Funny / Glass Onion

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The Last of the Gentlemen Sleuths in his natural habitat.

• Duke, having earlier boasted on video about how men need to take charge of the country and stop bowing to women, is slapped by his tiny mother for raising his voice to her. She then glares at him until he meekly apologizes.
  • The fact his mother takes the time to hand him the laundry basket she's holding at the time so her hands can be free to slap him is also subtly hilarious. She's not intimidated by him in the slightest.
• The four main Disruptors go through a complicated series of puzzles to unlock their boxes and receive the invitation within. We then cut to the fifth invitee, who puts on some safety goggles and just bashes the box apart with a hammer. On the first viewing, it's an indicator of the bad blood between "Andi" and Miles for cutting her from Alpha. On a rewatch, it's a hilarious Establishing Character Moment of how done Helen is with Miles' antics.
  • Claire mocking Birdie for her constant exclamations at every new puzzle.
  • Birdie is able to solve a music puzzle... thanks to Yo-Yo Ma conveniently attending her party.
    • Meanwhile, Birdie herself is trying to solve said puzzle by getting Alexa to use Shazam, but quickly discovers that her Alexa node is a lamp.
    • There's also the fact that Birdie is throwing a massive party in the first place, in the middle of the early days of COVID lockdowns. And when called on it, she claims it's fine, because they're all in her pod. ("Pod" being a very small group that only interacts with each other to mitigate contagion risk.)
  • Duke's mother solves a number of the clues casually, such as identifying the box's design as a stereogram, annoying him to no end.
  • Blanc later refers to the box as being a series of children's puzzles. On top of that, we later learn that he never even got to attempt the puzzles. Helen just brought the box she smashed with her to meet him.
• How the movie opens on Blanc's situation: sitting in a bathtub depressed during the early stages of the COVID pandemic, which is keeping him from going outside to solve crimes to challenge his mind.
  • He's trying to play the deduction game Among Us, of all things... and losing. To Angela Lansbury (whose in-game avatar is MSheSolved).
    • It's not only that he's losing, but HOW. He's barely even playing (simply standing in a hallway, confused at what to do)... and yet somehow quite literally everyone else on the Zoom call intuitively knows he's the killer/Impostor.
    • The funniest part is that he's easily recognized as an Impostor to any skilled player because the Crewmates have tasks to do, but the Impostor doesn't (they have fake tasks, but they can't really fix anything. It's just a trick to make the Impostor look innocent). Blanc is the only one doing nothing, and thus outing himself as the Impostor because his end goal isn't to fix the ship, but to kill everyone else.
    • Rian Johnson has since revealed that he himself tried to explain the rules of Among Us to Lansbury, who, for a woman over 95 who has never played video games, was very patient — before she finally conceded she didn't get it and told him, "You know what? Just tell me what the lines are. I'll trust you."
  • Blanc tells his friends in an unconvincing tone that he hasn't been spending all of his time in the bath, even as the camera zooms out to show the trash left from him doing exactly that. At least two bottles of liquor are perched on the edge of the tub, one of which is clearly visible behind him to the others on the video call.
• When the group arrives at the dock to go to the island, all of them have to open their mouths and breathe in a mist that (supposedly) protects from COVID. All of them end up coughing when they breathe it in — this can also be heard in the background when Blanc has his conversation with Claire.
  • Blanc is the only one who doesn't cough when the mist is injected, hardly even reacting to it. Blanc is shown as an avid smoker, though, considering that he was revealed as having a male partner in this, make of that what you will.
• Miles' Eye Take when Blanc talks about enjoying the metaphor of the Glass Onion — something multilayered that actually has nothing to reveal because it's clear right through to the middle. You can interpret it a couple of different ways — either he recognises himself in the description, or, perhaps even funnier, he had no idea what it meant despite naming his house after it.
  • This is actually his reaction whenever he hears a good idea and decides "Yeah, that sounds good. I'll steal it!" Which means that, yes, Miles really was totally unaware of the metaphorical significance of the thing he spent millions to design his "rich asshole house" around until Blanc explained it to him.
• Miles covering his chest after Helen-as-Andi says everyone is latched onto his "golden titties".
• Duke is currently facing the likely end of his streaming career due to hawking "rhino horn boner pills" to teenage boys. When this is pointed out, Duke mutters under his breath that the pills didn't actually contain any rhino horn.
• Miles greeting everyone at the shore by playing the song "Blackbird" using the guitar Paul McCartney used to compose the song... and then promptly tosses it aside, dinging it in the process.
• Blanc pulls out and lights a cigar while walking through a garden, only for an alarm to go off, telling him it's a smoke-free zone. He hastily tosses the cigar into a nearby pool, only for a different alarm to go off telling him not to litter in the water. Blanc hastily runs away while the alarm's still blaring.
  • At the end of the movie, the explosion of the Glass Onion causes the smoke-free warning to start playing again while Blanc sits back and lights a cigar, watching the "disruption" in pure delight. He even shares the lighter with Derol, who watches the fireworks with a gleeful "Fuckin' A!"
• Lionel and Claire are genuinely impressed when they realise Miles leased the Mona Lisa, only for Miles to immediately squander it by revealing his Klear plan.
• Miles invites everyone to his island for a murder mystery party game... and Benoit Blanc solves it in about five seconds, from Birdie being the killer to her motive being that Miles stole her necklace to the method being a fake crossbow prominently on display. And it ends with the crossbow going off, hitting Miles in the chest and setting off a blood pack, which was supposed to mark the beginning of the game, which Miles pulls out and tosses aside as he practically stomps upstairs.
  • Also, the fake blood doesn't even squirt out of the spot where the arrow hit Miles.
  • Blanc had asked if there was a prize for solving the mystery, like an iPad. After solving the murder, Miles chucks an iPad at Blanc and glares at him huffily.
  • Just Miles' overall reaction, unable to believe how easily Blanc saw through the entire mystery and complaining how he paid Gillian Flynn a huge amount to craft a detailed murder and now the entire weekend is ruined.
  • Despite solving the mystery easily, Blanc is positively thrilled by how tightly-written and stylish the murder was (save for a few clumsily placed clues) and gushes about it to Miles until Miles interrupts him. Which grows even funnier when he solves the actual murders and is disappointed with how dumb and simplistic they were.
  • Miles attempts to start the game by quoting "what Watson said to Holmes." Anyone familiar with Sherlock Holmes would know it's actually reversed who says "the game's afoot," yet another sign of how Miles is an idiot.
• The way Derol keeps popping up at some of the most embarrassing moments, especially when Helen is frantically running from room to room looking for the incriminating red envelope. Helen can only mumble an apology while slowly backing out of Derol's room as he stares back at her in confusion.
• Lionel tries to call the mainland police to come investigate after Duke's death, only to be informed they'll have to wait for the morning. It turns out the Banksy dock Miles installed is only accessible at low tide. Lionel struggles for a moment trying to translate the police radio operator's response until he realizes they're just literally flat-out calling it a "piece of shit" with an accent.
  • Which is a Brick Joke from how coming in, Lionel heard the captain call it "Pisceshite" and thought that was the island's name in Greek.
• When he reveals that Duke drank from his glass, Miles hides behind Blanc, leading the Disruptors to protest their innocence. Miles then tells Blanc that he'll pay him a billion dollars to find out which of the Disruptors (or Peg) tried to kill him, to his friends' exasperation.
  • Blanc later slaps Miles when he continues to beg him for help and demands to know his 10PM surprise. Then the lights go off and Birdie screams.
• The reveal that the "Bangladesh" statement Birdie needs to issue is due to her company using a notorious sweatshop to produce her new clothing line. Her assistant can only stare in shock as she realizes Birdie thought "sweatshop" meant a "shop that makes sweatpants" while Birdie does a little 'yeah, kinda' shrug.
  • Aside from her abject shock, it's a little funny that Peg — having known Birdie for so long — knew exactly how Birdie's brain failed with that email. Anyone else would have had to ask Birdie directly why she approved it.
  • Also the way an absolute stunned and dead-inside Peg says Birdie answered the email; "Sounds perfect. Thanks," and a picture of her Memoji dabbing.
  • Peg has confiscated Birdie's phone to keep her from causing another scandal, only for Birdie to reveal later that she has a secret second phone. When she reveals the "sweatshop" thing, she actually has the gall to ask for her secret phone back. Peg understandably responds with a Big "NO!".
  • Birdie's assistant Peg keeps struggling throughout the story to keep Birdie away from any smartphone because she's afraid Birdie will "tweet an ethnic slur... again" in the same news cycle. She apparently thought a slur was just another term for "cheap", despite how the slur actually has the word "Jew" in it and is blatantly antisemitic.
  • At the film's opening, while the Disruptors are phone-sharing their attempts to open the puzzle box, the others ask Birdie where Peg is if she's not helping Birdie solve things. Birdie nonchalantly says "she's putting out fires." They think it means Peg is off on social media resolving yet another Birdie faux pas, but it turns out Birdie started an actual fire at her house party. Cue Peg running past in the background, making sure the fire extinguisher is fully charged.
  • During the night cap gathering for a round of drinks, Miles hands each of the Disruptors their personalized drinking glasses. Except for Peg, who is handed a generic red plastic Solo cup. Peg is later seen writing her name on her cup.
• After the dinner goes awry, Claire and Peg are clutching and clearly drinking through a full bottle of Bacardi each. Claire also does this while sitting next to an empty bottle of the white wine Miles provided.
• Helen bluntly states that the Disruptors are just shitheads, and regularly refers to them as such.
  • When the Disruptors turn on Miles, he tiredly calls them shitheads.
    • And this is a few minutes after he hears Helen call them that. Even when he's completely and totally lost, he's still stealing other people's ideas.
• The security sensors for the The Mona Lisa are so sensitive that they can be triggered by other people's cell phones whenever a notification ping happens. While the Disruptors are waiting around after the failed "murder mystery" attempt, the alarm and sliding protective door keeps going off because Duke has his phone's notifications pinging him every freaking minute.
  • His phone is going off because he's set ridiculously broad nets with Google Alerts, including any time an article with the word "movie" is posted.
• Blanc and Helen regroup in Miles' exercise room to discuss their next step in uncovering the whereabouts of the red envelope. Behind them is a flatscreen image of Serena Williams as the exercise trainer, but it takes a minute before anyone — both characters and presumably the audience as well — realizes that's not a screenshot of Serena, she is live and waiting on someone to begin a training session with her. Which means Serena's aware that Blanc and Helen are plotting something against Miles.
  • And Serena doesn't care either way. She's just there to train anybody. "It's your money, not mine," she shrugs as she goes back to reading her book. Which, if you look closely, appears to be a copy of Gravity's Rainbow — the book that Blanc, in the previous movie, claimed that no one has ever read.
  • Helen's wide-eyed expression when she realizes that she's talking to Serena Williams.
• Throughout the day, Helen, who normally doesn't drink, gets anxious from all the secrecy and chugs samples of the kombucha Jared Leto sent Miles as a product sample, thinking it's "funky health stuff". Blanc points out to her that the stuff is 9% alcohol.
  Blanc: That's hard kombucha! That's Jared Leto's hard kombucha.
  • Leading to this bit later, when she's starting to really feel it:
    Helen: If I ever meet Jared Leto, I'm gonna whoop his kombucha-brewing ass.
• Early in the film, Helen-as-Andi gives a passionate rant at each of the Disruptors, calling them out for their idiocy. The speech on its own isn't very funny, until it's seen again from Helen's perspective and it turns out she is actually a quite timid person who was inspired to speak up by getting massively drunk. Blanc had warned her to lay off the alcohol earlier, but hearing Miles drivel on about his "disruption theory" drives Helen to chug down hard kombucha in frustration.
• Blanc openly dismisses the board game Clue for how it forces people to use a checklist and examine each room to solve an otherwise random crime. Meanwhile, Helen is using a checklist to keep track of the Disruptors' "Motive" and "Opportunity"... only to run into the problem that they all had Motive and Opportunity, making her checklist useless. She promptly complains:
  "This shit never happens in Clue."
  • If you're familiar with Clue, she's wrong. The point of the game is interrogating suspects (other players) to identify who was present at the scene of the crime with the murderweapon. The motive and opportunity are irrelevant, and many versions of the game include a note that, just like in the film, everyone has both.
• Helen's understandably shocked reaction to Whiskey grabbing Duke's speargun and aiming it at her with clear intent to kill.
  Helen: Whoa, whoa, whoa! What the fuck?
  • And then the lights go out and the whole screen goes black.
    Whiskey: (screaming in fright)
    Helen: (screaming in fright)
    Whiskey: (screaming in fright)
    Helen: (screaming in fright)
    Whiskey: Please don't kill me!! Oh my god, please don't kill me!!
    Helen: I'm not trying to kill you, you crazy bitch!! (runs for it)
• Blanc fakes Helen's death by sprinkling her clothes with hot sauce, then dabs a bit under his eyes to make them tear up. Except it's really hot sauce, and he nearly doubles over at the sensation and lets out a "Shitballs!"
  • Helen ends up with a drop of the hot sauce on her face which, due to the position of her head, slowly runs up her cheek and into her nostril. As she's still pretending to be dead at this point, she has to keep absolutely still, whimpering quietly, until everyone's had a chance to see her 'corpse' and Blanc can herd them all back inside the Glass Onion. Once the coast is clear, she promptly starts hacking while muttering her own "Shitballs!"
  • Not just any hot sauce; it's mentioned it's Jeremy Renner's hot sauce; when it's pulled from Blanc's coat pocket, it's done with dramatic slo-motion...to reveal the label emblazoned with Renner's grinning face and the product being called "Renning Hot!"
    • And this was after Blanc trying to censor himself after Duke's death by muttering, "Fiddlesticks!"
• Not only does Blanc use his summation at the end to explain the mystery behind Andi's death, he also uses the summation to reveal how Miles is a straight-up idiot who steals everyone else's ideas.
  • Blanc is not impressed when he reveals Duke's death was because Miles slipped him some pineapple juice, which Duke was allergic to, and calls the murder dumb. Birdie gasps that it was so dumb it was brilliant, and Blanc snaps at her that no, it was just dumb.
    Blanc: Pineapple juice! He just put pineapple juice in his whiskey! It... it's so dumb.
    Birdie: It's so dumb, it's brilliant!
    Blanc: NO! It's just dumb!
  • Blanc's reaction when he realizes that Miles even stole his off-handed comment about leaving a gun on the table and turning off the lights. At first he accorded his attempted murder of Andi/Helen a tiny bit of respect, as it seems to at least require some thought to plan, only to be further disappointed that it was his own idea that Miles simply stole.
    Blanc: (exasperated) Heavens to... You dimwitted, brainless... JACKASS! Your one murder with any panache at all, and you stole the whole idea from me!
  • Hell, even his burning of the napkin has humor to it when one realizes that Miles only thought to do so when Lionel asked why he hadn't already burned such damning evidence. He even points to Lionel and grins after he does it, as if to thank him for finally giving him the "amazing" suggestion. The man truly cannot do anything remotely clever without someone else proposing the idea.
  • What arguably makes the scene even more hilarious is Blanc's sheer rage at Miles for how much of a fricking moron he really is. With each deduction he makes, you can see him grow angrier and angrier.
• Peg walks in right when Blanc mentions the "consensual cuckolding" without any context, prompting her to react accordingly.
  Peg: Sorry, what?
  • The sheer It Makes Sense in Context-ness of "consensual cuckolding for cable news assignments" (almost reminiscent of "the Nazi child, masturbating in the bathroom.")
• Birdie's over the top cry of "WHAT IS REALITY?!" after the group sees that Helen is still alive. Since the audience already knows that Helen faked being shot, seeing everyone's stunned reactions is all the more amusing.
• When the other Disruptors learn of Andi's death Birdie still speaks to Helen as if she were Andi. She even points out that Andi had told them about Helen before putting together that Helen pulled a Twin Switch.
  • Also, Peg still refuses to give Birdie her phone back to read the news of Andi's death.
• After Blanc solves all of the crimes but fails to prevent the napkin's destruction, Miles snarkily says he won an iPad Pro for this round.
  • Even better is that the iPad that Miles threw at Blanc before, upon close examination of the camera, actually was an iPad Pro. Miles is still a blithering idiot, even when he's winning.
• Blanc's eye roll when, even after his takedown of Miles Bron using words incorrectly to sound smart, Bron still engages in a malapropism when claiming Helen only has "circumspective evidence."
• Helen deals with the napkin's destruction by going on a tantrum and smashing random glass statues, which Miles reacts with wry amusement. Initially shocked, the other Disruptors (and Peg and Whiskey) cheer her on and even get in on it them to get back at Miles for Duke's murder. Miles is unmoved and even smashes his wine glass to join the fun, shouting "Mazel Tov!" The sudden transformation of the mood to a Mass "Oh, Crap!" when they realize she's looking for materials to burn the highly explosive Klear sample with is even funnier.
• As Helen sprints to trigger the safety bypass on the Mona Lisa's case hidden in a jester figurine, the camera tilts in a way that makes it look like said jester is staring up at her in shock.
• The slo-mo sequence where Miles tries to stop Helen has him grabbing her shoulder as she nears the jester but being completely ineffectual at stopping her. We see Miles, still in slo-mo, go flying to the side like a football player who just missed a tackle with the dumbest open-mouth expression on his face, which levels into completely hilarity as he watches the Mona Lisa go up in flames and screams in anguish.
  • When Miles watches the Mona Lisa, he clutches his face in a visual Shout-Out to Munch's famous The Scream, which is as hilarious-looking as it is clever.
• And even after all that, Miles is so stupid that he doesn't realise the ramifications of what's just happened and goes on an immature rant about how Helen has accomplished nothing. Helen, after having escaped the burning mansion and collapsed in exhaustion, has to get back to her feet and spell out to him just how screwed he is: "Your fuel of the future just barbequed the world's most famous painting, you dumbass."
• On a meta level, how director Rian Johnson incorporates Joseph Gordon-Levitt's expected cameo into the movie. He's the voice of Miles' "hourly dong".
  • In a behind the scenes video on Knives Out, Johnson complained that thanks to Product Placement rules, villains are not allowed to have Apple products onscreen, which leaves an obvious tell for writing murder mysteries. In this film, not only does the killer not have a phone at all, but at one point, he throws an iPad at Blanc from offscreen. This may also add a cheeky Take That! note to having Miles in one scene dress exactly like Apple's late CEO Steve Jobs.
• Claire realizing the extent of the trouble she's put herself into because of Miles' fuel.
  Claire: Lionel, I sold my soul for this. You're telling me that it could literally turn people's homes into The Hindenburg?
  • Her reaction when Helen throws the Klear crystal into the fire? A terrified, hushed "Hindenburg" before it all blows up.
• Pay attention to Peg when Miles says "fully inbreathiate this moment": She visibly reacts to it, frowning as if she's thinking "Hold on..." Then she glances in Blanc's direction, as if to ask him "Hey, you heard that too, right?"
• While Blanc is laying out the solution to the murder mystery, he mentions that on the cover of the magazine he had earlier, Birdie is wearing a headpiece with a famous diamond. Birdie, completely unprompted, reassures everyone that at the time she didn't know what a "blood diamond" is.

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