Funny / The Hardy Boys

• In the earliest books, Chet Morton was often portrayed as an irrepressible prankster, and often the books would have a chapter concerning one of his pranks as filler material or to help the plot (IE: in "Tower Treasure", to prevent the bumbling police detective Oscar Smuff from ruining Fenton Hardy's interrogation of a dying criminal, Chet comes up with an idea to make a fake "bomb" by putting an alarm clock in a box and hiding it under a fruit stand, and has another boy find it under there. The proprietor alerts Chief Collig and Detective Smuff, causing a major fuss and thus making the policemen miss their train). Sometimes it could come off as being a bit douchey.
• Chet's reputation as a prankster is referenced in The House on the Point: A Tribute to Franklin W. Dixon and the Hardy Boys, a standalone remake of the second book.
  • Once, Chet called the fire department, telling them to send their trucks out to a burning house, then pretended to hang up in panic without giving them the address. One firefighter recognized Chet's voice, got a fizz-water dispenser, tracked Chet down, and "put out the fire" by soaking him.
  • At the end of the book, Chet's help on this case has earned him the respect of the police and everyone gapes in shock when Chet reveals that Con Riley told Chet that the next time he made a call to the station they'd believe him. Chet then ponders about whether to earn that trust or take advantage of it for a big prank, earning himself several kicks under the table.
• After being set up with fake credit cards planted in their van and interrogated by Chief Collig, he dismisses them easily, but in a gruff manner. And then Joe asks:
  Are we still friends?
• The always-stoic Gray Man once treated the boys to a meal, and he complains that they almost ran his paycheck dry with the bill.
• Bowling as Aunt Gertrude's hobby is funny in of itself already, but the fact that she does it to relieve stress makes it even more hilarious.
• In the rewrite of The Secret Warning, a young watchdog who the boys try to have follow the scent of a housebreaker sniffs on the ground, and then goes charging back into the house … to hungrily sniff their refrigerator. Even more hilariously, the dog is a Great Dane and the book was written three years before a far better-known food-obsessed Great Dane began gracing the airways.
• At the end of "Acting Up", a Bollywood star the boys have befriended decides to have a little fun and directs a few of his fans to ask Frank for an autograph, introducing the latter as a foreign star. Joe can't keep a straight face and starts to kid Frank about it afterwards, but Frank gets the last laugh when he tells Joe he signed the autographs in Joe's name.
• During an undercover mission infiltrating a foreign military base, Frank says what he thinks is "Here are our passes" to a guard in the latter's native tongue, but the guard becomes confused and soon raises an alarm, and the boys' cover is blown. At the end of the story, Joe consults their translator, and tells his brother what he really said: "Here are our shoes."
• In the original series' "Secret of the Lost Tunnel", the heroes have to solve a hundred-year-old puzzle to help them find a gold cache that has gone missing during the American Civil War. Chet thinks he's solved the puzzle, and offers this analysis:
  Chet: The CSA stands for 'Can't Stand the Army.' The guns stacked up means they're going to stop fighting and sit down under that tree and eat breakfast. That big round thing's an egg.
  Joe: What about the numbers?
  Chet: That's just to confuse us!
• In "Mystery of the Haunted Fort" after the descendants of two revolutionary war generals have spent the book arguing about which one of their ancestors was the last to hold the fort it turns out neither was and in fact the Iroquois Indians had it last.
• "Mystery of the Chinese Junk" had the boys and their friends getting their fortune cookies. Everyone has a laugh at each fortune, but ESPECIALLY at what Chet's reads:
  "BEWARE! YOU EAT TOO MUCH!"
• The ending of "The Borgia Dagger" where two guest characters who hated each other end up as arguing soap opera co-stars.
• In "The Prime Time Crime", two rival Amateur Sleuths plant a video camera in the office of a suspect at a TV station, but accidentally hook it up to the live TV, broadcasting his sloppy eating habits for all to see. The guy then sees himself on TV, correctly guesses who is responsible, and snarls he's going to murder those kids.
• One book starts with the Hardy Boys getting pulled into a protest, getting handed signs without even knowing what they're protesting (which turns out to be the man who wants to hire them). Chet proceeds to find a blank sign and march right along after he's written "FRANK HARDY FOR MAYOR".
• The Demon's Den has a scene where Chet and Biff have to enter a log-rolling contest to avoid blowing the kids' cover during a case. They both go flying off the log so fast that the emcee makes them try again so that the round will have an official winner if one of them manages to last a few seconds longer than the other this time.
• Most of what comes out of Playback the parrot's mouth in the Undercover Brothers series, but especially how often he insults the boys (who take him after the arrest his previous owner, no less) by calling them things like "wimps" and "losers".
• In the "Super Mysteries" book "Bonfire Masquerade", the brothers are trying to go undercover as thieves and overhear a teenaged girl talking about breaking into a car, and go over to try to pose as crooks wanting to fence some stolen merchandise. It turns out the girl was talking about a video game she was playing and she shouts out that these two guys just approached her to sell stolen merchandise. Cue to the brothers having to flee from a bunch of public spirited locals trying to make a citizen's arrest.
• In the Digest book "Trouble in Warp Space" Chet gets a bit part on a TV show; during the fight scene, he and Geoff, one of the actors, get into a real fight, partially because Chet accidentally hit Geoff too hard and partially because the latter's jealous of the interest his co-star and crush Jerri is showing in Chet. Jerri in the meantime is lying on the floor, trying to stay perfectly still and act unconscious as they come very close to stepping on her, muttering that if they do so then she's taking the rest of the day off.
• In the Digest book "The Castle Conundrum" there's this bit of Lampshade Hanging about the Comic-Book Time.
  Frank: Just about all the kids we know plan to go to college. So do we. But first, we have to get through High School. Right now, it seems like it will never end.
• Frank's "Eureka!" Moment at the End of "The Castle Conundrum", solving the treasure hunt subplot after hearing the literal translation of the family motto (the family spent all those years thinking that by wealth, he meant familial comfort and security).
  Frank felt a bubble to excitement growing in his mind. "Are you saying that your ancestor, the guy who hid the treasure, made a point of telling his family they would find wealth around the fireplace? And none of them bothered to search there?" Frank looked around the circle of stunned faces. "Could a couple of you go get a long ladder?" he asked.
• "Wreck and Roll": When the Brothers describe their conclusions that the sabotage of the band was only aimed at the guitarists, Ray the keyboard player jokingly suggests that maybe he and Jackie the drummer are the culprits and trying to take over the band for themselves, complete with an Evil Laugh.
  Jackie: The drummer and the keyboard player trying to oust the lead singers and guitarists? That makes sense.
• In the Casefiles book "Flight into Danger" they end up get challenged to a race with a small-town kid while in a military vehicle that blasts off into the sky. The last scene of the book has them reading a news story about a kid claiming to have gotten into a drag race with a UFO and lived to tell the tale.
• In the Digest book "The Money Hunt" two of the suspects (a man named Len Randle and his assistant) turn out to be tabloid Paparazzi wanting to do a sensationalist story about the hunting lodge, with their focus evolving several times. At the end of the book, Joe quips that he can think of a bigger, more shocking, headline than anything they've thought of yet: "Len Randle tells the truth."
• In the undercover Brothers book "Hazed", during one hazing ritual, Joe is asked to recite the words to Liam's favorite song, Bohemian Rhapsody and bungles it horribly.
  • Later on, Joe expressing doubt that anyone whose favorite song is Bohemian Rhapsody (and who only made him do one push up for bungling the recital) can be that bad.
• While it's also a bit sad, Kit's elimination from the reality show in Deprivation House has Veronica replay a tape of her ranting about how she can't live without coffee.
• In Double Down, one suspect is a hotel concierge who has to put up with constant absurd demands from the Upper-Class Twit guests and is overheard saying that he'll have his revenge. It turns out his revenge is doing a comedy club sketch making fun of all of the ridiculous things the guests ask him to do.
• In one of the early 'Casefiles books; at one point Joe and Frank are in a department store, when they stop in front of a ladies' clothing display and Frank pulls out his small notebook to go over some details. Joe asks "Hang on, can we move first? It looks like you're trying to get that dummies' phone number."
• Cast of Criminals has its funny moments.
  • Everyone's exasperation at the Prima Donna Director is decently funny. One highlight is Frank and Joe's reaction to realizing he expects them to work on the case without missing any rehearsals for the play.
  • Before the beginning of the novel, Chet got the role of the killer in the play by saying that living with a younger sister gave him the ideal mindset for the part.
  • The brothers have a run-in with a classmate who's so disliked that his father pulled strings to get him a job at a rival business so that his son's obnoxiousness will hurt his competitor's business instead of his own.
  Jeffrey's goal in life was to become the most annoying, unpopular being at Bayport High. As far as Frank and Joe were concerned, Jeffrey had achieved his goal years ago.
• In The Sky Blue Frame, the brothers and Chet are staging a mystery weekend (which gets hijacked for a genuine crime spree) with Chet as the culprit. Early in the story, Joe gets in a good zinger at an obnoxious guest.
  Brad: I don't think detectives are anything special. Any idiot can solve a crime.
  Joe: And you want to prove that you're an idiot?
  • The last scene of The Sky Blue Frame has a guest who missed The Summation arrive with the police, telling them to arrest Chet. The clues Frank and Joe leave behind for the fake mystery, along with Chet's Big Eater tendencies causing him to drop a chocolate box at the fake crime scene, make that guest assume that Chet is responsible for everything going on.
• In Shadows at Predator Reef, the brothers rescue a kidnapped sea turtle and bring it back to the aquarium just in time to interrupt the local police chief's press conference about how he has been unable to solve the case. Even more hilariously, the chief doesn't notice them for several seconds and keeps talking about his lack of success while growing puzzled by how animated the crowd is getting.

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