History Main / ShockFatigue

* The third season of ''WesternAnimation/DrawnTogether'' saw a decline in ratings and critical reception due to this. The show had become increasingly reliant on its offensive and outrageous nature, to the point where it lost the ability to be funny. This led to a decrease in viewers, as well as a more negative reception from those who did watch.

* The success of Music/MarilynManson suffered during the mid-2000s due to this trope, making his work less impactful and less influential.

* ''ComicBook/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'' opens up with Lois Lane being pregnant, but then she's kidnapped by the Joker. Superman tries to save her, only to inhale Scarecrow's fear gas and hallucinate Doomsday coming after him. He shoves "Doomsday" into obit, only for the hallucinogens to wear off, revealing that he'd just killed his pregnant wife. While Superman is left in shock, the Joker nukes all of Metropolis and rubs salt into Superman's wound. Superman responds by ramming his whole arm through the Joker's torso, an act that pushes him over the slippery slope into murderous tyrant territory. And this is just the start of the series. The next few issues just maintain the shock value without much of an end goal in mind.

* One of the primary issues that viewers had with the later seasons of ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'' is that the offensive jokes and moments were no longer as shocking or effective as in earlier seasons. This is likely because in later seasons, the story of each episode had taken a backseat to the offensive content, and as such, many viewers have seen through that transparency and became desensitized to the offensive material.

* ''WesternAnimation/MrPickles'' has a lot of gross-out and sexual humor such as Tommy (who is a child) having breast implants, as well as [[VillainProtagonist Mr. Pickles murdering people]] quite graphically. While several people consider the show an addictive horror comedy because of this, its detractors tend to hate it for the exact same reasons.
* ''WesternAnimation/ParadisePD'', which was made by the creators of ''Brickleberry'', didn't make much of an effort to deviate from ''Brickleberry''[='s=] formula, featuring plenty of shock-comedy cliches such as potty-mouthed animals, sexually depraved old people, woman-on-man sexual assault, mutilated genitals and mean-spirited jabs at real-life figures. Occasionally there'd be a plot connecting all of this together.

* ''WesternAnimation/ParadisePD'', which was made by the creators of ''Brickleberry'', didn't make much of an effort to deviate from ''Brickleberry''[='s=] formula, featuring plenty of shock-comedy cliches such as potty-mouthed animals, sexually depraved old people, woman-on-man sexual assault, mutilated genitals and mean-spirited jabs at real-life figures. Occaisonally there'd be a plot connecting all of this together.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Creator/MattGroening has stated this is one of two reasons why ''JustForFun/TheItchyAndScratchyShow'', will never get a spinoff. At one point, Groening put together a compilation of all the segments of Itchy and Scratchy together for some college students and the students were bored less than a minute in. The other reason for ''Itchy and Scratchy'' not being able to hold a show is that there's really only one joke, the SubvertedKidsShow aspect of [[VillainProtagonist Itchy]] killing [[InnocentBystander Scratchy]] ForTheEvulz. After a while, the only joke just gets boring, hence why the ShowWithinAShow is only ever shown in extremely small segments.

* ''ComicBook/{{Injustice}}'' opens up with Lois Lane being pregnant, but then she's kidnapped by the Joker. Superman tries to save her, only to inhale Scarecrow's fear gas and hallucinate Doomsday coming after him. He shoves "Doomsday" into obit, only for the hallucinogens to wear off, revealing that he'd just killed his pregnant wife. While Superman is left in shock, the Joker nukes all of Metropolis and rubs salt into Superman's wound. Superman responds by ramming his whole arm through the Joker's torso, an act that pushes him over the slippery slope into murderous tyrant territory. And this is just the start of the series. The next few issues just maintain the shock value without much of an end goal in mind.

Compare TooBleakStoppedCaring, where the bleak tone can make people feel apathetic towards the work, and SeinfeldIsUnfunny, in which a once-revolutionary aspect of a work is lost on later audiences after being constantly imitated and/or built upon by the works it influenced.

* ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'': The show's over-reliance on the formula of [[SubvertedKidsShow cute, cuddly animals dying]] in [[CruelAndUnusualDeath increasingly horrifying ways]], while [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny revolutionary for its origin year of 1999]], has come across as [[DancingBear gimmicky and repetitive]] to the fanbase later on, which, alongside general lack of funding and an [[ShortRunners ill-fated attempt to branch out to TV]], contributed to its frequent and lengthy {{Series Hiatus}}es.

* ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'': The show's over-reliance on the formula of [[SubvertedKidsShow cute, cuddly animals dying]] in [[CruelAndUnusualDeath increasingly horrifying ways]], while [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny revolutionary for its origin year of 1999]], has come across as [[DancingBear gimmicky and repetitive]] to the fanbase later on, which, alongside general lack of funding and an [[ShortRunners ill-fated attempt to branch out to TV]], contributed to it being QuietlyCancelled after 2016.

* A common criticism of ''Film/BloodsuckingFreaks'' is that the film tries too hard to offend with its [[{{Gorn}} extreme gore]], over-the-top misogyny, and outlandish premise.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Brickleberry}}'' perfectly fits the description of an overuse of shocking content leading to a desensitization of audiences. The show's brand of humor relied heavily on shock value with an excess of crude jokes and outlandish storylines. The show failed to evolve its humor or present any new content, which caused viewers to become desensitized to the shock factor. The problems are further compounded by the fact that some of the jokes and plotlines simply didn't work well, resulting in the show becoming repetitive and predictable. The shock factor of the jokes were too tiresome for most viewers after a while, leading to a sense of fatigue with the show. This has contributed to a lack of sustained viewership and audiences losing interest in the show which is what got it canceled eventually.

** ''WesternAnimation/ParadisePD'' didn't make much of an effort to deviate from the formula, featuring plenty of shock-comedy cliches such as potty-mouthed animals, sexually depraved old people, woman-on-man sexual assault, mutilated genitals and mean-spirited jabs at real-life figures. Occaisonally there'd be a plot connecting all of this together.

* ''WesternAnimation/KingStarKing'': A common criticism of the show is that it tries way too hard to be disgusting with its DerangedAnimation, general surreal content, and graphic depictions of bodily fluids.
* ''WesternAnimation/MrPickles'': The show has a lot of gross-out and sexual humor such as Tommy (who is a child) having breast implants, as well as [[VillainProtagonist Mr. Pickles murdering people]] quite graphically. While several people consider the show an addictive horror comedy because of this, its detractors tend to hate it for the exact same reasons.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Creator/MattGroening has stated this is one of two reasons why ''JustForFun/TheItchyAndScratchyShow'', will never get a spinoff. At one point, Groening put together a compilation of all the segments of Itchy and Scratchy together for some college students and the students were bored less than a minute in. The other reason for ''Itchy and Scratchy'' not being able to hold a show is that there's really only one joke, the SubvertedKidsShow aspect of VillainProtagonist, Itchy killing InnocentBystander, Scratchy ForTheEvulz. After a while, the only joke just gets boring, hence why the ShowWithinAShow is only ever shown in extremely small segments.

* ''WesternAnimation/Hoops'' had a protagonist with untreated anger problems and a warped sense of ethics, but the suporting cast had little characterisation and the plots were overly simplistic. It was cancelled after a single season.

* Discussed in-universe in ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'': children today are becoming more desensitized to fear and violence every day, so the window to scare and collect screams for power is very small.

* ''VideoGame/FateGrandOrder'' started to suffer this in the latter portion of its second story arc, ''Cosmos in the Lostbelt'', due to the sheer number of absurd boss enemies faced (which would all probably count as {{Superboss}}es if their defeats weren't mandatory for progression). Numerous players started to express annoyance with just how ''many'' of them showed up in the later chapters, especially Lostbelt 6, which has ''six such bosses''. [[DownplayedTrope That being said, fans were willing to bear with it]], and were very appreciative of the ClimaxBoss of Lostbelt 7 despite it being another such crazy boss, because [[UnseenNoMore said boss fight is the long-awaited debut of ORT]], [[UltimateLifeform the Ultimate One of the Oort Cloud]], who had been hyped up as an absurdly difficult, borderline HopelessBossFight for ''twenty-two years'' before it was finally fought, and it did not disappoint.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Brickleberry}}'' perfectly fits the description of an overuse of shocking content leading to a desensitization of audiences. The show's brand of humor relied heavily on shock value with an excess of crude jokes and outlandish storylines. The show failed to evolve its humor or present any new content, which caused viewers to become desensitized to the shock factor. The problems are further compounded by the fact that some of the jokes and plotlines simply didn't work well, resulting in the show becoming repetitive and predictable. The shock factor of the jokes is too tiresome for most viewers after a while, leading to a sense of fatigue with the show. This has contributed to a lack of sustained viewership and audiences losing interest in the show which is what got it canceled eventually.

* ''WesternAnimation/Brickleberry'' perfectly fits the description of an overuse of shocking content leading to a desensitization of audiences. The show's brand of humor relied heavily on shock value with an excess of crude jokes and outlandish storylines. The show failed to evolve its humor or present any new content, which caused viewers to become desensitized to the shock factor. The problems are further compounded by the fact that some of the jokes and plotlines simply didn't work well, resulting in the show becoming repetitive and predictable. The shock factor of the jokes is too tiresome for most viewers after a while, leading to a sense of fatigue with the show. This has contributed to a lack of sustained viewership and audiences losing interest in the show which is what got it canceled eventually.

* Wrestling/VinceRusso ended up becoming one of the most controversial bookers/writers in the medium in large part due to overindulging in what he codified as "shocking swerves". Russo had already received much criticism for making twists that were either [[ContinuityLockout way too esoteric]] or [[AssPull just plain nonsensical]], but compounding this is how frequently he would try to pull his twists, and with the final years in [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]] being denoted by commentator Wrestling/TonySchiavone [[ItsTheBestWhateverEver "This is the most shocking swerve ever!"]] ''every week'', it's no surprise that "Fi-re Ru-sso! ''(clap clap clapclapclap)''" became such a common CrowdChant.

* Wrestling/VinceRusso ended up becoming one of the most controversial bookers/writers in the medium in large part due to overindulging in what he codified as "shocking swerves". Russo had already received much criticism for making twists that were either [[ContinuityLockout way too esoteric]] or [[AssPull just plain nonsensical]], but compounding this is how frequently he would try to pull his twists, and with the final years in [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling TNA]] being denoted by commentator Wrestling/TonySchiavone [[ItsTheBestWhateverEver "This is the most shocking swerve ever!"]] ''every week'', it's no surprise that "Fire Russo! ''(clap clap clapclapclap)''" became such a common CrowdChant.