History Main / ShooOutTheClowns

* Richie provides a lot of comic relief in Film/It2017 and Film/ItChapterTwo through his banter with Eddie and antics, and then[[spoiler: Eddie dies in Chapter 2 climax and Richie, [[CannotSpitItOut having been in love with him]] [[UnluckyChildhoodFriend since childhood]], understandably [[HeroicBSOD takes his death the hardest]] and loses a lot of his spark until the credit rolls]].

** ''Earlier, ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince Half-Blood Prince]]'' got about as literal as possible with it: on a trip into Hogsmeade, the Trio note that Zonko's joke-shop has gone out of business.

** In ''Film/RevengeOfTheSith'' Anakin orders R2 to stay with the ship as he makes his way to slaughter the Separatist leaders, later [=C-3PO=] remains in Padmé's ship and doesn't ''even come out'' when Anakin mortally injures her and during Obi-Wan and Anakin's duel; he only has an off-screen moment for carrying the dying Padmé back to the ship, and utters just one more funny comment just before the movie ends.

* Happens in, of all things, a world war movie, specifically ''[[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089279/ Hitler's SS]]''. When the flamboyant comedian and friend of Rohm, Putzi, gets taken off by the gestapo and winds up beaten to death, you know the Soviet's about to hit the fan. His death not only marks the turning point in the movie, but the turning point in the war, and the scramble by the two brothers to preserve everything they're going to lose no matter who wins the war.

* The third book of the ''Literature/JanitorsOfThePostapocalypse'' trilogy has a markedly different tone. It still has comedic moments, but the erractic Wolf was PutOnABus at the end of the last book (and when she comes BackForTheFinale she's undergone enough CharacterDevelopment that her belligerance is actually proportional and appropriate to a given situation) and the Clippy-like AI for the ship barely appears and is never named - possibly because everyone's taken a few months to get trained and doesn't have to stop to consult tutorials mid-battle.

* ''ComicBook/XMen'': During the ''ComicBook/MutantMassacre'' arc in the late '80s, [[Characters/MarvelComicsNightcrawler Nightcrawler]] (a swashbuckling practical joker), [[Characters/XMen70sMembers Colossus]] and [[Characters/MarvelComicsKittyPryde Kitty Pryde]] were PutOnABus due to injuries sustained against the Marauders. Colossus returned to the team just in time for the ''ComicBook/FallOfTheMutants'' arc, which ended with the world thinking the X-Men were dead, and precipitated one of the teams [[DarkerAndEdgier Darkest and Edgiest]] periods. Nightcrawler and Kitty went on to co-found ComicBook/{{Excalibur|MarvelComics}}, the LighterAndSofter X-team at that time.

* The ''ComicBook/{{Batman}}'' comics have done this several times over the years:
** In 1964, [[Characters/BatmanSupportingCast Bat-Mite]], Ace the Bat-Hound, ComicBook/{{Batwoman}}, and the original ComicBook/BatGirl were swept under the rug when the "New Look" Batman was launched. The often-silly sci-fi adventures of the previous era also took a back seat to more straightforward detective stories. Believe it or not, the 1966 TV show was actually ''less'' silly than most of the Batman stories of the late '50s and early '60s.

** Creator/NeilGaiman's story in 1989, Secret Origins Special, features a retired Riddler amidst the same giant novelty objects, musing on the new DarkerAndEdgier world.

* As with Franchise/{{Batman}}, both Franchise/{{Superman}} and Franchise/WonderWoman got the sillies cleared out of their titles in the late sixties and early seventies. In Superman's case, this meant Krypto, Mr. Mxyzptlk, the Bizarro World, Lori the mermaid, the Superman robots, etc., while for ''ComicBook/{{Wonder Woman|1942}}'' it meant Bird Boy, Merboy, the Glop, the Holliday Girls, even Steve Trevor! In Superman's case, however, the housecleaning didn't "take". Fans really ''liked'' Krypto and the Bizarros and all, so most were brought back after only a few years, and Superman's adventures stayed pretty lighthearted right up until the ''ComicBook/CrisisOnInfiniteEarths'', after which they became DarkerAndEdgier. In Wonder Woman's case, though, shooing the clowns kind of crippled the title, because virtually ''her entire supporting cast'' had been deemed silly and eliminated ([[Characters/WonderWomanAllies Steve Trevor and Etta Candy]] kept popping in and out, but the rest were just ''gone''). In all the years since, she has never really been able to settle on a single, stable supporting cast or even setting.

* One of the three-panel comics of ''Dirkjan'', a Dutch comic, is a literal version of this trope. It goes something like this: [[spoiler:Captain Dirkjan to his men: "Men, we're pirates. It's time we get serious. From now on, no more sickbay, you just keep fighting and working. Whoever is too sick to fight is thrown overboard. Any questions?" A clown (who has been offpanel until now) asks: "What about the clini-clowns?" (= clowns that entertain sick kids in the hospital)]]. Of course it's much funnier in comic-form.
* When ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'' started getting darker and more serious in the late '80s, Maria and Walter the Wobot were written out. Walter eventually came back to lead a new [[RobotWar robot rebellion]], and had to be killed by Dredd.
* At around the same time, ''ComicBook/StrontiumDog'' started upping the stakes with vicious villains with personal grudges against Johnny and Wulf, and main characters started dying. When this happened, the Gronk just kind of disappeared. He was finally brought back for the GrandFinale of the classic series, but his personality was almost [[TookALevelInBadass completely inverted]].
* The ''Blue Harvest'' story arc of ''Star Wars: Dark Times'' featured H2, a droid with dark humor, whose role in the plot was generally limited to hilarious sarcastic one-liners. As with all ''Dark Times'' stories, things continuously got worse and worse for the characters, but when we learned that the beloved DeadpanSnarker got shot and damaged beyond repair, we realized that things went ''really'' serious.
* ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'': [[Characters/MarvelComicsPeterParker Spider-Man]] stops joking when the MoralEventHorizon gets crossed. In fact, he stops talking at all, leaving you to fight a faceless, voiceless being with spider powers who wants to beat you to death. It's notable that the guy who can joke about anything wasn't laughing when [[Characters/MarvelComicsLogan Wolverine]] made some less-than-appropriate comments about Mary Jane. And then punched Logan through unbreakable glass.
* ''ComicBook/XMen''; during the ComicBook/MutantMassacre arc in the late '80s, [[Characters/MarvelComicsNightcrawler Nightcrawler]] (a swashbuckling practical joker), [[Characters/XMen70sMembers Colossus]] and [[Characters/MarvelComicsKittyPryde Kitty Pryde]] were PutOnABus due to injuries sustained against the Marauders. Colossus returned to the team just in time for the ''Fall of the Mutants'' arc, which ended with the world thinking the X-Men were dead, and precipitated one of the teams [[DarkerAndEdgier Darkest and Edgiest]] periods. Nightcrawler and Kitty went on to co-found ComicBook/{{Excalibur|MarvelComics}}, the LighterAndSofter X-team at that time.

* After they were introduced into the comic book universe of ''ComicBook/TheSmurfs'', the Smurflings are hardly heard from again, mostly appearing as guest stars and cameos, while the stories mainly focus on the adult Smurfs.
* In the ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}}'' story ''Asterix and Obelix All at Sea'', Obelix is turned to stone, and Asterix is openly weeping next to his petrified body. ''Asterix'' stories use various standard joke templates, one of which is of three characters who escalate with three increasingly complex puns about the bad situation; and the villagers looking at Obelix all do this with "stone" puns. Asterix cuts them off, telling them to shut up because this is serious and his best friend is dead, and the villagers agree to stop making jokes in poor taste. After this, there aren't any jokes beyond one bit of LaserGuidedKarma at the expense of the Romans who are partially responsible for Obelix's death (they accidentally set their ship on fire when trying to send a signal), one DarkComedy gag (Getafix thinking the other villagers are smashing Obelix's petrified body to pieces) and one piece of intentionally forced slapstick with Vitalstatistix falling over for no reason. Obelix's prospects of recovery are almost non-existent, Asterix is too busy mourning him to care about his duties as a village warrior, and the Romans are plotting to trap and kill the escaped slaves in the B-plot. The jokes don't start up again until one of the potions they're trying to revive him with finally works, bringing him back (albeit [[FountainOfYouth in child form]]).
* Invoked in the ''{{Magazine/Mad}}'' parody of ''Series/{{Roseanne}}''. When the kids are pondering running away from home, "D.D.T.", whose unintelligible mumbling is almost a guaranteed laugh, starts to speak, but his sister tells him this is no laughing matter.
* The [[AdaptationExpansion heavily expanded]] manhua adaptation of ''VideoGame/TheKingOfFightersXII'' makes it quite clear that things are about to take a turn for the worse when [[VideoGame/KOFMaximumImpact Hyena]], the smarmy, [[{{Gonk}} comically funny-looking]] referee, gets casually swatted away like a fly by [[VideoGame/TheKingOfFightersXI Magaki]]. This is immediately followed up by the climax, in which everyone physically capable of fighting tries desperately to overwhelm Magaki through sheer numbers, with most of them failing.
* ''ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogIDW'' pulls a harsh one of these during its ZombieApocalypse story arc. [[spoiler:Among those infected with Dr. Eggman's Metal Virus bioweapon and turned into Zombots is Sonic's new friend Tangle the Lemur, the comic's resident PluckyComicRelief. The storyline was already one of the darkest in [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog the entire franchise]], but it adopts an even ''more'' serious tone upon Tangle's elimination since so much of the series' comedy eminates from her.]]

* ''ComicBook/UltimateXMen'': The Sentinels are attacking Washington DC and killing people. Marvel Girl told Storm that this is not the moment for quipping.

* Although Creator/TimBurton's ''Film/Batman1989'' is pretty dark throughout, it gets darker still toward the end. Comic-relief character Alexander Knox, having just appeared in a slapstick scene, gets legitimately knocked out and doesn't appear again until the finale. Meanwhile, the Joker's [[TheFamilyForTheWholeFamily bumbling henchmen]] [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere run off]] as the Batplane approaches, the Joker stops being funny for a moment and utters a PrecisionFStrike ("Come on, you gruesome son of a bitch - come to me!")...and the Batplane is shot down, crashes, and explodes - [[NearVillainVictory apparently killing Batman before girlfriend Vicki Vale's eyes]]. While frantically trying to clear away the rubble from the crash, Vicki is taken hostage by the Joker and the two go into a church. Batman survives, but he is bleeding and barely able to walk; only his determination to kill the Joker enables him to continue. Once Batman (painfully) reaches the top of the church tower, the "Waltz to the Death" sequence begins and the movie assumes a "lighter", tragicomic tone until the end.

** Due to the darker nature of ''Film/SpiderManNoWayHome'', Betty Brant, Flash Thompson, Mr Harrington and Mr Dell are out of the story before the first act ends. Moments of levity from Ned and MJ are significantly diminished as well, especially after [[spoiler: Aunt May is murdered by the Green Goblin and Peter is at his lowest point]].

* ''Film/WonderWoman2017'': The jovial Etta Candy almost completely disappears in the final act of the movie, only showing up again when she, Diana, and Steve's friends visit the memorial wall during the peace celebration, as well as TheStinger in the home-video release.

** Also why there hasn't been a Creator/StanLee cameo, since these tend to be comedic BigLippedAlligatorMoment's in the films. Instead the shows have his face being used on campaign posters from the NYPD, shown throughout the shows.
* [[EnforcedTrope Enforced]] by ''Series/BabylonFive'', which operated under a standing order from Creator/JMichaelStraczynski that any [[GratuitousAnimalSidekick animal sidekicks]], [[RobotBuddy funny robots]], [[KidAppealCharacter cute kids]], or [[AcePilot hotshot pilots]] were to be brutally killed off as soon as physically possible, if they appeared at all. This was ''not'' a bluff; the one time [[ExecutiveMeddling executives tried to add a snarky pilot to the cast]], he was immediately and horribly killed in his first episode, while a cutesy kid appeared in another episode almost solely to [[LittlestCancerPatient die a tragically avoidable death]].