Trope Finder

open

Surprisingly Cynical Moment

Alice and Bob live in a Sugar Bowl of happiness and healing. The sun is always shining, there's never a bad word, all the villains can be reformed, and with effort, hope and friendship can overcome all. Bob says life is just fine!

Alice stops smiling and turns to the camera. Life's not fine at all, she intones. There's several wars going on with no end in sight, powered by a tribalistic human desire to cause suffering to the other tribe. Political divisions are at an all-time high because greedy Mega Corps drive extremist viewpoints for profit. Your ability to focus has been shattered by consumable, forgettable pop culture. And for the kids in the audience, Growing Up Sucks. You're going to watch your parents die when you get old. Kids are going to bully you just because. You're going to be stuck working a job you hate just to keep a roof over your head, wishing desperately to be anywhere else as your dreams of being an astronaut or a movie start disappear completely. And even if you somehow find happiness, you're probably going to get cancer and die out of the blue someday.

Bob is sobbing. Suddenly, Alice is all smiles. She's just kidding! Back to your regularly scheduled happiness!

TL;DR: A really cynical moment in an otherwise very lighthearted work, especially one that goes against the show's themes — Humans Are Bastards in a work where the only bad guys were simply trying to save their family, how no one will miss you when you're dead in a work that emphasises The Power of Friendship, romantic love always being doomed to fail in a work that preaches being kind.

Examples include the Spongebob joke about "life on the outside" being no different from prison or The Powerpuff Girls episode where they move to a crime-ridden Urban Hellscape where everything they do either hurts someone or invites vicious mockery from asshole kids.

Related: Black Comedy Burst, Author Tract, Out-of-Character Moment, Hard Truth Aesop, Parental Bonus, Deconstruction