Deceptively Silly Title

The Candyman caaaan... KILL YOU.

A very common trope used mostly by children's novels, and sometimes by young adult novels. In an attempt to appeal to kids, many authors or often publishers will give books silly titles that have nothing to do with the actual content of the book, which is often a realistic drama. Executives apparently assume that kids (or parents) will only buy something that they think is funny, but actually genuinely enjoy it if the story turns out to be a Tear Jerker.

As a result, what is essentially a bait and switch is pulled. Lure the kid in with the humorous title and possibly cover art, but once the kid is reading, the book gradually turns into more and more of a drama. Sometimes a very depressing one, at that.

Often deliberately invoked with horror films, as well, in which case, it's not so much a case of Covers Always Lie as it is a comparable trope to the Ironic Nursery Tune.

In the examples, please list what the book is actually about in addition to the title and what it might refer to. Books that actually are silly obviously do not fit this trope. For this reason, it tends to be used in works running on Disguised Horror Story.

Sister trope of Trivial Title and Sarcastic Title. See also Covers Always Lie, Never Trust a Title, Fluffy the Terrible. In gaming, this can lead to Surprise Difficulty.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Banana Fish sounds like pure Word-Salad Humor, but it's actually a Conspiracy Thriller infamous for its dark subject matter and its numerous Tear Jerker moments. "Banana Fish" is the name of a Fantastic Drug within the story, as well as a reference to J. D. Salinger's short story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" (which is brought up early on in the story itself).
• Happy Sugar Life is a psychological horror series starring a Villain Protagonist who kidnaps a child out of "love". In-Universe, Satou calls her life with Shio a "Happy Sugar Life", because she feels like her body is filled with sweetness when she is with Shio.
• Magical Witch Punie Chan has a similar title to other cutesy Magical Girl works aimed at young girls, but it's really a Black Comedy that contrasts a cute art style with brutal violence. This isn't so much the case with its original Japanese title, Dai Mahou Touge, which is a reference to The Sword of Doom (known in Japanese as Dai-bosatsu Touge).
• Tatsuki Fujimoto's first published oneshot is about the last surviving humans hiding in plain sight after an alien invasion. The title is a Japanese tongue-twister Niwa ni wa Niwa Niwatori ga Ita, officially translated A Couple Clucking Chickens Were Still Kickin' in the Schoolyard, because the protagonists disguise themselves as chickens.

Comic Books

• Fun Home by Alison Bechdel. Fun is short for "Funeral", and the subtitle, "A Family Tragicomic", is in small print. It's actually an autobiographical comic about the troubled relationship between Alison and her father Bruce, a high school teacher and funeral home director, and the events leading up to Bruce's death.

Fan Works

• Flowey is Not a Good Life Coach doesn't just have the title itself, but the chapters are named in incredibly silly ways, such as it looks more like a garamond to me but no one asked me, apology spaghetti to express the regretti, and you will be KILLED BY DEMON.
• How to Sex Vol. 4–58 is a Dream SMP fanfiction, written from the perspective of Tommy, taking place in an Alternate Universe where Punz and about half the server never came to save him and Tubbo from Dream. Tommy is writing them while locked up in Pandora's Vault after watching Tubbo die, and the comedy is interspersed with heartrending indications of Tommy's trauma and suffering. As seen most prominently in the comments section:
  totallynotbaku: HOW THE FUCK DID YOU MANAGE TO MAKE "HOW TO SEX" ANGSTY
• The prequel to Blossoming Trail, Infinity Train: Knight of the Orange Lily has the 400 Rabbits Car (the fourth car in the story) in which the first part ends with a child in a rabbit mask arriving on a chair with spider legs and delves into mind control and Alternate Identity Amnesia, and changes the direction of the story.
• In Infinity Train: Blossoming Trail, the more innocent the titular car, the darker the subject matter. Case in point:
  • The Plush Penguin Car: an adorable car where penguins hold penguin potlucks and lots and lots of ice cream. It also reveals that the Apex had attacked poor Nico, Nico himself has been bullied by his peers and his best friend may have been wheeled by the cultists.
  • The Crayon Car: Most of the car is drawn to look like it was made of crayons. It's also the car that reveals why Chloe is forced to go to the Cerise Lab every day.
  • The Elephant Teapot Car: While, Chloe, Atticus and Lexi get to have tea made by large elephant teapots, it also cuts to scenes of The Fog Car where Hop is somehow mentally regressing into a child and Paul is being tortured for letting an Apex child drown.
  • The Car after that, "The Cyan Desert Car" is about Chloe heading off to an Arabian village on a ship across a blue sea of sand. Meanwhile, her brother has just unleashed the Unown and the second-to-last chapter of the arc ends with a child contemplating suicide.
• Little Miss Heropants: The title of the fic is based off a line from the first Freedom Planet game where Carol says to Lilac "Can't you be 'Little Miss Heropants' some other time?" The premise of this fic is that Lilac has PTSD due to Lord Brevon torturing her.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • Cupcakes (Sergeant Sprinkles) is about an insane Pinkie Pie slowly and violently torturing Rainbow Dash to death in her basement, then using Dash's remains as an ingredient in the titular cupcakes.
  • Likewise, Rainbow Factory is about an alternate universe where Cloudsdale's rainbows are made from young Pegasus fillies and colts who fail their final flight test.
  • With its Portmantitle, Vampiolence sounds like a balls-off-the-walls action story. While there are action-packed moments, that's mostly saved for the climax. The story's actually more of a romantic tragedy.
• Invoked by the author of the fic Of Sheep and Battle Chicken, who wanted the title to be memorable. Keep in mind that this is a Dark Fic that verges on Cosmic Horror and examines stuff like politics, war crimes, rape, etc.
• You would expect a Channel Awesome-related fic called That Guy with the Glasses in Space would show a very silly story to go along with the title, right? Well... You'd be sorely mistaken.

Film — Animated

• One would normally expect an animated film named Princess to be something cute and whimsical, probably akin to the Disney Princess films, instead of the bleak revenge tale it actually is. "Princess" is in fact, the "artistic name" of a porn actress whose brother goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge after her death, assisted by her five-year-old daughter.

Film — Live-Action

• The "Mr. Babadook" book from The Babadook (a Nightmare Fuel Colouring Book about infanticide). And arguably the film itself, a very effective horror movie with a rather goofy name.
• The Brown Bunny is a long and rambling road movie, infamous for an unsimulated blowjob scene.
• Beetlejuice sounds like it could be a Judy Blume novel, and it is a comedy — but much of the humor is mined from very grim subjects: death, Purgatory, exorcism, spiritualism, suicide, and all-around angst.
• The Torture Porn film The Bunny Game.
• The Bye Bye Man is about three college students haunted by a spirit who curses people with madness if they say his name.
• Candyman is a horror movie about a murderous ghost who operates a lot like Bloody Mary.
• The Candy Tangerine Man sounds like a children's story about a magical being. It's actually a crime thriller about a pimp.
• Child's Play is about a murderous toy. However, this isn't likely to fool anyone who isn't looking at a list of only names, though, since the posters, trailers, DVD covers, etc., make it quite clear what genre the movie is in. It's definitely not a case of Covers Always Lie.
• Donnie Darko, sounds silly at worst, ambiguous at best. Lampshaded by Gretchen, who says it sounds like a superhero name.
• Christopher Nolan's first film was a black and white three-minute short about a skinny, insane guy obsessively hunting his apartment for some small scurrying creature so he can kill it with a shoe. Said creature turns out to be a miniature version of himself (who is in turn searching for something to squish). He finally manages to kill it with the shoe, only to be squashed himself by a giant version of himself with a giant shoe. The film's title? Doodlebug.
• Dr. Giggles, a horror movie.
• Funny Games, a film about two guys who decide to murder a family just because they can in 4th wall breaking fashion, is not that funny.
• The Game (1997) is about a mind-game — and not a fun one, either.
• Another Torture Porn film series is called Guinea Pig, although its subtitles are usually full of Gory Deadly Overkill Title of Fatal Death.
• As above, woe betide you if you mistake Hard Candy for a film about confectionery. It's about a sociopathic teenage girl torturing a pedophile.
• Home Sweet Home (2005) is actually a horror film revolving around a family whose only son gets abducted by a monster from a local urban legend.
• A more adult example with 'Mumsy Nanny Sonny And Girly''. The title is ironic and reflects the whimsical and childlike state of the characters, but does nothing to convey that they are actually sadistic, Ax-Crazy kidnappers.

Literature

• Al Capone Does My Shirts is a deceptively childish title for a book which explores issues such as family and living with an autistic sibling.
• Blubber by Judy Blume sounds silly, but it's actually the mean-spirited nickname given to an overweight girl by her bullying peers. The book is a harshly realistic look at bullying.
• A Boy and His Dog by Harlan Ellison. While it is a story about a Boy and his Dog, it takes place After the End and is NOT for children.
• Robert Cormier's The Chocolate War — Yes, there is a war about selling chocolates, in a sense. But it's actually about a high-school student's attempt to assert his individuality and the harassment he receives from a clique of students that practically runs the school.
• Daddy's Little Girl sounds like it could be a fairly innocent story about a girl who has a close relationship with her father. It's actually a serious crime thriller in which a Daddy's Girl is brutally murdered, with her surviving sister having a strained relationship with their father rooted in the tragedy (including feeling like The Un-Favourite).
• The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Carolyn Mackler. Despite the silly title, it's about an overweight girl who feels like she doesn't belong in her own family, and whose brother later gets suspended from his college for date rape.
• Another Cormier book, I Am the Cheese, could fit here too; one might conclude from the title that the story inside is rather lighthearted, except when one finds out that the story is about how the protagonist's family has to go into the Witness Protection Program to avoid being murdered by the mob. The title is a reference to the nursery song "The Farmer in the Dell", and the ending reveals he is "the cheese" which "stands alone" at the end of the song because his parents were killed and he's been spending the last few years in a mental hospital while agents of some kind of Government Conspiracy tries to unearth his memories.
• There's also An Ice-Cream War by William Boyd. It is set against the background of World War I in German East Africa.
• It Seems My Son Has Been Reincarnated Into Another World sounds like your standard Shousetsuka ni Narou-styled Isekai fantasy title, albeit from the perspective of a third party. What it obfuscates is that it's a drama set on vanilla Earth as a mother processes her grief over her teenage son's untimely demise and her belief that he'd gone into a world similar to his favorite fantasy titles after death.
• The Rabbit novels by John Updike fall into this, since their titles - like Rabbit, Run - make them sound like they're for kids. They're actually about a man whose nickname is Rabbit, and he has some very child-unfriendly experiences.
• Hans Christian Andersen's The Rose Elf (The Rosebush Elf in some translations), the title of which suggests some sweet fairy story, is one of his most depressing and goriest tales, with the villain, in particular, chopping off the hero's head, which the heroine later takes as a keepsake. The ending features the villain torturously killed by flower spirits.
• There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom by Louis Sachar — This book is sad! The title comes from one scene in which a boy actually does go into the girls' bathroom and ends up discovered when he tries to sneak back out. The story itself is about a friendless kid with learning disabilities who is also a bit of a bully, and the help he receives from a counselor who turns his life around. It doesn't help that the book cover frequently shows a comical image of the titular boy being chased by some furious females.
• Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid, the Diary of a Wimpy Kid Spin-Off about Rowley. While he's still the same as usual, much of the story is vignettes about how Greg abuses his kindness and Extreme Doormat nature and repeatedly harasses him. While most of it is Played for Laughs, it ends on the note that while Rowley's parents acknowledge Greg is a bad influence, Rowley just thinks friends are meant to act this way to each other and still declares them best friends.

Live-Action TV

• Peaky Blinders sounds like the name of the tomboyish girl next door in a Nickelodeon cartoon, but it's actually a pretty intense crime drama. The name comes from the way the central gang use their signature weapon, a peaky cap with razorblades sewn into the brim, to blind people who stand in their way by cutting out their eyes.
• Squid Game is a very intense semi-dystopian suspense thriller about desperately-poor people getting baited into signing up for a Deadly Game.

Music

• "Party Cannon", written in a colorful childish font, is actually a Death Metal band, with releases names like "Volumes Of Vomit" or "Partied In Half".
• "Scherzo", the Italian word for joke, became a generic term in classical music for fast movements in 3/4 time. While many classical scherzi are indeed boisterous and light-hearted pieces, others, such as Frederic Chopin's Scherzo in B minor (Op. 20), can be stormy and even terrifying.
• Vocaloid: Hatsune Miku's "This is the Happiness and Peace of Mind Committee" by UtataP makes people think this song is about a committee that makes everyone happy. Wrong, this song is actually about a Happiness Is Mandatory society, where unhappy people are offered a choice of "how do you want to die? Hanged alive? Cooked alive? Decapitation?, etc."

Theatre

• There is a Brazilian play named Chocolate Factory (which actors made sure to note was not Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), deriving its name from a confectionery worker who killed himself after being released from months enduring Cold-Blooded Torture by the military dictatorship.
• "Funny" from City of Angels is a BSoD Song.

Video Games

• Annventure sounds like a comedic and lighthearted experience from the Pun-Based Title, but is a horror game series centered around The Legions of Hell invading Earth, with plenty of blood and dark themes.
• Chicken Police sounds comedic due to the "chicken" in the title, and does have its fair share of jokes and absurdist humor, but it is also a gritty, Film Noir Mature Animal Story.
• Planet Laika is written in faux-Cyrillic font and has a toy rocket on the cover. Something about the first dog to orbit the Earth? Not exactly; it's a Psychological Horror about exploration of Mars, with "Laika" being the nickname of the protagonist.
• Pony Island is, as Hardcore Gaming 101 describes it: "A super creepy game about a piece of software that seems to be possessed by the devil. Not actually (technically) about ponies."
• Puzzle Party sounds like a lighthearted puzzle game but is actually a horror game revolving around a relationship gone wrong.
• The infamous Team Happy Rainbow Panda Bears logo from Rework the Dead: Evil sounds like it could be sickly sweet from the title, but in reality, it depicts a panda that seems to have died a Cruel and Unusual Death. (Warning: NSFL)
• Soft & Cuddly, which contains some of the most disturbing imagery seen on the ZX Spectrum.
• Squirrel Stapler sounds like a quirky game with a Word Salad Title. It's actually about killing squirrels and stapling them to a corpse. ...and that's just the start.

Visual Novels

• Doki Doki Literature Club!'s title is deliberately meant to invoke feelings of a shovelware Anime Dating Sim, until you read the warnings and "Psychological Horror" tag on the Steam page. It turns out to be a metafictional, fourth-wall breaking horror experience.

Web Original

• The Pancake Family tells the story, from the point of view of a retired and traumatized detective, of the finding the remains of a family that was kidnapped and tortured for 20 years by crushing parts of their bodies to the point of being turned into pieces of flesh similar to pancakes while being kept alive via IV drips and breathing machines.
• Happy Tree Friends, which, despite its name, isn't very happy.
• Some of David Lynch's online projects have names like this.
  • Rabbits' title, while not outright deceptive (it is about rabbits) belies the series' unsettling tone and general air of dread.
  • Dumbland is a grotesque piece of Deranged Animation about a foul-mouthed psychopath's life in a nightmarish version of suburbia. It's very funny, but more than a little disturbing.

Western Animation

• Infinity Train:
  • The first half of the episode "The Ball Pit Car" lives up to the silly name. The second half? It involves The Conductor showing up, appearing to kill Atticus, Kate Mulgrowl the Cat, and One-One, turning Atticus (who's a talking corgi) into an Eldritch Abomination after appearing to kill him, and giving Tulip a Breaking Speech saying it's her fault her friends were put in danger.
  • Book 3's "The Color Clock Car" is about the group of Grace, Simon, Hazel and Tuba navigating a color changing labyrinth. It ends with Simon letting Tuba fall to her death to be ground by the wheels of the train and Hazel transforming into a turtle creature.
• Parodied in The Simpsons episode "Any Given Sundance", where Marge goes to see the independent films Regularsville and Candyland, which are about poor people and druggies respectively. She eventually gets the gimmick that the title means the opposite of what it is, which makes her think she'll like Chernobyl Graveyard (she doesn't).
• Downplayed with Smiling Friends, it's a comedy, but the humor is a lot darker than what the title would have you believe.
• The title of the Star vs. the Forces of Evil episode "Bon Bon the Birthday Clown" refers to a clown whose spirit Star and Janna try to contact with a seance a century after he died in a tragic accident. This isn't even the real focus of the plot, which is Star's growing feelings of jealousy about her best friend dating another girl. It ends with Star breaking down in tears after losing a vital heirloom and an important ally to her enemy.

Real Life

• The 1980s "Ice Cream Wars" in Glasgow, Scotland sound almost silly, reminiscent of a lighthearted comedy drama involving the sale of that well-loved dessert. In fact, the ice cream vans in question were being used as a front for drug sales and other criminal activity, and the violent criminal rivalry underpinning this resulted in the deaths of six members of one family in an arson attack.
• The term "Banana Wars" sounds like a bunch of wars that were literally being fought with bananas. It was actually a series of military interventions and occupations by the United States in several Central American countries done primarily to protect the monopoly of its fruit companies in the region, which included unrestricted access to the cultivation of bananas (this is where the term "Banana Republic" also comes from).
• The "Flower Wars", or "Wars of the Blossom", of the Aztec Empire did not feature Mesoamericans hitting each other with bouquets of flowers. Rather, they were ritualized battles staged for the purpose of acquiring prisoners so they could be taken back to the victors' capital and sacrificed to the gods. (Of course, the sacrificial victims got to attend a feast held in their honor before their deaths, so it wasn't all bad.)
• The similarly named "War of the Roses" was a series of civil wars fought over control of the English throne, so named because the two factions, the Yorks and the Lancasters, had a white rose and a red rose, respectively, as their family symbol.
• The 1739-1748 "War of Jenkins' Ear" between Great Britain and Spain (part of the War of the Austrian Succession) might have a silly name and a questionable official reason behind the declaration of war. But for the 20,000 dead, wounded, missing, or captured on the British side alone, it was most likely far less amusing.
• Swedish history gives us episodes like "the Håtuna games," "the Nyköping banquet," "the great Dalecarlian dance," "the Cudgel War" and the churchbell-rebellion. These were all nasty episodes of rebellions and coup d'etats.
• "Defenestration" is an Inherently Funny Word, and arguably counts as Amusing Injuries, but really it isn't very funny if it happens to you.
• General Butt Naked, the nickname for Joshua Milton Blahyi, who would lead his Butt Naked Brigade clad exactly as the name suggests, for the benefit of Liberian Warlord Roosevelt Johnson. Said actions including the willful sacrifice and cannibalism of child soldiers, genocides of entire tribes, and at least two confirmed cases of forced female circumcision (and probably many more).

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