There are often some really great little things in the background of TV shows or movies that are quick, but funny.
Two examples of things in the background that made me laugh recently were on the show Raising Hope:
Woman believes the world is going to end December 21st this year and you see her reading a book called, “Eat, Pray, Die”.
Cardboard sign on the side of an ice cream truck, written with a black marker, "We no longer sell weed."
An episode of Criminal Minds where the team was tracking down a killer clown had Prentiss standing in front of a sign with LEGACY written on it, only she was blocking the first two letters, so all that showed was GACY…in memory of killer clown John Wayne Gacy.
The all-time winner has to be “Police Squad” with Leslie Nielsen, the forerunner of the Naked Gun movies. There were usually so many sight gags going on in the background (e.g., a PO pulling coffee mugs out of a cabinet marked “Mug File”) that it was sometimes difficult to focus on the main action.
Also, all of the later STAR TREK series all had things in their viewscreen graphics, etc., that were hilarious if you could get close enough to make them out (e.g., “Tribbles offered to good homes, free!” or “Baldness cured, only 150 quatloos”).
Unfortunately I can’t remember which movie it was. The people who were the focus of attention were chatting, waiting to get to their seats, etc. In the background, somebody was stuffing a baby into one of the overhead compartments.
Community had instances of someone saying the word “beetlejuice” in three different episodes. The third was a Halloween episode, and when the character says the name, someone walks by in a Bettlejuice costume.
Abed also delivered a baby completely in the background of one episode.
How I Met Your Mother did the same thing with Robin.
Also, the most recent episode of The Office ended with Daryl collapsing in a drunken heap. Throughout the episode you see him drinking more and more in the background.
IIRC Robin not only delivered a baby, but she put out a fire, gave CPR to a heart attack victim and I think some other stuff, all in the background of a fight between Ted and Lily.
I wish I could remember the show, probably the Simpsons. A couple times throughout the episode you see a truck going by with an acronym on the side spelling out MILF.
That’s half the fun of watching Bob’s Burgers. The burger of the day is always a terrible pun. Also, the various shop names on the street are rediculously funny.
In Alien Nation, during a conversation that was the center of attention, they showed George casually squeezing mustard onto something: the container was obscured by a windowsill. A moment later, still talking, George comes out carrying only a cup of coffee.
Not sure if this quite qualifies, but one thing I always loved about the Gene Wilder Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory was how, in the news clip about the (fraudulent) finder of the last Golden Ticket, the photo is of Martin Bormann.
This reminds of the Futurama DVD commentary for the episode where Fry & Bender join the army. The commentators mention that they spend all this time thinking of clever signs or posters that almost no one reads because they’re out of the frame quickly or there’s several of them so you’d only have time to read one.
I guess these days, people just pause the episode and transcribe them all onto a fan site or something.
In one episode of Arrested Development, George Michael has broken up with his girlfriend, walking head down and depressed. A couple passes carrying a Christmas tree, jazz piano is playing “Christmas Time is Here,” and there’s a red doghouse with a beagle lying on it.
I came in to mention **Arrested Development ** as well. They always put a bunch of stuff in the background, but one of my favorites is when GOB is at his mother’s apartment and says, “If I have to smell another meal of fish, rice, and mango I’m going to kill somebody.” In the background you see his mother’s housekeeper Lupe in the kitchen quickly put the lid on a Tupperware container and walk out of frame.
He does at least one talking head segment being clearly drunk and actively drinking. That was pretty far from background.
In an episode of How I Met Your Mother, in a scene at McLarens Bar, Conan O’Brien is standing in the background, looking directly into the camera. Yet I didn’t even notice him the first time around. I read about it here on the SDMB, retrieved the show on my DVR, and I’ll be damned, there he is!
There was a joke like this on My Name is Earl. At the time the show was being broadcast, most people still had full screen analog tv’s . But wide screen high-definition tv’s had begun to be sold.
There was a scene where Earl and another character were talking in the foreground of the picture. Randy was off to the side and standing in the background, holding a piece of paper that said “Hi-Def Rules”. You would only be able to see and read the sign if you had a wide-screen HDTV.
I was also going to post about My Name is Earl. Often their background signs would stay stuff like that when HD was rare. Also if a character spoke another language they would often say meta comments that were directed at the audience.
Another thing they did which is not quite on topic but pretty amazing is in one episode they had a character who died and it was discovered he was very active online. In one scene they read a post he made on Television Without Pity. The producers had gone as far as to create the account in question for real and make the actual post months earlier that they read on screen.