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{{trope}}
{{quote|''Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you walk into an open sewer and die.''
|''[[Mel Brooks]]''}}
Come on, admit it. [[Seen It a Million Times|We've all seen it.]] Some [[Butt Monkey|hapless loser]] or [[Mooks|faceless redshirt]] bites it in a [[Cut His Heart Out
Many an [[Omnicidal Maniac]] who [[Crosses the Line Twice]] benefits from this trope. So does the [[Affably Evil]] or [[Faux Affably Evil]] villain if they make the audience appreciate the killings they do.
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In [[Real Life]], this can be a coping strategy for those close to death and/or the dying.
Often a form of [[Black Comedy]] or [[Dead Baby Comedy]] and a [[Sister Trope]] to [[Gallows Humor]]. Usually played as a [[Refuge in Audacity]]. [[They Killed Kenny]] is a subtrope of this if it's [[Played for Laughs]]. Compare [[Black Comedy Rape]].
{{deathtrope}}
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== Anime and Manga ==
* ''[[Bludgeoning Angel
* ''[[Angel Beats
== Film ==
* One of the most well-known examples is from ''[[Pulp Fiction]]'':
{{quote|
* ''[[Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (
* ''Head Office'' kills off two characters within 20 minutes. The first one is [[Rick Moranis]]'s character, who dies of a heart attack after his blood pressure went too high from stress. The other one is Danny DeVito's character, who jumps to his death from the building into the fountain.
* ''[[Weekend
* ''[[Tropic Thunder]]'' is violent and runs on [[Refuge in Audacity]]. So much that the only death on the movie is this: Damien has just finished giving a [[Rousing Speech]], and then gets blown to bits by a landmine.
* ''[[Final Destination]]'' movies can be interpreted as rather dark comedies.
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* Running Theme in ''[[Tucker and Dale Versus Evil]]''. With just about ''every single character who dies.''
* ''[[Mystery Team]]''. "Someone stole that man's face." Rather unusual in that the characters usually react very seriously to death otherwise (although the line "Two dead bodies, that's my limit!" certainly qualifies as a joke).
* [[Clue (
* In ''[[The Mummy
{{quote|
'''Shafek''': You are sure?
'''Jonathan''': Yes, of course I'm sure.
[a pygmy runs past and stabs Shafek. Jonathan screams]
'''Jonathan''': Sorry. My mistake. }}
== Literature ==
* ''[[The
** [[Sudden Downer Ending|Unaverted?]]
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* In the ''[[Friends]]'' episode "The One Where Heckles Dies", there is a bit of this. Mr. Heckles dies rapping a broom on the ceiling in an attempt to get the friends in the apartment above him to quieten down.
* Monica Mancuso from ''[[Las Vegas]]'' flies off the roof of the casino when a gust of wind catches the "winged-style" dress she was wearing. She flies around for about five minutes before crashing into a shoe store ''more than a mile away''. Characters spend the episode debating [[Beyond the Impossible|the impossibility of it]], and buying shoes from the store.
* [[Red Dwarf
* Dean from ''[[Supernatural (TV series)|Supernatural]]'' gets a ''whole series'' of funny deaths because of a [[Groundhog Day Loop|Time Loop]].
* ''[[Dead Like Me]]'' features a lot of these.
* A [[Saved
* In ''[[The Vampire Diaries]]'', Elijah knocking off Trevor's head? Harsh, but hilarious. Elijah forcing Slater to stake himself? Awful, but hilarious. Elijah ripping out two people's hearts at THE SAME TIME? Evil, but epic.
* The sudden death (at her desk) of Don's ancient secretary Miss Blankenship on ''[[Mad Men]]'' (in episode 4.09, "The Beautiful Girls") is played for some of the most ridiculous laughs the series has ever seen from start of the subplot (the discovery that she's dead) to the [[Funny Background Event|shunting around of her body in a rolling chair]] to avoid being seen by the clients. The subplot ends, however, on a [[Heartwarming Moments
* ''[[
* ''[[
* Numerous times <ref>
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== Video Games ==
* ''[[Evil Dead|Evil Dead: Regeneration]]'' does this with [[The Chew Toy|Sam]], Ash's half deadite sidekick. He gets better each time, but he still doesn't like dying. Killing him is actually a gameplay mechanic as well as something Ash does in the cutscenes.
* Most [[Wide Open Sandbox|sand box]] crime games like ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' and ''[[Saints Row]]'' play off the deaths of [[Innocent Bystanders|whoever is on the street while you shoot them in the face]] this way, usually occurring elsewhere in the game's plot because of the less than serious tone much of the games have.
* People die so many times in ''[[Ghost Trick]]'' that even they can find their own deaths amusing if they're ludicrous enough. It helps that we know the deaths won't stick.
* ''[[Hyperdimension Neptunia]]'' has this following exchange:
{{quote|
'''Neptune''': ...Why're you telling me now? What's up with this?
'''Jade''': [[Too Dumb to Live|I... I'm into girls... like... Lady White Heart.]]
*grack*
'''IF''': ...And that's that. You finished him off.
'''Neptune''': Oops. Well, that was for ruining the moment. }}
** The crowner was that Compa [[Funny Moments (Sugar Wiki)|can heal his wounds, but cannot undo his death flag.]]
* In ''[[Videogames/Temple Run|Temple Run]]'', your deaths are often played for laughs. Whenever you die, you get a laconic text message. For example, when you die from falling into a pit, this message may be "I knew I should have learned how to fly" or "temple slippery when wet". These two messages have a double irony, since you can use "wings of resurrection" and since you can slide without problem over even the roughest surfaces.
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== Western Animation ==
* Played straight nearly constantly on ''[[South Park]]'', be it with Kenny or anyone who happens to get hit with the biggest [[Idiot Ball]] at the time.
* Happens to many, many, many [[Mooks]] on ''[[The Venture Brothers]]'', most often by the hand of utter [[Heroic Sociopath|badass]] [[Memetic Badass|Brock Samson]].
* [[Total Drama|Those poor interns.]]
* Some episodes of the French comedy shortcom ''Avez-Vous Déjà Vu ?...'' (''Have You Already Seen...'') definitely fall under this trope. An example involves three houses that play a game to see how far they can spit their inhabitants out. One of them launches a guy through the chimney, who then lands right onto the road. The poor dude is run over by a bus, after which the house happily says "Yay, a bus ! That's 1000 points !".
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[[Category:Death Tropes]]
[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]
[[Category:
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