Cerebus Syndrome/Playing With

Basic Trope: A comedic work suddenly opts for more dramatic, Darker and Edgier route.

Straight: As plot progresses, there are less and less of jokes, while odds and tension escalate.
Exaggerated: The Happy Bunny Fluffy Show starts with the titular animals punishing Mr. Evilguy in a Sugar Bowl. After a commercial break, he starts a genocide and launches nukes all over the world, starting World War III. The resulting nuclear holocaust and winter awake an Eldritch Abomination who causes the sun to turn into a black hole, killing everyone by destroying the Earth.
Justified: The creator planned a shift in tone from the very beginning.
Inverted: Reverse Cerebus Syndrome
Subverted: The plot looks like it's going to become more serious. It becomes Crazy Awesome instead.
Double Subverted: ...and then, it gets so much worse Crazy Awesome methods lose their efficency.
Parodied: Armed conflict erupts - but instead of drama, the tone switches to Black Comedy.
Deconstructed:
- Author understands that comedic characters won't instantly turn into Badasses. They have a hard time adapting to new conditions.
- The medium-aware characters don't like the dark, angsty changes to their world and their characters, so they fight to return their world to bright and happy place it was.
Reconstructed: Some of them, however, waited for this moment their entire lives - and jump straight into action.
Zig Zagged: Cerebus Rollercoaster
Averted: The work never gets more dramatic, opting for Surreal Humor instead.
Enforced:
- Author is running out of good jokes, yet he has accumulated some good dramatic plotlines.
- Fandom wants work to be Darker and Edgier. Now.
Lampshaded: "Is it me, or did our universe became much more serious overnight?"
Invoked:
- "Joking around is all well and good, but I like it more the way it is now. Adventure! Conflict! High drama!"
- A villain who is a Knight of Cerebus comes in at the start of the second half and makes things darker.
Defied: "Oh no. No. No-no-no-no-no. Even if it's war, i'm not gonna stop joking, no sir."
Discussed:"Remember when our lives were fun? When we had nothing but frivolity to worry about?" "Yeah. I miss those days, I really do."
Conversed: "Didn't this webcomic use to be silly?"

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