Crapsack World/Western Animation: Difference between revisions

** With the deadliest diseases in the world. As any long-time fan of ''South Park'' knows, in the eponymous town, the more common diseases like the cold and flu don't exist. When a character gets sick, it's '''''always''''', and we ''do'' mean '''''always''''' with one of those terminal life-threatening diseases that land you in the hospital. Which raises the question of why everyone in South Park isn't dead by now and the town itself isn't going through the whole ''Life After People'' thing. (Though since Kenny never permanently dies, it'd be more like ''[[I Am Legend]]'')

*** A minor case of [[Fridge Brilliance]]? In the early seasons, going to Hell's Pass Hospital for a non-life threatening condition, e.g. for a [[Seinfeld|tonsillectomy or a hernia operation]] would indeed have killed you.

*** Trope-wise, the explanation you're looking for is [[Negative Continuity]].

** Even worse is how only Mormons go to Heaven and that no matter what anyone does in their life, they'll go to Hell for not being Mormon. Gandhi is in the same place as ''Hitler'', for crying out loud.

* Moralton in ''[[Moral Orel]]''. Originally this was played for laughs, but by Season Three it got downright depressing with just how horrible everything was.

* ''[[Monkey Dust]]'' seems to fit this perfectly.

** Perhaps Reverend Lovejoy was telling the truth when he told Marge that Homer's [[Refugee From TV Land|"gone to a better place"]].

** An in-universe edition of Time magazine featured a panoramic shot of Springfield on the cover, along with the headline, "America's Worst City".

** ''The Boys Of Bummer'' had a billboard reading "Meanest City In America". The slogan was proven in a most excruciating way that takes things to ''South Park'' extremes.

** Amongst the many books created as merchandise for the show is a booklet written as an in-universe tourist's guide to Springfield. There's more then a few hints of just what a horrific place to live in it is, but the climax has got to be the page on neccessary medical treatments. Basically, due to a combination of horrifically low levels of water sanitation, as well as an insane variety of indigenous diseases and abominably high levels of air pollution and ambient radiation, anyone who wants to even visit Springfield is highly recommended to undertake one of two precautions if they hope to survive the city's environment. The first is a months-long regime of about seventeen booster shots ''a day'' to build up resistance to the toxins. The seconds is wearing a full biohazardous environment suit, complete with radiation shielding and its own internal air-supply every single moment of your visit there. It even notes that, for non-natives, breathing the air in Springfield can take ''years'' off of the poor fool's lung functional lifespan.

** What about Joe? The only time he turned into a [[Jerkass]] was when he got new legs.

** What's even worse is that the show implies that Quahog isn't the only town in the series to be messed up. In the episode ''A Fish out of Water'', Lois decides to help make her daughter Meg feel better about not going on Spring Break by going to a town filled with Spring Break Fever, and the next morning has some kids stating that some teen who got into a party ended up falling out of the house and getting into a coma, and they actually think it is so cool, that they actually want to emulate him by doing the same.

** That's really more mocking the "woo woo" idiots who always turn up at Spring Break events than indicting the towns said events take place in.

** The original point was actually [[Lampshade|Lampshaded]] by [[Chew Toy|Meg]] in the latest season, her claiming that if anyone else saw her life with the Griffins, Peter would be in jail for a lifetime, Chris would be jobless, Lois would be without her husband, etc. Then we get her awesome [[Reason You Suck Speech]] ''subverted'' by her wanting to be the family's butt monkey since it "keeps them together".

** This is somewhat unintentional, as [[Word of God]] states that the world of Futurama was ment to basically ment to be now, except with more stuff. [[Fridge Horror|Does that mean our life]] [[Crap Saccharine World|is dystopian too?!]]

* Hill Valley in ''[[The Oblongs]]'', where the wealthy residents of the Hills [[Karma Houdini|never receive any comeuppance for their treatment of the Valley people]].

* The world of ''[[The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack]]'' is a grim, dystopian place plagued by violence, diseases, and jerks.

* The world in the 1960s USA/Czechoslovakian series ''Nudnik'' seemed to exist solely to torment the titular character.

* The world of ''[[Samurai Jack]]''. Basically Aku rules everything, and the only weapon that can stop him for sure is Jack's sword. If you're not a slave, chances are you're being terrorized by some two bit thug. It's been getting better since Jack showed up though.

** ''[[Batman Beyond]]'' is similar, only now [[Cyberpunk|the cars can fly]].

*** Earth in general in the [[DCAU]] can likely count.

* Dougal County in ''[[Squidbillies]]'' certainly qualifies.

* ''[[Divine Comedy|Dante's Inferno]]: An Animated Epic:'' Imagine an afterlife where very few people actually ascend to heaven, but most suffer in the nine circles of hell for the sins they committed in life. In hell, where mankind's sins have caused Lucifer to grow in power, not worshipping the Christian faith not only sends you to limbo for all eternity despite the good deeds you have done in life, even unbaptized babies must reside in the first circle through a fault not entirely their own (this was where Dante's stillborn malformed child was held). Then there's Dante's mother, who upon committing suicide, was sent to The Wood Of Suicide by Minos where she is turned into a fleshly tree growing in eternal pain. And of course there are the rest of the nine hells, like Gluttony, a wet fleshy realm where Cerberus (who looks nothing like a three headed dog mind you) swallows the gluttonous and condemns to a fate of everlasting hunger. This all isn't surprising since the animated short is based on the video game which itself is based on Dante's ''[[Divine Comedy]]''. Lucifer sums it up to Beatrice perfectly:

'''Lucifer:''' "No... you don't understand. The Earth is another form of Hell. And men are its demons." }}

* In the other [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0479008/ ''Dante's Inferno''], Hell is a huge urban landscape in total disarray. The punishments of the damned are more or less the same as the original, but the images (and the actual damned themselves) are updated so viewers will recognize them. [[Marilyn Monroe]] is among the suicides turned into trees, Limbo is a slum where Virgil and company are essentially bums, and identity thieves take on the appearance of whoever passes by. In this case, it's [[Black Comedy|played for laughs]].

* After the [[Generator Rex|Nanite Event]], the world got a lot nastier. Everyone is infected with [[Nanomachines]] that can go rogue and cause horrible mutations at any given moment. Imagine you're sitting on the bus, and out of nowhere, the guy sitting next to you screams in pain and turns into a rampaging monster that'd give H. R. Giger nightmares. Bad day to be you. Quite possibly an even worse day to be the guy who was sitting next to you. This happens around the world ''every day'', and only one person in the entire world ''might'' be able to turn the monster back into a normal person. And if he can't turn you back, you're either killed outright, or else "contained" indefinitely, by Providence, the morally-gray (at best) international consortium that more or less runs the post-Event world.

* ''[[Argai the Prophecy]]'': By 2075, Earth has become this.

* ''[[Courage the Cowardly Dog]]'' is full of [[Jerkass|jerkasses]], [[Too Dumb to Live|idiots]], [[Ax Crazy|psychopaths]], and [[Deliberate Nightmare Fuel]].

* For that matter, [[Powerpuff Girls|the City of Townsville]] also applies in terms of constant random giant monster attacks. More explicit crapsack worlds were portrayed in a [[Bad Future]] where Him took over, and the Townsville portrayed in [[The Movie]] before the Powerpuff Girls were created.

** There's also The Town of Citiesville from one episode whereas [[Reality Ensues]], criminals run amok unstopped and everyone else there is a complete [[Jerkass]] to everyone, and especially the Girls and the Professors, being considered freaks and the Girls' heroism aren't welcome there.

* The town in ''[[Beavis and Butthead]]''. The adults are either mean-spirited and ill-tempered or peaceful yet clueless, the kids are stupid and/or violent, and the whole town looks like the extension of a junkyard.

** Earth often isn't much better after the Transformers show up. Two armies of sentient [[Humongous Mecha]] that have been fighting for probably longer than the human race has ''existed'' have chosen our planet for their latest battleground. Oh, and for extra [[Paranoia Fuel]], those giant robots can disguise themselves as anything even vaguely mechanical, including ''[[Genius Loci|buildings]]''.

 

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