History Main / TheInverseLawOfFandomLevity

** Due to the equally grim and gritty spin-off {{Prequel}} ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' having more or less the same fanbase as ''Breaking Bad'', the same things apply to its fandom as well. This includes making up insanely goofy "theories" about Huell eating Kim to explain her absence in the main series, Saul being a MemeticBadass lawyer who can ChewbaccaDefense his way through any trial, turning Chuck's poignant "Chicanery" mental breakdown into a memetic copypasta, and so on.

* ''Series/BetterCallSaul'': Due to having more or less the same fanbase as ''Series/BreakingBad'', the same things apply to the equally grim and gritty {{Prequel}}'s fandom as well, with them making up insanely goofy jokes about Huell eating Kim, Saul being a MemeticBadass lawyer who can ChewbaccaDefense his way through any trial, turning Chuck's poignant "Chicanery" speech into a memetic copypasta, etc.

* ''Series/BreakingBad'' is regarded as one of the best gritty crime dramas of all time, but you wouldn't know it from the fans, who are obsessed with making dadaistic shitposts that barely connect to the show at all, such as the famous "kid named Finger" meme which despite using a picture of Mike Ehrmantraut is entirely divorced from anything which happens in the show. This wasn't quite odd during the first season as the show ''did'' start out as having plenty of BlackComedy elements, but as the series went on and [[CerebusSyndrome got more serious]], the fandom's hilarity only grew.

* While ''WebAnimation/TheAmazingDigitalCircus'' has the aesthetic of a ZanyCartoon and has plenty of slapstick and comedy, it's at the end of the day a very disturbing existential PsychologicalHorror story about individuals trapped in a digital world as they slowly start questioning their predicament. The fandom on the other hand, almost always leaves the existential horror out in favor of treating it like a purely wacky SliceOfLife comedy about the characters just hanging around.

* VideoGame/{{Undertale}} is an odd example, as the game is a mixture of quirky, silly and lighthearted moments with a rounded and interesting cast of characters, and NightmareFuel inducing scenes with themes such as genocide and unethical experiments with a large quantity of [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou fourth wall breaking]] (especially in the infamous No Mercy Route). The fandom will either focus on the former or the latter, and the content created by the fans makes it even more evident. On one side, you can find goofy shitposts and memes, lighthearted comics and fanarts and other wholesome stuff. On the other, you can find DarkerAndEdgier Alternative Universes, (such as Dusttale and Disbelief) and straight up nightmarish fanmade stories (such as Horrortale, Underworld and HELP_tale). Undertale's spin-off VideoGame/{{Deltarune}} is currently following this road too.
* VideoGame/XCom: The franchise is about a shady military organization that has the duty of protecting Earth and the human race from an AlienInvasion, where the survival of humanity is always on the razor's edge. The fanbase is famous for goofy {{Fan Nickname}}s like "Ayy Lmaos", "Thin Ments", and "Snek Tits", making jokes on how their attacks always fail (that's XCOM, baby) and a few {{Mondegreen Gag}}s. And let's not forget about Bradford's sweater and those ADVENT Burgers.

* ''Literature/AmericanPsycho'': The book is a bleak yet darkly comedic story about Patrick Bateman, a narcissistic man who lives a luxurious yet empty and unfulfilling life, and spends several of its chapters killing people[[note]]However, Bateman's status as UnreliableNarrator makes it ambiguous if he's actually a serial killer or if he's a delusional fantasist[[/note]] as a means of livening up his dull, humdrum life. The movie is similar though it does tone down the overall violence by omitting some of the more brutal scenes from the book. MisaimedFandom aside[[note]]Much like [[Film/Joker2019 Arthur Fleck]], he's considered a poster boy of the "Sigma Male" grindset and is idolized by the Manosphere despite the book/movie portraying Bateman as a shallow, narcissistic loser[[/note]], Patrick is often portrayed as far sillier than in canon, being associated with the meme song [[Music/SilvaGunner It's Hip to Fuck Bees]] which is often used as a replacement during the scene where [[MoodWhiplash he monologues about Huey Lewis and the News before hacking his coworker Paul Allen to death with an axe]]. In addition, he's often portrayed as being outshined by Paul Allen who always has a better version of what Bateman has or [[MemeticLoser is portrayed as even more of a pathetic loser]] than in canon.

* VideoGame/{{Undertale}} is an odd example, as the game is a mixture of quirky, silly and lighthearted moments with a rounded and interesting cast of characters, and NightmareFuel inducing scenes with themes such as genocide and unethical experiments with a large quantity of [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou fourth wall breaking]] (especially in the infamous No Mercy Route). The fandom will either focus on the former or the latter. On one side, you can find goofy shitposts and memes, lighthearted comics and fanarts and other wholesome stuff. On the other, you can find DarkerAndEdgier Alternative Universes, (such as Dusttale and Disbelief) and straight up nightmarish fanmade stories (such as Horrortale, Underworld and Help_tale). Undertale's spin-off VideoGame/{{Deltarune}} is currently following this road too.

* VideoGame/{{Undertale}} is an odd example, as the game is a mixture of quirky, silly and lighthearted moments with a rounded and interesting cast of characters, and NightmareFuel inducing scenes with themes such as genocide and unethical experiments with a large quantity of [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou fourth wall breaking]] (especially in the infamous No Mercy Route). The fandom will either focus on the former or the latter. On one side, you can find goofy shitposts and memes, lighthearted comics and fanarts and other wholesome stuff. On the other, you can find DarkerAndEdgier Alternative Universes, (such as Dusttale and Disbelieftale) and straight up nightmarish fanmade stories (such as Horrortale, Underworld and Help_tale). Undertale's spin-off VideoGame/{{Deltarune}} is currently following this road too.

* VideoGame/{{Undertale}} is an odd example, as the game is a mixture of quirky, silly and lighthearted moments with a rounded and interesting cast of characters, and NightmareFuel inducing scenes with themes such as genocide and unethical experiments with a large quantity of [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou fourth wall breaking]] (especially in the infamous No Mercy Route). The fandom will either focus on the former or the latter. On one side, you can find goofy shitposts and memes, lighthearted comics and fanarts and other wholesome stuff. On the other, you can find DarkerAndEdgier AUs, (such as DustTale and DisbeliefTale) and straight up nightmarish fanmade stories (such as HorrorTale, UnderWorld and Help_tale). Undertale's spin-off VideoGame/{{Deltarune}} is currently following this road too.

* VideoGame/{{Undertale}} is an odd example, as the game is a mixture of quirky, silly and lighthearted moments with a rounded and interesting cast of characters, and NightmareFuel inducing scenes with themes such as genocide and unethical experiments with a large quantity of [[TheFourthWallWillNotProtectYou fourth wall breaking]] (especially in the infamous No Mercy Route). The fandom will either focus on the former or the latter.

* Even though ''VideoGame/HollowKnight'' has a lot of VideoGameCaringPotential and various lighthearted moments, the game is still a dark and gothic tale about a dead kingdom devastated by a MysticalPlague; with its bleak landscape, depressing atmosphere, and incredulous amount of ambiguity and fear that wouldn't be too out of place from a Soulsborne game. On the other hand, the fanbase has a great affinity for cute fanarts of the various characters and silly memes on stuff like Hornet telling you to "Git Gud", Pale King having a sawblade fetish and [[FountainOfMemes Zote the Mighty in general]].

** ''VideoGame/FireEmblemFates'' is an odd example. The story clearly ''tries'' to take itself seriously, as an epic tale of a hero torn between their birth and adoptive families and forced to make a SadisticChoice between them that leads to many deaths on the side they didn't choose. But its actual execution fell head-first into {{Narm}} territory and its support conversations are fairly lighthearted, leaving it on the lighter end of the series by accident. Its fanbase tends to make its story darker and more serious, but their motivation is [[FixFic restoring it to the tone it was aiming for]].

* ''Series/BreakingBad'' is regarded as one of the best gritty crime dramas of all time, but you wouldn't know it from the fans, who are obsessed with making dadaistic shitposts that barely connect to the show at all, such as the famous "kid named Finger" meme which despite using a picture of Mike Ehrmantraut is entirely divorced from anything which happens in the show. This wasn't quite odd during the first season as the show ''did'' start out as having plenty of BlackComedy elements, but as the series went on and got more serious, the fandom's hilarity only grew.

* ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' is a bleak game about a scientist stuck in a {{Dystopia}} where aliens have taken over Earth and are squeezing every resource they can out of it. But ''VideoGame/GarrysMod'' and the torrent of animations it's created would have you believe it's about funny faces and wacky flailing ragdolls.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' is perhaps one of the most (in)famous examples of this; the show itself is a fairly lighthearted and simple animated sitcom that has grown increasingly DenserAndWackier with each passing season, where the premise focuses on a young boy dealing with his ten sisters. Despite that, a good chunk of the fanworks are incredibly mature if not outright dark, either by tackling more serious topics and settings, incorporating BlackComedy (at least far more than what the show has allowed), or [[DemographicDissonantCrossover crossing over with more explicitly adult works]]. For just one example, ''Fanfic/RequiemForALoud'', one of the most popular fanfics among the fanbase, focuses on Lincoln dying from a terminal illness and the heartbreaking reactions of his friends and family.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' is perhaps one of the most (in)famous examples of this; the show itself is a fairly lighthearted and simple show, that has grown increasingly DenserAndWackier with each passing season, where the premise focuses on a young boy dealing with his ten sisters. Despite that, a good chunk of the fanworks are incredibly mature if not outright dark, either by tackling more serious topics and settings, incorporating BlackComedy (at least far more than what the show has allowed), or [[DemographicDissonantCrossover crossing over with more explicitly adult works]]. For just one example, ''Fanfic/RequiemForALoud'', one of the most popular fanfics among the fanbase, focuses on Lincoln dying from a terminal illness and the heartbreaking reactions of his friends and family.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'' is perhaps one of the most (in)famous examples of this; the show itself is a fairly lighthearted and simple show, where the premise focuses on a young boy dealing with his eleven sisters. Despite that, a good chunk of the fanworks are incredibly mature if not outright dark, either by tackling more serious topics and settings, incorporating BlackComedy (at least far more than what the show has allowed), or [[DemographicDissonantCrossover crossing over with more explicitly adult works]]. For just one example, ''Fanfic/RequiemForALoud'', one of the most popular fanfics among the fanbase, focuses on Lincoln dying from a terminal illness and the heartbreaking reactions of his friends and family.

* ''Film/{{Oppenheimer}}'' is just as grim of a biopic as you would expect a film about the man who spearheaded the development of the atomic bomb to be and features many a complex, nuanced character who makes decisions that can be immediately concluded to be good or bad. It also had the providence of not only being released in the age of the internet but also was caught up in the "[[Film/Barbie2023 Barbenheimer]]" meme fad, which resulted in fans of the film spawning a ton of ludicrous jokes (such as the "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VgSyKl9vg0 Oppenheimer style]]" trailer as well as the common fandom characterization of Oppenheimer as [[MemeticLoser a brooding and ridiculously naive loser]]) and the word "Oppenheimer" entering into the internet's greater lexicon of InherentlyFunnyWords.

* ''WebAnimation/HappyTreeFriends'' is a SubvertedKidsShow, where cute woodland animals are subjected to some of the [[{{Gorn}} goriest deaths]] ever imagined. It's all entirely PlayedForLaughs and there's admittedly not much else much to this concept, but the fandom still like to create their own spins on the characters (it helps that the cast is a DysfunctionJunction). For the most part, fans prefer ignoring the gore aspects completely in favor of treating the series as a SliceOfLife SugarBowl, albeit with some added lore every now and then, but there are others who take the gore and twist the show into a full-on horror-drama.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': The show itself is a fairly lighthearted and simple show, yet the fandom has created multiple {{Dark Fic}}s and fanarts centered around darker and more serious topics and settings.

* ''VideoGame/{{Bioshock}}'' is both a violent shooter and a brooding meditation about politics and the nature of Utopia. It's Fandom is incredibly nonsensical; making memes that forget what the punchline was suppose to be halfway through, misunderstanding literally the most surface level elements of the game (like wondering why Andrew Ryan is obsessed with sweat), and laughing that the villain of the third game has name that kinda sounds like "cum sock."

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': The show itself is a fairly lighthearted and simple show, yet the fandom has created multiple {{Dark Fic}}s and fanarts centered around darker and more serious topics and settings.

* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' is a very lighthearted and family-friendly franchise about a goofy plumber and his brother saving the princess from a fire-breathing turtle, and yet the fanbase has created various darker fangames and fanfics related to the franchise (enough to gain [[DarkFic/SuperMarioBros its own page on This Very Wiki]]). Also worthy of mention adult parodies such as ''[[WebAnimation/FlashGitzAnimation Racist Mario]]''.

* ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'' is a very lighthearted and family-friendly franchise about a goofy plumber and his brother saving the princess from a fire-breathing turtle, and yet the fanbase has created various creepypastas and darker fangames related to the franchise (enough to gain [[DarkFic/SuperMarioBros its own page on This Very Wiki]]). Also worthy of mention adult parodies such as ''[[WebAnimation/FlashGitzAnimation Racist Mario]]''.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheLoudHouse'': The show itself is a fairly lighthearted and simple show, yet the fandom has created multiple {{Dark Fic}}s centered around darker and more serious topics and settings.

[[caption-width-right:350:Artwork by [[https://twitter.com/cioccolato_kun/status/1775878551641940172 Cioccolatodorima]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Artwork by [[https://twitter.com/cioccolato_kun/status/1775878551641940172?s=46&t=kprrTGTbqmdMDRo_aqo0Mw Cioccolatodorima]]]]