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Upsetting moments in otherwise not upsetting comedy

Started by Pink Gregory, November 04, 2019, 01:13:00 PM

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Pink Gregory

Thought I'd ride on the coattails of another for my very first thread.  Spinning off for upsetting/bleak moments when they're not expected.

I was put in mind of the Big Train sketch with Mark Heap and Kevin Eldon in cat and mouse costumes - something about the slightly pathetic drunken brawl they have in the street while their distressed friends try to separate them.  Never feel dead comfortable when that sketch comes up, even though the humourless nature of the scene is obviously the joke.

up_the_hampipe

I love that sketch. The commitment to the bit is what makes it work, as you say, they made it as real as possible, thus making it more absurd. Similarly, the "tickle my thigh" bit in the Michael Cera Between Two Ferns episode, just so funny in how uncomfortable they make it https://youtu.be/n6teAjGAhec?t=135

As for "upsetting" moments, perhaps Mac coming out to his dad in Always Sunny. There had been virtually no serious moments in the show's 13 year run up to that point, so the surprise was how emotional it turned out to be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPG4eD4Dfx0

H-O-W-L

Quote from: up_the_hampipe on November 04, 2019, 01:21:29 PM
As for "upsetting" moments, perhaps Mac coming out to his dad in Always Sunny. There had been virtually no serious moments in the show's 13 year run up to that point, so the surprise was how emotional it turned out to be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPG4eD4Dfx0

That grunt when she dives into his arms legitimately makes me tear up every single time.

alan nagsworth

Check It Out! With Dr. Steve Brule in its early seasons was pure goofball shit (and I absolutely adore it for that) but there are a couple of bits that illustrate a proper sadness behind the character. One such line is "orgies are no fun when nobody wants to have sex with you." It's horrible!

There's another bit, maybe in T&EASGJ with Jan and Wayne where he properly freaks out crying and stuff in this really childish way which was properly distressing as well, I vaguely recall. Anyone?

BlodwynPig


Chollis


BeardFaceMan

There's an episode of Men Behaving Badly where everyone finds out Gary has a load of savings in his bank, and its just awful. They make him feel bad for having the money, beg him for cash, extort thousands from him for charity. They make him feel so bad for having worked a job he hated and saved all his money from that the only way he can get them to stop is to pretend that he'd spent it all. Horrible stuff.

Harry Badger

The 'Branded' episode of Dad's Army where they all turn on poor old Godfrey for being a conscientious objector in WW1.

SteveDave

Quote from: BeardFaceMan on November 04, 2019, 03:27:28 PM
There's an episode of Men Behaving Badly where everyone finds out Gary has a load of savings in his bank, and its just awful. They make him feel bad for having the money, beg him for cash, extort thousands from him for charity. They make him feel so bad for having worked a job he hated and saved all his money from that the only way he can get them to stop is to pretend that he'd spent it all. Horrible stuff.

That episode also features my favourite and oft repeated line when anyone asks...

"Gary, guess who called me in work today?"
"The actor Christopher Timothy?"

up_the_hampipe

Quote from: Chollis on November 04, 2019, 03:24:24 PM
that fresh prince bit with his dad

There were a few serious moments like that throughout the series, but that's the most well-known and most impactful.

Deyv

Stopped watching BoJack Horseman for a bit after the lobotomy episode. Still haven't caught up fully.

Quote from: up_the_hampipe on November 04, 2019, 03:55:02 PM
There were a few serious moments like that throughout the series, but that's the most well-known and most impactful.

Yeah, the one where Will gets shot I find upsetting as well.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: up_the_hampipe on November 04, 2019, 03:55:02 PM
There were a few serious moments like that throughout the series, but that's the most well-known and most impactful.

The one where Carlton doesn't believe the policeman is racist is bleak as well.

alan nagsworth

Quote from: Deyv on November 04, 2019, 07:02:56 PM
Stopped watching BoJack Horseman for a bit after the lobotomy episode. Still haven't caught up fully.

Bojack isn't otherwise not upsetting though. It is frequently upsetting.

Deyv

Quote from: alan nagsworth on November 04, 2019, 07:39:19 PM
Bojack isn't otherwise not upsetting though. It is frequently upsetting.

Oh yeah, true. In that case, Red Dwarf 8 when Cat is beaten up by the wardens for saying Ackerman seems like a nice guy.

Pink Gregory

Quote from: Sebastian Cobb on November 04, 2019, 07:06:16 PM
The one where Carlton doesn't believe the policeman is racist is bleak as well.

It's Uncle Phil turning to him and implying that the same thing happened to him that's the bleak part.  It's a shame that they don't play up to his involvement with civil rights movements much outside of that first series.

famethrowa

Quote from: alan nagsworth on November 04, 2019, 03:07:06 PM

There's another bit, maybe in T&EASGJ with Jan and Wayne where he properly freaks out crying and stuff in this really childish way which was properly distressing as well, I vaguely recall. Anyone?

Yes where they prank him by pretending Wayne has died.  The Dr does not take it well.

Absorb the anus burn

The bit in Duty Free where Neil Stacy and the Spanish waiter spit-roast Gwen Taylor.

Cold Meat Platter

The melancholic Rowley Birkin QC sketch which ends "I held her in my arms...I'm afraid I was very drunk."
Very un-Fast Show and a big departure from the character's usual amazing raucous laughing.
One of the best comic performances ever in my opinion and rightly gets a round of applause.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlZFfXAUr2I

Shoulders?-Stomach!


oy vey

Keeping an eye out to see if One Foot in the Grave makes an appearance in the thread but I'll go with that scene in The Office (UK) where one of the peripheral office chaps randomly gets his pants pulled down by his colleagues (in the office). Was it Season 2, maybe the Red Nose ep? Basically it's a sexual assault. I understand what they are trying to do in terms of depicting office twattery going too far but meh.



Twed

Quote from: up_the_hampipe on November 04, 2019, 01:21:29 PM
As for "upsetting" moments, perhaps Mac coming out to his dad in Always Sunny. There had been virtually no serious moments in the show's 13 year run up to that point, so the surprise was how emotional it turned out to be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPG4eD4Dfx0
Wow

I think I'm gay now too


alan nagsworth

Quote from: billyandthecloneasaurus on November 05, 2019, 12:31:04 AM
futurama dog

Also "I'm naming you Philip J. Fry, in honour of my brother, who I miss every day. I love you Philip. I always will."

garbed_attic

Quote from: Chollis on November 04, 2019, 03:24:24 PM
that fresh prince bit with his dad

the fresh prince bit with the boyfriend falling to his death skydiving!

Icehaven

It's far too obvious to mention the very end of the last episode of Blackadder Goes Forth so I won't.

ajsmith2



I've recently come to find this visual from 'Homer's Phobia' really haunting. I guess it's meant to be a quick dark gag topper that we don't think about too much, but I can't help but ruminate on the implications of JOHN WATERS HAVING AN UNBURIED CORPSE IN HIS KITCH COLLECTION. Does he know about this? What skulduggery took place 40 years earlier on the set of 'Clank Clank You're Dead' that led to this guy dying inside the costume and being allowed to rot away to bones as the robotic relic passed from studio lot to auction house to private museum? As far as I'm concerned, the whole story should change at this point and become a quest for justice for this poor unburied soul. 'Ooh, Homer is uncomfortable around gay people' is an uncompelling plot by comparison.

FAKE EDIT: I'm probably reading too much into this and giving a tonally misjudged sick joke too much credit, but I wonder if this gag was a reference to the bizarre story of Elmer McCurdy's real corpse being used in a funhouse exhibition 60 years after he died: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmer_McCurdy

a duncandisorderly

Quote from: Cold Meat Platter on November 04, 2019, 10:46:05 PM
The melancholic Rowley Birkin QC sketch which ends "I held her in my arms...I'm afraid I was very drunk."
Very un-Fast Show and a big departure from the character's usual amazing raucous laughing.
One of the best comic performances ever in my opinion and rightly gets a round of applause.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlZFfXAUr2I

hell yes. peerless.

madhair60

I've grown to find that sketch a bit cloying and manipulative to be honest