Funny / The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Comics

General

• Every time you suddenly get the subtle nods to famous pop culture icons - like suddenly realizing that "The New Traveler's Almanac" has a cryptic nod towards The Big Lebowski, or recognizing that Alan Moore manages to quote Barney Fife in The Black Dossier.

Volume 1

• While investigating the pregnancies among the students of the girls' academy, Allan Quatermain, Nemo, and Mina prepare to spend the night. As Mina and Allan are posing as a married couple, while Nemo is their servant, they're offered a sumptuous suite for the couple, and a single, adjecent room, containing only a spare bed, for Nemo. Nemo states that Mina, of course, will take the single room while he and Allan can share the larger one. Smash Cut to Nemo and Allan being in the single room, with Allan remarking "Women."
  • It's Black Comedy for certain, but there's something darkly humorous about the original Pollyanna being just as upbeat and cheerful after being raped by an invisible man.
• While climbing down some scaffolding, Quatermain gets a good look under Mina's dress. Of course, since this is Victorian England, the most skin he sees are her ankles. It doesn't stop him from clearly being flustered.
  Quatermain: Unbelievable...
• While talking with Dr. Jekyll, a frustrated Mina rants about Allan's attitude towards her, and assumes it's because he resents being ordered around by a woman. Jekyll points out that to him, it seems to be more because Allan is attracted to her. Mina's expression really has to be seen to be believed.
• Griffin theorizes that Sherlock Holmes disappeared because his fat brother Mycroft ate him.

Volume 2

• Hyde singing while he approaches the Tripod. Jess Nevins, who catalogues all the references, says that he wants the original piece of artwork for that six-panel sequence.
  • To make it even funnier, the song he sings ("You Should See Me Dance the Polka") comes from the 1940 adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde with Spencer Tracy.
• Mina and Quatermain having sex in the forest. Mina seems to be getting into it...but then it turns out she's actually screaming because killer human-animal hybrids are lurching towards them. One who is Rupert Bear.
• Mixed with Nightmare Fuel, the fact that nearly all the cutesy, child-friendly anthropomorphic animal characters from the early 20th Century are in fact animal hybrids created by Dr. Moreau.
• In the NTA, one section notes that a group of Deep Ones were taught how to sing and dance by the captain from H.M.S. Pinafore. The lyrics shared are quite clearly modeled after "When I Was A Lad" and imagining an abominable fishman singing it is quite humorous. Even funnier as the Almanack states that the Deep Ones don't really have vocal chords like humans, so it's more like a choir of frogs croaking out the lyrics.

Black Dossier

• At the beginning of The Black Dossier, Mina beats the tar out of "Jimmy" after spending about ten-odd pages posing as a shallow bimbo named "Oodles O'Quim". Later, when Allan shows up to drive her away, he berates her for choosing such a stupid-sounding alias, but Mina assures him that Jimmy was convinced. Allan just shrugs it off, figuring that he must meet women with stupid names like that all the time.^note Such as Pussy Galore, Honeychile Rider, Gala Brand... It's even funnier if you know that "Oodles O'Quim" is a subtle pun on "Pussy Galore"; "quim" is a rather obscure British slang term for "vagina".
• The entirety of 'What Ho, Gods of the Abyss', a short story in Black Dossier. P. G. Wodehouse meets H. P. Lovecraft. Funny on its own. For Wodehouse fans? Hilarious.
  • Fans of Lovecraft will get a kick out of Bertie casually name dropping "Cool Lulu", which he believes to be an old Native American enjoying a long retirement at "Riley."
• Also, the Ingsoc-approved Tijuana Bible in the same book. Technically, it should be horrifyingly disgusting, but somehow, the sheer ridiculousness of the thing makes it funny as hell.
  • To add further tickle-value, it's basically a perfect mini-adaptation of Nineteen Eighty Four.
  • The Ingsoc disclaimer at the end: ENJOYMENT IS MANDATORY!
• In general, Jimmy turns out to be so hilariously incompetent at his job that it's a surprise to how his 'reputation' as a suave superspy even manages to stand up in this universe, or how Drummond and Emma resisted from leaving him in exasperation.
  • Jimmy attempts to use a classic Bond gadget - a gun disguised as a cigarette - but it explodes on firing and blows out most of his front teeth. Quatermain points out it'll probably be a decade before they worked out the bugs in the device, roughly the time frame when Bond gadgets started becoming commonplace in the movies.
• The Phantom of the Opera's Where's Waldo? style cameo.
• One of the documents included in the Black Dossier is a cigarette cartoon that sums up Whatever Happened To Baby Jane, with the added reveal that Jane and Blanche Hudson are cousins of Rock Hudson, and implies he's been driven to homosexuality because of the frightening and bizarre behavior of his older female relatives.
• The professor and his two young charges exploring the alien menagerie of a British spaceport, which plays the grotesqueness for laughs, and ends with the boy getting his brain eaten by a Tryffid.

Century Trilogy

• The fate of Campion Bond in 1910? Being the butler towards Mycroft Holmes and serving the League their tea. The look on his face as he leaves is a great sight to see.
• After getting into a huge fight with Mina in Century 1910, Alan berates him for his stupid insults. Orlando counters and says that wasn't the stupidest thing he's ever said, it was this;

  Orlando: Oh, I don't know. There was ''Oh look! What a wonderful horse!'' That was at Troy

  • He then gets another towards the end when he unsheathes Excalibur.
    Orlando: Oh, hush. This is the blade of England's greatest defender.
    Mina Murray: Only until you stole it from him!
    • Really, Orlandos interaction with his two lovers, and their exasperation at his Been There, Shaped History references, it's clear they don't belive half of it.
• Raffles, in a moment of rare vulnerability, wonders if there's anything to these rumors of impending World War, and confides in Allan that he'd feel honor bound to serve in that case, to atone for the bad things he's done. Supplemental material confirms that he dies in WWI. Sad? There's a hidden joke there: in the books Raffles dies after a similar rush of patriotic sentiment leads him to enlist in the Boer Wars; seeing as that turned out to be a ploy in this universe, it is very likely Raffles just tricked everyone with the same con twice.
• Orlando cock-blocking Adam Adamant in Century 1969 by bragging about his Arthurian days.
• There's something weirdly humorous about the idea that Lord Voldemort would have been a Stones fan back in the 60s. The thing is, given the timeline and the Stones' alleged use of occult symbolism in their lyrics, it kind of works. It also brings to mind the image of him attending one of their concerts.
• In the midst of a serious news break, the anchor goes to an interview with Malcolm Tucker. The rant that follows is spot-on.
  "So, Mr. Tucker, are we returning to an era of spin?"
  "That depends, Jon. Are you deliberately stamping on my cock? Because if you ARE, I'll take that repulsive unicorn-vomit tie, ram it down your throat, and when it emerges from the other end in a kind of reverse fisting, I'll use it to floss your alimentary canal. Do I make myself perfectly fucking clear?"
  "...Mr. Tucker, thank you for coming."
• Harry Potter shooting lightning from his crotch. Mature? By no means. Funny? Yes.
  • The entire sequence of seeking out the Antichrist is Comedic Sociopathy and the joke is that the Antichrist is pathetic-a blubbering, pill popping jerk who locks himself away in a room for days but then stays there for years, while getting lambasted by a decomposing talking head at the same time.

The Tempest

• In issue one, we catch a glimpse of a bespectacled man cryogenically frozen. Yes, Moore just confirmed that MI5 is in possession of Austin Fucking Powers.
• Issue 3 shows us that Lorde exists in this universe. At first you'd be confused that out of all the real life figures to not have a fictional analogue it'd be Lorde. Then you see that her newest release is titled "All These Years I've Been Secretly Randy".
• Issue 4 features a hapless civilian mistake Electro Girl for Hannah Montana of all people. Keep in mind Electro Girl is, at this time, in her seventies.
• Issue 6: Alan Moore and Kevin O'Neill get thrown out of Captain Universe and Electrogirl's wedding a la Stan Lee and Jack Kirby at Reed Richards and Susan Storm's wedding. Also when O'Neill asks Now What? Moore tells him that he'll die and Moore'll take all the credit for creating all that they collaborated on.
  • When they're being thrown out, they have an exchange that would't be out of place in a Simpsons cameo:
  O'Neill: Quick, Alan, do some magic!
  Moore: Er. That's... really more of a conceptual thing.

Film

• When Phantom's troops attack Quatermain in the hunter lodge, Allan and another hunter complain about their choice of weapons.
  Quatermain: Automatic rifles?! Who the hell uses automatic rifles?!
  Other Hunter: Dashed unsporting! Probably Belgian!
• When the last attacker makes his escape across the plains, Quatermain tries to line up a long shot.
  Reed: He's much too far! [Quatermain lowers his rifle] Yes indeed.
  Qautermain: [Puts on a pair of glasses] Bloody hell. I hate being old. [Raises his rifle and fires quickly, nailing the fleeing trooper, while Reed can only stare slack-jawed.]
• Skinner takes advantage of his invisibility to sneak up on the League and pinch Mina's butt. Once she realizes who did it and where he's standing, she slaps his unseen face.
  Skinner: [salaciously] Ooooh...Mina.
• In a bit of dark humor, we see that Captain Nemo of all characters. Outright back up at seeing Mina reveal her vampiric side, well everyone else just looks away or looks mildly surprised in Sawyers case.
  • Quatermain roaring at Skinner "You are to be clothed at all times!" - it's funny in context.
    • "Hello my freaky darlings."
• This exchange:
  M: So, I set my wolf upon you sheep.
  Gray: [sniffs] Growl.
• Early in the film Reed questions Quatermain's sense of patriotism to try and get him motivated into joining the League. The results are less than satisfying for the young man.
  Reed: Where is your sense of patriotism?
  Quatermain: (stands up with a drink) God save the Queen!
  Patrons: (some of the other patrons of the club mutter an apathetic return to the toast)
  Quatermain: (to Reed) That's about as patriotic as it gets around here.
• At one point Quatermain tries to impart some of his Improbable Aiming Skills on Sawyer, and during a discussion of their respective combat strategies, Quatermain delivers this line:
  Yesh, I've sheen the American way of shooting: fire every bullet you have and hope to hit the target! If you can't do it with one bullet, don't do it at all!
• The fight between Dorian and Mina.
  Dorian: Ah, the bedroom, does that give you memories... or ideas?
  Mina: Ideas. [Groin Attack]
  Dorian: If that had been permanent, I'd have been very upset!
  • Both of them inflict a number of cuts and gashes against one another, Mina using her claws, and Dorian using his sword... only for all those injuries to swiftly heal, courtesy of their personal... "conditions".
  Dorian: We'll be at this all. Day.
• A bit of small minor humor between Sawyer and Mina. First him trying to make small talk to get over the fact that he watched her first act of Vampirism as well as telling her she missed a spot. Second, Sawyer despite Allan's advice not to, tries and fails to flirt with Mina despite seeing what she did. Bonus points for her teasing him, by only rejecting him for being "Sweet and Young." When he later uses Nemo's Car as part of the plan to save Venice, the impressed look on her face pretty much comically took back what she said to him. Lastly when Venice is saved, Sawyer came back with a bloody lip. She goes to check his wound, but his Genre Savvy senses kick in and he backs away from her briefly, to which she says the following.
  Mina: Don't worry, I've had my fill of throats for this evening.
• Quatermain gets two funny lines in rapid succession:
  Reid: You made good time coming here.
  Quatermain: Not as good as Phileas Fogg; around the world in eighty days!
  [later, while descending a very long flight of stairs]
  Quatermain: Where are we going, Australia?
• After Quatermain and Sawyer bag Mr. Hyde and drag him back to the Nautilus, we cut to Mina grumbling about Allan's sexism.
  Mina: [Impersonating Quatermain] "Thish huntsh much too dangeroush for a woman, even one such ash you. Leave it to me."
  • Another brief moment after shows Dorian plucking his eyebrows, and Hyde's rampage keeps shaking the entire submarine, and thus shakes his mirror, and even he looks concerned and immediately gets up to see what's going on. Becomes absolutely hilarious when you realize, in hindsight, that he's The Mole, and still looks concerned even when alone, as if he's terrified that Moriarty's master plan might just be ruined because Hyde's temper was too much to handle before he could spring his trap.

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