Basic Trope: Humor based around making light of otherwise serious topics.
- Straight:
- Alice miscarries, and it's treated as a great thing, or just a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment, not a tragedy.
- A show that relies largely on Refuge in Audacity jokes for most of it's humor, relying on the sheer shock from how tasteless the joke is to catch people off guard.
- Exaggerated:
- Alice miscarries, and the whole world is congratulating her. See also Refuge in Audacity.
- The omnicidal Big Bad is close to completing his biological zombie weapon, crime levels have risen, every single species is now critically endangered, there're mutants all over the place, and sea levels are rising, yet Bob and Charlie crack jokes about everything wrong with the Crapsack World.
- Crosses the Line Twice
- Downplayed:
- Amusing Injuries, or just minor slapstick.
- Alice makes a humorous implication that Bob died, such as saying that he enjoyed his last meal when he died because of poisoned food.
- Justified:
- Everyone thinks Alice would be a terrible mom.
- Just because the world is ending doesn't mean you have to be dreary.
- Inverted: Alice makes faces at a baby and it's treated as bad.
- Subverted:
- Alice miscarries, and her friends come to spend time with her for awhile.
- Dude, Not Funny!
- Alice and company have only Dull Surprise reactions to traumatic happenings...
- Double Subverted:
- ...only to throw a party for her in a misguided attempt to cheer her up.
- Crosses the Line Twice
- ...which they later find perversely funny.
- Parodied: Alice's dead fetus gets up and starts doing the "Thriller" dance with other zombie fetuses.
- Zig-Zagged: Sometimes, the humor in the work is un-PC; other times, it's not likely to offend anyone.
- Averted:
- The work is not humorous at all, nor is it meant to be.
- The work is humorous and intended to be such, but does not make light of serious topics to be funny.
- Enforced:
- "We need to be funny, but also dark and edgy at the same time..."
- The author is trying to make a point by using sarcasm and drawing attention to the Elephant in the Living Room.
- Lampshaded:"So much for this being serious."
"Since when is a comedy supposed to be serious about anything? Oh right, I forgot: the writers wanted you to have no sense of humor so..." - Invoked: Alice miscarries, and the resident Jerkass makes an insensitive remark about how "It's much better this way..."
- Exploited: The creator of the show, knowing there's No Such Thing as Bad Publicity, milks every controversial joke they can.
- Defied: Alice miscarries, and her friends and family treat the situation like the tragedy it is.
- Discussed:"I thought this was meant to be serious."
"It's Black Comedy, not a PSA melodrama or a cautionary tale, you do know the difference, right?" - Conversed: "Wow, that abortion joke was horrible and offensive, yet so funny!"
- Deconstructed:
- Most of the cast jokes about Alice's miscarriage... but Alice herself does not think they're funny at all, delivering a "The Reason You Suck" Speech to everyone who made those jokes.
- The audience ends up finding the humor way too dark to be funny, which causes the audience to find it hard to care about the show.
- Reconstructed: Everyone apologizes for the offense and all is forgiven... but they continue to crack miscarriage jokes behind Alice's back.
Every time you go back to Black Comedy, an angel loses its wings mid-flight.
