Funny / The Terror

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

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The series

Go For Broke

• Crozier grumbles that having dinner with Franklin and Fitzjames is the worst hardship of the Discovery Service.
  Crozier: We'll have to hear [Fitzjames's] whole saga of policing that massive guano deposit off Namibia. Or the time he got shot by the Chinese. I'm inclined to put the food in my ears.
  • Later, during the dinner when Fitzjames is indeed recounting this story, the camera pans to Crozier. He is indeed having as miserable a time as he predicted.
• Tozer tells Hickey to fill up Young's grave. Hickey flips him off as soon as he turns his back, and then, when Tozer turns around, quickly turns it into a thumbs-up.

Gore

• Goodsir's earnest monologue about Inuit culture while his exhausted shipmates are hauling the boat over the ice, clearly not engaged at all.
  Goodsir: (speaking of an Inuit man who was brought back to Aberdeen by a previous expedition) I forget his name, but it was long, and...terribly Eskimo.
• YMMV, as it immediately precedes a very serious scene, his bit of sardonic humor from Des Voeux. On the other hand, he's saying this in reply to a soccer-ball sized piece of hail.
  Des Voeux: I was just thinking that's what this camp needed. More ice.

Punished, as a Boy

• It's a tense moment of Black Comedy, but Hickey's utter tone-deaf and over-the-top description of his efforts to capture Silna: wholly oblivious to the growing ire of the listening officers and the terror of his co-conspirators. It sounds as if he's preparing to receive a medal already; it takes him so long to realise that he's actually deep in the shit with his superiors that his expression when the penny finally drops is priceless.
  • Fitzjames, who is obviously not buying Hickey's melodrama at all, gets a gem in this scene.
  Hickey: (building up the drama in describing the Tuunbaq) There is something I want to say, but...I hardly dare to speak the words....
  Fitzjames: Oh, speak the words, Mr Hickey.
• Another Black Comedy moment: when Manson asks if being flogged will hurt, Hartnell bluntly says yes, that's rather the point.
• After her capture Goodsir brings Lady Silence some soup from the ship's stock of canned goods. She tries it, and immediately spits it back into the bowl. Then she tries a piece of chocolate, which she also spits out with a disgusted scowl. Goodsir then tries to tell Silence why the expedition is in the Arctic, fumbling through an explanation of the Empire's economic goals. He lamely concedes that such a thing must seem silly to her. What really sells it is that she just stares at him with a vaguely baffled expression the entire time, as if she's trying to figure out why he's even talking to her.

First Shot a Winner, Lads

• This gem from Goodsir, of all people, when he's finally had enough of Dr. Stanley's nasty barbs.
  Dr. Stanley: (In regards to Lady Silence/Silna) And don't forget to invite us all to the wedding.
  Goodsir: Has anyone ever invited you to a wedding, Dr Stanley?
  (Goodsir leaves, and Stanley and Des Voeux stare dumbfounded.)
  Des Voeux: Is he always this cheeky?
  • The best part? Stanley himself seems amused.
• This exchange between Fitzjames and a sailor during an inspection.
  Fitzjames: Name.
  Wentzall: William Wentzall, sir. From Terror.
  Fitzjames: Well, your nails are a terror, Mr. Wentzall.
• Crozier greeting Little's return from Erebus with a drunkenly giggled "ahhh, Edward, how fares the Raft of the Medusa?" is funny enough. Little flatly responding with the news that another man died on the journey pushes the exchange into Black Comedy territory.
• Crozier ordering Fitzjames off his ship. He's drunk, he's angry, he's just had a tense exchange with Lady Silence - and then when Fitzjames barges into the meeting Crozier groans and orders him out like he's telling a little brother to get out of his room.
• After his mauling by the Tuunbaq, Blanky goes full-on Deadpan Snarker, making quips about how he made a connection with the monster and he feels like they're now engaged. While being held down to have his leg amputated, no less.

A Mercy

• Officer and a Gentleman James Fitzjames getting into the idea of crossdressing for Carnivale.
• At the Carnivale, Blanky can be seen drinking out of his false leg.
• In the Carnivale group scenes you can see that one of the crew actually had the balls to dress up as the Tuunbaq for the festivities.
• There is something extremely darkly comedic about the one selfless act Hickey performs with no ulterior motive leading to the death of Dr. MacDonald.

Horrible From Supper

• At one point, when Hickey is talking about the Tuunbaq, Tozer straight-up tells him that when it comes, he hopes he's stood next to Hickey so he can give him a good shove.
• Tozer's plan for arming his fellow mutineers? Openly giving the captain he's planning to betray a list of his co-conspirators during his request to arm more men. It's precisely his naming known malcontents like Hickey which alert Crozier to the fact that something's up.
  • Moreover, when Tozer walks away there's a smile on Crozier's face which suggests he knows precisely what Tozer is up to, and he's both amused and impressed by the attempt.
• Jopson snarking at Crozier that 'that is my job you are shaving away' when Crozier starts tending to his own ablutions.

Camp Terror Clear

• Blanky's deadpan way of volunteering to help find the murdered Netsilik: "It'll limber me up for the next eight hundred miles you're making me walk."
• A large part of Hickey's case for mutinying is the fact that Crozier is keeping secrets, and when he's arrested he clearly thinks he can spill these secrets to the crew during his execution and regain control of the situation. So when Crozier begins the proceedings by sharing one of the biggest secrets he's kept (the failure of Lieutenant Fairholme's expedition) both Hickey and Tozer look pissed to have their plan so quickly ruined.

The C, the C, the Open C

• In the middle of a truly heartbreaking scene where Fitzjames is unable to walk any further, Crozier's shock that he was able to walk at all is a sweetly funny moment.
  Crozier: You've got holes in you, James.
• Blanky's proposal to lash as many forks as possible to his body, so when the Tuunbaq inevitably eats him it'll get indigestion, is simultaneously a Crowning Moment of Funny, Heartwarming, and a Tearjerker.

We Are Gone

• The Last Stand Of The Mutineers is such a shitshow, it turns into Black Comedy gold. Instead of explaining what in the hell attracting the Tuunbaq is supposed to accomplish, Hickey waxes enthusiastic about "going forward", how he replaced the real Hickey, the "other Empire", and sings patriotic songs. The others respond by ignoring him, frantically planning the defense, running, shooting each other, puking up poison, and throwing snide comments Hickey's way. "You could have just joined up."
• The sheer indignation in Hickey's voice when he says that, far from escaping to the tropics, he ended up stuck in the Arctic for two years. He sounds like he's making a complaint to his travel agent.
  • Really, the fact that all of Hickey's villainous deeds stemmed from the fact that he wanted to score a free trip to Hawaii.
• During his deranged attempts to summon the Tuunbaq, Hickey rallies the mutineers into a rousing burst of God Bless Our Native Land. Considering the mutineers are all dying of poison, exhausted, or just plain done with Hickey's shit, the resulting chorus is painfully and hilariously lacklustre.