Never Not Funny: Little Things on TV that Always Make You Laugh

[Kel Varnsen]

So this is a topic about little things on TV that always make you laugh. There are a couple for me that come to mind. Pretty much any time there is a joke or a reference to old people having dinner at 4pm I will always find it funny.

 

The other big one for me is malapropisms. I love anytime someone tries to use a big word to try to sound smart and they end up using completely the wrong word. The Sopranos was great for this. I have also been watching Raising Hope and Martha Plimpton's character does this all the time.

[Shannon L.]

 

Pretty much any time there is a joke or a reference to old people having dinner at 4pm I will always find it funny.

Modern Family had a funny moment with this when Mitch and Cameron were trying to get dinner reservations at a popular restaurant.  Mitch is one the phone and the conversation went like this (it's slightly paraphrased-I don't recall the exact wording)

 

Mitch: "They can get us in at 4pm"

Cameron:  "What are we, 60?"

Mitch on phone "What else do you have?"

Mitch to Cameron:  "Or 10:00"

Cameron:  "What are we, 20?"

 

It was all in the delivery. 

 

I honestly can't think of something that makes me laugh every time (because it depends on the dialog and the delivery of it), except an actor who is really good at physical comedy like John Ritter on almost every show he did or when David Hyde Pierce nailed a physical comedy sequence on an episode of Frasier.

[Tabbyclaw]

This one's weirdly specific and I can only think of one or two examples off the top of my head, but I will never not laugh at sitcom characters telling someone that they're perfectly calm, then freaking out when the phone rings and throwing the phone across the room.

[Kanako]

 

The other big one for me is malapropisms. I love anytime someone tries to use a big word to try to sound smart and they end up using completely the wrong word.

Justified had a GREAT one this past season -- where the resident lovable doofus, Dewey Crowe, screaming, "the ANUS is on you!"  LOL.

 

I hate to even admit it, but "puke" jokes always make me laugh (and cringe at the same time).  Even the most boring of SNL skits will somehow make me roll on the floor laughing when someone pukes.  No, I'm not proud of it.

[BoogieBurns]

It's funny when people aggressively compliment each other. Like, they aren't mad, they are just enthusiastic about something unrelated, so they say something nice with too much energy. See: every time Leslie Knope talks to Ann Perkins, Jess on New Girl does this whenever she is getting pumped up, and Happy Endings (RIP) was full of enthusiasm-compliments.

 

I didn't explain this well. But you are AWESOME anyways!

[Jeebus Cripes]

The other big one for me is malapropisms. I love anytime someone tries to use a big word to try to sound smart and they end up using completely the wrong word. The Sopranos was great for this. I have also been watching Raising Hope and Martha Plimpton's character does this all the time.

 

Archie from All in the Family would crack me up every time he did this, and he did it often.

[Shannon L.]

Time travel where the person from the past gets sent to present day (as long as long as it's done well).  IMO, Sleepy Hallow is excellent at writing this sort of thing.  It's amusing as hell, but they are being subtle about it instead of beating us over the head with it. 

[ScaryFairy1]

The toy car that gets "blown up" in the "Conspiracy Theories and Interior Design" episode of Community. Just everything about it. The super-threatening phone call Jeff gets, his immediate over-reaction, and the extreme close-up of the toy car as sparks fly from underneath causing no damage whatsoever.

 

It's really the third spark that gets me. Every single time.

[ParadoxLost]

Every time Paul Rudd goes on Conan he shows the same movie clip...for more than fifteen years.  I laugh every single time I catch it.  Its because I'm waiting for the punch line.  I'm waiting for the time he shows a dumber clip (if there was one).  Actually, I'm waiting for the M. Night Shyamalan twist.  I'm waiting for him to re film the scene with him going over the cliff in the wheel chair.  I'm waiting for the cast of Anchorman to go over a cliff in wheelchairs all in a row.  And when he doesn't deviate at all, when its the same clip again, the joke is on me and I laugh. 

Edited July 24, 2014 by ParadoxLost

[GreekGeek]

Time travel where the person from the past gets sent to present day (as long as long as it's done well).

 

I like this sort of thing too...any "fish out of water" storyline. City folks in the country, country folks in the city, Americans in other cultures, people from other cultures (including other planets) coming to America.

 

It's not funny when you consider the implications, but I always love that moment on crime shows when a youth sprints away from the cops even though he didn't do whatever they're investigating at the time.

[ToxicUnicorn]

Bob Newhart, raising his eyebrows.  Always funny.  Always.  That man had impeccable eyebrow timing and comedic facial delivery.

Time travel where the person from the past gets sent to present day (as long as long as it's done well).

 

This reminds me of this joke on Big Bang Theory, which might be the funniest bit of nerd humor I've ever heard (and I've heard a lot!!!):

 

 

Tim Conway's Siamese elephants.  Words don't do it justice. 

 

 

ETA:  To keep on topic, I wish more modern comedies used this kind of pacing and humor. 

Edited July 24, 2014 by ToxicUnicorn

[SeriousPurrs]

Person opens door to taxicab, says "Follow that car!" Taxicab takes off before person gets inside.

[AltLivia]

I don't know how common this is, but characters misreading poorly spelled text messages - always funny. Not chatspeak acronyms, that's a whole different area, but just misreading texts.

 

I swear, one of the few times I genuinely laughed at How I Met Your Mother - Ted sent a text to Barney that he was coming upstairs with a date (or two). And Marshall grabbed the phone, reading the message aloud as "I'm combing up SARS."  Then he remarked to himself, "But why are they combing up SARS?"

Edited July 24, 2014 by ScullyInApt42

[kiddo82]

Whenever someone speaks with his or her mouth full. Nasty in real life, but always makes me laugh on TV.

[spaceytraci1208]

Someone falling down, so long as they're not injured, will never not make me laugh. I'm one of the guilty parties who's helped America's Funniest Home Videos remain on the air for so long

[ParadoxLost]

I always crack up when a television personality make a joke at the expense of the network that pays them.  I think I have a deep seated resentment of all networks because at some point they all cancelled a show I loved.  To this day, I smile at how much Letterman used to roast NBC execs even before they passed him over for the Tonight Show.

[Kel Varnsen]

Another one that makes me laugh is pretty much anytime anyone on TV does a Bill Cosby impression. It doesn't even have to be very good (just extend words to make them really long, maybe talk about pudding pops or jazz) but it will always make me laugh.

[DittyDotDot]

This is pretty specific to Supernatural, but Rock-Paper-Scissors is never not funny to me and it's also never not funny that Dean loses every time. NEVER!

[cpcathy]

Saw a late-night episode of Friends last night, and this one always gets me:

 

 

"PIVOT!"

[AntiBeeSpray]

Someone falling down, so long as they're not injured, will never not make me laugh. I'm one of the guilty parties who's helped America's Funniest Home Videos remain on the air for so long

Me too! Grew up watching it and still do every so often :).

 

Also, any time there's something funny on Law and Order: SVU (thank you, Speed Weed XD) -- when Olivia got high off of shrooms'..." you shot my boss with a pickle!" <-- not the exact quote, but boy was it random :P.

[Kromm]

Someone falling down, so long as they're not injured, will never not make me laugh. I'm one of the guilty parties who's helped America's Funniest Home Videos remain on the air for so long

Well then... lets go there.  Nutshots.

 

Funny from a distance. A HUGE distance.  Totally unfunny when it happens to, or even NEAR you.

[janie jones]

Saw a late-night episode of Friends last night, and this one always gets me:

 

 

"PIVOT!"

I've never yelled "pivot" to someone who I was carrying something with and not had that person respond by also repeating "pivot!"

[Jeebus Cripes]

I don't know what this says about me, but I always find people on TV who are high or drunk hilarious. In real life? I have no tolerance for them. I can't get enough of it on TV, though. The episode of Roseanne where they smoke weed is one of the funniest things I've ever seen.

Edited August 2, 2014 by Jeebus Cripes

[ShadowSixx]

This is just hilarious Bea Arthur's line delivery was just hilarious.

 

This is just classic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVSTu8x1ouE

[kariyaki]

There was this opening scene on Frasier where Martin is putting together Niles and Frasier's old playpen for Daphne's impending baby, where he taps it and it snaps together like a beartrap. It cracks me up.

(I couldn't find a clip of just that. This is the whole episode that's up on YouTube for some reason, but like I said, it's the opening scene.)

http://youtu.be/PyfuHuXOiTk

[DittyDotDot]

I think the "I think the banana went off" is now the top of my It Will Never Not Be Funny list.

[BabyVegas]

Really good physical comedy gets a laugh out of me 100% of the time. There's a scene in the first season Christmas episode of Community where Dean Pelton is putting on his "nondenominational Mr. Winter" costume, turns around and smacks into an open file cabinet. The way he commits to it and just drops like a stone gets me every time. Physical comedy with a great sense of timing is a hit for me. 

 

I also love a good pun. I have a juvenile sense of humor, so sue me.

[Jeebus Cripes]

Really good physical comedy gets a laugh out of me 100% of the time. There's a scene in the first season Christmas episode of Community where Dean Pelton is putting on his "nondenominational Mr. Winter" costume, turns around and smacks into an open file cabinet. The way he commits to it and just drops like a stone gets me every time. Physical comedy with a great sense of timing is a hit for me. 

 

John Ritter's pratfalls in Three's Company always crack me up. He was amazing. Also, Michael Richards as Kramer in Seinfeld was capable of some good physical comedy. 

[Tabbyclaw]

Groundhog Day loops. Specifically, the montage in almost every Groundhog Day episode where the actions of the character stuck in the loop gradually get more and mroe outlandish because they've fully embraced the idea of "no consequences."

[Joe]

Groundhog Day loops. Specifically, the montage in almost every Groundhog Day episode where the actions of the character stuck in the loop gradually get more and mroe outlandish because they've fully embraced the idea of "no consequences."

Yes, and they've learned how to game the system. The timing and such.

[dalek]

Groundhog Day loops. Specifically, the montage in almost every Groundhog Day episode where the actions of the character stuck in the loop gradually get more and mroe outlandish because they've fully embraced the idea of "no consequences."

 

 

I love the one on Stargate SG-1.

[mariah23]

The scream from the Tom and Jerry cartoons.

[SeriousPurrs]

When a man gets startled and lets out a high-pitched scream.

[Jeebus Cripes]

Edith gets me every single time with this response, and it is one response to something not a bunch of responses. It's all in the facial delivery and tone of voice :

Oh. (a couple crickets) Ooh. (one cricket) (full blown understanding)OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!!

 

Yes! Jean Stapleton was just aces.

[Joe]

One of my favourite tropes is the extended disarming scene, where a character pulls a large number of weapons or other gadgets from increasingly improbable locations. You have to wonder how they get dressed in the morning, how they can move properly. But it's still funny.

[Portia]

Apparently I'm two years old, because I thinking blowing a raspberry is pretty much always hilarious. I especially love it when a normally articulate person listens to an opponent's argument and then responds with a raspberry instead of words.

[OSM Mom]

When a man gets startled and lets out a high-pitched scream.

There's a credit card commercial where a guy gets startled and does that. It's hilarious!

[kariyaki]

When a man gets startled and lets out a high-pitched scream.

Flanders is always the best one.

http://youtu.be/cBGT4lbkVWo

[topanga]

 

This is just hilarious Bea Arthur's line delivery was just hilarious.

Word. I think I've seen every episode of "The Golden Girls" at least once, but when I watch an episode, I still laugh at the jokes like it's my first time hearing them. Talk about a show holding up over time.

 

 

When a man gets startled and lets out a high-pitched scream.

On Psych, whenever Shawn or Gus screams like a little girl, I laugh so hard I cry.

[andromeda331]

Nearly any of the callers that call into Frasier's show some of the best ones the guy who think's his radio is talking to him when Frasier's says the caller's name, the guy freaks "It knows my name", Frasier then pretends to be the radio telling him to get off the radio and get professional help the guy says "Sorry Doc, I got to go" and hangs up, the lady who drops to the floor every time her in-laws drop by to pretend their not home it ends when she has to go and drop to the floor because "their here". 

The Big Bang Theory when Sheldon invents a drug addict cousin to get out of going to hear Penny sings, Sheldon creates a Facebook page which has Lee's descent into drug addiction "as well as a desperate but hopeful listing on eHaromony."  

Leverage's listening to Eliot, Parker, and Hardison describing their version of them attempting to steal a dagger five years ago in which they all were their including each having a different version of Sophie's accent, Eliot has her with a cockney accent, hitting on him and saying things like "Call blimey Governor that stuff's loaded with zero juice, that's British for shrimp we have a different word for a lot of things its a bit stupid isn't it?" and "That's all right he's a bleeding doctor", Hardison thinks she sounds like Dwarf in Lord of the Rings, especially Parker's where anything Sophie says is completely gibberish its made even more awesome when Parker says "Oh you said shrimp, that didn't sound like shrimp" when it didn't sound like anything.  The Mile High Episode where Hardison just shows up at a company pretending to work there, conducts meetings, gets them to throw him birthday party then fires himself at the end of the day. 

[JayKay]

Leverage's listening to Eliot, Parker, and Hardison describing their version of them attempting to steal a dagger five years ago in which they all were their including each having a different version of Sophie's accent, Eliot has her with a cockney accent, hitting on him and saying things like "Call blimey Governor that stuff's loaded with zero juice, that's British for shrimp we have a different word for a lot of things its a bit stupid isn't it?" and "That's all right he's a bleeding doctor", Hardison thinks she sounds like Dwarf in Lord of the Rings, especially Parker's where anything Sophie says is completely gibberish its made even more awesome when Parker says "Oh you said shrimp, that didn't sound like shrimp" when it didn't sound like anything.

That was hilarious! It also reminds me of a running gag on It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia where the gang call Dee a bird. Amusing enough sprinkled throughout the series, but it culminates in a Halloween episode where each member of the cast unreliably narrates what happened at a costume party. Throughout the episode Dee becomes more and more bird-like in each retelling of events and towards the end becomes an actual ostrich during the story. Just thinking about it makes me laugh.

 

Speaking of IASIP, there's also an episode where the gang is in the past (sort of) during the American Revolutionary War and throughout the episode they keep accusing Dee of being a witch because she backtalks menfolk and knows how to do math. At the end of the episode things go off the rails and she randomly flies away on a broom, cackling. I about died.

 

Running gags with a good payoff can make me lose it, I think.

[ToxicUnicorn]

Lilith, on Cheers (Bebe Neuwirth).  Every time.  I love a great deadpan delivery.  James Spader sometimes qualifies, too.

[Luckylyn]

Every time on New Girl when they play the game True American is hysterical to me.  They've combined drinking, history, and the floor is lava into a game whose rules I don't understand but totally want to play.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIQdJQ76BtQ

Edited August 21, 2014 by Luckylyn

[topanga]

The other big one for me is malapropisms. I love anytime someone tries to use a big word to try to sound smart and they end up using completely the wrong word.

 

This is another thing Psych did well. Shawn would mispronounce a word or use the wrong word, Gus would correct him, and Shawn would say, "I've heard it both ways." Made me crack up every time.

[BoogieBurns]

True American is very funny! I think anytime I see characters on a show play an intricate game without explaining the rules to the audience is usually pretty funny. See also: Cones of Dunshire on Parks and Rec

[Luckylyn]

@BoogieBurns,  I love how that game keeps popping up again.  I also love the running joke of those accountants he gave the game to hero worshiping Ben.  The other thing on Parks and Rec that always cracks me up is every Oren scene and how people respond to his weirdness.   I think my favorite scene is when Chris's optimism manages to make Oren be the one freaked out for a change.

[Aquarius]

When the straitlaced, risk-averse character gets called on his or her stick-in-the-mud ways and decides to do something "risky."  Only of course it's "risky" by his or her own definition, so they end up looking ridiculous.  Classic example that never fails to make me laugh out loud:  Frasier running with scissors.

 

[Sandman87]

Well then... lets go there. Nutshots.

Funny from a distance. A HUGE distance. Totally unfunny when it happens to, or even NEAR you.

Then this ought to make your day.

[possibilities]

The other big one for me is malapropisms. I love anytime someone tries to use a big word to try to sound smart and they end up using completely the wrong word.

Virginia, on Raising Hope, used to do this all the time. It wasn't even always big words, but it was always funny.

 

I'm still not over Mindy trying to cope with a beanbag chair on The Mindy Project, either. Some of the physical comedy and background jokes on that show are better than the actual story.

[kiddo82]

So I'm watching the Simpsons marathon and I realized that Maggie Simpson always makes me laugh. It's never side splitting laugh out loud funny but I'm constantly amused whenever she toddles into the room and just falls over, as toddlers do. Or in the Homer at the Bat episode where she's sitting in the stands with a foam finger on her head. It's all little things. I've been watching this show for 25 years but seeing the episodes all back to back has made me appreciate her all the more.