Funny / The Prince of Tennis

---

• In episode 10, Momoshiro is on his way on bike to the tennis courts that Ryoma and the other first years are playing at. Cue getting slammed into by Nanjiro, who's on his way to the exact same place to deliver Ryoma's lunch, also on bike. Shiba makes an appearance as well, also on bike, and they all make it their mission to not let any of the others pass. None of them make it to their destination.
• Kirihara accidentally ends up at Seigaku after falling asleep on the bus (which is hilarious in itself because Rikkai is nowhere near Seigaku) and, in an attempt to look cool, returns a tennis ball back to Arai without looking. The ensuing chaos earns everyone laps.
• In episode 72, Ryoma runs into Kaido training by the riverbank. They move to walk past each other...and end up repeatedly going in the same directions. This somehow leads them to enter into a competition with each other.
• Whenever Kawamura's split personality shows. In episode 20 Momo deliberately activates it in this situation:
  Ishida: "Excuse me, how is your right arm?"
  Kawamura: "Ah, it's fine. It wasn't your fault, so don't worry about it."
  Momoshiro: "Here Taka-san." *hands him his racket*
  Kawamura: *in BURNING mode* "HEY YOU! YOU HIT A PRETTY ROUGH BALL AT ME, BRAT!"
  • From the same episode, Ryoma's reaction to the surprise party is to promptly close the door on his teammates.
• In Chapter 194, the day after playing bloodshot Kirihara, Ryoma admits to himself that he was a pretty scary opponent. Unfortunately for him, all his teammates, the freshman trio, and even Coach Ryuzaki have red eyes for various reasons. It freaks Ryoma out so much that it makes him faint. Twice.
  • Everyone else has some sort of plausible explanation (except maybe Fuji's cactus incident). Kawamura's caption: "Burning!"
• Just watch Kaidoh becoming everyone's Butt-Monkey in "Kaoru's misfortune".
  • Let's not forget Momo trying to catch the purse-snapper on rollerblades via grabbing someone's bike. that someone turns out to be Kamio. Hilarity Ensues.
  • And having Inui as the Butt-Monkey in the OAV's? Even MORE hilarious.
• Episode 71 of the anime. That's all.
  • Inui trying and failing to get Tezuka's interest and Kaidoh mistakenly thinking that Inui is asking him out are the highlights. To say nothing of Fuji deliberately ignoring Mizuki and getting him all pissed off.
• The Horror of Comedy Tennis. FULL STOP.
  • Any time Kaidoh and Momishiro have to play doubles, actually. The Comedy Tennis was just the height of their antics.
• Tezuka Zone. Dinosaurs. 'Nuff said.
• The revelation about Atobe's wig.
• The entire Yakiniku episode, but particularly Shishido's "Heroic Sacrifice" (complete with Ohtori's "SHISHIDO-SAAAAAAN!!! ;-;") and when Tezuka accidentally yanks down Inui's pants.
  • Any time Inui loses his pants, in fact.
• All of the chibi episodes, and the "[insertnameofsport] no oujisama" ones. Oishi tends to get especially funny in them (like in the bowling episode, and when he's the mom in the chibi family episodes...). Also, Tezuka and bonsais... And most of the mini-dramas in the radio program.
  • The Teni Puri filler episodes are doubly hilarious in the English dub. Half of the lines sound like they were ad libbed, and all of the voice actors even adopt a Southern accent for the Wild West segment. Not to mention the gratuitous translations the characters do for Fuji's very Japanese counter names that only exists in the dub.
    Ryoma: Hey, let's do this. What are ya, some kinda chicken?
    Fuji: No, I'm not. I am a person!
    Later, as Fuji is about to use Tsubame Gaeshi:
    Fuji: This is no chicken, but a swallow! Tsubame Gaeshi!
    Ryoma: Swallow return!? I gotta return that swallow!
• Atobe and Ryoma's maniacal laughter right before their match
• Let's not forget episode 99, "The Cursed Racket". We have Inui's ghost story, the attempted racket exorcisms, poor Kaidoh getting abused again... not to mention everyone's hilarious terrified faces throughout.
• In the anime rendition of the Yamabuki arc, Sumire calls Nanjiro by phone. As they speak, she mentions Banji... and accidentally presses Nanjirou's Berserk Button by doing so. Hilarity Ensues BIG TIME.
• Nanako finds out about Nanjiro's Porn Stash.
  Nanako: AAAAUGH! UNCLE, YOU'RE SO GROSS!
• Eiji playing doubles by himself. The referee fainted. 'Nuff said.
• Ginka's "1 Day of Horror".
• Let's not forget the first-year shenanigans either. Dan, Urayama and Horio meet up in their way to check on their sempais, and then Hilarity Ensues.
• Kaidou, his father Shibuki and his brother Hazue are having breakfast at the start of an episode. They talk in the same tone, act alike, look like clones of each other... Made even funnier by how Kaidou's mother Hazuki angelically looks over them.
• At some point Sakuno is talking to Tomoka over the phone, and Tomoka tells Sakuno she can't go with her watch the matches this time because she has to watch over her little siblings. Cue to poor Tomoka lying on the floor, with one baby pulling her pigtails and the other chewing on something.
• In the New Prince of Tennis, Ryoma, Kenya and Tanishi went to the bar lounge and steal some sake by crossing through the lasers. Even funnier that Kirihara was the one dictating them what to do.
• Sanada is up 3 - 0 on Tezuka, and Yukimura declares that he's the only person who could defeat Sanada right now.
  Kirihara: Are you bragging?
  Yukimura: [deadpan] It's self-confidence.
• In Golden Age 270, Kirihara happens upon Atobe and Tezuka exchanging a CD. His first thought? That Tezuka and Atobe are spies and Tezuka had defected to the German team in order to help Japan win.
• In the Genius 10 OVA, when the middle schoolers have their shuffle matches with the high schoolers, the loud speaker announces the doubles 2 match. There's a series of shots showing several established or storied doubles pairs— Tachibana and Chitose, Shishido and Otori, Yanagi and Inui, even the Golden Pair... Cut to Atobe, a diva of a singles player, declaring himself the next player and signaling for Niou, someone he's barely interacted with before this point, to follow.
• In The Ultimate Tennis Match at an English Castle! movie, Atobe sounds like he's about to sneeze, but doesn't. Then he drops this gem:
  Atobe: Fools. I know it's one of you. You must've thought you'd see a cute sneeze from me, but too bad.
  Kirihara: What're you talking about, Atobe?
  • In the same movie, Fuji goes back to rescue Kite from a 2-on-1 tennis match and arrives on a horse.
• During the world cup, Kin-chan goes to watch one of Echizen's matches, and afterward delivers some messages to him... from Atobe, Sanada, and Yukimura, all taunting him about what a little kid he is and how they're going to beat him. It's funny enough that none of Ryoma's own teammates thought to send him messages, only the upper classmen he's beaten, but Kin-chan clearly wasn't listening and jumbled them all up, and Ryoma is entirely nonplussed.
• When Tezuka asks Ryoma who it is he wants to beat, Ryoma deadpans "You, Captain."

---