#comedy tropes

[rose-of-pollux]

Several weeks ago, a mutual had posted a query on what kind of recurring jokes/gags we find the funniest, and that's when it dawned on me that I didn't have a specific recurring joke/gag that I find the funniest, because, for me, a lot of humor comes from a perfectly delivered bit and/or dialogue that can't be pinned down to a particular topic of joke/gag.

Like, it's not enough that the joke/gag is funny, it's all in the delivery, and here is just one example: this is from the 1931 short feature Chickens Come Home, and the context of this gag is a married man, who is fully aware that his ex-lover is on his way to his house to blackmail him, is put in a situation where he's forced to sing the Irving Berlin song, "Somebody's Coming to My House" while he hears said ex-lover's car approaching, followed by the doorbell ringing, and goes into a state of absolute panic.

On paper, it's funny--no doubt about that. But Oliver Hardy's delivery of that entire gag? Absolutely hysterically funny taken up to 11.

There are plenty of other examples I can think of, but this is the one that first came to mind.

[writebackatya]

I wanna thank the person who came up with the trope in fiction where a character (or characters) are pretending to be rich/upperclass and in order to pull off that facade they wear a top hat, a monocle, have a cane, and talk with the bougiest voice imaginable and say stuff like “Hmmmmmmm yes. quite. That horse would look lovely with my yacht”

That shit will always be funny to me

[random-chaos-thoughts]

Yes, we all love the villain trope of the Mysterious Bad Guy being sat with his back to the Hero and then in the middle of their Bad Guy Speech the chair rotates to reveal their face but have you consider

Comedy Villain Trope where the chair doesn't rotate and the Bad Guy:

painfully turns the chair over by wiggling on it. It makes this awful sound when the feet squeaks on the floor for several dozen seconds

turns toward the hero by leaning over the arm of the chair. They try both sides but the hero is right in the blind spot behind the back of the chair. They have to lean really really far in an inconfortable position to see them.

Keep talking with their back turned but just before the climax they abruptly stops to ask the hero to come over to face them because it "really isn't inconvenient like this"

All this time was curled to hide behind the armchair's high back and suddenly emerge from behind it, standing on the chair. And they are in their socks because "this chair is a pain to clean up, you wouldn't imagine, so no shoes on the velvet"

[threewaysdivided]

Some of your fav tropes? I'm always a sucker for "Why are we whispering? (yelling?)" gags, m'self!

Hmmm, let's see... I tend to be more of a fan of the execution of tropes than wedded to the tropes themselves being there, but I do have a soft spot for a few:

In terms of storytelling I'm a big fan of the things you find in Rewatch Bonus/ Fair-Play Whodunnit stories, especially when the writers are willing to be sneaky with the small incidental details. Not to Air Crash Investigations on main again but in one of the episodes where the cause was determined to be wing icing, the dramatized re-enactment of the flight opens with the pilot thanking a steward for putting extra ice in their drink and yes, Cineflix Canada, I saw what you did there.

As for comedy tropes, I get a lot of joy from Understatement/ Understated Reactions (where the description, dialogue choice or character reaction is disproportionately casual/minor compared to what actually happened - e.g. *something explodes* "Well, that's inconvenient"), as well as the Gilligan Cut (where a character refuses to do something but then it cuts to them doing it, or they sarcastically suggest a completely absurd solution only to cut to them actually using it), and what I'll call the Nod to the Fourth Wall (when a character says something that would be a normal phrase in-universe but is ironically funny to the audience because we know they're a character in a story - e.g. "who do you think you are, acting like some comic book superhero!" says one comic book character to another, or the "It's time to stop living in a fairytale" line in Shrek 2) although this can also feel forced or clichéd if done clumsily.

It's also funny when a written work takes a pin to its own tone for comedy - to see the author spend several lines/paragraphs building a beautiful, serene or majestic image only to suddenly pull the rug out with an absurd line or shift in mood (the Bartimaeus Trilogy is great at this).

Thanks for the fun ask!

[lt-sarai]

One of the best comedy tropes is when A brings up something embarrassing casually and B yells “THAT WAS ONE TIME!”

[pacific-rimbaud]

Poor hermione. Between the last chapter of LaOHA and chapter one of One and Done she is having awful luck with envelopes. As always, love your work. hope your pinched nerve gets better quickly! 🥰

It's better! This is something I do to myself about once a year. As a treat.

And. Yes. Picasso had his Blue Period, I had That One Month I Got Super Into the Unfortunate Item Swap Trope.

Thankfully our Hermione is doing just fine in my Google docs right now. 😏

Thank you! ❤

[shingekinosimpson]

You know what I feel is an underappreciated comedy trope?

The awkward applause.

Like where someone is giving a speech or something is happening on a stage and people are either confused or horrified but still feel the need to clap.

The Simpsons and Futurama in particular have this down to a T.

[onion-fortagrefer]

comedy scenes from action movies that i keep daydreaming

two commanders discussing they'r plans while the troops in the back do cheerleader routines

random fast food joint in the middle of a pit fight

two charecters in a shoot out stoping to shoot at a annoying object in the distance, fistbumping eatchother before contineung they'r fight .