Funny / Raiders of the Lost Ark

• When Indy makes the famous "swap the bag of sand for the idol" maneuver, he weighs the bag of sand in his hand and takes some out as if it'll somehow be heavier than a huge lump of solid gold.^note Unless the idol's actually gold-plated over a lighter substrate?
  • But then, the bag of sand actually weighs the pedestal down…
• After Indy escapes the temple, he is surrounded by a horde of angry natives along with one of the treacherous guides from earlier, the natives knock the person down to reveal that his entire back is covered with darts
• The film opens with Indy braving death traps, scary spiders, waves of angry natives trying to kill him, and he pretty much takes it all in stride. Get him on the plane with a snake as a fellow passenger, though...
  Indy: THERE'S A BIG SNAKE IN THE PLANE, JOCK!
  Jock: Oh, that's just my pet snake Reggie!
  Indy: I HATE SNAKES, JOCK! I HATE 'EM!
  Jock: Come on! Show a little backbone, will ya?
• "Love" and "You" on a sighing young girl's eyelids.
  • And Indy's flustered response.
  • Just look at that classroom! More than half of the students are young girls just gazing at their archaeology professor.
  • And then a male student leaves an apple on Indy's desk.
• With Marion’s wine barrels shot up and leaking, she sneaks one last drink from them before getting back in the fight.
  • Followed by her using the log she's holding to hit the head of one of the big Sherpas, who makes the most comical "Ow" and slumps over.
• In the bar fight, Indy and a Mook are grappling over a gun and another mook is told by Toht: "Shoot them. Shoot them both." They promptly, of one mind, both turn and shoot the other mook.
• While Toht is an intimidating character, seeing him burn his hand on Marion's heated medallion, then comically sprint across the bar and through a window with a loud CRASH before frantically plunging his hand into the snow outside in an attempt to soothe it is quite amusing to watch.
  • Especially since, if you listen closely, the sound of wood crumbling in the burning bar as he runs makes it sound like he's accompanied by cartoonish running noises.
  • Not to mention his high-pitched scream and painful expression when his hand get burnt.
• The monkey doing a Sieg Heil — and one of the Nazi goons reflexively returning the salute, before getting a look on his face of "What the hell did I just do?"
• At the beginning of the Cairo attack, most of the injuries the thugs take are caused by each other, from swinging a club too wide into their partner to accidentally stabbing each other when Indy jumps out of the way.
• Marion grabs a cast iron pan during the brawl... so her opponent pulls a massive knife. Marion promptly books it off-screen with the thug in pursuit. One loud *CLANG* later and Marion casually strolls back into view.
• What Marion says when she gets abducted by some of the thugs in Cairo.
  Marion: You can't do this to me, I'm an American!
• The iconic scene of Indy facing down a swordsman in the Cairo marketplace. The Mook spends several seconds twirling the blade menacingly, after which Indy makes an "I don't have time for this" face, pulls out his gun and shoots him. We may have lost an awesome whip vs. sword fight scene, but we got one of the funniest and overall greatest moments in movie history in exchange.
  • Better: that look on Indy's face is actual pain from Harrison Ford's dysentery that forced the "just shoot the sucker" moment in the first place.
    • Even better than that, the crowd swooping in on the guy's corpse and stealing his sword, cheering enthusiastically.
  • Also lucky that the real-life swordsman they hired for the scene turned out to be so good at pratfalls.
  • The music. It starts suspensefully when the sword man appears and starts doing his tricks, then it gets whimsical when Indy picks up the gun and shoots him.
  • The merchant behind Indy ignoring the scene right in front of him and going on with his job of chopping meat. Either he's seriously oblivious to the fight before him, or this type of thing actually happens quite often around there.
• Indy shows his masterful levels of snark in his second confrontation with Belloq.
  Belloq: Where else will I find an adversary so close to my own level?
  Indy: Try the local sewer.
• The scene where Sallah's children rescue Indy from Belloq in the bar, even the mercenaries around the room were laughing.
  Belloq: Next time, Indiana Jones, it will take more than children to save you!
• "Asps. Very dangerous. [taps Indy on the shoulder] You go first."
  • Followed by the "are you kidding me?" look Indy shoots back at him.
  • Most anything Sallah says or does is pretty good for a laugh.
    • The moment where he briefly panics after the lightning flash reveals the Anubis statue, and his sheepish "Sorry Indy" that follows.
    • "Holy smoke, my friends! I-I'm so pleased you're not dead!"
• Marion and Belloq powering through a bottle of grappa and being reduced to helpless giggling.
  • Even better, Marion tried to use her high drinking tolerance to get one over on Belloq and escape. Unfortunately for her though, it turns out that the grappa is from his family label and he's been drinking it his whole life.
  • Belloq himself might've been making a joke. The front label is written in Arabic not French as many had thought and it translates “Boukha Bokabsa” – in the upper heading and “The Family Label” – in the lower heading.
• Toht advances on Marion, pulling out what looks like a nasty torture device... which he then folds into a coat hanger.
  • And it's based on a Deleted Scene from 1941 (1979) (done for that film by Christopher Lee!), which Spielberg swore he'd try to put in all of his movies until it stayed in.
• Indy's reaction to Belloq's mocking as he's trapped in the Well of Souls:
  Belloq: What a fitting end to your life's pursuits. You're about to become a permanent addition to this archaeological find. Who knows? In a thousand years even you may be worth something.
  Indy: [smiling nervously, doing a forced laugh] Ahahahahh!... [under his breath] Sonofabitch...
• Marion waving the torch at Indy's whip mistaking it for a snake and causing Indy to jump in pain.
• Indy's clearly in no hurry to get his ass whipped, which makes his casual "Okay, okay dude, I'm coming" reaction when the big Nazi mechanic beckons him down to fight all the funnier.
  • When the big mechanic calls out to him, the pilot Indy was about to knock out (who was previously unaware of his presence) also reacts to the call and looks back and forth between him and the mechanic with a face of "Wait, since when was he here? How long has he been behind me?"
  • Indy then tries for a sneaky Groin Attack after distracting the mechanic by pointing at the ground, who No Sells it and knocks Indy flat on his ass with a single light jab, with Indy's knees visibly wobbling just before they give out from under him.
• In the aftermath of the plane's destruction, Dietrich yells angrily about how they have to get the Ark out of here. He adds, "And Gobler! I want plenty of protection!" Gobler starts to reply, but he's drowned out by a massive explosion in the background. It takes the Nazis a moment to think things over and then they start running. Belloq, meanwhile, just stands there looking annoyed. "Jones..."
• During the desert chase, two Nazi soldiers on a motorcycle and sidecar ride up to the truck Indy's driving to try and take a shot at him. Indy flashes a quick "who are they kidding?" look, quickly yanks the steering wheel in their direction, and then looks back to see the bike and its two riders tumbling off the road and into a ditch of water. The roguish grin on his face as they run back to their overturned vehicle, sopping wet, to remount it is icing on the cake.
  • Also during the chase, Indy and the driver of the truck carrying the Ark stopping their fight and co-operating with steering the vehicle to avoid crashing (much) into a construction project and then laughing at the sight of a local sliding off the windshield before Indy punches him out of the truck.
• At the end of the chase, Indy drives the stolen truck with the Ark inside into a garage, and the locals immediately move to hide it, with a couple of them running up to Dietrich to offer them melons to really sell it.
  • Dietrich grabs a melon and throws it at a barking dog.
  • Even better, take a close look where Toht is sitting, and you'll see that only his hat is there, propped against the seat. Ronald Lacey wasn't there that day, so Spielberg opted to just do that instead.
• Captain Katanga meets Indy for the first time when he's filthy, bruised, and battered from the truck chase:
  Katanga: Mr. Jones! I've heard a lot about you, sir. Your appearance is exactly the way I imagined.
• Sallah giving Indy a good-bye Man Hug would fall under Heartwarming Moments if it didn't aggravate Indy's myriad of injuries.
• Also, after the desert chase and on board the Bantu Wind, Indy is examining his wounds in a mirror, and Marion flips the mirror around, banging him hard on the chin. Cuts to the exterior of the ship they're on, and Indy's scream of agony.
  Marion: What'd you say?
• Indy and Marion get a chance to make out on the cruise liner and start kissing... only for Indy to fall asleep afterwards.
  Marion: [sighs] We never seem to get a break, do we?
• Indy stealing the uniform of the Nazi officer that questioned how badly the first uniform he stole fits him.
  • Blink and you'll miss it, but you can actually see Indy sizing up the officer, trying to see if his clothes are the right size before knocking him out.
  • The first mook he knocks out appears to be the shortest Nazi soldier in the film, being a good head shorter than the other three guys who passed by Indy's hiding place.
• Toht sweltering in the heat as they transport the Ark to where it'll be opened, as he's wearing a black leather trench coat in the middle of the Mediterranean sun. Gestapo uniform codes must have been strict.
  • Even better when one remembers his line to Marion in the tent earlier:
  Toht: You Americans are all the same. Always overdressing for the wrong occasions.
• Belloq and Dietrich being deeply frustrated over not finding the Ten Commandments inside the Ark, but what appears to be very fine sand is one thing. Toht breaking down into hysterical laughter (and Indy flashing a wry little smirk) afterwards just puts the cherry on it.
• While the climax is pretty horrifying, there is just something hilarious about how Toht Screams Like a Little Girl the moment things go bad- going from a perplexed expression to immediate horror when he realizes that what's about to happen. Not to mention Dietrich's fearful expression of his mouth agape which contrasts his professional stoicism he had his entire runtime. They're Nazis; nobody's shedding any tears for them.
• This exchange:
  Major Eaton: We have top men working on it right now.
  Indiana Jones: Who?
  Major Eaton: Top. Men.
• Funny in a kind of dark way to some, The Reveal at the end of the film which implies that the government strong-armed Indy into handing the Ark into their hands so it could be studied properly... only to promptly stuff it in a huge warehouse to be (quite possibly) forgotten.
  • Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull reveals that the Ark is indeed still parked in a warehouse decades later.
• The DVD special features have some utterly hilarious footage of Steven Spielberg chastising one of the snakes from the Well of Souls scene after discovering that, being cold blooded, snakes actually like to be close to fire. "You do like fire. You love fire. In the script, you're supposed to hate fire. Why do you like fire?! You're ruining my movie!"

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