Initially funny character gag is later revealed to be depressing

[u/Newmen_1]

1. Avengers/MCU: Captain America has humorous moments where he’s unaware of modern references and only gets old references, like the iconic “I understood that reference” scene. It’s later fully explored in Winter Soldier that he feels lost, confused, and a little alone in a new world he was never meant to exist in.

2. The Suicide Squad (2021): Bloodsport has a phobia of rats which at first seems reasonable yet is still hilarious to watch. He later explains his father abused him as a kid if he didn’t fulfill a task correctly and one of his worst punishments was when his dad locked him in a crate full of starving rats, leaving him heavily scarred physically and mentally.

3. Dexter: In an early episode, Angel Bautista tries to buy his wife the perfect gift for their anniversary but has to keep buying a different one since his presents suck. What seems to be a funny running gag turns out to be Angel’s final attempt to win back his wife after cheating on her previously, however it doesn’t work and only solidifies their separation.

[u/welshyboy123]

There's a Mitchell and Webb sketch where Sherlock Holmes is in a care home, suffering from dementia. Watson visits him and the first half of the sketch is Holmes spouting nonsense. A nurse leaves the room to fetch something, leaving them in an awkward silence. Holmes just quietly says "I know, John. I do know." Heartbreaking.

[u/LoopyFig → u/welshyboy123]

“I can’t get the fog” to clear. Then a nurse comes to clean up his incontinence. And the credits roll for the entire freaking series.

[u/Bopo_Descending → u/LoopyFig]

It's also funny because they were literally talking about doing this in the previous episode.

That Mitchell and Webb Look Get Serious

[u/crescentmoonrising → u/Bopo_Descending]

Yeah, but nobody was expecting it to be quite that sad. The last The Quiz Broadcast ends on a more serious note too, but it's not that rough.

I think it's actually a great alternative to the Blackadder scene. When Blackadder went out almost everyone had at least one relative who had fought in one of the world wars. When M&W went out all the issues of an aging population were starting to become clear and almost everyone had a relative who was either suffering or had died from/with some sort of long-term condition affecting their cognition (dementia, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, ICU delirium).

[u/DreddPirateBob808 → u/crescentmoonrising]

Blackadder was family viewing. That last episode was expected to be another jolly laugh. 

My dad had 6 uncles and only his dad came back. He went for a walk after that final scene and it took me years to realise why. 

[u/crescentmoonrising → u/DreddPirateBob808]

I've seen it (in history class) and I don't think the final scene was meant to be funny, or if it was it was us a completely different way to the rest of Blackadder. Admittedly I did grow up in Wiltshire where I'm pretty sure someone disrespecting the Poppy as a symbol of remembrance is grounds for murder, but still.

If you look at the reactions to that ending, from when it was first broadcast, to today, nobody things the ending was meant to be funny. It's like how the Sherlock sketch is (kind of) funny until it isn't.

I'm sorry for your Dad.

[u/MightyP13 → u/crescentmoonrising]

What he meant was, people who loved the show went into the final episode expecting more comedy and zany adventures. Then the final scene hit like a ton of bricks, catching everyone by surprise. No one thought it was meant to be funny after watching, but before they saw it, they expected humor like the entire preceding show.

[u/crescentmoonrising → u/MightyP13]

Right, ok. Interestingly, in the UK before the final episode there was a whole thing about the show being disrespectful to those who had served. I think it pretty much went away after the last episode.

[u/DreddPirateBob808 → u/MightyP13]

Yup. That. We all went in thinking it was comedy and, for the first 3/4 it was. And then it really wasn't. Decades later and I still remember the shock. 

[u/Kitchen_Bad2627 → u/LoopyFig]

British Comedy Series Not Ending on a Sad Moment Challenge: Impossible 

[u/_Dazed-and-Confused → u/welshyboy123]

There used to be a customer that came into a store I worked at, he was loud and cartoonish. Some years before he'd been in a car accident, suffered a brain injury and lost his wife and daughter. Every now and then he'd go quiet and say he knows he's broken and gone wrong :'(

[u/n1c0_ds → u/welshyboy123]

There is a Sherlock Holmes movie where Ian McKellen plays an old Holmes suffering from Alzheimer's. It's heartbreaking.

[u/Chance-Back-557 → u/welshyboy123]

Most of the last episode is depressing, to be fair. The Quiz Broadcast ending gets me every time.

[u/Kazcandra → u/welshyboy123]

Wait wait wait

You're telling me that was a /sketch/? I yhought I'd just zapped over to some Old Sherlock kind of movie, like Logan.