YMMV / Buffy the Vampire Slayer S3E20 "The Prom"

• Anti-Climax Boss: The hellhounds don't seem as vicious as Giles described when Buffy makes short work of them.
• Cry for the Devil: Tucker Wells summons a bunch of demons to attack the high school senior prom. Buffy, determined to allow her friends one unspoiled moment in high school, corners him and angrily demands to know why someone would want to destroy "the happiest night of the year". The culprit sneers that he has his reasons — and we're treated to a brief flashback of him asking a girl to go to the prom with him, only for the girl to flatly reject him. This is played entirely for laughs.
  • The scene can easily be read as a parody of many scenes earlier in the series that were legitimately this trope (like the poor kid in "Lie to Me") - we're set up to expect some deeply scarring, tragic scene, and what we get is fifteen seconds of, "Hey, want to go to the prom with me?" "Nope."

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