"Everybody Laughs" Ending



"Robin: Well, I guess this whole experience proves it really is bad to watch too much TV. Starfire: But, truthfully, we only prevailed because Beast Boy watches too much television. Raven: So... there really isn't a lesson here? Cyborg: Yep! It was all completely meaningless. (Everybody laughs. Then the Titans stop laughing and look mildly disturbed as the Laugh Track continues playing.)"

- Teen Titans

An Everybody Laughs Ending is exactly what the name suggests: an episode (usually from a Saturday-morning cartoon, though live-action comedy episodes have also been known to do this) that ends with all the main protagonists laughing, either at one last lame joke the writers squeezed in, at the expense of the Plucky Comic Relief character, or as part of the defeated villain's Humiliation Conga. This may be intended to let the viewer know that whatever problem the episode focused on has been vanquished and everything is fine and just as it should be. Often follows the characters learning an Anvilicious Aesop or And Knowing Is Half the Battle. The return of a Brick Joke from the start of the episode is a common way of setting this up. Especially satisfying if the characters plant their fists on their hips and throw back her heads, Boisterous Bruiser-style.

This trope is so common (especially in episodic or vignette-driven stories) that it doesn't always come at the literal end of a work. It might instead come at the end of a sequence, particularly as a way of letting an audience know that a particular segment is over. In any case, it's been rapidly becoming a Discredited Trope since at least the mid-nineties, and is rarely played straight anymore.

A dark subversion often occurs with villains, especially those of the Faux Affably Evil variety. Someone (either one of the more outspoken good guys or a tactless Mook) will say something that offends the Big Bad. After an agonizing pause, the villain will unexpectedly start to laugh, encouraging everyone else to laugh along. After some painfully forced laughter, the villain will suddenly stop chortling and mete out Disproportionate Retribution on the one who insulted him, up to and including outright murder. (These are covered more specifically under Laugh with Me and Ha Ha Ha No.)

Compare Oh, Cisco, in which the episode ends on one last short joke right after a commercial interruption (Like Stephen Colbert ending his show with one last quick quip seconds after the last commercial) and may or may not include an Everybody Laughs Ending. In works aimed at children or very far on the idealistic end of the spectrum, you might also see a Yeah! Shot.

Advertising

 * This is how the various ads of Miller Lite's "Man Up" campaign tend to end, with on one occasion even the Butt Monkey laughing too.

Anime and Manga

 * Detective Conan. Just because they all witnessed a gruesome murder yet again, that never seems to stop the entire cast, including the convicted murderer from having a good group chortle now and then.
 * About 75% of the episodes of Digimon (at least the first two seasons) end this way. Season 1 was particularly bad about it.
 * Kirby Right Back At Ya has a lot of episodes that end this way as well.
 * Quite common in Super Robot episodes
 * Done twice in JoJo's Bizarre Adventure after the gang defeats Wheel of Fortune. First when it's revealed the true nature of the Stand user (a man with beefy arms, but pathetic everywhere else in his body), and then when they see the true form of the car Wheel of Fortune had taken over (a beat-up old bucket).
 * Sonic X has a few episodes that end with this.
 * Sailor Moon has a tendency to end this way. Often, Usagi gets angry at for some trivial reason—quarreling with Rei, Chibiusa, or Mamo-chan, because you only get mad at those you love—and the rest of the sailor senshi laugh at their antics.

Comic Books

 * Dell/Gold Key, the 1940s-1980s producer of licensed comic books featuring the Disney, Looney Tunes, Walter Lantz, and MGM cartoon characters, used this ending incessantly in the 1950s and 1960s, particularly in hundreds of stories written by Carl Fallberg and/or Vic Lockman. Many Gold Key writers also worked on TV cartoons and sitcoms, suggesting a direct influence.
 * Fallberg also pioneered a cliched story formula in which a straight-man hero and a craven, gluttonous, eccentric sidekick investigated low-level mysteries. This type of story—used with Andy Panda/Charlie Chicken, Porky Pig/Sylvester, and Mickey Mouse/Goofy most often—constantly ended with everyone laughing at the sidekick's latest caper.
 * Divide the typical Fallberg sidekick into Scooby AND Shaggy, and it becomes obvious how this trope took the path that it did.
 * Batman: The Killing Joke ends with Batman and The Joker laughing together in the rain. It's unsettling, and definitely not the way this trope is normally played.
 * Joker again in an issue of The Batman Adventures guest-starring a real-life comic book artist. Outraged at how he is portrayed in the comic books, Joker has his gang kidnap the artist and forces him to illustrate his adventures the way he wishes them to be depicted. Joker plans for the final issue of the miniseries to feature a humiliating death for Batman on a miniature golf course - but Batman escapes, rescues the kidnapped artist, and then knocks Joker into a mock rocket ship with an actual flaming tail, causing Joker's pants to get burned off his buttocks, and so the last panel of the in-story comic ends with Joker dunking his Goofy Print Underwear in a bucket of water. Later, as Bruce Wayne, Batman donates all of the comic books to the inmates at Arkham Asylum, and all of the inmates except Joker close out the issue by laughing uproariously at Joker's ignominious defeat - while Joker himself tears his hair and screams: "That is not funny!"
 * The Simpsons Comics parodies this in one issue; Chief Wiggum, who thinks he's in a 70's cops sitcom, does one of these with fellow cops Lou and Eddie. The credits begin to "roll," (as much as credits can roll in a comic, anyway...) and everyone is still laughing, although in a freeze-frame state. We then see things outside of Chief Wiggum's delusional state. He alone is "frozen," and standing still in a laughing position while the other cops are staring at him. Lou explains that the credits are rolling to Eddie.

Films -- Animation

 * Ratatoing, the famously terrible Ratatouille ripoff. They're laughing at yet another example of that one guy's Catch Phrase, no funnier than it was the first time.
 * Lady and the Tramp ends with all the dogs laughing at Trusty's inability to remember what Old Reliable used to say (including Trusty himself).
 * The Brave Little Toaster: "Ah, you're all a bunch o' junk."
 * Beauty and the Beast: "Do I still have to sleep in the cupboard?"

Films -- Live Action
"Tom Servo: Hey, Dr. Forrester's gone! Crow T. Robot: Awright, now we'll never get back to Earth! (all laugh for a second, then stop) Mike Nelson: Hey, wait a minute..."
 * Played straight, yet effectively in It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World. Everybody is battered and broken and have had the worst day ever (especially the police guy) but when the mother-in-law that everyone hates slips and injures herself, they can still muster up the humor to laugh at her.
 * Dutch ends this way.
 * Subverted in Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie, when Dr. Forrester accidentally teleports himself into a Metalunan's shower:


 * Played completely straight in, of all things, the 1999 film adaptation of Oscar Wilde's An Ideal Husband.
 * Hilariously parodied in a scene of Wet Hot American Summer, ending several characters' subplot, but it's long before the movie ends.
 * Batman Returns: Two examples (both brutal subversions).
 * It happens roughly in the middle of the movie, but it still counts. A group of public-relations people are advising the Penguin on the sort of image he needs to cultivate to run for Mayor of Gotham City. The Penguin looks noticeably uncomfortable as the advisors stick an FDR-style cigarette holder in his mouth (he promptly spits it out) and try to tug some gloves onto his flipper-like hands. Then one of the advisors quips: "Not a lot of reflective surfaces down in that sewer, huh?" The Penguin, who actually has been living in a sewer for most of his life after having been abandoned by his parents when he was a baby, snickers self-deprecatingly, prompting everyone else to nervously laugh as well. Soon Penguin's laughter mounts to maniacal proportions, and he pauses only long enough to make a quip of his own: "Still, it could be worse. My nose could be gushing blood!" The others, thinking this is just a joke as well, continue to laugh even harder - until Penguin shocks everyone by sinking his fang-like teeth into the nose of the man who insulted him, spraying blood all over the room!
 * An earlier and even less funny example occurs when Max Shreck discovers that Selina Kyle has been snooping around his office and has uncovered his plot to siphon electricity from homes and businesses around Gotham City and sell the power back to them at below market price. Seemingly angry, Max orders Selina not to tell anyone about this and then backs her toward a window, accusing her of trying to thwart his attempts to establish a family legacy for himself and his son. Selina is apologetic all the way until Max actually pins her against the window and appears to be on the verge of hitting her - or worse. She turns defiant, calls him a bully, and snaps: "It's not like you can just kill me!" But Max is one of the most admired figures in Gotham City, while Selina is a nobody, and he points this out to her; of course he can do whatever he wants to her. Selina whimpers until Max (seemingly) reveals that it was all an act, and he chuckles at Selina's expense. Too relieved to be embarrassed, Selina starts to awkwardly laugh as well, mentioning: "For a second, you really frightened me" - just before Max turns on her in a rage and shoves her through the window, sending her falling several stories to what he is sure will be her death.
 * Parodied in the first Austin Powers movie: Dr. Evil makes a maniacal boast, he and all of his minions laugh wickedly....and then they embarrassingly peter out as they realize that the director has not yet cut to the next scene.
 * The penultimate sequence of the Adam Sandler comedy Big Daddy features Sonny Koufax and all of his friends laughing at Sonny's bitchy ex-girlfriend, who betrayed Sonny only to wind up with a boyfriend who is a hamburger-flipping schlub while Sonny has become a reasonably successful lawyer. (Technically, the laughter is directed at the burger-flipping boyfriend rather than the ex, but it's clear from her reaction that she feels humiliated.)
 * Lampshaded in the live-action adaptation of George of the Jungle: one of the villain's Mooks trips and falls face-first in a pile of elephant dung, prompting a minor character to point this out as a "classic staple of physical comedy"; he then instructs everyone to "throw back their heads and laugh," which they do.
 * A bittersweet version can be seen in The Wild Bunch.
 * Used darkly in another Sam Peckinpah movie, Cross of Iron. It ends with Corporal Steiner laughing at his commander's incompetence in combat as the Red Army swarms the Wermacht's positions. His laugh is played over the credits, which are pictures of atrocities during the 20th Century.

Literature

 * At the climax of Witold Gombrowicz's novel Trans-Atlantyk everything indicates that multiple murders are about to follow: a son will kill his father, the father will kill his son and the Knights of the Spur have just arrived, ready to bring on any amount of gore. However, the view of the aforementioned son, Ignac, dancing has mesmerized everyone to such a great extent, that when he breaks into laughter instead of hitting the parent, that laugh gets infectious, and ultimately disarms everybody present, making them fall about in convulsions and defecate uncontrollably, thus neutralizing any of the would-be murders.
 * Book 7 of the Sword of Truth series, of all things, ends this way, after Jenssen remarks that Richard must know a lot about magic. Everyone except Jenssen and Richard, who mutters that it's not that funny...
 * The Color Purple

Live Action TV
"Scotty I gave them to the Klingons...where they'll be no tribble at all!"
 * Every episode of Police Squad! ends with Drebin and Hocker cracking a joke about the criminal they just sent to prison, followed by a mock-freeze frame: the actors stand still, but the camera keeps rolling and various background events keep occurring.
 * Star Trek: The Original Series had the Everybody Laughs Except Spock Ending, which was homaged in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Bound" where Everybody Laughs Except T'Pol.


 * This stretched the suspension of disbelief at some points, as you'd have laughter endings when several people had died.
 * In "The Ultimate Computer", that would be several hundred Federation crewmen.
 * Also happened in TNG when Geordi and Ro get cloaked; it ends with Geordi cracking a rubbish joke and fake laughing with the fade out.
 * Also, at the end of "The Outrageous Okona", Data manages to make the crew laugh with one unexpected joke, he then thinks he's on a run and ruins it by telling countless other lame jokes.
 * In one episode of TOS ("The Galileo Seven"), they carry it on Narmfully long, even seeming to wind down and then start up again as if the characters suddenly realized the fade-out was taking too long and they needed to keep it up for a while longer. The lengthy stretch of obviously forced laughter at the end was painful.
 * The Australian Affectionate Parody of '70s cop shows Funky Squad always ended in this, with conspicuously fake "spontaneous laughter".
 * Mocked remorselessly in Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, a spoof of 80's TV. The episodes tend to end with all the cast laughing... and laughing... and laughing.
 * Nearly every episode of Murder, She Wrote ended this way, no matter how grisly and gratuitous the murder featured in that particular episode, as Jessica reveled in successfully pinning her crimes on someone else yet again.
 * It seemed to depend on how sympathetic the murderer was. If they had a tragic backstory and a selfless motive, the episode usually ended with Jessica shaking her head sadly.
 * Parodied in Strangers with Candy where they would frequently all end the episode laughing hysterically after giving a Family-Unfriendly Aesop, "I didn't have to join the debate team to get attention from my family, I just had to starve myself to the brink of death! Ahahaha!" or by having one character stare at them bemused.
 * Mystery Science Theater 3000: Parodied—and taken to the extreme—during the end credits of Devil Fish, with the trio attempting to laugh nonstop through the credits in response to the hero's cheesy end-movie joke.
 * Played straight in the ending of the Doctor Who serial "The Time Monster".
 * Buffy the Vampire Slayer - at the end of the early episode "I Robot, You Jane", Buffy and Xander console Willow over her falling for the wrong guy (a malevolent demon) - they remind her of their own romantic disasters and how none of them are ever going to have a normal, happy relationship. Xander chirps "We're all doomed!", everyone laughs...then stops laughing as that sinks in.
 * Blake's 7 sometimes has these endings even when it's terribly inappropriate. Perhaps the most noticeable one is in "Children of Auron" when Avon cracks a lame joke and everyone laughs after
 * Season three of Merlin has Merlin and Gaius eating a meal and laughing at the end of almost every episode.
 * Parodied to the point of becoming Nightmare Fuel, in a clip from the famous eighties Terry Wogan animated series, Wo-Gann!, shown on How TV Ruined Your Life. Awful joke, cue a Boisterous Laugh from Wo-Gann... which just goes on, and on and on, until it becomes disturbing.
 * One of the more notorious features of Israel’s first sitcom, Krovim Krovim. This feature, among others, were parodied thoroughly on the now over talk show Erev Adir in a series of skits, each ending with one character, usually a guest, asking, ‘Oh, so now we’re all supposed to laugh, right?’ and another saying, ‘That’s true!’ followed by everyone laughing.
 * Many Glen A. Larson productions use this, almost as Once an Episode endings: Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, Knight Rider, Automan, Manimal have used (suffered?) this trope.
 * Young Blades: The ending of "Four Musketeers and a Baby," after the Musketeers find out that
 * Often done at the end of sketches on The Muppet Show, particularly if the guest had been the butt of jokes during the sketch, to show that it was all in fun.
 * The first few seasons of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers end with bulk and skull getting humiliated, and all the teens laughing

Radio

 * If you live in Malaysia, you'll still hear this a lot on radio commercials even to this day. Some of the laughs even sound forced and creepy, and ventures into Nightmare Fuel territory!

Theater

 * Older Than Radio: Verdi's Falstaff.
 * Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit ends with a particularly unsettling example following the central revelation of the play.

Video Games
"Pit: We did it! We really did it! Palutena: Congratulations! I know it wasn't always easy. Pit: Aw, but it was so worth it! With the world at peace again, even the sun feels warmer! Palutena: Aw, you're so cute, Pit! Both: Ahahahahahahahah!"
 * The ending of Ratchet and Clank
 * The ending of Star Trek Voyager Elite Force.
 * The ending of The Wand of Gamelon.
 * Subverted in Final Fantasy VI. After the party finds the escaped Espers and brings them back to Thamasa, the story appears to be headed towards a happy ending, with everyone on scene laughing about Locke and Celes' reconciliation. But then we hear a familiar laugh ring out and in walks Kefka, who
 * Many scenes in the Kingdom Hearts series end with the camera moving upwards and a painfully extended laugh by all present.
 * Kid Icarus: Uprising this at the end of Chapter 9, after Pit defeats Medusa.

Web Animation

 * The web cartoon The Mr. Gear and Clippy Show lampshaded this at the conclusion of the "Return of Dr. Disc" arc, where after all the loose ends are tied up, everyone starts laughing for no apparent reason. One of the characters asks "Why are we laughing?" before the scene moves to the closing credit screen.
 * The web animation Bonus Stage ends this way.
 * This MythBusters parody from Awkward Zombie.
 * Done a few times on Homestar Runner. The Strong Bad E-mail "ISP" parodied this by having Strong Bad's laughter reach maniacal, mildly disturbing levels before the cartoon cut back to the GIF Strong Bad was trying to download earlier in the cartoon.

Web Comics

 * Parodied in The Non-Adventures of Wonderella here.
 * Exterminatus Now plays it straight before brutally subverting it.
 * Happens in a guest strip of Gastrophobia here.
 * Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal does one here (with a dark twist, of course).
 * Played more-or-less straight in the NSFW Dreamwalk Journal spinoff Nightshade the Merry Widow. At the end of a scene where our heroines join a group of students who are learning about the (ahem) ins and outs of their planet's erotic, symbiotic predation (It Makes Sense in Context, trust me), they laugh about how much of a seeing-to the "victim" is getting.

Web Original
"And now we're going to just keep talking like this so that they can roll away. You know, we're just chuckling. (Everyone laughs.)"
 * Parodied by Tobuscus in the first episode of Tobuscus Animated Adventures. Toby and Gabe go to Dead Island thanks to a hilarious misunderstanding and get attacked by zombies. Gabe helps Toby fight off the zombies, then makes an absolutely atrocious pun. Both laugh uproariously... and then Toby, who was bitten earlier, attacks Gabe. The end.
 * Lampshaded and invoked by J Pickens at the end of the second episode of A Very Brady Aftershow, a web video series supplementing the 2019 HGTV series A Very Brady Renovation, as he sits with the actors who portrayed the Brady kids in The Brady Bunch:

Western Animation
"Spongebob: [to Gary] Looks like training is gonna start early, ladies. I called you a lady to humiliate and demean you. It's a motivational tool we coaches use. [Elsewhere in Bikini Bottom] Sandy: Hmm. I don't know why, but I think I'll kick SpongeBob's butt tomorrow. [At the episode's end] Sandy: [Kicks SpongeBob in the rear at the end of "The Great Snail Race"] That's for yesterday, SquarePants!"
 * Many Saturday morning cartoons from the 1960s all the way up to the 1980s ended like this. One of the more famous examples comes from Scooby-Doo, in which most episodes ended with the title character shouting his own name ("Scooby-dooby-Doo!") and the rest of the cast laughing about it.
 * Played with in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, when they finally end an episode this way, but the whole gang comes together for a a Vincent Price styled Everybody Laughs Maniacally Ending.
 * Monster Buster Club plays this trope completely straight and utterly whores it to death. You'd be hard-pressed to find an episode that doesn't feature this.
 * Teen Titans, in general, was not too bad an offender, but the page quote comes from "Episode 257-494" (season four, episode one) parodies this: In addition to the above quote, if you pay close attention you'll notice everyone starts laughing but the Titans almost immediately stop and look somewhat worried while the Laugh Track continues for about an extra second.
 * Parodied on most episodes of Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law; generally whatever they're laughing at is very morbid, interrupted by something horrible, or at someone's expense.
 * A good example from one episode has everybody in Harvey's office laughing, interrupted by Scrappy-Doo showing up, only to be carried off by Avenger, presumably to be eaten. Then they all laugh even harder.
 * The Magic School Bus normally played this straight. However, it was lightly spoofed in the bat episode. At the end, Ms. Frizzle and Ralphie burst out laughing over his ending joke while Ralphie's mother looks back and forth between them with a deadpan expression.
 * Space Ghost Coast to Coast used this in the episode "Curling Flower Space". At the end of Space Ghost's retelling of the last episodes events, everyone laughs twice and Hanna-Barbera ending music is used during both laughs.
 * Lampshaded, of course, on The Simpsons. In "So It's Come To This: A Simpsons Clip Show", Homer awakens from a coma thinking it's still April Fools' Day. Bart tells him that it's actually been a couple of months since then, and he's lost 10% of his brain. This turns out to be another April Fool's joke, and the entire family laughs. Homer plays along by responding with "me lose brain? Uh oh!" Everyone laughs again, until Homer interrupts them by earnestly asking "Why I laugh?" The rest of the family stops laughing and looks very concerned, and the episode ends right there.
 * Parodied at the end of the episode where Sideshow Bob attempts to romance (and kill) Selma by opening a gas line: Bart closes by saying "Now let's get out of this gas-filled hallway before we all suffocate." Everyone laughs, presumably from the effects of the gas leak.
 * Parodied in "Last Exit to Springfield", where the main characters are gathered in a dentist's office and laugh very loudly at a mildly amusing joke, then it is revealed that the doctor left the laughing gas on.
 * Parodied in one of the Halloween episodes, where, after destroying an evil wig, Chief Wiggum quips "Now THAT'S what I call a bad hair day!" Everyone cracks up except for Marge, who points out that Apu and Moe are dead...but drops her protest when she gets the joke, and joins in the laughter.
 * Used also in the Wiggum P.I. segment of the episode "The Simpsons Spinoff Showcase", ending in a 70's freeze frame of Wiggum, Skinner, and Ralph laughing at Skinner's One-Liner, capped with a wacky brass coda.
 * In "Homer's Enemy", everyone laughs at Grimes' funeral. Yes, even Reverend Lovejoy!
 * Parodied in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V," which ends with every character featured on the episode laughing one after another, even characters with no reason to laugh, such as Manray and the Dirty Bubble, who are in prison, even though the only "joke" was that Barnacle Boy couldn't finish his Krabby Patty.
 * Subverted in a much later episode, "Spongicus". SpongeBob, Patrick, Krabs, and Squidward begin laughing as the music cue signals the end of the episode, but the scene continues. One by one, the characters get bored, stop laughing, and walk away.
 * And then the sea lion from before roars. Then the episode ends abruptly.
 * Also parodied in "The Great Snail Race" in with the laughter is broken by an unexpected, angry attack from the sky care of Sandy, because Spongebob made a sexist comment the day before.


 * The Nickelodeon show Back at the Barnyard lampshades this on one particular episode, as one the characters points out the cue on WHEN to laugh after the joke.
 * In the Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil episode "The Special Fathers vs The Vampire Altar Boys," there is an awful pun in the dialogue that plays over the end credits. All the characters laugh at it, and the last line that can be heard is the guy who made the pun saying, "It's like the ending of a Scooby Doo episode."
 * Dungeons and Dragons spent a lot of endings mocking Eric.
 * A fairly common ending for stories on the Playhouse Disney classic PB and J Otter.
 * Parodied in the Freakazoid! episode "Virtual Freak", where Freakazoid suggests they end the episode like this, when he's just trying to get out of accompanying Steff on a trip to the mall.
 * The PBS Kids show Dragon Tales. Excessively. Of course, "everyone" in this case generally means Emmy and Max (and Enrique in the third season), as stories from this show almost always end with these characters returning home.
 * 6teen has this almost every episode.
 * Most every episode of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe ends with Orko doing something stupid and everybody laughing at him.
 * A bunch of episodes of The Beatles ended this way, sometimes without resolving the plot.
 * It's hard to find a Thundercats episode without this.
 * Parodied on Batman the Brave And The Bold, when an episode ends with Woozy and Plastic Man laughing while Batman remains stoic, Iris Out...then it irises back in as they continue laughing, and Batman walks away.
 * Several episodes of the animated The Adventures of Tintin ended like this, such as Red Rackham's Treasure.
 * Parodied many, many times in Family Guy, usually by having a satirical Show Within a Show play it straight, or sometimes just plain parodied using the characters themselves.
 * Downright Deconstructed in one episode.
 * Not overused in Code Lyoko, but still a few episodes end with the kids laughing (often at Sissi or Odd's expense), especially in the first season.
 * South Park:
 * "Chickenpox" ended this way when the boys were at the hospital and their parents got herpes. They all laugh about it, and then Kenny dies. After a brief pause, everyone starts laughing again.
 * Played completely straight - almost - in the Halloween Episode in which Father Maxi tried to stop the townspeople from celebrating Halloween (which he thought was an un-Christian holiday) by conjuring up "pirate-ghosts" to terrorize them. The plot is eventually foiled and Father Maxi is arrested, but then "Niblet" (an obnoxious, bee-like sidekick creature) plays a prank on everyone, tricking them into thinking the pirate-ghosts have returned. Once the characters catch on to the prank, one of them teasingly scolds: "Niblet!" and everyone has a good chortle. (However, it's a bit of a subversion when you remember that the pirate-ghosts actually did kill some people, and they were nothing to laugh about.)
 * Superfriends
 * 1973/74 episodes.
 * "The Power Pirate". After Wonder Dog blows out a light bulb (?), the others laugh at him.
 * "The Weather Maker". After Wendy plays a prank on Marvin they have a good laugh.
 * "The Shamon U". Wonder Dog plays a prank on Marvin and all of the Superfriends have a good laugh.
 * "The Balloon People". Wonder Dog accidentally presses the balloon dog's air release button and everybody laughs at him.
 * There were just as many afterwards with the Superfriends laughing at stuff Gleek the monkey does at the end of episodes.
 * Likewise, most episodes of Jonny Quest TOS end with the gang laughing at Bandit. Examples: "The Robot Spy", "Pirates From Below", "Riddle of the Gold".
 * Adventures of the Galaxy Rangers ended one out of five episodes here...and another one out of five on the Bittersweet Ending.
 * The Jimmy Two-Shoes episode "Pet Rockey" ended this way, at Samy's expense.
 * 90% of all Care Bears: Adventures in Care-a-Lot episodes ended this way.
 * The Grand Finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender ended in a group laugh before the camera pulled away to seal it with a kiss.
 * Sabrina the Animated Series has Everybody Laughs credits. Whether this is supposed to be ironic is unclear.
 * Dexter's Laboratory has this in a fake advertisement for Justice Fruit Pies.
 * They also did "Mock Five", an episode parodying Speed Racer, which ended with this.
 * Clifford the Big Red Dog has this a LOT.
 * The first season of Beast Wars had several episodes that ended with this trope, playing it completely straight. However, when the more serious second season came along, the trope was completely dropped.
 * Parodied at the end of Dan Vs. "The Ninja." Ninja Dave pulls a katana on Dan, but then puts it away and says "Just kidding." The camera pulls out as he, and only he, laughs.
 * Some episodes of Danny Phantom ended at this way.
 * Parodied, along with many other tropes of Saturday morning cartoons, on Lantern Jaw, an animated segment on a British Saturday morning kids' show of The Nineties.
 * Once an Episode in Here Comes the Grump.
 * Some episodes of Adventures from the Book of Virtues ended this way.
 * My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic does this in quite a few episodes.
 * It doubled as a Brick Joke in one episode, which opened with Rainbow Dash trying unsuccessfully to get a royal guard to laugh. At the end, he joins in the laughter with everyone else.
 * The ending to the original My Little Pony special "Rescue at Midnight Castle" is this. Comes off as strange since the rest of the episode was quite dark for a cartoon based on a toy for girls.
 * A particularly disturbing example came up in "B.O.T.", an old episode of Transformers, which featured two boys dragging a girl to a fate likely hinted to be Nightmare Fuel, while all the Autobots, who don't notice, are just laughing away. Earned the title "Worst Episode Ever" on the TF Wiki.
 * Happens at the end of the Thomas the Tank Engine episode "Misty Island Rescue". "You'll be laughing on the other side of your boilers soon, silly steamies! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!!! Yessssss..."
 * The Space Ghost episode "Ruler of the Rock Robots". Space Ghost, Jan and Jace laugh at Blip for posing on one of the robots and wanting his picture taken.
 * The Marvel Super Heroes adaptation of Captain America (comics)'s resurrection ends with one of these, after Cap claims to have become "stiff" after fighting several gangsters himself, and Wasp tells him that he's "not near as stiff" as he was when The Avengers found him unconscious.
 * Beetlejuice had this happen gradually after the Ghost with the Most Puns gave Doomy windshield vipers.
 * Rugrats had babies and adults alike laughing at an Affectionate Parody of Rocky and Bullwinkle.
 * Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law always ends with an "Everybody Laughs" Ending. It's always completely inappropriate to the last scene revelation, and for some reason a bear shows up to laugh along.
 * Episodes of Dragon Booster pretty much always end this way.
 * Several episodes of Birdz.
 * Most episodes of Action League NOW.
 * A Betty Boop cartoon has this happen, because Betty accidentally releases laughing gas on the public.
 * Very frequently used on Dinosaucers.
 * You'd be hard-pressed to find a Rocket Robin Hood episode that didn't have this.

"Statler: Just when you think this show is terrible, something wonderful happens! Waldorf: What's that? Statler: It ends! Both: Do-ho-ho-ho-hoh!"