A: Elastigirl protects the city against the Screenslaver...
B: Screwball high jinks with Jack-Jack!
B: Screwball high jinks with Jack-Jack!
How do you balance out comedy and drama in a work? It's simple: you give your work two plots, one that's serious and dramatic while the other is lighthearted and delivers most of the jokes.
For example, in one episode Bob and Charlie need to deactivate Doctor Evil's robot army before it launches a missile at Everytown, America. In the exact same episode, Alice and her friend David accidentally make too many lasagnas for the charity food sale, and now have to figure out what to do with thirty extra lasagnas.
Essentially, this trope is when a chapter/episode/what have you contains two plots: a main plot that deals with something dark/serious, and a side plot that is far more lighthearted and/or silly. In sitcoms, expect this to appear in a Very Special Episode to try and combat some of the darker themes.
If a series starts to get Cerebus Syndrome, writers will typically want to try and add some lightheartedness or levity to keep things from getting too dark. An easy solution is to add an additional, minor plot to an episode that's considerably sillier than the main plot.
The sheer Mood Whiplash that often accompanies this trope, which can also include a Cutaway Gag or Gilligan Cut, sometimes adds to the comedy of the sillier plot due to sheer shock factor.
Subtrope of Bathos. Compare Serious Work, Comedic Scene, Hyperlink Story, Four Lines, All Waiting, and Two Lines, No Waiting. Contrast Plot Parallel. For when there's a less serious episode in the middle of a season/series of serious ones, see Breather Episode.
Note: In some very specific genres and/or media, this may be an Omnipresent Trope. For instance, all Brazilian Telenovelas have this, ALL of them. Telenovelas air new episodes 5 or 6 days a week, so they always have a huge cast to easy the workload of any one actor, and this huge cast is broken into five or six groupings of characters, each grouping with their own plots. The "main" grouping will almost always be more dramatic and serious and drive the main plot, even if that entire specific Telenovela skews to comedy, this grouping will still be relatively more serious, while one or more of the less central groupings will be the Comedic Relief Characters with their wacky side plots.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- Cardfight!! Vanguard Divinez: Episode 6 of Season 4 is unrelated to the main plot, starting the four-episode gap between the end of the Third DELUXE's quarterfinals and the start of the semifinals. The main plot focuses on the Destined One holders all hanging out together, more specifically on Yuna asking Kyohma for guidance on what to do with the rest of her life. Meanwhile, there's a small B-plot where Akina and Nao hang out so the former can unwind before the semifinals, all while Erika, thinking/hoping they're on a date, secretly tails them.
- Pokémon the Series: Some episodes that take place during Ash's gym battles have the gym battle as the Serious Main Plot (due to being vital to helping Ash enter the Pokémon League) and have the comedic Team Rocket trio try to steal Pokémon and fail as the Wacky Side Plot.
Fan Works
- The Dragon and the Butterfly: During the story's second act, several chapters show what's happening on Berk (the Vikings slowly losing the war with the dragons while Astrid tries to train a dragon as a last chance at hope) versus what's happening at the same time in the Encanto (Hiccup and Mirabel falling in love while engaging in wacky hijinks with the Madrigal family).
- How about... No! (Miraculous Ladybug): The one-shot's main story is about how Bustier's class learns that severing their friendship with Marinette, which they did due to Lila's lies, comes with serious downsides, as they suddenly find themselves without her valuable creativity and selflessness. The subplot shows Adrien and Chloe competing for who is Marinette's true best friend, to the point that they start fighting over who sleeps where in her room during sleepovers.
- If Wishes Were Ponies...: As soon as the British government knows that the Equestrians' desire to start relations with them is sincere, the next ten-ish months are filled with political, scientific, cultural, and medical breakthroughs that revolutionize both worlds. Meanwhile, Harry and the CMC cause chaos throughout Hogwarts, leaving their teachers equally horrified and amazed (or both at the same time). Zig-zagged in that some elements of the Equestrian/English plot are Played for Laughs, usually if Pinkie Pie's involved, while some parts of the Hogwarts plot are treated very seriously, namely anything to do with Voldemort.
Film — Animated
- The Fox and the Hound: The main serious plot is the two titular characters, Todd and Copper, becoming friends only to find out they are meant to be enemies by the time they grow up; it doesn't help that their respective owners, Widow Tweed and Amos Slade, are also rivals. Meanwhile, the two birds Dinky and Boomer continuously try to catch and eat a caterpillar that they mistake for a worm only to get thwarted in humorous ways each time.
- Incredibles 2 deals with Elastigirl working with DEVTECH to try and re-legalize superheroes while also trying to stop the plot of a hypnotizing supervillain known as the Screenslaver. Meanwhile, Bob has the more comedic side plot of trying to be a Househusband and looking after his family while his wife is on duty, with the discovery of Jack-Jack's uncontrollable superpowers making things more complicated.
Films — Live-Action
- Crimes and Misdemeanors has an "A" story (the Crime) starring Martin Landau that is incredibly dark on so many levels, and a "B" story (the Misdemeanor) starring director Woody Allen himself that, while still touching on some of the same darkly existentialist themes of the "A" story, is much more light-hearted.
- The Last House on the Left is about the kidnapping, rape and murder of a girl. Alongside this is the sheriff and his deputy's comically inept attempts at cracking the case.
- The Lost Boys is about a couple of brothers and their mother who move back into her hometown. The elder brother Michael falls in with a group of rowdy street youths who turn out to be vampires. The younger brother Sam believes that her new boyfriend is also a vampire and gets into shenanigans trying to expose him.
Live-Action TV
- Barney Miller: In "The Harris Incident", the main plot is deadly serious — Harris is shot at and nearly killed by a couple of racist cops who mistake him for a perp just because he was a black man presumably assaulting a white guy. The plotline concerning this is Played for Drama and leans very lightly on the laugh track. However, balancing it is the precinct's "guest" for the episode, a former stockbroker who found he could make a lot more money begging and milks it for all it's worth. Up to and including trying to guilt Wojo out of a stick of gum.
- Chiquititas (2013): Zig-Zagged, as most of the plots tend to vary between being serious and wacky. Between the orphanage kids, the older children tend to have the more serious plots, such as Mili's quest about discovering about her past and finding out her real parents; the younger kids often have more wacky, comic relief side plots, but can also have some serious plotlines as well such as Teca's grief over her deceased father, Neco's past at the Amazon and helping Lúcia (the latter of which also has its comic relief moments), and Binho remembering his parents having abandoned him. In the beginning of the show, while Mosca, Rafa, Pata and Binho are homeless children, their scenes are mostly serious to illustrate their harsh life at the streets, but with occasional comedic moments. The Almeida Campos family's plotlines are mostly serious, especially in regards to the treatment of Gabriela's catatonia and subsequent memory loss, but Carmen, while being the main antagonist of the show, also has comedic Large Ham moments. Miguel's side plotline is the most serious with the least comedic moments, focusing on his efforts on finding Gabriela while constantly being kidnapped by the Almeida Campos' henchmen or otherwise sufferring from problems such as being robbed, unfairly arrested, and then trying to escape from jail. Other side plotlines, such as Tobias with Maria Cecília and Eduarda with Shirley, oscilate between being comedic and serious.
- The Cold Case episode "Lonely Hearts" is about investigating a string of "lonely hearts" killings. Scotty and Vera's side of the investigation has them being Mistaken for Gay and dealing with a transvestite witness.
- Doctor Who: The episode "Tooth and Claw" has the very serious main plot of the Doctor and Rose having to protect Queen Victoria from a werewolf and it's cult of worshipers. There's also a humorous side plot of Rose and the Doctor having a bet of whether or not Rose can get the Queen to say "We are not amused." When Rose finally manages to make the Queen say it, the comedic subplot dies a death that has long-reaching consequences throughout the franchise (and has Rose exiled from Britain before she is even born, as one last joke).
- Family Matters: The A-plot of "Good Cop, Bad Cop" is as dramatic and relevant as any in the series run, as it involves Eddie being racially profiled by an overzealous police officer and his rookie partner. The B-plot has slapstick comedy provided by Steve Urkel, the resident nerd, as it involves him taking worrier Richie to the dentist to show him there's nothing to be afraid of. Unfortunately, the gas used to sedate patients makes Urkel completely loopy and causes him to drive the dentist absolutely crazy.
- Friends: The episode "The One with the Birth Mother" has one serious A-plot and two wacky B-plots. The A-plot deals with Chandler and Monica meeting the birth mother of their prospective child, and it ends with Chandler delivering a heartfelt speech about Monica's desire to have a baby. One of the B-plots deals with Joey being annoyed by his date stealing food off his plate, while the other B-plot deals with Ross wearing Rachel's sweater by mistake after their bags get switched.
- Full House: In one later episode, the main plot follows DJ dealing with Kimmy getting drunk at a party and nearly ruining her friendship with Kimmy over it. At the same time, Jesse and Joey are trying to teach Nicky and Alex about forgiveness... which results in them covering each other in fish goo.
- The Golden Girls:
- In "Break-In", the girls' house is robbed while they're at a concert. The main plot focuses on Rose's trauma from the incident and how she's suffering due to believing she'll never be safe again. There are two subplots at the same time, both Played for Laughs: Blanche is on the warpath to find whoever stole her jewels (going to rather extreme lengths) and Sophia starts claiming that random things were stolen so they can't inconvenience her (i.e. claiming the dictionary was stolen so she can cheat at Scrabble).
- In the episode "Son-In-Law Dearest", the main plot focuses on Dorothy and Stan working together to help their daughter and son-in-law save their marriage after the son-in-law cheated. The B-plot shows Blanche introducing Rose to I Love Lucy (though Rose doesn't completely get it).
- Home Improvement: "The Longest Day" deals with the Taylors waiting for a doctor to call with information on a lump found in Randy's neck (with everyone fearing it may be cancerous). A minor subplot has Tim explain his melancholy behavior to Al by claiming Jill had an affair with a milkman, which leads an incredulous Al to keep trying to talk to an increasingly confused Jill.
- House of the Dragon: As befits a drama about a Civil War, most of the plotlines in the Season 2 finale "The Queen Who Ever Was" are serious in tone, with the exception of some minor comedy from Ulf (and even then, his antics are designed to demonstrate the tension between him and Jacaerys). However, the subplot of Tyland Lannister meeting with the Triarchy to convince them to join the Greens is lighter in tone and fairly comedic. The contrast between the buttoned-up bureaucrat Tyland and the eccentric, Butch Lesbian Sharako Lohar is largely Played for Laughs, with moments like Lohar making Tyland believe that her men are cannibals and her catching him off guard by asking him to impregnate her wives.
- iCarly: The episode "iPsycho" has the A-plot of Carly, Sam, and Freddie being held hostage by a crazed fan who wants to keep them trapped in her basement and be her "best friends" forever. The B-plot shows Spencer enlisting Gibby (and later his baby brother Guppy) trying to make a minor repair to the penthouse... which somehow leads to the entire kitchen being destroyed.
- Lost:
- "Solitary": The A-Plot has Sayid be captured and tortured by Danielle Rousseau, a woman who has been trapped on the Island for 16 years slowly going insane after being forced to kill her lover and having her infant daughter stolen from her. The flashback plot is about Sayid's time as a torturer in the Republican Guard. The B-Plot has Hurley making a golf course and the rest of the survivors playing a tournament together.
- "Enter 77": The main plot sees a group of survivors face off against Mikhail, an extremely dangerous member of the Others. The flashback plot is about Sayid being tortured by the husband of an innocent woman he himself had tortured in the past. The B-Plot has Sawyer play ping-pong with the other survivors at the beach, resulting in him being banned from using nicknames for a week when Hurley beats him.
- "Left Behind": The main plot has Kate and Juliet get handcuffed to each other in the jungle and forced to work together as they are chased by the Monster. The flashback plot is about Kate trying to confront her mother for turning her in after she killed her abusive father. The B-Plot has Hurley trick Sawyer into being nice to everyone at camp by pretending that they are having a vote to banish him, leading to Sawyer awkwardly trying to curry favour with the other survivors.
- This sort of plot was a staple of M*A*S*H (1972) during its later years, melding a serious, earnest, even grim plot with a B-plot of shenanigans:
- "Preventative Medicine"'s serious plot was Hawkeye resolving to do unnecessary surgery on a Blood Knight Miles Gloriosus colonel to prevent him from leading a pointless assault that would just end in more needless casualtiesnote . This strains Hawkeye and BJ's friendship almost to the breaking point as BJ believes it to be morally wrong to remove healthy organs from a healthy human being. The B-plot? Klinger using Hollywood Voodoo to try and threaten Col. Potter into giving him his Section 8 discharge. Including a cute little Potter voodoo doll!
- "The Life You Save" has a serious plot involving Major Winchester being nearly killed by a sniper and developing a morbid interest in death, to the point of grilling a soldier who had gone through a near-death experience on the operating table and forcing Rizzo to dismantle a Jeep and put it back together as if it were an autopsy patientnote . The B-plot has Potter rotating the 4077th's officer duty schedules. Hawkeye gets Mess Officer duty and has to do a lot of wheeling and dealing to resolve a tray shortage.
- "The Tooth Shall Set You Free"'s serious plotline is a racist colonel who has been deliberately sending black troops into high-risk situations so that they'll either be gravely wounded or even killed, so can achieve his goal of reversing for his unit the 1948 desegregation order for the Army. The B-plot is the insane lengths Winchester goes through to avoid seeing a dentist.
- "Sons and Bowlers" has Hawkeye wracked with worry and grief over his father's cancer diagnosis, with Winchester offering Hawkeye his support. The B-plot is Potter trying every single trick in the book to win a bowling match against a visiting unit of Marines.
- "Say No More" features a actually level-headed general who sets up shop at the 4077th to be with his injured son. When the son eventually dies, the general is beside himself with grief and shares a poignant scene with Hawkeye. Meanwhile, Margaret is meeting a doctor whom she has a professional (and hinted romantic) interest in, but her home perm gives her laryngitis, causing her to dragoon Winchester into being her unwilling interpreter.
- "Strange Bedfellows" has Potter's son-in-law come for a visit. He's elated until he learns that his son-in-law had a fling with another woman while on his trip, sending Potter into a cold fury for Bobby's cheating on his daughter. In other news, opinions are divided about Winchester's snoring — he says he doesn't, the rest of the camp says he does.
- "Bombshells" has BJ taking a chopper for a fishing trip. While in the air, he and the pilot encounter a wounded soldier. BJ attempts a rescue, but it has to be aborted, leaving the soldier to near-certain death and saddling BJ with massive guilt for having to abandon him. Meanwhile, Hawkeye and — of all people — Winchester decide to relieve their boredom by planting a rumor that Marilyn Monroe is going to visit the camp, a rumor that mushrooms out of their control.
- Murdoch Mysteries: In the season seven episode "Friday the 13th, 1901", Doctors Ogden and Grace, as well as a few of their female friends, go to a remote island cabin for a Hen party, and get picked off by an axe murderer. It's a particularly gruesome episode by the show's standards, including a Decapitation Presentation. Meanwhile in the B-plot, back in Toronto, Crabtree makes a drunken wager with Leslie Garland that the Station House 4 boys can beat him in a curling match. Inspector Brackenreid ropes Murdoch into participating to take his mind off Julia rejecting his proposal in the previous episode.
- The Orville: The episode "New Dimensions" has the main plot of the ship dealing with an anomaly in time and space, and grounds them meaning they can't escape from incoming enemy warships. Meanwhile, most of the episode's comedy comes from the side plot of LaMarr being put in charge of the science team while having little to no idea what he's doing (something made worse by the fact that LaMarr took part in a prank that resulted in Bortus eating Yaphit).
- Person of Interest: "Prisoner's Dilemma" is a dark, dramatic episode about Team Machine scrambling to protect Reese's Secret Identity from the FBI after he is caught by Agent Donnelly. The B-Plot is a Self-Parody of the show's usual Victim of the Week format where Fusco rescues a supermodel from Albanian gangsters and ends up seducing her, shown in brief glimpses through a series of wacky Noodle Incidents.
- Power Rangers: A pretty well-known aspect of the series is the recurring usage of comedy duos, a pair of side characters who would get into wacky antics while the Power Rangers fought the monsters of the week.
- Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers to Power Rangers in Space began this trend with Bulk and Skull, punk bullies who would regularly bother the Rangers when out-of-costume. The two regularly got caught up in their own side-adventures throughout the show while the Rangers continued to fight the many monsters threatening to destroy Angel Grove, such as their numerous attempts to discover the Rangers' identities, trying to work as junior police cadets, and undergoing their own character arcs to become better people.
- The two would finally be phased out after Power Rangers Lost Galaxy, but Bulk eventually returned in Power Rangers Samurai. He now acted as a mentor to Skull's son, Spike, trying to teach him how to be a samurai in scenes that were completely disconnected from the Power Rangers themselves outside of a few interactions. The episode "Stroke of Fate" had the Samurai Rangers trying to stop Serrator from destroying the world by creating a massive crack in the Earth to unleash a tsunami of Sanzu River water, while Bulk and Spike tried to plug one of the fissures created by Serrator's plan with a giant ball of gum.
- Power Rangers Ninja Steel had Victor and Monty, a Jerk Jock and his nerdy friend/hypeman. Their subplots revolved around them trying to gain the adoration of their peers through various slapstick antics that frequently ended badly for them.
- Power Rangers Dino Fury featured the first female comedy duo with Jane and J-Borg. Jane is the serious yet silly head of Buzzblast, while J-Borg is her naive robot assistant. One particularly notable example of their inclusion was in the episode "Rafkon Revealed", which saw the Rangers fight Lord Zedd to stop him from creating an invincible army of world-destroying monsters, ending with the Rangers forced into retreat and Zayto mortally wounded…juxtaposed with Jane, J-Borg, and the rest of the Buzzblast staff playing Capture The Flag with Nerf guns.
- Scrubs: The A-Plot of "My Lunch" deals with Jill (a patient who unknowingly was infected by rabies) donating organs to three patients and accidentally causing their deaths, leading to Dr. Cox's mental breakdown. The B-Plot deals with resident Lovable Sex Maniac Todd realizing to be bisexual, and he starts comically hitting on both men and women.
- Stargate Atlantis: Downplayed in "Sateda". The A-plot is A Day in the Limelight for Ronon, who has been recaptured by the Wraith and forced to fight for his life in the ruined remains of his home planet; it's an intense episode with many painful flashbacks to the day his old life ended. The B-plot, focused on the Atlantis expedition trying to track Ronon down to help him, is still played seriously but has more moments of levity, such as McKay being Shot in the Ass with an arrow and Sheppard cheating in a Body-Count Competition with Teyla.
- Star Trek:
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The main plot of "Time's Orphan" is that little Molly O'Brien has fallen into a wormhole and popped out as a feral young woman whom her parents have to tame. The subplot is Worf and Dax babysitting Molly's baby brother Yoshi and trying to get him to stop crying.
- Star Trek: Enterprise: The main plot of "Silent Enemy" is that the ship gets attacked and must defend itself. The subplot is that Malcolm Reed's birthday is coming up and Hoshi must find out what food he likes.
- Super Sentai:
- Avataro Sentai Donbrothers Episode 40 featured both the dramatic struggle of blinded Tsubasa, courtesy of Murasame, being guided by Sononi while trying to avoid Juto!Sayama's attacks, and the wacky shenanigan of Haruka trying to get her driver's license, which go from her fumbling the control to instructor's detriment, earning her the moniker of "Instructor Killer", to her becoming a Speed Demon proficient in Car Fu. The focus shift back and forth between both plots, resulting in quite a Mood Whiplash before the plots literally collided when Haruka ran over Murasame during her field test, prompting vehicular combat with the would-be slasher.
Theatre
- Inverted in the musical comedy The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. The play's main plot is about the titular spelling bee, and all the wacky things that can happen (such as the fact that some of the spellers have rather unorthodox methods of spelling their words right). However, the character Olive has a rather serious side plot, as she reveals at the start of the play that neither of her parents are present to see her compete, nor did they remember to give her money to pay the bee's entrance fee. Throughout the show, she keeps waiting for her dad to show up (not thinking her mother will come due to her being on a "spirit quest" in India), and even has a rather tender musical number where she wants to believe her parents truly love her, but doubts this due to their being largely absent in her life. Fortunately, her story ends on a relatively happy note when one of the teachers at the bee takes pity on her and pays the entrance fee for her, and she gains a friend in one of the other spellers.
Video Games
- Dragon Age: Inquisition: While the game entire had shades of this trope, it really stood out in the Trespasser DLC. The main plot is a mixture of the two nations that the Inquisition's headquarters sits between deciding that they're sick of having an independent army answerable to neither of them camped on their border two years after the crisis it was created for has ended, combined with the Inquisitor searching for the mage who'd up and disappeared and discovering that he was responsible for kicking off the magical catastrophe that started everything, and oh yeah, the mystical mark on the Inquisitor's left hand is starting to destabilize and is killing them. The side quests in the DLC focus on things like teaming up with Sera to throw pies at people, helping the Bull's Chargers (should they have survived) sneak the Iron Bull's birthday present into his room by distracting Bull, or playing wingman to a humanized Cole to help him get a date (or watching a Cole who stayed a spirit play wingman for someone else).
- Like a Dragon's main plots are generally rather serious featuring the criminal underworld in Japan, and at its core are legitimately serious crime dramas showing why one should never get involved with the Yakuza (despite some rather bizarre moments you'd see in compilations). Despite this, the games' side content is known for being incredibly goofy even in context, such as clashing with a yakuza patriarch who's into infant-play, getting into a parody of Mushiking: The King of Beetles featuring lady wrestlers in cute bug costumes, or having to subdue a giant, malfunctioning robot vacuum cleaner. There's a reason why "Yakuza is a serious crime drama" is a meme in the fandom.
Visual Novels
- Scarlet Hollow features a main plot that, while not completely without bathos, is a Cosmic Horror Story with high emotional stakes and filled with Sadistic Choices. Picking the "Talk to Animals" trait during character creation essentially adds a series of wacky B-plots involving the critters around town, with many having exaggerated Unexplained Accents and eccentric personalities.
Web Videos
- "1000 Players Simulate Civilization, Rich & Poor'': The main plot consists of three separate Plot Threads, all of whom concern conflict between and within the rich island (Island Two) and the poor island (Island One). These include Fluixon's conspiracy to assassinate the leaders of Island Two to unite them against Island One, Queen cynnika of Infernus' slow descent into villainy as she destroyed the Lingulini Mafia, and Westhelm's conflict with the Commonwealth over the Commonweath's housing of one of Emperor Schpood's main enemies, Knight_Arcturus. Meanwhile, the one extended side plot that doesn't contribute to the main plot in the end is madzvie of "Barbieland's" conflict with ioppenheimer of Elysium over whose movie deserved all of the credit, leading to them getting married in the vein of the Barbenheimer meme after ioppenheimer visited and appreciated "Barbieland" in person.
- Restless Nights: "This Is Some Kind of a Forbidden Zone!" juxtaposes scenes of LizaAlert volunteers looking for missing persons with scenes of the wedding of two volunteers who had met at LizaAlert.
Western Animation
- American Dad!:
- The A-plot of "It's Good to Be Queen" revolves around Stan going out with the prom queen at his family reunion and cheating on Francine. He resorts to having his body double spend time with Francine and do things he doesn't want to do with her, with her being unaware. The B-plot is Surreal Humor about Roger and Steve following around a pizza delivery man who looks and acts like Jesus.
- In "Four Little Words", Stan gaslights Francine into thinking she murdered her best friend all because he can't stand to hear her say "I Told You So" in response to his horrible ideas. The B-plot is about Roger disguising himself as Kevin Bacon to get free stuff.
- "Independent Movie" is an Affectionate Parody of angsty independent movies that follows Snot, Steve, Toshi, and Barry taking a trip to Snot's dad's funeral, and Snot refusing to admit he's affected by it until he has a breakdown, after which Steve indirectly gives up on supporting him, ending with a Downer Ending. The B-plot is about Stan, Roger, and Hideki going into business with a device that lets people cut a cake all at once instead of one slice at a time.
- Bob's Burgers: The A-plot of "Friends with Burger-fits" involves Bob trying to get Teddy to eat healthier and exercise when he becomes concerned that his burgers are responsible for Teddy's declining health. The B-plot involves the Belcher kids turning the freezer into an ice rink and challenging their friends to an ice-pushing contest.
- BoJack Horseman: Tends to be very common in the series, especially in the earlier episodes:
- The episode "Live Fast, Diane Nguyen" main plot is about Diane dealing with her abusive family, while the side plot is about Todd running a scam that is Played for Laughs.
- The episode "The Telescope" is about Bojack trying to reconcile with a former friend and learning a Hard Truth Aesop that apologizing doesn't guarantee forgiveness. The side plot is about Todd trying to stop Bojack's car from being stolen, which is Played for Laughs.
- Courage the Cowardly Dog: In "The Mask", the A-plot is Courage trying to free Bunny from her scumbag boyfriend, Mad Dog, so she can be with Kitty. The B-plot is about Muriel and Eustace comically struggling to escape from their bedroom, with the former having to use the bathroom really badly.
- In the DuckTales (2017) episode "Timephoon!", the main plot involves Louie messing with the time-space continuum with a get-rich-quick scheme, and having to rapidly fix it before time itself unravels. The B-plot involves Huey trying to research a cave-duck named Bubba who was put in the house via the time displacement, and getting aggravated when Bubba acts nothing like how his report says.
- Gravity Falls:
- The episode "Sock Opera" has the A-plot of Dipper trying to hack into the Author's laptop so he can learn his identity (which leads to him becoming Bill Cipher's latest target). The B-plot is Mabel putting on a major sock puppet musical to impress a boy.
- The episode "Society of the Blind Eye" has a serious main plot, a dramatic side plot, and a silly minor plot. The A-plot is about the group investigating a secret society in Gravity Falls (which may or may not have caused McGucket to lose his mind). The B-plot is Mabel moping about how her plan to have a summer romance isn't going well (as her exes are all either magical and had to leave her or total jerks). The C-Plot is Wendy hating the latest rap hit, namely the fact that she can't get it out of her head.
- Inverted in the episode "The Last Mabelcorn". The A-plot is fairly lighthearted and shows Mabel, Wendy, Grenda, and Candy trying to acquire hair from a unicorn (who refuses to do so unless one of them can prove themselves "pure of heart"). The B-plot is rather serious, and focuses not only on a major The Reveal, but shows Dipper and Ford trying to bolster the Shack's defenses against Bill Cipher.
- Miraculous Ladybug: Season 6 frequently pairs a serious subplot involving one of the new Miraculous heroes with a more lighthearted subplot involving Marinette or Adrien.
- In "Daddycop", Sabrina contemplates leaving school because she fears she'll never be forgiven for the things she did as a Beta Bitch. Meanwhile Marinette forgets that she agreed to host a party at her house on the same night that she planned a date with Adrien, and tries to figure out how to mix the two events together.
- In "Vampigami", Rose and Juleka's relationship hits another rough spot because Rose has failed to set proper boundaries with a male friend and Juleka is afraid to talk to her about her discomfort about it. Meanwhile Marinette tries to get over her fear of vampires so that she can attend a vampire-themed movie night with Adrien and his grandparents.
- In "The Ruler", Nathaniel worries about coming out to his conservative parents, who already think his "friend" Marc is a bad influence because of his love of comics. In the B-plot, Marinette tries to cover up her runny nose from Adrien and inadvertently convinces him that he reeks of cheese.
- In "Yaksi Gozen", Kagami and Félix ask Marinette to hide their amokized rings somewhere safe while at the same time, Tomoe and Chrysalis team up to turn Félix into a spy to infiltrate the Miraculers. Meanwhile, Adrien tries to keep up with Marinette's affectionate gestures.
- The Owl House: The episode "Any Sport in a Storm" puts the main character Luz in the B-plot with her Love Interest Amity as they try to solve the mystery of how their mutual favorite author's books were published in both the demon and human worlds. Meanwhile, the main plot is Hunter trying to conscript some new recruits to The Emperor's Coven, and ending up with conflicted feelings from betraying his newfound friends. The former ends up being unimportant (it fills a Plot Hole, but doesn't get Luz any closer to finding a way home), while the latter is vital Character Development for Hunter and foreshadows some major plot twists for the rest of the season.
- Phineas and Ferb: The main plot of "Primal Perry" is that a hunter named Liam wants to kill Perry and Doof and is hunting them down. Its subplot is about the brothers inventing a machine that clones their friend Baljeet whenever he's feeling indecisive so he can make both choices each time, and comedic shenanigans happening as a result.
- The Simpsons:
- "Moaning Lisa" has an A-plot that is primarily about Lisa's depression and how nobody understands her. The B-plot is about Homer acting like a Manchild and obsessing over beating Bart in a game of video boxing.
- The A-Plot of "When Flanders Failed" involves Homer keeping the Leftorium a secret so that it can go out of business, only to discover that as a consequence, Ned Flanders has to sell his house and move out of Springfield. The B-Plot has Bart take karate lessons but quickly become bored of them when he has to read The Art of War before doing any actual fighting and spend his time at the arcade, which backfires when Lisa tries to sic him on the school bullies to get her saxophone back from them.
- "Bart the Lover" has an A-plot where Bart pulls a prank that goes too far (catfishing his teacher, then seeing how depressed she is that her "boyfriend" wasn't real), feels remorse, and needs to find a way to make up for it. The B-plot is a humorous subplot of Homer stifling his swearing, having a Humiliation Conga of Amusing Injuries and comical misfortunes, and promptly filling up his Swear Jar.
- The A-plot of "Lisa Vs. Malibu Stacy" involves Lisa, concerned with the female stereotypes of the latest Malibu Stacy doll, teaming up with Stacy Lovell, the creator of Malibu Stacy, to create a more progressive alternative in the form of Lisa Lionheart. In the B-plot, Grampa gets a job at Krusty Burger in an attempt to feel young again.
- The A-plot of "Bart Sells His Soul" involves Bart selling his soul to Milhouse for five dollars to prove that souls don't exist, then after suffering from a series of events, trying in desperation to buy it back from him. The B-plot involves Moe turning his bar into a family restaurant called Uncle Moe's Family Feedbag and trying unsuccessfully to run it by himself.
- The A-plot of "Homer's Enemy" is a stark Internal Deconstruction of the series, in which a new coworker of Homer's is gradually driven insane by his incompetence (and tendency to succeed in spite of it) and the madness of Springfield in general, and ultimately has a suicidal breakdown. The B-plot involves Bart buying a derelict building at auction and messing around in it with Milhouse until it collapses.
- "Lisa the Simpson" has a main plot about Lisa learning that she'll eventually become dumb like Homer and going out to spend one last day as a "smart" person before she loses her intelligence for good. The subplot is about Jasper freezing himself in the Kwik-E-Mart and Apu turning it into a tourist trap of cheap attractions.
- "Lisa Gets an A" has an A-Plot where Lisa scores an A+++ when she cheats on her report on The Wind in the Willows and is faced with the moral dilemma of whether to keep the secret to her success a secret so that Springfield Elementary can qualify for a government grant and get the much-needed funds to update the school or tell the truth and risk having the funds revoked. The B-plot is about Homer buying a lobster and attempting to fatten it so he and his family can eat it, only to adopt the lobster as a pet instead and name it "Pinchy".
- "Bye Bye Nerdie" is about Lisa getting beaten up by a bully and trying to figure out why nerds like her get bullied so often. The B-plot is a lighter story about Homer's over-the-top obsession with his babyproofing business.
- The main plot of "The Boys of Bummer" is Bart falling into a depression after being bullied for losing a baseball game. The B-plot is Homer getting a side job as a mattress salesman and getting up to silly antics.
- The entire premise of Solar Opposites runs on this trope. The A plot consists of a family of aliens getting into wacky mischief, while the B plot, also known as "The Wall," involves a developing storyline of shrunken humans devolving into a civil war.
- Star Trek: Lower Decks: In the episode "The Inner Flight", the A-Plot deals with Mariner, Boimler, Tendi and T'Lyn stuck on a hostile world while Mariner's self-destructive tendencies finally come to the forefront. The B-Plot deals with Rutherford and some of the Cerritos senior staff being harassed by a Wretched Hive while trying to get info on a former Starfleet member.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012):
- The episode "Baxter's Gambit" has a main plot of the Turtles, Dogpound, and Fishface being trapped in a death trap labyrinth by Baxter, and needing to form an Enemy Mine to get out alive. The B-plot is about Splinter trying to help April find a ninja weapon that suits her, which results in a lot of What the Fu Are You Doing? and Amusing Injuries.
- In "Mikey Gets Shellacne", the main plot involves Mikey accidentally dousing himself with experimental retromutagen, which he and his brothers eventually realize has put him in mortal danger. The side plot is about Leo, Raph, and Donnie trying to make breakfast... and failing spectacularly at it.
- Teen Titans: "Haunted" is one of the series' darkest episodes, with the main plot resolving around Robin being haunted by Slade, who only he seems capable of seeing (and who seems determined to finish him off). It's also a Sick Episode as Beast Boy comes down with a cold, causing his powers to go haywire every time he sneezes.
- Transformers: Prime: The episode "Masters and Students" has a fairly serious main plot of the Decepticons attempting to recruit the Decepticon Skyquake (with Optimus Prime and Bumblebee hoping to recruit him to the Autobots). The subplot is the kids getting ready for their school's science fair. Ratchet tries to help the kids with their school science projects... only to completely take them over.