Having just opened the dishwasher without shutting it off first, I was reminded of the sight gag where someone is sprayed with something and they don’t move. They just stand there and let it happen. (I moved. I moved really fast.)
One such scene is from an otherwise great movie, Meet the Parents. Nobody moves when the truck wheel starts spinning and the shit literally flies. They stand still like statues while being sprayed from head to toe with sewage.
Are there sight gags like this that just make you want to throw something at the screen?
If I never see the “accidental knee/ball/random object-to-the-groin (usually followed by an “ooooh!” face, slowly falling over, then lying quietly until asked if they’re ok, to which they reply something in a WACKY falsetto voice.)” again it’ll be too soon for me.
Psst… hey Hollywood, nuns haven’t worn floor length gowns since I was in first grade. That was 35 years ago. So, next time you’re tempted to have a geeky guy get caught naked (or in the middle of some embarrassing sexual hijinks), please refrain from having him encounter a group of nuns in old-style habits.
It was NEVER all that funny, and now it’s hopelessly outdated.
Every time you see a big elaborate cake being carried by two men in chef’s whites you just know that it’s going to end up flying into the air and landing on the meanest bitch in the room.
When the obvious sight gag isn’t used, it’s often a lot funnier. Two Simpsons bits that come to mind are:
[ul][li]Krusty relaxing at home. Picks up old-style seltzer bottle. Shoots exactly the right amount into his drink and sits down.[/li][li]Civil War tour guide talks about ancient cannon to crowd. Explains how very delicate and sensitive old cannons are, and it would be a shame if it went off since it’s pointed directly at the main support beam of that sentry post over there. Schoolbus comes careening into fort, knocks cannon over. Tour guide: “Of course, we don’t keep the cannon loaded. It’s just common sense.”[/li][/ul]
One of my friends once had an old car (an Opel, IIRC) and once when it wouldn’t start he was sufficiently annoyed to kick at the firewall before trying to start it one last time. It started right up. This happened several times after that; apparently there was an intermittant short in the wiring and kicking the firewall would fix the problem temporarily. He never had the money to spare to have the electrical system checked, and he referred to the “kick the firewall if it doesn’t start” maneuver as his Polish security system.
Actually, I was going to post this! The one time I’ve ever seen it done well was in Wayne’s World 2, where these guys were loading up crated chickens, fruit stands, stacked boxes, and walking back and forth across the street with a huge pane of glass, for no apparent reason. Near the end, there’s a car chase which, predictably, does exactly what you’d expect it to do: crashes through the fruit, boxes, chickens, and glass.
The workmen smile to each other and say, “out work here is done.” HAHAHAHAHAHAHA