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March 28, 2024, 02:16:42 PM

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Disappointment when the joke/payoff you're expecting doesn't happen

Started by Captain Z, May 01, 2020, 05:42:05 PM

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Captain Z

I imagine we're all guilty of thinking that we could have written episodes/scenes better than professional comedy writers. But do you ever get really disappointed when you think you have predicted the joke or payoff which then doesn't arrive?



This image in the Glinner thread reminded me of one that continues to annoy me. I still think that's a great sitcom episode, but why hasn't Moss joined in with the crowd of staff? It would be the perfect way to tie all 3 of the main characters' storylines together at the end. Jen meets Moss at the bar and Roy in the wheelchair, but Moss and Roy remain unaware of each other's predicaments. A look of mutual, unspoken confusion seemed like it would be such an obvious way to finish.

Another IT Crowd one: In the Friendface episode, I assumed the reveal would be that Jen's high-flying school friends were, in reality, all clueless middle-managers like her, lying about their lives online. Probably a bit predictable, but in the end they just sort of run away and that's it.

I had another one that has slipped my mind since starting this and will probably come back later.

neveragain

The episode where Roy and Moss skive off work ends with a series of captions of how the various plots tie up (because Glinner obviously couldn't work out how to wrap up onscreen satisfactorily).

Dewt

Quote from: Captain Z on May 01, 2020, 05:42:05 PMbut why hasn't Moss joined in with the crowd of staff?
Sometimes the answer is along the lines of "the script was written a three months ago and the crowd of waving staff wasn't a thing until the day of shooting, or even the day of editing"

Maybe not in this case, but sometimes that's what it is.

pigamus

What I do notice a lot is when there's a lot of potential in a scene that gets thrown away. Like Barry Idiot does something stupid, and John Normal says "You're an idiot!", and that's it. But if you'd developed it a bit - focused on John Normal's rising disbelief and incredulity that Barry Idiot could possibly be that fucking stupid - it would have been ten times funnier.

neveragain

Not to defend IT Crowd but sometimes a straightforward line like "You're an idiot" (timed and delivered well) is quite funny.

famethrowa


Jim Bob

Quote from: famethrowa on May 02, 2020, 04:15:18 PM
Why didn't Jaws's girlfriend have braces??

Because they don't make braces large enough to fit a shark... duhhhhh.

Egyptian Feast

I was very disappointed when Pineapple Express had a boringly standard action movie climax, with Seth Rogan running around firing an Uzi fairly competently. The film goes downhill after the really crap brawl in Danny McBride's gaff - the climax should've been a bit like that writ large, with the villains defeated through the leads' stoned incompetence. At least Franco's character remained useless, but I didn't want either of them to get any good at action at all. That's not funny and just seems out of character.

Stephen Chow's King Of Comedy (discussed earlier in the non-new movies thread) has a similar problem.

Egyptian Feast


Sexton Brackets Drugbust

A Linehan related one that immediately sprang to mind: there was an episode of his butchering of Count Arthur Strong, which was basically a reworked version of a radio episode. The plot follows Arthur getting a role in a radio play (with hilarious consequences, naturally.)

The episode ends with Arthur gathering his pals round the wireless to listen to his performance, only to discover the producers recast the role with a much younger sounding actor. Arthur listens to the broadcast, a look of sad confusion on his face. His friends prepare to offer support for this crushing disappointment.

After a beat or two of apparent dismay, the belligerent, narcissistic Arthur of the radio show would definitely have suddenly revealed he was in fact oblivious of the change of actors and would have been pleased with how 'his' performance had turned out, to the bemusement of his pals. Linehan's syrupy, unearned pathos heavy version, opted for a pretty straight reaction of genuine sadness..

neveragain


Icehaven

This might be more for the 'Film clichés you wish would fuck off' thread but any incident of someone seeing something unexpected and then fainting is a lazy cop out relying on the assumed 'hilariousness' of someone falling down (particularly if it's a man) rather than writing an original, funny reaction.

famethrowa

Quote from: Jim Bob on May 02, 2020, 05:00:08 PM
Because they don't make braces large enough to fit a shark... duhhhhh.

eheheheheheh

Quote from: Egyptian Feast on May 02, 2020, 09:23:45 PM
She didn't? Shit, I've been Mandela'd.

Absolutely, it's such an easy and obvious joke that our minds wrote it as we watched the scene. And the actual writers missed it completely.

famethrowa

I was watching some grossout parody-style movie, like Date Movie or one of those, and the joke was that our main guy was checking into a fancy resort, while unbeknownst to him in the background the porters were rummaging through his bag and messing with his stuff. I thought by the end they should have been pissing and shitting into his bag, but no, they didn't take it anywhere further. Tragic.

dissolute ocelot

Quote from: famethrowa on May 03, 2020, 02:54:42 PM
I was watching some grossout parody-style movie, like Date Movie or one of those, and the joke was that our main guy was checking into a fancy resort, while unbeknownst to him in the background the porters were rummaging through his bag and messing with his stuff. I thought by the end they should have been pissing and shitting into his bag, but no, they didn't take it anywhere further. Tragic.

Did they at least pull out a series of increasingly large and unpleasant objects, starting with a dildo, then a fully inflated inflatable woman, and ending with a scrofulous elephant?

Billy

There's that Never Mind the Buzzcocks episode featuring That Bloke From Blue (I forget which) that features this exchange:

Phill Jupitus - What's your favourite cheese?

Bloke From Blue - Brie.

Phill Jupitus - Thanks.

(awkward pause followed by move on to next section of show)

Felt like Phill was feeling generous and giving Bloke From Blue a chance to reply "Blue!" and get a laugh, but either he doesn't get it or deliberately sabotages the exchange for whatever reason so the moment's lost.

Uncle TechTip

Quote from: pigamus on May 01, 2020, 07:25:30 PM
What I do notice a lot is when there's a lot of potential in a scene that gets thrown away. Like Barry Idiot does something stupid, and John Normal says "You're an idiot!", and that's it. But if you'd developed it a bit - focused on John Normal's rising disbelief and incredulity that Barry Idiot could possibly be that fucking stupid - it would have been ten times funnier.

This "Normal & Idiot" show sounds good, where can i see it?