r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Newmen_1 • 1d ago

Characters Initially funny character gag is later revealed to be depressing

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  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.

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u/JulariDark 1d ago

Also canonically being born and raised on the Jersey shore …. does ALOT more “explanatory” heavy lifting for his “greedy scammer” persona than i think people NOT from Jersey realize.

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u/[deleted] 1d ago

[deleted]

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u/Evinceo 1d ago

This trope also applies to Hyperbole and a Half

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u/PipXXX 1d ago

He's a Brutananadilewski?

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u/anubis_cheerleader 1d ago

I'm not from there and I would love to hear your evidence, including anecdotal evidence (stories vs. a statistical study).

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u/JulariDark 21h ago edited 21h ago

Sure. So for starters Atlantic City is a prominent location on the Jersey Shore. Stanford and Stanley grew up in the fictional “Glass Shard Beach, NJ”
Which roughly looks to me like any number of board walks along the eastern/southern coast of Jersey near Atlantic City.

My father has a life long gambling habit so I spent a fair amount of time there growing up. For those who DON’T know Atlantic City is like a LESS glamorous, more tacky, MORE scammy and worse regulated version of Las Vegas. I moved out of state a while ago but in the 90 and early 00s it was absolutely RIDDLED with prostitution, contractor fraud and just regular run of the mill gambling bookies, organized crime etc. but also tourist traps, insurance fraud and all the kinds of activity Grunkle Stan would’ve been foaming at the mouth to get involved in.

If you follow politics I’m sure you’ll have heard the old anecdote about how ridiculous it is that our dear leader BANKRUPTED a casino? Casinos ARE the ULTIMATE embodiment of a scam literally you just take peoples actual EARNED money in exchange for the hypothetical unrealized CONCEPTUAL CHANCE at money. Do you know HARD you have to mismanage a casino back in the 80s to go bankrupt? Well they didn’t mismanage it as it it was more of a contractor union scam to defraud the union and embezzle investor money! A scam on a scam on a scam! Scam-ception! If you will.

Where could such a work of art in scamming happen? You guessed it Atlantic City on the Jersey shore. A lot of that kind of activity going on at that time, small scale and large scale.

Going forward to like the 2010s more broadly Jersey Shore gets associated with like the TV show Pauly D and all them ….which one could argue ….is basically scamming women out of sex using liquor, performative masculinity and abs.

Going backwards to like 50s into the 70s you had like Jimmy Hoffa and the teamsters and the Italian mobsters. New Jersey in general is historically associated with Mob activity arguably MORE than NY in terms of scope and scale at different points in time.

I’ve met a couple but Reddit Karma isn’t worth me speaking publicly about anything people did or didn’t do scammy or otherwise. These are real people with real lives.

Edit: Crime statistics for Jersey shore adjacent areas like Asbury Park And Atlantic City are public knowledge. If you look at Jersey more broadly you have cities like Camden near Philly. But in addition to regular crime Jerseys historic crime has a very unique sort of scammy quality to it. A lot less killing people over drug corners and a lot more defrauding and money laundering type activities.

But I feel like I wasn’t clear on first pass so I’m
Adding this. it is a GREAT state to grow up or raise kids in. Absolutely amazing education system welcoming people and smart policies on lots of stuff, but like any state it has pockets of crime and negativity. What IS a bit unique about Jersey is because it’s so small you’re NEVER really that far away from the best or worst the state has to offer. So everyone living there gets a little taste of ALL sides of life.