Upsetting moments in otherwise not upsetting comedy

[SteveDave]

Have we had the Sherlock Holmes has dementia sketch from Mitchell and Webb yet? If not then that...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pp02ubGuTIU

[Cuellar]

I thought THAT was cloying and manipulative - hadn't a previous episode included a sketch about how you should always put one 'emotional' sketch in a series (probably a reference to that Rowley Birkin one)

[Cuellar]

I would nominate the Radio Ham episode of Hancock.

His crazed face when imagining the boat stranded at sea 'limp arms hanging out of bunks' and the way he growls 'Yellowjack!'

Something about that whole episode spooked me as a youth.

[SteveDave]

I thought THAT was cloying and manipulative - hadn't a previous episode included a sketch about how you should always put one 'emotional' sketch in a series (probably a reference to that Rowley Birkin one)

Obviously YOU'VE never died of Dementia like I HAVE.

[madhair60]

I thought THAT was cloying and manipulative - hadn't a previous episode included a sketch about how you should always put one 'emotional' sketch in a series (probably a reference to that Rowley Birkin one)

Yes, that was the joke!

[Blue Jam]

There's an episode of Men Behaving Badly where everyone finds out Gary has a load of savings in his bank, and its just awful. They make him feel bad for having the money, beg him for cash, extort thousands from him for charity. They make him feel so bad for having worked a job he hated and saved all his money from that the only way he can get them to stop is to pretend that he'd spent it all. Horrible stuff.

Oh yes, good call.

Similarly with Steves in People Just Do Nothing when his Nan dies and leaves him her meagre savings and one precious ring which is of great sentimental value to him and then his so-called mates proceeding to sponge off him, spending all his money down the strip club on Grindah's stag do and getting him to pawn the ring. I'd have expected that from Grindah but not for Decoy and Beats to have gone along with it.

Also when the police finally shut down Kurrupt FM and Steves gets arrested and takes the rap for the team. Horrible cliffhanger ending to series 4- and then when he has his ankle tag on in series 5 the rest of the guys are daring him to rush home before his curfew for the own amusement and he runs across the road and gets his by a car.

Poor Steves.

[Cuellar]

Yes, that was the joke!

Yeah well not really unsettling is it, just LAME

[Blue Jam]

The pans sketch in Mr. Show with Bob advertising pans in the style of the world's cheeriest domestic abuser, then Jill's tearful "I FELL DOWN THE STAIRS!" when David asks her what just happened. Bob's dodgy "British" accent somehow makes it even more upsetting.

[Icehaven]

FAKE EDIT: I'm probably reading too much into this and giving a tonally misjudged sick joke too much credit, but I wonder if this gag was a reference to the bizarre story of Elmer McCurdy's real corpse being used in a funhouse exhibition 60 years after he died: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmer_McCurdy

On December 8, 1976, the production crew of the television show The Six Million Dollar Man were filming scenes for the "Carnival of Spies" episode at The Pike. During the shoot, a prop man moved what was thought to be a wax mannequin that was hanging from a gallows.[29] When the mannequin's arm broke off, a human bone and muscle tissue were visible.[23]

Holy mother of god.

[olliebean]

I don't know if it counts as upsetting, but the Mitchell and Webb "Now we know" sketch feels fucking sinister to me, especially when you get it stuck in your head and start realising how often people use that exact phrase.

[ajsmith2]

Speaking of P. Whitehouse and his fantastic acting chops, my favourite' suddenly sad and sinister' moment of his comes at 6.45 into 'End Of An Era'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vXd9x7jhOA

'Don't you wish that you'd had a childhood.. like mine?'

[Blue Jam]

The Mel and Sue sketches from Morgana Robinson's sketch/impressions show The Agency. The ones where Mel's husband Tim is bitterly resentful of Mel insisting that Sue lives with them in their home, and Sue is weirdly manipulative and gaslighting towards Tim. It's the way Tim seems so weary and downtrodden and resigned, but at the same time like he's always just ten seconds away from flying into a murderous rage at Sue:

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1005740872868414

[Icehaven]

I don't know if it counts as upsetting, but the Mitchell and Webb "Now we know" sketch feels fucking sinister to me, especially when you get it stuck in your head and start realising how often people use that exact phrase.

I thought that about their Flamingos sketch too, more unsettling than upsetting.

[up_the_hampipe]

What about Mitchell & Webb's dark quiz show sketch? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaDZGjO30VU

I think that could have been a great Black Mirror episode.

[H-O-W-L]

Holy mother of god.

Dunno if you've ever seen the channel before but the fantastic Ask A Mortician did a video on the poor fucker.

[A Hat Like That]

the fresh prince bit with the boyfriend falling to his death skydiving!

that remains some excellent comic acting by all involved.

Anyway, plus ones for

- Godfrey in Branded
- "How come he don't want me man"

There's another particular scene in Dad's Army that gets to me. Battle for Godfrey's Cottage. There's a bit where they think they're the only men left and the plan is basically their death. All you get is a couple of quiet but firm 'yes sirs' and its back to the laughter.

[Blue Jam]

the fresh prince bit with the boyfriend falling to his death skydiving!

Oh good one. I love the bit just before that when Hilary appears on the stairs wearing a wedding dress and asks Phil: "Hey daddy! Guess what?".

Then it gets very bleak indeed...

[dr_christian_troy]

It's far too obvious to mention the very end of the last episode of Blackadder Goes Forth so I won't.

I found the ending of The Black Adder more upsetting to be honest. Without the intelligence and cunning of his descendants, despite his intentions to become King, I found him far more empathetic than later variations of the character. You have a hated outsider who is treated very poorly by his family, and then suffers horribly for it.

The end of Black Adder II as discussed in the "frightening" thread is certainly more creepy than upsetting. At the end of Blackadder the Third, I found myself feeling sorry for Prince George bizarrely, but there was zero emotional impact as it was played far more for laughs than any of the series endings by comparison.

[olliebean]

What about Mitchell & Webb's dark quiz show sketch? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DaDZGjO30VU

I think that could have been a great Black Mirror episode.

Until I watched it, I was sure you meant this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnd1jKcfBRE

[Dave The Triffids]

The conversations with the caller "Mary" in the "Anglian Lives" Alan Partridge special.  Not upsetting necessarily but very dark and unsettling.

[rectorofstiffkey]

The end of one League of Gentlemen series where Herr Lipp bids goodbye to Justin, who's buried in the flowerbed.  There was a tube poking up from the ground and (if memory serves correctly) sound effects of very laboured breathing and a ball going up and down in the tube.  It was probably meant to be just an over-the-top grossout moment but I found it really unsettling.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

The end of one League of Gentlemen series where Herr Lipp bids goodbye to Justin, who's buried in the flowerbed.  There was a tube poking up from the ground and (if memory serves correctly) sound effects of very laboured breathing and a ball going up and down in the tube.  It was probably meant to be just an over-the-top grossout moment but I found it really unsettling.

Also a reference to some film or other.

[Blue Jam]

Oh yes, and on the subject of The League of Gents: That time I was feeling a bit down and decided that watching series 1 might cheer me up, having clean forgotten the sketch in the very first episode where Mr Chinnery puts down the wrong dog... That may be the only bit of comedy I wish I could un-see. I'm no snowflake, but sorry, dogs are sacred.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Additionally, it could also be pointed out that the proposition that " The League Of Gentlemen" is generally not an upsetting comedy series is quite debatable.

[Blue Jam]

Yes, I'm not sure the LoG really count, but that was by far the most upsetting bit of "comedy" I have ever seen. I bet even Ricky Gervais winced at it.

[Icehaven]

Dunno if you've ever seen the channel before but the fantastic Ask A Mortician did a video on the poor fucker.

I've not but will watch that cheers. Read a bit around it all now too, bloody hell, "laff in the dark" eh?

[famethrowa]

Also on the Simpsons, where Homer cleans out the garage and throws out the half-finished robot onto the street to crawl away. So upsetting. Why is Homer such a dick? "Father.... give me legs...."

[jobotic]

Detectorists when Sheila talks to Lance about his daughter with the suggestion that she has lost or had to give up a child. Very moving and superbly acted.

[Cuellar]

Detectorists was good for these actually wasn't it. Sheila's weird trance-like dancing, the whole special which was basically an MR James story.

[purlieu]

The melancholic Rowley Birkin QC sketch which ends "I held her in my arms...I'm afraid I was very drunk."
Very un-Fast Show and a big departure from the character's usual amazing raucous laughing.
One of the best comic performances ever in my opinion and rightly gets a round of applause.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlZFfXAUr2I

Yeah, it needs context of just appearing in the episode to really work, but it's an astonishing performance. Similarly the Ted & Ralph sketches around Mrs. Ted's funeral - especially the credits sequence where the pair walk off to Vaughan Williams, and Ted collapses in tears near the end. Whitehouse is a tremendous actor. Also several scenes in Help, although that was a show dripping with pathos so maybe less suited to the thread.

Similarly:

Oh yes, and on the subject of The League of Gents: That time I was feeling a bit down and decided that watching series 1 might cheer me up, having clean forgotten the sketch in the very first episode where Mr Chinnery puts down the wrong dog... That may be the only bit of comedy I wish I could un-see. I'm no snowflake, but sorry, dogs are sacred.

Absolutely devastating, because it's played so straight, with real pathos in Gatiss's performance. Some Chinnery sketches are pretty slapstick, but that one is a fucking killer.

Game On. Admittedly a fairly nasty show, with none of the main characters ever being really being nice to each other, but I always found the points where Matt basically has a panic attack due to his agoraphobia and is played for laughs really difficult. Not to mention Mandy's fiancé dying on his way to the wedding, leaving her standing in a field, in tears, not even fully dressed (for some reason). Really, really difficult to watch.

Black Books. Another last episode, Bernard's "I had a girlfriend once. She died." moment, which is a proper curveball in an otherwise very whimsical show. A largely downbeat ending to the show.

Obviously One Foot in the Grave has far too many to count as 'not upsetting comedy', but y'know... dead child blah blah blah dead robin blah blah blah Margaret's coat in the canal blah blah blah life support machine blah blah blah last episode blah blah blah blind man. More heart-wrenching moments than most dramas come close to.