Tropescilloscope: Black Comedy

Serious and horrible things Played for Laughs. (read more at tvtropes.org)

More Tropes Faking the Dead Star-Crossed Lovers Chekhov's Skill Fiery Redhead Vomit Discretion Shot Becoming the Mask Dissonant Serenity Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism Wicked Cultured Fan Disservice Japanese Films Author Avatar Cool Shades Taking the Bullet British Films Title Drop Science Fiction Films Vampire Fiction Kids Are Cruel Rule of Symbolism Crapsack World Truth in Television Antagonist Title Broken Aesop Spiteful Spit Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane Funny Foreigner Groin Attack Unresolved Sexual Tension Artistic License – History Animated Credits Opening I Just Shot Marvin in the Face Horror Comedy Military and Warfare Films Screw the Money, I Have Rules! Improbable Aiming Skills The '60s Leaning on the Fourth Wall Deal with the Devil The Bully Badass Bookworm Cassandra Truth Your Cheating Heart Comically Missing the Point Christmas Movies Index Playing Gertrude Enemy Mine Only in It for the Money Informed Ability Artistic License – Military Be Careful What You Wish For In Name Only Award-Bait Song Retcon True Companions Lampshade Hanging Bi the Way Mythology Gag No Antagonist Anachronic Order Death of a Child Curse Cut Short Bond One-Liner The Brute Dull Surprise Disguised in Drag Music Stories Happily Married Killed Mid-Sentence Costume Porn Parental Abandonment Instant Death Bullet Rule of Three Bowdlerise Creepy Child Reckless Gun Usage Dogged Nice Guy As Long as It Sounds Foreign '80s Hair Badass Longcoat Gone Horribly Right Genre Throwback Nice Guy Pay Evil unto Evil Genre Shift Sadistic Choice Names to Run Away from Really Fast Unwitting Instigator of Doom The Dragon Big Bad Ironic Echo Shoot the Shaggy Dog Bald of Evil Exactly What It Says on the Tin Training Montage Those Two Bad Guys Hope Spot Advertised Extra Deliberately Monochrome Bare Your Midriff Early-Bird Cameo Woman Scorned Face–Heel Turn Never Found the Body A Date with Rosie Palms Combat Pragmatist Obviously Evil Smoking Is Cool Cold-Blooded Torture Deliberate Values Dissonance Film Noir Awesome, but Impractical Eureka Moment Man on Fire Conspicuous CG Setting Update Re-Cut Handicapped Badass Evil-Detecting Dog Genre Savvy timeperiod Plot Hole Beta Couple Chewing the Scenery Russian Films Jump Scare Did Not Get the Girl Hidden Depths Male Gaze This Is Gonna Suck Jerkass Has a Point Adaptational Badass Gratuitous English War Is Hell Nice Hat Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold The Lost Lenore Drill Sergeant Nasty Villain Protagonist Cowboy Cop I Did What I Had to Do Rousing Speech Karmic Death Freudian Excuse Silent Movie No Celebrities Were Harmed Bar Brawl Diabolus ex Machina Artistic License – Law Put on a Bus Mystery and Detective Films Fat Bastard Up to Eleven Badass Boast What You Are in the Dark Fish out of Water Villain Song Card-Carrying Villain Skewed Priorities Gorn Freeze-Frame Bonus Back from the Dead Mundane Made Awesome Interrupted Suicide Improbable Weapon User Creative Closing Credits Alliterative Name No Name Given Mood Whiplash Gold Digger Heterosexual Life-Partners Let's Get Dangerous! The Quiet One Not Even Bothering with the Accent The Stoner Fantastic Racism The Vamp Mad Scientist Film Series The X of Y Dies Wide Open Manic Pixie Dream Girl Jerk Jock The Smart Guy Based on a True Story No Good Deed Goes Unpunished Bilingual Bonus Parental Substitute Mugging the Monster Defrosting Ice Queen Pun aka: Incredibly Lame Pun The Cavalry Video Credits Left the Background Music On Double Entendre Novelization Demonic Possession Not What It Looks Like Due to the Dead The Hero Dies Black Dude Dies First Fanservice Rule of Cool Gory Discretion Shot German Films An Arm and a Leg Blatant Lies Ambiguous Ending Dutch Angle Brainless Beauty World of Ham How We Got Here Plucky Comic Relief Knight Templar Rich Bitch Getting Crap Past the Radar Manly Tears Laser-Guided Karma Epic Fail Author Appeal Sassy Black Woman Guns Akimbo Armor-Piercing Question Why Don't You Just Shoot Him? Eyepatch of Power Australian Movies Worthy Opponent Taking You with Me Every Car Is a Pinto Animal Title Index Motor Mouth Action Prologue Light Is Not Good Hollywood Darkness Broken Pedestal Developing Doomed Characters Animal Motifs Facial Horror Adapted Out Defiant to the End Attempted Rape Major Injury Underreaction Failed a Spot Check NO INDOOR VOICE Police Brutality Amoral Attorney Dirty Old Man Face Death with Dignity Only a Flesh Wound He Knows Too Much Alpha Bitch Bunny-Ears Lawyer Kill It with Fire Unreliable Narrator Even Evil Has Standards Romantic False Lead Logo Joke Ass Shove Beauty Is Never Tarnished Cat Fight Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass Empathic Environment Made of Iron Public Domain Feature Films For the Evulz Shut Up, Hannibal! Moment Killer Meaningful Echo Aside Glance Ripped from the Headlines Bond Villain Stupidity The Alcoholic Jitter Cam Disappeared Dad The Hero Adaptation Expansion You Have Got to Be Kidding Me! Time Skip Offscreen Teleportation Dirty Coward Composite Character Determinator aka: The Determinator The Starscream Authority Equals Asskicking Ambiguous Disorder Ghost Fiction Fun with Acronyms Villainous Breakdown It's Personal Hollywood Law Hypocrite Ambiguously Gay Children Are Innocent Aww, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other Unspoken Plan Guarantee What Happened to the Mouse? Market-Based Title Love Triangle The Sociopath Homage Big Bad Duumvirate Accidental Misnaming The Load You Have Outlived Your Usefulness Adaptational Attractiveness Spiritual Successor Get Out! Wrong Genre Savvy Your Head A-Splode I Need a Freaking Drink Batman Gambit Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping Unusually Uninteresting Sight Madness Mantra Bolivian Army Ending Leave the Camera Running Together in Death Documentary Adaptation Distillation The Reveal Auto Erotica Red Oni, Blue Oni Heel–Face Turn Red Herring Asshole Victim Fire-Forged Friends Humiliation Conga Blood from the Mouth Dwindling Party Improbable Infant Survival aka: Infant Immortality My God, What Have I Done? An Axe to Grind Suspiciously Similar Substitute Accidental Murder Married to the Job Green-Eyed Monster Dark Action Girl Serious Business Stepford Smiler Blood Knight Token Minority Redshirt Army The Smurfette Principle Mercy Kill Bittersweet Ending Actually Pretty Funny Overprotective Dad Bury Your Gays All Just a Dream Chekhov's Gunman Yandere Have a Gay Old Time Ominous Latin Chanting Pretty in Mink Crucified Hero Shot Distracted by the Sexy Scary Black Man Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep" In Medias Res Stylistic Suck Rasputinian Death Loophole Abuse Unusual Euphemism Chiaroscuro Boom, Headshot! Psychopathic Manchild Parental Incest Insane Troll Logic Cloudcuckoolander Random Events Plot Ax-Crazy As Himself Evil Is Hammy Catch-Phrase Red Shirt Idiot Ball Beard of Evil Destination Defenestration Bavarian Fire Drill Evil Is Petty Chekhov's Gun Butt-Monkey Once More, with Clarity! Ascended Extra Historical Villain Upgrade Corpsing Girl-on-Girl Is Hot "Awesome McCool" Name Naked People Are Funny Villain with Good Publicity Pretty Little Headshots Humans Are Bastards Noodle Incident Domestic Abuse Roger Ebert: Great Movies List Affably Evil Anti-Hero Determinator Slasher Movie Take That! Creator Cameo Sir Swears-a-Lot Foreshadowing Death Seeker Badass Normal Contrived Coincidence Guile Hero Cool Guns Half the Man He Used to Be Dirty Cop Cool Old Lady Storming the Castle Those Wacky Nazis N-Word Privileges I'm a Humanitarian Only One Name Historical Hero Upgrade Corrupt Corporate Executive Belligerent Sexual Tension Fate Worse than Death The Oner The Dog Bites Back Undying Loyalty For Want of a Nail Horror Doesn't Settle for Simple Tuesday Eiffel Tower Effect Tagline Extreme Doormat Artistic License – Biology Amusing Injuries Vitriolic Best Buds Darkest Hour Gilligan Cut Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil Big Applesauce French Films Bland-Name Product Fake Shemp Bloodier and Gorier Almost Kiss Drowning My Sorrows "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue Refuge in Audacity Spanner in the Works Disproportionate Retribution Pragmatic Adaptation Adorkable Chuck Cunningham Syndrome Double-Meaning Title Fanservice Extra Psychological Thriller Adaptation Dye-Job Adults Are Useless Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique Peek-a-Boo Corpse Continuity Nod Leitmotif Wounded Gazelle Gambit Cluster F-Bomb Sacrificial Lion Drives Like Crazy Pre-Asskicking One-Liner Hair-Trigger Temper Adaptation Name Change Grey and Gray Morality Malevolent Masked Men Disney Villain Death Bullying a Dragon Camera Abuse Action Girl 20 Minutes into the Future Say My Name Dumb Blonde Greater-Scope Villain Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds Shirtless Scene Reality Has No Subtitles Big Fancy House Really Gets Around Sir Not-Appearing-in-This-Trailer Anyone Can Die Mighty Whitey Fatal Flaw Faux Affably Evil Papa Wolf Works Set in World War II Alas, Poor Villain Maybe Ever After Race Against the Clock Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking Protagonist Title Chase Scene Biopic Stealth Hi/Bye Anachronism Stew The Mole Kill 'em All Sequel Escalation Arranged Marriage Cool Car Visual Pun Brutal Honesty Ship Tease Big Damn Heroes The Lancer Eagleland Serial Killer Hoist by His Own Petard Broken Bird Self-Deprecation Ungrateful Bastard Black and Gray Morality Air-Vent Passageway Would Hurt a Child Badass Grandpa BFG La Résistance Match Cut Imagine Spot Central Theme A Minor Kidroduction Wretched Hive The Ditz A.I. Is a Crapshoot Villain Ball Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy Suddenly SHOUTING! Big-Bad Ensemble The Cameo Never My Fault Betty and Veronica B-Movie She Cleans Up Nicely One Steve Limit Not So Above It All Dying Moment of Awesome The Place Canon Foreigner Brother–Sister Incest Love at First Sight Sports Stories Final Girl All There in the Manual Only Sane Man Deus ex Machina Affectionate Parody Action Genre Shell-Shocked Veteran Epic Movie Never Trust a Trailer aka: Trailers Always Lie Sequel Hook Black Comedy Bad Boss Death by Irony Brick Joke Ugly Guy, Hot Wife Hooker with a Heart of Gold Jerkass Villain Opening Scene The '90s Not Quite Dead Aluminum Christmas Trees Demoted to Extra The Chick Deconstruction Slashed Throat Age Lift Rewatch Bonus Fourth Date Marriage Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome Breaking the Fourth Wall Adult Fear Word of God Adaptational Villainy Credits Gag Frame-Up No-Holds-Barred Beatdown Room Full of Crazy Index of Film Westerns Expy Bring My Brown Pants Intergenerational Friendship Film Noir Index Big "NO!" Stuff Blowing Up Jerk with a Heart of Gold Sci-Fi Horror Good Is Not Nice Shown Their Work Country Matters Show Within a Show All for Nothing Victoria's Secret Compartment Flipping the Bird Loads and Loads of Characters The End... Or Is It? Italian Films O.O.C. Is Serious Business Police are Useless Product Placement Historical In-Joke She's Got Legs One-Word Title Knife Nut Silence Is Golden Historical-Domain Character Captain Obvious Well-Intentioned Extremist Woman in White As the Good Book Says... Fainting Reality Is Unrealistic Improvised Weapon Sexy Discretion Shot Outrun the Fireball A God Am I Honor Before Reason After the End Punch-Clock Villain Revenge Made of Explodium Obfuscating Stupidity Blonde, Brunette, Redhead It Will Never Catch On Darker and Edgier Eye Scream Line-of-Sight Name Does This Remind You of Anything? Our Zombies Are Different The Atoner Narrator Took a Level in Badass Bitch in Sheep's Clothing Race Lift Morality Pet Impaled with Extreme Prejudice My Beloved Smother Evil Sounds Deep Horror Films Pragmatic Villainy He Who Fights Monsters Stealth Pun The Alleged Car Drugs Are Bad Manchild May–December Romance Heel Realization Male Frontal Nudity Disney Death Soundtrack Dissonance Older Than They Look Soft Glass Black Comedy Rape Flashback The Musical Death Glare Grievous Bottley Harm The Big Guy Paper-Thin Disguise Real Life Writes the Plot Shower Scene All Men Are Perverts Department of Redundancy Department Hong Kong Films Take a Third Option The Remake Evil Counterpart Laughing Mad No Ending Real Life Retirony Pet the Dog Break the Haughty Oh, Crap! Driven to Suicide "The Reason You Suck" Speech Action Survivor Zombie Stories Immune to Bullets The Ghost Stock Footage Early Installment Weirdness Punny Name The Un-Favourite aka: The Un Favorite In the Back Parental Neglect Fatal Family Photo Meet Cute Evil vs. Evil I Have Your Wife No-Sell An Aesop Abusive Parents The Stinger Big Brother Instinct Earn Your Happy Ending Red Eyes, Take Warning Beware the Nice Ones "Well Done, Son!" Guy Vacation Films Insistent Terminology Dramedy Establishing Character Moment Translation Convention Annoying Younger Sibling Didn't Think This Through Off-into-the-Distance Ending Riddle for the Ages Evil Plan Whole Plot Reference Break the Cutie Non-Indicative Name Apocalypse How Death by Adaptation Kick the Son of a Bitch Artistic License – Physics Nice Job Fixing It, Villain! Politically Incorrect Villain Scare Chord Meaningful Background Event Red Right Hand Dressing as the Enemy Bad "Bad Acting" The Dreaded MacGuffin Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas Arch-Enemy It's All About Me Important Haircut Overly Long Gag The '70s Missing Mom Spell My Name with an "S" Does Not Like Shoes It Can Think Not So Different Rule of Funny Redemption Equals Death And Starring Hero Antagonist Dropped a Bridge on Him The Stoic Very Loosely Based on a True Story Never Trust a Trailer All Girls Want Bad Boys Babies Ever After Badass in a Nice Suit Retired Badass Mr. Fanservice Curb-Stomp Battle More Dakka Men Are the Expendable Gender Sole Survivor Hell Is That Noise Hero of Another Story The Un-Reveal Canadian Movies Mama Bear Tempting Fate Mind Screw Reality Ensues The Ace Intrepid Reporter Television Movie Index The '80s Irony Coming-of-Age Story Abhorrent Admirer Recycled IN SPACE! Heroes Want Redheads Our Vampires Are Different Pimped-Out Dress I Want My Beloved to Be Happy Femme Fatale Tranquil Fury Easily Forgiven Pyrrhic Victory Exact Words Lighter and Softer Downer Ending The Voiceless Pre-Mortem One-Liner The Mafia Mr. Exposition Neck Snap Four-Temperament Ensemble Daylight Horror Danny Peary Cult Movies List Covers Always Lie No OSHA Compliance Off with His Head! Cat Scare The Power of Love Adaptational Heroism You Killed My Father Big Eater Here We Go Again! Screw This, I'm Outta Here! Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! Smug Snake Daddy's Girl Fingore Thriller Psycho for Hire Better to Die than Be Killed Reasonable Authority Figure The '50s Anguished Declaration of Love Sanity Slippage Meaningful Name Bound and Gagged Rape as Drama Totally Radical What the Hell, Hero? Colour-Coded for Your Convenience aka: Color Coded For Your Convenience "Shaggy Dog" Story Anti-Villain Cruel and Unusual Death Slasher Smile Bloodless Carnage Dramatic Irony Cool Old Guy Throwing Your Sword Always Works Closed Circle Superhero As You Know And I Must Scream Blackmail Dark Reprise Wham Line Fantasy Films Gender Flip Rated M for Manly Screw the Rules, I Have Money! Implacable Man Obstructive Bureaucrat Deadpan Snarker Scenery Porn The Casanova All There in the Script Properly Paranoid Too Dumb to Live Running Gag Punctuated! For! Emphasis! The Film of the Book Spared by the Adaptation Sealed Evil in a Can The Great Depression Casting Gag Suspiciously Specific Denial Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene Dual Wielding Nothing Is Scarier Make It Look Like an Accident Evil Cannot Comprehend Good My Greatest Failure Bait-and-Switch Roaring Rampage of Revenge Twist Ending Heroic Sacrifice Insult Backfire Eldritch Abomination Foregone Conclusion Call-Back Kubrick Stare Karma Houdini Artistic License – Gun Safety Toilet Humour aka: Toilet Humor Toplessness from the Back Captain Ersatz Hate Sink Character Development Ragtag Bunch of Misfits Martial Arts Movie Tap on the Head Friend to All Children Not So Stoic Mooks Damsel in Distress Bottomless Magazines Scenery Gorn Foil Decoy Protagonist Poor Communication Kills Book-Ends Camp Gay And the Adventure Continues Dramatic Gun Cock Everyone Has Standards Famous Last Words Body Horror Those Two Guys You Have Failed Me Not Using the "Z" Word Only Known by Their Nickname Ms. Fanservice From Bad to Worse Recap / RiffTrax aka: Riff Trax Movies The Faceless Call-Forward Black Best Friend Monumental Damage Evil Laugh Arc Words Cain and Abel Dark Is Not Evil Car Fu Posthumous Character There Is No Kill Like Overkill The Bad Guy Wins Slap-Slap-Kiss Actor Allusion The Chessmaster Straight Gay Berserk Button Same Language Dub Gainax Ending Mistaken for Gay Expository Hairstyle Change Neck Lift Would Hit a Girl Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! Manipulative Bastard Dark and Troubled Past Even Evil Has Loved Ones folderlabel Mexican Standoff One-Man Army Super Strength Kick the Dog Heroic BSoD Wham Shot Extremely Short Timespan Small Name, Big Ego Large Ham Needs Wiki Magic Love Death by Sex Naïve Newcomer Why Did It Have to Be Snakes? Agony of the Feet Hypocritical Humor Trailers Always Spoil Shipper on Deck Bloody Hilarious Crazy Jealous Guy Artistic License – Geography Calling the Old Man Out Funny Background Event Sinister Minister Lock and Load Montage Catapult Nightmare Shout-Out Offscreen Moment of Awesome Henpecked Husband Vomit Indiscretion Shot Precision F-Strike Last-Name Basis Romantic Comedy Despair Event Horizon Depraved Bisexual From Nobody to Nightmare Stalker with a Crush Took a Level in Jerkass Crazy-Prepared Celebrity Paradox Five-Man Band A Father to His Men Evil Brit Framing Device