# Scenes that were serious back then but risible now **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 25, 2022, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-were-serious-back-then-but-risible-now/972223 "2022-09-25T21:57:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![jnglmassiv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f07891/32.png) [@jnglmassiv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jnglmassiv)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-were-serious-back-then-but-risible-now/972223/21 "2022-09-26T18:28:32Z")
> I don’t like sand. It’s coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. > [@griffin1977](#): > > A lot of The Godfather I’d say qualifies now. Leave the gun. Take the canolli. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-were-serious-back-then-but-risible-now/972223/22 "2022-09-26T18:33:59Z")
> [@Hampshire](#): > > STELLA!! Similarly “I could have been a contender!” ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-were-serious-back-then-but-risible-now/972223/23 "2022-09-26T18:42:34Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > “There is a herd of killer rabbits headed out way and we desperately need your help!” _– Night of the Lepus_ > > Clearly intended to be serious, but people laughed at it from the beginning. ST:Voyager, “Learning Curve”: > **["Star Trek: Voyager" Learning Curve (TV Episode 1995) - Quotes - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708921/quotes/?ref_=tt_ql_sm)** > > Learning Curve: Directed by David Livingston. With Kate Mulgrew, Robert Beltran, Roxann Dawson, Jennifer Lien. As Neelix's cooking sickens Voyager itself, Tuvok runs the four most problematic Maquis malcontents through a Starfleet-style boot camp. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-were-serious-back-then-but-risible-now/972223/24 "2022-09-26T19:28:21Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > TvTropes calls this the [“Seinfeld Is Unfunny”](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunny) trope - a work is so often copied and parodied that it comes to seem hackneyed and derivative I don’t think it’s describing exactly the same thing. Usually when you feel something is hackneyed and derivative (even if you know that it’s not), you don’t also find it humorous. Nobody today is watching _Seinfeld_ and saying, “Oh my God! Jerry’s gotten himself into another situation that other sitcoms have since copied a hundred times over! This is comedy gold!” ---
**Author:** ![Bonum\_Legatum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bonum_legatum/32/6183_2.png) [@Bonum\_Legatum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bonum_Legatum)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-were-serious-back-then-but-risible-now/972223/25 "2022-09-26T19:34:33Z")
For a send up of many lines and scenes, including “We don’t need no stinking badgers,” see _UHF_ with Weird Al Yankovic. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-were-serious-back-then-but-risible-now/972223/26 "2022-09-26T20:17:35Z")
> [@Skywatcher](#): > > ST:Voyager, “Learning Curve”: Talking of Star Trek. The original series is full of examples of the OP. I mean the whole thing comes across as very camp and risible, but particularly the scenes that have been parodied (like the Kirk vs Gorn fight, or any occasion a red shirt dies 😁 ) Loath to admit it (as it came out what 10-15 years ago tops 😉 ) probably the Next Generation is also starting to look that way too. Whichever episode the Picard Facepalm meme comes from is definitely less well known that the meme itself: [![](https://www.cnet.com/a/img/resize/d85df57a1aa5881be3bfb4256a181aaf58d4d9ff/hub/2019/05/22/1b710a6b-5f4d-4987-a046-c23674b221a3/picard-meme-facepalm.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=675&precrop=1331,746,x109,y127&width=1200) ](https://www.cnet.com/a/img/resize/d85df57a1aa5881be3bfb4256a181aaf58d4d9ff/hub/2019/05/22/1b710a6b-5f4d-4987-a046-c23674b221a3/picard-meme-facepalm.jpg?auto=webp&fit=crop&height=675&precrop=1331,746,x109,y127&width=1200) ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-were-serious-back-then-but-risible-now/972223/27 "2022-09-26T20:27:36Z")
Somebody once said, nothing about Next Generation screams “It was the 80s” quite so much as this: Meet our bridge crew: The brave and resourceful Captain. The Captain’s loyal, stalwart First Officer. And the Captain’s therapist. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-were-serious-back-then-but-risible-now/972223/28 "2022-09-26T20:38:54Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > When I saw _The Maltese Falcon_, I thought it was a mishmash of hardboiled detective noir cliches. And it was - because it established those cliches in the first place. That’s similar to my reaction to watching _Hamlet_. ---
**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:** [September 26, 2022, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-were-serious-back-then-but-risible-now/972223/29 "2022-09-26T21:19:07Z")
From **The Apartment** : > I live in the West Sixties - just half a block from Central Park. My rent is $84 a month. ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-were-serious-back-then-but-risible-now/972223/30 "2022-09-26T21:31:57Z")
> [@griffin1977](#): > > > [@Hampshire](#): > > > > STELLA!! > > Similarly “I could have been a contender!” If you are watching either of the original movies, I don’t think you’ll be laughing. Out of the movie, out of context, maybe. But I just can’t imagine anyone being so jaded they would laugh at Brando at this stage in his career. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2022, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-were-serious-back-then-but-risible-now/972223/31 "2022-09-26T21:53:02Z")
The iconic opening of _Easy Rider_, where Peter Fonda pulled off his wristwatch and threw it away, had already become a joke when Albert Brooks threw his watch out the window of his Winnebago in _Lost in America._ ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-were-serious-back-then-but-risible-now/972223/32 "2022-09-27T00:01:02Z")
> [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](#): > > TvTropes calls this the [“Seinfeld Is Unfunny”](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunny) trope - a work is so often copied and parodied that it comes to seem hackneyed and derivative. When I saw _The Maltese Falcon_, I thought it was a mishmash of hardboiled detective noir cliches. And it was - because it established those cliches in the first place. When I see _The Maltese Falcon_ now, I’m amused that Wilmer, Cairo, and Guttman are all clearly meant to be gay. ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-were-serious-back-then-but-risible-now/972223/33 "2022-09-27T01:03:57Z")
I think this was intended as a joke then - the Surgeon General hadn’t made his announcement but the fact that cigarettes were dangerous was widely known even in 1951. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-were-serious-back-then-but-risible-now/972223/34 "2022-09-27T01:21:03Z")
_42nd Street_ is another film that originated many film cliches, so it seems much more hackneyed than it was to audiences who saw it when it came out. Also, a line that always provokes unintentional laughter from the audience is the scene in _It’s a Wonderful Life_ when George Bailey sees the cop and the cabbie at the broken-down house and shouts “Bert! Ernie!” ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-were-serious-back-then-but-risible-now/972223/35 "2022-09-27T02:10:04Z")
Unfortunately, a lot of the makers of the movie are dead to ask if that was their intention, thing is that the movie includes other scenes where actors are smoking, with no accidental irony. [http://smokescreeners.net/all-films/pages/The\_Day\_the\_Earth\_Stood\_Still\_(1951)/index.html](http://smokescreeners.net/all-films/pages/The_Day_the_Earth_Stood_Still_(1951)/index.html) Also, at that time, the tobacco companies ruled the entertainment industry a lot in those years. > **[Signed, sealed and delivered: “big tobacco” in Hollywood, 1927–1951](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2602591/)** > > Smoking in movies is associated with adolescent and young adult smoking initiation. Public health efforts to eliminate smoking from films accessible to youth have been countered by defenders of the status quo, who associate tobacco imagery in... ---
**Author:** ![Andy\_L](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c67d28/32.png) [@Andy\_L](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy_L)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-were-serious-back-then-but-risible-now/972223/36 "2022-09-27T10:20:00Z")
Agreed. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-were-serious-back-then-but-risible-now/972223/37 "2022-09-27T13:48:19Z")
In the early Woody Allen movie **Bananas** a gang of thugs comes into the subway car and start threatening people, including a Little Old Lady. Nobody interferes, including Allen’s character, until they come to a stop and Allen gets up and pushes them out at the last moment. Only it isn’t the last moment – the doors re-open, and they come for him. The thug attack isn’t meant to be funny – it’s serious until the pushing-out-the-door scene occurs. But it’s impossible for modern audiences to take seriously because the Lead Thug is an easily recognizable pre- **Rocky** Sylvester Stallone. One play – and movie – that has been overtaken by time is Neil Simon’s first, **Come Blow Your Horn**. The main character has a “swinging” big brother, Alan, whose girlfriend, Connie, has been after him for years to get married and settle down. She finally enters, clearly drunk, and says they should spend the night together. Alan reacts with alarm and desperately tries to get her to change her mind and go home. Can a modern audience even begin to relate? Clearly a vast cultural change has swept through between then and now. (The movie version starred a definitely-too-old-for-the-role Frank Sinatra as Alan. The only good point was that Dean Martin had a cameo as a drunk approaching him.) ---
**Author:** ![MrAtoz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@MrAtoz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrAtoz)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-were-serious-back-then-but-risible-now/972223/38 "2022-09-27T14:05:08Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > **DOCTOR ONE** : He says their medicine is that much more advanced. He was very nice about it, but he made me feel like a third-class witch doctor!"\* [puffs his cigarette] Not quite the same thing, but of the same period and also involving cigarettes. In _The Creature from the Black Lagoon_, there’s a scene where the hero and heroine are leaning over the rail of the boat, discussing the great beauty of the unspoiled, untrodden wilderness that they’re sailing through. At which point they finish their cigarettes and casually toss them into the river. I don’t know if it was intended as a deliberate piece of irony at the time (it may well have been), but it definitely looks that way now. ---
**Author:** ![sciurophobic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cab0a1/32.png) [@sciurophobic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sciurophobic)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-were-serious-back-then-but-risible-now/972223/39 "2022-09-27T14:22:41Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > When I see _The Maltese Falcon_ now, I’m amused that Wilmer, Cairo, and Guttman are all clearly meant to be gay. For example, the actual meaning of the word _gunsel_. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2022, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-were-serious-back-then-but-risible-now/972223/40 "2022-09-27T14:58:19Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > **DOCTOR ONE** : He says their medicine is that much more advanced. He was very nice about it, but he made me feel like a third-class witch doctor!"\* [puffs his cigarette] > > Indeed! I was at a showing of _The Day the Earth Stood Still_ in the mid-seventies at MIT, and this scene evoked laughter then. Only a quarter of a century after it was originally released. Sometimes local geography and circumstances can do the same thing. Near the end of TDTESS the military units tracking Klaatu’s route say “He’s turning on to Massachusetts Avenue!” 77 Massachusetts Avenue is the “front door” address of MIT, so that brought a burst of laughter. Similarly, one line that was _meant_ to be funny was, when I saw it, much more hilarious, for a completely different reason. In **Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home** the Enterprise Bridge crew has time-traveled back to the 20th century and Kirk, trying to account for Spock’s apparently eccentric behavior, explains to their 20th Century contact that “I think he did a little too much LDS” Of course, Kirk meant “LSD”, so it’s funny that he screwed up the familiar initials. But I saw this at the premiere in Salt Lake City, the heart of the Mormon world. Except that they prefer the term “Latter Day Saints”, commonly abbreviated “LDS”. So when Kirk explains to Gillian Spock’s weird behavior by saying it’s because he did a little too much LDS, it was right on the mark. The theater erupted with howls of laughter, and you could hear any of the lines for a couple of minutes. Gillian’s rejoinder (“A little too much LDS?”, said in a skeptical tone) was lost in the roar. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-were-serious-back-then-but-risible-now/972223.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/scenes-that-were-serious-back-then-but-risible-now/972223.md?page=3)