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Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Funny how? Funny like a clown?

08:45 / 16.04.05

Okay, if you are planning to and haven't seen the Butterfly Effect, be warned there may be something like spoilers in what I am about to say.

Have just seen it, and thought it was god awful, but have to say the reality in which Ashton lost his arms was one of the funniest film scenes I have seen in ages. The fact that all disabled people are presented as palid and unhealthy was funny enough, but the moment when Ms Smart passes him a cracker and his bionic arms crush it was pure Police Squad. Was this supposed to be funny? I'm not sure, but it was, hilarious. I would say that the film is awful and no where near worth it for this moment, but damn I laughed. A lot.

So are unintentional moments in films funny because they break a moment of tension, or are comedy films funny because you are setting yourself up in a certain frame of mind to laugh? I never really laugh aloud to comedy films, just smile - if I do laugh, it tends to be at other peoples reactions (So like wathcing comedies in groups).

Saying that, I always laugh when Lloyd Bridges barks 'no more cheese' into the phone to his wife in Airplane.

So, anyway, what is funniest, intentional or unintentional comedy in films/tv etc?

19:30 / 16.04.05

I like to pretend that all comedy is intentional, that people are smarter and wittier than they probably are, just to make myself happy.
For example: Was strong-armed into seeing the 'Haunted Mansion' movie. Now, this is a nice, simple family movie, but... Okeh, Eddie Murphy tries to have a fathersontalk with his boy about growing up, manhood, et cetera, which quickly moves to (via spiders) how to properly 'whack it' (yes, the spiders) and climaxes with the daughtr/sister coming in, taking control, and showing both of these poor bastards the proper way to whack it, thereby killing yon spider and leaving them to sulk in their impotence.
Now, I can't be the only person who found this verging on, well, non-spider related issues, yes? Nothing in film to let on, no directorial wink, but, c'mon.

Example, the second: Something, title unknown to me, came on television the other day, and involved someone calling someone else a 'cracker spic' which, on quick mental review, had me laughing pretty hard. I mean, it just doesn't work.

And I refuse to believe that everything hilarious and witty about 'Split Second' was all mistakes and unintentional.

MachineGunSamurai

19:33 / 16.04.05

I think Total Recall has some of the funniest scenes ever:

-Pseudo hologram decoy Ah-nold.
-The scene where Michael Ironside gets his arms ripped off and thrown back at him, with the Governator yelling, "Ah'll see you at the pahty!!!!".
-The robot old lady head... "TWO WEEKS!".
-The kamikaze taxi-bot.
Movies that have pedestrians getting caught in the middle of a crossfire make me laugh too.

19:48 / 16.04.05

They're intentional, dude. Admittedly, in most Verhoeven films it's sometimes difficult to tell, but I think it's fairly obvious that TR's funny moments are supposed to be seen as just that.