History Main / HumorDissonance

* ''Fanfic/BackToTheFrollo'': [[OriginalCharacter Danisha]] tells a joke about "a Hoosier and a Kentuckian" that all the characters treat as absolutely hilarious. The actual joke[[note]]A Hoosier and a Kentuckian are out fishing in boats one night, and the Kentuckian complains that nothing's biting where he is. The Hoosier offers to turn on his light so he can walk across the beam to where he is, to which the Kentuckian responds with "Do you really think I'm that stupid? You'll turn the light off and I'll fall in the water!"[[/note]] utterly fails to live up to the hype, being ''maybe'' worth a few chuckles.

* A bonding moment in ''Film/ClashOfTheTitans2010'' is when Perseus says of the GiantCrab they've tamed and are riding around on "it's better to be on one than ''in'' one" (as he'd previously nearly been eaten by another). Even TheStoic characters burst into uproarious laughter at it.
* ''Curse Of Bigfoot'' has a scene where a folklore teacher is teaching kids about monsters, including Bigfoot. At one point, he points to a picture of a griffin, and asks a kid to explain what it is. The kid proceeds to give a ([[SadlyMythtaken mostly incorrect]]) description of what it is, and ends with saying that it would drag people off and "eat everything except their shoes. When the griffin got you, all they'd ever find, was your shoes!" This inexplicably makes all the other students laugh their asses off.
* ''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 practice, 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/TheRoom2003'': The supposedly AllLovingHero Johnny bursts out laughing at a story his friend Mark tells him about a two-timing woman 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.

** 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]].

* ''Series/TheWestWing'' [[ToughRoom is normally one of those shows where everyone is super witty and spends all day firing hilarious remarks back and forth, and hardly anyone ever cracks a smile]]. The teaser of the episode "He Shall, from Time to Time..." calls for the senior staff to be standing around laughing so that the mood can be shattered by the sound of the president collapsing with a crash in the other room. The joke that causes them to lose their poker faces for one of the only times in the series? Sam lamenting, "I'll never live it down!" in reference to a typo the president caught while rehearsing his State of the Union address. Ho, ho, ho.

* 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 [[CompletelyOffTopicReport studied the wrong topic for his report]].
* The Joker plays with this in the ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'' episode "[[Recap/BatmanTheAnimatedSeriesE46AlmostGotIm Almost Got 'Im]]" when he takes a studio audience hostage and hooks Batman up to an electric chair. The chair is directly connected to a "laugh meter", and since he knows that he would never get the audience to laugh legitimately, he gets the audience so high on laughing gas that Harley reading the phone book has them rolling in the aisles.

** 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]].

** 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.]])

** 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]].

* ''{{WesternAnimation/Chowder}}'': In "Gazpacho Stands Up", Chowder helps Gazpacho with material for his upcoming stand-up comedy gig. After failing twice to improve his handwriting, Chowder tries finding a book with jokes at the last minute, but only finds cookery books and picks one of them. During his performance, Gazpacho simply recites some recipes, yet the audience, particularly Mung-Daal, finds him funny. Lampshaded by Truffles, who says she didn't get it.

* In an issue of ''ComicBook/Countdown|ToFinalCrisis'', [[ComicBook/WonderGirl Donna Troy]] calls Jason Todd "Re-Todd", [[DontExplainTheJoke a pun on "retard"]]. [[ComicBook/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 of people to use "retard" as a casual insult.

* 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 of people to use "retard" as a casual insult.

* ''ComicBook/XFactor2006'': In one issue late in the run, Polaris and Siryn crack jokes about the time Rahne followed Havok around in the government X-Factor days. The reason she did so was because she'd been subject to Mind Rape by the Genoshan government, and genetically conditioned to be loyal to Havok, who was working for them at the time (amnesia was involved), and unable to turn back to human without losing her sense of self. So rather than a light-hearted crack, it makes them look like insensitive assholes making fun of one of the worst periods of Rahne's life (of which there are ''many'').

* 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.

* The "Taserface" gag in ''Film/GuardiansOfTheGalaxyVol2'' might be worth a small chuckle, unfortunately Rocket Raccoon, several pirates and even one of the Sovereign all consider it to be the funniest thing they have ever heard. Rocket specifically laughs so hard at the name that he dedicates a rather long scene to mocking the guy in question.

* ''Film/TheRoom'': The supposedly AllLovingHero Johnny bursts out laughing at a story his friend Mark tells him about a two-timing woman 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.

** Played straight with The April Fool: A famous stand-up comedian in Fairy World and the spirit of April Fool's Day. A lot of people in the show find him funny despite his routine being mostly made up of lame and predictable jokes and puns and adding rim shots and his {{catchphrase}}: "What's up with that?"

* 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 inadvertently killing innocent people. It gets even worse when one recalls that Emmett actually ''has'' done exactly this.

* ''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.

* Apparently a common deal with the Creator/HarveyComics' character Jackie Jokers. [[http://www.misterkitty.org/extras/stupidcovers/stupidcomics38.html Some examples are further down this page.]]

* 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.

* In an episode of ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'', Dee's stand-up career ends up taking off after she decides to channel her depression into some fairly decent material that goes over pretty well. As she gets more successful, her act degrades into a trite, annoying shtick consisting of little more than a bunch of stupid voices and sound effects, but the audience still goes nuts for it and it leads to a network rep offering her a guest shot on Conan O'Brien's show. Dennis starts going absolutely insane, refusing to see what anyone found funny about it. The twist comes when Charlie, Mac, and Frank reveal that [[spoiler:it's all a prank they were playing on Dee so she would stop bumming them out with her depression. The agent she slept with, the network talent scout, and every single fan of her comedy was just an actor hired by Frank.]]

* One of the causes of the downfall of ''Series/Studio60OnTheSunsetStrip'': the fact that characters constantly refer to the sketches in the ShowWithinAShow as hilarious, when more often than not, they fall flatter than Kansas to the people at home. This may be one reason ''Series/ThirtyRock'' is more successful. The in-show sketches are portrayed as mindless dreck that appeals only to the lowest common denominator. They do not disappoint.

* 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 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).

* 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 2000s, but [[ValuesDissonance 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.

* In the ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' AccusationFic ''Fanfic/{{Coyote}}'', [[AuthorAvatar Riley Coyote's]] antics can fall under this. They tend to boil down to Riley doing bad impressions, getting into other people's personal space, or just flat out showing that he doesn't take the current situation seriously [[BigLippedAlligatorMoment (not helping is that these moments tend to come out of nowhere)]]. Riley ends up looking [[ManChild completely immature]] and trying way too hard to make people laugh. It just seems that he is more likely to embarrass himself (and the rest of his class or the entire school) when he acts out in public.

* ''WesternAnimation/RoverDangerfield''. Oh so so much. Apparently he has the InformedAbility for making jokes and one-liners funny enough that his dog friends constantly laugh and compliment him on his humor.

* In ''Film/{{Showgirls}}'', there is an overweight performer at the strip club who makes a string of self-deprecating jokes. While the patrons of the club are in stitches, the jokes themselves are painfully flat.

* 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 inadvertently killing innocent people. It gets even worse when one recalls that Emmett actually ''has'' done exactly this.
* Played for drama and enforced in ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', where one scene has everyone laughing uproariously at gory war footage of another country as if it was some BlackComedy masterpiece. The one lady who doesn't is escorted out [[Room101 to make her find it funny]].

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
* Played with in ''Manga/TwentiethCenturyBoys'' with a [[BokeAndTsukkomiRoutine manzai comedy duo]] who tell bad jokes, but when they perform for an audience, they have the entire crowd in hysterics except for OnlySaneMan Kenji. In fact, the ''entire show'' the comedians perform on is like this, complete with a rock band that the entire audience loves and [[AudienceParticipation sings along to]], but Kenji finds horrible. It's heavily implied that everyone in the audience except him has been brainwashed by [[BigBad Friend]].
* Played with in ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'' with Ms. Joke, a comedy-themed superhero. The actual quality of her material is more or less irrelevant because her Quirk allows her to ''force'' people into incapacitating fits of laughter.
[[/folder]]

* 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 [[ValuesDissonance 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.

->''F"inalism finger fink.... Obligatory quotient yokefellow... Coconut kachina cosmological argument... Bank swallow fish story... Inculpate minuteman... Stress certifyer in lecithin. Hard hearted dill... Divine minded domineer... Mind reader sextuple... Garden fly honey suckle garbage... Palter rimfire.... Green.... Peace... Change is the ultimate solution."''

* ''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.

* In ''{{Film/Twilight}}'' on Bella's first day of school, Mike and Jessica talk to her about why she's so pale if she's from Arizona. Bella says "maybe that's why they kicked me out?" - which is worthy of maybe a chuckle or two. Mike reacts as if she told the best joke ever and Jessica vapidly says "you're so funny".

* 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.

* ''Series/ICarly'': In one episode, two characters saying "Mom..." "No!" 10 times in a row on their web show is presented as an example of their humor surpassing everything on TV.

->''Finalism finger fink.... Obligatory quotient yokefellow... Coconut kachina cosmological argument... Bank swallow fish story... Inculpate minuteman... Stress certifyer in lecithin. Hard hearted dill... Divine minded domineer... Mind reader sextuple... Garden fly honey suckle garbage... Palter rimfire.... Green.... Peace... Change is the ultimate solution.''

* Chester Gould could offer truly funny stuff in ''ComicStrip/DickTracy''. However, too often, he fell into having a character pushed as "hilarious" when in fact he wasn't.
** A clear case is a would-be bumbling detective who makes bad jokes and goofy gags. Characters are seen in the background howling at his antics which just come off annoying.
** Gould took a shot at "experimental" comic strips in the 1960s with a lame strip that everyone was hailing as genius.

* 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 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).
* 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 [[OneJokeFakeShow 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.

* A plot point in ''Series/TheMuppets 2015'' has Fozzie finding unexpected success with a new stand-up routine poking fun at his girlfriend Becky's foibles. It ''is'' funnier than his normal stand-up routine, which is [[StylisticSuck portrayed as even more terrible than usual]], but that's only relative; the audience reacts as though it's hilarious when it is, at best, passable.

*** Krusty's empire-toppling competitor "Gabbo" in "Krusty Gets Kancelled" is just a hackneyed ventriloquist's dummy act. (He's later threatened by a crazy old man whose sole capability--that of dropping his pants and singing "The Old Gray Mare"--apparently got him his own show.)

*** Krusty's empire-toppling competitor "Gabbo" in "Krusty Gets Kancelled" takes the cake. It's just a hackneyed ventriloquist's dummy act.

*** Krusty's competitor "Gabbo" in "Krusty Gets Kancelled" takes the cake. It's just a hackneyed ventriloquist's dummy act.
--->'''Bart:''' Uh-oh. That cute little character could take America by storm! All he needs is a hook!
--->'''Gabbo:''' ''I'm a bad widdle boy!''
--->'''Bart:''' [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall Ay carumba!]]