A Hell of a Time: Difference between revisions

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* ''[[Little Nicky]]'', in the end, two pseudo-Satanists die in a plane crash and are shown in Hell, partying. "They have never been happier."

* ''[[Bedazzled]]'', the remake, where Hell seems to be a non-stop nightclub. Slightly subverted in that it's implied that eventually it gets really, really boring.

* Although [[Bill and Teds Bogus Journey]] mostly features [[Ironic Hell~~|Ironic Hells~~]] tailored to the characters, a deleted scene would have added some aspects of this; before catching Satan's attention, the duo would have been forced by a demon to break rocks with hammers. Bill discovers he actually really enjoys doing so.

* Although [[Bill and Teds Bogus Journey]] mostly features [[Ironic Hell]]s tailored to the characters, a deleted scene would have added some aspects of this; before catching Satan's attention, the duo would have been forced by a demon to break rocks with hammers. Bill discovers he actually really enjoys doing so.

== Literature ==

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* The ''[[Discworld]]'' book ''[[Discworld/Eric|Eric]]'' features the Disc's version of Hell and the description of how it used to be before the book's [[Big Bad]] took charge doesn't sound that bad - people did get [[Cold-Blooded Torture|tortured]], but since they didn't have physical bodies this wasn't a problem and the demons were quite friendly. But the new management has switched to ''psychological'' torture by [[Cool and Unusual Punishment|boring the souls of the damned out of their minds]].

* In the novel ''Waiting On The Galactic Bus'' by Parke Godwin, Heaven and Hell (or "Topside" and "Downstairs" as the characters refer to it) are pretty much the same, shaped only by the minds of the souls ("post-life energy") who inhabit it. Also, people tend to end up in the version they expect to. In the sequel, ''The Snake Oil Wars'' Topside is run by one of the two immortal alien brothers accidentally responsible for human evolution, and Downstairs is turned over to Jesus (Yeshua) and Judas (Yes, ''that'' Judas).

* The Hell in the novels of Edward Lee is one of the "only a nice place to the evil" sorts. The Mephistopolis, as they call it, is a big [[Dystopia~~|Dystopian~~]] city with a government and economic classes. A Satanist, Nazi, mass murderer, fallen angel, tyrant, serial rapist, etc. has a much better chance of getting into Hell's privileged upper class than a suicide or a drug dealer.

* The Hell in the novels of Edward Lee is one of the "only a nice place to the evil" sorts. The Mephistopolis, as they call it, is a big [[Dystopia]]n city with a government and economic classes. A Satanist, Nazi, mass murderer, fallen angel, tyrant, serial rapist, etc. has a much better chance of getting into Hell's privileged upper class than a suicide or a drug dealer.

* In Ted Chiang's short story "Hell is the Absence of God" Hell is exactly like Earth except God is absent. His absence is immediately noticable because God's angels frequently make random appearances on Earth that are accompanied by destructive weather patterns. The only people this bothers are the really religious, who fear eternal separation from their Lord if they fail to love him enough.

* The Afro-American folktale character Stagger Lee aka Stag O' Lee, [[I Have Many Names|you get the idea]] is a living [[Memetic Badass]] [[God Mode Sue]] that makes Chuck Norris seem ho-hum even on his ''best'' day as he simply decides as a child not to be a slave in Pre-Civil War America and [[Walking the Earth|walks the earth,]] carrying only a deck of cards (to win money,) a guitar (to seduce WHITE women) and a gun (to kill men, especially White men) as he literally gets away with murder, marries his victim's wife, can't be killed by hanging and shoots at the Grim Reaper to live into the 20th Century, forcing God to step in and smite him with a bolt of lightning. Stag's response: go up to [[Fluffy Cloud Heaven]], break up God's card game, declares the place sucks (only White people and Uncle Toms) and deliberately goes to Hell where he [[Rule of Cool|turns it into a nightclub while the Devil is too scared/sad to do anything about it.]]

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* In the Interactive fiction game ''Perdition's Flames'', ever since the afterlife industry was deregulated, Hell had to compete, and now it's tough to tell the difference between the two. {{spoiler|The brief view we get of Heaven in the game has more fluffy clouds and angels and fewer run-down suburbs, but is actually just as soul-crushingly obnoxious and tedious as Hell. Thus, you win, not by getting into Heaven as first implied, but by arranging to go on an expedition to various other Heavens and Hells which will hopefully be more interesting and less comical.}}

* In ''[[The Elder Scrolls Four|The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion]]'', Daedra seem to be the resident equivalent of demons, therefore making the realms of Oblivion the equivalent of Hell. Sure, Dagon's plane isn't all that great, but, say, hanging around Sheogorath's realm of Oblivion is quite fun, making this a straight example. Somewhat.

* In ''[[Overlord]]: Raising Hell'', the Heaven's Peak Abyss is this for the women, as part of its being an [[Ironic Hell]] for Sir William and the men. As well, although the Mellow Hills Abyss is ''intended'' to be torture for the human peasants, since it's only an [[Ironic Hell]] for Melvin and his Halfings some of them see being chained to a wall forever in a [[Fire and Brimstone Hell]] as an improvement over toiling as your slaves for the rest of their ~~lives -- as~~ one puts it, "In the warm, a bit of a stretch, giant exploding halfling to watch. What more could a man want?"

* In ''[[Overlord]]: Raising Hell'', the Heaven's Peak Abyss is this for the women, as part of its being an [[Ironic Hell]] for Sir William and the men. As well, although the Mellow Hills Abyss is ''intended'' to be torture for the human peasants, since it's only an [[Ironic Hell]] for Melvin and his Halfings some of them see being chained to a wall forever in a [[Fire and Brimstone Hell]] as an improvement over toiling as your slaves for the rest of their lives—as one puts it, "In the warm, a bit of a stretch, giant exploding halfling to watch. What more could a man want?"

* [[Parappa the Rapper|UmJammer Lammy]]'s penultimate level takes place in a hell where there are frequent rock concerts. In the North American release, this was changed to an island, but that doesn't really explain the frequent electrocution of the audience.

* ''[[Guitar Hero]] 3'''s final stage has you {{spoiler|learning that your manager Lou is actually the devil in disguise, after you try to get out of your contract.}} He drags you to hell... Where you rock out a ridiculous concert with [[Sexy Devil|demon dancing girls]] on stage and in cages. You're doing so well he thinks you'll be able to get out of his arrangement, so he challenges you. [[Crowning Music of Awesome|To a heavy-metal version of Devil Went Down To Georgia]]. And it, is, ''awesome''.

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== Web Original ==

* This is a major part of the premise of ''[[Bartleby Tales]]''~~--God~~ went completely nuts, and almost everyone goes to Hell, so the Devil decided not to punish people who aren't really that bad. The part of Hell that most directly fits the trope is the second level, where people deprogram themselves from all the silly taboos they were taught in life. (We never see the first level, and the third and lower are for people who genuinely need to atone for something.)

* This is a major part of the premise of ''[[Bartleby Tales]]''—God went completely nuts, and almost everyone goes to Hell, so the Devil decided not to punish people who aren't really that bad. The part of Hell that most directly fits the trope is the second level, where people deprogram themselves from all the silly taboos they were taught in life. (We never see the first level, and the third and lower are for people who genuinely need to atone for something.)

* [[Sailor Moon Abridged]]: [[Token Evil Teammate|Mars]] dies at in the penultimate episode with the rest of the cast and winds up in hell. She is ''ecstatic'', though [[Too Kinky to Torture|knowing]] [[Combat Sadomasochist|her]], that's probably not a good sign.

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** This was lampshaded in the show itself. When Saddam Hussein proves to be too much of a hassle for Satan himself, what does he do? [[Cool and Unusual Punishment|Gets God to send him to Heaven]].

* On ''[[Jimmy Two-Shoes]]'', Miseryville is heavily implied to be Hell. It was even more blatant in the original pitch. Despite this, even though it's run by a man determined to make everyone miserable, it looks pretty tolerable. Probably because said man is [[Harmless Villain|incredibly incompetent]].

** It's also helped by the fact that the one character who is both genuinely interested in making people miserable ''and'' actually competent is '''at least''' as interested in making said incompetent man miserable as anyone ~~else -- and~~ the best way to do that is to make things enjoyable for everyone else. Such as the time she convinced him that he actually lived in Smilesville, where everyone was constantly happy... or tricked him into running a carnival by [[Accentuate the Negative|Accentuating The Negative]] to make it sound like something people would hate instead of enjoy.

** It's also helped by the fact that the one character who is both genuinely interested in making people miserable ''and'' actually competent is '''at least''' as interested in making said incompetent man miserable as anyone else—and the best way to do that is to make things enjoyable for everyone else. Such as the time she convinced him that he actually lived in Smilesville, where everyone was constantly happy... or tricked him into running a carnival by [[Accentuate the Negative|Accentuating The Negative]] to make it sound like something people would hate instead of enjoy.

* ''The Baskervilles'' takes place in 'Underworld: The Theme Park' and is run by a man who ''thinks'' he's the Devil. Both shows also are named after and star a character(s) who [[Too Spicy for Yog-Sothoth|are too upbeat to let Hell bring them down]].