Funny Character, Boring Actor: Difference between revisions
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{{examples}}
== Played Straight ==
* '''[[Al Pacino]]''' is notable for—among other things—having none of his on-screen charisma in [[Real Life]], if interviews are to be trusted. He's pretty interesting in the documentary ''Looking for Richard'', but admittedly he's talking about theater and it's his own damn documentary.
* '''[[Woody Allen]]''', while he wrote many hilarious movies, is [[Cannot Tell a Joke|apparently unable to tell jokes]] in [[Real Life]]. He admitted himself that he's a pretty boring person and many of his colleagues confirmed that.
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* '''[[Robert De Niro]]''' can have some of the most devastating comic timing in the room, but in interviews he reverts way back into his shell, and is a quiet mumbler in real life.
* '''[[Will Ferrell]]''' tends to do interviews as the character in his most recent movie because being interviewed as himself, he is shy and reserved.
* An inversion: Zeppo Marx's movie character was always a bland [[Straight Man]] and romantic hero, but off-screen he was said to be the funniest of [[The Marx Brothers]]. He would fill in for Groucho when he was ill and performed perfectly.▼
** Speaking of [[The Marx Brothers]], '''Margaret Dumont''', who was frequently typecast as snobby widows who acted as the [[Comic Foil]] to the brothers, is another inversion - despite urban legend, she got the humour of the brothers, and during a live television recreation of a scene from [[Animal Crackers]], she broke up laughing after Groucho told her not to step on the few laughs he had.▼
* '''Richard Mulligan''' of ''[[Soap]]'', according to castmate Jay Johnson, was an extremely serious, methodical actor. Although Burt's physical comedy looked improvised and off-the-cuff, it was actually painstakingly plotted and reworked by Mulligan.
* '''Jack Lemmon''', who did great comedies such as ''[[The Odd Couple]]'' and ''[[Some Like It Hot]]''. Apparently, the [[Academy Award]] ceremony hosted by him alone (1985) wasn't as funny as expected.
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** Jared is an unusual case, in that despite his perky personality, he's said that he considers himself a better dramatic actor than funny actor, and has said that he'd enjoy it if Sam went dark side.
* '''[[Raocow]]''', of [[Let's Play]] fame, has admitted that while he's doing his videos he's incredibly, well, weird, he has difficulty maintaining that state of mind all the time.
* '''[[John Cho]]''' and '''[[Kal Penn]]''', who play uptight, repressed Harold and loose, freewheeling Kumar in the [[Harold
* '''Bob Elliott & Ray Goulding''', ''aka'' [[Bob and Ray|Bob & Ray]] were renowned for their ability to improvise subversive, cutting-edge comedy skits—so much so that interviewers wrote entire articles around how underwhelmed they were to meet the shy, very average men in real life. "By the time we realised we were introverts," Bob is supposed to have once claimed, "it was too late to do anything about it."
* '''[[Douglas Adams]]''', author of ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]''. Said in interview: "I'm not a wit. I'm a comedy writer. A wit says something funny on the spot. A comedy writer says something ''very'' funny two minutes later. Or in my case, two ''[[Ridiculous Procrastinator|weeks]]'' later."
* '''[[Christopher Lloyd]]''' made a career of playing loopy, over-the-top characters like Reverend Jim Ignatowski and [[Back to The Future|Doc Brown]], but in real life is very shy and laconic. According to Bob Gale's commentary on the ''Back to the Future Part III'' DVD, when he tried to do promotional interviews on talk shows, he froze up and had to be gently coached by the interviewer. Robert Zemeckis says it took the entirety of shooting the first ''[[Back to The Future]]'' movie just for Lloyd to strike up a conversation with him.
* '''[[Peter Lorre]]''' is an inversion: Known for playing [[M|the first serial-killer on screen]] and [[Casablanca|many]] [[The Maltese Falcon|more]] was known to be extremely witty and funny and a great comedic actor.▼
* '''[[Brent Spiner]]''' as a Data is also an inversion - a completely emotionless character played by an utter goofball of an actor.▼
** Speaking of ''Series/{{Star Trek|The Next Generation]]'' the uptight and stuffy Worf was played by easygoing and laid-back Michael Dorn, who has also described himself as a bit of a giggler.▼
* '''[[Best in Show|Christopher]] [[A Mighty Wind|Guest]]''' has said that many people are disappointed when they find out that he's not non-stop hilarious IRL. According to [[The Princess Bride (film)|Cary Elwes and Robin Wright]], he also doubles as a [[Mean Character, Nice Actor]].
** He's actually known for coming across as fairly prickly in interviews, though often because he strongly dislikes questions about his personal life.
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* '''Bhargav "Bargo" Dronamraju''' from is perhaps the [[Large Ham|largest ham]] out of all the contributors on [[That Guy With The Glasses]].com, particularly in his performance as [[Captain Planet and the Planeteers|Ma-Ti]]. Outside of his acting, he's pretty laconic, and barely says a word during Doug and Rob's commentary for their review of ''[[The Garbage Pail Kids Movie]]'', even though he's there for the majority of the recording. He's also pretty serious during his Transmission Awesome interview.
** [[Cloudcuckoolander|And then he starts talking about]] [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|penguin portals]].
* '''Paul Reubens''' is this when he's not playing Pee-Wee Herman. During a promotional interview for ''[[Mystery Men]]'', he managed to get through the first few minutes without saying a word.
* '''[[Charlie Adler]]''' might play some of the most insane characters, but in person he is very serious to the point of depressing.
* Much like Peter Sellers, '''Zero Mostel''' was said by his family to usually be very quiet and shy, only to explode into the life of the party when given a character to play.
* '''Lindsay Ellis''' is an inversion. It's not like her character of [[The Nostalgia Chick]] isn't funny, but Lindsay is far more prone to hamming it up, making a lot more jokes and is just generally much happier.▼
* '''[[Harrison Ford]]''' is known for charismatic and interesting characters like [[Star Wars|Han Solo]] and [[Indiana Jones]], but he is known for being a rather reserved individual who sometimes needs a good interviewer asking the right questions to make his interviews interesting. Even under the right circumstances he has a very sardonic sense of humor, which is likely where Ford meets Solo and Jones.
* '''[[Kevin Smith]]''' has said that he's not really that funny when he's in a small group of people. It's when he's in front of an entire theatre full of people that he's funny, otherwise he just kind of shuts up. This tends to confuse his wife's friends, who have been told that one of the reasons she married him is because he makes her laugh.
** This might qualify as an [[Informed Flaw]], though; if you listen to his primary [
* '''[[Hugh Laurie]]''', who suffers from depression, is extremely quiet and insecure when not given a script. This was most notable during the first episode of ''[[QI]]'', when [[Stephen Fry]] thought it would be very nice to have his best friend on the panel for the show's introduction. Laurie said about ten words.
** [[Stephen Fry]] has said that, in private, Hugh is the funnier, smarter one, although he denies this.
* '''[[Phelous|Phelan Porteous]]''' is actually pretty quiet in real life, according to Rob Walker and [[Bad Movie Beatdown|Mathew Buck]] during their ''[[Kickassia]]'' commentaries.
* '''[[Michael Palin]]''' is universally known offstage as 'the nice [[Monty Python|Python]]', and comes across in his published diaries as remarkably sane and well-grounded for a man who has spent his performing career being very silly indeed.
* '''Stephen Chow''', an influential Hong Kong comedian, actor and film director, best known in the west for Shaolin Soccer and Kung Fu Hustle, Stephen Chow Sing-Chi is famous for his slap stick martial arts movies. When not making a film, Stephen Chow is reported to be a taciturn and serious individual who is unenergetic and rarely if ever smiles.
* Onstage, the late '''[[George Carlin]]''' was animated, boisterous, hilarious, and [[Humans Are
* '''[["Weird Al" Yankovic]]''' is one of the most lasting comedians in entertainment, but has noted in interviews that because of his [[Stage Names|stage name]] people expect him to be crazy at all times. He is generally a friendly guy and cracks jokes at times like anyone else, but besides his music he is never outlandish or "weird."
* '''[[Frank Zappa]]''' made (mostly) humorous music, but took it utterly seriously, scoring his compositions as if an orchestra was to play them, spending hours mixing his work for the perfect sound quality, and regularly replacing musicians if he felt they weren't good enough. He treated his music like a business. Steve Vai, who worked with Zappa in the early 80s, has said that he wasn't sure if he was in the band at first because Zappa didn't give him any indication at his audition.
* '''Wallace Shawn''', who is perhaps well known for playing goofy oddball characters like [[The Princess Bride|Vizzini]], [[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine|Grand Nagus Zek]], [[Murphy Brown|Stuart Best]], and [[Toy Story (franchise)|Rex]], is a self-proclaimed stoic—in an interview about ''The Princess Bride'', Shawn claimed that he completely lacks a sense of humor. If you're used to his funny roles, it's quite jarring to see him in something quiet like ''[[My Dinner with Andre]]'', where he's basically playing himself. He also writes incredibly dark and politically
== Inverted ==
▲* An inversion: Zeppo Marx's movie character was always a bland [[Straight Man]] and romantic hero, but off-screen he was said to be the funniest of [[The Marx Brothers]]. He would fill in for Groucho when he was ill and performed perfectly.
▲** Speaking of [[The Marx Brothers]], '''Margaret Dumont''', who was frequently typecast as snobby widows who acted as the [[Comic Foil]] to the brothers, is another inversion - despite urban legend, she got the humour of the brothers, and during a live television recreation of a scene from [[Animal Crackers]], she broke up laughing after Groucho told her not to step on the few laughs he had.
▲* '''[[Peter Lorre]]''' is an inversion: Known for playing [[M|the first serial-killer on screen]] and [[Casablanca|many]] [[The Maltese Falcon|more]] was known to be extremely witty and funny and a great comedic actor.
▲* '''[[Brent Spiner]]''' as a Data is also an inversion - a completely emotionless character played by an utter goofball of an actor.
▲** Speaking of ''
▲* '''Lindsay Ellis''' is an inversion. It's not like her character of [[The Nostalgia Chick]] isn't funny, but Lindsay is far more prone to hamming it up, making a lot more jokes and is just generally much happier.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Show Business]]
[[Category:Characters and Casting]]
[[Category:
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