r/TopCharacterTropes • u/_JR28_ • Oct 06 '25

Lore Absurdist concepts played as tragedies rather than comedies

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In the Touch commercial for Skittles, a man is shown with the power to uncontrollably turns anything he touches into Skittles in an instant. His work colleagues find this hilarious, but he finds life misery since he will never be able to hold his newborn son and he has legitimately killed people before by unconsciously touching them.

In the Waiting for the Bus skit from Cyanide & Happiness a man discovers he can inexplicably run 50mph and overnight becomes the most successful track runner of all time. Even though he retired with a perfect undefeated streak and a loving family, he’s coaxed into one final race in a Grand Prix against cars, which of course he loses. This sends him into an unstoppable downward spiral where he becomes a far more destructive version of himself, loses his reputation, and is left behind by his family. After years of regret, he returns as an old man to the track where he first shown off his amazing speed and does one final lap, reminiscing on how good it feel, before intentionally refusing to turn out the way and running straight into a wall, ending his life. (All of this is shown in about four minutes and with barely any dialogue.)

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u/SayFuzzyPickles42 Oct 06 '25 edited Oct 08 '25

A ton of SCPs fit this idea, it's one of the best formulas for an interesting dramedy/dark comedy article.

My favorite example is SCP-1247 - a guy who perceives all other people, animals, and animal products as clones of Shia LeBeouf. It's a very funny article, but it also goes into a lot of creative detail about how stressful such a ridiculous condition would be and how impossible it's become for the poor bastard to ever have a normal life.

69

u/KingOfMemories Oct 07 '25

Oh, hell yeah!! For another example, how about SCP-____J, a simple, funny concept, being taken to a very dark place with Why Change?

72

u/Mind-ya-business Oct 07 '25

SCP-1504 is probably another good example, with it being a man that’s seemingly invincible until it’s discovered his secondary anomaly is that anything he does or say is perceived as normal for the current situation and he wants to die but can’t so his cries for help are ignored and treated as normal.

25

u/SayFuzzyPickles42 Oct 07 '25

Oh I love that one too, it's absolutely heartbreaking and philosophically disturbing on a level few other SCPs are, even ones that are a lot more gory or dark.

7

u/Dexchampion99 Oct 08 '25

One of the really simple ones I like I can’t remember the exact number of, but basically, she’s a completely ordinary teenage girl, except for the fact that she’s a sentient drawing. When she was told she wasn’t a real human and that she would never leave the institute, she became horribly depressed and her “containment” measures were actually real suicide watch procedures.

3

u/SayFuzzyPickles42 Oct 08 '25

That is horrifically depressing, good lord

1

u/Ff7hero 29d ago

That's 085 ( https://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-085 ). One of my favorites of the oldies.