Unfunny comedy tropes

[Relish in Chaos]

What comedy tropes do you not find funny?

Well, I've never been amused by the flamboyant gay male often employed in sitcoms, but they end up being more annoying than anything and they often make them even more feminine than the female characters, as if to shout in our face, "Look, this guy's gay! He likes men! He talks with a lady's voice! Laugh!"

And then there's the sassy/streetwise black character; there's always one. The only exceptions I can think of are Will Smith in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (because it's Will Smith) and Chris Tucker in the Rush Hour series (partly because of how well his dynamic with Jackie Chan works), and even then, part of the reason they actually work is because the products surrounding them are genuinely good by themselves.

 

[Fappy]

The attempts to be funny by being as deliberately unfunny, juvenile or forced strange as possible; aka the Tim and Eric/Eric Andre method.

I couldn't agree more. I hate Tim and Eric. There were a few funny moments in Tom Goes to the Mayor, but they were rare.

 

[Erja_Perttu]

I think I'm in the minority, but I've never found awkward comedy funny, things like the 40 year old Virgin and stuff like that. It's not my sense of humour at all.

 

[uneek]

Since I used to masochistically watch Disney Channel kidcoms, I've been noticing a trend of "This one is dumb, therefore cool/this one is smart, therefore lame". It's so lazy and cliche. I know what they're trying to say, but it's not always true. Sometimes there are smart people on top and dumb people on the bottom.

But yeah, that's pretty much it.

 

[Euryalus]

The attempts to be funny by being as deliberately unfunny, juvenile or forced strange as possible; aka the Tim and Eric/Eric Andre method.

I couldn't agree more. I hate Tim and Eric. There were a few funny moments in Tom Goes to the Mayor, but they were rare.

I hated that show with a passion. It was just an unfunny weird hodgepodge of stupid animation. All my friends seemed to like it and I can't for the life of me understand why.

 

[Mr.Mattress]

The Awkward Teen is getting stale, comedy people. Please come up with something new. Maybe a witty, really popular kid who's not a giant D-bag? That could be something to explore...

 

[xPixelatedx]

The 'Oh look it's not human but it drinks Alcohol. SO FUNNY! HUR HUR HUR HUR' trope.

It got old in Futurama very fast.

It got old in Family Guy very fast.

It was old in American Dad from day one.

I get the joke, it's funny because they are a robot, dog, alien. Ok, that's great, but you've beaten that joke into infinity now, and the blackhole you've made could very well swallow all existence.

 

[Zyst]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BreakingTheFourthWall

Breaking the Fourth Wall, when done properly I can maybe get a smirk out of it (depending on the show) but I recently watched an anime (something synphogear) where one of the female characters, literally, every fucking time she showed up, every single fucking time said "This is not an anime! You can't do that" that kind of crap, I mean I know it's not EXACTLY breaking the fourth wall but I don't know exactly which trope it is.

It got to a point where I literally got pissed off every time I saw that character, even in the last episode with epic scale battles going on and crap she squeezed in the line at least 3 times, it just made me rage so hard and the anime wasn't that good anyway.

But yeah... I feel like I just vented instead of giving my opinion but oh well haha.

 

[runic knight]

fart jokes.

cross dressing characters that look so terrible the "joke" is that no one notices.

"Black people" reactions. You know what I mean, when they overdramatize the response to play for laughs and make the character sound just nails on chalkboard annoying.

The over dramatic reaction shot where they are practically smiling and winking at the camera like they are saying "see, see, that was funny right?" and begging for a laugh of any sort.
Actually I think anything in the "big momma's house" line of crap comedy. Or any parody like Epic Movie.

Also, Disney/Nickelodeon sitcom cliches. I can not watch any of their daytime live action stuff because it is just so infested with unfunny overused crap. "misunderstanding" that no human being would make? How about complete lack of communication? Or when characters seek out an listen to advice from people who obviously have not a damn clue on the topic (though always make it sound like they know their shit), especially when the advice itself is just stupid...

Actually, I noticed a common thread in all of this. I find it unfunny when the comedy seems to think I am too stupid to understand anything more high brow then a pie to the face.

 

[Kargathia]

Well, I've never been amused by the flamboyant gay male often employed in sitcoms, but they end up being more annoying than anything and they often make them even more feminine than the female characters, as if to shout in our face, "Look, this guy's gay! He likes men! He talks with a lady's voice! Laugh!"

The real-life version of this taught me economics in high school - and he was one of the best teachers I've ever had, along with generally being a very likeable guy.
If it were a comedy show it'd be a walking, talking cliche, but occasionally reality throws you a curveball like that.

OT: Comedy based on awkward misunderstandings and/or romantic trouble? Just shoot me already.

 

[gorfias]

What comedy tropes do you not find funny?

Well, I've never been amused by the flamboyant gay male often employed in sitcoms, but they end up being more annoying than anything and they often make them even more feminine than the female characters, as if to shout in our face, "Look, this guy's gay! He likes men! He talks with a lady's voice! Laugh!"

And then there's the sassy/streetwise black character; there's always one. The only exceptions I can think of are Will Smith in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (because it's Will Smith) and Chris Tucker in the Rush Hour series (partly because of how well his dynamic with Jackie Chan works), and even then, part of the reason they actually work is because the show surrounding them are genuinely good by themselves.

Buddy just insisted that I try the series, "Always Sunny in Philidelphia" that has a twist on both of these tropes in the very first f'n episode!

The twist is, rather than make fun of gays and blacks, it makes fun of the discomfort of straight whites around blacks and gays and black gays. Very, very, very annoying.

I gave the show another chance. Episode 2 about dealing with unplanned kids. A little better. But the homophobia, stereo types of all of the above...lame, lame, lame.

 

[DugMachine]

fat cop/nagging wife or fat husband/nagging wife. Whatever the trope is exactly called, it annoys the shit out of me and I can't watch shows like that because I get bored so easily.

 

[viranimus]

I dont know if its classified as a trope exactly, but one "comedic" thing I absolutely loathe is anti-humor and random awkwardness. Basically prime examples of this type of humor would be say The Larry David Show, or Arrested Development.

I get the jokes, they just are not humorous. Perhaps its because I simply cannot relate to it because I have never really struggled with trying to convey what I wish to convey which seemingly seems to be a major theme in anti humor and random awkwardness. (at least not verbally, but my lord how have I been misquoted and misunderstood in text format)

 

[Eddie the head]

The attempts to be funny by being as deliberately unfunny, juvenile or forced strange as possible; aka the Tim and Eric/Eric Andre method.

I couldn't agree more. I hate Tim and Eric. There were a few funny moments in Tom Goes to the Mayor, but they were rare.

I didn't know it was meant to be funny. I mean it, I had no Idea that show was meant to be funny. I didn't know what I thought it was I just didn't think anyone could be that unfunny without trying.

 

[Ruedyn]

Over priveleged dumb white girl is pretty annoying. IT HAS NEVER BEEN FUNNY!

fat cop/nagging wife or fat husband/nagging wife. Whatever the trope is exactly called, it annoys the shit out of me and I can't watch shows like that because I get bored so easily.

Same here.

 

[chiggerwood]

Meta humor. Almost nobody knows how to use meta humor. The worst ones are when the joke almost works, and then they bring too much attention to how meta they're being and completely ruin the joke. See phelous for a good example of truly awful meta humor with no justification for its existence. Caution upon viewing his videos you may have an extreme urge to to stab yourself in the brain with a fork to remove all the bad memories. You have been warned.

 

[Vault101]

over doing it

take Nostalga critic.....I think he's good and all, but latley his videos have been kind of dull....

its hard to explain but its like he makes a joke but drags it on too long or brings too much attention to it which kills it

also....nothing...NOTHING about nerds/geeks....their interests, their short comings, the way the talk, the fact they like starwars/star trek...the fact that they use words that are actually NOT that fucking complicated except mabye to the dumbasses watching daid show

NONE OF THAT IS FUNNY

unrelated but this is quite possibly one of the funnist things I have ever seen

[spoiler/]

[/spoiler]

 

[UnderCoverGuest]

Can I just point at Vince Vaughn and wander off again?