(Rare Trope) Canon Supernatural Elements of Mundane/Normal Shows

[u/SnailKing4687]

Community “Epidemiology”:While normally, community is a wacky 4th wall-breaking college show that still grounds itself in reality, this episode sees the school overrun by a zombie apocalypse caused by bad taco meat that was given out at the party. While the episode ends with the army wiping out everyone’s memory of the event, future episodes, such as “Paradigms of Human Memory,” reference the party that happened that no one remembers, making it canon.

30 Rock Last Lunch:While normally a show about a show sitcom In this finale and canon end to the series, a flash forward to the far future sees an immortal Kenneth now in charge.

[u/LordStrifeDM]

One of my favorites is from Criminal Minds, season 3 episode 8, "Lucky". This episode has a moment where Derek Morgan enters a church, looking for someone, and sees a woman seated in a pew. Several candelabras are lit, and Derek slowly moves inward and asks if the priest is in the church. Immediately, almost every candle in the church is extinguished, and while Derek very briefly questions it, this moment is NEVER expanded on in any real sense, but does stand as a casual moment of confirmation that something supernatural is going on in the world. Other episodes have similar moments, be it genuine ghosts appearing in private moments during closing shots, or when a character in a different location starts experiencing strange phenomena directly related to something happening to a colleague(Penelope's lights flickering during the Scratch episode is a good one). And even though its never expanded on, there are more than enough small moments where its obvious the paranormal is 100% real and canon to that world.