Undignified Death: Difference between revisions
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[[Well, This Is Not That Trope|This trope is not about those people]].
This is a somewhat Subjective Trope in that, while we might find the way a person joined the Choir Invisible to be humorous and worth a laugh, to the person's family it is a tragedy. The bereaved naturally think you cruel and inhuman for laughing at such a tragedy. And it is a tragedy... someone has died, after all. But that doesn't stop it from being funny, when you think about it.
While it may be preferable to one, it sometimes overlaps with [[Cruel and Unusual Death]] when the death is not just
{{deathtrope}}
{{examples}}
==[[Anime]] and [[Manga]]==▼
* [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain| Dolf]] from ''[[Nichijou]]''. This guy actually dies as a result of ''tripping over his own feet'' while trying to take a wooden cube from a little girl. And yes, it happened in front of ''lots'' of witnesses.
▲==[[Anime and Manga]]==
* In the first episode of ''[[One Punch Man]]'', the [[Monster of the Week]] is the younger brother of a [[Mad Scientist]], whose brother has turned him into a Kaiju-sized monstrosity. Said older brother is directing him from his right shoulder, and then Saitama lands on the giant's left shoulder. The older brother shouts to his sibling, "There's someone on your shoulder! Crush him!" Suffice to say, [[Hoist by His Own Petard|he ''really'' should have specified ''which'' shoulder.]]
▲* [[Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain| Dolf]] from ''[[Nichijou]]''. This guy actually dies as a result of ''tripping over his own feet'' while trying to take a wooden cube from a little girl. And yes, it happened in front of ''lots'' of witnesses.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
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* Cypher getting shot in ''[[New Mutants]]'' had shades of this. He died in the background from a gut shot while a massive battle was being waged.
* Baron Strucker in ''[[Secret Warriors]]''.
* Few would have called [[Captain Mar-Vell]]'s death undignified; he died with every important hero in the Marvel Universe, and even his [[Arch Enemy|hated enemies the Skrulls]] at his side, mourning and paying their respects. However, when his spirit was met in the afterlife years later, he was rather upset to have died of cancer and not having fallen in battle, being a [[Proud Warrior Race Guy]].
== [[Fan Works]] ==
* This is the stock in trade of Taylor "Atropos" Hebert in the ''[[Worm]]'' fic ''[[A Darker Path]]''. Triggered with the spoilsport shard Path to Ending, Taylor is able to kill anything -- and when it comes to supervillains, she makes sure their demises are hilariously ironic.
== [[Film]] ==
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** industrialist James Whyte Wragg, investigating claims that his coal mine is unsound, is crushed by falling debris after he taps a support post with his cane;
** big game hunter Oliver Pike Harmsworth tells his guide that he will not shoot a rhinoceros until it is actually charging, unaware that it is almost on top of him;
** Vyvyan Alistair Montague, upon dropping a handkerchief to signal the start of a pistol duel, is turned on and shot by the two
** elderly, wheelchair-bound industrialist Derek Lloyd Peter Digby is pushed down a hill by his son, who wishes to inherit his fortune early;
** and newly-knighted Sir Robert Park Collingwood is accidentally decapitated during the conferral of his knighthood by Queen Victoria.
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* Donald Gennaro from ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' getting eaten by a T-Rex while on the toilet.
* All of the jihadis in ''[[Four Lions]]'' end up blowing themselves up in stupid ways.
* In ''[[Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2]]'' some people made fun of Taserface's name. As Taserface is about to die, he
* Jabba the Hutt, from ''[[Return of the Jedi]]'', the feared and dreaded gangster who ruled Tattoine with an iron fist and controlled much of the glitterstim trade... Was strangled by a slave girl. Okay, Leia was far from the typical prisoner, but she was tied up, [[Go-Go Enslavement| forced to wear a skimpy outfit]], and nearly helpless, but still took him out with the chain used to hold ''her'' prisoner. A rather pathetic - but well-deserved - end for such a vile creature.
== [[Literature]] ==
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** ''[[Dead Like Me]]'' had more than just George's death. The Gravelings caused Rube Goldberg-esque chain reactions that caused bizarre, comical, and very undignified deaths for many of the show's victims.
* ''[[News Radio]]:'' A coworker no-one can remember, "Ted", is asphyxiated after hours when his tie gets caught in the copy machine.
* In
* Miss Blankenship dropping dead at the desk during Season 4 of ''[[Mad Men]]''.
** Lane Pryce tries to kill himself by pumping car exhaust into his brand new Jaguar but the car will not start. He ends up hanging himself on his office door and is not discovered for 12 hours. The other partners have to force his body aside to open the door so they can cut him down. It's definitely not how the dignified British gentleman would want to be remembered.
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* Gigi Cestone from ''[[The Sopranos]]''; he suffers a heart attack while constipated on a strip club toilet and surrounded by porn magazines.
== [[
* In a Kat Williams stand-up comedy routine, he says that his neighborhood is so bad that even the squirrels are dangerous and that if he does ever get killed by a squirrel, please lie about it.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[Disgaea]]'', Laharl's father King Krichevskoy ''apparently'' dies by choking on a black pretzel. This turns out to be a subversion; Krichevskoy was severely wounded from fighting Baal, the [[Over Nine Thousand|absurdly overlevelled]] [[Bonus Boss]] of the entire franchise, and was in the middle of his snack when he finally succumbed.
** In the Japanese version, he dies by choking on a dark manju
* There are a couple of these in ''[[Ghost Trick]]'' but the prize has to go to Lynne
** And that's not even going in to the ways you can make some deaths into this, such as reclining a driver's seat, leaving him flailing helplessly on his back while his truck plows into a building, and Cabanela dying from ''[[It Makes Sense in Context|a hard hat launched
▲* There are a couple of these in ''[[Ghost Trick]]'' but the prize has to go to Lynne, for being crushed to death by a giant roast chicken.
▲** And that's not even going in to the ways you can make some deaths into this, such as reclining a driver's seat, leaving him flailing helplessly on his back while his truck plows into a building and Cabanela dying from ''a hard hat launched at his face''. ''At bullet speed.'' [[It Makes Sense in Context]].
* ''[[Halo: Reach]]''. We should remember the Reach in this regard. Some Spartans sacrifice their lives to blow up enemy motherships. Some kill their slayers back while impaled on power sword. And some... get shot in the head running from cover to cover. Ooops!
* If you're rude to Conrad Verner in ''[[Mass Effect
* Fatalities in [[Fighting Game]]s can be brutal and bloody at the least, but some are downright humiliating:
** Bo Rai Cho's fatality in ''[[Mortal Kombat: Deception]]'' is a blazing [[Fartillery]]. Possibly better that the foe ''doesn't'' survive it, because
** Sophia's Critical Finish in ''[[Soul Calibur IV]]
** In ''[[Primal Rage]]'', Chaos is the embodiment of filth and decay, so he has a few attacks that involve puking and farting, but his fatality [[Urine Trouble|
* Story-wise, Scorpion's (thankfully non-canon) ending in ''[[Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance]]'' has him killed by Moloch and Drahmin. Yeah, we're supposed to believe two of the most ill-conceived [[Dumb Muscle]] thugs in fighting game history took down the renown leader of the Shirai Ryu. Most fans would agree this was worse than outright omitting him from [[Mortal Kombat 3|the third game.]]
* In ''[[Bayonetta]]'', the [[Big Bad]] (or [[Dragon-in-Chief| so we assume]]) might well be the first villain in video game history to be winked to death. {{spoiler| Okay, short version here, Father Balder seeks to resurrect Jubileus, ([[The Man Behind The Man| the true antagonist]] and a [[Sealed Evil in A Can]] type of entity), in a ritual that requires putting Bayonetta in Jubileus' left eye (naturally he has to capture her first) and himself in the right eye. He succeeds, and all goes smoothly until Jeanne (whom he had left for dead, but now under the player's control) [[Spanner in the Works| mounts a rescue mission]] and pulls Bayonetta free of the left eye. Jubileus, as a result, is no longer under Balder's control, and crushes him like a bug with a single wink.}}
== [[Web Comics]] ==
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* "Undignified Deaths" is a category in Chuck Shepherd's ''News Of The Weird'' column.
* ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' has had a few of these over its run. The most notable example would be that of Carson Baye's in v3, where he stops to take a dump... only to learn that the area he's in has become a dangerzone. Cue [[Oh Crap]].
* On ''[[Death Battle]]'', [[Transformers| Starscream]] was not only done in by [[My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic (Animation)| Rainbow Dash]], she ''swallowed'' his Spark, even as he was ranting that she couldn't kill him. (Technically, he's correct, but this suggests he'll be trapped in her stomach forever.) No matter what one's opinion is of either show, it was kind of humiliating. [[Asshole Victim| Though, not exactly undeserved.]]
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* ''[[South Park]]'' loves this trope. In a recent{{when}} episode a woman dies by falling down the toilet when the lid is left up.
* Nemesis Enforcer from the ''[[G.I. Joe]]'' cartoon, specifically the animated movie. He was supposedly the champion of Cobra-La, the favored enforcer and bodyguard of their ruler Golobulus for centuries. Stories about vampires, lycanthropes, and other monsters were inspired by his actions that were witnessed by humans. So even though Sergeant Slaughter was one of the toughest of the good guys, it was a pretty sorry end for Nemesis Enforcer when the Sarge beat him to a pulp, broke his wings, and threw him into a spiked pit.
* ''[[Phineas and Ferb]]'': While it doesn’t actually happen, Doofenshmirtz’s death trap for Perry in Raging Bully is designed for him to be buried alive in Doonkelberry Cake. It’s still a scary way to die though. But at least Doofenshmirtz has the decency to allow Perry to try some.
* In ''[[BoJack Horseman]]'', the death of the protagonist's father [["World of Cardboard" Speech| (as BoJack describes it)]] was fittingly anti-climatic and absolutely bonkers:
{{quote|'''BoJack:''' My dad died about ten years ago on account of injuries he sustained during a duel. When your father dies, you ask yourself a lot of questions, questions like, ‘Wait, did you say he died in a duel?’ and ‘Who dies in a duel?’ The whole thing was so stupid… Dad spent his entire life writing this book, [[Stylistic Suck| but he couldn’t get any stores to carry it or any newspapers to review it]]. Finally, I guess this one newspaper thought he was pretty hilarious, [[Caustic Critic| because they ran this review and tore him to shreds]]. So my father, ever the proud mary, decided he would not stand for this besmirchment of his honor, he claimed the critic didn’t understand what it meant to be a man. [[Disproportionate Retribution| So he demanded satisfaction in the form of pistols at dawn!]] He wrote the paper this letter saying anyone who didn’t like his book would challenge to a duel. Anyone in the world. He’d even pay for airfare to San Francisco and a night at a hotel. Well… eventually this found its way to some kook in Montana who was just as batshit as he was and he took him up on the offer. They met at Golden Gate Park and agreed, ten paces, turn, and then shoot. But in the middle of his ten paces, dad turned to ask the guy if he’d actually read the book and what he thought. But, not looking where he was going, tripped over an exposed root and bashed his head on a rock. ''(Pauses with a sad look.)'' I wish I’d known to have gone to Jack-in-the-Box then, maybe I could’ve gotten a free churro. [[I Should Have Been Better| Would have been nice to have something to show for being the son of Butterscotch Horseman]]…}}
== [[Real Life]] ==
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