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* Many of [[Shakespeare]]'s plays do this.
** ''[[Othello]]'' starts as an apparent domestic comedy - a couple marrying despite the intentions of the bride's parents, a hopeless young suitor to said woman, and the dock/drinking scenes in Act 2 are all staples of comedy.
** ''[[The Winter's Tale
** ''[[Twelfth Night]]'' does this, too: Malvolio's treatment transforms from simple humiliation to something far less easy-going, as Feste takes an increasingly sadistic pleasure in his imprisonment (and 'treatments') as a supposed 'madman'. Malvolio ends the play planning his revenge on his peers.
** [[Macbeth|The Scottish Play]], Act II: Scene III Starts off with an [[Rule of Funny|amusingly]] drunk porter [[Large Ham|hamming it up]] while Macduff and Lennox knock to be let in, and ends with Macduff finding King Duncan's dead body, Lady Macbeth passing out "from shock," and the Crown Prince and his brother deciding to flee the country out of fear for their lives.
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** ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' actually starts off pretty light, despite the feud between the Montagues and the Capulets and the brief mention in the introduction about 'young lovers did take their life'. But then the previously comic Mercutio is mortally wounded, and dies cursing the two families, and Romeo ends up killing Tybalt and being exiled and ... well, [[It Was His Sled|you probably know what happens next]].
*** Mercutio's death scene itself is a narrower example of this trope. His fight with Tybalt initially appears to be an inconsequential skirmish, with both duelers walking away. The other characters on stage even berate Mercutio for his overdramatic (as ever) reaction to a seemingly minor injury. Half a minute later, the tragedy's [[Breakout Character]] is dead.
*** The best example of this is probably [[
** Going in the other direction: "Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall / And by the doom of death end woes and all" are the first two lines of Shakespeare's most hilarious comedy.
** [[Much Ado About Nothing|Benedick]]: [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|"Come, bid me do anything for thee."]] Beatrice: "Kill Claudio." It makes a little more sense if you read between the lines--according to Beatrice, she and Benedick had a thing before he dumped/cheated on/mistreated her, so she's mistrustful this time around--but the wrong delivery can cause this (and some nervous laughter) in an audience.
* The radio play ''All Is Calm'', being about the Christmas Truce of 1914 during [[World War
* In ''[[The King and I]]'', the King becomes closer than ever to Anna when he learns to dance with her. He is eagerly leading an encore of "Shall We Dance?" when Kralahome bursts in and announces the arrest of Tuptim. Anna's sympathies obviously lie with the fugitive, and so the King is "now miles away from her" (according to the stage direction). The confrontation that follows is the most serious part of the play.
* ''[[The Vagina Monologues]]'' consists of, well, [[Exactly What It Says
** "My Vagina was My Village" is [[Mood Whiplash]] within the monologue. The speaker switches between excitement and wonder to terror.
* ''[[The Wedding Singer]]'' musical goes from "A Note From Linda" (sad), to "Pop" (perky) and back to "Somebody Kill Me" (pretty self-explanatory).
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** In ''Iolanthe'', after nearly two hours of silliness, the title character suddenly delivers an incredibly intense, moving and completely non-comic song by way of appeal to {{spoiler|the Lord Chancellor}} - and to top that, when it doesn't work she prepares to {{spoiler|'''sacrifice her life'''}}, something often [[Played for Laughs]] in G&S but here played absolutely [[Played for Drama|straight]]. (Gilbert wrote it that way to give the comic actress playing Iolanthe a chance to show she could be [[Darker and Edgier|serious]] as well.) And ''then'' the whole thing is resolved by an utterly daft ending.
** The ten-minute finale of ''The Yeomen of the Guard'' lashes back and forth. The women's chorus happily heralds the bride, who sings that this is the happiest day of her life. Then her supposedly dead husband arrives to claim her. She begs him to relent; he refuses. Then it turns out he was just playing a joke on her, and everyone rejoices. ''Then'' the man she scorned enters in despair, delivering the only [[Downer Ending]] in G&S.
* ''[[Hair (theatre)]]'' is, at first, a fairly lighthearted musical. Then the second act happens. {{spoiler|Claude goes on a horrifying bad trip then, despite all the attempts of the tribe to save him, is sent off to fight in Vietnam and promptly killed}}. Then he starts singing [[Tear Jerker|The Flesh Failures/Let the Sunshine in]] and the audience is reduced to tears. Total [[Downer Ending]].
* The second act of ''[[Ragtime]]'' is rather tense, with Sarah dead and Coalhouse (and Younger Brother) planning violent revenge. Things are getting pretty strained for the family too... so Father decides to take the Little Boy to a baseball game. The wholly comedic number "What A Game!" (wherein Father talks about what a noble and genteel game baseball is, while [[Description Cut|continually interrupted by the spitting, swearing, and general rudeness of the other spectators]]) ensues. Then it goes right back to the tension. (The scene was a little out of place in the book as well, but wasn't quite so much [[Played for Laughs]] there.)
* The song Contact in ''[[Rent]]'' whips first from an uncomfortably frank look at the sex lives of the main characters (''harder faster wetter'') to a funny scene of unsatisfying sexual experiences all around as they stumble through trying to maintain safe sex practices without losing their rhythm and fail (''"I think I missed... don't get pissed"/ "It was bad for me, was it bad for you?"''). Then, when it has the audience giggling, it wrenches back around and gut-punches you with {{spoiler|Angel's death.}}
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* In the second act of ''[[Spring Awakening]]'', the show goes from the heartbreaking scenes of {{spoiler|Moritz's suicide and funeral}} to the fast-paced song, [[Spring Awakening/Awesome|"Totally F***ed"]], basically going from a scene of {{spoiler|depression and mourning}} to one big, energetic "eff you".
** The show is a big fan of this trope. For instance, Melchior is introduced with his signature song "All That's Known", a yearning, hopeful and elegant declaration from Melchior about how he is (of course) terribly sick of all these adults telling him to trust what's written and be quiet and subservient. The next song that immediately follows, from his sexually-frustrated, nervous wreck of a friend Moritz, is a song, ultimately, about how horny they all are. Melchior even joins in eventually, which makes it incredibly awesome and eye-opening about the overall themes of the musical.
* ''Snoopy! the Musical'' has the [[Peanuts
{{quote|
'''Charlie Brown:''' Just like that, Patty.
'''Peppermint Patty:''' Forget it. It'll never happen. }}
** [[Peanuts|The strip]] the song was based on obviously didn't have a song at all, just Charlie wanting to be called "poor sweet baby", so the punchline was a ''lot'' less abrupt.
* The ''[[Wicked (
* [[Miss Saigon]] has a beautifully subverted version, as we, the knowing audience, already know what's going to happen and are already saddened, whereas Kim, the title character, is blissfully ignorant. She's preparing to reunite with her lost love Chris, dressing in wedding gown, joyfully singing. She rushes to his hotel room. . .only to be greeted by Ellen, Chris' ''wife''. The devastation evident in Kim's entire ''body'' is staggering.
* ''[[Elisabeth]]'' features a very tender, moving love song between the titular heroine and her fiance, "Nichts ist schwer", that is abruptly and immediately followed by [[Ominous Pipe Organ]] and a choral piece predicting the singers' doom... at Elisabeth's ''[[Soundtrack Dissonace|wedding]]''.
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