Laughing Mad/Playing With
Basic Trope: A character breaks down laughing in a time of crisis or tragedy.
- Straight: Bob is told that Alice is dead and breaks down laughing.
- Exaggerated: Bob is told that Alice is dead, and he begins to cackle maniacally. Cut to him being led into a padded cell in a straitjacket, still laughing uncontrollably.
- Downplayed: Bob's first reaction is to break down in Inelegant Blubbering, but snatches of hysterical laughter break through.
- Justified: Bob's been though enough that the last straw just makes him laugh at how much the universe seems to hate him.
- Inverted: Bob breaks down crying after Alice accepts his marriage proposal.
- Subverted: Bob's friend enters the room at the sound of wild laughter, worried that Bob's gone off his rocker, but realises there are tears streaming down his face.
- Double Subverted: ...but Bob never stops laughing, and it doesn't take long before Charlie's fears for his sanity return.
- Parodied: Bob handles Alice's death with dignified stoicism... and then he breaks his pencil, and starts laughing maniacally.
- Deconstructed: Bob's Freak-Out disturbs the people around him - his friends leave and he loses his job. He's advised to seek psychiatric help to help him grieve properly, but he's too far gone to even take basic care of himself and ends up in an institution.
- Reconstructed: ???
- Zig Zagged: ???
- Averted: No one laughs during tragic or crisis moments.
- Enforced: What better Start of Darkness for a Monster Clown?
- Lampshaded: "Let me come to grips with my grief. AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!"
- Invoked: ???
- Defied: Bob starts giggling but suppresses it.
- Discussed: "Crap, run. He just heard Alice is dead. He'll probably try to turn us into a coat now."
- Conversed: ???
- Played For Laughs: Someone asks Bob what's so funny, and doesn't quite get that Alice's death isn't a joke to him. Awkwardness ensues.
- Played For Drama: Emotional strain overwhelms Bob's antimanic medication and the euphoric surge of a breakthrough episode of mania causes Bob to laugh madly as his rational mind crumbles. It's time to go back to the asylum...
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