Drop the Cow: Difference between revisions

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{{trope}}
{{trope}}
{{quote|''"Fetchez la vache!"''|'''Frenchman''', '''''[[Monty Python and The Holy Grail]]'''''}}
{{quote|''"Fetchez la vache!"''|'''Frenchman''', '''''[[Monty Python and the Holy Grail]]'''''}}


Originally coined by the members of ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'', on the subject of sketch comedy -- if a scene is starting to go on too long, drop a cow on somebody. Used to mean any point where, if the comedy dialogue is wearing thin, you skip to silliness. Can also use [[Everything Explodes Ending|explosions]].
Originally coined by the members of ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'', on the subject of sketch comedy -- if a scene is starting to go on too long, drop a cow on somebody. Used to mean any point where, if the comedy dialogue is wearing thin, you skip to silliness. Can also use [[Everything Explodes Ending|explosions]].
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== Film ==
== Film ==


* ''[[Monty Python and The Holy Grail]]'' is, of course, the trope namer, and does this literally.
* ''[[Monty Python and the Holy Grail]]'' is, of course, the trope namer, and does this literally.
* Dramatic example (really!): [[Sergio Leone]] felt a scene near the end of ''[[The Good, the Bad and the Ugly]]'' was too melodramatic, so he [[Enforced Method Acting|released a small dog onto the set without telling Eli Wallach]] and then left his reaction in the film; of course, it's followed by ten minutes of pure [[Melodrama]].
* Dramatic example (really!): [[Sergio Leone]] felt a scene near the end of ''[[The Good, the Bad and the Ugly]]'' was too melodramatic, so he [[Enforced Method Acting|released a small dog onto the set without telling Eli Wallach]] and then left his reaction in the film; of course, it's followed by ten minutes of pure [[Melodrama]].
* [[The Three Stooges]] films conformed to a strict two-reel time limit. Rather than cut out funny bits to resolve the plot, many shorts end with a threatening man chasing the Stooges away or something similarly abrupt.
* [[The Three Stooges]] films conformed to a strict two-reel time limit. Rather than cut out funny bits to resolve the plot, many shorts end with a threatening man chasing the Stooges away or something similarly abrupt.
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** That humorless colonel could be seen as a [[Lampshade Hanging]] on their rationale for ending sketches like that; he would enter the skit and stop its participants on the grounds of no longer being funny because their scene has gone on too long.
** That humorless colonel could be seen as a [[Lampshade Hanging]] on their rationale for ending sketches like that; he would enter the skit and stop its participants on the grounds of no longer being funny because their scene has gone on too long.
** Python [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] their own tendency to do this in the ending of the Argument Sketch, where a policeman enters to arrest all participants in the sketch for taking part in a "strange sketch" and causing distress. He is promptly arrested by another policeman for the crime of "ending every bleedin' sketch by just having a policeman come in"; ''that'' policeman then gets arrested for the same. In the final moment of the sketch, {{spoiler|a hairy hand claps this last policeman on the shoulder}}.
** Python [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshaded]] their own tendency to do this in the ending of the Argument Sketch, where a policeman enters to arrest all participants in the sketch for taking part in a "strange sketch" and causing distress. He is promptly arrested by another policeman for the crime of "ending every bleedin' sketch by just having a policeman come in"; ''that'' policeman then gets arrested for the same. In the final moment of the sketch, {{spoiler|a hairy hand claps this last policeman on the shoulder}}.
*** In the "Army Protection Racket" sketch, the Colonel stops the sketch because it's poorly written and he didn't get any funny lines. Someone else mutters that he was just too lazy to write a proper punchline, which he denies.
*** In the "Army Protection Racket" sketch, the Colonel stops the sketch because it's poorly written and he didn't get any funny lines. Someone else mutters that he was just too lazy to write a proper punchline, which he denies.
* Australian comedy show ''[[The Late Show]]'' poked fun at its own use of very thin premises for comedy with the phrase, "Champagne sketch comedy". Later, they would have show member Rob Sitch bring in a bottle of champagne to the actors in the middle of a sketch to let them know the joke was wearing thin.
* Australian comedy show ''[[The Late Show]]'' poked fun at its own use of very thin premises for comedy with the phrase, "Champagne sketch comedy". Later, they would have show member Rob Sitch bring in a bottle of champagne to the actors in the middle of a sketch to let them know the joke was wearing thin.
* Used in the early episodes of ''[[Saturday Night Live]]''; averted in recent episodes, resulting in fans and critics complaining that ''SNL'''s sketches are [[Overly Long Gag|overly long gags]] with thin premises. That's true in some cases, but not all.
* Used in the early episodes of ''[[Saturday Night Live]]''; averted in recent episodes, resulting in fans and critics complaining that ''SNL'''s sketches are [[Overly Long Gag|overly long gags]] with thin premises. That's true in some cases, but not all.
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* ''[[Girl Genius]]'': "Well - we've found that none of the Heterodyne plays really suffer if Punch and Judy start throwing pies."
* ''[[Girl Genius]]'': "Well - we've found that none of the Heterodyne plays really suffer if Punch and Judy start throwing pies."
* An example from the subscriber section of ''[[Drowtales]]'' happened in a story where the users put in options, and the story [[Rule 34|naturally devolved into porn]]. The next page showed Ariel punching Liriel to get the story back on track, since the premise of the section is that it's the daydream of a character telling it to the audience.
* An example from the subscriber section of ''[[Drowtales]]'' happened in a story where the users put in options, and the story [[Rule 34|naturally devolved into porn]]. The next page showed Ariel punching Liriel to get the story back on track, since the premise of the section is that it's the daydream of a character telling it to the audience.
* It could be argued that much of the humor of ''[[8-Bit Theater (Webcomic)|Eight Bit Theater]]'' consists of scenes in which the characters' [[Dysfunction Junction|dysfunctional bickering]] extends to [[Overlong Running Gag]] levels and gets cut short by one or more of them stabbing, kicking, or blowing up one or more of the others.
* It could be argued that much of the humor of ''[[8-Bit Theater|Eight Bit Theater]]'' consists of scenes in which the characters' [[Dysfunction Junction|dysfunctional bickering]] extends to [[Overlong Running Gag]] levels and gets cut short by one or more of them stabbing, kicking, or blowing up one or more of the others.
* ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'': The Empire of Blood's gladiator pit does this by [[Chandler's Law|releasing an Allosaurus into the ring]] when necessary.
* ''[[The Order of the Stick|Order of the Stick]]'': The Empire of Blood's gladiator pit does this by [[Chandler's Law|releasing an Allosaurus into the ring]] when necessary.
** Discussed by the [[Genre Savvy]] General Tarquin, who points out that he can't use the Allosaurus too often or it will stop being interesting.
** Discussed by the [[Genre Savvy]] General Tarquin, who points out that he can't use the Allosaurus too often or it will stop being interesting.
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