Hilarity Ensues: Difference between revisions

 

 

Traditionally seen in the capsule descriptions of episodes found in programming guides: "Jimbo accidentally glues his boss to a golf cart and hilarity ensues." Outside of these descriptions, though, the phrase is usually used sarcastically, indicating that the consequences are anything ''but'' hilarious. The less charitable might say that hilarity is what happens for those hearing about it afterward.

Variants include "...with hilarious consequences" (more common in the UK), "wackiness ensues", and "hijinks ensue." In extreme cases "wacky hijinks ensue." Hijinks are often "aplenty." Compare [[Silliness Switch]], when the hilarity is a choice in an otherwise serious medium.

 

 

{{examples}}

* About half the plots against Loki in ''[[Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok]]'' have this at some point.

* What happens when you assign a class of untrained, inexperienced, ADHD-afflicted ten-year-old kids to pilot and monitor a [[Zettai Muteki Raijin-Oh|giant robot capable of untold destruction]] when placed in the wrong hands? Hilarity!

* ''[[School Rumble]]'': High school romance comedy. Idiot delinquent (Harima) has a secret, obsessive crush on an even more clueless classmate (Tenma), who is in love with a complete oddball (Karasuma), who is in love with food (curry). Tenma's [[Yamato Nadeshiko|quiet, gentle]] sister Yakumo, her [[Ojou]] friend Eri, and the [[Hello, Nurse!|hot school nurse]] may or may not have feelings for Harima, depending on the rumors you believe and the time of day. Also, both Tenma and Harima's cousin Itoko think Harima is in a relationship with Yakumo. [[Class Representative|Class rep]] Hanai is loudly in love with Yakumo (thus seeing Harima as his rival), while two or three girls may or may not have feelings for ''him''. And that's just the beginning.

 

 

 

 

* Referenced frequently by early seasons of ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]''. Any time it appeared that plot threads were about to converge, Joel would shout, "Looks like we're on a collision course with ''wackiness!''"

* ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'': "And next week, Dan falls into a vat of human dung, with hilarious consequences."

* ''[[Firefly]]'':

'''Wash''': Wacky fun. }}

* ''[[Keeping Up Appearances]]'': [[Villain Protagonist|Hyacinth]] tricks Richard into stealing a car, and then she blames him, but neither of them is known to suffer any legal consequence.

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' episode "Becoming":

** Also in episode "Tough Love":

* The ''[[Father Ted]]'' Christmas special begins with Ted finding [[Away in a Manger|a baby left on his doorstep]]... which is swiftly reclaimed by the mother, who had gotten the wrong address. Ted and Dougal are left musing over all the hilarious situations they could have gotten into while trying to take care of a baby... then conclude that it wouldn't have been funny at all.

 

* ''[[FoxTrot]]'' uses a similar phrase to describe the typical plot of an episode of ''[[Frasier]]''. Jason complains to Andy that the restaurant where he's scheduled an impressive party is removing foreign cheeses from its menu, finishing with "I just know madcap hijinks will come of this!"

 

 

* Referenced and parodied by [[Bill Bailey]] right at the beginning of ''Part Troll'' when explaining why he can't tell traditional jokes. He tends to bail out because:

* Stephen K. Amos claims that his entire life can be summed up in the phrase, "A black family moves in next door to a white family... Hilarity ensues!"

 

 

* This is endemic in ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'', be it the [[Cruel Player Character God]] sort of hilarity (let's flood the baron's bedroom with lava!), the "made an engineering mistake" sort of hilarity (watch the dorfs attempting to outrun the well overflowing because you forgot to prevent a water pressure backup!), or one of the infamous [[Disaster Dominoes|tantrum spirals]]. Just bear in mind that Losing is Fun. Then go back to [[Evil Laugh|laughing]] as goblins attempt to invade and get turned into [[Chunky Salsa Rule|goblin salsa]] when they hit your wall of weapon traps loaded with giant swinging axe blades and huge serrated steel discs.

* Weapons that allow the player to [[Wreaking Havok|throw about objects or people at will]], like the [[Half-Life|Gravity Gun]] or [[Halo|Gravity Hammer]].

* A lot of ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'' 's appeal comes from the fact they took the team-based warfare of ''[[Team Fortress Classic]]'' and threw in, among many things, one key element: '''a sense of humor'''. The general idea with TF2 is that if you're going to pit two teams against each other, you might as well [[Rule of Funny|have fun doing it]]. A 2011 update invokes this trope by name, describing the Payload Race game mode (where the teams compete to escort their team's cart to the goal first) thusly: "''Two teams, two carts, two tracks. Hilarity ensues.''"

 

* ''[[Homestar Runner]]'' [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this at the end of this [http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail155.html Strong Bad Email]. "And his first guest... is hilarity!"

** I hadn't realized I used it so much. It's Fark's fault. - Thomas Wilde

** Wilde's usual writing style usually has an extremely sarcastic tone to it, so it's not so much ironic as two tons of [[Deadpan Snarker]].

** Which is a lie. It ensued, all right. [[Blatant Lies|Just not for Tucker...]]

* The entirety of ''[[Kickassia]]''. Yes, all of it.

 

* [http://gigaville.com/comic.php?id=15 This] ''[[The Last Days of Foxhound]]'' comic, a subversion in that Octopus happens to be correct.

* From ''[[Looking for Group]]'': "Once [the fire] reaches your eyebrows, that's when hilarity really ensues."

** Technically, he referred to [[Mugging the Monster|running into an archmage]] while trying to rob a "librarian". But he won.

* ''[[New School Kids]]'' has this as the missing events during the ''Yeahijinks'' comic.

* ''[[Yet Another Fantasy Gamer Comic]]'' characters bring hilarity in rather regularly. Especially when [[The Loonie|Charlotte]] or [[Cloudcuckoolander|Cap'n Fang]] are allowed to run wild.

'''Lucas''' (thinks): I'm in a room with the end of the world! }}

* ''[[The Stupiders]]'' - In fact, it says so right on the [http://www.stupiders.com website's homepage!]. You can't get anymore straight forward then that!

 

** Moe gets on a soap opera, only to be led to think his character will be killed off. He decides to have Homer spoil the future plot events on live broadcast. All the plot summaries written seem to end with "...with sexy results".

'''Homer''': Well, Sister Bernadette will leave the convent and start a softball team... with sexy results. }}

 

* A lot of times, little kids manage to pull this off. When a three-year-old calls Uncle Bob fat or says that Grandpa sure has a lot of gray in his hair, it tends to be kind of funny. When ''you'' do it, expect to get a lot of [[Death Glare|death glares]] aimed your way.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Tropes of Legend]]

[[Category:Improbable Behavior Tropes]]

[[Category:Indexing Ensues]]