If You Thought That Was Bad

Alice tells a sad story. Bob tells an even sadder story to cheer Alice up. If You Thought That Was Bad is the phrase people often use before they tell an even sadder story than the previous. Surprisingly, it usually cheers up the first person by making them realize their situation isn't that bad. Sometimes it makes things worse.

Compare It Got Worse for when things actually got worse.

"If you think that story about the child molester was bad, let me tell you about..."


 * Played with in Warhammer 40000, where it usually goes "If you think that was bad..." and the something worse is in fact about to attack.
 * Also used in the last story in Night on Earth. Several guys in a cab discuss how one of them has been laid off from his job, and then his wife divorced him. Then the cab driver tells them his even more depressing story, which makes them feel like the laid-off-and-divorced guy is just whining about nothing.
 * Turned into Peter's catch phrase in the South Park parody of Family Guy, where it's what he says to introduce all their Manatee Gags.
 * It was anyway.
 * Sue Sylvester from Glee says things like "You think this is hard? Try living with hepatitis! That's hard!" or "You think this is hard? Try being told by Baywatch that they want to go in another direction, that's hard!"
 * Supernatural: when Chuck is told that he's a prophet and understandably wigs out, Castiel just says "You should've seen Luke."