From Bad to Worse/Other


 * There's an old joke that is the essence of this trope. A farmer who's been away from home for a week drives back into town, and stops for some cigarettes before he reaches his house. The sheriff pulls up and tells him some bad news...

"Sheriff: John, I have some bad news for you. Your dog is dead.

Farmer: Aw damn, old Sport? What happened to him?

Sheriff: He died from eatin' too much horse flesh.

Farmer: Horse flesh?...wait a minute, you don't mean MY horses?!

Sheriff: Yup, they perished when your barn burnt down.

Farmer: My barn?!

Sheriff: Oh, it was the spark from the house fire that done it.

Farmer: My HOUSE burned?!

Sheriff: To the ground, thanks to those damn candles at your mother-in-law's funeral.

Farmer: Mother Sloan is dead?

Sheriff: And buried! 'Twas the shock of her only daughter runnin' off with that hired man what did her in.

Farmer: WHAT?! My wife has left me? You're telling me that on top of all that I have to raise three children without their mother?!

Sheriff: What? Oh, no, no..."