18 Times TV And Movies Aimed For Seriousness, But Delivered Comedy Gold Instead
Screenplays and teleplays are often crafted with a vision for a dramatic moment, but sometimes, the final product doesn't turn out quite as planned. Sometimes, a serious moment is botched, leaving the audience laughing.
Here are 19 TV & movie scenes that are meant to be serious, but are accidentally hilarious:
1.Dawson becomes a meme legend with his ugly-cry after being rejected in Dawson's Creek.
The infamous GIF of James Van Der Beek crying actually has a less sarcastic origin.
In the Season 3 finale of Dawson's Creek, Van Der Beek's character, Dawson, tells his romantic partner, Joey, to be with his friend, thus letting her go. The crying face that followed was borderline silly and sucked the air out of a moment that was supposed to be a massive momentum shift in the show.
2.The American Sniper baby leaves audiences in tears for all the wrong reasons.
Imagine a dramatic scene of a father, who is the most lethal sniper in U.S. history, holding his baby as he speaks to his wife over a sensitive topic. Now...imagine that baby is a cheap doll you'd find on Wish.com.
That's precisely what happened in the biographical war drama American Sniper. While the film generated buzz for many reasons, both for critical praise and controversial elements, the masses on the Internet made that little plastic toy go viral.
3."Harry, did you put your name in the goblet of fire?" Dumbledore asked (not) calmly.
In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry is confronted by Dumbledore after he is inexplicably chosen to participate in the Triwizard Tournament. He pushes Harry against a wall to grill him if he entered his name. It's a critical moment in the plot, but how it goes down is distractingly funny.
Every Potter fan knows the meme, but ignoring how The Goblet of Fire veers away from the book's calm delivery, it is still weird to see the headmaster of a school pin a student while interrogating him. Anger and panic still work for the scene, but the physical contact makes it so out of character and really hilarious.
4."Batman, did you deactivate my bomb?" Talia al Ghul dies calmly.
At the end of The Dark Knight Rises, surprise villain Talia al Ghul crashes her vehicle, which contains an atomic bomb. She sits disheveled in the driver's seat, delivers a monologue as the heroes awkwardly watch on, and then dies.
The way she dies looks ridiculous, and the way she is sitting makes no sense. If her death happened while she was pinned against the wheel and seat, it would have made sense, but she's just slouched and looks unmarred from the crash. It all felt too calm and rushed, but, hey, there's a bomb to get rid of.
Holy rushed death, Batman!
5.The O.C. picks the worst time to blast an Imogen Heap song...or the BEST time.
In the Season 2 finale of The O.C., Trey fights Ryan and is prepared to kill him. Marissa makes the difficult decision to shoot Trey to save Ryan. She shoots him in the back. Everything gets flooded out by the lyrics "MMM WHATCHA SAY," which is part of Imogen Heap's song "Hide and Seek."
The song continues to play throughout the rest of the dragged-out scene and is hilariously cringe-filled with cut-away shots. The scene was so ridiculous that it inspired the SNL "Dear Sister" skit in response.
6.Unintentionally funny? Pick any scene in The Happening.
The Happening is a movie about people killing themselves due to something airborne. What, in concept, should be terrifying is packaged together as a ridiculous product.
From Mark Wahlberg's stiff acting to the deaths that are supposed to be chilling but are comical, the film takes itself seriously at all the wrong times. Sure, there are plenty of moments of it playfully poking fun at itself, but the overall movie was a huge miss.
7.I have to watch a villainous Cats musical number with a naked MacCavity.
Although Cats isn't meant to be too serious, it still deals with some deeper themes. Any scene could have been picked from this film because the frightening CGI cat people watered down even the profound moments.
The one scene that sticks out is the big climactic scene of Idris Elba's character and villain MacCavity attempting to kidnap the HCIC (Head Cat in Charge). He comes out for a big musical number, and after having a trench coat on the whole time, the cat is straight-up naked. It was extremely distracting, and I couldn't finish watching the whole number without dying laughing.
8.Javert's death should be a heart-breaking moment, but it crashes and drowns in Les Miserables.
Sticking with Tom Hopper musicals, Les Miserables is a lot more serious than Cats. Javert's demise is supposed to be a huge moment, but it ends in a thud...literally.
For some reason, when Javert falls off the bridge, we, the audience, need to see his body crash into the water and listen to his bones crunch with the music. It was very out of place with the rest of the movie, and although it was filmed artistically, it fell flatter than Russell Crowe.
9.The remake of The Wicker Man gives us "the talk," and teaches us all about the Nic Cage and the bees.
In the 2006 remake of The Wicker Man, the finale for Nicolas Cage's character really didn't need Cage to go full Cage. What should be a creepy, dramatic moment turns into a parody. Cage screaming "not the bees" became a meme because of the ridiculousness of the scene.
Please watch the original 1973 The Wicker Man. I promise it is excellent.
10.Hereditary makes us combust with laughter.
I am a Hereditary Act 3 defender, but the combustion scene of the husband really missed the mark. So many moments in this film are horrifying in their graphic simplicity. Toni Collette's acting is top-notch, but the way the scene happens so suddenly is less scary and more "holding in my laugh as some poor guy burns alive."
It was indeed meant to be sudden, but all the dread and tension vanished the second "on-fire father" began flailing away.
11.Brad Pitt gets hit by two cars in Meet Joe Black, and I'm pretty sure I can hear the Looney Tunes theme playing.
This is one of the few I don't know the context of, but it's so bad I had to include it.
In the film Meet Joe Black, Brad Pitt's character is looking back at his love interest as he crosses the road. CGI cars miss him by mere inches until, finally, a vehicle strikes him. A CGI Pitt flies through the air, only to be bonked by another CGI vehicle, sending him into the air.
The physics of it are all wrong, but the main character's death shouldn't look so comical.
12.In Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, George Lucas continues to be obsessed with having Darth Vader yell, "NOOOOO!"
The dialogue between Darth Vader and Palpatine during the scene where Vader realizes he "killed" Padme in Episode III works well. The anger Vader shows while using the Force is great. Why...oh why...did he need to scream "NOOOOO" to the sky? The scene is so corny, even for Star Wars.
I get he wanted it to rhyme with Episode VI, but he literally added that one. Does it even count as poetry if you rewrite the original material to match it?
13.Johnny Depp slips into a singing Captain Jack in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
The adaption of the musical Sweeney Todd had a lot of great vibes to it. The choice to cast Johnny Depp was questionable, but critically, everyone seemed to enjoy his take on the demon barber.
However, there are a few moments in the song "Epiphany" where Depp sounds like he is singing in his Jack Sparrow voice from Pirates of the Caribbean. It's a well-filmed scene meant to be a serious "turning" for the character, but I was waiting for him to start doing that infamous Captain Jack run.
14.Perry Mason shows us how quickly and dramatically one can make a murder admission.
In the popular law drama Perry Mason, Mason accuses that Mr. Wells was actually the one who murdered Ned Thompson. Mr. Wells, in the courtroom, then stands up and admits to the crime in the most over-the-top way imaginable. It makes sense he'd be that passionate in his confession, but the showrunners didn't allow the moment of reveal to breathe for even a millisecond.
Hey, time is money, and that goes for TV runtimes.
15.The Birds gives us one too many cuts during a terrifying explosion.
In The Birds, the deadly flyers knock over some gasoline. One lit match later, a chain reaction of fire begins. The scene is meant to be chaotic and terrifying as the flames crawl toward a gas station. What unfolds next is about four camera cuts within six seconds of the protagonist Melanie's shocked (motionless) face following the trail.
It ruins the tension and is actually hilarious how her face is moving to follow the streak of fire without actually moving.
16.Legolas goes full Super Mario in The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies.
I was never a big fan of The Hobbit films, so unfortunately, the bad sticks with me more than the good. The scene I remember most from Battle of the Five Armies was the "epic" battle between Legolas and an Orc on a bridge. The bridge begins collapsing, which leads to a ridiculous shot of the elf hopping stone to stone on his way to safety.
The scene defies physics and will make you despise CGI for the rest of your life.
17.Anything Keanu Reeves says in Bram Stoker's Dracula.
Most people believe the 1992 film Bram Stoker's Dracula is the greatest take on the popped-collar vampire. However, Keanu Reeves's presence and accent kill me in every scene where he gets screen time. His over-the-top acting in this period piece is a different speed from every other character, and it's so earnest that it will have you loving the campiness of the performance.
I'd still take a spin-off film of his character reciting monologues. It'd be highly entertaining. Who doesn't love Keanu?
18.Degrassi presents us with the concept of "whore tears."
In the teen drama Degrassi: The Next Generation, Eli is furious over Clare sleeping with Drew. When Clare's eyes begin to fill with tears, Drew sees the tears and responds with, "didn't expect to see those from such a whore."
It's meant to be such a cruel part, but the line delivery followed by silence is really awkward and funny. I give the show credit; it reads like something an angry teen boy would say, but that doesn't stop it from being hilarious.
These are just my opinions, of course, but there's gotta be a dramatic TV or movie scene that unintentionally made you chuckle. Comment below and explain why the scene made you laugh!
