hitting the stepfamily instead. It is not known if they died, but Aqua hints that the trio might have become Heartless.
  • Bendy from the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends episode, "Everyone Knows Its Bendy" managed to get away with doing bad things and blaming them on Wilt, Eduardo, Coco, and Bloo, even when Bloo exposed him through an elaborate scheme. In the Imagination Invaders game for the Nintendo DS, Bendy breaks some busts and draws on the wall. When Bloo tells on him to Frankie, Bendy lies to her that Bloo has been blaming him for his wrongdoings. This time, Frankie doesn't believe Bendy's lie and sends him to his bedroom as punishment.
  • The Incredibles:
    • In both movies, villains Bomb Voyage and the Underminer both are able to escape with hauls of money and are never seen again. In LEGO The Incredibles, however, both return for a pair of attacks upon the city and are subjected to boss battles before being arrested.
    • In Rise of the Underminer, a non-canon game, the Underminer is killed when he is thrown into his own machine, causing it to explode.
    • In the console versions of the tie-in game for the first movie, Bomb Voyage decides to attack Mr. Incredible again after he gets the bomb he puts on Buddy off. He loses the fight when Mr. Incredible blows up his helicopter, and presumably doesn't escape this time.
  • In the Disney film Pinocchio, Pinocchio merely escapes the Coachman and his slave camp on Pleasure Island. In the video game of the film, Pinocchio kicks the Coachman off a cliff.
  • In The Simpsons "Treehouse of Horror XI", the third segment ended with King Snorky and his dolphin army successfully kicking out the people of Springfield and forcing them to live in the sea. In The Simpsons Game, there's a level based on that segment that ends with Bart and Lisa killing Snorky by dropping him in an aquarium tank with a jellyfish.
  • Star Fox: A retroactive example due to Star Fox 2 taking until 2017 to be released. In the original continuity, Andross escapes from receiving punishment despite Star Fox itself thwarting his plans. In the first rebooted continuity, Andross dies at least twice and stays dead in Adventures.
  • One of the perks of the Super Robot Wars series is that if there is an anime villain that became a Karma Houdini in their origin game, chances are you will be able to have a Hot-Blooded Humongous Mecha pilot swing the hammer of justice without fail onto these villains. Haruki Kusakabe is one of the most common examples of this.
  • Inverted in the 2012 reboot of Twisted Metal: while Calypso gets killed, arrested, Dragged Off to Hell, or punished in some other way in several of the endings of the previous games in the series, here he comes out unscathed while all three of the game's protagonists are killed by their wishes. The game ends on a Sequel Hook where Needles Kane/Sweet Tooth's son Marcus vows to take revenge on Calypso for killing his father, but this ultimately went nowhere.

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SNL's It's a Wonderful Life

Played for laughs on SNL. The sketch starts with William Shatner claiming to have found the lost ending of the movie, which has Billy remember giving the money to Potter. George then leads everyone to confront Potter where they all beat the old miser to a bloody pulp.

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SNL's It's a Wonderful Life

Played for laughs on SNL. The sketch starts with William Shatner claiming to have found the lost ending of the movie, which has Billy remember giving the money to Potter. George then leads everyone to confront Potter where they all beat the old miser to a bloody pulp.

How well does it match the trope?

4.93 (14 votes)

Example of:

Main / AdaptationalKarma

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