History Main / HumorDissonance

* Inverted in one ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'' book. Tobias asks Ax, "What's up?" to which Ax replies, "Up is the opposite of down. However, these terms are meaningless outside of a localized gravity field." Despite this being a fairly good joke, it's played as yet another example of Ax's utter inability to grasp human humor.

* This is a problem in the {{Biopic}} ''The Life and Death of Creator/PeterSellers'' -- the attempts by the film's writers and actors to distill Peter's work in ''Radio/TheGoonShow'', ''The Millionairess'', ''Franchise/ThePinkPanther'' series and ''Film/DrStrangelove'' aren't as funny as the real thing (no actual film clips of Sellers are used, unlike in ''Chaplin'' below), despite the in-film reactions to them. ''The Goon Show'' sequence especially suffers for this if you're unfamiliar with the show -- and most non-U.K. viewers are. Most of the rest of the movie relies on TakeOurWordForIt, which is also problematic for viewers who don't know his early films up through 1959's ''Literature/TheMouseThatRoared''. This might actually be a reason the film wasn't released to theaters in the U.S., since if you can't fill in the blanks with regards to his talent, the downbeat portrayal of the RealLife Sellers (which takes up much of the film) makes it hard to understand why anybody liked him, much less loved him, at all.

* In an issue of DC's ComicBook/{{Countdown|ToFinalCrisis}}, [[Comicbook/WonderGirl Donna Troy]] calls Jason Todd "Re-Todd", [[DontExplainTheJoke a pun on "retard"]]. [[Franchise/GreenLantern Kyle Rayner]] tells her "good one", with a goofy expression as if it was an expert burn. Not only is it a bad joke, but it's also entirely out of character for Donna and Kyle, neither of whom would be the sort to use "retard" as a casual insult.

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]

* Also played with with Yukiko from ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'', [[TheHyena who will laugh hysterically at anything that could subjectively be considered funny.]] The only time she doesn't is to drive the point home of just just how bad one of [[PungeonMaster Teddie's]] puns was.

* ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls'': In "The City Of Frownsville," the ep's villain, Lou Gubrious, sets a crying ray on Townsville, making everyone cry tears heavy enough that it threatens to flood the city. The girls--crying their eyes out as well--attempt to make the people laugh. Approaching mic:

* The ''Series/GilmoreGirls'' revival miniseries was poorly received in large part because of its humor. The most egregious was the RunningGag of Rory having a boyfriend that she and everyone else kept forgetting about, which fans just found cruel. Others included jokes that would have been typical during the show's original run in the early 2000's, but [[SocietyMarchesOn don't land today]], like fat-shaming. In addition, Amy Sherman-Palladino decided the main [[AcceptableTargets acceptable target]] for jokes would be Millennials, with digs about trigger warnings and a "Thirty-Something Gang" that is full of adults who are unemployed and living with their parents...apparently she didn't take into account that Millennials were the ''target demographic'' for this reboot, and those jokes went over like a lead balloon.

* This is a problem in the {{Biopic}} ''The Life and Death of Creator/PeterSellers'' -- the attempts by the film's writers and actors to distill Peter's work in ''Radio/TheGoonShow'', ''The Millionairess'', ''Franchise/ThePinkPanther'' series and ''Film/DrStrangelove'' aren't as funny as the real thing (no actual film clips of Sellers are used, unlike in ''Chaplin'' below), despite the in-film reactions to them. ''The Goon Show'' sequence especially suffers for this if you're unfamiliar with the show -- and most non-U.K. viewers are. Most of the rest of the movie relies on TakeOurWordForIt, which is also problematic for viewers who don't know his early films up through 1959's ''Literature/TheMouseThatRoared''. This might actually be a reason the film wasn't released to theaters in the U.S., since if you can't fill in the blanks with regards to his talent, the downbeat portrayal of the RealLife Sellers (which takes up much of the film) makes it hard to understand why anybody liked him, much less loved him, at all.
* Mike Myers' less-well-received films ''Film/TheCatInTheHat'' and ''Film/TheLoveGuru'' have him playing characters who are presented in the film as hysterical, but audiences found them obnoxious.

* ''Film/TheRoom'': The supposedly AllLovingHero Johnny bursts out laughing at a story his friend Mark tells him, about a two-timing girl who got hospitalized after being beat up by one of her boyfriends once he found out about her cheating. Even odder, this was apparently {{Corpsing}}. The rest of the cast and crew tried to explain to Tommy Wiseau that he probably shouldn't laugh at a story about DomesticAbuse, but his attempts to read the line in a serious tone were so much ''worse'' than the takes where he laughed that they finally gave up and used a "laugh" take.
-->''What a story, Mark!''
* ''Film/GoingOverboard'' features two comedians; Schecky Moskowitz (played by a pre-fame Creator/AdamSandler) and Dickie Diamond, the former of whom we're repeatedly told is able to tell good jokes but just needs to work on his delivery and how to play to an audience, while the latter of whom is made out to be an extremely vulgar and unfunny MotorMouth comedian. In practise however Dickie's jokes, while certainly not ''funny'' by any stretch of the imagination, are often so ridiculously over-the-top vulgar that they [[CrossingTheLineTwice cross the line twice]] and can't help but get the occasional laugh from the audience. By contrast, Schecky's jokes are simply atrociously unfunny from start to end, even when we're told that he's improved.
* ''Film/BlackChristmas2019'' - Kris responds to a taunt from Riley's rapist by throwing a drink in his face. Marty gives an extremely overblown 'o-face' reaction, as if Kris did something scandalously hilarious.
* ''Film/ICouldNeverBeYourWoman'' tries to sell Adam as some kind of innovative comedy genius who becomes the BreakoutCharacter of Rosie's sitcom. Most of what we see is pretty basic and flat. But then again, Rosie might be biased since she has a thing for him.
* In ''Film/TheKissingBooth3'', Elle slapping Tuppen on the behind is treated by both of them and the movie as a funny CallBack to the [[Film/TheKissingBooth first film]]. The reaction from a lot of audience members was more along the lines of "Lol, remember that time Tuppen sexually assaulted Elle in front of the whole school and nearly beat up Lee for defending her? Wasn't that ''[[SarcasmMode hilarious]]''?"

* This is used to create humor at someone else's expense. What you do is let people know what the "punchline" of the fake joke is so they know to laugh then. Everyone laughs - the people not in the know will chuckle like it's funny, their expressions are usually pretty funny. Usually after a person ends up as the victim they are then filled so they can be in on it next time. Example:

* In the ''Literature/{{Twilight}}'' series, the Cullens, in particular Emmett, occasionally joke about Bella [[WarmBloodbagsAreEverywhere having trouble controlling herself]] when she becomes a vampire. They all find it quite amusing...except they're joking about the very real possibility of Bella inadvertantly killing innocent people. It gets even worse when one recalls that Emmett actually ''has'' done exactly this.

** Then there's the joke that's "the funniest joke ever", but only if you're a guy. "What's the difference between peanut butter and jam?" Barney tells it to Lily, who is so disgusted that she refuses to see or speak to Barney for a month. The guys, while upset that the group has been divided, still think it's the best joke ever. The punchline of the joke is never uttered out loud on the show, but if you look it up on the web, it definitely fails to live up to the hype: [[spoiler:"I can't peanut-butter my dick up your ass."]] Lily's reaction is [[EnforcedTrope enforced]], however, as the writers needed some excuse for Lily to be gone for several episodes [[RealLifeWritesThePlot while Alyson Hannigan had her baby.]]

* Played with in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Arthur}}''. Buster invents a lame joke for his report (King Tut saying "I want my mummy") which he tells to Binky, who later tells it to the class before Buster can use it for his report. Though only a select few students chuckled at the joke, Buster's imaginations concluded it was the only reason Binky got a higher grade from their teacher, while he got a bad one. It's revealed at the end that Buster [[CriticalResearchFailure studied the wrong topic]] for his report.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Recess}}'' has a lot of this for a movie everyone except Vince has seen. Possibly justified in that Vince not knowing the context of the quotes is the driving force of the plot. And once he ''has'' seen the film and tries to quote it, he finds that the other kids have moved onto the next fad and no longer find them as funny.
* ''WesternAnimation/TinyToonAdventures''
** The episode "Fields of Honey" had this in spades. The cartoon shown at the episode's climax is, at best, very slightly amusing, but the audience present react as if it's the funniest thing they've ever seen. A fat guy laughs so much that he [[BodyHorror explodes]]. The whole sequence had a very forced, weird atmosphere about it. Particularly if one had seen the "real" Honey in the Bosko cartoons, who basically just prances around going "La, la, la!"

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/BlackDynamite'' features the lead being forced to take care of Creator/RichardPryor, who is noted to be "the funniest man in the world" and has nearly every character laughing at everything he says. At first, he at least talks about funny things, but before long, he starts effectively just saying normal conversational topics (albeit in the same cadence as Pryor's standup) and just keeps getting yuks. Even when he starts breaking down in a fit of sobbing, people ''still'' laugh uproariously. He ends up befriending Black Dynamite largely because [[NoSenseOfHumor Black Dynamite doesn't think he's funny.]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'':
** There's ''JustForFun/TheItchyAndScratchyShow'', where the Simpsons are always shown to be guffawing and laughing until their sides split watching [[BloodyHilarious Itchy violently kill Scratchy.]] Of course, the unfunny nature of the over-the-top gore was initially the point — I&S was supposed to be a parody of traditional cartoon violence. In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E4TreehouseOfHorrorIX Treehouse of Horror IX]]", Bart and Lisa end up in the cartoon, and Itchy and Scratchy themselves [[WhatTheHellHero are scandalized that the children were laughing at Scratchy's pain]].
** The Krusty the Clown Show in general has a lot of this - deliberately, of course. It's a mega-franchise in-universe and Bart basically worships Krusty, but the only things we see are painfully awkward skits, stolen, hackneyed gags, clunky, painful-looking slapstick, and routines straight out of a 40s sideshow. One article described him as "somebody who grew up watching classic comedians, but could never figure out why they were supposed to be funny." It's been implied quite frequently that Krusty only gets by on the LowestCommonDenominator and the FleetingDemographic; one episode has him bomb out of a comedy club after trying TheFlappingDickey routine.
** Parodied in "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS4E17LastExitToSpringfield Last Exit to Springfield]]". At the dentist, Lisa ends the episode by making a ridiculously cringeworthy "tooth/truth" pun. The rest of the family and the dentist burst out laughing as though it's the greatest joke ever told... at which point the dentist realises he's accidentally left the laughing gas on.
** In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS1E2BartTheGenius Bart the Genius]]", Bart defrauds his way into a school for the gifted. The teacher writes the equation y = (r^3)/3 on the board and asks the students to calculate the derivative. Everyone except Bart does and finds it hilarious. The solution is given as "RDRR" or "har de har har". Even though that's not the proper way to write the solution (it should be dy/dr = r^2), apparently gifted children find it funny? (Then again, anyone familiar with engineering jokes can tell you that for "smart people", [[InJoke humor value is often secondary to getting the joke.]])
** A common critique of "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS9E15TheLastTemptationOfKrust The Last Temptation of Krust]]", an episode where Krusty reinvents his comedy to be more modern, is that while his "bad" material was SoUnfunnyItsFunny, his "good" material, which allows him to immediately rebuild and rebrand his empire as a powerful force in the entertainment industry, was more or less just a Creator/GeorgeCarlin impression.
** "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS5E3HomerGoesToCollege Homer Goes to College]]" features a deliberate case, where a nuclear physics professor introduces himself with the joke "Out with the old, in with the nucleus!", which manages to get a laugh from everyone in the class (except Homer, who doesn't get it). Then when the professor drops his papers, Homer laughs uproariously for a good fifteen seconds, being the only one in the room to do so.

** Later on, Quagmire tries to get Peter and Joe to do improv with him, but Peter keeps forcing this joke (and other slight variations). Glenn doesn't think it's funny either, but for him improv is SeriousBusiness.
* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' plays the dissonance for comedy.
** Jimmy is supposed to be a very funny stand-up comedian that all the other characters find hilarious. He has yet to tell a single joke that is funny, though he has had several funny lines (none of which were in his comedy routine). In "[[Recap/SouthParkS13E5Fishsticks Fishsticks]]", Jimmy coming up with (and Cartman taking all the credit for) what is supposed to be the funniest joke ever. It goes thus: "Do you like fishsticks ([[DontExplainTheJoke fish dicks]]) ?" "Yes." "Do you like putting them in your mouth?" "Yes." "What are you, a gay fish?" The joke makes the rounds in all the talk shows and becomes a nationwide phenomenon. The only person not to get it is rapper Music/KanyeWest, who is so self-centered that he takes it as a personal insult and starts looking for the originator of the "rumors", [[spoiler:only to eventually come to the conclusion that the joke means ''he must actually be a gay fish'' and everyone was just trying to help him realize it]].
** "[[Recap/SouthParkS15E2Funnybot Funnybot]]" features a robot that is programmed to be the perfect comedian, but it tells lame cut-and-paste tabloid jokes, mostly ending with the punchline "Awkward!" It sells out amphitheaters across the world. The Funnybot is so successful that the world's most famous comedians are rendered unemployed and destitute, and an angry mob consisting of Creator/ConanOBrien, Creator/AdamSandler, Creator/JimCarrey, and dozens of other famous but now-unemployed comedians storm South Park Elementary.
** Veronica Crabtree's standup career in "[[Recap/SouthParkS2E7CityOnTheEdgeOfForever City on the Edge of Forever]]" was justified as it was AllJustADream.
** Native American stand-ups consist of the performer more or less flatly stating that white-skins are stupid, and then the audience laughs. In unison.
* The Joker played with this in ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' with an episode where he took a studio audience hostage and hooked Batman up to an electric chair. The chair was directly connected to a "laugh meter" and since he knew he would never get the audience to laugh legitimately, he got the audience so high on laughing gas that Harley reading the phone book had them rolling in the aisles.

* Used deliberately in an episode of ''WesternAnimation/DaveTheBarbarian'', where the extraordinary unfunny Ned Frischman, a man from the future, travels back in time to TheMiddleAges in order to tell his jokes before they have turned old. He manages to become the funniest man in recorded history by using simple "Why did the chicken cross the road"-class jokes (recorded history having begun two weeks earlier).

** There's ''WesternAnimation/TheItchyAndScratchyShow'', where the Simpsons are always shown to be guffawing and laughing until their sides split watching [[BloodyHilarious Itchy violently kill Scratchy.]] Of course, the unfunny nature of the over-the-top gore was initially the point — I&S was supposed to be a parody of traditional cartoon violence. In "[[Recap/TheSimpsonsS10E4TreehouseOfHorrorIX Treehouse of Horror IX]]", Bart and Lisa end up in the cartoon, and Itchy and Scratchy themselves [[WhatTheHellHero are scandalized that the children were laughing at Scratchy's pain]].

* ''Film/StarTrekGenerations'' has an example of this during a holodeck program of an actual sailing ship during Worf's promotion ceremony. Riker causing Worf to fall into the ocean was supposedly hilarious, but Data throwing Dr. Crusher in the water was so awful and not funny that Data had to install his emotion chip before he could be forgiven. To the audience, however, Riker comes off as a bit of a {{Jerkass}} (if you assume that he meant to make Worf fall and it wasn't just an accident) while Data's actions, coming in response to Dr. Crusher's explanation of how throwing people in the water was all in good fun, were ActuallyPrettyFunny. Episodes of the original show often delved into Data's comedy misunderstandings.

-->'''Scott:''' You gotta funny, especially if you're not funny!

* In-universe example: In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie'', the most popular (and as far as we can see, only) television program in Bricksburg is a sitcom called ''Where Are My Pants?'', which appears to consist only of a pantsless man asking the titular question to his wife in a broad, affected tone. Main character Emmett finds this ''hilarious'', but the rest of the characters see this as just one more example of how incredibly bland he is.

** The Krusty the Clown Show in general has a lot of this - deliberately, of course. It's a mega-franchise in-universe and Bart basically worships Krusty, but the only things we see are painfully awkward skits, stolen, hackneyed gags, clunky, painful-looking slapstick, and routines straight out of a 40s sideshow. One article described him as "somebody who grew up watching classic comedians, but could never figure out why they were supposed to be funny." It's been implied quite frequently that Krusty only gets by on the LowestCommonDenominator and the FleetingDemographic; one episode has him bomb out of a comedy club after trying a flapping dickey routine.

* ''Film/TheRoom'': The supposedly AllLovingHero Johnny bursts out laughing at a story his friend Mark tells him, about a two-timing girl who got hospitalized after being beat up by one of her boyfriends once he found out about her cheating. Even odder, this was apparently {{Corpsing}}.

* In ''Film/TheKissingBooth3'', Elle slapping Warren on the behind is treated by both of them and the movie as a funny CallBack to the [[Film/TheKissingBooth first film]]. The reaction from a lot of audience members was more along the lines of "Lol, remember that time Warren sexually assaulted Elle in front of the whole school and nearly beat up Lee for defending her? Wasn't that ''[[SarcasmMode hilarious]]''?"

* ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration'': In the episode "The Outrageous Okona," Data tries to learn about humor. Guinan tell him a joke, "You're a droid and I'm a 'noid." The fact that Data has to immediately [[DontExplainTheJoke explain the pun]] back to Guinan (riffing on "annoyed" and "a humanoid") for the sake of the audience should tell you how much faith even the show has of the joke's comedy. However, Data's failure to laugh at the definitely funny joke is used as proof that he doesn't understand comedy. He enlists a hologram of "the funniest comedian in history," played by Joe Piscopo, who is also dreadfully unfunny while teaching Data how to be funny. In fact, Data's deadpan reactions to the dubious jokes are probably the funniest moments in the episode.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''
** There's ''WesternAnimation/TheItchyAndScratchyShow'', where the Simpsons are always shown to be guffawing and laughing until their sides split watching [[BloodyHilarious Itchy violently kill Scratchy.]] Of course, the unfunny nature of the over-the-top gore was initially the point — I&S was supposed to be a parody of traditional cartoon violence. In one of the WesternAnimation/TreehouseOfHorror episodes, Bart and Lisa end up in the cartoon, and Itchy and Scratchy themselves [[WhatTheHellHero are scandalized that the children were laughing at Scratchy's pain]].

** Parodied in "Last Exit to Springfield". At the dentist, Lisa ends the episode by making a ridiculously cringeworthy "tooth/truth" pun. The rest of the family and the dentist burst out laughing as though it's the greatest joke ever told... at which point the dentist realises he's accidentally left the laughing gas on.
** In "Bart the Genius", Bart defrauds his way into a school for the gifted. The teacher writes the equation y = (r^3)/3 on the board and asks the students to calculate the derivative. Everyone except Bart does and finds it hilarious. The solution is given as "RDRR" or "har de har har". Even though that's not the proper way to write the solution (it should be dy/dr = r^2), apparently gifted children find it funny? (Then again, anyone familiar with engineering jokes can tell you that for "smart people", [[InJoke humor value is often secondary to getting the joke.]])
** "Homer Goes to College" features a deliberate case, where a nuclear physics professor introduces himself with the joke "Out with the old, in with the nucleus!", which manages to get a laugh from everyone in the class (except Homer, who doesn't get it). Then when the professor drops his papers, Homer laughs uproariously for a good fifteen seconds, being the only one in the room to do so.
** Intentionally done in "The Last Temptation of Krust" where the Springfielders go to a comedy club. The first comic utters a pretty weak one ("I got around to reading the dictionary. The zebra did it") but the entire audience laughs like it's the funniest thing ever, with the exception of Homer. Lisa then has to [[DontExplainTheJoke explain things to him]] and when that fails just states it was supposed to be a joke, to which Homer then goes "Oh, I get jokes!" and starts laughing anyway.
*** Unfortunately, played straight later on in the episode, when Krusty reforms his material - plenty of reviewers thought he just came off as a Creator/GeorgeCarlin knockoff and found his [[SoUnfunnyItsFunny attempts to eke observational humor from the yellow pages]] to be the real treat of the episode.
*** Arguably played straight by ''all'' the comics in the episode, even the real-life guest stars. When Creator/JaneaneGarofalo talks about getting her period, Marge does a SpitTake. While this is probably meant to play on Marge being a stuffy WetBlanket, there are just as many viewers who would probably ''agree'' with her reaction.
* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy''. Invoked intentionally in "Spies Reminiscent of Us" when Peter tried to impress Creator/DanAykroyd and Creator/ChevyChase with a flat joke. The two comedians and Lois recognized it as unfunny, but absolutely everybody else in the show's universe thought it was the most hilarious joke ever.
--> Here's John Wayne at the first Thanksgiving! "I'm John Wayne, pilgrims! Happy Thanksgiving, Pilgrims!"

** Jimmy is supposed to be a very funny stand-up comedian that all the other characters find hilarious. He has yet to tell a single joke that is funny, though he has had several funny lines (none of which were in his comedy routine). In the episode "Fishsticks," Jimmy coming up with (and Cartman taking all the credit for) what is supposed to be the funniest joke ever. It goes thus: "Do you like fishsticks ([[DontExplainTheJoke fish dicks]]) ?" "Yes." "Do you like putting them in your mouth?" "Yes." "What are you, a gay fish?" The joke makes the rounds in all the talk shows and becomes a nationwide phenomenon. The only person not to get it is rapper Music/KanyeWest, who is so self-centered that he takes it as a personal insult and starts looking for the originator of the "rumors", [[spoiler:only to eventually come to the conclusion that the joke means ''he must actually be a gay fish'' and everyone was just trying to help him realize it]].
** The "Funnybot" episode features a robot that is programmed to be the perfect comedian, but it tells lame cut-and-paste tabloid jokes, mostly ending with the punchline "Awkward!" It sells out amphitheaters across the world. The Funnybot is so successful that the world's most famous comedians are rendered unemployed and destitute, and an angry mob consisting of Creator/ConanOBrien, Creator/AdamSandler, Creator/JimCarrey, and dozens of other famous but now-unemployed comedians storm South Park Elementary.
** Veronica Crabtree's standup career was justified as it was AllJustADream.

-->Two frogs were sitting in a bathtub. One frog says "pass the soap". The other frog says "What do you think I am, a typewriter? The first frog replies, "No, you just need a GREEN RADIO." cue laughter"

** Riley and the male students cross-dressing as female cheerleaders is this due to how they come across as offensive stereotypes of {{Transgender}} people.

* ''Film/TheNuttyProfessor1996'' has [[InsultComic Reggie]] coming onto the stage simply saying "Women be shoppin'!" and everyone laughs their heads off. As Andy from WebVideo/BootsToReboots pointed out: "WHY? Is this some kind of pop culture reference in the US at the time? Yes, women go shopping - what's so funny about that fact? Men also go shopping. There might be some humor in women-and-shopping jokes, but this isn't a joke, it's a statement; there's no setup OR punchline. So what's so funny about this line?"

** This trope also happens in the episode "Stand Up and Deliver" with some of the jokes told by the Creator/RobinWilliams {{Expy}}. The audience finds him ''hilarious'' and Babs is terrified to go on after him (i.e. she can't follow that). Some of the other (terrible, in context) comedians fall under SoUnfunnyItsFunny though.

* Averted in the commentary for ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'', where it's mentioned that they refused to have Boo laugh at anything that didn't make them laugh too. In general, the film gets away with this because most of the things Mike does to make Boo laugh are slapstick, which has a pretty universal appeal, while his actual attempts to tell ''jokes'' usually don't land with her and are usually played more for SoUnfunnyItsFunny (and she's a small child, who don't tend to have a very refined palate when it comes to humor).

** Gould took a shot at "experimental" comic strips in the 1960s with a lame strip that everyone was howling as genius.

-->One thing Jackie does provide is an example of how to live for aspiring young comedians. For example, Jackie teaches us the number one way to stay focused and confident is: surround yourself with people who are REALLY EASILY AMUSED.

* ALL of Joey's routines on ''Series/FullHouse''.

* MIke Myers' less-well-received films ''Film/TheCatInTheHat'' and ''Film/TheLoveGuru'' have him playing characters who are presented in the film as hysterical, but audiences found them obnoxious.