Tropes Media Browse Indexes Forums Videos Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Tools
Cut List New Edits Edit Reasons Launches Images List Crowner Activity Un-typed Pages Recent Page Type Changes Changelog
Tips
Creating New Redirects Cross Wicking Tips for Editing Text Formatting Rules Glossary Edit Reasons Handling Spoilers Word Cruft Administrivia FAQ
Tropes HQ
About Us Contact Us Advertise DMCA Notice Privacy Policy Report Bug
Go Ad-Free Changelog
  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Highlight Links
 

Follow TV Tropes

Following

Dramedy
aka: Tragicomedy

Go To

"That's a comedy without the laughs."
— Valerie Cherish, The Comeback

"Dramedy" is a neologism formed from a combination of the words Drama and Comedy to describe a genre of film and television, such as M*A*S*H, blurring genre lines to combine comedy and drama elements in a consistent fashion. Though this has become popular in recent times, these two genres have actually been combined for centuries, known as "Tragicomedy", making this Older Than They Think.

Dramedies sometimes make use of Magic Realism. Due to its nature, the genre is especially vulnerable to Mood Whiplash.

Note that a dramedy is not just "drama with some comedic elements" or "a comedy with some serious moments". It must contain about equal parts drama and comedy. Elements of comic relief can appear in all but the very darkest dramas, and most stories have at least some serious elements. Because of this, expect to see them get lumped in with the sitcoms come award season (this can actually serve as a litmus test for if a show is dramedy or straight drama—can you imagine it being nominated in the same award category as a sitcom?)

While many stories contain both comedy and drama, a true Dramedy must belong to the genre of Drama - defined by stories focusing on Character Development, intense emotions and inner conflict as the primary source of plot. Just because it’s dark, doesn’t mean it’s a drama. Sci-fi, action-adventure stories, superhero stories and Shōnen adventures rarely qualify as Drama. Even if the comedy and drama are equally balanced with each other, if both are clearly subservient to the adventure story, it is not a dramedy.

See also First Law of Tragicomedies.

Examples:

    open/close all folders 

    Anime & Manga 

    Comic Books 

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animation 

    Films — Live-Action 

    Literature 

    Live-Action TV 

    Music 
  • Dead Kennedys make angry songs about very dark and serious political topics, but they take the piss out of it at the same time.
  • System of a Down, possibly the only group that can fit in songs about mass genocide and Kombucha Mushroom People on the same album.

    Podcast 
  • Batman: The Audio Adventures: An equal-parts humorous, dramatic, and horrific take on the Batman mythos.
  • Frootch: Even though it talks about the misadventures of a stand-up comedian wannabe, comedic moments are overshadowed by key plot points being dramatic (especially on the second season).

    Theatre 

    Video Games 

  • Mother - There's a reason why the taglines include "No crying until the end" and "Strange. Funny. Heartrendering."
    • Mother 3 fits the bill here the most out of the trilogy.
  • The Oddworld series' overarching plot is about slavery, Human Resources, and voodoo, with the Big Bad Duumvirate consisting of Corrupt Corporate Executives that are played for horror and do things such as Dropping Abe in a meat grinder and torturing him to death with electricity in the bad endings of the first and second game respectively. However, the games also have a ton of Slapstick, Toilet Humour and Black Comedy in both cutscenes and gameplay and the many ways Abe can die range from comical to downright hilarious. The tone varies per game, though, as Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, though not without dark moments, has a mostly comical tone. Oddworld: Soulstorm on the other hand, goes all out with its dark tone.
  • Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse, compared the more laid-back and comedic franchise it's a part of, is the series' attempt at being a true balance between comedy and drama, with the game getting progressively darker and less silly as it goes along. As it was designed to be Grand Finale to Sam and Max's story that started in 1987, it's easy to see why this was done.
  • YIIK: A Post-Modern RPG contains humorous moments of the 1990s while having an intense plot involving the fate of a missing woman and the entire world.

    Visual Novels 

    Webcomics 

    Web Original 

    Western Animation 

Alternative Title(s): Comedy Drama, Tragicomedy

Previous

Index

Next

  • Show Spoilers
  • Night Vision
  • Sticky Header
  • Wide Load

Important Links

Ask The Tropers Trope Finder Media Finder Trope Launch Pad Tech Wishlist Reviews Go Ad Free!
Crucial Browsing
Resources
Top