Basic Trope: An episode that is way more serious than the others.
- Straight: Alice is a comical character in a sitcom and has a strange Verbal Tic where she ends her sentences with "doo-da". In one episode, it's revealed that she is forced to speak like that against her will due to a bad Noodle Incident from when she was in preschool and the whole episode is about Alice going to therapy and being unhappy.
- Exaggerated: In addition to this, Bob is in hospital unconscious, Fluffy the cat is dying and Carol and Dave's baby was stillborn, while the show is normally mostly jokes.
- Downplayed: There is a comedic subplot involving Bob having a Potty Emergency while trying to find a gift for Carol's birthday but the main plot with Alice and her verbal tic is still very dark.
- Justified: A situation in real life that became known nationwide had many implications for the future, and the producers of the show felt they had a moral obligation to cover the topic even though it was out of place of the show.
- Inverted: In an episode of a normally dark show, Alice, who's usually an angsty Woobie, gets over her childhood issues, leaves therapy, is much happier and starts saying "doo-da" at the end of her sentences.
- Subverted: It was All Just a Dream.
- Double Subverted: But it wasn't revealed as a dream until the very end, and Bob, who was the dreamer, is still crying because of it.
- Parodied: The title of the episode is "The Most Serious Episode of This Shów Ever".
- Zigzagged: Alice meets up with her old preschool teacher Evan who explains that her verbal tic came from a bad incident in preschool and Alice runs off sobbing to The Shrink...who tells Alice that Evan must have been mistaken as there is no psychological condition whose only symptom is saying "doo-da" at the end of your sentences and she perks right up. She then goes home only to find her husband Bob in tears because their cat Fluffy needs to be put to sleep...only he got mixed up and the vet only meant under anaesthetic to be sterilized. Then, they get a call from their neighbour Dave who tells them that he and Carol's baby was stillborn...only to find out that the baby was just unconscious and managed to be revived.
- Averted: The show has no dark episodes.
- Enforced:
- Someone wrote to the writers, asking for a "serious episode".
- They wanted to make an educational Very Special Episode.
- Lampshaded: "Man, thing are really going south!"
- Invoked: A serious villain tries to make it bad for the protagonists For the Evulz.
- Exploited: A demon who eats sadness feeds off Alice's sadness.
- Defied: Alice refuses to take the episode's events seriously.
- Discussed: ???
- Conversed: "Man, this episode was almost too serious for the show...I'm not sure I'm going to laugh when Alice says 'doo-da' again."
- Implied: ???
- Deconstructed: The episode being as dark as it is ends up being so jarring that it alienates many fans who had otherwise enjoyed the work up to that point, feeling the episode is extremely out of place, or that it resulted in characters and plot points they otherwise liked taking a turn they don't care for.
- Reconstructed: After the initial furor has died down, people end up being able to look back and appreciate what the episode was trying to do, noting that it added a layer of depth and nuance to characters and story ideas that had otherwise been relatively straightforward.
- Played for Laughs: Black Comedy Burst.
- Played for Drama: Playing it straight is dramatic enough.
Back to Unexpectedly Dark Episode.
