Fast-Forward Gag
The Fast-Forward Gag is where a television show or film will speed up the film and the comedy comes from the actions you see the actors perform. Audio is similarly sped up and is unintelligible and the action that occurs on screen will often go from somewhat logical to outright absurd.
Additionally, in some cases the humor can also be derived from the continuity errors resulting from fast-forwarding the action.
Not to be confused with the Gilligan Cut.
Examples of Fast-Forward Gag include:
Anime and Manga
- In the first episode of Nyaruko: Crawling with Love, Nyarko's long-winded explanation of what she's doing on Earth gets abbreviated as if it was a videotape running on fast-forward mode.
Film
- In Spaceballs, this trope leads to another gag involving the villains watching themselves.
- Used in the film version of V for Vendetta, complete with "Yakety Sax."
- Shows up quite a few times in The Gods Must Be Crazy.
- Used in the three-way sex scene in A Clockwork Orange.
- Deadpool can do this from inside the film (and rewind as well) due to his Medium Awareness.
Live-Action TV
- Have I Got News for You: In this clip at the four minute mark the host mentions that since the show is on video you can fast forward through the boring bits. He goes on to explain the next game the panel will be playing and the film is sped up and his voice is made to sound like he is on helium and is unintelligible. He makes several odd hand gestures and eventually produces a fire extinguisher before the show returns to normal speed.
- Benny Hill used this trope a few times per episode.
- It's done on The Munsters, whenever someone meets the titular family and runs away.
- Happened a few times on Gilligan's Island. Once was when the castaways were performing a series of repetitive actions and the film sped up, showing them doing the things really fast.
- Played with in The Big Bang Theory, when the main characters bought a Time Machine replica and played with it, they acted going in fast forward. Hilarity Ensues.
Video Games
- No More Heroes has one late game conversation fast forwarded slowed down it reveals father-daughter incest. The game hints ("It's impossible, It'll only jack up the age rating of this game even further") that the conversation was fast-forwarded to avoid a higher rating, but this isn't actually the case: Suda 51 states that it was actually sped up due to Rule of Funny...that, and the dialogue is a fairly lengthy Info Dump. Travis' shocked reactions are priceless.
- Quest for Glory: The first game when you clean the stables is overlaid with a sped up version of the main theme.
- In Portal 2, GLaDOS says that she has to tell you something important about the testing chamber you're in. Being GLaDOS, she skips through the warning quite quickly. Slowed down, she's reciting a passage from Moby Dick.
Web Original
- Used in The Demented Cartoon Movie, where two guys are trying to fly a rocketship to Mars. After a handful of failed attempts, one of them decides to spare the viewers the trouble of watching it all again and fast-forwards through it...only to go further than intended and wind up knee-deep in Zeeky bombs. .
- This trope is used to great effect anytime someone takes a video of something and speeds up to Yakkety Sax, A.K.A. The Benny Hill Theme.
- The Game Overthinker sometimes speeds up part of his voice-over in order to make the video fit the standard ~10-minute length while still including all the BIG WORDS he wants to use. It is usually accompanied by a graphic of a chipmunk and a cup of coffee.
- Metal Gear Awesome uses this as a quick joke, skipping over the scene where Otacon narrates his backstory...and pausing halfway to find Snake and Otacon about to make out.
- In Naruto the Abridged Series, Kakashi uses a remote to fast forward over the Wave Country Filler, but ends up breaking it right before the opening.
- Happens twice at the end of "Not-the-FFXII Extras", complete with a Motor Mouth Narrator.
 |
 |
- Used in RWBY V1E4, during Ruby's second meeting with Weiss. Weiss holds out a pamphlet entitled "Dust for Dummies and Other Inadequate Individuals" and begins Rattling Off Legal in an increasingly speedy and squeaky voice.
Western Animation
- The opening to King of the Hill is sped-up-film-style. As Hank and his friends stand in the alley and drink beer, an entire day passes.
- Family Guy: An episode where Peter and Lois considered buying TiVo had the salesman fast forward through their argument to get to the point where they agreed. In the middle of the argument, Chris enters choking on something and Lois gives him the Heimlich Maneuver.
- Used a lot in The Emperors New School.
- Homer calls this out on an episode of The Simpsons, using it as an excuse to speed up the beginning of Mel Gibson's movie.
- Homer waiting three days for his gun permit, set to Tom Petty's The Waiting.