When I zing a friend with a wisecrack, I’ll usually follow up with “I’m sorry, that was rude”, even if they are laughing along. Has anyone ever seen this happen on a show like How I Met Your Mother or *Seinfeld *? I can picture Elaine needing to say this to George a lot in real life. Have you seen one sitcom character truly take offense at a joke made at their expense, where their reaction doesn’t feed into another joke or plot point, a la Everybody Loves Raymond?
The closest I’ve ever seen to something like this was in the 1985 movie My Science Project, where hero John Stockwell tells comic relief Fisher Stevens to basically shut up. Stevens defends his chatty personality by saying “hey, this is me” and Stockwell drops it. it was the first time I’d seen a supporting character stand up for himself in a comedy/adventure. I guess what stands out is that the hero doesn’t get the last word and the retort wasn’t really all that funny.
I know moments like this would ruin the standard sitcom setup/payoff joke flow, but it’s got to have happened a few times here and there.
I’ve only seen it when it’s a part of the character making the quip that they are usually nice to a fault. Usually, that reaction is also used for comedy, though.
As a matter of fact, I saw this on How I Met Your Mother this past Monday. Barney was getting on Ted’s nerves & Ted blurts out “Well, you know what I’ve seen? Your girlfriend’s cans!”* Then Ted apologizes about how over the top that was & they share a condolence high-five.
*This ep’s subplot was Barney’s mixed feelings about his girlfriend being a stripper.
This is where I’ve seen it often in recent years. The buddy type acknowledgement of a good insult. You’ll see it here on the board as well. It also happens in the emotional aftermath of verbal chick fights where they all kiss and makeup afterwards.
ETA: Yeah, and the condolence high-five is a thing.
Rachel talks about them being a couple and Ross comes back “unless we’re on a break”. Rachel kinda gives a glare to which Ross replies “Don’t make jokes…”
It happened twice on Seinfeld that I can remember, but they weren’t wisecracks.
After Jerry makes fun of George for buying the periodontist John Voight’s car, George kicks him out to the street. A couple of street thugs scare Jerry and he slips while trying to run away in his cowboy boots. The next scene is George apologizing to Jerry about kicking him out of the car.
The 2nd instance was when Jerry told on Kramer when he was trying to sneak his cafe latte into the movie theater. Jerry motions to the theater usher that Kramer was hiding something and Kramer’s kicked out and spills the drink over himself. Jerry later apologizes to Kramer.
These two stand out in my mind because almost nobody ever apologizes, especially sincerely, for anything on that show
Jerry apologized to George after George’s apology as well, IIRC.
There was also an episode where Jerry said something smart-ass and George got pissed and said something like “Why do I even talk to you about these things?”, to which Jerry replied, “All right, I’m sorry.”
On The Big Bang Theory, the guys pick on Penny’s new boyfriend Zack because he’s stupid, and then Leonard makes them all go over to her apartment afterwards to apologize to him for being obnoxious.
There was an episode of *Everybody Loves Raymond *where Debra hits a little too close to home in doing impressions of Frank and Marie at a party, and has to apologize.
These are good. I now remember Jerry saying “I’m sorry” a few times, usually with his hands out in front like it was just a joke. I always liked those moments between friends.