THAT Blackadder ending and other great emotional moments in comedy

Writers Richard Curtis and Ben Elton did go to great lengths to portray the grim reality of life in the trenches, albeit through a comic lens. Witness Baldrick’s increasingly disgusting recipes, including ‘Rat au Vin’. Or van, rather, given it consisted of a rodent which had been run over by a military vehicle.

The spectre of death is there throughout its six-episode run, but it's played for laughs. Captain Blackadder notes that the military strategy consists of “climbing out of our trenches and walking very slowly toward the enemy”, while General Melchett, a brash and incompetent warmonger, declares that “if nothing else works a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through”.

This tone prevails until the final three minutes of the series, when a sudden volte face upends everything the audience has come to expect of Blackadder and instantly places it among the most iconic endings in television history.

Melchett’s right-hand man, Captain Darling, is sent to the frontline against his protests. He’s met by Blackadder – who has spent the episode unsuccessfully pretending to be insane in the hopes of being invalided back to Blighty - Baldrick and Lieutenant George – a privately educated dimwit who has been eagerly anticipating the chance to go over the top and declares the troupe will be “sucking sausages in Berlin by teatime”.

Almost imperceptibly Hugh Laurie's tone changes.

“Sir?” George says to Blackadder. “I’m… scared, sir.”

“I’m scared too, sir,” agrees Baldrick.

We get one more ‘Darling’ joke at the character’s expense before he tells the others how he’d hoped to return home, play cricket and marry his childhood sweetheart, instantly humanising a previously unsympathetic character.

There’s a moment of hope as the guns stop and the characters speculate that peace has been achieved and there will be a happy ending after all.

“Oh, thank God,” says Darling. “We lived through it. The Great War, 1914-1917.” This is a technique known as dramatic irony and while there’s a titter from the studio audience it doesn’t seem to be a line primarily written for laughs.

We’re offered one more hope of redemption as Baldrick, as he has throughout the series, comes up with a “cunning plan” as the orders to advance are being called. It is, he assures Blackadder, “as cunning as a fox who’s just been appointed professor of cunning at Oxford University”.

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The captain though knows it’s too late, and after wishing everyone good luck he leads his men over the top. We see flashes of light, we hear explosions and gun shots. Then the screen simply fades to a field of poppies. No last minute escape, no big joke to end on, and all the more effective because of what came before.

That ending has gone down as one of the best in history but it’s far from the only example of comedy that can deliver an emotional gut punch.

Witness the end of series two of the UK version of The Office, as we see David Brent cast aside his banter and bluster to beg, tearfully, for his job.

When Will Smith started on The Fresh Prince of Bel Air he was known as a hip-hop star but he soon showed the acting chops that would make him the box office king in the series’ more emotional moments.

One episode sees his character, also named Will, reunited with his estranged father. As he was warned by Uncle Phil – who the series has set up as his surrogate dad – Lou once again abandons his son, initially trying to sneak out without Will noticing.

Smith feigns nonchalance initially, before switching seamlessly to fury and, finally, a plaintive “how come he don’t want me, man?” that draws a bear hug from Uncle Phil.

On 8 Simple Rules the show dealt with a very real tragedy, the death of lead John Ritter, by staging an hour-long farewell episode in which his television family react to his passing. Filmed a month after his fatal heart attack, the cast’s emotions are as real as it gets.

Before Brendan Fraser was the internet’s favourite actor he had a starring guest role on medical comedy Scrubs. Playing the brother-in-law of main character JD’s surly mentor Dr Cox, his character visits Sacred Heart hospital having been in remission from leukaemia for two years.

The plot revolves around Cox blaming JD for “screwing up” and allowing an elderly patient to die, and Fraser’s character, Ben, trying to talk sense into him.

Cox works on call for several days, refusing to trust JD after his mistake, and is even prepared to miss his son’s birthday party until his brother-in-law convinces him otherwise. Finally, Ben tells him “you have to forgive yourself”.

It’s here the rug is pulled and the audience learns that it was Ben who died days previously, and the event in question is his funeral, J.D overhearing his mentor ‘talking’ to Fraser’s character and asking “where do you think we are?”.

It’s a theme the show would mine again with ‘My Lunch’, in which a mistake of Cox’s own causes the death of three patients.

It’s not just live action either. Mention ‘do it for her’ to a Simpsons fan and they’ll know exactly what you mean.

Another Matt Groening project, Futurama, pulled a similar trick to Blackadder. The show centres on the life of Fry, a delivery boy who ends up in the year 3000. The episode ‘Jurassic Bark’ sees him rediscover the fossilised remains of his dog, Seymour, and resolve to clone him and even potentially restore his memory.

Upon being told that the dog had lived to 15, dying a full 12 years after his master’s disappearance, Fry decides against the plan, reasoning that Seymour would have moved on and found a new owner. A heartbreaking flashback shows the dog waiting, as instructed, outside the pizza shop for Fry to return.

From Porridge to Phoenix Nights, Friends to How I Met Your Mother, countless shows have swapped the laughs for emotion and proved that the best comedy really is the kind that can make you cry.