Funny / The Last of Us (2023)

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

---

When You're Lost in the Darkness

• Before the discussion becomes more serious, the TV show host in the prologue section jokes that Dr. Neuman likes to say "No" a lot. Dr. Neuman then replies with a "Yes", prompting laughs from the audience in the studio.
  • Another highlight is when Dr. Neuman is describing the mind altering effects of fungus and asks "Where do you think we get LSD from?" The host replies in full deadpan "Where do you get it from?"
• Early in the first episode, as the Millers prepare for their day in the morning:
  Joel: Jakarta. Where is that, Middle East?
  Tommy: Doesn't ring a bell. Definitely a country. Or maybe a part of Asia?
  Sarah: Jakarta isn't a country. Being a part of Asia isn't mutually exclusive with being a country, and in fact, it's the capital of Indonesia.
  Tommy: Shit. Hope for us yet.
• When Mr. Adler cheerfully offers Joel and Sarah some biscuits, Joel takes one look at him pushing biscuit into the mouth of Nana Adler and declines: "I'm on Atkins!"
• Joel wonders where Sarah got the money to pay for the watch repairs. Just as in the game...
  Sarah: Drugs. I sell hardcore drugs.
  Joel: Better than what I do.
• Tess has been captured, roughed up, and brought into Robert's lair. This is normally the part where the captive begs for their life. Instead Robert is begging for his life, because he is terrified of Joel, and absolutely did not intend his men to beat up his partner/girlfriend. Tess, meanwhile, just tiredly tells him yes, everything is forgiven, she just wants to go home and get drunk.
• An exasperated Ellie grows tired of the Fireflies constantly testing her cognitive functions:
  Firefly: Count slowly from one to ten.
  Ellie: OneTwoThreeFour-
  Firefly: Slowly. And clearly.
  Ellie: One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Fuck. You. [flips the bird]
• Joel questions the radio operator if he could have missed a message while he was sleeping.
  Radio Operator: If I'm not at the radio, Gabriela is or my son. The smart one, not the other one, God bless him.
  • Joel's little nod of understanding makes it. You can tell he's thinking "yeah, he's an idiot, but he's a good kid."
• Joel's establishing character moment of what he thinks of the Fireflies:
  Firefly: Hey, friend. Don't worry, I don't want anything. But if you're feeling lost...
  Joel: You tell me to look for the light and I'll break your jaw.
• The whole thing with Robert is that he promised Joel and Tess a car battery, but sold it to someone else. Then they find him dead in the Firefly base, with the car battery. And it's broken and covered in a thick layer of dust besides.
  Tess: I can't believe he tried to sell it twice.
• One of the surviving Fireflies offers to take Ellie to the State House instead of Joel and Tess, but Marlene rather vehemently objects.
  Marlene: [angrily] Kim, you don't have a fucking ear on your fucking head! Could you please?
  • Made even funnier by the camera panning over to Kim's right side, showing she really doesn't have a fucking ear on her fucking head, as she just lost it moments earlier in the shootout with Robert and his goons.
  • Tess agrees to take Ellie to the statehouse but says if they aren't given what they're promised, they'll kill Ellie. Marlene instantly agrees.
    Ellie: Really?! That fast?
• While the situation turns violent in the end, the scene where Joel, Tess, and Ellie wind up stumbling upon a soldier while he's peeing starts the scene in a funny direction. The little dance he does while trying to zip himself back up is worth a chuckle.

Infected

• When Joel asks Tess to watch for signs of infection in Ellie, the girl immediately starts imitating an infected before Tess tells her to knock it off.
• Joel, Ellie, and Tess sit down for a snack. While Joel and Tess chew on some dried jerky, the camera then pans over to show Ellie chowing down on a fresh chicken sandwich. It's the one Marlene promised she packed her earlier.
  • Tess is clearly jealous of Ellie's sandwich. When she asks about the chicken, Ellie smugly informs her that it was brought in by other smugglers and not them.
  • When Tess approaches Ellie immediately afterwards, Joel (and the audience) incorrectly assumes she's trying to steal the sandwich and starts to protest.
• Ellie asks for a gun. Joel and Tess shoot down her request immediately.
  Ellie: Whoa. Can I have a gun?
  [simultaneously] Joel: Absolutely not. / Tess: No.
  Ellie: ...fine. I'll just throw a fuckin' sandwich at them, then...
• Joel and Tess debate whether to take Ellie the long or short way to the capitol building.
  Tess: It's the long way or the we're-fucking-dead way.
  Ellie: I vote for the long way based on the limited information I have.
• One of the first shots of the hotel lobby shows a frog "playing" the piano by hopping on top of the keys.
• At the hotel, Ellie wades over to the front desk and pretends to check in.
  Ellie: [while ringing the bell] Ding Ding!
  Ellie: [normal voice] Yes sir, I would like your finest suite please.
  Ellie: [deepened voice] Yes ma'am. Would you like me to take your luggage?
  Ellie: [in a fake Southern accent] Yes ma'am. Right away ma'am. [begins to push luggage cart]
  Joel: You're a weird kid.
  Ellie: [while pushing luggage cart] You're a weird kid.
  • Unfortunately, the moment is ruined when she moves the cart and the skeletal remains of the bellhop fall out from behind it.
• The group walks up a long flight of stairs in the hotel. Tess is not amused at all and complains about it.
  Tess: Fuck. Holy shit.
  Ellie: Come on, it wasn't that bad.
  Tess: You try climbing up ten fucking floors of stairs with our knees. See how you feel.
• Tess separates from Joel and Ellie to crawl through and open the way. When they hear noise on the other side of the door, Joel jumps up. Tess (who, of course, cannot see him) yells "put the gun down, Joel."
• Before entering the museum, Tess asks Ellie if Marlene packed a flashlight for her or just sandwiches.
  Ellie: [seeing Tess using a gun and a flashlight] You know, I have a hand free.
  Joel: Congratulations.
• Ellie discovers that she was bitten by the clickers... on the exact same spot as her old bite.
  Ellie: Fuck, seriously? Well, if it had to be one of us...
• After escaping the museum, they have to cross a flimsy wooden plank between two buildings. Tess is about to talk Ellie through the process when the girl just casually strolls across.
  Ellie: That was scary. This is wood.

Long Long Time

• When Ellie asks what caused the pandemic, she eagerly says she bet it was a monkey biting someone. Joel incredulously asks if she wasn't taught that in school, and she reminds him that it was a FEDRA school and they were hardly going to teach the students about how "their shitty government failed to prevent a pandemic."
  • Considering the word "pandemic" only became relevant to everyday use when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the Earth, this is an obvious jab at the former President of the United States.
  • After Joel gives a sobering description of the first days of the outbreak and how everything was gone in a few days, Ellie concludes that it "makes more sense than monkeys."
• After the US military convoy leaves the town with the rest of the "refugees", Bill comes out of hiding and checks around the immediate area for threats. When it's clear that there's nobody else around, he proceeds to have the time of his life ransacking the entire town for supplies and setting up shop, all set to "I'm Coming Home to Stay" by Fleetwood Mac.
  • At one point, Bill is raiding the nearby Home Depot hardware store when the lights suddenly go out. He quips "that was fast" before the scene jumps to him breaking into the town's power plant and immediately turns the lights back on.
  • Ironically, the Home Depot scenes were filmed at a Lowes (their main competitor) location.
• Bill enjoys some impromptu mealtime entertainment, when he gets to watch an Infected get shot in the head by one of his booby traps, muttering that "it doesn't get old".
• Bill tries to intimidate Frank into leaving after he asks for some food, right after being lucky enough to get out of the trap hole.
  Bill: Here's the thing, Frank. If I feed you, then every bum you talk to about it is gonna show up here lookin' for a free lunch, and this is not an Arby's.
  Frank: (As he is at gunpoint) Well, Arby's didn't have free lunch. It was a restaurant.
  • The Arby's Twitter account got in on the joke as well.
• Frank is admiring Bill's piano.
  Frank: Is it antique?
  Bill: 1948.
  Frank: Wow! Do you know how much these are worth?
  Bill: Currently, nothing.
• Bill tries to talk Frank out of getting supplies to keep the lawns in their area looking good.
  Frank: Our home isn't just our house. It's everything around us!
  Bill: Give me a fucking break!
  Frank: Oh, I'm sorry I forgot. I live in this world, you live in a psycho bunker where 9/11 was an inside job and the government are all Nazis.
  Bill: THE GOVERNMENT ARE ALL NAZIS!
  Frank: Well, yeah, now! But not then!
• Frank's reaction to Bill trying to shoot down his request for paint and gasoline to beautify their neighborhood.
  Frank: Bill, if you say resource management, so help me, I will run through one of your tripwires.
• Bill's reaction to Frank explaining his intention to fix up the boutique in their town.
  Bill: The boutique? Are-are we hosting formal garden parties now?
• This exchange between Bill and Frank.
  Frank: We're gonna make friends, and we will invite them to visit.
  Bill: We don't have friends, Frank. We will never have friends because there are no friends to be had.
  Frank: (turns and walks away) Well, I've actually been talking to a nice woman on the radio.
  (Beat)
  Bill: YOU WHAT?!
• The ever-paranoid Bill brandishes a pistol to lunch with Joel and Tess. Frank has to gently scold him before he puts it down.
  • During all this, Frank jokes with Joel and Tess that he's babysitting a paranoid schizophrenic. Bill retorts that he's not "schizophrenic". All while still casually holding his pistol on them.
  • Frank and Tess come up with their radio code like a couple of kids at a sleepover instead of a dead-serious survivalist situation.
• When Frank tells Bill he traded one of his guns for the strawberry seeds, Bill immediately becomes concerned about which gun was traded. Frank claims it was one of the "little ones."
• While Frank says that he is furious at Bill for joining him in suicide-by-pills, he admits that "objectively", it is extremely romantic, causing them both to laugh.
• Before he retires to the bedroom with Frank one last time, Bill leaves a letter with his last words and instructions, along with his truck's key, on a table. On the envelope, he writes "To whoever...but probably Joel".
• Ellie reads out part of Bill's final letter to Joel:
  Ellie: "I'm guessing you found this Joel, because anyone else would've been electrocuted or blown up by one of my traps. Hehehehehehehehe."
• Ellie again tries to get Joel to let her have a gun while they're searching Bill's bunker. He tells her no and she incredulously replies "but there's a wall of them!" She also makes it known that since there's hot running water, Joel could definitely use a shower while making a disgusted face at him; Joel's bewildered face speaks it all.
  • When she finally manages to get her hands on a gun, she just barely manages to shove it in her pack before acting normal as Joel arrives.
• Ellie (who has never been in a car before) finds incredible joy in such mundane things as sun visors and the wing mirror. When Joel shows her what a ''seatbelt'' is, she thinks it's incredibly cool.

Please Hold to My Hand

• Ellie gains her proficiency for puns this episode when it's revealed she has acquired a joke book full of them.
• The classic scene from the game where Ellie trolls Joel with a male nude magazine that she finds in the backseat of Bill's truck.
  Ellie: Why are these pages all stuck together?
  Joel: (stammering) Th-those...
  Ellie: I'm just fuckin' with ya. (throws magazine out the window) Buh-bye, dude!
• While trying to get some sleep out in the woods, Ellie remarks that the sleeping bag she took from Bill and Frank's house "actually smells nice." Joel responds that that one obviously must have belonged to Frank.
• Joel and Ellie disagree on the merits of coffee, with Ellie opining that "it smells like burnt shit." In response, Joel slurps another mouthful obnoxiously loudly purely to annoy her.
• Joel tells Ellie to get some sleep. Ellie says she's not even tired. Gilligan Cut to Ellie napping.
• When the duo come across a blocked-off part of the interstate next to Kansas City, Joel gets the idea to head through the city itself and get back onto the interstate that way. Cue Joel promptly getting lost with Ellie holding the map, and the two bickering with each other sounding for all the world like a father and daughter getting lost on a regular road trip.
• When Ellie has to open a door for Joel from the other side, she playfully asks where he would be without her. Joel, without even missing a beat, snarks that by now he would be in Wyoming.
• Just like Tess in the second episode, Joel also has trouble climbing up a large flight of stairs. When Ellie asks how far they have to climb, Joel replies "As far as I can make it."
• Joel collapses after thirty-three flights. Ellie jokingly tells him get up, prompting Joel to snark back.
  Ellie: Get up, you lazy ass.
  Joel: (grudgingly gets up then gives Ellie an annoyed look) Fifty-six years old, you little shit.
• Ellie finally gets Joel to laugh with a particularly bad joke about diarrhea, and the two tease each other like an actual family.
  Ellie: Did you know diarrhea is hereditary?
  Joel: ...What?
  Ellie: Yeah. It runs in your jeans.
  Joel: (Beat, then starts laughing.) Jesus. That is so goddamn stupid.
  Ellie: You laughed, motherfucker!
  Joel: I didn't laugh.
  Ellie: Yes, you did.
  Joel: Jesus, I'm losin' it.
  Ellie: You're losin' it big time.
  (Both start laughing.)

Endure and Survive

• Ellie claims Joel has an "asshole voice."
  • This is followed up by this gem of an exchange:
  Ellie: Joel, tell him he’s okay!
  Joel: (In an intimidating voice) Everything is great.
  Ellie: (Annoyed) Dude!
• Joel is (understandably) somewhat skeptical about Henry's escape plan. Turns out, Henry's not exactly sold on it himself.
  Joel: That's your master plan?!
  Henry: No, it's my dicey-as-fuck plan... but it's the only shot we got.
• Later on when the group get to the tunnels, they're clear, and Henry is pleased with himself:
  Henry: See? It's empty. The plan is good.
  Joel: Shh! "The plan is good"? We've been down here two seconds. We don't know anything.
• Ellie invites Henry and Sam to come along with her and Joel to Wyoming. Joel refuses, but Ellie claims he'll give in eventually while doing a bad impression of Joel.
  Ellie: Well, we're going to Wyoming.
  Joel: (turns and glares at Ellie)
  Ellie: What? It's a huge state. It can fit two more people.
  Henry: Yeah, maybe we just call this one a success and say our fond farewells.
  Ellie: No, he'll change his mind. Trust me. This is how it goes. He's like, (does bad impression of Joel) "No, Ellie. Never, ever, ever happening." And then I'm like, (in sassy tone) "I'm gonna ask you a million more times."

Kin

• An old man, Marlon, comes home to find that Joel and Ellie are holding him and his wife Florence at gunpoint. Far from being afraid, Florence has made the invaders soup.
  Marlon: [sneers at Joel, then turns to Florence] Why didn't ya shoot 'im?
  Florence: [completely calm] The gun's all the way over there. [Marlon rolls his eyes] He didn't hurt me, by the way.
  Marlon: Yeah, I got eyes. [looks down and sees two bowls on the table] You made him soup?!
  Florence: [slightly defensively] Yeah, I did. It's cold out!
• Marlon calls Ellie a "little psycho" after she insults their age - really, the fact that both he and Florence remain completely unbothered by the whole interaction is hilarious.
• When Marlon asks Joel why they need directions if they already have a map, Ellie snaps that they must have "missed all the street signs in the enormous fucking forest". Marlon's reply is to look over at Florence and melodramatically and sarcastically say "Ho-ly!" while Florence chuckles.
• Joel congratulates the pair on having found a safe place to hole up once the outbreak started. Marlon snarks that they came here before Joel was born, to get away from people. Right after, Florence chimes in saying that she didn't want to.
• The elderly couple have never heard of the Fireflies:
  Ellie: What about the Fireflies?
  Florence: We get those in the summer.
  Ellie: Not the bugs, the people.
  Florence: There are firefly people? [she and Marlon and Florence chuckle]
• When asked by Ellie what Joel will do if the cure works and he can do whatever he wants, he says he'd probably buy a farm and ranch sheep.
  Ellie: So. You and a buncha sheep. Romantic.
• Like in the game, in apropos of nothing, Ellie tries to learn how to whistle. She does not do well.
  Joel: You don't know how to whistle?
  Ellie: Does it sound like I know how to whistle?
• Joel and Ellie come across a hydroelectric dam and Ellie just can't help herself.
  Ellie: Dam.
  Joel: You're no Will Livingston.
  Ellie: (shrugs) Eh, who is.
• At the diner, Joel tells Ellie to mind her table manners. She immediately defies him by snapping at a local girl staring at her. ^{Note (spoilers for Part II)}For extra hilarity, the showrunners have heavily implied that the girl is Dina. Ellie's first encounter with her future girlfriend does not go very well.
  • Ellie later turns the tables by prodding Joel into congratulating Tommy and Maria on their marriage.
    Ellie: Wow, congrats! Say congrats, Joel.
    [beat]
    Joel: ...congrats.
• This exchange between Tommy and Ellie while discussing Jackson's fearsome reputation.
  Tommy: We're just tryna scare off those who might wanna try us is all.
  Ellie Well, you got a couple of 90-year-olds shitting themselves out there.
• Maria and Tommy are describing how Jackson functions as a society, we get this wonderfully awkward conversation between the two Texan brothers:
  Tommy: It's collective ownership.
  Joel: So...you're communists.
  Tommy: No...nothing like that.
  Maria: No...it is like that. This is a commune. We're communists.
  Joel just gives Tommy an "I told you so" smirk while Tommy looks away awkwardly.
• Ellie discovers DivaCups, courtesy of a gift from Maria.
  Ellie: Oh! (squishes the cup with a bemused smile) Gross.
• Combined with a heartwarming moment. After Joel tells Ellie that Tommy will be taking her the rest of the way to the Fireflies and seemingly dissolves their surrogate father-daughter relationship, when Tommy and Ellie are getting ready to leave the next morning, they find Joel in the barn getting a horse ready.
  Joel: You deserve a choice. I still think you'd be better off with Tommy—
  Ellie: (shoves her supplies into Joel's chest) Let's go.
• While Joel is teaching Ellie how to shoot with a rifle, she is unable to hit the target. Deciding to show her how it's done, he nails it in one shot and is rather smug about it. As they ride away, a closeup reveals that the target (made in the shape of a butt) has the word "asshole" written on it, and Joel has shot a hole directly in the middle.
  Ellie: You... dick.
  • Joel launches into a in-depth instruction of how to shoot that goes on so long and sounds so intense, Ellie can only quip.
    Joel: Deep breath in, slow breath out. You squeeze the trigger like you love it. Gentle. Steady. Nice and slow—
    Ellie: You gonna shoot this thing or get it pregnant?
• Joel explains to Ellie that he used to be a contractor before the outbreak begins. Ellie, who finds the idea very fascinating, begins to jokingly call Joel "The Contractor" as if it's a nickname/moniker of a badass contract killer.
  • There's a reason for that. While explaining, Joel makes sure to mention that everybody loved contractors, that Ellie of course buys hook, line and sinker. If you look closely, you can see Joel smirking to himself after saying it.
  • And then that comes back to bite him, as by the time Ellie makes the same joke at the university, he's clearly had enough.
• Joel and Ellie arrive at the university, only to discover that the Fireflies are gone. All that's left of them is their monkey test subjects. While commenting on the situation, Ellie drops this gem straight from the game:
  Ellie: Maybe in all that research, they turned into fuckin' monkeys.

Left Behind

• Ellie's sheer wonder at the escalator. As she plays around on it, she eagerly asks Riley if it is one of the four wonders of the mall, and after a moment, Riley concedes that there can be five wonders.
• While standing in front of a Victoria's Secret storefront, Riley giggles as she confesses to imagining Ellie wearing the displayed lingerie. Ellie then lingers by the storefront for a few moments longer, staring at the lingerie as if trying to imagine herself wearing it.
• As Riley and Ellie are going through the book of puns, they come across a joke that references screenshots. After a beat of bemused silence, they both admit they do not know what screenshots are.

When We Are in Need

• When first confronting David and his henchmen when they're stealing her deer, Ellie lowers her voice to try to sound more intimidating. It really doesn't work. Even funnier when they turn around and clearly see that she's a tiny teenage girl ... and she keeps doing it anyway.
• When Ellie loads up a syringe with antibiotics, she realizes she doesn't actually know how to administer antibiotics. She ends up jabbing Joel in the wound, having apparently decided it's best to get it closest. Later, she does it again with the second dose.
• Black Comedy: The community prepares "venison," implying that David and James already came back with the deer. Just as they're sitting down to eat, David and James come back with the deer. Cue awkward silence.

Look for the Light

• Joel boosts Ellie up to grab a ladder, which she immediately drops on him when she sees something exciting. Joel is not amused.
• Ellie reads out an apocalypse pun from the pun book, and Joel actually enjoys it.

  Ellie: Too soon?

  Joel: No, it's topical.