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Funny Character, Boring Actor: Difference between revisions
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Some people have a great talent for comedy, and are absolutely hilarious onscreen. Everyone expects them to be hilarious all the time. Not the case. Comedy is difficult to do well, and often takes a lot of planning and writing. These comedians are some of the greatest in the field, but they were/are very serious or dry in real life.
Note that a true inversion would not simply be a funny actor who plays serious roles, but a ''comedian'' who plays deadpan and is actually hilarious off screen. See Zeppo Marx below.
To their friends and family who knew them before they became famous there's a hint of [[Beware the Quiet Ones]].
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* '''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.
* '''[[Lucille Ball]]''', is this outside the camera. She didn't believe in her ability to improvise, so every gag and physical comedy that she did on "[[I Love Lucy]]" was rehearsed to death till she believed she got it perfect, including practicing blowing up and popping a balloon till "it looked funny". (Her dousing her burning fake nose in water was one of the very few times she improvised AND kept it on the tape.) Desi Arnaz, on the other hand, was quite funny in real life.
* '''Steve Coogan''', who played the awkwardly funny [[Knowing Me, Knowing You...
* '''[[Johnny Depp]]''', despite playing a number of flamboyant characters ([[Pirates of the Caribbean|Captain Jack Sparrow]], [[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory|Willy Wonka]], Rochester from ''The Libertine''), comes off in interviews more like [[Edward Scissorhands]]- a bit shy and on the quiet side.
* '''[[Jensen Ackles]]'''. Dean Winchester is more often than not loud and eccentric. Jensen on the other hand has always been reserved and mellow in interviews, and he takes his work very seriously. [[Fan Dumb|(It's also possible that his sense of humour is just too dry for some fans to get.)]] In fact, Jared Padalecki, who plays the more subdued Sam, comes across as much funnier in interviews. When Jensen is funny and/or sarcastic in interviews and/or conventions, it's usually because Jared is right there with him. Although, as of 2010, he seems to be coming out of his shell a little bit, especially when talking about directing.
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* '''[[Doug Walker]]''' has admitted in an interview that people find him really boring when he's not playing any [[The Nostalgia Critic|of]] [[Ask That Guy With The Glasses|his]] [[Bum Reviews|characters]], and tries to avoid being naturally funny all the time in his private life. If you listen to the commentaries on his videos, he's much funnier when he's with his brother Rob.
** He's a lot more confident with Rob around, too. They usually go to conventions together but in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND6WqnFR0Cg&feature=related this Youmacon video], there's a few moments when you can just see him looking nervous and freaked out. <ref> Although that could have been less to do with Rob not being around and more idiot fans always asking the poor boy if they could keep him.</ref>
** Much like Rowan Atkinson, he is a perfectionist, and does several takes until he believes he's got a funny one. Because [[Bum Reviews]] and [[Ask That Guy With The Glasses]] are improvised, the raw footage is said to contain long pauses.
* '''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]].
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* '''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 Bastards|relentlessly misanthropic]]. In his interviews however, he was fairly quiet, and while he retained his [[Sir Swearsalot|famously filthy mouth]], but cracked relatively few jokes. He also claimed that he actually hated people a lot less than his stand-up would have you believe.
* '''[["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|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 charged plays.
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