# Ever watched a comedy that had no laughs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [December 6, 2022, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094 "2022-12-06T14:56:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2022, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/61 "2022-12-07T02:37:32Z")
Tim and Eric even tried their hand at mumblecore with a film called…[The Comedy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Comedy_(film)). It is (by design, I assume) not very funny. ---
**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:** [December 7, 2022, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/62 "2022-12-07T03:27:15Z")
As I mentioned in another thread, I don’t get _The White Lotus._ it’s billed as a dark comedy. I can’t see any comedic elements at all. No attempt at funny lines. No comedic situations. Nothing comedic at all. Everything else mentioned I recognize as a comedy even if it’s not to my taste. _White Lotus_ isn’t like that. ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2022, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/63 "2022-12-07T04:29:27Z")
Once attended one of the Sydney comedy clubs where one of the regulars was [Johnathan Biggins](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Biggins). A very funny and accomplished man. For one of his routines he was announced as somebody somebody, Iceland’s leading stand-up comedian on his first trip to Australia. He walked onto stage with a gleaming smile wearing something vaguely resembling the Iceland National costume. Being high summer here it was a rather incongruous outfit. Somebody patently hadn’t done their homework. He then went into his big opening gag. There was familiar tonation, phrasing and timing. The problem was it was all said in some incomprehensible argot, presumably Icelandic but might have been total gibberish. Landed his punch line, paused for applause and the entire crowd just looked back at him blankly. Biggin’s character went through the sudden, awful realisation that nobody in the crowd understood a word he’d spoken, nor did he speak a word of English. Tried another joke that might well have slayed them in Reykjavík. Absolutely zippo, nada, zap reaction from the locals. With a mixture of desperation and terror he went through his entire repertoire of comedy, impressions, sound effects, physical, slapstick. Anything to get a response but none came. He stuck at it. Did his 5 minute routine, bowed, walked off crestfallen and totally beaten … to a standing ovation. Funny man, Mr Biggins. ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2022, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/64 "2022-12-07T04:38:11Z")
> [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > Just watched the trailer for Drinking Buddies. It’s not portrayed as a comedy from what I saw. > > No laughs or no jokes? Everything I’ve seen of the Big Bang Theory was painfully unfunny (there actually was a thread here not too long ago about the funniest scenes of all time, most of which I hated), but you definitely know what the writers think are laugh lines. The trailer I saw for _Drinking Buddies_ portrayed it as a quirky dramedy. It was one of a string of similarly-maketed indy movies of the time, like _Friends With Kids_, _This Is Where I Leave You_, and _The Overnight_. None made to look like true comedies, but all trailers packed every single possible humorous moment that effectively changes the entire tone of the film. That’s **different** than a comedy that fills its trailer with every joke that lands. Those are especially dishonest but easily spotted. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2022, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/65 "2022-12-07T05:01:30Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > I’d wager that, on the whole, the people who still would find **Revenge of the Nerds** hilarious will be older than those who wouldn’t laugh at all. I looooooooooved Revenge of the Nerds in my younger days (graduated high school in 1991). Now it absolutely makes me cringe how much of it is beyond-horrifyingly-offensive. And yet, at the same time, it’s a movie with a ton of heart and a message of diversity and acceptance. Diversity, acceptance, and playing-rape-for-laughs. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2022, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/66 "2022-12-07T05:31:58Z")
My favorite line: **A:** “Hey, man. Why do they call you ‘Booger’?” **B:** (_Picking his nose_) :“I dunno, man.” ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2022, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/67 "2022-12-07T06:17:38Z")
Out of curiosity, I looked it up as well, and I agree. It doesn’t come across as a comedy at all. Perhaps a “light” drama (ok, maybe it does fit the feel of a romantic comedy)but it doesn’t seem to be playing for laughs. ---
**Author:** ![Tusculan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecd19e/32.png) [@Tusculan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tusculan)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2022, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/68 "2022-12-07T07:13:07Z")
I did watch _Drinking buddies_ and finished it in several sittings, had the same reaction that it wasn’t a laugh-out loud comedy. Still I can understand calling it a comedy-drama and not solely drama, as it is not a drama in the high-dramatic sense of terrible things happening. It is a light-weight drama about a group of loosely-related friends or acquaintances who are having fun and arguments together. I vaguely recall that some of the interaction is slightly humorous or amusing, in the way friends banter, which to me suffices to call it comedy/drama. These kind of movies used to be much more common in the seventies (possibly still the eighties), and maybe more in Europe than in America. Simply depicting a slice of life with fairly low stakes. As long as you enter with the correct expectations, it is actually refreshing after tons of movies about super-heroes and social commentary. Comedy-drama may not be the best way to refer to it, but I can’t immediately think of an alternative. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2022, 7:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/69 "2022-12-07T07:28:28Z")
> [@penultima\_thule](#): > > … Landed his punch line, paused for applause and the entire crowd just looked back at him blankly. > > … Tried another joke… Absolutely zippo, nada, zap reaction from the locals. > > With a mixture of desperation and terror he went through his entire repertoire of comedy, impressions, sound effects, physical, slapstick. Anything to get a response but none came. > > He stuck at it. Did his 5 minute routine, bowed, walked off crestfallen and totally beaten … to a standing ovation. When I was in college, this happened to a PolSci classmate of mine at Freshman Talent Night. The only laugh I heard was from the girl sitting next to me when I said (_sotto voce_) “Oh. That was supposed to be a joke!” after one particularly lame line. When Philip finally gave up and got off the stage, the applause was thunderous! ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2022, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/70 "2022-12-07T14:35:47Z")
I’ll admit that the movie does a great job of the slice-of-life portrayal; the character interaction was far less… forced(?) and the dialogue was considerably more natural, even if it wasn’t as slick as most comedies. In other words, it really did seem like real people interacting. And the cast was great at that as well- they were all entirely believable as those characters. In a lot of ways, it was surprisingly well done. But it wasn’t _funny_. If they were parodying a certain type of person, they did so in such a subtle and not obvious way, that it didn’t really register as parody or satire. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2022, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/71 "2022-12-07T14:54:09Z")
The 2022 movie Hustle isn’t even described as a “comedy”-it is a drama, pure and simple. And yet Adam Sandler just got the People’s Choice Award for comedy for his work in that movie. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2022, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/72 "2022-12-07T14:55:31Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Hustle Weird. What I’d read (haven’t seen it yet) is that it’s an example of how Sandler’s actually a decent actor and branching out from his particular brand of comedy into dramatic roles. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2022, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/73 "2022-12-07T15:07:58Z")
> [@bump](#): > > But it wasn’t _funny_. If they were parodying a certain type of person, they did so in such a subtle and not obvious way, that it didn’t really register as parody or satire. Are you sure it’s intended to be funny? Like I said above, the trailer sure doesn’t make it look funny; Wikipedia does describe it as a comedy-drama, but one of the British critics quoted later describes it as a “lo-fi relationship drama”, no mention of comedy in his categorization. I feel like maybe you were expecting something else. As to the general question in the OP, I’ve definitely watched “black comedies” that have not elicited outward laughs from me, but have – I dunno – intellectually amused the hell out of me. I mean, even something like “Waiting for Godot” I find funny as hell, but you won’t really find me laughing at it, though I probably would not be able to stifle a smile in enjoyment. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2022, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/74 "2022-12-07T15:29:18Z")
Big Bang Theory is the worst. They used lazy nerd culture stereotypes, lazy misogynistic jokes, and lazy emasculation jokes aimed at the nerds. The actors are all very talented but if you took the laugh track out of this show, there would be no laughs. > **[Here's why The Big Bang Theory is one of the worst TV shows in human history](https://entertainment.ie/tv/tv-news/heres-why-the-big-bang-theory-is-one-of-the-worst-tv-shows-in-human-history-212104/)** > > The Big Bang Theory has now forced itself on TV audiences for a total of nine years and, in that time, the sitcom hasn't even ONCE attempted to make a good epis... ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2022, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/75 "2022-12-07T15:41:47Z")
I wouldn’t have called it a comedy, but it’s listed under “comedy” on Netflix, IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, and Wikipedia. That’s sort of my point- every sort of listing has “comedy” in it, but when it’s actually watched, there aren’t even attempts at comedic anything. Which is different than say… Big Bang Theory. Maybe it does use bad stereotypes, lame jokes, etc… and isn’t someone’s cup of tea, but there’s no question that they’re _trying_ to make people laugh. > [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > Big Bang Theory is the worst. They used lazy nerd culture stereotypes I don’t know… enough of that stuff hit home to be funny to me, in a sort of exaggerated way. Like Sheldon & co. were like exaggerated versions of people I know. I mean, I know people who while they didn’t camp out for “Revenge of the Sith” tickets, they did take the afternoon off work to go get in line. Or people who spend LOTS of money on board games/collectible card games. Or who dress up on Halloween as obscure anime characters. Or who play World of Warcraft obsessively, and so forth. Granted, no one person does all that stuff, but enough do pieces of that stuff to make it amusing. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2022, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/76 "2022-12-07T15:49:39Z")
Well, comedy-drama at least in the Wikipedia article. I don’t remember laughing at The Wonder Years, really, but it’s classified as a dramedy. When I see “comedy-drama” I typically expect a lighter type of drama. ---
**Author:** ![CorpusNeptune](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/corpusneptune/32/17561_2.png) [@CorpusNeptune](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CorpusNeptune)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2022, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/77 "2022-12-07T16:16:08Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > When I see “comedy-drama” I typically expect a lighter type of drama. Not everyone does though, which is sort of where the problem lies. The naming is…somewhat deceptive. You expect a belly-laugh comedy along with drama, but instead, you just get a lighter drama with fewer stakes. Not that that’s a bad thing to have, but we should have a new label for that kinda stuff to avoid confusion. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2022, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/78 "2022-12-07T16:19:46Z")
I think the term does get a bit fuzzy, with some dramedies having more obvious comedy, and others just having that lighter drama feel. Like _Moonlighting_ had many bits that had me laughing out loud, but something like Doogie Howser, MD — not really. (Both are examples mentioned in the Wikipedia article about comedy-dramas, which is why I used them.) ---
**Author:** ![planetcory](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/planetcory/32/1032_2.png) [@planetcory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/planetcory)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2022, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/79 "2022-12-07T16:53:42Z")
Watched the trailer for **Drinking Buddies** and found it (very) mildly amusing. Watching them interact humorously made me feel some kind of warm… something. Definitely more of a dramedy than a full blown comedy. ---
**Author:** ![vislor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vislor/32/5933_2.png) [@vislor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vislor)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2022, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/80 "2022-12-07T17:04:59Z")
BBT - I have a love-hate with this show. By the last two seasons, I was watching it more out of habit and because I had invested all this time in it. I didn’t laugh that much though in the latter half of its run. I hated Sheldon at the end. I could keep analyzing things but enough has been said. As bump said, I knew, or was, some of the people portrayed in early seasons, which kept me watching. Seinfeld - I understand I’m on the wrong side as the show was popular. I have friends who love it and rewatch it yearly. As I said, I watched one season when it was before or around other shows I was watching, such as Friends. (It was on the Must See NBC Thursday.) They had one brilliant, to me, episode and I kept expecting that. Never getting it again, it was easy to drop. I grew up with PBS showing Monty Python and enjoyed it. Then the movies. Then reading about what they were mocking and enjoying it again. If my PBS played Fawlty Towers, I never got into it. I also cringe at the things I did like, such as Revenge of the Nerds, Porky’s, Friends in many ways, or similar shows that were normal at the time but awful. Most of the time now, we want some element of SciFi/Supernatural/Fantasy in the shows we watch. That usually means for comedy, we are watching stand up comedy of people we know and every once in a while try someone new. It also means we don’t watch many sitcoms, although we have found Ghost to be okay. Thanks for the discussion! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094.md?page=5)