Comically Missing the Point: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

{{quote|''"I started to walk down the street when I heard a voice saying: 'Good evening, Mr. Dowd.' I turned, and there was [[Not-So-Imaginary Friend|this big white rabbit]] leaning against a lamp-post. Well, I thought nothing of that, because when you've lived in a town as long as I've lived in this one, you get used to the fact that everybody knows your name."''

Compare [[Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?]], [[Bait and Switch Comment]], [[Cloudcuckoolander]], [[Failed a Spot Check]], [[Not Actually the Ultimate Question]], [[I Take Offense to That Last One]], [[The Ditz]], [[Dramatically Missing the Point]].

 

 

{{examples}}

 

* Sagara Sōsuke from ''[[Full Metal Panic!]]'' does this. A ''lot''. With pretty much anything that ''isn’t'' military-involved. This causes [[Even the Guys Want Him|many of his admirers]] [[Oblivious to Love|great amounts]] of [[All Love Is Unrequited|frustration and anguish]].

* Two [[Breast Expansion]] fetish mangas explore this concept with hilarious or saddening results:

'''Panty:''' [[Big "What?"|WHAT?!]] Serious?! So it was just [[Direct to Video]]?! Well that explains why it hadn't won an Oscar yet! }}

 

* This exchange from ''[[Starman (comics)|Starman]]'':

{{quote|'''Jack''': This one isn't about collectibles but it's the same kind of thing. I'm in a book store ... for new books. I've gone a little bit crazy and I'm about to spend a couple of hundred bucks. I murmur under my breath "money's too tight to mention". Now the guy behind the register, he hears this. He looks at me, nodding his head knowingly like we're in some "club of cool" together. He says, "Yeah, Simply Red" like it's a password, and now we do the secret handshake. And I'm thinking "Simply Red"? Lame English band. More soul at a polka convention. And the book store guy thinks he's on some kind of inside loop with that.

"Sorry. Don't use it if you don't want. Just make an informed decision!"}}

 

* In ''[[The Nightmare Before Christmas]]'', Jack tries to explain Christmas by way of talking about gifts and stockings. The other citizens of Halloween don't quite get it. In fact, Nightmare's ''entire plot'' hinges on the fact that the [[Halloweentown]]'s citizens don't quite get the point of Christmas.

{{quote|'''Jack:''' We pick up an oversized sock, and hang it like this on the wall.

{{quote|'''Mr. Tweedy:''' Mrs. Tweedy! THE CHICKENS ARE REVOLTING!

'''Mrs. Tweedy:''' ''(not looking up)'' Finally, something we agree on. }}

* One of the few things played straight in ''[[Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back]]'', and even then verging on parody. Jay's monkey is kidnapped and driven away in a van with a poster on the back that clearly shows its destination. After about 3 minutes of stupidity, "Silent" Bob is forced to set his friend straight.

{{quote|'''[[Silent Bob]]:''' The ''sign''! On the ''back'' of the ''car''! Said ''[[Punctuated! For! Emphasis!|Critters! Of HOLLYWOOD!]]'' You ''[[Precision F-Strike|dumb fuck!]]''}}

'''Chad''': (''laughing'') You think that's a Schwinn? }}

 

* In ''[[Great Expectations]],'' Herbert tells Pip about his fiance's elderly father. When Pip asks, "What does he live on?" Herbert replies, "The first floor." [[Don't Explain the Joke|Pip was actually inquiring after the source of his income.]]

* A short poem by [[Shel Silverstein]] is about a boy coming to school and saying, "Durn, I growed another head." The teacher corrects his poor grammar.

* ''Divine Diva'' by Daniel Gagnon. The famous singer Iolanda is dying; the President, corrupt head of a corrupt and crumbling government, repeatedly calls her, pleading with her to return to the stage and revive both of their glory days, and making a thousand excuses as to why the political situation isn’t his fault. Iolanda tells him she’s rejected her earlier life of hedonism and extravagance and at last found love, in the person of Francesca, the humble young woman who cares for her. Francesca bluntly tells the President his faults. The President, denied Iolanda by death, tries to instead win over Francesca, but without ever admitting wrongdoing: having completely missed the point of what Iolanda values in her, he tells her that he’ll gladly listen to her talk of corruption and starvation if she’ll only have dinner with him at a fancy restaurant. He gets the only possible response when Francesca hangs up on him.

* In the Tiffany Aching subset of ''[[Discworld]]'' books, Tiffany's father takes great care to keep the clock on the mantelpiece set properly. He does this by looking at the clock tower in town each time he visits the market, remembering how it looked all through the slow, miles-long trek home, and then adjusting the Achings's clock to match what he'd seen. (It's mentioned that, since he gets up at dawn and works until it's dark, it doesn't really matter what time it is, but then, why try to set it at all?)

{{quote|'I should imagine they'd give you a cigarette.'

'A cigarette?' said Fred.

'I think they prefer you to stand up straight, sergeant.'

'Fair enough. No need to be sloppy just because you're a prisoner.' }}

{{quote|'''Moist:''' Yes, I think I shall put that off for a day or two, dangerous people to tangle with.

'''Wizard:''' Indeed. I understand some of those sopranos can kick like a mule. }}

* A [[Running Gag]] in the ''[[Adrian Mole]]'' books is self-proclaimed intellectual Adrian completely missing the point of whatever book he's reading. For instance, after finishing ''[[Animal Farm]]'' he declares "From now on I'm treating pigs with the contempt they deserve. I am boycotting pork of all kinds."

* The Sci Fi novel ''[[Malevil]]'' has an amusing example: Fulbert of La Roque and Emmanuel of Malevil are having a pissing contest over who has authority in the region after [[World War III]]. Religion is their primarily weapon, Fulbert appoints himself priest of La Roque and so Emmanuel is elected as priest of Malevil. When Fulbert announces he is appointed as ''Bishop'', Emmanuel decides to respond with sarcasm and his own ridiculous claim. He digs out ''600 year old documents'' from the [[Hundred Years' War]] claiming that the Lord of Malevil is [[Feudal Overlord]] over La Roque and that he inherits the title and power by virtue of owning the property before the war. His friends unfortunately rally under the idea that they now have the "legal" right to overthrow the evil priest.

{{quote|'''Ron:''' [[Lampshade Hanging|She needs to sort out her priorities]].}}

:* This said, being expelled from school probably ''is'' a [[Fate Worse Than Death]] to Hermione. And if Harry and Ron thought about it, it would be for them too.

* Elizabeth Bathory in ''[[Count and Countess]]'' thinks she's being generous when she offers to let her closest servants have a nice, relaxing dip in her [[Blood Bath]]. She doesn't understand why they hastily decline.

 

* In an episode of ''[[Community]]'', the entire group (except Jeff and Abed) have various adventures that teach them about themselves, and at the end of the episode proclaim what they don't like about themselves and start crying and group hugging, and then Pierce cries out "Let's never let Jeff divide us again!". ''whoosh''

** At the end of the Halloween episode, after {{spoiler|everybody has had their minds erased of the incident}}, Troy listens to a voicemail that not only reveals that Shirley and Senor Chang had sex, but that the school was infested with zombies. His reaction? "Why did they call me?"

* ''[[Supernatural]]'s'' Castiel is made of this trope, at least whenever dealing with the quote-happy smartass Dean.

{{quote|'''Castiel''': I don't understand that reference.}}

 

{{quote|"... and just as I was about to bring the guitar crashing down upon the centre of the bed, my father woke up screaming 'Stop! Wait a minute! Stop it, boy! ''That's no way to treat an expensive musical instrument!"''}}

* Jaron and the Long Road to Love gives us this gem in "Pray for You":

(beat)

* [[The Velvet Underground]]'s song "Sister Ray". The narrator's entire reaction to somebody getting shot is "You shouldn't do that/Don't you know you'll stain the carpet."

* The radio-play censors appear to have succumbed to this, in airplay versions of Aerosmith's "Janie's Got A Gun": in a song about [[Parental Incest]], the one line they feel obliged to alter is "put a bullet in his brain". Right, ''that's'' the one thing about the song that makes its subject matter mature...

 

* ''[[Candorville]]'' gives us [http://candorville.com/2007/06/19/kevorkian/ this] little gem.

* A ''[[Calvin and Hobbes]]'' strip involves Calvin looking for a movie to watch. He finds one that contains "adult situations", to which he asks Hobbes what that means. Hobbes replies "You know, paying the bills, going to work, that sort of thing." Calvin wonders how they make money.

* Zero in ''[[Beetle Bailey]]'' lives this trope. Usually.

 

{{quote|'''Scumspawm''':But you wouldn't do that now, would you?

'''Thomas''': Of course not! You don't get rag-and-bone men any more. }}

'''Tom''': Me neither. I thought his favourite film was ''[[Invasion of the Body Snatchers]]'', but it turns out it was ''[[Finding Nemo]]''. }}

 

* On his first album, ''Shame Based Man'', [[Kids in The Hall|Bruce McCulloch]] had a recurring bit with a radio call-in show. The last of these is some happy idiot calling to say all the lonely people should "pair up". The host then gives her a list of reasons this is a dumb idea, all of which are [[The Ditz|lost on her]].

* Comedian Mike Williams bases a comedy routine around McDonalds drive-throughs having a sign saying that they have Braille menus (for people who can't see) and picture menus (for people who can't read). To repeat, this is in the DRIVE-THRU. He claims to go up to the window in dark shades to ask for a Braille menu, to be told, "Sorry, we're out of Braille menus; would you like a picture menu?"

{{quote|''"All these years I thought I liked chicken 'cause it was delicious. It turns out I'm genetically predisposed of liking chicken!"''}}

 

* ''[[Warhammer Fantasy]]'' has a Chaos God of, among other things, Atheism. ''He has followers''. When dealing with Chaos Cultists, do not expect an overabundance of anything resembling sanity or logic. Of course, [[Logic Bomb|a god of Atheism is made weaker through worship]].

** There is a reason he tries to keep any and all material regarding him hidden from mortal eyes as much as possible.

 

* In Christopher Durang's ''Beyond Therapy'' when Bruce makes a reference to horses in the play "Equus" and his blind date (through the personals) Prudence says he should be a vet, Bruce rebukes her for missing the metaphor and says he could never respect anyone who missed a metaphor.

** For those not in the know: The play ''Equus'' concerns a young man whose religious/sexual obsession with horses drives him to ''blind six of them by driving a metal spike into their eyes.''

'''Le Bret:''' Your courage and your wit! }}

 

* In ''[[Touhou|Phantasmagoria of Flower View]]'', quite a few characters miss the point of what Sikieiki's trying to tell them, even when Siki's being direct. Even Reimu and Marisa are guilty of this.

** In the manga ''[[All There in the Manual|Wild and Horned Hermit]]'', Kasen Ibara puts up a sign saying "Only those who '''[[Bold Inflation|want to die]]''' should come here!" in an area filled with poisonous gases and infested with evil spirits. Reimu and Marisa take this literally, reasoning that ''everyone'' dies sooner or later, and cheerfully mine the area for [[Gold Fever|gold]] (which turns out to be made from the evil spirits's greed).

* Grobnar Gnomehands, resident [[Spoony Bard]] and [[Cloudcuckoolander]] of ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]'', is the ''king'' of this trope. One memorable incident has him meet [[Neverwinter Nights|the previous game's]] bard, the kobold Deekin Scalesinger. It's fairly well known in the D&D mythos that [[Fantastic Racism|kobolds hate gnomes]]. Deekin sings a piece of doggerel about butchering gnomes, and ''Grobnar turns into a music critic''. [[Neverwinter Nights 2/Funny|The exchange has to be read to be believed.]]

 

* Masayuki occasionally in ''[[A Profile]]'', though it's not always played for laughs. But one that ''is'' goes like this:

{{quote|Masayuki: So, you have multiple personalities, huh? Awesome, I can have a threesome this summer!}}

* The Judge from the ''[[Ace Attorney]]'' games falls into this trope many, ''many'' times. From case 5 of this first game, this is his response to being told that a witness was using another character as his "puppet"...

{{quote|'''Judge''': Wait, you mean [[Manipulative Bastard|the witness]], a man of his stature... [[Literal-Minded|plays with puppets]]?}}

:* Maya Fey also falls into this quite often. One particularly glaring example is her defense of {{spoiler|Godot}} in the final case of the third game which basically amounts to this: {{spoiler|If Godot had been wounded, his clothes should be torn and bloody. The courtroom is silent, and then Phoenix points out that Godot has almost certainly changed his clothes since the night of the murder.}}

 

* ''[[The Order of the Stick]]''

** Miko Myyazaki immediately assumes that because her own conclusions led her to {{spoiler|kill her lord}}, the eponymous band somehow made her do it. She then takes it as far as assuming everyone in the room is working against her, and she can do no wrong because she is the strongest member of the Sapphire Guard.

'''Thurl''': What does [[Bleach|twenty-first century anime]] have to do with whitening wool?}}

 

* [[The Ditz|2D]]'s [https://web.archive.org/web/20140108013541/http://gorillaz.com/profile/2d attempts at Sudoku] on the ''[[Gorillaz]]'' website. Also, according to ''Rise of the Ogre'', the band once attempted to write a script for a movie. After much nagging from Murdoc, Russel suggested one in which "a bullying egomaniac bass-player" gets what's coming to him. The other band members elaborated on the idea, and Murdoc never noticed that they were talking about him.

* In [http://www.ghastlycomic.com/d/20050911.html one] of the least NSFW (but not least disturbing) pages of ''[[Ghastly's Ghastly Comic]]'', Freddy misses the point of [[Chick Tract]]s and decides to help the Chick Boy...

:* Then he mistakes Dolly's [[Sailor Moon]] outfit for a [[Sexy Whatever Outfit|sexy Donald Duck outfit]].

* [http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8VBxSmHMS1w/ThkdL7mRwbI/AAAAAAAAPXE/Oumc5W6d-H0/s1600/redact.jpg There's a Post Secret about someone whose mother bought them a Post Secret book, but blacked out all the "inappropriate" parts.]

** The columns by Jean Teasdale are '''made''' of this trope. A sterling example comes from ''Ad Nauseum Vol. 14'', where one column has her discuss how a local magazine called her the worst columnist ever; she reprints the magazine's slams against her, and then ''immediately afterwards'' says that she doesn't know why they hate her. [[Hypocritical Humor|And then proves the magazine completely correct.]]

* [[EPICMEALTIME]] has of late featured one fellow who digs into their crazy preparations politely with a knife and fork. [[Muscles Glasses]] has a tendency to give him reproachful looks.

"Apple discontinued them in 2017," I say.}}

 

* In a ''[[Family Guy]]'' episode, Lois is shown several drawings that Stewie has done. All of them have Lois dying in a particularly gruesome fashion. Lois realizes that this can mean only one thing: "His father's not in any of these pictures; they should spend more time together." The teacher concurs with her.

** Peter misses the point pretty much every other minute.

:* In another episode, Maurice takes over as king while Julien is sick, becomes mad with power after eating rotten lychee nuts, and threatens to take over the entire zoo. After hearing about this, Julien's reaction is, "I cannot believe what I am hearing. Maurice ''ate my lychee nuts!''"

:* Julien, when mocking the rats who are playing against the penguins at hockey, sneers "[[Gretzky Has the Ball|You probably can't even get the ball into the hoopy-thingy]]!" Kowalski tells him it's called a "puck", to which Julien responds "Oh, thanks ... You probably can't even get the ball into the puck thingy!"

* In ''[[The Critic]]'' episode "Miserable":

{{quote|'''Jay's # 1 Fan''': Whenever I get into a relationship with a man, they tend to get dominating and overcritical.

'''Egon:''' No, Ray, [[Captain Obvious|''Mrs. Rogers'' is Wat]].}}

:* This quickly becomes an [[Explain, Explain, Oh Crap]] moment, seeing as they told Mrs. Rogers to go to the Firehouse, where they assumed she'd be safer...

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Tropes of Legend]]

[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]

[[Category:Older Than Feudalism]]