Laugh With Feathers

''Hardy harr harr. Real neat funny you got there. Except for the fact it isn't.''

When a scene tries too hard to make the audience laugh. Bad Jokes are the number-one cause of this UnTrash. Presenting an outright unfunny joke kills any enjoyment in the scene, which is a huge turn-off point for anybody subjected to it. A writer can make this failure worse for themselves by Pausing The Universe to break the already lame joke down for the audience. Not only does this not help unroll the 1, it dedicates too much time fixing what can't be fixed. Explaining comedy is an excellent way to annihilate its Entertainment Value and spits in the face of Show, Don't Tell. If a joke really does run the risk of going over the listener's head, there are two approaches to solving the problem. One is not touching the joke. Leaving it to open interpretation can result in a punchline funnier than the intended one. The other is to return to the joke and redoing it so it can be more easily understood. Most of the time, though, creators don't care for doing either and instead push forward with a poorly-delivered scene that doesn't invoke even a grin from viewers. Even if a situation could have offered a Good Joke, this potential will be tarnished if it comes in at the wrong moment. If drama is what makes up the current atmosphere, comedy is best given a scene or two of distance to not impede on the recent emotions. Just the same way time can dictate when a joke is or isn't good to make, it can decay the Entertainment Value of even the best jokes that can't withstand the changes in society. The way people think will always be subject to constant alteration, which affects how they perceive a joke. In the majority of cases, this fact works against humor from a considerably long time ago. What people found to be hilarious in 2007 won't kill as much in the 2020s. Pop culture references, celebrities, and other contemporary forms of writing all rot away at a franchise's ability to age well. Although very gently using this Right-Now Writing can humorously express a writer's feelings on a presently relevant topic, it's difficult for it to connect with future audiences who may be hearing about the subject for the first time in the form of a has-been joke. The franchises to feel this sting the worst are the ones that cater to older teens and adults with more cynical outlooks on the world.

The nature of comedy is one of the largest influences over its ability to stick with the audience. As with many other things in fiction, the more it's been done in the past, the less it'll succeed in the future. Gags are notoriously Predictable And Lame for how done to death to death they are. One exceptionally lame pick from the bunch is Instant Contradiction. Here, a character makes a claim just to turn around and hypocritically go against what they said Three Seconds Ago. Imagine Guy says he isn't the Sluggard so many people say he is moments before he sits on a couch and begins binge-watching hours of TV. A second gag that gets under the audience's skin is Fake-Out Joke where a scene intentionally goes down one way only to duck out and do something else completely. Returning to Guy, let's say he's seen sneaking up on Hugo with a knife before the scene zooms out to show he's holding a platter of brownies and offers Hugo the knife to cut the treats. Instant Contradiction, Fake-Out Joke, and any of the other tasteless gags found on this list have long been emptied of their Entertainment Value. They have exactly one time to be funny, and with most audience members, they don't make any wise usage of it. What else could be said to be a dead medium of comedy is Slapstick Comedy. The over-reliance on the physical torture of characters can quickly wear out its welcome after essentially being the same joke repeated endlessly. Somebody got hit by an object, an animal, or another person. Real funny. This is the reception most viewers will give on Slapstick Comedy, especially in respect to how long it's been used. It's a form of humor that writers have employed for at least a century, which is much longer than the largest sector of an audience has been alive. To many, the glory days of slapstick are long gone, but Gross-Out Humor is still very relevant in modern fiction. Just like its older predecessor, this is a kind of comedy with a Kiddie Pool of choices to choose from. The most well-known to fit here is Potty Humor, which is all about bodily functions. It makes children roar with laughter, but adults fail to find the appeal in it, probably because there isn't any. Gross-Out Humor also consists of sexual references, profanity, and other Shock Value material. These jokes are criticized for being low-brow and devoid of lasting comedic worth.