Dramatic Irony / Live-Action TV

---

• 3rd Rock from the Sun:
  • Once, Dick learns about racism and tries to make things right with Nina. After worsening his relation with her, Mary tries to tell him not to worry because "it's not like you chose the color of your skin". Except that Dick and his "family" are aliens who have taken human form and did choose the color of their skin.
  • Another episode has Harry get amnesia and become alarmed when he discovers his relatives are aliens. Just being familiar with the show's premise allows the viewer to see the Tomato in the Mirror ending coming.
• 24 loves this.
  • A good example is the first season when Senator Palmer's aides and CTU both tell him that they believe Jack Bauer is a threat to him and his family and he's convinced Bauer holds him responsible for the deaths of his men in a mission some years ago; when in fact, Jack Bauer and his family are going through holy hell because Bauer is trying to keep him safe. To add to the irony, it turns out Bauer wasn't even aware of Palmer's involvement in said mission.
  • Also in Season 1, Jack takes aside Jamie and Nina as "They're the only ones he can trust." They're both Moles and (at the time) the only ones who were.
• The 100:
  • In the first season, this is used for tension aboard the Ark, since the Council has to decide how to eliminate 300 members of the population to conserve oxygen, unaware that the 100 human guinea pigs they sent to Earth are alive and trying to contact them; if the Council only knew Earth was habitable, they could send their excess population there instead of killing them.
  • Used for cringe factor in Season 2 when Finn attacks a Grounder village because he thinks they've killed or kidnapped Clarke, unaware that they did no such thing and that Clarke is perfectly safe and looking for him.
• In Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 5, the Confederacy claims that Thanos has come to Earth and wiped it out. Anyone who has watched the Avengers: Infinity War will know that Thanos doesn't destroy the Earth and in fact never wished it in the first place as his wish is population control for the entire universe.
• Alex Rider (2020):
  • Having seen Wilby and Yassen discussing Ian's death in terms of protecting Yassen's employers and the school, the audience knows that Alex's efforts at finding Ian's killer at the school are probably doomed to fail.
  • In the final episode, the audience watches as Duplicate!Alex finds his way to Alex's house and inserts himself into his life with clearly malicious intentions, and we know it's the duplicate who said some hurtful things to Tom and Ayisha, but the characters don't know that. At least, not until the duplicate takes Tom hostage to lure Alex.
  • Mrs Jones has Alex and the duplicate at gunpoint, but doesn't know which is which. One of them addresses her by name to prove himself the real Alex, but the other one claims to have given up that information under torture. This leaves Mrs Jones confused, but we know that didn't happen, so that Alex is lying and therefore the duplicate. So we're pretty happy when Tom comes outside and clobbers that Alex.
• The Americans has a lot of this since we get to see what both the FBI and Directorate S are up to. For instance, in "The Colonel" Philip and Elizabeth have two missions. The first one is to meet with an Air Force colonel who wants to sell them information on the "Star Wars" program, but who may have been compromised by the FBI. The other mission is to retrieve the tapes from the bug in Defense Secretary Casper Weinberger's home office that they had planted in an earlier episode. The irony here is that while Philip and Elizabeth are arguing and making plans about what to do if the meeting with the colonel goes bad and who should take the risk of meeting with him, it's the bug in Weinberger's office that has really been compromised after the housekeeper Philip and Elizabeth blackmailed into planting the bug has a crisis of conscience. So whoever goes on the "safe" mission to retrieve the tapes is walking into a trap.
• Andor:
  • Maarva tries to encourage Cassian to join the burgeoning resistance, citing the raid on Aldhani as proof that people around the Galaxy are starting to stand up to the Empire's tyranny, not realizing Cassian was a key part of the raid, but was Only in It for the Money. She even calls the people in the Aldhani heist heroes, and Cassian has to duck his head and hide his smile at her unknowing praise.
  • Cassian is given a six year prison sentence at a point at which viewers familiar with Rogue One and paying attention to dates will know that Cassian doesn't even live that long.
• A comedic example appears in the Angel episode "Why We Fight", set in 1942. 1942-Spike declares "I'm not going to be experimented on by the government!" and 1942-Angel replies "And I'm not going to get trapped at the bottom of the ocean!" Both of which make perfect sense in context (they're on a submarine), but are hilarious, because the viewer knows that about sixty years later, Spike will be experimented on by the US government and Angel will spend several months trapped underwater.
• Arrested Development is another show using this trope. Perhaps their best example is the incestuous crush George Michael and Maeby have for each other. They are the only ones aware of it. In the second episode, George Michael tries to get over his crush by requesting more hours at the banana stand from his father Michael. His father mistakes this for ambition and promotes him to manager. Then, he notices the other family members laying about lazily and tries to teach them a lesson by having Maeby work with George Michael.
  Michael: Stay on top of her! You are going to ride her! Hard!
• A Series of Unfortunate Events uses this somewhat comedically. After Uncle Monty promised the Baudelaires that no harm will ever come to them in the Reptile Room, Lemony Snicket proceeds to educate the viewer dramatic irony.
• Babylon 5:
  • During the Minbari civil war arc, Delenn is chastising the Warrior Caste for one of their own committing an attack on a high level Warrior Caste representative, while complimenting her own Caste. This is before a bunch of guys from her caste who not too long ago had poisoned the entire ship, and only Lennier acting quickly prevented it from killing them all.
  • G'Kar, the Narn Ambassador, has just received a message from the leader of his people's enemy, the Centauri Emperor, which is to the effect that the Emperor wants to publicly apologise and make reparations for his people's actions. G'Kar runs into his frequent opponent, Londo, the Centauri Ambassador, and buys him a drink, toasting Londo's health and that of the Emperor. Unbeknownst to G'Kar, Londo has just ordered an attack on a Narn colony, plunging their two races into war.
    • This is doubly ironic in that Londo had no idea what the Emperor's plan was, and would probably not have ordered the attack had he known.
    • G'Kar was originally planning to assassinate the Emperor, and only learned his real purpose on the station after being stymied by chance.
  • Back in season 3, there's a comedic example in the episode "Sic Transit Vir". Ivanova's having nightmares about reporting to work in the nude. She talks about this with Sheridan while not getting specific about it. He suggests it's just her subconscious mind adjusting to the changing situation on the station. And then…
    Sheridan: Hey, it could be worse. You could be having dreams where you're showing up to work naked.
  • At the end of Season 3, there's a scene where Londo and Vir are sitting at a restaurant, and Londo is telling Vir about how he's been reassigned to Centauri Prime. In the middle of the conversation, a human, who is an associate of the Shadows and knows they're about to attack the station, walks up to them and urges Londo to leave the station ASAP. Londo basically says Not Now, Kiddo and returns to the conversation. In the DVD commentary, JMS discusses this trope and explains how it ramps up the tension in an otherwise mundane scene.
• Battlestar Galactica (2003): In the first, post-miniseries episode "33" the humans are being pursued by the Cylons on a schedule that leaves no time to rest. As the sleep deprivation starts affecting the pilots, Apollo notes that the doctor says Boomer is handling it better than anyone else. Starbuck jokes that it's because Boomer is secretly a Cylon, unaware that Boomer genuinely is a Cylon (although to be fair, Boomer doesn't know it yet either).
• Played for comedy in a flashback episode of The Big Bang Theory when Sheldon and Leonard are hammering out their roommate agreement.
  Sheldon: "Roommates agree that Friday nights shall be reserved for watching Joss Whedon's brilliant new series Firefly."
  Leonard: Does that really need to be in the agreement?
  Sheldon: We might as well settle it now; it's gonna be on for years.
• Birds of Prey (2002): Helena goes to her psychiatrist for help after Gibson has a mental breakdown. Unbeknownst to her, Helena's psychiatrist had caused his condition, as she's supervillain Harley Quinn.
• Breaking Bad:
  • Hank Schrader is a DEA agent on the trail of the crystal-meth producer "Heisenberg". The audience knows that "Heisenberg" is in fact Hank's brother-in-law, Walter White. Things get pretty weird when Hank starts talking about his work when visiting Walt's house, or (for that matter) when he takes Walt's son, Walter Jr., on a Scare 'Em Straight trip to a rat-trap motel that serves as a meth den... where Walter Sr.'s product is most likely being consumed.
  • "Phoenix" has Walter White run into Don Margolis. Both men vent their frustrations about their children, Don about his daughter Jane, and Walter about his "nephew" (actually his partner, Jesse Pinkman). Unbeknownst to both men, they're discussing the same situation: Jesse and Jane's relationship and mutual heroin addiction. The ultimate irony is that Don's advice to Walter drives him to sneak into Jesse's home and inadvertently cause Jane's death.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer uses dramatic irony quite frequently. Usually the audience knows about the Monster of the Week and its activities long before the characters. Often this is resolved quickly. Other times... not so much.
  • One of the most stomach-churning, heartbreaking examples occurs in "Passion". Having finally resolved some lingering issues, Giles comes home to a beautiful romantic set-up, complete with roses and champagne and opera playing. Little does he know that the whole thing was set up by now-soulless Angel to display the corpse of Jenny Calendar, Giles' love interest.
  • "Under Your Spell" from "Once More, With Feeling" is a beautiful love song. The only problem? As the audience knows, Tara literally is under Willow's spell, so the whole song becomes rather uncomfortable. When Tara realises this, she sings the Dark Reprise.
• Chuck has a classic comedic case; when Morgan Grimes learns that there is a secret CIA base under their Buy More store AND that bad guys are preparing to blow it up, he gamely tries to convince Chuck that they have to stop them. Chuck, who is the actual spy, who knows all of this beforehand, futilely tries to convince Morgan that they are in over their heads.
• The opening sequence of the first episode of Coupling is a rare subversion of such an elemental trope: we think we know more than the characters, but in fact we're being misled. Steve is heading to a meeting with his girlfriend and says he's planning to break up with her, and that she's probably expecting it. Susan is preparing for a meeting with her boyfriend, and says she has no idea what he wants (her friend guesses he's going to propose). We think Susan and Steve are meeting with each other, but they ain't.
• An episode of Criminologist Himura and Mystery Writer Arisugawa has the kindly old landlady Tokie taking the bus, where she's offered a seat by a high school student. She thanks the boy and offers him a piece of candy, which he takes with a smile. This innocuous sequence is tense for the audience, who know by this point that the boy is a serial killer.
• Dead to Me: The entire show has this premise. It follows two women who befriend each other amidst grief: Jen, whose husband recently died in a hit and run, and Judy, who recently got divorced after having five miscarriages. Unbeknownst to Jen, Judy, her lifeline and support in these tough times, was the one that killed her husband.
• Dexter: Not an episode can go by without someone making some sort of comment about murders, Harry's relationship with his kids, the justice system, how nice and docile Dexter is or some other sort of remark with an unintentional double meaning. It's often lampshaded by Dexter's facial expression and deadpan voiceovers.
• The Dick Van Dyke Show: In "The Life and Love of Joe Coogan", Rob meets and plays a round of golf with a man he soon learns was one of Laura's boyfriends before she joined the USO, and that he's never fallen in love since. What he doesn't know, but the audience learns from the man's chat with a caddy, is that he is now a Catholic priest. Laura finds out before Rob does, and by the time he's learned he's already dragged poor Sally along to dinner to flirt with the man.
• Being that Doctor Who revolves around time travel, it's not surprising this pops up once in a while.
  • In "The Deadly Assassin", the Time Lord authorities make deductions from the Doctor's history that lead them to believe him far more knowledgable than he actually is.
  • In many episodes, in fact, characters assume that the Doctor is in cahoots with some faction of wherever he landed. The reactions are predictable and all too often tragic.
  • All of the drama and tension from the episode "Dalek" comes from the audience knowing exactly what Henry van Statten has locked up in his alien collection, but the Doctor having no idea, making his at-first earnest attempt to help the alien his first (and quite riveting) encounter with the Daleks in the new series. Part of it also then comes from Rose and the other humans being totally unaware of the Doctor's past history with the Daleks and being shocked by the anger and violence in his voice.
  • "Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood" is set in November 1913, with World War I right over the horizon. Joan reading about it in John's dream journal makes her even less keen about the students of the boarding school she works at practicing with machine guns than she already was. John reassures her by pointing out that what she read was about a dream, so they can both be thankful it's not true. If John was anyone other than the temporarily-human Doctor... Oh, and the fact that the story is set over November 11 further emphasizes the irony at play.
  • Due to her timeline being mostly back-to-front compared to the Doctor's, half of River Song's lines are this. Spoilers ahead:
    • She often references the fact that she will eventually meet the Doctor before he knows who she is. And that day will kill her.
    • Also pertaining to her death, in "Last Night" she mentions that she's excited to go to the Singing Towers of Darillium. The Singing Towers are where her final^note from his perspective/penultimate^note from her perspective meeting with the Doctor occurred, right before her death.
    • Also a lot from the Doctor himself in Series 6, mostly about his death in the season premiere. Played with, since not only the audience but the other characters, the Doctor in the first case, Rory and Amy in the second, notice the irony and react accordingly.
    • Also many more on rewatch once you know River is Melody. Timey-wimey plots are perfect for this.
  • In "The Snowmen", the audience knows immediately that Clara Oswald looks exactly like Oswin Oswald. Since the Doctor has never seen Oswin as a human, he takes a bit longer to put it together.
  • "Spyfall": Upon encountering the Master, the Thirteenth Doctor is much angrier with him than either Ten or Twelve, the previous New Series Doctors to fight the Master, ever were. She has no way of knowing that Missy actually intended to stand with Twelve in "The Doctor Falls", was lying in order to get her past self Saxon out of the way, and the reason she never came back was because she and Saxon ended up backstabbing each other.
• Shows up a few times in Downton Abbey, perhaps most heart-breakingly with the outbreak of the Spanish Flu epidemic following the end of the war. When members of the household start dropping like flies, we know — as they don't — that some of them will not be getting up again.
• In EastEnders, when Ronnie Mitchell found out that her young employee Danielle Jones was single, broke and pregnant, she persuaded her to get an abortion. Ronnie had been haunted for twenty years by grief over giving her own daughter up for adoption — in order to assuage Danielle's guilt, Ronnie tells her that she wished she'd aborted her own child all those years ago. Naturally, Danielle was the daughter that Ronnie had given up.
  • The irony is further layered by the fact that after the abortion Ronnie acts very coldly towards Danielle. She only does this because she feels guilty about betraying the memory of her daughter (who she thinks is dead) by pretending that she'd wanted an abortion — so she ends up pushing away and really hurting Danielle, who is her daughter.
• In Enemy at the Door, Peter Porteous is one of the few able-bodied young men not to have evacuated from the island in the face of the German advance; he wants to go and contribute to the war effort, but chose to stay and look after his mother, whose mobility is limited. In the first episode she finally persuades him that she can manage without him and would prefer him to go before the Germans arrive — too late, as the Germans have already arrived but the news hasn't reached them yet.
• Much of the dramatic irony of the first season of Faking It revolves around Karma being totally committed to faking a lesbian relationship with Amy, completely unaware that Amy has suddenly realized that she's really deeply in love with Karma.
• Firefly
  • In "Out of Gas", we flashback to when Mal hired Wash. Zoe's first impression? "I don't like him." The irony? They eventually marry. (Though some men might not call that irony...)
    • She adds that "something about him bothers me", although she can't tell what. It's probably the mustache.
    • And just to make sure the audience isn't feeling too smugly superior, the episode turns it back on them by having Mal talk about their "genius mechanic". The audience assumes he means Kaylee, until some total stranger turns the corner and thanks him for the compliment.
      Mechanic: Thanks, I've never been called that before!
      [beat]
      Zoe: Yeah, he bothers me.
  • Another good example is from the end of "Ariel". Simon is praising Jayne for getting the two of them and River safely out of a very bad situation. Jayne seems oddly humble about the whole thing, because as the audience knows they only got into trouble in the first place because Jayne tried to sell them out for a bounty.
• In The First Shop of Coffee Prince, Han Kyul unknowingly hires a woman to pretend to be his gay lover so his mother would stop trying to set him up on dates with women.
• Forever:
  • Played for mild laughs when other characters make various references to Henry's age and to living forever, not knowing that Henry is actually 234 years old and immortal as he and the audience do.
  • In the same way but more dramatically, at the end of "Dead Men Tell Long Tales" Isaac tells Henry the story of a slave ship that was taken over by the African captives on board and made it to non-slaveholding land in America. He says only a map to the wreck and the story survived, "our story." Isaac, as a descendant of one of the slaves, means "our" as in his and his family's. However, what the audience knows and Isaac doesn't is that "our story" also applies to him and Henry: Henry was the doctor on that ship 200 years ago and is the one who dropped the key that freed the slaves.
• Friends:
  • "The One With The Flashback": Serves as a Running Gag in the episode as the audience knows how things will turn out in the present day:
    • Ross thinks Carol's new friend Susan will help cheer her up and be good for their marriage.
    • Chandler wonders where the group will hang out after their favorite bar gets turned into the Central Perk coffeehouse.
    • Chandler never finds out Heckles drove away his new roommate, believing the guy was a "jerk who never showed up".
    • After bumping into Rachel at the bar, Monica notes to Chandler that odds are they'll never see each other again.
    • Phoebe expresses disappointment that the "cute naked guy" who lives in the apartment across from their window has put on weight.
  • "The One Where Phoebe Hates PBS": Unlike Rachel, Joey, Ross and Phoebe the viewer knows about "Monica and Chandler's" Secret Relationship - and also why they behave so awkwardly around each other.
• Game of Thrones:
  • Joffrey, the series' reigning champion of petty stupidity, pitches a Smart Ball in "The Bear and the Maiden Fair" when he is rightfully concerned by the rumours of Daenerys and her dragons, but he is contemptuously dismissed by Lord Tywin because of outdated intelligence and more pressing concerns.
  • Jaime reiterates his oath to return Sansa and Arya, unaware that Winterfell has fallen, Arya is nowhere near King's Landing, and Sansa is soon to be irrevocably bound to House Lannister.
  • When two lesser lords laugh at Tyrion in "Mhysa", he begins to recite their names and Sansa asks if he is adding them to a kill list. Tyrion doesn't have such a list... but Sansa's sister does.
  • Bran unknowingly avenges the man who crippled him for life when he kills Locke.
  • After two and a half seasons of warning Shae about the dangers in King's Landing, Tyrion is the one who ends up killing her when he finds her in Tywin's bed. This is doubly ironic because it is the inverse of Tywin's threat to kill the next whore he caught in Tyrion's bed.
  • At the end of Season 1, the Lords of the North proclaim Robb "King in the North" because they refuse to pledge allegiance to the Iron Throne any longer, and want the North to declare independence from the Seven Kingdoms. At the end of Season 6, they proclaim Jon as the next King in the North, recognizing Jon can lead them in the wars to come. In the same episode, he is revealed to the audience as the hidden son of Lyanna Stark and Crown Prince Rhaegar Targaryen (unknown to everyone, including Jon, as Ned hid this to protect Jon from the fatal wrath of the Baratheon regime) — and, as such, may be a potential heir to the Iron Throne. This is also ironic in that this is the same episode that gives Jon nearly everything he had wanted as a child — recognition as a Stark by his Lord Bannermen, acknowledgment as his brother Robb Stark's heir, and legitimacy. Furthermore, it is ironic that he is the Stark kid who is — by far — the most like Ned, but is Ned's nephew, not his biological child and he's been talking to his great-granduncle (Maester Aemon) during much of his time in the Night's Watch with neither of them aware of their connection. In addition, Jon being crowned king, despite not being the son of/brother of the previous Lord of Winterfell/King in the North is much like Joffrey and Tommen, though unlike them, Jon is actually related to Ned and Robb.
  • In a rare heartfelt conversation with her hated brother queen Cercei confesses that although motherhood hadn't been particularly happy for her, the only reason she carries on is for her children and if it wasn't for them she would've "thrown herself off from the highest tower in the castle". Later her inept political intriguing leads to a crisis which she resolves by killing a lot of people, including her last son Tommen's beloved wife and the kingdom's Head of Faith. Driven beyond the Despair Event Horizon, Tommen throws himself out of the window, and yet Cercei, all of her children now gone, just carries on.
• The Gilded Age: Maud is being pursued by Oscar van Rhijn, but she's concerned that he only recently pursued Gladys Russell. Her friend Aurora argues that Maud wouldn't want to marry a man who has never been interested in a woman before, which Maud admits is true. Neither woman realizes that Oscar is actually gay.
• The Good Place:
  • "Tahani Al-Jamil": In a flashback, Eleanor says, regarding her actions, that "it's not like anyone's keeping score". That the afterlife works like this is part of the entire premise of the show.
  • The first season ends with the revelation that the series actually takes place in the "Bad Place" and the characters were being tortured psychologically. Michael responds to this by wiping their memories of their time there and restarting the experiment. Thus, the audience is aware of the real situation, but the characters are not.
• In NBC's Hannibal practically runs on this during the first two seasons.
  • If you know anything about any of the movies or books, it will be that Dr. Lecter is a cannibal and serial killer; thus, the fact that it's a prequel means a ton of tension lies in the audience knowing Lecter's secrets while his friends and colleagues are clueless.
  • Additionally, a lot of more subtle fan nods can be found, further invoking this. For example, Will Graham realizes Hannibal's secret in Red Dragon, and finds himself tangling with the truth as a result; thus, when they first meet in the series:
    Lecter: God forbid we become friendly.
    Will: I don't find you that interesting.
    Lecter: You will.
• In the "Body Language" episode of Imagination Movers, a foreign guest appears at the warehouse and repeatedly asks for "Nee Nohtz". The character is clearly looking for Knit Knots, a regular character on the program, but the Imagination Movers can't understand and resort to body language to solve the problem.
• In an episode of In Treatment Laura tells Paul about her one-night-stand with Alex, describing his behaviour as like a military operation, "like a pilot". Paul of course notices the irony but can't discuss what he knows about Alex.
• Jejak Suara Adzan: By episode 7, the audience has given enough clues about who is Dimas's long-lost brother Dika, short of an actual confirmation. The characters only find out about the necessary clue (Dika's adopted mother and Putra's mother have the same name) in the last episode. One particulary ironic moment happens in episode 8, when Dimas comments that, for a moment, he thought Putra is his brother, but shrugs it off as impossible.
• Kamen Rider Kiva:
  • Keisuke Nago hates Kiva and wishes to destroy him, while believing that the innocent and kind-hearted Wataru Kurenai is the best kind of person. No points for guessing Kiva's true identity. Then they go and subvert the irony halfway through: when Nago learns that Wataru is Kiva, rather than feeling angry and betrayed as one might expect, he's instead reassured by the fact that Kiva is in good hands, and offers to mentor Wataru.
  • The franchise used this exact same plot twist eight years before with Kamen Rider Agito, in which Ryo Ashihara is friends with Shoichi Tsugami but hates Agito for killing the woman he loved. When Ryo learns Agito's identity, he realizes that he must have been wrong, because Shoichi is a good guy who would never kill an innocent woman in cold blood. (Not coincidentally, both shows were written by the same person.)
• Law & Order: Criminal Intent is often more of a "whydunnit" than a "whodunnit", and as such it's not uncommon for the viewers to get insight into the case that the detectives don't have, which can lead to moments of Dramatic Irony.
  • In "Family Values", the audience is shown who the killer is within the first few minutes of the episode. Since he has a personal connection to the victims, the detectives end up speaking to him several times (for details on the victims) before they find out he's the perpetrator.
  • In "Homo Homini Lupus", the viewer witnesses the abduction of a family and subsequent acts committed against them. Afraid of the consequences of talking, the family stonewalls detectives, so the viewer ends up knowing a lot more than the police do at some points.
• Little House on the Prairie has a particularly chilling example in the Season 7 episode "Come Let Us Reason Together". Perceval and his father, both Jews in the 1880s, are arguing about Perceval's choice to change his name from Cohen to Dalton when travelling west on the frontier. They discuss the history of Jewish persecution.
  Isaac: Understand, my son, we Jews must survive. Since the beginning of time, other men have tried to destroy us.
  Perceval: Papa, people are educated now. That kind of craziness won't happen again. It's almost the 20th Century!
• Lost Love in Times: Yuan Ling says the emperor is his father... five minutes after the viewer learns Yuan Ling is actually the emperor's nephew.
• In The Magicians, Elliot spends most of Season 4 trapped in his own mind as a victim of Demonic Possession. During this time, he realized the greatest regret of his life was turning down Quentin when the latter confessed his love for him. Eliot makes a promise to himself that he would give Q a chance once the current crisis was over. What he didn't know was that Quentin had made up with Alice and they had gotten back together before the climactic battle. Eliot never got to see Quentin before his Heroic Sacrifice, but if Q hadn't died, he would have chosen Alice since he had long moved on from Eliot's rejection, meaning El was setting himself for heartbreak without even realizing it.^note Sure, El and Q had a polyamorous relationship involving a woman in the 60 years they spent in an alternate timeline, but the more strait-laced Alice would have almost certainly not been okay with that.
• While Superman has the legendary Superman/Lois Lane/Clark Kent love triangle in pretty much every incarnation, there is a very specific bit of Dramatic Irony in Lois & Clark, the 1990s Superman TV series. Basically, Clark confesses to Lois that he's in love with her, but she turns him down. Later that episode, Lois confesses to Superman that she's in love with him, actually telling him that "I would love you if you didn't have superpowers and were just a regular guy."
• The season 3 finale of Lost and all of season 4: while Jack is doing his damnedest to get all the survivors rescued, and sorta succeeds by the end of season 4, the flash forwards that ran concurrently are showing how only a handful of characters got rescued and their lives turned to crap afterwards. Even more ironic (both in a dramatic and a tragic sense) since the first flashfoward ends with Jack telling Kate that they never should have left the island.
• Mako Mermaids: An H₂O Adventure: In the first season, the mermaid trio has several ideas on how to turn Zac back from a merman to a normal human, none of which are actually possible, which the audience knows if they watched H₂O: Just Add Water. Nixie believes his powers are only temporary (they're not, the enchantment is permanent unless a stronger magical force breaks it), Lyla thinks she can zap the magic out of him (water based zapping does nothing but tickle him), and Sirena believes getting him in the Mool Pool during a full moon will change him back (in that case, the H₂O trio would have ended before their first season was over).
• In The Mandalorian, unlike the audience, the Mandalorian and many other characters do not recognize the Child's species and do not fully understand the extent of the Child's abilities or why the Imperials are so desperate to get their hands on it. In parts of the galaxy, including the one seen in the show, "the Force" is just a myth that not a lot of people have heard of.
• From BBC's series Merlin, you could make a drinking game every time Arthur insults Merlin and calls him stupid, cowardly, and how little he understands being trapped by duty and destiny, or the number of times that Arthur assumes that Merlin is a Muggle. Even more dramatic irony comes from the fact that we the audience know that Merlin is (or will one day become) a Living Legend, Person of Mass Destruction, and The Archmage...who's also an adorable, clumsy goof.
• The Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers five-parter “Green With Evil” runs with this. The viewer knows that Tommy is the evil Green Ranger, but since Tommy takes out Zordon early on and damaged the Command Center, the Rangers are spent flailing helplessly against an enemy that knows who they are but not them. They only find out at the end of the penultimate chapter due to him attacking the Command Center to fully take out Zordon for good.
• Mimpi Metropolitan:
  • In episode 3, audience know from the start that the goat that Bambang, Alan and Prima found belongs to Mami Bibir. Everyone in the story only find out in the last 10 minutes. The most amusing case is when Mami Bibir knocks on the boys's door, likely to order them to search for the goat, but the boys avoid her because they are afraid she will berate them for letting a goat enter the dorm.
  • In episode 8, Bambang, who has been in a bad mood because of Alan since last night, shows up in the dorm wielding and sharpening a sickle, then posts a photo of himself wearing fake-tattoo sleeves. The other characters spend most of the episode worrying that Bambang has snapped and is plotting to kill Alan or is joining a criminal gang. The audience know from the start that Bambang is just working as a grass cutter.
• Monarch: Legacy of Monsters: In "Secrets and Lies", there's a flashback to the Bikini Atoll atomic test which attempted to kill Godzilla in The '50s. Monarch, especially Keiko, are distraught when Godzilla disappears in the blast, while the military are celebrating. What none of them know, but the audience already knows from the show's first episode or from the MonsterVerse's founding lore in the first film, is that Godzilla survives the blast none worse for wear.
• Monty Python's Flying Circus invokes this in-universe in the "Pirahna Brothers" sketch. Dramatic irony is one of the things Doug Pirahna uses to punish any of his associates that disappoints him. (The others being sarcasm, metaphor, bathos, puns, parody, hyperbole, litotes and satire.)
• My World… and Welcome to It: Played for Laughs. The episode "The War between Men and Women" begins with John describing how a catastrophic falling out between Phil Jensen and his wife Ruth began, when Phil became exasperated by Ruth's constant interruptions as he tried to tell a funny story. Partway through John's retelling, his wife Ellen enters and continually interrupts his monologue. Fortunately, John and Ellen do not end up in a fight over this.
• Played for Laughs on The Munsters, where Marilyn and the rest believe she is the ugliest member in the family because boys keep running off after the first date. The audience are the only ones aware that she's actually very attractive (being the only one who looks human), and it's the sight of everyone else (especially Herman) that scares the boys off.
• The Cannonball Chemistry episode of MythBusters makes use of this, since (as the Build Team mentions at the beginning), it was during the filming of that episode that a mishap at the Alameda County Bomb Disposal Range sent a cannonball through a person's house. Later, we see the setup for the cannon tests, and listen to The Narrator carefully describe all the safety measures the MythBusters are using to keep things from going wrong... while everyone watching knows that won't be enough.
• About half of the NUMB3RS episode "Trust Metric" is this, pretty much from the point when Colby first contacts Don. Colby tells Don that his "defection" is a cover and he's still working for the FBI, and he tells Don two people who he can check it out with: Agent Michael Kirkland and the ranking guard on the prison transport he escaped from. We've already seen Colby talking with a man who is later established to be Kirkland, and we know from their conversation that the ranking guard was in on it. But when Don tries to check out Colby's story, Kirkland is dead and the guard, suspecting a trick, insists he had nothing to do with the escape. Viewers know Colby is telling the truth^*unfortunately, so does the Big Bad, but the FBI team does not.
• Due to the nature of Obi-Wan Kenobi, this occurred a lot.
  • Obi-Wan and Bail believe that Anakin had died from his wounds on Mustafar. Of course, the audience is well aware he is alive.
  • Reva complains about coming to Tatoonie, that it is a waste of time, as she is obsessed with capturing Obi-Wan rather than the minor Jedi the Inquisitors are hunting, not realizing that Tatoonie is where Obi-Wan is hiding.
  • Reva also threatens to kill Owen and his family if no one reveals the whereabouts of the Jedi, completely unaware she is threatening the son of Darth Vader, her boss.
  • Reva decides to kidnap Leia to lure Obi-Wan out, since "[Obi-Wan] fought beside her father in the war." She is actually talking about Bail, not realizing Leia is the daughter of Darth Vader.
  • In the second episode, while escorting the ten year old Princess Leia to safety, Obi-Wan remarks that Leia reminds him of a stubborn, determined woman he used to know, sadly concluding that she died some time ago. Leia offers Obi-Wan her sympathies, not realising the woman he was talking about was her deceased biological mother, Padmé Amidala.
• Once Upon a Time:
  • It has already been established that Rumplestiltskin is a Dirty Coward, who crippled himself to avoid service in the Ogre Wars. When we get to the episode where this happens, Rumplestiltskin is initially excited to be drafted. He admits that he is afraid, but says everyone has been treating him with contempt because his father was a Dirty Coward and assumes that he must be as well, and so this is his chance to prove them wrong. Oops.
  • The episode does reveal the real reason he crippled himself. A seer told him his actions on the battlefield would leave his child fatherless, so he crippled himself to avoid fighting, which lead to the events that left his son fatherless. He was not amused.
  • Then there's this gem:
  Dr. Frankenstein: The name Frankenstein shall become synonymous with life!
  • Rumpelstiltskin encounters a lot of this in the throwaway comments of other characters, since he knows the future and they don't. As he points out:
  Rumpelstiltskin: When you see the future, there is irony everywhere.
  • A particular note must go to a flashback episode set shortly after Storybrooke is created, wherein Regina realizes (part of) Rumplestiltskin's Evil Plan, and storms into his shop to confront him, going on a long rant...and Rumple, not yet having regained his memories, has literally no idea what she's talking about.
• In Outlander, Brianna has sex with Roger, and Lizzie mistakes Roger's playful pulling at her for actually forcing sex on her. That same night after he leaves, she gets raped by the villain and Brianna doesn't explain that it wasn't Roger. Jaime has never met Roger, so his first impression is that he is the guy who raped her daughter. The audience knows all of this, and this scene is literally cringeworthy since Roger is the exact person she wants to see.
• The first episode of Powerless (2017) ends with the Wayne Security crew discovering that Batman was able to capture the Joker using his own version of a device they developed. They're amazed that Batman developed a device similar to their own around the same time. The audience is more likely aware that Batman (aka Bruce Wayne) used their device since he's their boss' cousin and they sent it to him for approval.
• Princess Agents: When they're captured Yan Xun tries to assure Chu Qiao his father will come to their rescue. Unknown to him, his father and the rest of his family have already been murdered.
• A huge example would be the plot of Raven's Home; Raven’s son Booker has somehow inherited her foresight ability, but neither of them is aware of the other’s. Raven hasn’t told the kids and is afraid to do so, while Booker was about to tell Raven only to get interrupted, but his friend Levi convinces him not to tell her. The Season 1 finale “Vest In Show” has them both have a shared vision, yet they almost find out the truth.
• Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace:
  • Early in the series Hongli promises Ruyi he'll protect her and won't let her suffer. The audience know from the start that Hongli and Ruyi's relationship is doomed, and sure enough he spends the rest of the series breaking that promise.
  • Yuyan's downfall comes after she's blamed for causing Jingsi's death. She's guilty of causing many deaths, but this is the one time she has nothing to do with it.
• Sadakatsiz: Played for Drama. Because doctor Asya hasn't started a new romantic relationship since her divorce, everyone wrongly assumes that she still loves her ex-husband Volkan. Opinions on Volkan are the exact opposite, seeing he's married his mistress Derin. The truth is another matter entirely — Asya is content with living with her son Ali and Volkan is unhealthily obsessed with his ex-wife, so he keeps hounding and harassing her. When Derin goes missing, the rumors cause everyone to suspect Asya and Volkan of having disposed of Derin so they can resume their relationship.
• The Shield: Used to tragic effect in season five finale. To flush on the Strike Team, Lt. Jon Kavanaugh has a false rumor spread that Lem was going to cut a deal for himself and sell out the IAD. Upon hearing this, Shane tries to persuade Lem to relocate to Mexico. When Lem refuses, Shane reluctantly drops a grenade in his car, killing him to stop his "so-called" betrayal. Upon learning in the season six premiere that Lem wasn't going to sell them out, Shane is distraught that he killed his friend on a misconception, and nearly committed suicide.
• Smallville:
  • Clark, talking about his future plans, says something along the lines of 'I don't know what I want to do; I just don't want to put on a suit and fly around a lot'. Which is cool, because the audience knows full well what's going to happen.
  • Smallville used Dramatic Irony several times an episode. Clark and Lex frequently proclaimed that their friendship would be lifelong. Clark and Lois disliked each other for a long time after meeting, but it wasn't really Tsundere, because there wasn't any "dere" involved, it was just intended as irony. Neither Clark nor Lois liked journalism at first. Clark kept on having issues with trust and secret-keeping and suspicion with several of his friends, while he was keeping a bigger secret than any of them.
  • There's also the Smallville episode where Clark spends like five minutes ranting about how dangerous Luthors are and how they can't be trusted and how basically they're doomed to be evil no matter what, just because of their blood. He says all of this to Tess, who had only recently found out that she's Lionel Luthor's daughter and who was already having trouble handling it. (When at the end of the episode Clark realizes what he's done, he apologizes for making assumptions, realizing that 1) Lionel's influence is what makes Luthors so dangerous 2) Tess is already beating herself up for something that isn't her fault, and doesn't need his help making it worse.)
• A minor one runs under several seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Viewers learn that Odo is in love with Kira in Season 3's "Heart Of Stone", but Kira herself doesn't find out until "Children of Time", two seasons later.
• Another example of dramatic irony done for dramatic tension. In Star Trek: Enterprise the Xindi are on a genocidal mission to wipe out humanity, due to them being told that in a few hundred years, humans will completely kill off all the Xindi. Thing is, it's a lie; the Xindi and the humans are actually going to join forces in the next few centuries and defeat their common foe, known as the Sphere Builders.
• Star Trek: The Next Generation:
  • "Conundrum", there's some real-time dramatic irony: We know Kieran MacDuff is out of place on the Enterprise, but thanks to Laser-Guided Amnesia, the crew does not.
  • In "The Mind's Eye", Geordi is traveling to Risa for a seminar, but on his way there, he gets abducted and brainwashed by Romulans into a Manchurian Agent. They implant Fake Memories about Risa to hide their work. For the rest of the episode, viewers know that he wasn't on Risa, that the Romulans are up to something, and that Geordi has been programmed to play some kind of role in that plot, but Geordi is completely unaware of any of this.
• Star Trek: Voyager: "Timeless" involves a Bad Future where Harry and Chakotay were the sole survivors of Voyager when its experimental quantum slipstream drive malfunctioned mid-warp, sending the ship crash-landing on a deserted planet outside the Alpha Quadrant, killing everybody aboard (Harry and Chakotay were aboard the Delta Flyer mapping Voyager's course). The story is intercut with flashbacks leading up to the accident, showing the crew excited about using the slipstream drive, which the audience knows will kill them (at least till Harry, Chakotay, along with the newly-reactivated Doctor, prevent the accident from happening).
• Supernatural loves this.
  • For example, it's tough to sympathize with Whiny/Season 1 Sam when he calls Dean the perfect Golden Boy of the family when we see the last few episodes of Season One and see that John showed more outward concern for Sam than he ever did for Dean.
  • "Home" is pretty much this as well. Missouri takes any chance she can to verbally beat Dean down while Sam is sniggering like a bratty little brother yet the tearful phone call beforehand (want to answer your phone once in a while, John?) shows just how much this whole thing is upsetting him. Poor lamb.
  • Used for tragic effect in "In the Beginning". It's heartbreaking seeing a teenage John Winchester who "still believes in happy endings" when you know how he ends up.
    • Made worse in "The Song Remains the Same", with the past version of John Winchester ranting to Sam about what a terrible person Sam's father must have been. Sam ends up trying to defend him and make peace with him (for fights they haven't had yet) at the same time, all without letting on that John is his dad.
    • Also in "In The Beginning", Mary telling Dean that the worst thing she can imagine is her kids being raised to be hunters. The look on his face is heartbreaking, and he immediately tries to warn her about her death so she can have her wish. It doesn't work.
  • Also, Sam's blood habit in season 4, which is shown onscreen and discussed with a couple other characters before Dean finds out. When he does find out, he's not happy.
• Tidelands (Netflix): Augie sends Colton to protect Cal, not knowing he nearly murdered her recently and at the time is intent on trying again.
• In 2014, Top Gear (UK) sent their hosts to Argentina for a special road trip. The trip ended with the hosts under fire from an angry mob who thought that the license plate on Jeremy's Porsche was a reference to The Falklands War. When they mention that their journey into Argentina was meant as a diplomatic mission, you can't help but cringe when you know how it's going to end.
• In Season 3 Episode 11 "Our Town" of The Vampire Diaries, Damon invokes this trope:
  Damon: Stefan just grabbed Elena.
  Klaus: Well, he's getting desperate.
  Damon: He's gonna try and use her against you. Do what he says, get rid of your hybrids.
  Klaus: Or what? Stefan would never dream of killing her.
  Damon: You sure about that? He just tried to behead someone in the middle of a Council party. He's operating on crazy right now.
  Klaus: Well, crazy or not, that kind of love never dies. He's bluffing.
  Damon: Maybe he is, maybe he isn't but if you don't want to believe him, believe me. I know my brother better than anyone, and right now, I don't have a clue how far he is willing to take this. So if he says blink, I suggest you blink.
  • Hilarious in hindsight simply because, yet again, Damon is not only wrong, but also does not in fact know his brother better than anyone. While Stefan admittedly does go too far, even in his revenge-fueled mission, the actual thought of intentionally hurting Elena, either physically or emotionally, hurts him; let alone actually killing her. And when he realizes how badly he did hurt her, you can tell he immediately feels immense guilt.
• In The Untamed, Jiang Yanli repeatedly reassures her brothers Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng that the three of them would always be together. The first two episodes already establishes that she would marry into the Jin clan and that she was long dead in the present time and Wei Wuxian would have a falling out with Jiang Cheng and the Jiang clan.
• The split up in The Walking Dead at the end of season 6 causes a few examples.
  • Rick's group is abducted by Negan's Saviors while they're trying to get Maggie to the Hilltop because she's having complications with her pregnancy. Negan kills Abraham and Glenn before forcing the others to submit to working for his group and taking Daryl prisoner as insurance after it was his outburst over Abraham's murder that directly led to Glenn's. The problem is, the group wants to keep Alexandria's allegiance with the Hilltop a secret, so when Maggie makes it the rest of the way to the Hilltop, they let Negan believe she died instead. Unfortunately, the group can't communicate to Daryl that Maggie is actually alive and he's left to believe that she's really dead and that her last memory of him was likely his unintentionally getting her husband killed.
  • Carol, who ran away from Alexandria before any of this took place, but is just outside another group Alexandria soon ends up allied with, is left without being informed about any of this. Daryl even meets her with the intention of telling her about what happened, but when he sees how happy she is to see him again and how satisfied she is with her current arrangement, he can't bring himself to tell her.
• In Word of Honor, at one point, Cheng Ling innocently proclaims that his master Zhou Zishu is strong and would live a long life, when the audience (along with Wen Kexing and Ye Baiyi) are well aware that Zhou Zishu only has, at best, two years left to live due to his self-inflicted injuries.

---