What comedy cliche do you wish was never used again?

gg4465a · 5 months

Futurama did a great one-two punch to the "standing right behind me" one in the episode "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back".

Bender: "Uh oh, she's standing right behind me, isn't she?"

Morgan: "No, I'm in front of you."

pans right to show her in front of him

athennna · 5 months

Whatever situation/shenanigan that causes huge problems for the main character, but could be solved easily if he/she explained what happened. Instead, there's another 90 minutes of bad decisions before they finally tell the truth and the problem goes away.

FreckleException · 5 months

[deleted]

superch1p · 5 months

Kid says something only an adult would say.

kingzilch · 5 months

"Why didn't you tell me that derpy derp?"

"You didn't ask."

Beer-Me · 5 months

Smart, sassy wife who seems to run the household paired with an overweight, semi-retarded husband who only seems to want to watch the big game or hang out with the boys but can't because he fucked up and has to make it up to wifey.

JicamaDickables · 5 months

Women be shoppin!

ohfuckbuthellyeah · 5 months

An elderly or middle aged white person using hip-hop slang and/or dancing to hip hop. If I hear 'for-shizzle' one more fucking time...

TheIpswitchFile · 5 months

"Check please!"

irrelephant31 · 5 months

Not a joke, but the premise of "she's like such a free spirit, and he's a conservative stiff" IM SICK OF WATCHING THEM FALL IN LOVE

ThompsonsTeeth · 5 months

The big football game (no mention of teams) is on but the wife says the husband has to go to a wedding/childs birthday party/etc. The husband tries to get out of it but fails, and ends up watching part of it with a portable tv/radio, then screams out a reaction to the game at an inopportune time.

RoboLovah · 5 months

After some vaguely technical dialogue: "In English, please?"

smack1700 · 5 months

A man dressed as a woman

A thin person dressed as a fat person

Old people doing "hip" things

p4nda · 5 months

Perfectly normal / actually attractive protagonist portrayed as too nerdy / too ugly for love, ultimately fixing hair and/or removing glasses and pairing up with co-star.

thealiasman · 5 months

"Oh did i mention there's pot in that?" followed by uptight character having massive freak out, including the announcement that "I can fly!"

Transformers 2, i'm looking at you

SIMAFOL · 5 months

Self inflicted nun-chucks to the balls with/and "That's gotta hurt!" Fuck your commentary.

Jvlivs · 5 months

The daughter's elementary school ballet recital that the father can never make it to because he's too self-absorbed. Oh my god, if I had a penny for every time that happened.

imageon · 5 months

Black people do this, white people do this.

chafe · 5 months

The Bumbling Dad trope.

scourge_of_carpathia · 5 months

Protagonist fumbles through the entire plot of the movie. He makes every mis-step possible with ever character he interacts with and situation he finds himself in. Rather than actually showing the other character(s) how he is a better person, he gives a long heartwarming speech at the wedding/board meeting/party/product launch/dinner that manages to change everyone's opinion of him.

5 months

[deleted]

SomanydynamoS · 5 months

1. Person throws something off screen
2. Cat screeches in response
3. Audience goes wild
4. I blow my brains out

SyFyWrestler · 5 months

A girl beats a guy at something and it's hilarious somehow.

scourge_of_carpathia · 5 months

Guy proceeds to mention how he'll kick so-and-so's ass when he meets him. Turns out so-and-so is built like a line-backer. Protagonist throws one pathetic punch.

Scene cuts to protagonist with cuts and bruises all over his face sitting on the floor of his apartment leaning against the wall with an ice pack on his hand.

iglidante · 5 months

The hilariously misinterpreted scene that drives the entire angst-ridden plot. For example, imagine a series of events that leads to a girl walking in on her boyfriend in a manner such that it appears he is masturbating to pictures of her grandmother.

emazur · 5 months

Two and a half Men is an encyclopedia of cliches

kwux · 5 months

Maniacal laughter (typically by the villain) that ends in coughing. Has anybody ever laughed at this?

iDriveway · 5 months

"I just threw up in my mouth a little bit."

clocksailor · 5 months

Women and shopping and men and football. OH MY GOD are these jokes tired. They make all women look like vapid shrews and all men look like oblivious meatheads.

It drives me nuts when people tell me I can't take a joke when I don't laugh at this shit. It's not that I'm a shrill man-hating feminazi, it's that I've heard this joke a hundred thousand times already and it was NEVER FUNNY.

kingneckbeard · 5 months

If by "x", you mean the "complete opposite of x" ...

scourge_of_carpathia · 5 months

Not really from a movie but this makes up nearly 90% of sketches on SNL these days: repetition.

Let's repeat the same joke/punchline for 5 minutes until the audiences decides it's funny. One wacky character that just says the same thing or a slight variation. Keenan, I'm looking at you.

captnanonymous · 5 months

The flamboyant gay character. Sooo played out.

Bloodhound01 · 5 months

When I was a cashier and something didnt' ring up right. I swear, every customer would say "it must be free then". Then continue to laugh to themselves for the next minute thinking they are so clever.

5 months

[deleted]

constantvariables · 5 months

Pairing up complete opposites.

UnderD4Donut · 5 months

When old people curse or talk about sex. It really isn't that funny. It's been done a billion times and I think it's a cheap way of trying to get a laugh.

cockstereo · 5 months

I HATE IT when people are looking at baby pictures and one of them says "Oh you were SO CUTE!" and then someone else goes "Yeah... WHAT HAPPENED!????!!!"

Everybody says this. Always. Stop it now. You didn't make it up.

zetversus · 5 months

White dude says something...ANYTHING.

Black guy twists it into something racist.

Comedy gold?

color_me_impressed · 5 months

As I'm reading each one of these, I can think of examples when they weren't funny and examples when they were. It's all about delivery. Makes me think of the quote about there being only 7 different stories in this world, the rest are just variations of those stories.

ruleofnuts · 5 months

There is always a love story. Stop that shit.

inkonpaperhero · 5 months

"I'm sorry, it's just that I have attention deficit dis... wow, look at that shiny object/butterfly!"

This joke is 10+ years old and it always ends the same way. STOP USING IT.

granstrom9299 · 5 months

Two polar opposites standing back to back smirking with their arms crossed on a movie poster making you think "HOW ARE THEY EVER GOING TO GET ALONG?!"

elusivesora · 5 months

Female stand up comics that only make jokes about sex.

scourge_of_carpathia · 5 months

The mean/angry kid that kicks or irritates the protagonist until he does something mean back.

Other characters see the protagonist do this and fawn all over the "poor little child".

Rantingbeerjello · 5 months

Sitcoms about attractive people with hip, spacious apartments in New York City who never seem to have to actually do any work in order to pay for said apartment which is made even more ridiculous by the fact that the humour inevitably revolves around how said attractive people fail at life by being generally incompetent.

TheRedditopiaNation · 5 months

"What did you just say?" "Napkins?" "No, before that." "Forks?" "No, BEFORE that" "I fucked your mom?"

FreeSammiches · 5 months

Half hour long awkward misunderstandings that could have been easily cleared with a single clarifying question.

1212onetwoonetwo · 5 months

Stereotypical stoners.

terrortoad · 5 months

"There is NO way I'm doing that! Not over my dead body! I'd fuck my grandma before I'd do that thing!"

Quick cut to the character doing that thing.

Ajdiv · 5 months

"NO! There is absolutely NO WAY I am doing X!" .... [Cuts to character doing X]

This was never funny in the first place; why does everyone do this?

EDIT: What's worse is the amount of comments in replies to this saying "Yeah! I hate it when that happens! Except in this one comedy that I like."

denacioust · 5 months

That being a Star Trek fan immediately qualifies you as a nerd and vice versa.

sexponentialgrowth · 5 months

Neurotic women who overreact to everything, like Katherine Heigl. Bitches be crazy... CRAZY FUNNY!

Rippersnapper · 5 months

I'm absolutely SICK of the "dumb husband/smart wife" cliche in everything from commercials, to sitcoms. It's sexist, tired, and way overused.

will_at_work · 5 months

tyler perry

Sk3tch3r · 5 months

Laughtracks, laughtracks, laughtracks, and laughtracks. I judge how awful tv shows are by how badly they abuse the laughtack.

PlasmaNuke · 5 months

"My attempts to make the front page" followed by a gif.

rephtar · 5 months

Chuck Norris jokes.

And no, the third fist behind his beard isn't going to come through my computer screen and roundhouse kick me.

stickerface · 5 months

Nobody has mentioned fat suits. The black guy in a fat suit is the absolute worst premise ever.

RichterScale · 5 months

Animals having the ability to talk.

Vitto9 · 5 months

The scratching record, followed by awkward looks and silence. It's like they are telling me "Hey, this is funny. Pay attention here and you'll see something funny."

No. Fuck you. You don't get to tell me that it's funny. I'll decide if it's funny. If it is indeed amusing, I won't need you to fucking point it out. The inverse is also true. If you have to point it out, it's probably not funny. Fucking stop.

Mechanical_Owl · 5 months

Character loses at something (like a coin toss): "Best two out of three?"

5 months

[deleted]

[deleted] · 5 months

The wife putting her husband down verbally. Not funny.

LatwPIAT · 5 months

Jokes about how, if a male character goes to jail, he will end up being raped by another man. Especially when the "other man" is black.

To a lesser extent, I am fine with unsympathetic characters using this as a threat, but I hate it when a show/movie wants me to think that a man being raped is somehow funny, or that having a male antagonist end up raped is "karmaic justice".

In a similar vein, "man doesn't want sex with beautiful woman, so he's forced into it for his own good". Because it's, y'know, rape.

5 months

[deleted]

RupeyDoop · 5 months

Basically everything from Two and a Half Men.

ExplorersBlood · 5 months

"I'm getting too old for this."

GianterGinger · 5 months

Awkward does not equal funny.

[deleted] · 5 months

The idea that every dude is a fucking moron. This also applies to movies and commercials.

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