# Creepy scenes in comedies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 8, 2007, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-scenes-in-comedies/425629 "2007-11-08T04:41:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 4:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-scenes-in-comedies/425629/41 "2007-11-10T04:28:56Z")
[QUOTE=Zoggie] I’d say dark comedy, but that feels wrong. The book felt a lot more comedic than the movie. Somehow reading about those terrible things didn’t feel _so_ bleak because John Irving has a way of…well…putting things. I mean, the book had awful, bleak moments but as a work, it was entertaining. Actually seeing it play out in a movie, you realize that actually being there wouldn’t be so funny. ETA: Also…maybe they’re operating on the assumption that John Lithgow in drag = comedy gold. [/QUOTE] I really hated the book. I read all kinds of genres, you name it, I’ve read some of it, and this is the first book that struck me as obscene. It seemed to revel in tragedy and make a joke out of it, and the double-standards really disgusted me. So I was surprised to hear of it referred to as a comedy. ---
**Author:** ![HazelNutCoffee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ac91a4/32.png) [@HazelNutCoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HazelNutCoffee)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-scenes-in-comedies/425629/42 "2007-11-10T04:41:48Z")
[QUOTE=bbs2k] [Be sure to tell them…](http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6020266229199596457) [/QUOTE] OMG. :: clutches beating heart :: That is not a good thing to watch when you’re stoned. Er, I would imagine, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-scenes-in-comedies/425629/43 "2007-11-10T04:47:50Z")
[QUOTE=Sitnam] Evelyn Mulwray: She’s my daughter. [Gittes slaps Evelyn] Jake Gittes: I said I want the truth! Evelyn Mulwray: She’s my sister… [slap] Evelyn Mulwray: She’s my daughter… [slap] Evelyn Mulwray: My sister, my daughter. [More slaps] Jake Gittes: I said I want the truth! Evelyn Mulwray: She’s my sister AND my daughter! The most bizarre combination of funny, horrifying and uncomfortable I’ve ever seen. [/QUOTE] Maybe, but _Chinatown,_ while it has some good laughs in it, is definitely **not** a comedy. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-scenes-in-comedies/425629/44 "2007-11-10T04:49:52Z")
[QUOTE=Sublight] Pee Wee is hitch-hiking late at night when an 18-wheeler stops to give him a lift. The driver (a woman in her 50’s) proceeds to tell a story about a horrific crash that occurred on this very stretch of road, on a foggy night just like this one. She finishes with, "and when they finally pulled the driver’s body from the twisted, burning wreck… It looked just… like… [THIS!](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHO3wuNHFFc) [/QUOTE] I’m sure that’s a parody of country song (sort of “song,” it’s all talk over the background music, no rhyme or meter) I’ve heard about a “phantom trucker,” but I can’t recall title or artist. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-scenes-in-comedies/425629/45 "2007-11-10T14:02:55Z")
How about Kubrick’s LOLITA? It starts when Humbert sees Lolita for the first time and ends when he sees her for the last time. A friend was going on about the Adrian Lynne (?) version being beautiful & disturbing. I replied- “It was OK, but it wasn’t as funny as the original movie.” A moment of silence. “FUNNY?!?! THE FIRST ONE WAS FUNNY!?!?” “God help me, yes. Mainly due to Peter Sellers but not only him.” ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-scenes-in-comedies/425629/46 "2007-11-10T17:07:30Z")
The “Koko the Clown” segment in _The Groove Tube._ “OK, our next request is for a reading from the Marquis de Sade’s _Philosophy in the Bedroom,_ but we’re not going to have time for that today . . .” ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-scenes-in-comedies/425629/47 "2007-11-10T19:01:05Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] I’m sure that’s a parody of country song (sort of “song,” it’s all talk over the background music, no rhyme or meter) I’ve heard about a “phantom trucker,” but I can’t recall title or artist. [/QUOTE] Probably “Big Joe and Phantom 309,” which Tom Waits sang over guitar accompaniment on his early (1975?) double live album _Nighthawks at the Diner_. I always saw this song as a parody of the thousands of “Phantom Hitchhiker” urban legends, because in this case the hitchhiker was Waits and the DRIVER was the ghost. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-scenes-in-comedies/425629/48 "2007-11-10T19:40:57Z")
Not a scene but one of those throw-away lines: _Flesh Gordon:_ DR. JERKOFF TO DALE ARDOR: Try this on. It’s my mother’s dress. She was buried in it. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-scenes-in-comedies/425629/49 "2007-11-10T19:42:32Z")
[QUOTE=Ukulele Ike] Probably “Big Joe and Phantom 309,” which Tom Waits sang over guitar accompaniment on his early (1975?) double live album _Nighthawks at the Diner_. I always saw this song as a parody of the thousands of “Phantom Hitchhiker” urban legends, because in this case the hitchhiker was Waits and the DRIVER was the ghost. [/QUOTE] So the scene in _Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure_ is a parody of a parody! I like that! 🙂 “I know you are, but what is this?” – [Paul Reubens](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pee-wee_Herman#Arrests) ---
**Author:** ![Lovely\_Rosita\_meter\_senorita\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/74df32/32.png) [@Lovely\_Rosita\_meter\_senorita\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lovely_Rosita_meter_senorita_1)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-scenes-in-comedies/425629/50 "2007-11-10T20:38:14Z")
In _Raising Arizona_ (from the Coen Brothers), Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunter accidentally leave a baby on their car roof as they drive off. Scary as hell, but played for laughs. ---
**Author:** ![Bytegeist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@Bytegeist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bytegeist)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-scenes-in-comedies/425629/51 "2007-11-10T20:49:50Z")
[QUOTE=Lovely Rosita,meter señorita] In _Raising Arizona_ (from the Coen Brothers), Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunter accidentally leave a baby on their car roof as they drive off. Scary as hell, but played for laughs. [/QUOTE] To nitpick: that’s actualy Gale and Evelle (the escaped criminals, friends of Hi) who do that. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2007, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-scenes-in-comedies/425629/52 "2007-11-10T21:00:04Z")
[QUOTE=Bytegeist] To nitpick: that’s actualy Gale and Evelle (the escaped criminals, friends of Hi) who do that. [/QUOTE] “Never leave a man behind!” ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2007, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-scenes-in-comedies/425629/53 "2007-11-11T02:17:08Z")
There was some stupid Jackie Chan comedy that was all about baby in danger gags. Baby accidentally left in a running washing machine, baby nearly frozen to death, ha ha ha. I was stuck on a highway bus watching this thing, going back to work after a weekend with my baby daughter. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/creepy-scenes-in-comedies/425629.md?page=2)