Funny / Ghostbusters: Afterlife

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

"Yes, have some."

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• Phoebe's Establishing Character Moment, as she experimented with powering her device with all the electricity in the family's entire complex. This is followed by Phoebe trying to justify her not asking her mom permission that everyone is good at many things (science) and bad at others (asking her mom's permission), just as her mom is bad at science and good at making excellent quesadillas. Later, at Egon's place, when her mom reveals that they're staying here because she failed to keep track of the rent at their old apartment, Phoebe off-handedly points out she's never been good with money.
• During their arrival in Summerville, Trevor complains that he can't get any bars on his phone. Callie remarks how she hopes there better be a bar. Phoebe chuckles at that.
• "Pheebs, be a dear and break into your grandfather's house?"
• When Callie tells phoebe she might "make a friend out there", Phoebe promptly retorts: "Make them out of what?"
• While Phoebe's ice-breaker jokes are supposed to be a hit-and-miss, some of them do find their stride.
  Phoebe: What does a hamster have in common with a cigarette? (Pause for effect) They're both harmless, until you stick one in your mouth and light it on fire.
  • Another is during her conversation with Grooberson about the studies he's doing on the earthquakes.
    Gary: I've set up geophones, but I can't triangulate.
    Phoebe: Are you using three?
    Gary: Yeah... I know how many sides there are in a triangle.
    Phoebe: I just thought you were being obtuse. (does an obvious wink)
    Gary: (cocks head) Was that a geometry joke?
    Phoebe: Yes. That's why I winked.
    Gary: Ah... ah... That's terrible. No, I loved it!
  • Heck, there's something to be said about how Phoebe has to use her jokes to confuse/distract Gozer, of all things.
• Gary takes the summer school job in order to use the science lab to study the earthquakes. To keep the students busy, he shows them movies. Educational movies? Of course not, he shows them horror movies. During the course of the film, we see the students watching Cujo and Child's Play (1988).
• While Trevor is doing inventory in freezer, Lucky offers him her hoodie which he eagerly accepts. When he wonders at the fact that it fits, Lucky messes with him by saying that it belongs to her boyfriend, which causes Trevor to try and quickly take it off.
• Podcast's idea of safely entering a haunted biohazard of a mineshaft without inhaling something dangerous or cursed? Pull his shirt over his nose.
• When Gary sees the ghost trap that Phoebe and Podcast are examining, he's shocked to realize they don't know what it is.
  Gary: Seriously? How do you, of all people, not know about this?
  Podcast: I'm ashamed.
• While searching through the Dirt Farm house, Podcast happens upon an Aztec whistle which repels evil spirits. Unfortunately, it's also not pleasant for humans to hear either, as it emits an inhumanly blood-curdling scream when Podcast uses it. This exchange just clinches it:
  Podcast: Can I keep it?
  Callie: (recovering from being startled; annoyed as hell) Sure, just don't use it again.
  • Later, he attempts to use the whistle against the Muncher to scare it off. Sadly, it doesn't really work: The Muncher is surprised for a moment, but then instantly begins spitting shrapnel, machine gun style, at Podcast and Phoebe; prompting Phoebe to unleash the Proton Pack.
• Grooberson tells Callie he always wondered what was inside Egon's creepy old house.
  Callie: The only thing lurking inside here is my slowly dying soul.
  Grooberson: Is that what that smell is?
• When Podcast spells it out that Grooberson is trying to get with her mother, Phoebe gives a seemingly unfazed "Oh". Podcast remarks she's taking this remarkably well, all things considered. Phoebe has to explain that quite to the contrary, she's not unfazed by this news so much as she displays her emotions differently than most people. On the outside, she may be calm, but inside, she's vomiting.
• Callie telling Phoebe she is going out for dinner with Gary, which Phoebe learns is Mr. Grooberson's first name.
  Phoebe: His name is Gary Grooberson? You're going on a date with Gary Grooberson?
  Callie: It's just…dinner.
• When Egon's spirit is helping Phoebe repair the proton pack, she wonders how he even built such a compact cyclotron component in the first place. Egon immediately turns the lamp to illuminate the wall covered with his collegiate degrees. There's also something adorably goofy about Egon communicating via manipulating light fixtures to get his point across.
  Phoebe: (looking at the indicated degrees on the wall) You're a genius. Got it.
• A small moment when Phoebe finds the jumpsuits and she rummages through the pockets in Egon's. In one she finds a Crunch bar wrapper; in the other, a pair of Egon's glasses, which she proceeds to put on over her own glasses, showing that their frames are almost exactly the same.
• Podcast says this for his recording right before Phoebe tests the proton pack. And she's standing right next to him.
  Podcast: Will this be the moment of her death? Nobody knows...
• The sheer ridiculousness of Podcast and Phoebe trying to test a device as powerful as the Proton Pack on a row of jars and bottles! As though this were a shooting range. Sure enough, when it's activated, the Proton Pack doesn't stop at breaking the jars: it annihilates them—and the tractor tread they were lined up on—out of existence!
  Phoebe: Did I hit it?
  Podcast: (lifts camera goggles to look) You didn't hit it. You destroyed it! It doesn't even exist anymore! My turn.
• While searching for the Muncher with the Ecto-1, the kids drive through town, completely missing loads of evidence of its passage (bites out of stop signs and the like, all covered in dripping ectoplasm) before they actually find it in the act of nibbling on a fire hydrant. It senses them and turns, locking eyes with Phoebe and gives a little whine, then (without turning away or breaking eye contact) it twists open the hydrant before roaring and flying off.
  • The trio have a lot of trouble actually snaring Muncher. Phoebe's initial attempts to wrangle it with the Proton Pack cause a lot of property destruction through Main Street and the diner. Trevor takes his eyes off the road and nearly crashes them into an oncoming truck. Podcast doesn't have it quite as bad, but he only starts working the RC Trap Car after Phoebe tells him to, and he complains about Trevor's inability to keep the Ecto-1 steady. By the time they finally catch Muncher before the mountain, the trio almost has their footing as junior Ghostbusters. They also have caused enough of a ruckus to get all three of them arrested.
• Lucky screwing with Trevor by pretending she herself is in prison for harboring drugs, which she needs him to hide for her. He almost agrees... until Sheriff Domingo calls her out on her joke, revealing she's here because he's her father.
• When Phoebe asks for her one phone call, Sheriff Domingo allows it...but not before asking "Who you gonna call?" after a slight dramatic pause.
• When Callie chews out Trevor for letting Phoebe get into trouble, Mr. Grooberson (who is standing right in front of Trevor and is also secretly involved in encouraging Phoebe's ghost-busting ambitions) initially thinks Callie is talking to him.
• In the mountain temple, Lucky isn't impressed when she finds out that Trevor is 15 (instead of 17, like he claimed when they met).
  Trevor: I'll be 16 in February!
  Lucky: It's June.
• The borderline Black Comedy antics of the miniature Stay-Puft Marshmallow Men in the Wal-Mart. Some of them are riding around atop a Roomba (with one of them run over and leaving a sticky trail), while others are cooking each other on stoves, melting each other into s'mores, or shredding each other in blenders, all with huge smiles on their faces.
  • They reappear during the Final Battle, sabotaging the Ecto-1's built-in Proton Pack and generally annoying Podcast as he tries to stop them. And when the original Ghostbusters show up, several of them can be seen cheering.
• Gary, while trying to flee the Mini-Stay-Pufts, freezes in shock at the sight of Terror-Dog Vinz Clortho... eating from a huge bag of kibble, his entire head buried in the bag. When the beast looks up at Gary, he tries to placate him, only for Vinz to growl in response. Gary reacts by chucking his ice cream container at the monster, which bounces off the demon dog's head.
  • Meta example; when the preview clip of this scene was posted, a good majority of the comments immediately knew the Terror-Dog was Vinz... because of how clumsy he was.
  • Vinz is clearly trying to get to the bottom of the mostly empty bag, but is being hampered by his horns.
  • As Vinz looms over Gary cowering in his windshield-less car, they both pause in perplexment for a moment at the sound of a pop and a squeal; both of the car's front tires popped under the sheer weight of a terror dog bearing down on the front axle. The moment of levity is abruptly ended as Vinz goes back to attempting to possess Gary.
• After being built up as the Big Bad who started this all, Shandor being unceremoniously torn in half by Gozer has an anticlimactic element of Black Comedy.
• When the original Ghostbusters show up to confront Gozer, Ray once again cites legalese to demand she return to her own dimension. Peter can only shake his head and give a deadpan "bravo" in response, while Winston can only look amused. Specifically, Ray tells Gozer that they are in violation of invasive species laws. Ray also gets a small dig at himself and his fellow Ghostbusters by mentioning the Association for the Advancement of Retired Persons.
  • Which is then followed by the ultimate Brick Joke from the original film:
    Gozer: Are you...a god?
    Ray: (cocks his head to ponder his response)
    Winston: (warningly) Ray...?
    Peter: (exasperated) Oh, come on, Ray.
    (Beat...)
    Ray: Yes!
    Winston: Yeah, we're all gods.
    • Clearly, Winston is annoyed that Ray has forgotten his advice to always answer "Yes!" to that question.
    • To be fair, Ray has been studying the Bible, and the Big Guy doesn't like impostors.
  • Prior to that, right before Gozer drops the line, she seems to wear a small smirk, like she's thinking, "Oh yes, I remember you." And prior to that, Winston takes Gozer's reaction of snarling at them as, "I think she remembers us."
• Peter's initially mouths off to Gozer about how "[you and I] busted up for good", which is accompanied by an oddly-appropriate^note for the ongoing end of the world staccato rendition of Elmer Bernstein's Ghostbusters theme.
  • During this and Peter's later mouthing off (to buy cover for Winston), Ray gives him a baffled WTF reactions. Given Jason Reitman's confirmed Murray's penchant for ad-libbing was in full swing, Aykroyd's reactions may have been completely genuine.
• Peter's interesting version of On Three, saying this to his teammates in front of Gozer. (And it still works!):
  Peter: Okay, on the count of "three", go on "two". One, two!
• After Egon's ghost shows up to steady Phoebe's hand, he guides them both to the other Ghostbusters, giving the audience a shot of the four original team members facing down Gozer again! What makes this awesome moment funny? Because in this shot, Ray, Peter and Winston are all looking between Gozer and Egon's ghost quietly, and at different intervals, as if thinking, "wait, is...he's really here?" without forgetting about keeping Gozer restrained.
• When Vinz and Zuul meet to unlock the gate, it's actually done romantically! Zuul changes her outfit to a sheer gold dress and Vinz gives her a flower (which she eats). They even flirt a little bit before passionately kissing.
  Vinz: I like your eyes.
  Zuul: (growls in Sumerian)
  Vinz: Thanks.
  • Remember Sigourney Weaver's sexy recline after she and Louis unlocked the gate, flashing generous long leg? Here, the pose is done by Paul Rudd as Vinz-in-Grooberson while waiting for Zuul to show up.
• After being freed, Callie is understandably disoriented after having been possessed, which isn't helped by the kids calmly giving her the highlights while fleeing from Vinz. Callie is also trying to tell the kids things they already know but she didn't, due to her being Locked Out of the Loop for most of the film.
  • Trevor cheerily calling Gary his mom's boyfriend while Vinz tries to take out the RC trap elicits more confusion out of Callie over being told that she got possessed, turned into a dog and "got kinda humpy".
    Callie: What the hell was that?!
    Trevor: That was your boyfriend, Gary!
    Callie: (with a "Wait, what?" look on her face) "Boyfriend"?
• After the climax, Trevor tries to unearth Lucky from Zuul's shell, only to find this is Vinz Clortho's shell and Grooberson is inside it. Lucky's in the other shell, which he goes to after.
  • Grooberson wondering why his head is mildly bleeding, to which Callie casually reminds him it's from headbutting a park bench whilst he was still possessed. Grooberson also mentions that his hands hurt from all the galloping he was doing.
• When Podcast gets his hands on the PKE meter and activates the taser function, he breaks into a wide grin before gleefully shocking the miniature Stay-Pufts, which makes them explode, eventually covering the interior of the ECTO-1 and himself in gooey marshmallow fluff. Podcast's mad marshmallow-mashing is reacted to appropriately: the mini Stay-Pufts also start running for their lives, while Trevor slowly leans into the car to see what the hell is going on in there.
• Podcast discovering that not only is Ray his sole subscriber, but the original Ghostbuster also agrees with Podcast's assessment that the show found its voice in episode 46.
• In the mid-credits scene, Dana puts Peter to the same ESP shock test he used on his students in the first film. After thirty years, karma finally bites Peter in the ass after revealing that he only shocked the male students. Not only that, but he also most likely cheated by marking the cards, making Dana shock him even more.
• In the end-credits scene, Winston describes each of the four original Ghostbusters' roles. Ray was the heart, Egon was the brains, Peter kept things cool, and Winston was the sex appeal.
• Concept art reveals that one of the ideas for the PKE meter was a modified Game Boy with a tendency to play the Tetris theme at inopportune moments.

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