When your movie is marketed as a comedy adventure, you're bound to get some laughs here and there.
The movie as a whole
Actor Allusion at its funniest.
- Darryl and Diane's introduction. The Knables are going through the morning routines (Roy shaving in the bathroom, Helen doing exercises in the bedroom) which also involves watching TV. Over in Darryl's room, he activates a machine that allows him to hack into the airwaves to announce that he secretly recorded Diane making out with her boyfriend. Diane's reaction sells it.Darryl: We interrupt this broadcast to bring you a special report. Young electronics genius, Darryl Knable, has just won the Nobel Prize...Diane: (in an unimpressed tone) Oh, you dipstick...Darryl: ...for secretly videotaping his sister, Diane, french kissing her boyfriend, Chris. We're talking tongues here.(Diane's eyes widen and jaw drops in shock)
- Adding to this are the other Knables' reactions. If you pay close attention, Helen can be seen watching with an amused smirk, as though she's saying, "Darryl, you troublemaker..." Roy shakes his head with an amused grin.
- After Helen fails to convince Roy to go away with her, she begins to storm away. However, an idea sparks in her head when she spots Roy's fencing trophy. She walks over to it, picks it up, and does this:Helen: Oh, Roy...Roy: (turns to Helen): Huh?(Helen smirks as she throws the trophy at the TV, completely obliterating it)Roy: (leaps back in his chair in fear) HYAH-AH! (cries in a comically mournful tone) The TV!
- His subsequent response? He watches TV using the small TV from the bathroom, placed right on top of the broken TV.
- When Darryl and Diane first discover Hell Vision, the first thing they see on the TV is a promo for Autopsies of the Rich and Famous. Darryl is amazed. Diane? Not so much.
- After Darryl narrowly avoids being sucked into the dish, Diane comes out to the backyard and sees him. This exchange ensues:Diane: What are you doing?Darryl: Did you see that? (points at dish) That dish, it ate my BMX.Diane: (speaks in a condescending tone) Is this some kind of male puberty thing?
- During the cartoon segment, we briefly cut back to Mr. Spike's "control room", where one of the electronic notice boards says "Remember, Tuesday is Saddam Hussein Appreciation Day."
- Did you know that Star Trek phasers had a "Torture" setting?
- As seen on the page image above, Roy (played by John Ritter) ends up on what is obviously the set of Three's Company. He sees the girls, who ask "Where have you been?!", hears the theme song, screams at the camera, and immediately changes channels.
- After Roy and Helen escape Hell Vision, their reunion with their children get interrupted when they discover Rivets, their neighbor's dog in their yard, who make a bee-line towards the Knables as Roy shields his family. However, just as Rivets leaps towards them, the dish zaps him into Hell Vision. What makes this funny is Roy's reaction to the whole thing.(Rivets jumps at them, only to get beamed away by the satellite dish.)Roy: Check that. Whoever left the gate open gets double their allowance.
The cartoon segment
Yep, the animated segment directed by the legendary Chuck Jones has enough of these moments to it warrant its own section.
- When Roy and Helen discover they've become mice:Roy: Boy, this is strange!Helen: Strange? I'm an animated rodent wearing high-heel running shoes. The word "strange" is somewhat lacking.
- Immediately after, Roy proceeds to blow a raspberry...only for Helen to grab his tongue and yank his entire body from the neck down out from his mouth. Roy gives a look at the camera as Helen immediately lets go, slingshotting him into a nearby fridge, crashing on contact.
- This exchange:Helen: If you don't come down here this instant, I am leaving!Roy: Where are you going to go? Your cartoon mother's house?
- When Roy gets trapped in a donut while Robo-Cat shoots at him. While struggling to get free, Roy turns to the camera and says this as everything around him freezes in place:Roy: My doctor was right. Donuts will be the death of me!
- Roy thinks Helen looks "rather sexy" as a mouse. Helen is not impressed.Helen: Too bad you didn't like the way I looked when I was human.Roy: I always did.
- How is Robo-Cat defeated? The Genre Savvy Roy puts his knowledge of cartoons to use and writes a letter to The ACME Company, and throws it into the mailbox. What did Roy order? A Robo-Dog. Robo-Cat's reaction is what you'd expect.Robo-Cat: Identify yourself.Robo-Dog: Catnip-gram.note
- Although it's not readily apparent due to the image cutting it off, if you pay close attention to the Robo-Dog, you may notice that its license on the collar reads "You're dead."
Other
- On December 21, 2018, four days before Christmas, Morgan Creek Entertainmentnote posted this on their official Twitter. The picture used with it? One of the Knable family looking rather unhappy.@Morgan_Creek: The face you make when you realize Christmas is four days away and you still have presents to buy. #staytuned
