Witty Banter: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Occurs most often in non-fiction shows with more than one host. The hosts will trade supposedly funny and or witty comments back and forth instead of presenting what they are supposed to be presenting. They may also [[Wiki Walk|digress into talking about their personal lives]]. Viewers often profess to be bored or irritated with it.

For hero/villain banter, see [[You Fight Like a Cow]].

 

* The UK cable channel Dave is supposedly called this because they ran a survey and discovered that almost everyone in the country knew at least one person called Dave. It touts itself as being "the home for witty banter". In other words it shows endless reruns of ''[[Top Gear]]'', ''[[Red Dwarf]]'' and several different [[Panel Game|panel shows]] that they've got their hands on, often the exact same episodes day after day.

* Most recent showings of the [[Eurovision Song Contest]] have featured a pair of hosts (male and female) exchanging excruciatingly scripted Witty Banter, usually by way of "flirting." Usually in English, which is not their first language. On at least one occasion (Denmark, 2001), rhyming couplets were employed for the purpose.

 

 

* The 5 O'Clock news on CTV's Maritime affiliate ATV is essentially nothing but Witty Banter interspersed with [[Film At Eleven|films at eleven]]. And weather.

* The American morning news show ''[http://dailybuzznow.com The Daily Buzz]'' is pretty much based around presenting the news in an entertaining format, and they seem to make Witty Banter work on their show to the point it has become a viable comedic alternative to other morning news shows like The Early Show or Good Morning America.

 

 

* The CBC radio morning show in Montreal, ''Daybreak'', has a lot of Witty Banter between the host, the sports guy, the traffic girl, the weather girl, and several other people who don't seem to have any specific job on the show.

* RMX, a radio station from Guadalajara, runneth over with Witty Banter, especially during the morning show (three guys who keep dissing each other and talking about [[Seinfeldian Conversation|the immortality of the crab]] and about recent events), and during the afternoon (a 20-something girl who keeps talking about all the times she got massively drunk).

 

 

* ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway?]]'' also has occasional bit of witty banter before and after skits between the performers and the host. Sometimes the subject of the banter becomes a small [[Running Gag]] and appears in the skits themselves.

 

 

* Done in various sports [[Video Games]], usually the ones where Witty Banter is a feature of real commentary. In games, you can get the same canned lines of "witty banter" played back 50 times during a single game.

* A fictional example: The entire point of the radio stations in the ''[[Grand Theft Auto]]'' series is the witty banter. Good news? It's actually witty. Bad news? Eventually it runs out.

 

 

* Steve & Larson top 10 video game lists have a lot of it.

 

 

* Charlie Brooker commented on how US TV is much more capable of pulling off witty banter between news reporters than the ones in the UK, as they just manage to come off as much more relaxed. In his own words, "when our news-readers try to relax they just look awkward, like they've accidentally shat themselves and don't want to let on".

* On ''Room 101'', the show where people nominated things to be permanently removed from the world, one of Dara O Briain's choices was banter. He noted that in [[Real Life]], all of us engage in pointless small talk to smooth over social situations that would otherwise be awkward; the mystery is why anyone thinks those moments should be televised.

 

* ''[[Anchorman]]'' parodies this straight to hell. The two hosts hate each other; their on-screen banter is all scripted, and over the station credits they improvise:

{{quote|'''Ron Burgundy''': I'm gonna punch you in the ovary, that's what I'm gonna do. A straight shot. Right to the babymaker. }}

 

 

* On the ''[[iCarly]]'' web awards episode, the gang made lame banter on purpose.

* In an episode of ''Back to You'', the anchors of WURG realise that they need to "practise their banter".

 

 

* In ''[[City of Heroes]]'' you wind up fighting a [[Evil Knockoff|robot clone]] of local wise cracking [[Trick Arrow]] expert Manticore. The robot's text files are incomplete, so he winds up throwing error messages during his taunts.

** --> Oh yeah? Aren't you the MISSING FILE BELITTING_INSULT.TXT

 

 

* In "Fall Float Parade" on ''[[Homestar Runner]]'', Coach Z attempts to engage in witty banter with cohost Marzipan, but fails because he's too much of a [[Casanova Wannabe]].

 

 

* On ''[[Family Guy]]'', the "banter" on the Channel 5 newscasts invariably devolves into [[Kent Brockman News|the anchors dumping on each other]].

* Spoofed in ''[[Futurama]]'' by the sinister alien Morbo and his perky human co-anchor Linda. Morbo's attempts at banter involve rants about[[Puny Earthlings|destroying humanity]] and mid-range [[Hulk Speak]]. Linda is an [[The Ditz|airhead]] who just laughs it all off.

 

 

* The entire point of [[Alan Partridge]] is his complete failure at this sort of thing. His frequent attempts at witty banter are cringe-worthy and often offensive, but hilarious in [[Cringe Comedy|a very different way]].

** His handoffs to the host of the next slot are Witty Banter between two people who aren't very witty, and genuinely hate each other. Alan's only ''slightly'' worse at it than his colleague.