First Law of Tragicomedies: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

A "tragicomedy" (better known as a "dramedy") is a mix of lighter and darker material that uses humor to lighten the tension and drama as a way to show the audience that something serious is going on. This is a difficult balancing act to carry out, and only a few shows have ever done it successfully.

 

{{examples}}

== Cross-Genre ==

* Titles that have undergone [[Cerebus Syndrome]] fall under this trope, [[Cerebus Rollercoaster]] even more so.

* ''[[Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann]]'' veers sharply into drama after episode sixteen, presses that throttle down, and then abruptly releases it for the last three episodes... only to slam it back down for its ending. Viewers were sharply divided.

* [[Mahou Sensei Negima]] does a good job with this once the [[Cerebus Syndrome]] kicks in, with the heavily dramatic moments more or less balanced out by comedic moments.

* ''[[Chrono Crusade]]'' starts out as a fun action-adventure show with supernatural elements. Although there's hints of a darker tone from the start (the main characters are fighting demons, after all), the ending takes a stark turn for the dramatic after a climatic battle at a festival midway through the series. The manga keeps enough comedic moments in the series that it might be closer to [[Mood Whiplash]], but the [[Darker and Edgier|anime]] heads full throttle into deep, dark tragedy until it heads straight into an infamous [[Tear Jerker]] ending. In both versions, {{spoiler|[[The Hero Dies]]}} at the end of the series.

* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (manga)|Fullmetal Alchemist]]'' averts this by having silly moments amongst the dramatic ones; impressive in that the story of it is possibly darker than [[Fullmetal Alchemist (anime)|the 2003 anime version]], which played it straight with the last batch of episodes dropping the humor altogether.

* ''[[The Invisible Man (novel)|The Invisible Man]]'' starts out as a lighthearted comedy but takes a darker turn halfway through.

 

** One great example, and probably a turning point for the series in this regard, was the episode with Henry Blake's departure, which is filled with corny in-jokes about the guy and his history on the show right up until the [[Bus Crash|abrupt, heart-rending, soul-crushing last-minute surprise]].

** Parodied on one episode of ''[[Futurama]]'', where iHawk (a robot expy of Hawkeye) actually has a switch on his side that goes from "irreverent" to "maudlin".

* The first twenty or so minutes of any [[Scrubs]] episode will be hilarious; the rest will be depressing.

** Which kinda makes sense, considering the doctors are trying to avoid the unbearable soul-crushingly inevitable depression of their jobs by focusing on the lighter moments. Only when they ''have'' to confront the bad stuff do they actually lose their humor.

** "Urgo" is pretty much the same way (and when the climax ends, the humor comes back).

* Tyler Perry's ''House Of Payne'' has a tendency towards this which changes depending on which character is in the spotlight at the moment.

* Joss Whedon's raison d'etre: ''[[Buffy]]'' and ''[[Firefly]]'' contain frequent switches in tone between comedy and drama/tragedy frequently - some episodes will be extremely comedic in tone, some almost completely without humour and terribly bleak. Almost every episode of both shows will generally contain elements of both. Whedon particulary delights in cutting straight from comedy to tearjerkers and vice versa (for instance, in Firefly Mal tells Simon that Kaylee is dead. Cue slow-mo run to her bedside, accompanied by desolate strings on the soundtrack. Kaylee's fine. Mal's psychotic. Everyone splits their sides at Simon's expense). In Buffy, in keeping with the trope described on this page, the lighter subplots and snappy dialogue tends to fall away a lot as seasons near their climax.

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

* While ''[[Conkers Bad Fur Day]]'' is mostly a very funny game there are some grim moments breaking through the facade. While before this is mostly cruelty against minor characters, this falls back on Conker himself in the ending. {{spoiler|After all the time Conker was searching for his girlfriend, he finally finds her only to lose her, perhaps even twice: Not only does she seem quite aloof and not very happy to see him, she also dies at the end. Afterwards, he gets a chance to wish her back to life, but just momentarily forgets about her. In the end he is "King of all the lands", but ultimately without any of the happiness that his wealth should afford him. He gives an epic monologue on materialism ending with "The grass is always greener, and you don't really know what it is you have until it's gone...gone...gone...". At the end we see him in the Tavern again, alone and drinking, afterwards waggling off in an uncertain future}}.

 

== [[Web Original]] ==

* ''[[The Saga of Tuck]]'' also follows this to a T: when {{spoiler|Tuck is beaten and left near death [[Stuffed Into a Locker]], all the cracking wise grinds to a halt until he's out of the hospital}}. This annoyed a few fans who accused it of [[Cerebus Syndrome]].

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Probability Tropes]]

[[Category:Laws and Formulas]]