Kafka Komedy: Difference between revisions
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A story where no matter how well-meaning, reasonable and cautious a character is, everything he does has awful repercussions for him and makes him look like a horrible person. Attempts to set things right just blow up in his face and aggravate the situation further, and generally the story ends when things are at their worst. Often this all happens because the people around him are over-sensitive and stupid with a [[Hair-Trigger Temper]], but just as often it'll be thanks to plain old bad luck.
The afflicted characters are held to be entirely to blame for their own misfortune. Despite this, they are otherwise decent, nice and perfectly pleasant people who would be well-liked and respected... if they didn't have the misfortune to be living in a Kafka Komedy. Here, [[Can't Get Away
It doesn't help that in a lot of these comedies the people around the protagonist seem [[No Sympathy|incapable]] of feeling any kind of sympathy or empathy for them at all, despite how blindingly obvious it should be that this person isn't (entirely) responsible for the hideous chain of misfortunes crashing down around them, and would never be responsible for the horrible things they've been mistakenly accused of.
The trope is [[Trope Namer|named]] after [[
It's also worth noting that [[David Foster Wallace]] has written [https://web.archive.org/web/20120312171827/http://www.badgerinternet.com/~bobkat/kafka.html an in-depth essay on the subject of Kafka's humor.]
The subtrope of [[Black Comedy]] least likely to involve death. Contrast with [[Plague of Good Fortune]], where ''good'' things keep inexplicably happening to the character's chagrin, and [[Springtime for Hitler]], where a character deliberately does something bad but is met with greatness for it, or [[Karma Houdini]] where the villain gets off scot-free. May occasionally overlap with [[Somebody Doesn't Love Raymond]] and probably [[Butt Monkey]]. See also [[Can't Get Away
{{examples}}
== Anime & Manga ==
* Much of the comedy in ''[[Neon Genesis Evangelion]]'' is of this form, applied to Shinji: no matter how well-meaning or responsible he's being, the world will punish him for it, usually via Asuka or Gendou. The show seems to imply that it's somehow his own fault for being such an avoidant [[Extreme Doormat]].
* Ranma Saotome of ''[[
* ''[[Sayonara, Zetsubou
** One prime example could be when she, after Nozomu had ranted about how clumsy people got away with little to no consequences, helpingly(?) tried to teach [[Control Freak|Kitsu]] [[Ax Crazy|Chiri]] how to be a proper [[The Klutz|klutz]]. By the end of the day, Chiri had tipped a bucket full of acid in front of the passing by Nozomu, [[It Makes Sense in Context|cooked a man when mistaking salt and sugar]], gone overkill when she was supposed to burn the food and burned down the entire school instead, and [[Comedic Sociopathy|stabbed Nozomu with a knife, believing he was somebody else]].
* A theme in the anime ''[[Love Hina]]'' is that Keitaro, assumed by Naru and Motoko to be a lecherous pervert, is, in fact, simply catastrophically unlucky; if he trips, almost inevitably his hand [[Accidental Pervert|accidentally gropes a breast, pulls down clothing, or lands him on top of the nearest girl]]. If he enters the area of the hot springs, one or more girls are present, most often Naru. Should Keitaro give an innocent hug, they assume molestation. Despite his frantic protestations of innocence, these lead to their violent retribution, often in the form of a [[Megaton Punch]].
** The above is also an example of just how horribly, ''horribly'' socially ''broken'' the majority of these young women are. By the end of the series, they're not as broken, and it shows.
* ''[[
* ''[[Detroit Metal City]]''. The main character lives a double life as an aspiring pop musician (which he loves, but sucks at) and being the songwriter, lead guitarist and front man for a [[Death Metal]] band under a false name and identity (a role he hates, but is ''extremely'' good at). However much he wants to quit doing the latter, he is unable to do so because he's ''too'' good at being said [[Death Metal]] frontman. The metal persona also ends up surfacing at the most inopportune at times in his normal life as well.
* ''[[Nichijou]]''. [[Serial Escalation|So, so much]]. Yuuko may be the designated [[Butt Monkey]] but it's easier to count the characters who don't apocalyptically fail than those who do ''on a regular basis''.
== Film ==
* [[Buster Keaton]]'s 1922 two-reeler "[[Cops (
* In the film ''[[The Graduate]]'' the entire plot is a Kafka Komedy since any and all actions he makes are against authority figures but he never intends to do anything bad. He begins the movie loved by those around him and by the end of the movie he's despised by almost everyone who once liked him.
* In the Scorsese comedy ''[[After Hours]],'' the protagonist {{spoiler|already pursued by an angry mob that thinks he's a burglar,}} looks through a window and sees {{spoiler|someone get shot}}. "I'll probably get blamed for that," he says.
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* Practically all the jokes in films such as ''[[Father of the Bride]]'', ''Just Married'', ''[[Meet the Parents]]'' and ''Duplex'' are based on everything going wrong for the protagonists and ''schadenfreude''.
* ''[[Office Space]]'' and several other sources of office humor have been described as Kafkaesque.
* ''[[Brazil (
* ''[[The Machinist]]'' is pretty much one part
* The 1962 film of ''The Trial'' is, [[Word of God|according to director]] [[Orson Welles]], a literal example. He found it to be extremely funny, and considered it one of his best works.
* The beginning of the film ''[[Anger Management]]'' is a prime example of this; the more Adam tries to apologize for his mistakes the more everyone gets upset.
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== Literature ==
* The works of [[
* ''[[Fame (
== Live Action TV ==
* 30Rock inverts this trope with Tracy Jordan after earns respect from his peers for making a really artistic film but doesn't want it. He tries to act like a [[Jerkass]] in order to go back to being in comedy TV but everyone mistakes his awfulness for humility, clever artistic commentary, and bravery.
* The standard for this type of plot is ''[[Curb Your Enthusiasm]]'', in which everything Larry David does costs him money, destroys his aspirations and generally makes people revile him. While Larry is an awful person, he's often hated for his acts that are intended to be benevolent, like placing an obituary or indulging a little girl playing with her doll.
* The plot is also favored by ''[[Seinfeld]]'' and ''[[Frasier]]''.
* In ''[[Father Ted]]'', after Ted offends the Chinese community of Craggy Island, his attempts to prove to them that he is not a racist meet with increasingly more extravagant failure.
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* An entire character relationship is founded on this in ''[[Scrubs]]'', between JD and the psychotic janitor who takes everything JD says or does as a taunt or insult.
** For a period of time, it expanded to everything JD ''did''. Because JD is the show's [[Butt Monkey]], this is [[Played for Laughs]]. And when JD (justifiably) complains about how bad his life has become, the show treats him as a whiny loser who needs to learn how to stand on his own two feet.
* A recurring character played by Colin Mochrie on ''[[The Drew Carey Show]]'' took this to the extreme, as ''everything'' he said offended whoever he was talking
** IIRC, he even tried just being silent, and ended up having THAT taken as a terrible insult by his boss
** In one episode, he remained silent, everyone thought he was great, he even got promoted without speaking a word. However, upon promotion, he said "Thanks!" which was somehow taken the wrong way by Mr. Wick and he fired him.
* Every episode of ''[[The Worst Week of My Life]]'' is like this for [[The Chew Toy|hapless protagonist]] Howard Steel; he can't even get away with things that he ''didn't'' do because people [[No Sympathy|automatically assume the worst of him]], and his attempts to explain matters and clear the air only end up making things seem ''worse''. With some
* Josh from ''[[Drake and Josh]]''.
* Chris from ''[[Everybody Hates Chris]]''.
* Lister from ''[[
* ''[[Green Acres]]'' is often mentioned to have Kafka-esque elements. One of the most frequent plotlines has Oliver trying to improve life for the people of Hooterville, only to have it backfire at every single step until he is driven to near-insanity. The townspeople generally react with anything from hostility to lukewarm sympathy of the "gee, that's too bad" variety. Despite it all, Oliver never learns to stop doing this.
* Basil Fawlty, John Cleese's character in the British sitcom ''[[Fawlty Towers]]'', embodies this trope. Despite being generally rude and sarcastic, he comes across as an otherwise sympathetic character who is always scheming to get himself out of a minor jam but only succeeds in making it increasingly worse.
* It's common in ''[[
* This often happens to [[Fish Out of Water]] Lacey in ''[[
* Some of the plotlines in ''[[Extras]]''.
* Victor Meldrew of ''[[One Foot in
* ''[[
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== Theater ==
* ''[[Avenue Q]]'', which has been described as ''[[Sesame Street]]'' for adults, has to mention this: When Nicky, having humiliated his doting and closeted homosexual roommate, is forced to live on the streets, his former landlord, Gary Coleman, explains that he finds his situation funny, leading a song titled "[http://www.stlyrics.com/lyrics/avenueq/schadenfreude.htm Schadenfreude]."
** Also counts as [[Laser-Guided Karma]]. Nicky is a [[The Thing That Would Not Leave|sloppy, ungrateful house guest who's been passed around from friend to friend]]. He makes [[Ungrateful Bastard|absolutely no effort to support himself or cooperate with anyone he lives off of]]. He's actually gotten a lot of sympathy, namely because [[Lovable Rogue|he's so gosh darn lovable]]. He [[Heel Realization|eventually realizes what a pain he's been]] to his neurotic, but well-meaning roommate, and finally decides to do something nice for him.
* The play and subsequent film versions of ''Easy Virtue''.
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** Of course, both these episodes rely upon some pretty insane circumstances that sound silly to begin with. In the former, Homer is accused of grabbing the babysitter's butt, when in reality he was trying to retrieve a piece of candy that was stuck to her pants. In the latter, Bart accidentally ends up mooning the American flag during the national anthem (a goat ate his shorts and he was temporarily deaf so he didn't know the anthem was playing), leading people to think he hates America. Things get exacerbated when the family goes on a Fox News parody to explain their case and the loudmouthed host annoys Marge so much that she [[Sarcastic Confession|sarcastically says]] she hates America.
*** This also occurs in the season 8 Simpsons episode "Homer's Enemy" involving Frank Grimes: "the man who had to struggle for everything he got in life."
* An episode of ''[[The Fairly
** It gets better: He then wishes that [[Wonderful Life|he was never born]]... and ''everyone'' is better off from it. ''Everyone''.
*** And if you think that's something, apparently the lesson was, do good things of your own accord regardless if you get appreciated or not. Well that fine and all except, as mentioned above, ''no one'' was appreciative of Timmy's efforts before the wish and all the poor guy wanted was a simple thanks.
* ''[[Tom Goes to
* This seems to be Meg's only role on ''[[Family Guy]]'' to the point that [[Peanuts|Charlie Brown]] would have to feel pity for her.
** When most of the cast [[Comedic Sociopathy|feel a need for a reason to]] [[Butt Monkey|hate her anyway.]] Brian is also a victim to this trope at it's most extreme, constantly managing to get caught in the events of the story by inadvertently offending or provoking another (usually more obnoxious) being around him. A recurring gag in newer episodes involves him managing to inadvertantly offend [[Somebody Doesn't Love Raymond|Quagmire]] in particular (outside the one point [["The Reason You Suck" Speech|he expressed rather valid reasons]] [[Take That, Scrappy!|for resenting Brian]]).
* This also happens a lot in ''[[Duckman]]''. Granted, most of the misery that befalls Duckman is the result of his being an [[Jerkass|ignorant, self-righteous prick]], but even when he tries to do good he's still treated as if he [[Kick the Dog|kicked someone's dog]].
* Plankton and Squidward from ''[[
* Inverted on the new ''The Hub'' series ''[[Dan Vs.]]'', where the titular character thinks that everything that happens to him is the fault of some obscure thing, when in reality he's just a [[Jerkass]] ([[Weirdness Magnet|most of the time]]).
* The segments of ''[[
* One ''[[Pepper Ann]]'' episode had the title character stuck in a [[Groundhog Day Loop]] where [[Failure Is the Only Option|the only way to get out of it was to do everything wrong]].
* A [[Lighter and Softer]] example: the Cutie Mark Crusaders of ''[[My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
* [[Doug]] fell victim to this trope when he and the rest of his class were doing volunteer work at a local nursing home. He tried to be nice to the lady he was working with, Mrs. Whackhammer, but she chewed him out on his first day there. The next day, at his mother's suggestion, he brought her milk and oatmeal cookies. She ended up chewing him out again. As it turned out, she couldn't have dairy and oatmeal made her queasy.
* Dib from ''[[Invader Zim]]'' is like a magnet for these stories, since he's basically the only person on Earth with no [[Weirdness Censor]]. Frequently falls victim to [[Selective Enforcement]], [[Cassandra Truth]], [[Properly Paranoid]], and [[You Have to Believe Me]]. His dad thinks he's crazy, his sister doesn't but still hates him, and he's frequently made a fool of in front of [[Agent Mulder|the few people who would believe him]].
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