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March 28, 2024, 08:07:12 PM

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Unfunny comedy devices

Started by Jockice, September 19, 2018, 08:01:42 AM

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bgmnts

Is ennui a philosophical term?

Can you imagine if they had a reality show during the year of 1066?

The Only Way is Wessex! Hahaha

amnesiac

Quote from: yesitsme on September 19, 2018, 04:06:01 PM
When Outnumbered first came on it was ok, a good solid 7/10 watch with occasional 9/10 peaks.  It was the British version of A.L.F.

Then it became...

Mum/Dad/Eldest/Middle/Youngest 'Would you like to go the X today?'
Mum/Dad/Eldest/Middle/Youngest 'We can't don't you remember?  Not after the incident with the Y?'

Oh, unseen backstory where would we be without ye?

HUGE agreement from me - Along the same lines is the crazy friend trope and the whole "remember the time we woke up in a dumpster?" etc.

McChesney Duntz

Quote from: Jockice on September 19, 2018, 08:01:42 AM
As mentioned in the Private Eye thread. I think that fake diary entries by famous people are the unfunniest thing on earth, no matter who writes it or who it's parodying.


So..prove me wrong.

Doug Kenney's "Mrs. Agnew's Diary" (probably inspired by "Mrs. Wilson's Diary" in the Eye, innit?) series in the first few years of the National Lampoon were pretty consistently hilarious. But that was 45+ years ago, so...

McChesney Duntz

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on September 19, 2018, 01:24:47 PM
I think 30 Rock had a couple of live episodes that were a bit painful as well.

The first one wasn't great, but the second (which had much more of an SNL feel) is one of my favorites. The East Coast version was, at least.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlLtAeesr7M

hummingofevil

Where do we stand with crowd work? Even worst hack comedians can usually get a laugh from the "oh-you're-a-doctor?-What's-your-favourite-leg?" type shite but is it ever not absolutely awful.

Daniel Kitson aside of course. "Head and neck cancer"

hummingofevil

I think I got one. Comedians of mixed racial/cultural backgrounds doing compare and contrast jokes.

For example:

"My name is Drayvon  McGinty. I'm half-Irish and half-Afro-American; I've got a massive 12 inch penis but it's orange."

That type of thing.

Ballad of Ballard Berkley

This thread: how many more times?


yesitsme

Ha! Ha! Whacky neighbour! You never know what they're going to be doing in their garden, or in your kitchen, usually shirtless - or even trouserless down at Kingdom Hall  they're so zany! But everyone tolerates them and loves them.  They feed the pigeons - Derek on Da Streets.

We've got a zany neighbour, he puts all his furniture in the front garden, he pushes his organ (f'nar f'nar) in a shopping trolley down to the town centre where he plays slowed down, breathy versions of mostly Lennon and McCartney/Elton John, he feeds the foxes, he takes a piss against the wall of the people across the road, he sits on the grassy hill doing decades of the rosary.  He's whacky.

He's a pain in the arse, and one day he'll take a carving knife to someone's throat.

Mark Heap has got away with murder playing this guy.

Icehaven

Pratfalls. Particularly when accompanied by hands being thrown in the air and a ''Woooaaaahhhh!!'' of the kind no real human who's ever fallen over has ever emitted. That's why real falls are much funnier, because the situation and timing is usually much funnier than choreographed falls ever manage to be.

yesitsme

You don't see 'Whoops! There go my trousers!' as much these days, surely that's due a come back.




amnesiac


Ballad of Ballard Berkley


up_the_hampipe

Quote from: hummingofevil on September 20, 2018, 02:17:35 AM
Where do we stand with crowd work? Even worst hack comedians can usually get a laugh from the "oh-you're-a-doctor?-What's-your-favourite-leg?" type shite but is it ever not absolutely awful.

Daniel Kitson aside of course. "Head and neck cancer"

Yeah, crowd work is very difficult to do in a way that's not been played out a million times. Interacting with a crowd spontaneously can be great, but trying to strike up banter with audience members is a recipe for hackery.

EOLAN

Quote from: lebowskibukowski on September 19, 2018, 04:30:04 PM
I have always hated the trope (I'm sure that there is probably a name for it) whereby one character simply remembers a lot of words, possibly some of them rhyming, to sum up what the other characters have been talking about (eg Allo Allo's "gateau in the chateau", the sort of "So if Pete will greet him with the meat, he will have to meet Stan in the van" shite). Usually followed by hollering and a massive round of applause just because somebody has LEARNED THEIR FUCKING LINES.

Can Nigel Hawthorne not get a special exemption from this?

yesitsme

Quote from: EOLAN on September 20, 2018, 11:00:53 AM
Can Nigel Hawthorne not get a special exemption from this?

That's that twat's act.  What's he called?  Wee cunt, bangs on about being posh all the time.  Always wears a shirt.

H-O-W-L

Quote from: magval on September 19, 2018, 11:08:26 AM
Yeah, Newswipe had at least one clip show which was a compilation from the mere FIVE WEEKS of episodes that preceded it. I think he later just decided to do just what was suggested above - one less episode.

Actually a big reason for that was because Brooker straight up cracked his beezer and they had to shuffle the episode order. They were going to do a short "best bits" taster, but him hurting his neck meant they had to do a full-length highlights episode in place of one of the regular episodes, as it was made week-to-week.

Brundle-Fly

Quote from: Ballad of Ballard Berkley on September 20, 2018, 03:48:00 AM
This thread: how many more times?

I does seem like we are spiralling into some kind of dementia with certain thread subjects now.

Wosi and I had a similar grimble yesterday

https://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php/topic,69177.0.html

FWIW: Old people breakdancing?

Clownbaby

#48
Mainly in poorly written comedies, when a bunch of misfit characters say or do something mildly awkward but the disgusted reaction of the "normal" people is exaggerated, like that bit in IT Crowd where Moss and Roy are telling a story at a party at some point in series 1 and it's not quite weird or cringe enough to warrant the whole atmosphere dropping stone dead like it does. Or any time in The Big Bang Theory where a nerd says Star Wars and Penny goes "what the fuck are you on about mate" because the iconic and extremely popular movie franchise Star Wars, as we all know, is such an obscure and bizarre topic to bring up in a social situation. Fucking weird nerd.

Also a bad writing thing possibly, when a character has a very clear and simple opportunity to explain something but they don't.*   I know that comedy misunderstandings are a  time honored thing but when they feel too easy to avoid I don't enjoy it and it doesn't have enough weight to make me laugh cause I'm just going at the screen "well you could have just said she is your sister cause she is, you bellend" and not enjoying the awkwardness. I prefer it when there's a situation where it genuinely is very difficult to explain or get out of, then the helplessness and embarrassment of the character feel justified and I feel for them and it's funny.

*disclaimer: I love Always Sunny and I know the characters in that often get themselves into needlessly complicated situations from poor communication, but they're all deranged and scheming bastards so it makes character-sense. I can allow egregious misunderstandings and fuck ups if they're in line with the characters. It's when the character is portrayed as nice and sensible and cautious that it's just plain bollocks for them to get themselves into such a stupid careless mess.


yesitsme

Why does Person A still knock around with Person B?

Why does Bob the Builder let Spud come in to the yard when it always ends in tragedy?
'...Oh, I was only messing Bob.'
'Too little too late you potato fuck - now Wendy's had her head knocked off by Scoop.  What will Mr Bentley say?  Fuck Fuck Fuuuuuuck.  I told you a builder's yard was no place for a clumsy, mischievious scarecrow but you wouldn't listen would you?  Well, I'm telling you, one of us is going to jail and it aint going to be me...!'

I think that's on the DVD extras.

I think this thread's gone far enough.

Jockice

Quote from: Clownbaby on September 20, 2018, 12:10:17 PM
Mainly in poorly written comedies, when a bunch of misfit characters say or do something mildly awkward but the disgusted reaction of the "normal" people is exaggerated, like that bit in IT Crowd where Moss and Roy are telling a story at a party at some point in series 1 and it's not quite weird or cringe enough to warrant the whole atmosphere dropping stone dead like it does.

Neil or Finchy says something. Everyone laughs. Brent says something. Everyone goes silent.

Ornlu

Quote from: hummingofevil on September 20, 2018, 02:24:39 AM
I think I got one. Comedians of mixed racial/cultural backgrounds doing compare and contrast jokes.

For example:

"My name is Drayvon  McGinty. I'm half-Irish and half-Afro-American; I've got a massive 12 inch penis but it's orange."

That type of thing.

"I don't know whether to eat it, or to SHOVE IT UP MY ASS!"

studpuppet

Quote from: hummingofevil on September 20, 2018, 02:24:39 AM
I think I got one. Comedians of mixed racial/cultural backgrounds doing compare and contrast jokes.

For example:

"My name is Drayvon  McGinty. I'm half-Irish and half-Afro-American; I've got a massive 12 inch penis but it's orange."

That type of thing.

But this is the pinnacle of joketelling - so obvious, but he has to say the punchline anyway: https://youtu.be/qnA_ot_aGs8?t=2m31s

The Lion King

Quote from: up_the_hampipe on September 20, 2018, 10:25:26 AM
Yeah, crowd work is very difficult to do in a way that's not been played out a million times. Interacting with a crowd spontaneously can be great, but trying to strike up banter with audience members is a recipe for hackery.

Todd Barry nailed crowdwork without really bringing anything particularly new to the table. I don't mean that as an insult either, he took a ridicuously hacky device, ran with it and it worked amazingly