Drop the Cow: Difference between revisions

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{{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]].

This usually works because of the [[Rule of Funny]]. If humour isn't your thing, see [[Chandler's Law]] for the [[Rule of Drama]] version.

For other gratuitous uses of cows, see [[Everything's Better with Cows]]. Also, note that this trope is not [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]~~--that~~ is to say, just because someone gets a cow dropped on them doesn't mean it's [[Drop the Cow]]. Also, you don't have to drop a female bovine for it to be [[Drop the Cow]], either.

For other gratuitous uses of cows, see [[Everything's Better with Cows]]. Also, note that this trope is not [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin]]—that is to say, just because someone gets a cow dropped on them doesn't mean it's '''Drop the Cow'''. Also, you don't have to drop a female bovine for it to be '''Drop the Cow''', either.

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* 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 film ''[[Rat Race]]'' parodies ~~this -- right~~ when the novelty of the Bus of Lucy's should be wearing thin for Owen, he gets a windshield-full of literal cow.

* The film ''[[Rat Race]]'' parodies this—right when the novelty of the Bus of Lucy's should be wearing thin for Owen, he gets a windshield-full of literal cow.

* Used [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|literally]] and [[Overly Long Gag|ENDLESSLY]] in the comedies of [[Friedberg and Seltzer]], especially ''Disaster Movie''.

* A cow is literally dropped in [[Dog Soldiers]]; in a subversion of the comedic intention of the trope, it hits the ground just as one of the characters is warming up a joke, in order to take the edge off a (spooky and rather gruesome) story told by another character. It even serves the plot; just what was the cow running from so hard that it ran straight off a cliff and landed in a campfire? {{spoiler|Werewolves,}} as it turns out.