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jokes in movies/tv/commercials that need to be retired


henrygandorf

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i watch a lot of stuff, so maybe i see instances more than others, but this thread is to start a list of jokes/situations that need to be put out to pasture.  many were never funny, and all of which are definitely not funny anymore.

-my first nomination is someone saying something near or to a smart phone, only to have siri (or some other voice command application) mishear it, resulting in something completely different happening.

example - the commercial where the surgeon accidentally sews a phone into someone's stomach, and when they tell his wife they're gonna make it better, siri thinks they're trying to make butter.  yep, hilarious.  pretty much every sitcom that i watch has tried it, and even black-ish (which i don't watch) had one during the 2 minutes that i accidentally watched over the weekend.  probably dozens more.

-my second nomination is when, during an action sequence, two people are communicating about where to shoot an enemy, and one person says, "2 o'clock" to which the other person invariably checks their watch, or remarks that the time has already passed, or whatever.

example - indiana jones and the last crusade with his dad.  it sorta worked then.  not sure it's worked since.

 

what say you?

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40 minutes ago, Knoxtnhorn said:

What about every commercial where the mom leaves the kids with the dad and all hell breaks loose because men are never, EVER be capable of cooking a simple meal or cleaning up after the kids.

Yeah, it's almost impossible for the dumbass/dufus of a commercial to be anyone other than a male, usually caucasian.  It's a little tiring.

The guy in a blowhard or an incompetent boob saved by his girl friend who is way hotter than he is.  It's been a staple of sitcoms for the last 10-15 years.   

 

 

Edited by Lhorn
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The "let's never speak of this again" joke.  Not used all that often but once it too often. I love the Simpsons, but there was some shaky writing many years back and I think this type of joke was used a few times including twice in one episode.

 

"Well, Bart, your Uncle Arthur used to have a saying: "Shoot 'em all and let God sort 'em out.' Unfortunately, one day he put his theory into practice. It took 75 federal marshals to bring him down. Now, let's never speak of him again."

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Three’s Company misunderstanding when Mr Roper overhears Jack trying to fix Chrissie’s clock. Worked real good 35 years ago.

Two friends talking like an old married couple.

Puns after a death on Shaggy

Too Soon?

I actually don’t mind repetitive jokes as a little filler and when the comedic timing works

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another joke i've seen about 15x since the show first premiered, is when something bad or embarrassing is happening to a character, and he looks around and says, "am i being punk'd?".  good for ashton kutcher that he somehow got that word into regular usage as a verb, but it's been a while since that show was on, and it's been a long time since the show was relevant.  time to retire the joke.  i feel like it's people in their 40's trying to write a joke they think people in their 20's will get, but no.

on that same subject, so often i watch shows that are clearly written for 20-30 year olds, but written by 35-55 year olds (the age of most tv writers).  my wife watches "younger" on tv land, so i overhear it sometimes.  it takes place in book publishing, and they were bringing in some author.  when someone in their 20's asks someone in their 30's who she was, the response was something like, "she's great.  she's like the new dr. ruth." and everyone nodded and understood.  i'm 42 and i barely remember dr ruth and what she was about.  my wife is 30 and was like, "wtf is dr ruth?"  know your audience, people.

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On 8/14/2018 at 9:48 PM, Lhorn said:

Yeah, it's almost impossible for the dumbass/dufus of a commercial to be anyone other than a male, usually caucasian.  It's a little tiring.

The guy in a blowhard or an incompetent boob saved by his girl friend who is way hotter than he is.  It's been a staple of sitcoms for the last 10-15 years.   

 

 

The goofy dumbass friend is ALWAYS the white guy. Grew tiresome 20 years ago at least, yet they still trot it out. God forbid the black guy is the dufus in a relationship. 

I have young children, and on the Disney/Nick shows they watch, the dad is always this imbecilic, clueless shlub that is always being outsmarted by the kids and wife.  

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The "misunderstanding that takes half the movie or an entire episode to sort out" cliche is my least favorite film staple.

So and so overhears such and such talking to what's his name and takes what they say completely out of context (or, sometimes, incorrectly assumes that it's even about them), flips their shit, ends whatever relationship they were building with such and such, and it's never cleared up until the very end. Just lazy. 

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On 8/14/2018 at 7:26 PM, Knoxtnhorn said:

What about every commercial where the mom leaves the kids with the dad and all hell breaks loose because men are never, EVER be capable of cooking a simple meal or cleaning up after the kids.

No male has ever been able to change a diaper. Not one. It's a television fact.

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1 hour ago, aggie08 said:

The "misunderstanding that takes half the movie or an entire episode to sort out" cliche is my least favorite film staple.

So and so overhears such and such talking to what's his name and takes what they say completely out of context (or, sometimes, incorrectly assumes that it's even about them), flips their shit, ends whatever relationship they were building with such and such, and it's never cleared up until the very end. Just lazy. 

If they stopped that, wouldn't the Hallmark Channel have to close up shop?

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2 hours ago, lateshow said:

The goofy dumbass friend is ALWAYS the white guy. Grew tiresome 20 years ago at least, yet they still trot it out. God forbid the black guy is the dufus in a relationship. 

I have young children, and on the Disney/Nick shows they watch, the dad is always this imbecilic, clueless shlub that is always being outsmarted by the kids and wife.  

the casting issue, for better or worse, is here to stay.

typically when someone writes a show, they write what they know, and what they've experienced.  when there are two buddies, often times the note is "these two characters are too similar".  yeah, duh, they're best friends, so that's why they're written this way.  this results in one being smart and the other dumb.  one being good with the ladies, one being awkward.  general shit to make it easy for the re-re's and the mo-mo's.

then there's the "friend".  if he's fat and goofy, yeah, he's probably white.  if he's insightful and caring, he's probably gay.  if he's smart, you're looking at an indian (dot not feather).  this unfortunately happens when the network gets involved.  look at a bunch of sitcoms that are or have been popular.  they typically figure out a way to get a gay guy or indian dude in there.

i think pretty much every hour long show currently on tv has a gay or lesbian sub-plot.

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3 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

another joke i've seen about 15x since the show first premiered, is when something bad or embarrassing is happening to a character, and he looks around and says, "am i being punk'd?".  good for ashton kutcher that he somehow got that word into regular usage as a verb, but it's been a while since that show was on, and it's been a long time since the show was relevant.  time to retire the joke.  i feel like it's people in their 40's trying to write a joke they think people in their 20's will get, but no.

on that same subject, so often i watch shows that are clearly written for 20-30 year olds, but written by 35-55 year olds (the age of most tv writers).  my wife watches "younger" on tv land, so i overhear it sometimes.  it takes place in book publishing, and they were bringing in some author.  when someone in their 20's asks someone in their 30's who she was, the response was something like, "she's great.  she's like the new dr. ruth." and everyone nodded and understood.  i'm 42 and i barely remember dr ruth and what she was about.  my wife is 30 and was like, "wtf is dr ruth?"  know your audience, people.

and that's how you humblebrag.     

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4 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

another joke i've seen about 15x since the show first premiered, is when something bad or embarrassing is happening to a character, and he looks around and says, "am i being punk'd?".  good for ashton kutcher that he somehow got that word into regular usage as a verb, but it's been a while since that show was on, and it's been a long time since the show was relevant.  time to retire the joke.  i feel like it's people in their 40's trying to write a joke they think people in their 20's will get, but no. 

 

The "Am I on Candid Camera?" similar joke probably lasted about 25 years until they dusted it off and refreshed it to reference Punk'd.

Around 2030 there will be some other lame prank show and the reference will update.

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I hate the ever-expanding lie plot.  A guy tells one lie to Person A to cover up something embarrassing.  Person A tells Person B in front of the guy, B asks a question and guy is forced to embellish.  Shit snowballs from there.  Guy has to come clean in the end, cue the Hallmark moment.

Ugh.  

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What about every commercial where the mom leaves the kids with the dad and all hell breaks loose because men are never, EVER be capable of cooking a simple meal or cleaning up after the kids.
Yeah, it's almost impossible for the dumbass/dufus of a commercial to be anyone other than a male, usually caucasian.  It's a little tiring.
The guy in a blowhard or an incompetent boob saved by his girl friend who is way hotter than he is.  It's been a staple of sitcoms for the last 10-15 years.   
 
 
This bullshit ruins a lot of shows and commercials for me.
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For starters I think prescription commercials are a joke.

Good looking Moms/Milfs/Matures in ED medication commercials. 

We all know that if your partner was appealing you probably wouldn't be relying on the penis pills.

Knock on wood....won't happen to me.

 

 

Edited by Al Czervik
spelling, duh
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1 hour ago, Al Czervik said:

For starters I think prescription commercials are a joke.

Good looking Moms/Milfs/Matures in ED medication commercials. 

We all know that if your partner was appealing you probably wouldn't be relying on the penis pills.

Knock on wood....won't happen to me.

You seem to be under the false impression that ED is not a real, physical condition.

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The pimp walk.  When someone is teaching someone how to walk "cool" and they do some exaggerated walk with their arms going up high like some pimp.  I've probably seen in on TV and movies 30 times.  It's horrible.  I'm sure the first time it aired it was funny, but after that...wow.

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i don't like it when everyone in the room is suddenly a stand up comedian. like whoever wrote this tv show had a bunch of jokes they haven't been able to use so one/all of the characters start reeling off similes about whatever is happening. "you look like (insert reference to something i don't care about)"..."this tastes like blank threw up on blank", etc. and they usually have three or four in quick succession. i just don't like it.

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13 hours ago, Goo Punch said:

i don't like it when everyone in the room is suddenly a stand up comedian. like whoever wrote this tv show had a bunch of jokes they haven't been able to use so one/all of the characters start reeling off similes about whatever is happening. "you look like (insert reference to something i don't care about)"..."this tastes like blank threw up on blank", etc. and they usually have three or four in quick succession. i just don't like it.

Yeah. I really hate comedy dialog that seems too perfect. A guy says something but it’s phrased in a way that no one would say in real life and just happens to be a perfect setup for a lightning quick zinger by the other person. Back and forth with dialog that seems like they are setting up jokes for each other.  Endless zingers that take the place of real dialog that advances the plot. 

Edited by Lhorn
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On 8/16/2018 at 10:35 AM, lateshow said:

The goofy dumbass friend is ALWAYS the white guy. Grew tiresome 20 years ago at least, yet they still trot it out. God forbid the black guy is the dufus in a relationship. 

I have young children, and on the Disney/Nick shows they watch, the dad is always this imbecilic, clueless shlub that is always being outsmarted by the kids and wife.  

It builds confidence in people...

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i don't like it when everyone in the room is suddenly a stand up comedian. like whoever wrote this tv show had a bunch of jokes they haven't been able to use so one/all of the characters start reeling off similes about whatever is happening. "you look like (insert reference to something i don't care about)"..."this tastes like blank threw up on blank", etc. and they usually have three or four in quick succession. i just don't like it.


Maybe Swedish existential black and white films are more your speed, where 2/3 of the movie is without dialogue.
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