A Hell of a Time: Difference between revisions

{{quote|''"Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company."''|'''[[Mark Twain]]'''}}

 

 

Often combined with the [[Ironic Hell]] (if a particularly [[Jerkass]] character dies, then Hell for them may well involve being showered with love and [[Tastes Like Diabetes|pretty pink ponies]]), or Lord [[Satan]] [[Pity the Kidnapper|just not wanting the badass hero]] to screw things up for them. Sometimes, it can be that Hell is only a nice place to the evil - the merely "not quite good" still suffer for all eternity. Of course, if [[Satan Is Good]], all bets are off - [[Hell]] may even be a ''nicer'' place than Heaven.

 

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* In ''[[Paradise Lost]]'', the capital of Hell (Pandemonium) is portrayed as a somewhat glorious place - far more beautiful than anywhere on earth, but rather small for countless of millions of gigantic fallen angels. Thankfully they can change their size at will.

* In [[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s ''[[Job A Comedy Of Justice|Job: A Comedy of Justice]]'', God created Hell to be a bad place, but then Satan took over and turned it relatively nice. It's notable that the story features a [[God Is Evil]] plot that is itself subverted by revealing that God and Satan "take turns" playing the Good and Evil deity role and they're merely junior members of a vast [[Celestial Bureaucracy]].

* 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.

== Radio ==

 

 

== Theater ==

* In ''Happy But Dead'', Colin, Gear and Tito all die, and Colin and Gear go to Hell (Tito goes to Heaven because "[[Dumb Is Good]]"). However, Gear and Colin soon discover that Hell isn't so bad. It's actually just like their home on Earth, except they now have healthcare and there are free hotubs (technically lava pits) everywhere.

* In ''[[Achewood]]'', everyone drives a 1982 Subaru Brat, there's a KFC, a Best Western where Robert Johnson performs (and the wallpaper mocks you), and a Friendly's that contains [[Inn Between the Worlds|the secret to escaping]]. If you try calling your still-living loved ones on a payphone, your side of the conversation is secretly replaced with a random telemarketer's pitch. The [[Alt Text]] sums it up nicely: "Hell is kind of a weird place".

* In ''[[Something Positive]]'', Hell is an eternal ferret rave. The chains and fire and brimstone for wicked souls are there too, but still... ''ferret rave''!

** Additionally, Hell turns out to be where Pepito and Avogadro are reunited. True hell for Pepito, although Avogadro apparently is a thorn in the side of the local administration by complaining that there isn't ''enough'' torture.

* One ''[[Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal]]'' strip featured a man being presented with a banana split by a giant demon. When the man comments that it doesn't have enough whipped topping, the demon shouts, "That's because you're in Hell!" The comment notes that because demons are mostly fallen angels, they're not very good at torturing people. And then, as SMBC does, it goes [http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=301 one step further.]

* In ''[[Slightly Damned]]'', punishment in Hell ranges from "tortured to death on a daily basis" to "absolutely nothing at all". As the title implies, we don't see much of the former, though the latter could be considered a punishment by [[Cool and Unusual Punishment|boredom that comes close to sensory deprivation]] as The Ring of Slightly Damned features: small [[Overly Long Gag|brown]] rocks, big [[Overly Long Gag|brown]] rocks, huge [[Overly Long Gag|brown]] boulders, [[Overly Long Gag|brown]] plains, [[Overly Long Gag|brown]] mountains and [[Overly Long Gag|brown]] cliffs as far as an eye can see. Understandably, the number of inhabitants is one-digit.

* 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.

 

{{reflist}}