"Everybody Laughs" Ending: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''Robin:''' Well, I guess this whole experience proves it really ''is'' [[An Aesop|bad to watch]] [[TV Never Lies|too much TV]].

'''Starfire:''' But, truthfully, we only prevailed ''because'' [[Genre Savvy|Beast Boy]] [[Spoof Aesop|watches too much television]].

'''Cyborg:''' Yep! It was all completely meaningless.

 

An Everybody Laughs Ending is [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|exactly what the name suggests]]: an episode (usually from a [[Western Animation|Saturday-morning cartoon]], though [[Live Action TV|live-action]] [[Comedy Tropes|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 [[Status Quo Is God|everything is fine and just as it should be]]. Often follows the characters learning an [[Anvilicious]] [[An Aesop|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.

 

Compare [[Oh, Cisco]], in which the episode ends on one last short joke right after a commercial interruption (Like [[The Colbert Report|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]].

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{{examples|The following is a list of frequent (not necessarily ''constant'') offenders:}}

 

 

* 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.

 

 

* Dell/Gold Key, the 1940s-1980s producer of licensed comic books featuring the [[Classic Disney Shorts|Disney]], ''[[Looney Tunes]]'', [[Woody Woodpecker|Walter Lantz]], and [[Tom and Jerry|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.

* [[Lampshade Hanging|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]]''.

 

 

* 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...[[Made Myself Sad|then stops laughing as that sinks in]].

* Season three of ''[[Merlin (TV series)|Merlin]]'' has Merlin and Gaius eating a meal and laughing at the end of almost every episode.

* ''[[Young Blades]]'': The ending of "Four Musketeers and a Baby," after the Musketeers find out that {{spoiler|a woman [[The Casanova|D'Artagnan]] had been trying to track down because he thought she was the mother of his baby had become a nun after he passed out "like a useless turnip" before they could do the deed.}}

* 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.

 

== Radio ==

 

 

'''Both:''' Ahahahahahahahah!

{{spoiler|'''Hades:''' [[Wham! Line|Now wait just a second.]]}} }}

 

== 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 (web animation)|Bonus Stage]]'' ends this way.

* 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 [[Brick Joke|the GIF Strong Bad was trying to download earlier in the cartoon]].

 

* ''[[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]]'' does one [http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2527#comic 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 ==

* Parodied by ''[[Tobuscus]]'' in the first episode of [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfwXi5LgNms 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 [[Incredibly Lame Pun|absolutely atrocious pun]]. Both laugh uproariously... and then Toby, who was bitten earlier, [[And Then John Was a Zombie|attacks Gabe]]. The end.

 

 

== Western Animation ==

* ''[[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 (animation)|Teen Titans]]'', in general, was not too bad an offender, but the page quote comes from "[[Trapped in TV Land|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.

* ''[[Dungeons and Dragons (animation)|Dungeons and Dragons]]'' spent a ''lot'' of endings [[The Complainer Is Always Wrong|mocking Eric]].

* A fairly common ending for stories on the Playhouse Disney classic ''[[PB and J Otter]]''.

* 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.

* 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 (animation)|The Beatles]]'' ended this way, sometimes ''without resolving the plot.''

 

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'''Both:''' Do-ho-ho-ho-hoh! }}

 

[[Category:Laughter Tropes]]

[[Category:Index of Exact Trope Titles]]

[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]

[[Category:The Renaissance Age of Animation]]

[[Category:Ending Tropes]]