Live-Action TV
Artemis: We're getting a lot of laughs; that's good!
Charlie: That's not good! This is not a comedy, okay? No one's supposed to be laughing!
Charlie: That's not good! This is not a comedy, okay? No one's supposed to be laughing!
Video Games
Lucina: Your novel was so funny, Jade! When the main character had to leave home...I was in stitches!
Jade: That was supposed to be an emotional moment.
Jade: That was supposed to be an emotional moment.
"Any tension that was in the air has just gone out the window..."
— Yusuke Kitagawa, Persona 5
Web Animation
"Taking apart an aspect of a story and showing its inner workings without a fireworks display of edgy grimdark? Why would I do that? If my story isn’t a miserable edge-fest full of gratuitous nudity, pointless glorified violence, and needless cynicism, then how can people even take it seriously?"
—JP Beaubien, Terrible Writing Advice, DECONSTRUCTION
Web Original
"Where's the emotion? Where's the drama!? This is the final battle after twelve stages of Hell, and you come here with delivery so wooden, you could drive it through my heart and kill me!"
— Dracula to Richter regarding the opening speech from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, "Richter Belmont is a Terrible Actor"
by Jehtt
by JehttWestern Animation
"I should not be laughing! This is a terrible situation! And yet... I find myself unable to resist... your influence!"
— Jorgen Von Strangle, The Jimmy Timmy Power Hour 2: When Nerds Collide
"It's not *funny*, it's *scary*!"
— Humphrey when people laugh at his badly-acted horror play, Milly, Molly, "Class Concert"
Reviews
On Anime & Manga
"Dracula seems to have abandoned his wife, Dolores, out of grief for their dead son, leaving her to grieve for Janus at his gravestone. It's actually a kind of sad scene, at least it would be if his gravestone didn't say Rest In Peaee."
— Bennett the Sage, in his review of Dracula Sovereign Of The Damned
"A baby just watched his mother die right before his eyes. Why is this so hilarious to me? Oh wait, no, I know why. It's because she died by getting bonked on the head by an empty shell casing!"
— Bennett the Sage in his Anime Abandon review of Mobile Suit Gundam F91
On Comic Books
"And just to show how much this is a truly emotional powerhouse of a comic, worthy of song and praise, Peter Parker lets out all of his rage and passion: "NYRAAARGH!" Ah. Nyraaargh. Just hits you...right here, doesn't it? You know, the thymus gland."
Spider-Man gave Mary Jane cancer by tragically shooting her up repeatedly with his horrible radioactive Spider-Semen. His horrible radioactive Spider-Semen. That’s not tragic. That shit is fucking hilarious.
On Film — Live-Action
"Be brave like my mother. Otherwise, you disgrace her." Oh, snap, that's harsh—
"Otherwise, she died for nothing." O SNAP NOW YOU'VE REALLY GOT HIM
"Otherwise, the bowl will remain empty, forever." Aaaaaand you've oversold it. There was a Line of Bathos, and you crossed it. I know it's a metaphorical fish, but sweetie, that fish ain't comin' back.
"Otherwise, she died for nothing." O SNAP NOW YOU'VE REALLY GOT HIM
"Otherwise, the bowl will remain empty, forever." Aaaaaand you've oversold it. There was a Line of Bathos, and you crossed it. I know it's a metaphorical fish, but sweetie, that fish ain't comin' back.
"Everyone in the theater laughed at this point. Not exactly the reaction you want for your big dramatic moment."
"Now, is General Grievous supposed to be funny? 'Cause they said he was a villain, right? Not a comedian?"
— Mr. Plinkett, Revenge of the Sith review
It's incidents like when Wesley Snipes gets whacked twice with a TV set and barely suffers a bruise that make up the real humor.
...I guarantee you if Gerry Anderson had come up with that plot for Thunderbirds or Stingray, he would have torn the place up.
In rough cut, The Lonely Lady was one of the funniest bad movies ever made. Sadly, its makers previewed their film in Long Beach a week or two after I saw the rough cut, and, realizing what a total turkey they had in their hands, went through the movie trying desperately to cut all the laughs. But without the laughs, the movie was about 17 minutes long.
—John Wilson, The Official Razzie Movie Guide
, The Official Razzie Movie GuideIt's a very, VERY funny moment, but I'm not sure the movie agrees.
On Literature
"[The Deerslayer's] pathos is funny."
One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell without laughing.
On Live-Action TV
You would have to have a heart of stone to watch Rory laying down his own life to save Amy (for the sixteenth or seventeenth time) without giggling, at least a little.
— Andrew Rilstone reviewing Doctor Who, The Angels Take Manhattan in The Viewer's Tale
reviewing Doctor Who, The Angels Take Manhattan in The Viewer's TaleThis is one of those episodes that even though it is not supposed to be funny it is in fact hilarious. From [the voice of] Piglet [as] Jack the Ripper and the stoned crew of the Enterprise there are no stop laughs in this episode. It is just impossible to take any of it seriously.
— Jeremy Perron on Star Trek: The Original Series, "The Wolf in the Fold"
on Star Trek: The Original Series, "The Wolf in the Fold"On Video Games
"When I saw this for the first time, I… laughed. But I did not just laugh. I laughed… for five minutes. I could not believe what I just saw. This has to be a joke… right? Sage reaches her key emotional shift… with a forty-five second montage of her and Eggman sitting in one spot— arguing for half of it— set to what sounds like the soothing voice of a… child who’s really trying their best at the talent show. No… it’s not a joke. It’s not even meant to be ironic, like showing that Sage has a really skewed perspective of love towards a vile man, no… It’s played entirely straight, having this long ending shot and everything. One of the included flashbacks was literally a scene that was played thirty minutes ago, that is how little there is to this… 'relationship'. It’s not like there was no time to build it up. It’s not like nothing could have been done to sell this. Even the few scenes we did have between them could have been utilized better. Could you imagine… if this exact thing happened in a 2000's Sonic game? It would be the biggest meme ever!"
On Webcomics
"Chris explains to the audience that this ray only works on the slow-in-mind. Hilarity ensues when you realize this means that whenever Sonichu and friends fight Mary Lee's minions, they are actually beating through wave after wave of the mentally handicapped."
"I think what pisses me off the most about the art style in Jack is that Hopkins thinks he can tell a deep, dramatic, violent, trauma-filled horror story with fucking cartoon animals. Look at their eyes! Look at their big, badly-drawn hands and their big squishy noses! They look like they should be swinging goddamn mallets at each other; not contemplating the meaning of life and death. (…) It may be possible (and very entertaining) to cast cute cartoon characters for a dramatic story if you're going about it in an ironic sense, but Jack seems like something that's trying so hard to be art. It wants so much to be beautifully tragic and beastly and for the people to look upon it and weep with envy, sorrow and understanding all at once."
On Web Video
"I'm sorry to interrupt here, but everything has been so atmospheric up to this point, and then I am faced with Judy Moore's face◊. I don't know, maybe it's scary to some people, but this is the funniest thing I've ever seen."
◊. I don't know, maybe it's scary to some people, but this is the funniest thing I've ever seen."— Sagan Hawkes on Morley Grove, Digital Horror: Rebirth of Creepypasta
On Western Animation
"Primal kinda died, too, by becoming a hilarious pancake on the floor, which seems more like a gag for Waspinator in Beast Wars than a supposed-to-be dramatic death for your main hero."
— Phelous in his review of Beast Machines
