"Captain Marvel was the first superhero comic to just throw out the notion of realism. Captain Marvel can fight dragons and meet women from the moon. Anything you can think of, this guy can do, so of course that was an immense hit, because it was taking much more advantage of the form, I think."
— Grant Morrison, Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle
Just as the Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism determines the 'mood' of a series, this scale determines how much a particular series is unlike reality in relation to the natural laws, general conditions, and probabilities of Real Life.
There are different factors that determine how much (or little) a work adheres to "reality":
- Stringent, minute, naturalistic sensibility is necessary for a work to be Mundane.
- Without such strict parameters, a work is considerably Unrealistic.
- Without even superficial elements of realism, a work's setting is Unusual compared to real life.
- If normalcy isn't widespread within a setting, the work is outright Fantastic.
- Should the setting be devoid of internal consistency, the work is decidedly Surreal.
There are cases where the writers believe in something which most of the audience consider unrealistic; these should be judged according to the audience' standards, for no one knows exactly what a writer believes. There are cases where they got their facts wrong. If it's obviously deliberate laziness, the work deserves a place at the fantastic end, even if it's unintended.
There are also stories in which the precise cause of things is never delineated: both a naturalistic (positivist) and a supernatural explanation is possible.
Not to be confused with Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness — a time-travel story with rigorous rules can be fairly Hard but decidedly Fantastic, for example. Sliding Scale of Like Reality Unless Noted charts the degree to which a work of fiction set in what is ostensibly a "modern", Earthly environment departs from Real Life. Fantasy Creep occurs when a story begins closer to the Mundane end of the scale and changes to be closer to Fantastic or Surreal as the story progresses.
A story's way of dealing with Back from the Dead can often be a very good — but not the sole or final — indicator:
- Mundane: Death is final. No one returns from the dead. Ever.
- Unrealistic: If anyone comes back, they either improbably survived events that should have killed them, or show up as ambiguously hallucinatory apparitions.
- Unusual: People can outright come Back from the Dead, but it's a very rare occurrence that practically no one knows well.
- Fantastic: It's difficult to come Back from the Dead, because of set-in-stone requirements.
- Surreal: Death lasts about a minute.
The existence or non-existence of sentient extra-terrestrial life is another indicator of where a work might belong on the scale:
- Mundane: Since there's no evidence of actual extra-terrestrial life, any issues related to them are wholly irrelevant in this work.
- Unrealistic: Works in this category mimic real-life as we know it, and any indication on the existence of extra-terrestrial life is deliberatively left vague.
- Unusual: Sentient extra-terrestrial life can decidedly exist, but such is not common knowledge.
- Fantastic: The presence of sentient extra-terrestrial life, and the far-ranging implications it brings with it, can be a center pillar of the work.
- Surreal: For no real reason, non-undercover aliens often spend your work shift across from you, and you sometimes turn into one and back.
Some works can rank one or two steps up or down this basic scale.
Examples:
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Mundane
There is nothing that cannot be explained by contemporary science and nothing ever happens that could not conceivably occur in Real Life as we know it. A Dream Sequence is the only way in which the otherwise hyper-realism in the work can be subverted. Darker works on this end often emphasize the irrevocable and often brutal nature of mortality, as well as the depiction of social injustices, such as exploitation of the poor on behalf of the rich. Films in this category may often be pretentious creations, often trying to be True Art. About the most 'fantastic' thing that happens here is a Contrived Coincidence or two designed to bring as much bad luck (or good luck) to the characters as possible. Science Fiction and Fantasy are by definition ruled out from belonging to this category.
Kitchen Sink Dramas typically fall into this category as do War Movies, particulary when depicting real-life wars from the perspective of those who either fought in it or the civilian population affected by it.
All Surprisingly Realistic Outcomes are at this very end of the scale.
Kitchen Sink Dramas typically fall into this category as do War Movies, particulary when depicting real-life wars from the perspective of those who either fought in it or the civilian population affected by it.
All Surprisingly Realistic Outcomes are at this very end of the scale.
- Caillou: It's a slice of life show that is slow-paced and never exaggerates too much outside of imagination sequences, and the fact that Caillou is bald, which is odd for a four-year-old.
- Holes is halfway between mundane and unrealistic. While the story itself is entirely realistic, there's two very strong examples of Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane.
- Maus is down-to-Earth and brutally honest about The Holocaust. The depiction of characters as Funny Animals would've been Unusual if they didn't treat each other as completely normal humans.
- My Dinner with Andre is about two guys going to a restaurant and having a talk with each other. That's it.
- The Thick of It (and by extension, In the Loop) is a well-researched and grounded take on U.K. politics, and there are very few exaggerated or unusual moments to it.
- This Is Spın̈al Tap, to the extent that several famous metal musicians (including Ozzy Osbourne) mistook the film for a real life documentary, as almost everything that happened within it had actually happened to them at some point.
- My Cousin Vinny, which is famous as one of the most realistic law movies ever made. For the most part, everything follows real court procedures, and the legal case in the movie is fairly down-to-earth and plausible.
Unrealistic
The trappings of realism are there. The technology and the settings depicted do have their counterparts in, or are based on, Real Life as we know it, but the presentation is over-the-top. On very, very, rare occasions there may happen what would reasonably seem to be supernatural events, but we are never given a full explanation of what actually did transpire. Depending on the genre, expect either lots of crazy stunts and polished dialogue, and the notion of realism will almost certainly take a back seat to the Rule of Cool, Rule of Funny, or the Rule of Sexy.
Many American Soap Operas fit here, because reality makes a lot of exceptions for the Rule of Drama.
Historical and Realistic Fiction are invariably here and above; such genres are defined by events being plausible within real life's most basic facets.
Many American Soap Operas fit here, because reality makes a lot of exceptions for the Rule of Drama.
Historical and Realistic Fiction are invariably here and above; such genres are defined by events being plausible within real life's most basic facets.
- In Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin has an anthropomorphic tiger friend who is seen by others as an inanimate stuffed tiger, and often imagines himself on fantastic adventures in Fantasy Sequences. Outside of his imagination realm, life is pretty realistic. However, there are some Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane situations that would land the strip in Unusual if they weren't ambiguous, such as the Calvin clones interacting with his parents and ambiguity of Hobbes' realness.
- Medieval Times Dinner And Tournament, after Doing In the Wizard from earlier shows, falls squarely into this category. While the setting is based on 11th-century Spain, the story uses Artistic License – History to make the show as fun and family-friendly as possible. Even the Stock Medieval Meal includes foods that, at the time, were only found in the Americas.
- OMORI's Faraway Town segments subvert JRPG conventions in contrast to Sunny's surreal Headspace, but apparitions of Mari, Sunny and Basil being affected by each other's "Something"s, and the Recycultists' Bonus Dungeon are notable blurs in the setting's mundanity.
- The West Wing, although it has mundane plots and settings, and thus is borderline realistic, the main characters are portrayed as over-the-top know-it-alls and the processes in which the federal government works is extremely simplified for dramatic purposes.
Unusual
The world is mostly semi-realistic, but it does contain more than just a few minor fantastic hiccups. It may be 20 Minutes into the Future or contain some Applied Phlebotinum which doesn't quite fit into conventional science. Supernatural events may occasionally happen, though they may fall under Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane. Some 'hard' science fiction shows that are based on extrapolations of existing technology may fit on the upper end of this.
Horror, Low Fantasy, Magic Realism, "Hard" Science Fiction ("Softer" science fiction with only a few unrealistic elements may also qualify) are commonly on this point. Musicals that aren't fantastical generally belong here as well — some, like Hairspray and La La Land, are perfectly realistic except for the fact that people burst into song at random.
Similarly, many Fantastic Comedies feature only one fantastic element, with the rest of the setting being fairly realistic.
Works set in a World of Funny Animals or Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My! world usually are Unusual if the only fantastic element is that everyone (or a good portion of the population) is an anthropomorphic animal and everything else is relatively Mundane or Unrealistic.
Horror, Low Fantasy, Magic Realism, "Hard" Science Fiction ("Softer" science fiction with only a few unrealistic elements may also qualify) are commonly on this point. Musicals that aren't fantastical generally belong here as well — some, like Hairspray and La La Land, are perfectly realistic except for the fact that people burst into song at random.
Similarly, many Fantastic Comedies feature only one fantastic element, with the rest of the setting being fairly realistic.
Works set in a World of Funny Animals or Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My! world usually are Unusual if the only fantastic element is that everyone (or a good portion of the population) is an anthropomorphic animal and everything else is relatively Mundane or Unrealistic.
- Archer usually sticks closer to unrealistic, and is notable for averting several action tropes (such as Steel Ear Drums and Bottomless Magazines) but includes just enough sci-fi elements (such as robot imposters, clones, mind-control chips, and futuristic space stations) to sit here comfortably.
- BoJack Horseman generally portrays a realistic world and character dramas, except for the fact that most of the population are sapient humanoid animals living alongside humans. This leads to several story elements that would otherwise seem fantastical, such as an underwater city for Sea-dwelling people, a chicken farm that grooms several of their own species for consumption, and a colony of giant ants living under California.
- The Dark Knight Trilogy fits here because of some slightly futuristic technology and being explicitly not set in our world. But save for a very few elements, The Dark Knight would have been unrealistic instead.
- Domestic Girlfriend takes place in an universe that may feature a staggering amount of overly dramatic events in the main characters' lives, but nothing that couldn't happen in real life. However, there are quite a few surreal visual gags that are lampshaded in a way that make it clear they also occur in-universe (for example a humiliated Natsuo turning into a puddle and being scooped up in a bucket), and the series ends with a miracle that has no natural explanation: Hina waking up after five years in a coma that was believed to be lifelong because the ring she wore when dating Natsuo is placed on her finger.
- Doug tends to be perfectly realistic about early teen life except almost everyone is Amazing Technicolor Population, which is purely a stylistic choice that isn't seen as fantastic in-universe, and Porkchop (and sometimes Stinky) is a bipedal animal. There are still a few fantastic elements, such as the Lucky Duck Lake monster in Doug's 1st Movie.
- Fahrenheit seemingly takes place in a relatively mundane world. Overtime, the story starts to uncover an ancient prophecy and an old civilization involving the fate of the world while Lucas, the protagonist, exhibits unnatural abilities to see visions and acquires super strength.
- Frasier generally leans more towards the unrealistic side, with farcical plotlines that are often over-the-top and contrived, but still grounded in reality. However, it does include some more surreal touches from time to time, such as Daphne possibly having psychic powers and Maris, a character who never appears on-screen and has their appearance described in such a bizarre way that it'd basically be impossible for anyone to actually resemble her in real life.
- Geronimo Stilton takes place in a World of Funny Mice, and the plots are fairly Unrealistic, abeilt with a few fantastic elements. The Spin-Off series, especially Spacemice, Kingdom of Fantasy, and several Thea Stilton spinoffs, do outright extend to Fantastic.
- Grave of the Fireflies, narrated by a dead character. Take out the narrator, and the film would have been in the Mundane territory instead.
- Jurassic Park: Would obviously be Unrealistic if it weren't for its core premise of scientists extracting dinosaur DNA from amber and thus the ability to clone dinosaurs, which is clearly super-science in real-life.
- Karlsson on the Roof is another Astrid Lindgren character who should fall into to this category as well. Much like Pippi, he lives in a mundane world where his ability to fly thanks to a propeller on his back is about the only unusual thing occurring.
- Kocchi Muite! Miiko: Despite being a fairly mundane slice-of-life, several chapters involve elements such as ghosts, Love Potion disguised as Valentine's Day chocolates, multiple occurrences of time travel, body-swapping, and the somewhat mysterious hooded fortune teller recurring character who (mostly) responsible on the supernatural plotlines. Chapters involving oneshot characters putting more emphasis on the unusual aspect.
- Kotoura-san is very realistic except that Psychic Powers actually exist, but they are so rare that they are not recognized as scientific fact within the setting. While the culture itself is mundane, the narrative does follow the life and hardships of a Telepathic main character thus putting the story at this level.
- Lackadaisy, whose depiction of The Roaring '20s is spot-on and the only major inaccuracy is a World of Funny Cats.
- Lamput: Its main character is a shapeshifting Blob Monster who is a fugitive on the run from laboratory workers. Said laboratory workers use potions and gadgets that don't exist in real life to help them catch him. It's a Zany Cartoon and uses a lot of unrealistic slapstick/cartoon tropes. The rest is at least somewhat realistic with a mundane city setting.
- Neon Genesis Evangelion. 20 Minutes into the Future plus forty meter tall Eldritch Abomination clones disguised as Humongous Mecha fit this category rather snugly.
- Pippi Longstocking, only the title character (save her father to a lesser extent) possesses any fantastic abilities while the rest of the characters and the world in which they inhabit seem to be rather mundane.
- Pirates of the Caribbean takes place in the real setting of The Golden Age of Piracy, but incorporates a number of decidedly unreal elements. Over the course of the series, Pirates of the Caribbean drifted into the next category down as the supernatural elements became more prominent and turned the movies into a Fantasy Kitchen Sink.
- Pushing Daisies may fit here since aside from the protagonist's power to bring people Back from the Dead, the world is generally realistic.
- Red Dead Redemption, aside from the DLC Undead Nightmare, which moves straight into fantastic, is realistic enough storyline-wise (Unless you think there's no possible way so much crap can happen in one guy's life.) Dead-Eye may be explained away as John Marston just being a damn good shot, but what can't be explained are such things that are optional encounters, like carrying a rabbit's paw to increase the amount of loot gotten off of killed enemies, a possible blessed object reducing the chance of enemies shooting at you, and of course, The Strange Man, who only responds to questions with answers that provide more questions.
- While the broad story arc of Saints Row: The Third mostly skews towards unrealistic, it features a number of sci-fi elements and set-pieces like a TRON-esq computer world, laser weapons, hover bikes, and zombies.
- Scooby-Doo, for the first ten years of the series, anyway, where the only fantastic elements were Scooby and his relatives (the only animals that could talk). From 1980 onwards, any movie or series became fair game for Unusual (What's New?, Be Cool!), Fantastic (Mystery Incorporated, Zombie Island, etc.) or entirely Surreal (The 13 Ghosts, Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo's Three Shorts).
- The Seventh Seal, is set in an otherwise realistic medieval Crapsack World of Black-and-Gray Morality haunted by the plague, and in which Death is personified.
- The Simpsons has a lot of bizarre gags that seemingly break the show's reality, but these rarely affect the episode plots, which tend to stay based in reality. Treehouse of Horror segments, however, can reach fantastic or surreal territory.
- The Suite Life on Deck: Was Mundane to start with, but then you get plotlines like sentient robots who created themselves trying to take over the ship, having to travel into the future to prevent the ship from an alien invasion, and having to fend off an ancient curse put on you by a dead queen's crown.
- Supernatural: The Winchester brothers face various monsters of the week including ghosts, vampires, and werewolves as well as more cosmic entities such as demons, angels, and even God himself. Yet, they still must deal with everyday realities such as finding money, food, and places to sleep. Death Is Cheap for them and their closest allies thanks to their destinies, but for most people in their universe it is final.
- Warrior Cats focuses on Partially Civilized feral cats who are capable of running a Mouse World-type society. While there are several fantastic elements such as leaders having nine lives, they are kept to the cats themselves, not affecting most of the other species.
- Watchmen: Almost anything fantastic, futuristic or supernatural, can be (directly or not) brought down to Dr. Manhattan's powers — though they're huge. The rest is slightly unrealistic Alternate History.
- Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches: The witch powers are an important part of the story, but they're a hidden part of the daily life on an otherwise mundane high school, and the story generally relies on Slice of Life humor and conflicts even though a lot of the characters use magic. Furthermore, magic only seems to exist on this specific high school — the rest of the world is completely normal. The college preparation arc as well as the epilogue are on the "unrealistic" end of the scale instead of "unusual" as they don't involve witch powers, but still has some over-the-top humor and a couple of cases of cartoon physics (such as Yamada lifting a gigantic boulder effortlessly)
Fantastic
The rules of the real world, as we know it, no longer takes precedence, or may in some cases no longer be applicable at all. Divine intervention, magic or superscience are the prevailing paradigms by which a world in this category functions. Creatures exist that shouldn't exist in Real Life, and the setting might not take place on Earth at all. What ultimately sets Fantastic apart from Surreal is that these paradigms do have a certain internal consistency.
Most Speculative Fiction, including most Comic Books, Fairy Tales, Heroic Fantasy and "soft" Science Fiction, belongs here.
Even with elements widely considered abnormal, Non-Fiction works cannot be here or below.
Most Speculative Fiction, including most Comic Books, Fairy Tales, Heroic Fantasy and "soft" Science Fiction, belongs here.
Even with elements widely considered abnormal, Non-Fiction works cannot be here or below.
- ANNO: Mutationem is set in a futuristic world within a Post-Cyberpunk setting but also throws in a mix of supernatural elements involving a crater that spawns a variety of unnatural phenomena such as monstrous creatures and an Enigmatic Institute keeping them in containment for research.
- The Cars franchise takes place in a world where everyone (and animal) are Sentient Vehicles, which would be too much to be rated Unusual. The settings and plots are merely Unrealistic (with the exception of the Cars Toon, "Unidentified Flying Mater").
- Castle in the Sky has as its premise that two kids are looking to prove the existence of a floating kingdom in the sky. The film has unrealistic elements that are nevertheless given an explanation; to give two examples, Sheeta's necklace saves her from falling to her death because it's produced from a special gem that has anti-gravity properties, and the kids' parents don't object to them flying into the sky because, as the kids are conveniently orphans, the parents are not there.
- Most of the Disney Animated Canon. Beauty and the Beast (1991) is a (if not the) prime example of internal consistency in a fantastic story where the background and the basic rules concerning the magic spell which transformed the prince to a beast (and his servants to house objects), and how it can be undone are disclosed in the opening narration.
- Doctor Who is probably between Unusual and Fantastic on the definition, because while some stuff is semi-realistic in a few episodes, the effects of half the alien technology and generally setting may as well be magic as explained by Techno Babble.
- The Good Place is in this category, unusually for a show set in the afterlife. There are rigid rules in place, and how the show expands and subverts them is central to the plot and humor.
- Happy Friends takes place in outer space, usually on the futuristic Planet Xing which is inhabited by humans, Ridiculously Human Robots, anthropomorphic cows, and nonanthropomorphic dinosaurs. It's primarily science fiction with lots of comedy, but in one season those two elements are brought along to a medieval fantasy world, complete with a wizard as an Arc Villain.
- The Harry Potter series, being entirely about wizardy. The tale of the three brothers, with Death itself acting as a character, takes it a little further into surreal, and is implied to be mythical even in the context of the series.
- Haruhi Suzumiya: Haruhi's powers are borderline surreal, but it's at least based on Haruhi's mood so it's not completely rule-less; Nagato, Asahina's and Koizumi's are Fantastic; and Kyon is Mundane.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure provides many instances of Shown Their Work and occurs in a realistic world, with many characters having the usage of Stands possessing a variety of fascinating and unusual abilities. The climax of Part 6 escalates to where the entire universe is recreated.
- The Lord of the Rings and other works by J. R. R. Tolkien, which are set in a vaguely defined mythical past include (relatively uncommon) magic and fantastic creatures.
- The Marvel Universe and The DCU. In fact, most superhero comics (and other superhero fiction, such as TV and films) where the hero and villain are explicitly powered.
- Most of Nintendo's franchises, and certainly their most successful ones, reside on the border of Fantastic and Surreal. The Funny Animals of Donkey Kong and Star Fox, the fantasy kingdoms of Fire Emblem and The Legend of Zelda, the far-futures and alien worlds of Metroid, Pikmin, and Splatoon, and the odd characters of Kirby, Pokémon, and Super Mario Bros. make up the list of notables.
- PAW Patrol started out as Unusual, with Unrealistic premises which happen to involve talking dogs, then progressed to this territory when it became Denser and Wackier, such as aliens and a golden meteor which grants superpowers.
- Puyo Puyo takes place in a world where characters use magic, and aside from the Blob Monster Puyos themselves, such creatures as talking skeletons, talking fish, and acorn frogs exists in that universe. For the internal consistency part, in playing Puyo Puyo, one fuels their magic by popping the Puyos, allowing them to attack, and that playing the game also has a risk of sending them to Another Dimension. On two separate occasions where the Puyo Puyo and Tetris worlds merge, it's clearly stated that the worlds aren't supposed to be together, and it's possible to unmerge them through finding whoever did it, forming those games' plots.
- Posthuman sci-fi works like The Quantum Thief and Orion's Arm mostly fall into here while still being rather high on the Mohs Scale of Science Fiction Hardness. The world might still run on real and theorized laws, but your world is ruled by diamond sky-gods with brains the size of worlds, swapping bodies is as easy as a change of clothes and intelligence is so embedded into everything that animism has become artifically made true.
- Ranma ½ is in-between Unusual and Fantastic (and sometimes arguably ventures into the Surreal as well): the existence of the supernatural doesn't seem to be common knowledge, except most characters seem only mildly surprised when weird things happen, and don't react as if they were exceptional, paradigm-shattering events. And there are definitely creatures that shouldn't exist in real-life.
- Rick and Morty focuses on the titular duo traveling to bizarre alternate universes and planets using unrealistic, ambiguous science, but the show's internal logic generally remains consistent.
- Roommates It's weird enough to be Surreal but has a defined rule-set (meaning it runs on story, trope and belief) to bind it all together.
- Sonic the Hedgehog straddles the line between Fantastic and Surreal, where fast-as-light hedgehogs, animal-powered robots, Humongous Mecha, magical gemstones capable of bending time and space, a deity cracking the Earth into pieces, alternate dimensions, Time Travel, artificially-created organisms, Psychic Powers, aliens, and fairy-like creatures whose physical states can be influenced by animals, fruits, and robot batteries are just a day in life, but still are bounded in some logic (mostly).
- Spirited Away: Many fantastic elements of the movie are given an explanation. It's about a magic bathhouse inhabited by gods; said gods only come out at night. It's set up that Chihiro has her name magically taken away from her by her boss, Yubaba, and she and others in her service must have a way to remember their names if they want to get out of the bathhouse. Earlier in the film, Haku feeds Chihiro spirit world food that is meant to keep her from fading from existence, and before that, Chihiro's parents are turned into pigs as punishment for eating other spirit world food without asking.
- Steven Universe is set in a mostly normal world, with the exception of the Gems. However, because the show focuses on a race of creatures that don't exist in real life, it qualifies as fantastic, though definitely leans closely towards unusual.
- The Tamagotchi franchise features colorful aliens called Tamagotchis on a planet that is itself a Tamagotchi, and where a lot of the buildings and vehicles are sapient or at least sentient. Clearly the existence of aliens, Sentient Vehicles, and Genius Loci is unrealistic, but aside from some inconsistencies between continuities, there are established rules on how things work.
- The original virtual pets have strict rules on how and how much you have to take care a Tamagotchi to get it to grow up a certain way (for example, on most releases, you have to take perfect care of it to make it grow into a Mametchi). Like in real life, failing to take care of the pet risks killing it.
- Tamagotchi!, the TV show: The characters at one point in the series summon what are called Tama Hearts by working acts of friendship, and what the Tama Heart looks like depends on the context (for example, a music note heart after helping somebody gain confidence in their singing, and a crystal heart after looking for a crystal crown); the events of the ninth season, Tamagotchi! Miracle Friends, are caused by creatures known as Dreambakutchis triggering a time travel function in a robot, and the characters seek to reverse it and get some Tamagotchis from the future back to the future by looking for those creatures, who also traveled through time and have the power to create another time slip; and the Tamagottsun and related events (such as towns merging and a "Freaky Friday" Flip) in GO-GO Tamagotchi! are caused by Tamagotchi Planet and Planet Earth aligning and by a comet, both of which are explained to happen only every 1,000 years.
- Who Framed Roger Rabbit: Of course, the Toon World is mostly surreal, but there are rules regarding the interactions of the "real" and toon worlds.
Surreal
The world has (almost) no rules or internal logic whatsoever. Anything can (and frequently does) happen, often with little or no explanation. Expect things to run on nonsensoleum.
Many Gag Series fall into this.
Many Gag Series fall into this.
- asdfmovie, where very random moments, such as Anthropomorphic Food, a kid who can summon killer trains, talking turtle bombsnote , a magical flying pony, a cow pretending to be a man, and floating disembodied buttocks, simply happen without explanation
- Doraemon: The gadgets Doraemon casually pulls out of his pocket for Noby can be powerful enough to distort reality, allowing people to turn into animals or travel anywhere they want in seconds (for example). The films take it a step further, focusing on the gang visiting fantastical worlds like a rabbit-inhabited moon or a land of bird people; the manga and anime TV show take place in an otherwise mundane town setting.
- The Fairly OddParents!: The fairies' magic can override reality, doing things such as bringing life to dead animals and creating a "Freaky Friday" Flip. A book called Da Rules keep the series from being too Surreal by keeping the wishes within the bounds of reason, with one of the big rules being that you can't wish anything to disrupt true love.
- Felix the Cat is pure cartoon surrealism, sometimes going into outright fantasy, and is very stream of conscious and bizarre in story and tone, especially in the Silent shorts and Twisted Tales series.
- Happy Tree Friends, where anything can and will rip those cartoon animals into piles of blood, flesh, and organs, no matter how implausible it seems to be. (The wiki keeps track of these instances.
) And they come back to life the next episode.
- Inside Out: The worlds inside the humans are quite surreal. At the beginning of the first film, the station where Riley's emotions work isn't formed, but some spinning doohickeys and a slide spawn for Riley's first memory to ride on, appearing with no explanation. Some other things in Riley's brain include, but aren't limited to, a machine that creates an ideal boyfriend (and can create multiple of the same boyfriend) and a room that condenses anything in it into abstract versions of themselves. The outside world is pretty mundane.
- OMORI's Headspace is a vibrant dreamscape that runs on an Excuse Plot and has almost no cohesion in its "story". Omori's main companions are repeatedly replaced with carbon copies in the process of creating an Eternal Recurrence to distract Sunny from the most painful elements of his reality.
- Simple Samosa is a comedy series that is about Anthropomorphic Food and would be in Fantastic if not for how its humor is zany and cartoony. One episode has Samosa implied to hijack a racing competition when the winner is announced to be him, which is very much a Crack Defeat as he was disqualified, and he explains to Vada that "What is the name of the show? Simple Samosa!" as his justification. Aside from Vada, nobody suspects anything. Another episode is about the sun going out, which would be fatal for the entire planet in real life, and the Chatpata Four having to light it back up.
- South Park: Supernatural and science fiction elements are a regular occurrence that pass with minimal notice, one of the main characters frequently dies and coming back the next episode with (initially) no explanation, and generally nonsensical, bizarre events have a tendency to just happen for no reason.
- Spliced is about Mix-and-Match Critters who were invented by a Mad Scientist and left to fend for themselves on an island. It has enough science fiction to be Fantastic, but it's the humor that catapults it into the realm of the surreal. To give some instances, one episode has a segment at the end where they advertise nothing - as in, literally thin air - as though it were a product, and there's another episode where Two Legs Joe's stomps have the ability to do things like summon pillows and teleport himself and others with no explanation, when in previous episodes they never did anything like that.
- SpongeBob SquarePants: Rule of Funny is the norm; campfires can burn underwater and will go out if you point out how they shouldn't be burning in water, Roman sea god Neptune challenges SpongeBob to an epic fry cooking challenge, and as a joke, Count Orlok from Nosferatu, of all people, repeatedly turns on and off a light at the Krusty Krab.
