There’s nothing more embarrassing than this; the thing that is meant to be completely serious and yet has some sort of painfully stupid element.
In the Metal Gear series of cinematic military video games, it’s revealed in an incredibly serious cut-scene that the secret cabal of people that conspire to run the world from behind the scenes are called…the “La-li-lu-le-lo.” As in, it sounds like a stupid child saying a nonsense rhyme or something. This is delivered without a hint of humor or acknowledgment that it’s one of the stupidest things ever written with serious, expository intent. The first time a character revealed this, I burst out laughing, which was the polar opposite of the intended effect.
Hmmm ? I haven’t gotten that far in the game series, but I understand that that was the result of brainwashing; that their actually name is “The Patriots”, but the brainwashing forces it to come out as nonsense. The ideas being that people ( at least the brainwashed ones ) can’t even say their name.
Metal Gear is made in Japan, right? That make la-li-lu-le-lo more like them saying “XYZ” and not nonsense, since kana charts are generally arranged with the syllables in a-i-u-e-o order.
How do you know that’s not the intended effect? If you were creating a secret cabal that wanted to take over the world, wouldn’t you want to make it sound so ridiculous that if someone found out about you, noone would believe them?
Metal Gear dialog (grooooan) don’t remind me.
I’ve only played one Metal Gear game in my life and while the gaming elements were fun the dialog was just wince inducing crap written for a horny testosterone full 12 year-old. Gravely voice dude flirting with every female he comes into contact with beyond cheesy lines. Loooong drawn out explanatory speeches before fighting your enemy. It just ruined any momentum the game had.
I just watched Fifth Element yesterday, and there’s a scene that never fails to make me roll me eyes. It’s far from a dead serious movie, but there’s one scene played straight, where Bruce Willis is talking to his friend on the phone:
“Finger, I was on my way to see you when this really big fare fell into my lap. You know, the kind of fare you just can’t pass up?”
“Oh. How big?”
“Mmmm…5’9”, red hair, long legs, great skin. You know…perfect."
“I see. And this ‘perfect fare’, she got a name?”
“Yeah…Leeloo.”
The expression on Bruce’s face is so wistful, and his tone so lovey-dovey, that when “Leeloo” pops out I just crack up. It’s just such a goofy-sounding name in that context.
For all I know, the goofiness might be intentional, but the scene is played totally straight up to that point.