Favourite Jokes?

[rnlf]

#4120

[SPOILERS]

So, what’s everyone’s favourite jokes in the game?

The one that made me laugh the most so far is when you give Washington the Exploding Cigar, it blows up and he just says “blast, I hate it when that happens”. As if it was a perfectly normal thing cigars do occasionally.

[TigerQuoll]

#4122

Too many to mention!
My favourite “one-liner” is when Hoagie says a statue of him would have a seam in it. Bernard has some good ones too, I can’t remember them off the top of my head.

But I think my funniest moments are not the one-liners, but the physical comedy, and the situational comedy. Like the cow in the intro that nearly comes along, or that one tentacle that thinks Laverne is ugly, but when she’s disguised as a tentacle she’s beautiful, or just everything about the beauty contest.

The humour is a bit of a sign of how things have changed though. There’s some jokes that come at the expense of mental illness (Dwayne and Ed Edison in particular) that you couldn’t do these days, but you can’t deny the writers had some great comedic skills!

[Rambutaan]

#4123

There are so many jokes but a lot of the ones I enjoyed were from the introduction such as:

Bernard: Has anyone ever been hurt in this thing?
Dr Fred: Of course not!
*Everyone smiles*
Dr Fred: This is the first time I’ve ever tried it on PEOPLE!
*Everyone looks dismayed*

Or how Bernard comments that he’s sure Dr Fred knows what he is doing to which Laverne agrees that after all, he is a doctor, only for it to switch back to a jubilant Dr Fred screaming “It works! I can’t believe it! And they said imitation diamond wasn’t good enough!” followed by the diamond shattering to pieces.

I thought the game had aged pretty well compared to some other media from the early 90s but you’re right TigerQuoll, even then there’s still some stuff in here that you couldn’t get away with nowadays.

[Tijn]

#4125

I just completed another playthrough, paying special attention to the jokes, with this thread in mind.

I really can’t tell you what my favourite one is, there are so many great ones. What struck me most is the joke density, it’s nuts! Almost every line has something funny in it. The overall story and situations are pretty funny to begin with of course. And on top of the funny lines, there’s also a lot of physical humour, with goofy animations and sound effects.

Honestly the whole game feels like one big joke. One of my favourite moments is near the end of the game, when you have managed to retrieve your 3 kids back to the present day. It feels like you’ve won, but actually you’ve achieved nothing. And literally the first thing Dr. Fred suggests is that you perform the original plan by going back in time to yesterday, which is how you got into this whole mess in the first place! Haha, that’s really great to me.

A scene I really found hilarious when I first played this as a kid was breaking the snacks machine using the crowbar. You get covered in a giant stack of coins and Bernard then goes on to inspect every single one of them to check what year they’re from. I still find that funny now.

What I also got me laughing back then, was how Bernard says “Ted is red. See red Ted.” when you paint Ted the mummy red as he’s standing outside. I have no idea what I was thinking or why I thought it was so funny about it. Maybe just how dumb it is, I don’t know.

There’s also a lot of stuff that went right over my head then, but I do understand now. That’s why replaying this game is cool, because honestly there is a lot going on in this game. For instance all the American history stuff in Hoagie’s timeline. Apparently this is all common knowledge for Americans, but I had no idea. There’s apparently a sort of legend about George Washington cutting down a cherry tree. And John Hancock’s signature on the declaration of independence is so large, that to this day a “John Hancock” is used as a synonym for a signature.

I also love how it just keeps on going, cracking jokes right up until the very last screen, after Bernard says “Looks like everything’s back to normal!” and they raise the American flag, which is now a tentacle.

[TigerQuoll]

#4128

The “Ted is red” line is a reference to a series of kids books from the 30s called Dick and Jane which were filled with simplistic lines like that. “This is Spot. See spot run.” That sort of thing.
Honestly, I thought it was a reference to Dr. Seuss until I looked it up just now!

[Tijn]

#4132

Ah, I figured it must have been something like that. Cool!

[Mike]

#4134

Oh weird, I assumed it was a Dr. Seuss reference as well.

I would also say that the fat jokes maybe haven’t aged super great but there’s not too many of them.

I think people got most of the jokes I like. I’m also a fan of Bernard putting in so many quarters that the dryer goes on for 200 years and conveniently ends when Laverne walks in the room.

[watchful]

#4142

“Sometimes to save the world you have to push an old lady down the stairs.”

Lots of adult humor in there. 15yo me felt a twinge of guilt when Hoagie said “that’s bitch’n”. Probably gonna wait until the kids are older to share this one.

[yozy]

#4160

“And then what?”

It really went on for quite a while but they managed to keep it entertaining.

[dollarone]

#4162

> A scene I really found hilarious when I first played this as a kid was breaking the snacks machine using the crowbar. You get covered in a giant stack of coins and Bernard then goes on to inspect every single one of them to check what year they’re from. I still find that funny now.

Yes, that is a favourite! And then of course you get to input them one by one later 😀

> What I also got me laughing back then, was how Bernard says “Ted is red. See red Ted.” when you paint Ted the mummy red as he’s standing outside. I have no idea what I was thinking or why I thought it was so funny about it. Maybe just how dumb it is, I don’t know.

Excellent, this is another favourite, but just like you, I dunno why! It was just the silliness of the whole situation, I think. Anyway I still remember literally laughing out loud from that little sentence.

[f2bnp]

#4177

I laugh a lot with the silly humor in DOTT. I feel like Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman come off as naturally funny people and this really shines through in their writing. It’s the kind of humor that is never mean spirited or punching down on specific groups (well okay, there is some body shaming on Hoagie’s part in DOTT, but it’s thankfully never really played too much) and yet comes off as funny both to younger audiences and especially slightly older audiences.
My favorite example is in MI2 when Guybrush is digging up Largo’s grandfather’s grave and grabs a bone, dramatically posing as he holds it up in the air for the world to see and then his pants fall down while a thunderbolt goes off in the background. I distinctly remember seeing that for the first time as a kid, snorting from laughing and then every subsequent time it makes me laugh a lot.

I can’t really pinpoint any specific jokes in DOTT, it’s just silly all round, in a good way! Watching Twin Peaks a few years ago gave me a new appreciation for the line “Damn good coffee” though!

[bluntman3000]

#4191

I remember playing this game for the first time – 15 years old (bought it from my pocket money), in my father’s office room.

During the intro, they rush to the tentacle villa in this pickup truck in the middle of the night, breaking through a barn. In the next scene, a huge cow is sitting in the back of the truck, scared to death until the inevitable crash. The cow then accompanies Laverne, Hoagie and Bernard on foot for a while before it stops and makes an annoyed look directly at the camera.

This one cracked me up back then and it’s still hilarous! THAT COW!!

I have to add that the DOS intro was and is so damn good, “real” cartoons couldn’t be any better!

[Tijn]

#4192

Apparently the whole intro was animated by an intern!

[bluntman3000]

#4195

Sheeesh, you’re right! Found this in the Wikipedia entry:

“Day of the Tentacle features a four-minute long animated opening credit sequence, the first LucasArts game to have such.
(…) They assigned Kyle Balda, an intern at CalArts, to create the animated sequence, with Chan helping to create minimalist backgrounds to aid in the animation.”