Gag Glossary

[ffogems]

Contradictory Revelation

A character vehemently states, often verbosely and at great length, something which is then contradicted with a reveal, which can be visual or verbal.
For example:
"I don't take flack from nobody. I'm a man of high moral standing. I stand up for what's right"
"Is that why I saw you quivering behind the bar when The Knight's Kneecaps got raided?"

See: Early Doors.


Ha ha! Look at Grandma's face!

In this gag we see an impassive but visibly baffled elderly person watching often flamboyant behaviour taking place in front of them. This behaviour is invaribly representative of a cultural corner unknown to the elderly audience.
For example:
Somebody rapping abrasively in the common room of an elderly home.

See: Alan Partridge.

You get the idea...

[Paul Dee]

Haha, I can just hear the ''We were doing this six years ago" comments now.

Still a good idea for a thread though, shame I have nothing of worth to say in it*.


* now there's a good idea for a thread...

[ffogems]

Haha, I can just hear the ''We were doing this six years ago" comments now.

Yeah, I thought it might have been done before, but then I thought the idea could do with updating, or seeing if anything new had come along since. It would interesting (and a little depressing) to see if every known gag can be identified.

[Paul Dee]

Even then that SOTCAA thing wasn't so much about the gags themselves anyway.

[ffogems]

C'mon, contribute you buggers. This is bloody good thread.

[Go With The Flow]

'The Voice'
A term used for when an actor believes putting on a funny voice will add to the characters' humour. Putting on a funny voice is seen in pretty much all comedy, but with 'The Voice' it is seemingly the character's only quirk.
See: Richard Ayoade in The IT Crowd.

EDIT: Is more commonly known as That Voice.

[DJ One Record]

The Synonym[/u]

A slight cousin of Contradictory Revelation, a Synonym gag usually involves a character contradicting themselves by initially deriding an idea and then immediately afterwards praising that same idea only said slightly differently.


Examples:
1: Futurama "The Cryonic Woman"
Fry talks about getting back with his ex-girlfriend Michelle:

Fry: Before she was demanding and possessive, but now she just wants me to do stuff and be with her all the time.


2: Futurama "The Cryonic Woman"
Fry and Michelle freeze themselves for 1,000 years after Fry says "Let's do this and never regret it." When they wake up the world is an arid wasteland.

Fry: Michelle, I don't regret this, but I both rue and lament it.


3: Brasseye "Animals"
David Jatt interviewing Carla Lane:

Lane: Prison's not good enough because prison's just become bed and breakfast really...
Jatt: Yeah. Prison's too good. What about jail?

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

'The Voice'
A term used for when an actor believes putting on a funny voice will add to the characters' humour. Putting on a funny voice is seen in pretty much all comedy, but with 'The Voice' it is seemingly the character's only quirk.
See: Richard Ayoade in The IT Crowd.

It's 'That Voice'.

P.S- I'm really thinking of something to contribute, but I'm currently producing slurry instead of good ideas.

[DJ One Record]

"I'm just not feeling myself today."[/u]

The art of generating humour from having a character (reasonably accurately) impersonate another character.
For example:
The Young Ones "Bambi" - obviously.
Scrubs "My Butterfly" when JD impersonates Dr. Cox's long rants, complete with whistle and nose touch.

[Purple Tentacle]

This one is probably too obvious, but one still sees it to this day...

The Comical Reversed Expectations Edit

Hilarious jump cut between a character vehemently expressing their opposition to an activity, to the character participating in that activity.

Example

I'm not getting on that speedboat. I won't do it. There is no way I'm going to get onto that speedboat!

CUT TO..

Character on the speedboat. Either looking very miserable, or whooping with excitement. There's flexibility for hilarity.

[Al Tha Funkee Homosapien]

This one is probably too obvious, but one still sees it to this day...

The Comical Reversed Expectations Edit

Hilarious jump cut between a character vehemently expressing their opposition to an activity, to the character participating in that activity.

Example

I'm not getting on that speedboat. I won't do it. There is no way I'm going to get onto that speedboat!

CUT TO..

Character on the speedboat. Either looking very miserable, or whooping with excitement. There's flexibility for hilarity.

I thought that was generally known as The Bicycle gag. As in "You'll never catch me riding a bike" cut to said person riding a bike. As seen in Last of the Summer Wine.

[Sheldon Finklestein]

Monkey Business:

An example of comedic laziness, wherein the lazy comedian will simply namecheck so-called 'random' animals in an attempt to win over stoned students.

i.e. "So I was walking down the rode when I was trampled by a wombat on the back of a badger, who was chasing the magic pixies who had nicked a tiny vole..."

[Go With The Flow]

Whimsy
Also known as: Randomness, Surrealism.
The new replacement for British Comedy. Whimsy usually involves combining two things that would not normally be associated together, then combining them for comic effect. The majority of whimsy involves animals (see Monkeys) or food items.
Example - Monkey Trousers, Pie, Cheese.

Whereas in comedy past, Whimsy was used quite a lot when it was fresh and exciting, in today's comedy it is seemingly the only thing available and is becoming less and less interesting. Internet comedy shows use Whimsy a lot.

See: The Mighty Boosh, Weebl and Bob, Salad Fingers.

Monkeys
An animal known for it's familarity to man, which are becoming more and more used in comedy shows. It is usually down to a lack of ideas in the comedy writer, and is (now) regarded as comedy for unintelligent people.
See: Ricky Gervais Podcasts, The Mighty Boosh, Monkey Trousers.

[thewomb]

Wow. An excellent idea for a thread, and one in which ffogems almost literally read my mind. I swear I was going to start exactly this thread today, and even use 'The Contradiction' as an example.

Mine was going to be called 'Glossary of Sitcom Techniques', as I'm more into defining recurring narrative gags than stand-up or whatever, but it seems everyone else has already got the right idea.

The Yellow Cane

A musical cutaway is cut short at exactly the right moment.

EG. Tobias auditioning for broadway in Arrested Development.

Tobias: I'mmmmm.....

[Cut to...]

[neveragain]

Why've you called that 'The Yellow Cane'? Apologies for not getting the reference.

I thought your YouTube stand-up was rather good though!

[thewomb]

Thanks.

The yellow cane... Daffy Duck appears on-stage in a top-hat and cane, starts tap-dancing manically, a yellow cane appears from off-screen, hooks around Daffy's neck and yanks him off-stage.

(And countless other similar examples.)

[Go With The Flow]

Put that in your definition, thewomb!

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

There was great stuff in this thread, although it took a page or two to get going:

http://www.cookdandbombd.co.uk/forums/index.php?topic=6483&start=0

[Jack Shaftoe]

thewomb - that's a bloody good one, always thought there should be a term for that.

[lazyhour]

The Yellow Cane

A musical cutaway is cut short at exactly the right moment.

EG. Tobias auditioning for broadway in Arrested Development.

Tobias: I'mmmmm.....

[Cut to...]

I couldn't agree more with this, but I would stress that it's so common because it's such an extremely funny technique.  

For a fun peek at a comedy troupe who have no knowledge of this kind of perfect comedy timing technique, check out this mockumentary by The Trap for their hilariously-titled "Bad Play".  It quite literally promises to be a bad play.  Ironically bad!  Brilliant.

Watch for the scene in which the sledgehammered-home 'I don't really want to be doing this' chap plays "Beethoven" on the piano.  Then think how funny it could have been if he'd played the opening bar only, then was about to play more, and The Yellow Cane cut was executed.  It could have been a drop of comedy in this wasteland of a mockumentary.

All hail the Yellow Cane!

[Purple Tentacle]

I thought that was generally known as The Bicycle gag. As in "You'll never catch me riding a bike" cut to said person riding a bike. As seen in Last of the Summer Wine.

I wasn't sure if I was ripping something off, something in my mind said that I'd heard it explained with 'a rollercoaster', so I deliberately changed it to speedboat....

That's the genius of the never-tiring technique... it's so flexible!!!!!

[thepuffpastryhangman]

The mudshark

Referencing a fable or urban myth.

The beautiful balloon

A section of work, from one line to an entire plot, so wonderfully dense and complex, it soars beyond the boundaries of audience comprehension.

Warm leatherette

Chuminess dependent on a belief we all break the same laws, usually motoring or drugs offences.

[DJ One Record]

How about some examples, puffpastry?

Oh, and another relatively simple one:

The Nickname[/u]

An act of a character addressing another with an appropriate nickname.
Examples:
Scrubs - girl's names, "Q-tip", "Nervous guy", "Hair club", "Pep squad", "Jumpsuit" etc.
Black Books - "Thor", "Ming The Merciless", "Lord Of The Rings" etc.

[lazyhour]

Ah yes, as seen recently with fuzzy-haired ginger people being called Mick Hucknall.  In two different shows.

Good one, DJ One Record.

[DJ One Record]

Yeah, although I actually think the nickname technique works really well in Scrubs.

In fact, it seems so far that thewomb and I are the only two who've posted gag definitions that are actually celebrative of great gags rather than lamentations of lazy/shit ones.

[ffogems]

I think, good or bad, old or new, the contributions are intended to show that there is a limited pool of jokes just being filtered through various forms. Whether this is something to be celebrated or not...?

Here's a funny one (well, I laugh)

I think you misconstrued my meaning

An intentionally open or vague statement that can be misinterpreted, allowing the follow-up line to instate often sexual or absurd connotations.

For example:
"Do you think I should pull rank?"
"If you like, but please don't do it here."

See : Arrested Development
OSCAR: Maybe I'll put it in her brownie
MICHAEL: I did not need to know that.

[SimonJT]

Or in Blackadder:

Jeremy Hardy the Executioner: Sir, I've got to admire your balls.
Blackadder: Well, perhaps later.

Love that line.

[Dark Sky]

What about...

The Lazy (But Often Clever) Swear-Saver

Where you believe that a character is going to retort to verbal abuse or a damning event with a very eloquent and wittily constructed statement, but in fact just swears.

When done correctly this can be very effective, riding on a wave of (often post modernly suggested) authorial laziness with humorous results.

..closely related to...

The When You Expect A Wanking Great Expletive But Instead You Get A Silly Childish One

Where after a damning revelation a character is expected to let rip with a barrage of foul mouthed cussing, but instead says a rather childish or minor swear word like "bugger" or "poot".

I can't think of decent names for these, sorry.

[Nik Drou]

Not sure of the name of it, but i believe it's named after one of the writers of Cheers, and is similar to both the 'bicycle gag' and the 'contradictory revalation'.  Basically, a character makes a firm proclaimation, then immediately does or says something to directly contradict that. e.g.

HOMER: I'll never drink another beer again
VENDOR: Beer here!!
HOMER: I'll take ten.

Hanging a Lantern

Not exclusively a gag, but it's mostly used for humourous effect.  The writers get away with a really unlikely or nonsensical event by having the characters comment on how unlikely or nonsensical it is. e.g the Futurama episode 'Godfellas', where Bender is hurtled from deep space all the way to Earth and lands right next to Fry and Leela.

LEELA: This is by a wide margin the least likely thing that has ever happened!

A variant of this is the use of self-awareness to get out of a comedic situation, the obvious example being the Colonel in Monty Python, or any time when character is broken to comment on a scene.

[Morgan]

Whimsy
Also known as: Randomness, Surrealism