Irony & Understatement
Bathos
An abrupt shift from an elevated or serious tone to something trivial. The drop can create deliberate comedy or unintentionally undermine a serious passage.
"Here thou, great Anna! whom three realms obey, / Dost sometimes counsel take — and sometimes tea." — Pope
Don't confuse it with. Pathos moves; bathos drops. Anticlimax is the structural name for the same descent.
Examples
She dreamed of saving humanity, restoring justice, and finding a matching sock.
The sequence drops from grand moral ambitions to a trivial domestic concern.
The rest of the family
Irony Hyperbole Litotes Meiosis / Understatement Euphemism Periphrasis Apophasis