"That's a comedy without the laughs."
— Valerie Cherish, The Comeback
"Dramedy" is a neologism formed from a combination of the words "Drama" and "Comedy" to describe a genre in which the line between comedic elements and dramatic elements is blurred in a consistent fashion. Although the neologism is of recent date, as is the fiction the term was invented for, these two genres have been combined for centuries, known as "Tragicomedy", making this Older Than They Think.
Dramedies sometimes make use of Magic Realism. Due to its nature, the genre is especially vulnerable to Mood Whiplash.
Note that a dramedy is not just "drama with some comedic elements" or "a comedy with some serious moments". It must contain about equal parts drama and comedy. Elements of comic relief can appear in all but the very darkest dramas, and most stories have at least some serious elements. Because of this, expect to see them get lumped in with the sitcoms come award season. (This can actually serve as a litmus test for if a show is dramedy or straight drama—can you imagine it being nominated in the same award category as a sitcom?)
While many stories contain both comedy and drama, a true Dramedy must belong to the genre of Drama — defined by stories focusing on Character Development, intense emotions and inner conflict as the primary source of plot. Just because it's dark doesn't mean it's a drama. Science Fiction, Action/Adventure stories, Superhero stories and Shōnen Demographic adventures rarely qualify as Drama. Even if the comedy and drama are equally balanced with each other, if both are clearly subservient to the adventure story, it is not a dramedy.
See also First Law of Tragicomedies.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Ace of the Diamond
- AIR
- B-Daman Crossfire
- Buddy Daddies
- Case File nº221: Kabukicho
- Chainsaw Man
- Chobits
- A Couple of Cuckoos: It leans noticeably more toward drama for drama's sake than Miki Yoshikawa's former series, but still remains lighthearted thanks to its large amount of Wild Takes and manzai comedy.
- Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction
- The Demon Girl Next Door
- Domestic Girlfriend: Despite being mostly known for its Soap Opera-like drama, the series can also be unashamedly goofy and features many light-hearted scenes of Natsuo simply hanging out with friends. This especially goes for the first half of the series when Natsuo's still in high school, as the second half about his college life does have a slightly higher amount of gritty elements from the adult world.
- El Cazador de la Bruja
- Eroge no Taiyou: 50% fish out of water comedy about a stodgy businessman being forced to help eccentric girls make porn, 50% character drama about escaping Black Companies, following your dreams, and learning just why the main heroine is so determined not to abandon anyone again.
- Firefighter Daigo: Rescuer In Orange
- Flunk Punk Rumble: The first third of the series is almost pure comedy, but later on the series starts to focus more on interpersonal drama and the characters' worries and backstories (though it still features plenty of goofiness and remains very light-hearted).
- Fruits Basket starts out as a fairly light-hearted and comedic story about a girl who meets a family where some of them turn into animals from the Chinese zodiac when hugged, but even early on there are hints at more serious drama beneath the surface. The dramatic elements become more prominent as the story continues and various characters' backstories and personal issues are revealed, though it never completely loses its sense of humor.
- GE - Good Ending generally mixes comedy and drama fairly equally, though due to Cerebus Syndrome, the first few chapters are more of a traditional comedy than a dramedy, and reversely parts of the series' latter half veer closer to straight drama.
- Girl Meets Rock! is a Coming of Age Story following Chihiro Hatono and her friends seeking to find themselves in the school's Light Music Club. The series is equal parts a comedy and a highschool drama.
- Great Teacher Onizuka
- GTO: The Early Years
- Hamatora
- Hidamari Sketch (mainly Honeycomb and Sotsugyou-hen; the ending to the anime series)
- Imitation Crystal - His work, especially his later titles, fits into this given his range of exploring the themes of sadness and loneliness through a philosophical perspective mixed with dry comedy and characters.
- Is the Order a Rabbit?
- Kodocha
- Kotoura-san
- Kuroko's Basketball
- Love of Kill
- Mahoromatic
- Maison Ikkoku: Widely considered to be the Ur-Example in manga/anime, especially given the directorial style of the anime.
- The Masterful Cat is Depressed Again Today
- Mob Psycho 100
- Mon Colle Knights
- No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular! plays much of the Otaku main character's social anxiety for Cringe Comedy, but also demonstrates just how depressed and unwell such a person would be in a similar fashion to Welcome to the NHK.
- Non Non Biyori (especially towards the end)
- Ojamajo Doremi
- Oshi no Ko: A story that combines both humor with the dark side of the entertainment industry, mostly evenly split between the two main characters of the story.
- Police in a Pod
- Pompo: The Cinéphile
- Princess Tutu
- Red Cat Ramen
- Sakura Discord is pretty much equally split between serious parts and comedic parts.
- School-Live!
- Senpai Is an Otokonoko
- Slow Loop, for being a Manga Time Kirara series, has more dramatic elements and underlying sadness than one would normally expect from one of their stories.
- Stardust Telepath, on a similar note from the same magazine, has a heavy mix of both.
- Tsukumizu - Known for his whimsical melancholic Iyashikei that combine comedy and drama to create a Deconstruction of sorts for each of his works that get unraveled the more the story goes along.
- Under Ninja
- Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches - while it's a very light and idealistic story and features plenty of comedy in all but a few chapters, it's still a drama at heart given that the plot is driven by emotional conflicts and sad backstories.
- Your Lie in April - mostly a gentle drama with topics such as inspiration and relationships, but there is a fair amount of humorous moments.
- Yowamushi Pedal
- Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead
- Zombie Land Saga presents a very interesting case in which the sheer absurdity of literal zombies being used as idol singers also gets explored with the very real sadness and trauma that comes with being undead, giving us a show which isn't afraid of making plenty of jokes of the strange premise while also using it to explore the very real and tragic circumstances the main characters died in, as well as how they handle their new lives.
Comic Books
Comic Strips
Fan Works
- All Things End
- Avenger Goddess (Marvel Cinematic Universe, Wonder Woman (2017))
- Avenger of Steel (Marvel Cinematic Universe, Man of Steel)
- Becoming a True Invader (Invader Zim)
- C Listers (Batman, The DCU)
- Code Geass: Paladins of Voltron (crossover with Code Geass and Voltron: Legendary Defender)
- Code Jedi (Code Geass, Star Wars)
- Code Prime (crossover with Code Geass and Transformers)
- Danny Phantom: Lost Episodes Series (Danny Phantom)
- Facing the Future Series (Danny Phantom)
- Flan Wants to Die (Touhou Project)
- The Flash Sentry Chronicles (My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and My Little Pony: Equestria Girls)
- For the Glory of Irk (Invader Zim)
- Galactic Shift Extend (BlazBlue and Ben 10)
- Garfeld: The Musical! (Garfield)
- Group Chat (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners)
- Hetalia: Axis Powers fanfic Gankona, Unnachgiebig, Unità
: Its genres are romance and drama. It also happens to have plenty of Comedy elements within.
- Invader Zim: A Bad Thing Never Ends (Invader Zim)
- I Just Love Killin' (Rick and Morty, Worm)
- The Kakashi Way (Naruto)
- The Ketsueki Quadrilogy (Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, Tekken, Soul Series)
- Kingdom Hearts: Cody's Story (Kingdom Hearts, Total Drama)
- Monster Chronicles (Total Drama)
- My Hostage, Not Yours (Invader Zim)
- The New Adventures of Invader Zim (Invader Zim)
- Oh Rhonda! (Hey Arnold!)
- The PreDespair Kids is a bit heavier on the comedic elements than its source material, but when Cerebus Syndrome hits, it hits hard.
- Pokémon: Remix Hearts (BlazBlue, Pokémon)
- Ranma Club - much comedy due to the Ranma side, coupled with drama from the Winx Club side. Chaos in both realms.
- Recovery None (Red vs. Blue)
- ResurrectedMemories (Danny Phantom)
- Rick and Morty New Drama Adventures (Rick and Morty, Total Drama)
- Rick and The Loud House (crossover between Rick and Morty and The Loud House)
- Ruby Pair (Invader Zim)
- A Second Chance (The Loud House)
- The Shoebox Project, a rare fanfiction example.
- Something New (Team Fortress 2)
- Spidey vs. the Forces of Evil (Spider-Man, Star vs. the Forces of Evil)
- The Story of Apollo, Daphne and Luca: An Italian Tragedy (Luca)
- Tokimeki PokéLive! and TwinBee, a mostly lighthearted episodic fanfic series with the comedy coming from the Love Live! side and the occasionally more serious action-adventure type Side Story arcs being inspired by the Shonen aimed parts of the Pokémon franchise barring the main anime on the Pokémon side with Tokimeki Memorial-like lighthearted romance rounding things out.
- Top of the Line (Editor-Bug) (Invader Zim)
- Tokyo Little Shop - Much like the source material, it starts out funny and gets struck with Cerebus Syndrome near the end.
- Total Drama: Cody's Redemption (Total Drama)
- Total Drama Comeback Series (Total Drama)
- Total Trauma (Total Drama)
- The Truth Decays (Fullmetal Alchemist, Naruto)
- Unbreakable Red Silken Thread (Total Drama)
- Universe Falls (crossover with Gravity Falls and Steven Universe)
- Where The Skeletons Lie (Recess)
- Zim the Warlord: Irken Reversion (Invader Zim)
Films — Animation
- Ana and Bruno
- Baby Shark's Big Movie!
- Barnyard
- Coco
- Elemental
- Encanto
- Finding Nemo
- Frozen (2013)
- Inside Out
- it's such a beautiful day
- Kung Fu Panda
- Lilo & Stitch
- Mary and Max
- Memoir of a Snail
- Rock & Rule
- Arguably almost every Studio Ghibli film, with the notable exception of Grave of the Fireflies, which is notorious for being their most depressing film with almost no humorous moments. Even most of their heavier tearjerker films such as The Tale of the Princess Kaguya still have plenty of humour and lighthearted moments, while even their Denser and Wackier films such as My Neighbors the Yamadas still have plenty of slower and sadder drama moments.
- Tokyo Godfathers
- Up
- World of Tomorrow
- Weathering with You
- Your Name
Films — Live-Action
- 10 Items or Less
- 13 Going on 30
- 27 Dresses
- 28 Days
- 3 Idiots
- The 40-Year-Old Virgin
- 53 Sundays
- (500) Days of Summer
- About Last Night...
- About Schmidt
- Adam (2009)
- Adam (2019)
- Adam & Paul
- The Adam Project
- Adult Life Skills
- Adventureland
- Afternoon Delight
- Ah Girls Go Army
- Alfie
- Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore
- Alice's Restaurant
- All Monsters Attack - While being a Denser and Wackier Clip Show film for the Godzilla series, the film still balances out with having a coming of age dramedy be the framing device.
- Almost Famous
- American Beauty - Either this trope or Black Comedy.
- American Graffiti
- The Americanization of Emily
- …and Justice for All
- The Angels' Share
- The Angriest Man In Brooklyn
- Annie Hall
- Another Round
- The Apartment
- The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz
- Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.
- As Good as It Gets
- Asteroid City
- Author! Author! (1982)
- The Barbarian Invasions
- Barbershop
- Battle of the Sexes
- Beaches
- The Beanie Bubble
- Beautiful Girls
- Beginners
- The Bells of St. Mary's
- Benny & Joon
- The Best Two Years
- Bicentennial Man
- Big Fish - The more grounded parts are more serious, while some of the fantastical story/flashbacks can be wacky.
- The Big Sick
- The Black Balloon (2008)
- BlackBerry
- Blindspotting
- Blue Jasmine
- Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
- Bo Burnham: Inside
- Boy (2010)
- Boys on the Side
- Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
- The Breakfast Club
- Breaking Away
- Brewster McCloud
- Brigsby Bear
- Broadway Bill
- Broken Flowers
- Bronco Billy
- Butterflies Are Free
- Bye Bye Love
- Calendar Girls
- California Schemin'
- Camp (2003)
- The Candidate
- Carnal Knowledge
- Catch Us If You Can
- Celebrity
- Cha Cha Real Smooth
- Chaos Theory (2008)
- Chasing Amy
- Chocolat
- The Christophers
- Chungking Express - the first story is a straight-up romantic drama, while the second story is more of a romantic dramedy featuring a Manic Pixie Dream Girl
- Its side-story Fallen Angels is just as much of a dramedy while being considerably Darker and Edgier
- Click
- The Cobbler
- CODA (2021)
- The Comic
- The Confirmation
- Crazy, Stupid, Love
- A Crime in Paradise
- Crossroads (2002)
- Cyrus
- Damsels in Distress
- Dan in Real Life
- The Death of Stalin
- Defendor
- Definitely, Maybe
- The Descendants (2011)
- Desperately Seeking Susan
- The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
- The Diary of a Teenage Girl
- The Dilemma
- Diner (1982)
- Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
- Dog (2022)
- Don't Think Twice
- Dope (2015)
- Do the Right Thing
- Down to Earth (2001)
- Driving Miss Daisy
- Dumas (2010)
- Dumb Money
- Dummy
- Dust
- Dutch
- Easy A
- The Edge of Seventeen
- EDtv
- Election
- The Electrical Life of Louis Wain
- Elizabethtown
- Empire Records
- Entourage
- Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
- Everything Everywhere All at Once - fitting to its title: it is a fantasy/sci-fi martial arts action film, a surrealist comedy, and an existentialist family drama, all at the same time.
- Ezra - although more of a drama, it's also a comedy, and not just because the dad protagonist is a struggling comedian
- The Family Man
- The Family Stone
- Fandango
- The Farewell
- Fast Times at Ridgemont High
- Fatso
- Fighting with My Family
- Flying Saucers
- The Five-Year Engagement
- Florence Foster Jenkins
- For Keeps
- Forgetting Sarah Marshall
- Forrest Gump
- The Four Seasons
- France
- Frances Ha
- Frat Star
- Freaks: While famously considered a horror due to its final act and starring a cast of deformed individuals, it's actually more of a drama than anything.
- French Twist
- Fried Green Tomatoes
- Friends with Money
- The Front
- Full Moon In Blue Water
- Funny People
- Garden State
- Geek Charming
- Georgy Girl
- Getting Straight
- Ghost (1990)
- Girlfriends (1978)
- Global Heresy
- Goebbels and Geduldig
- Going My Way
- Good Luck To You, Leo Grande
- Goodbye, Columbus
- Good Bye, Lenin!
- The Good Girl
- Good Morning, Vietnam
- A Good Year
- The Graduate
- The Great Escaper
- The Greatest Beer Run Ever
- The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Green Book
- Guarding Tess
- Hannah and Her Sisters
- Happiest Season
- Happythankyoumoreplease
- Harold and Maude
- Harry and Tonto
- The Heartbreak Kid (1972)
- Henry Poole Is Here
- He Said, She Said
- He's Just Not That into You
- Hiding Out
- The Holdovers
- The Hollars
- Home for the Holidays
- Hope and Glory
- The Hospital
- The House Bunny
- How to Be
- Hurlyburly
- Hustlers
- IF (2024)
- Igby Goes Down
- I ♡ Huckabees
- I Love You Phillip Morris
- I'm Not Rappaport
- I'm Your Man (2021)
- Instant Family
- Instructions Not Included
- Interstate 60
- In the Land of Women
- Irish Jam
- Irreconcilable Differences
- I, Tonya
- It's Kind of a Funny Story
- I Used To Go Here
- Jeff, Who Lives at Home chiefly a drama film with occasional warm moments, but made hysterical by the antics of the two brothers.
- Jerry Maguire
- Jersey Girl
- Joy (2015)
- Julie & Julia
- Jumping the Broom
- Junebug
- Juno
- Karen
- Kathy O'
- Kick-Ass (2010)
- The Kid (1921) - Possibly the Ur-Example for film.
- The Kid (2000) (which, despite the name and genre, is not a remake of the above)
- The King of Staten Island
- The Kings of Summer
- Kinky Boots
- The Kissing Booth
- Knocked Up
- Knockin' on Heaven's Door
- Lady Bird
- La La Land
- Lars and the Real Girl
- The Last Days of Disco
- The Last Kiss
- Latter Days
- A League of Their Own
- Lemonade Mouth
- Liberal Arts
- Liberty Heights
- Licorice Pizza
- Life (1999)
- Life Is Beautiful
- Life of the Party (2005)
- Life or Something Like It
- Life's a Breeze
- Little Children pokes fun at the absurdity and hidden dysfunctionality of suburbia, but it still treats its main characters with sympathy and their problems are taken seriously.
- Little Darlings (1980)
- Little Miss Sunshine
- Little Shop of Horrors - For nearly an hour, there is a good bit of comedy, but it becomes and stays mostly dramatic afterwards.
- A Little Something Extra
- Local Hero
- A Long Way Down
- Lost in Translation
- Love Actually
- Love Again
- Love with the Proper Stranger
- Lucas
- Made In Italy
- Magic Mike
- The Majestic
- A Man Called Otto
- Manhattan
- Marriage Story
- Marry Me! Marry Me!
- M*A*S*H (1970)
- Max Dugan Returns
- Me, Myself & The Void
- Melvin and Howard
- Mermaids (1990)
- Metal Lords
- Metropolitan
- The Meyerowitz Stories
- mid90s
- Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice
- The Milagro Beanfield War
- Millions
- Minari
- Miracle in Cell No. 7
- The Mirror Has Two Faces
- Miss Meadows
- Miss You Already
- Molly (1999)
- Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears
- Moscow on the Hudson
- Mother (1996)
- Mrs. Winterbourne
- Mumford
- Muriel's Wedding
- My Dog Skip
- My First Mister
- My Führer
- My Night at Maud's - In fact, almost every film directed by Éric Rohmer would fit.
- My Old Lady
- Mystic Pizza
- Nashville
- Nebraska
- Network
- Next Goal Wins (2023)
- Next Stop, Greenwich Village
- The Night After
- Nobody's Fool
- The North Avenue Irregulars
- Nothing in Common
- Obvious Child
- Of Dice and Men
- Off The Rails 2021
- O Lucky Man!
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
- On Golden Pond
- Only the Lonely
- On the Rocks
- Open at Night
- Our Hero, Balthazar
- Our Idiot Brother
- Our Ladies (2019)
- Outcome
- The Paper
- The Paper Chase
- Paper Man
- Paper Moon
- The Paper Tigers
- Parasite (2019)
- Parenthood
- Parting Glances
- Party Girl (1995)
- Passion Fish
- Patch Adams
- People Will Talk
- Perfect Strangers (2016)
- Petulia
- Philomena
- Pieces of April
- Planes, Trains and Automobiles
- The Players Club
- Playing by Heart
- Pleasantville
- Please Stand By
- Postcards from the Edge
- The President's Last Bang
- Pretty in Pink
- The Pretty One
- Pride and Prejudice
- Primary Colors
- A Princess for Christmas
- Project Hail Mary (2026)
- Punch-Drunk Love
- Pushing Tin
- Queens Logic
- Raising Helen
- The Real Blonde
- A Real Pain
- Real Women Have Curves
- Remember the Night
- Return of the Secaucus Seven
- Ricki and the Flash
- Risky Business
- Roger Dodger
- The Royal Tenenbaums
- Ruby Sparks
- Running With Scissors is a deeply cynical and borderline disturbing film with a dysfunctional, mentally unbalanced cast of characters whose eccentricities are not Played for Laughs or brushed off as quirks, but still mines humor from the sheer absurdity that is Augusten's very strange life during his teenage years.
- Rushmore
- Sam the Man
- Saturday Night
- Savannah Smiles
- Save the Date (2012)
- Say Anything
- Scrapper
- School Daze
- Secretary
- Seeking a Friend for the End of the World
- sex, lies, and videotape
- Shall We Dance (2004)
- Shampoo
- She Hate Me
- She's Gotta Have It
- She's Out of My League
- Shopgirl
- Short Cuts
- Sideways
- Silver City
- Silver Linings Playbook
- S1m0ne
- Singles
- The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
- The Skeleton Twins
- Snow Cake
- Somebody I Used to Know
- Some Kind of Wonderful
- Sometimes I Think About Dying
- Soul Food
- La Soupe aux choux
- Spanglish
- Stage Door
- Stalag 17
- Stan & Ollie
- Stand by Me
- Standing Up Falling Down
- Stardust Memories
- The Station Agent
- Stealing Home
- Steel Magnolias
- Stepmom
- Stoker
- The Strawberry Statement
- Struck by Lightning
- Stuart Saves His Family
- St. Vincent (2014)
- Summer of '42
- Sunshine Cleaning
- Super
- Sweet and Lowdown
- Swingers
- Synecdoche, New York
- Taking Woodstock
- Talk to Me (2007)
- Tangerine
- Teachers (1984)
- The Terminal
- Terms of Endearment
- Thelma (2024)
- There's Always Vanilla
- A Thousand Clowns
- Thumbsucker
- Tin Men
- Together Together
- Transamerica
- Trees Lounge
- Troop Zero
- The Truman Show
- Tully
- The TV Set
- Twice Round the Daffodils
- Two for the Road
- Undrafted
- The Ugly Truth
- An Unmarried Woman
- Uptown Girls
- Unpregnant
- Vacation from Marriage
- Waitress
- The Way, Way Back
- A Wedding (1978)
- Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael
- We're No Angels (1989)
- What's Cooking?
- Where the Boys Are
- Where the Heart Is
- Whip It
- Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me?
- Who's That Knocking at My Door
- With Honors
- Woman of the Year
- Wonder Boys
- The World of Henry Orient
- Your Sister's Sister
- Youth in Revolt
- Zola
Literature
- 4 Kids in 5E and 1 Crazy Year
- The Apothecary Diaries
- Brothers Keepers
- Ciaphas Cain: A Military Science Fiction series starring The Political Officer to (for the most part) an Imperial Guard mechanized regiment that finds humor in the grim, dark future of the 41st Millennium wherever it can. It's one of the few modern pieces of Warhammer 40,000 media that still keeps in mind that the setting was always supposed to be a little goofy.
- The Cross-dressing Lady Knight Is Taken with Her Remarkable Lord: Half military/political drama about a federation of small states trying to survive a Forever War with its conquering northern neighbor, and half Romantic Comedy about a prince and his Bifauxnen bodyguard.
- Date A Live
- Demons Trilogy
- The Devil Wears Prada (book series)
- The El Bimbo Variations
- Elf Defense
- The Firefly Summer
- Gnome Man's Land
- Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
- Halfway Across the Galaxy and Turn Left
- Haruhi Suzumiya, being a Genre-Busting series, has this as an overall tone. The fourth novel, The Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, slams it hard towards the "drama" end of the spectrum.
- The Haunted Bakery, Centers on a baker his partner and his sister living and working, with comedy and drama mixed in.
- The House of Broken Angels: Main character faces death in a manner that's alternately farcial and deeply touching.
- Intertwined
- Martyr!
- The Murderbot Diaries
- The North Avenue Irregulars
- Okuyyuki
- Old School
- Onahole Tower: All the lighthearted verbal harassment and lewd situations Do-hee ends up in is balanced out by the slow mental breakdown of Do-hee gender identity and realization that her absurdly lewd body will never allow her to live a normal life.
- Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha is a Coming of Age dramedy about a boy growing up, following his childish antics with his friends, while at the same time telling the story of his parents' crumbling marriage and how he is slowly losing his childhood at only age ten.
- The Posthumous Memoirs of Brás Cubas: The novel is simultaneously filled with sardonic and ironic anedoctes and moments of loss and melancholy, which reflects Brás' own status as a long dead man. Machado de Assis comments on it in his preface:
Machado de Assis: "What makes my Brás Cubas a unique author is what he calls 'grumblings of pessimism'. There is, in the soul of this book, however cheerful it may seem, a bitter and harsh feeling, far removed from its models."
- The Rationing
- Slayers
- The Superteacher Project
- The Tattooed Potato And Other Clues
- Toradora!
- Welcome to the NHK mixes comedy and drama interchangeably. Especially at first it's a comedy, but becomes increasingly dramatic over time.
- Paul Murray's books tend to fit this genre:
- Skippy Dies is a character study of a group of troubled teens, and would be an outright tragedy if not for the large amounts of humor.
- The Mark and the Void: A farce about the banking system that takes its characters seriously and packs in a lot of social and political criticism.
- Yellowstone Kelly
Live-Action TV
- The 8 Show mixes this with dark humor and satire.
- 800 Words
- Adderly
- The Afterparty
- Akavet starts as more of a traditional comedy, but starts to have a lot more serious moments and realistic Character Development later on. It never lets go of its comedic feel, though.
- All Creatures Great and Small (1978)
- All Creatures Great & Small (2020)
- Ally McBeal
- Almost Paradise
- Amber Brown (2022)
- American Born Chinese (2023)
- Andi Mack, like Boy Meets World below, is this, except it does combine both Kid Com and Teen Drama elements in one show, giving it its dramedy feel.
- Aquí no hay quien viva
- Atlanta
- Auf Wiedersehen, Pet
- Avocado Toast
- Babylon
- Bad and Crazy
- Ballers
- Barry
- Baskets
- Batang Quiapo
- Battleground (2012)
- The Bear (2022)
- Behind Your Touch
- Being Erica
- Better Call Saul — mostly the earlier seasons; later seasons are much more of a straight drama
- Better Things
- The Big C
- Bones — started as straight Police Procedural, but is definitely a dramedy now.
- Boston Legal
- Boston Public
- Boy Meets World — started as a standard sitcom; gradually added more dramatic elements. Became a dramedy by Season 5 or so.
- The Brink
- Brooklyn Bridge
- Brooklyn Nine-Nine
- Brothers & Sisters
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer, combined with an Urban Fantasy setting
- Bull
- Bunheads
- Burn Notice
- Burn Notice: The Fall of Sam Axe - a telemovie spinoff
- Californication
- The Carrie Diaries
- Castle (2009)
- Chuck
- Cobra Kai
- The Comeback
- The Commish
- Community
- Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
- Crownies
- Daughter From Another Mother
- The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd
- Dead Last
- Dead Like Me
- Desperate Housewives
- Dirty Lines
- Disjointed
- Doc Martin
- Doogie Howser, M.D.
- D.☆P.
- Due South
- Early Edition
- Ed
- Eight is Enough
- Elementary
- Eli Stone
- Entourage
- Escouade 99
- Extraordinary Attorney Woo
- Extras
- Fairly Legal
- Feel Good
- The Finder
- The Flash (2014), combined with Super Hero and Sci-Fi settings.
- Fleabag
- For Better or Worse
- Forever (2018)
- Frank's Place
- Franklin & Bash
- Freaks and Geeks
- The Game (2006)
- GCB
- Gavin & Stacey
- Gilmore Girls
- Ginny and Georgia
- Girl Meets World
- Girls
- Glee
- The Good Bad Mother
- The Good Place
- Gordita Chronicles
- Grace and Frankie
- The Greatest American Hero
- Greek
- Hart of Dixie
- Hellcats
- Hello Tomorrow!
- High Maintenance
- Homicide: Life on the Street (although nominally a drama and known for its dark and tragic storylines, the series featured plenty of character-based humor and Black Comedy)
- Hooperman
- How I Met Your Mother
- Hysteria! (2024)
- I Am Frankie
- The IDOLM@STER.KR
- The Imperfects
- Inday Will Always Love You
- The Indian Detective
- Insecure
- Inside No. 9
- Janda Kembang; half of the cast is involved in a serious Love Triangle drama and the other half is living a sitcom.
- Jane the Virgin
- Jean-Claude Van Johnson
- Kaboul Kitchen
- Kamen Rider Revice
- Kidding
- Killing Eve
- The Kominsky Method
- L.A. Law
- Last Tango in Halifax
- A League of Their Own (2022)
- Leverage
- Lilyhammer
- Louie
- Love
- Lovejoy
- Love Monkey
- Lovesick
- Ludwig
- Maria Clara at Ibarra
- The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
- M*A*S*H (1972) — The first hugely successful TV example and arguably the Genre Popularizer, and also possibly the Trope Namer.
- Master of None (2015)
- Memphis Beat
- Me, Myself, and I
- Men of a Certain Age
- Metrosexuality
- Midnight Diner
- A Million Little Things
- Mimpi Metropolitan
- Minder
- Misfits
- Modern Family
- Monk
- Moonlighting
- Mop Girl
- Mr. Brain
- Mrs. Davis
- Murderbot
- NCIS
- New Girl
- The Newsroom
- Northern Exposure
- Nurse Jackie
- The Office (UK)
- The Office (US) — Particularly when it started doing longer Story Arcs in its later seasons.
- Only Murders in the Building
- Orphan Black - Alison Hendrix's Story Arcs add huge amounts of Black Comedy to the overall serious Conspiracy Thriller.
- The Orville - cast and crew explicitly refer to the series as this, not as a comedy
- Palm Royale
- Parenthood
- Picket Fences
- Player
- Please Like Me
- Poker Face
- Political Animals
- Popular
- Press Gang
- Princess and I
- Prodigal Son
- Psych
- Psychopath Diary is partially a thriller about a serial killer and partially a comedy about an amnesiac who thinks he's a serial killer. The two genres combine to provide plenty of Black Comedy.
- Pushing Daisies
- La que se avecina
- Ramy
- Red Dwarf - during Season 7.
- Back to Earth counts as well. Especially Part 3.
- Remember WENN
- Remington Steele
- Republic of Doyle
- Rescue Me
- The Residence
- The Righteous Gemstones
- Robson Arms
- Rock & Chips
- Room 222 — Despite M*A*S*H (1972) sometimes being called the first US television Dramedy by its cast and writers, this predated it by three years.
- Round the Twist
- Royal Pains
- Russian Doll
- Saint-Pierre
- Scoundrels (2010)
- Scrubs
- Search Party
- Sex and the City
- Sex Education
- Both the original British and American versions of Shameless
- She's Gotta Have It
- Shut Up Flower Boy Band
- Sick of It
- Simon & Simon
- Los Simuladores
- Six Feet Under
- Soap — Specifically blending broad comedy with Soap Opera Melodrama.
- SOKO Potsdam
- The Sopranos - described as a dramedy when it premiered.
- The Spencer Sisters
- Sports Night - and in fact just about anything from Aaron Sorkin
- Spotless
- Steptoe and Son
- Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip
- Succession
- Such Brave Girls
- Takin' Over the Asylum - Mostly in the first half of this 6-Part Scottish miniseries.
- Tattingers
- Ted Lasso
- Terriers
- These Sacred Vows
- This Is Us
- This is Wonderland
- Tinsel
- Togetherness
- Transparent
- Trigonometry
- Trophy Wife
- Turner & Hooch (2021)
- Two Up, Two Down was confusingly billed as a Comedy Drama, when it was more of a conventional Sitcom. Su Pollard found this ludicrous and blamed it for the series' lack of success.
- Tyler Perry's House of Payne
- Ugly Betty
- The Unicorn
- United States of Tara
- Untoppable High Kick
- Upload
- Våre Beste År
- Vexed
- The Walsh Sisters
- The Watcher (2022)
- Wednesday
- Weeds
- Whiskey Cavalier
- Why Women Kill: The basic premise — three women across different eras are all driven to kill by their traitorous husbands — is straight out of a dramatic thriller. However, the show has a very dark sense of humor that keeps it from being a straight drama.
- Wilfred. At first glance, it looks like just another sitcom full of black comedy and crude humor. But the series gradually becomes more of a comedy-drama / psychological thriller about a young man trying to deal with his failing mental health and social relationships.
- Willow (2022)
- The Wire
- The Wonder Years. One of the first TV series to be widely promoted as a dramedy, popularizing the term.
- Wonderfalls
- Workin' Moms
- The Wrong Mans
- You, Me and the Apocalypse
- You Me Her
- Younger
- Youngers
- Young Sheldon
- You're the Worst
Music
- Dead Kennedys make angry songs about very dark and serious political topics, but they take the piss out of these topics at the same time.
- Dethklok
- Gorillaz
- System of a Down, possibly the only group that can fit in songs about mass genocide and Kombucha Mushroom People on the same album.
Podcast
- Batman: The Audio Adventures: An equal-parts humorous, dramatic, and horrific take on the Batman mythos.
- Frootch: Even though it talks about the misadventures of a stand-up comedian wannabe, comedic moments are overshadowed by key plot points being dramatic (especially on the second season).
Theatre
- Blood Brothers
- Driving Miss Daisy
- Don Giovanni
- Falsettos
- Fat Ham
- Hamilton
- Little Shop of Horrors
- On Golden Pond
- William Shakespeare made much of his plays to be this. His tragedies often had several light moments, and his comedies often had several dark and sad moments.
- A Midsummer Night's Dream - Possibly the oldest, well-known example.
- Romeo and Juliet - Many people back then interpreted the play as a Black Comedy, and light moments are interspersed throughout the tragedy.
- Many of the characters are straight out of Commedia dell'Arte: Romeo and Juliet are the Innamorati, Friar Lorenzo the Tartaglia, Mercutio the Arlecchino, Benvolio the Pierrot and Tybalt the Capitano.
- She Kills Monsters
- Wicked
Video Games
- Beyond Good & Evil
- Chrono Trigger
- Dead Rising: The game is abundant with funny moments and comedic characters amidst a zombie outbreak, but some of the psychopaths have pretty serious stories, be it going mad from the trauma of the outbreak, or them using the outbreak as an excuse to act on their worst desires.
- Dispatch
- Dragon Quest
- Half-Life
- Monkey Island
- Mother - There's a reason why the taglines include "No crying until the end" and "Strange. Funny. Heartrendering."
- Mother 3 fits the bill here the most out of the trilogy.
- Night in the Woods
- The Oddworld series' overarching plot is about slavery, Human Resources, and voodoo, with the Big Bad Duumvirate consisting of Corrupt Corporate Executives that are played for horror and do things such as Dropping Abe in a meat grinder and torturing him to death with electricity in the bad endings of the first and second game respectively. However, the games also have a ton of Slapstick, Toilet Humour, and Black Comedy in both cutscenes and gameplay and the many ways Abe can die range from comical to downright hilarious. The tone varies per game, though, as Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, though not without dark moments, has a mostly comical tone. Oddworld: Soulstorm on the other hand, goes all out with its dark tone.
- Perfect Tides
- Psychonauts
- Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse, compared the more laid-back and comedic franchise it's a part of, is the series' attempt at being a true balance between comedy and drama, with the game getting progressively darker and less silly as it goes along. As it was designed to be Grand Finale to Sam and Max's story that started in 1987, it's easy to see why this was done.
- Undertale
- YIIK: A Post-Modern RPG contains humorous moments of the 1990s while having an intense plot involving the fate of a missing woman and the entire world.
Visual Novels
- Ace Attorney features wacky and outlandish characters and supremely zany Courtroom Antics, mixed with often intense and dramatic murder mysteries.
- AI: The Somnium Files
- CLANNAD
- Danganronpa
- Extracurricular Activities
- Minotaur Hotel - A story centering around the Minotaur's traumatic past while still managing to have a tone that's both lighthearted and leisurely.
- Morenatsu
- No, Thank You!!!, especially during the New Game Plus.
- One Thousand Lies
- Sukeban Games, the makers of VA-11 HALL-A, make most of their games this, as they feel like Comedy-Dramas are uncommon in the video game/visual novel medium.note
Webcomics
- Better Days
- Bittersweet Candy Bowl
- Blind Alley
- Caelum Sky
- Camp Weedonwantcha
- Caribbean Blue
- Crystal Heroes
- The Djinn
- Doris Doodle
- The Dreamer
- El Goonish Shive
- Friends You Are Stuck With
- Homestuck
- Housepets!
- Las Lindas
- Octopus Pie
- The Order of the Stick
- Rain
- Rascals: A slice-of-life involving a group of 20-year-old anthros and the Usagi family.
- Sinfest
- Suicide Boy
- Tails Gets Trolled: A Bloody Hilarious Stylistic Suck webcomic with cartoon characters committing murder, until it isn't at all.
- Tiff & Eve
- Walkyverse:
- Witchcraft Carnival
Web Original
- Alfred's Playhouse
- Alphabet Lore
- The Amazing Digital Circus - Even with all the goofy antics of the adventures, the main cast's inner conflicts and backstories, and the psychological effects and existential nature of their situation and how they cope with it drives most of the plot.
- Animator vs. Animation
- Brows Held High
- Camp Camp
- Channel Awesome:
- Suburban Knights, albeit in a more Mood Whiplash-y sense.
- To Boldly Flee
- Demo Reel, after the Non-Indicative First Episode.
- Atop the Fourth Wall, which basically invented the concept of turning the Mid-Review Sketch Show show into an ongoing storyline.
- Dad
- Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog
- Dhar Mann, the Jay and Mikey storylines are a lot more humorous than most of the other storylines. While these characters introduced more comedy into the series, the dramatic and serious themes never went away, giving it this feel.
- Dr. Havoc's Diary from Episode 15, "Kim Leaves", and afterwards.
- Friendship Is for Adults- The first two episodes not so much, the episodes after that however...
- The G0ATFAC3 Corner
- The G0ATFAC3 Corner GT
- Helluva Boss - While the series starts out as mostly goofy (albeit frequently dark and crass) comedy, more dramatic elements seep into the narrative; in particular, Bltizo's complicated transactional relationship with Stolas is initially Played for Laughs before being brutally deconstructed, with both characters getting put through the emotional wringer.
- The Lizzie Bennet Diaries
- Minilife TV started out as mostly a comedy series, but it shifted in this direction around Season 4.
- The Most Popular Girls in School, at least from the start of Season 3 onwards (but with most of the emphasis still on the comedy side).
- Pretty Dudes – after its comedic plot set up, the show begins digging into serious topics while maintaining its raunchy humor.
- Red vs. Blue – especially from Season 6 and onward.
- Scootertrix the Abridged- Especially after Episode 14.
- Spooky Month
- Sublo and Tangy Mustard
- Supermarioglitchy4's Super Mario 64 Bloopers shifted into this direction during the Waluigi arc.
- Sword Art Online Abridged: Uniquely for an abridged series, while it's mostly a comedic show, Kirito actually grows and develops over the series and many of its key dramatic scenes are played straight, such as the deaths of Sachi and Yui, the battle against Gleam Eyes (and Kirito's demonstration of his character development), and even the development of Asuna and Kirito's relationship. Sachi's death in particular is notable for leaving an even bigger impact on Kirito than it did in the original, as his failure to save her continually haunts him. The final scene of the first season is played as much for poignancy as we learn how tragic the Big Bad Kayaba's story really is and see Kirito and Asuna share a final, heartfelt moment before leaving the in-universe game for good.
- Theratpy
- Wasteland (2019)
- Wolf Song: The Movie seems to switch between comedy and high stakes drama every few minutes
- Yogscast Minecraft Series- specifically Shadow of Israphel.
Western Animation
- 12 oz. Mouse
- Archer Dreamland (the rest of the series is purely a comedy, but Dreamland is considerably Darker and Edgier)
- As Told by Ginger
- Birdgirl
- Bob and Margaret
- BoJack Horseman
- Carol & the End of the World
- Critical Role
- Daria
- Delilah & Julius
- Fired on Mars
- F is for Family
- Hey Arnold!
- Inside Job (2021)
- Long Story Short
- Moral Orel is an interesting example. It started out as a Leave It to Beaver parody and eventually developed into this. But a lot of the elements played for drama in later seasons (Clay's drinking, etc.) are played purely for laughs in the early episodes, making the first season much darker when rewatched.
- Out There (2013)
- The Proud Family
- Undone
- Zerocalcare's animated autobiographies: