Funny / Critical Role: Campaign One

Critical Role's funny moments
Campaign 1 (Vox Machina): 1-23 | 24-38 | 39-83 | 84-99 | 100-115
Campaign 2 (Mighty Nein): 1-25 | 26-47 | 48-69 | 70-91 | 92-112 | 113-141
Campaign 3
Critical Role One-Shots

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.

Arc-specific moments:

• Kraghammer and Vasselheim ^note Episodes 1-23
• Briarwood Arc^note Episodes 24-38
• Chroma Conclave Arc^note Episodes 39-83
• The Adventures of Taryon Darrington^note Episodes 84-99
• Vecna Arc^note Episodes 100-115

Running Gags

• The comment cards of Episode 1 are an episode-contained Running Gag.
• There are quite often mistakes about who's Vex and who's Vax, and jokes surrounding that.
  • In the first dozen episodes or so, Marisha Ray is completely unable to remember which of the twins is which. She seems to have gotten better at that, but still makes the mistake from time to time.
  Marisha: (after being told she can only use a boosting skill on one person) [I cast it on] Vex.
  Laura: Did you mean him? (points at Liam)
  (beat)
  Marisha: ...Yes.
  • Not even the DM himself is safe. In Episode 14, Gilmore refers to Vax as "Vax'ahlia". Liam uses this as a segue for Vax to basically ask Gilmore out. Matt reassures them that Gilmore looks very ashamed.
  Vax: You naughty man, you called me by my sister's name. That is going to cost you.
  • It happens again in Episode 21, which Laura pointed out to him after the game.
  • At one point Laura corrected Marisha with, "I'm Vax, not Vex," and Marisha took it as truth until Laura told her she was joking.
  • And yet again in Episode 55, to the point where after being corrected, Matt jokingly says to Liam and Laura, "I will stab you."
  Sam: If I ever have to roll a new character, I'm calling him "Vix".
  Matt: I will cut you.
  • Reaching new heights in Episode 70 when Laura refers to Liam's character as "Vex."
  • The two players eventually get matching shirts reading "I'm Vax, That's Vex" and "I'm Vex, That's Vax," which they occasionally wear to sessions.
• Anytime the players address the characters by their player's names.
• Beard Check. Bonus points if it's rolled right after a dramatic moment for some hilarious Mood Whiplash.
• Laura throwing away her "cursed" dice after failing several rolls and and constantly buying more to replace them. Whenever she's picky about her dice, the look on Travis' face is priceless. She even tries to get her fellow players to replace their dice sometimes, and it generates the same reaction from Travis. Bonus points if she's trying to convince Travis.
• Anytime the players reference something that doesn't exist in the setting and then have to improvise like hell to cover the break in character. Examples so far include Venn diagrams, Jesus Christ (whoever that is), NyQuil, Randy Savage, skywriting, and radar.
• Any roll of 19 is usually pronounced "n-n-n-nineteen", especially if it's rolled by Vax. At one point in Trial of the Take Part 4, most of the party says it in unison.
• Any time Percy/Taliesin facepalms. It could be said that he does so both as himself and as his character reacting to the party's antics, seeing as he is the only human and the Only Sane Man of the group, and maybe the most experienced roleplayer.
  • And, for that matter, whenever the DM facepalms.
• Anytime Matt is whispering something into the ear of one of the players, Sam usually breaks the fourth wall and tells the stream to subscribe to Geek and Sundry and buy t-shirts.
• Pretty much any song that Scanlan sings. Special props to : the song Scanlan sings to the illithid, Clarota, that heals him... which is a riff on Marvin Gaye's Sexual Healing. Yes, really. Apparently, Clarota is a fan of slow jams.
  • Relatedly: (operatic singing) "Bigby's HAAAAAAAAND!" That, or, "It's Bigby's Hand, Bigby's Hand, you know it, shamone!"
• The cast singing lines from musicals relevant to the situation. Hamilton has been bust out enough times (including a Skillshare ad that's legally distinct from a certain historical musical's opening number) that it deserves its own mention.
• Somewhere between this trope and Awesome is Scanlan's ability to deal damage with an insult - in particular the moment where he kills a duergar with a Your Mom joke.
  • And his habit of humming loudly whenever he critfails stealth checks.
  • Speaking of failing stealth checks, there's Pike, clad in heavy metal armor which imposes a disadvantage on said checks. Usually followed by her or someone else imitating the sound of her gear ("CLANK! CLANK! CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!") or Ashley mentioning she should oil her armor.
• Every time Percy introduces himself with his full name, at least one other party member says "You can call him Percy."
• Vanessa's husband's name constantly being said wrong, usually by Vax.
• Kashaw not saying Tiberius' last name correctly.
• Rakshasa jazz hands!
• Keyleth getting arrested and/or scaring the crap out of some innocent bystander in animal shape.
• The phrases "I would like to rage" and "I encourage violence" have been adapted to almost every situation. For the first, see "I would like to rage-climb" in Episode 13, "I would like to rage...and...RUN!" in Episode 10, "The chat would like to rage," in Episode 19, and "She would like to rage!" in Episode 25 for Vex's double crit. For the latter, "I encourage violence!" returns in Episode 23, and "I encourage sandwich!" happens in Episode 26.
  • “I encourage violence” is also brought back in a Heartwarming way in Episode 72, with Scanlan requesting that “I encourage peace” be the epithet on Tiberius’s grave.
• The Running Gag of Scanlan shooting his Lightning Bolt from his crotch with a pelvic thrust.
• Whenever Grog tries to move or bash down a heavy obstacle and Pike decides to assist, it always has adorable results. Grog usually always rolls high enough, while Ashley usually rolls below a 10. (The below quote is from Episode 22)
  Travis: I take the Warhammer, activate it, run up to one of the walls and swing as hard as I can.
  Matt: Go ahead and roll a strength check.
  Ashley: (brings out d20 and rolls) Can I assist?
  ...
  Travis: 19.
  Ashley: (puts away d20) Oh, you don't need assistance.
  Travis: (grins adorably) Yeah I do. From Pike, anytime.
  Laura: 9!
  Ashley: (proudly) 9! (holds imaginary mace and knocks it against the wall) Tink!
  • Inverted in Episode 32, when Grog tries to move a statue away he throws out his back. Vox Machina collectively fails as well. And who moves it out of the way? 3 foot gnome Pike.
• Any time Grog rolls a Natural 20 on an Intelligence Check.
• For some reason, the players' greatest enemies in the Whitestone arc have been Whitestone's awful, awful... doors. Vox Machina has been briefly defeated and even injured by these diabolical doors of death, doom, and destruction so far during their stay in the city.
  • Preceded in Episode 12 when guest group Vox Moronica fail miserably to get through a perfectly ordinary door using both lock picks and a flying kick. Eventually they just burn the building so that someone inside opens the door to escape.
• Every week, Sam seems to add a new sticker to the bottom of his giant tankard of ale.
  • In Episode 55, they are covered by a piece of paper with "Your Ad Here" written on it (and the next episode it's Scanlan fan art). Scanlan Shorthalt: Corporate Shill.
  • Taken further when Sam changed mug while playing Taryon Darrington. And after the one-year (in-game only) timeskip, he brings in the old mug, only to open it and take the other mug from inside.
• Vax'ildan calling Vex'ahlia "stubby," and states that she is two inches shorter than he is. According to his character sheet, he's 5'11, making Vex'ahlia 5'9". 5'9" for a female half-elf is not stubby at all! It's actually above-average.
• Pike continues to show up the team at every turn (except stealth checks).
• Sam's prepared limericks.
  • Later, he inspires people by reading from a book called Dad Jokes and a book of Shakespeare insults.
• Critmas: from plushies to art to selfie sticks to people feeding Matt's addiction to minis (much to the chagrin of Marisha and jealousy of Liam).
• The delivery of the painting Scanlan commissioned in Episode 36 seems to be turning into a minor one now that Vox Machina has been forced to temporarily abandon Greyskull Keep because of the Chroma Conclave.
• Every time the show is about to air, the players start yelling swear words to try to make Matt corpse when they go live. Matt advises online campaigns not to do the same unless you want to invoke Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies.
• Minor one: Vax feeding Trinket chocolate, much to Vex/Laura's vexation.
• Liam plugging Wyrmwood Gaming in increasingly absurd and creative ways during the pre-show announcements.
• The servants in Scanlan's mansion are apparently incapable of cooking anything but whole chickens. It gets to the point that they have Pike's grandfather Wilhand go in and try to teach them how to make proper meals. They have limited success. Scanlan's daughter, however, actually manages it. So instead of only cooking chicken, now they only prepare salads.
• Any time that Matt's NPCs have a whispered conversation amongst themselves, and Laura reminds him that Vex can read lips.
• Vax'ildan and the theatre.
  Keyleth: (to Vax) What is it with you and the theatre?
• Keyleth being a happy drunk and then needing to be carted off.
• Sam's increasingly ludicrous Loot Crate pitches before each game.
  Sam: I'm an actor. Why would you listen to me about this stuff, I'm a liar and a deceiver. But what you can listen to [...] is hardcore maths.
  Sam: I've been dabbling in the hip-hop world lately, so I've prepared a little rap.
  Sam: Ancient Greece: Zeus presents a lovely crate to the first woman on Earth, a lovely gal named Pandora; it contained death and evil, corrupted the world forever more.
  Sam: I prepared a word game.
  Sam: I did learn a magic trick.
• Seeming is the gift that keeps giving. First flying cows, then lots of de Rolos, then nesting doll sexy sextuplets.
• Vax never washes his armor, so apparently it's smelly.
• Tiberius murdering an old woman was treated a What the Hell, Hero? moment in-universe. That doesn't stop them from regularly making jokes about attacking the elderly.
• After the show started airing on Alpha, the crew began putting amusing commentary in the lower left hand corner.
• Episode 85's Wham Line, "What's my mother's name?" has started being called back to in humorous contexts.
• Sam's shirt. Not only they are always different (at one point he notices he almost wore a different one per episode, only thrice wearing a shirt he already wore, and came wearing four different ones to even it out), they often have humorous immages too. The most frequent are pictures of Matt's faces and the "shirtception" (started by him wearing a shirt with his face on, then a shirt with him wearing that shirt, then a third one with him wearing the second one...).
• Vex is always getting hit with Finger of Death and other necrotic magic. Enough that Matt took notice and nudged her into a situation where she would gain innate resistance to necrotic damage.