Late to the Punchline: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

[[File:Late To The Punchline 9637.png|frame|Very, ''very'' late to the punchline.]]

 

{{quote|''He who has the last laugh, thinks slowest.''|'''Anonymous'''}}

 

Compare [[Fridge Logic]], [[Fridge Brilliance]], [[Fridge Horror]] (those three for this trope as applied beyond the [[Fourth Wall]]), [[Brick Joke]] (where the punchline itself is late in arriving) [[No Sense of Humor]], [[Lampshaded the Obscure Reference]].

{{examples}}

== Comic Books ==

* "In Blackest Night", a story by [[Alan Moore]] from ''Tales of the [[Green Lantern]] Corps'', has a variation where it's not that she doesn't get the joke but that, because of who made it, she initially fails to realize there was a joke at all:

* Moose of ''[[Archie Comics]]'' lived this trope.

 

* In ''Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf'', Dracula makes a pun on Scooby and Shaggy's car being miniaturized, "Shrunk from the battle." His ditsy assistant Vanna Pira doesn't get it. A few scenes later, she suddenly bursts out laughing.

{{quote|'''Dracula''': What's with you?

'''Vanna Pira''': "Shrunk from battle!" I just got it! }}

* In ''[[Dogma]]'', Azrael asks the barkeep for a "holy bartender" and then pumps him full of bullets when he asks how it's made. It takes Jay a while to get the joke that he really asked for a "hole-y bartender".

* In the ''[[Star Trek Generations]]'' movie, Data had recently gotten upgraded to feel more realistic human emotions and starts laughing almost hysterically out of nowhere.

 

 

* The former trope namer is an old joke: Why do the Swiss laugh during church? That's when they get the jokes they heard at Friday night's party.

 

 

== Literature ==

** Especially frightening given that this is ''[[Dirty Old Woman|Nanny Ogg]]'' we're talking about. How many children, by how many men, do you think she'd had at forty?

* In the [[Agatha Christie]] novel ''[[Five Little Pigs]],'' Angela mentions having one of these moments, where she actually said aloud "Oh! Now I get the point of that [[Noodle Incident|story about the plum pudding.]]" This led her to recount a similar incident where she realized the significance of something she observed the weekend of the murder.

 

* During one [[Academy Award]]s show, Billy Crystal pretended to read the minds of some of those in attendance. On Sean Connery he said

{{quote|"Pussy Galore! I just got it! How vulgar!!"}}

* On Fox's show ''[[Raising Hope]],'' Jimmy (who has just taught Hope how to crawl): "You’re gonna have to move these pool chemicals outta here. She can get to this stuff now." Burt: "Well, I’ve got the weed killer in the back of the truck, so I can move that in here if you want. “Pick your poison.” I ''just'' got that.”

* On the anti-gravity episode of ''[[MythBusters]]'', the Build Team test a number of devices that claim to create anti-gravity fields, the last of which was called a "Hamel Generator", which was supposedly created by a man who was abducted by aliens and was introduced to their technology. However, every one of these devices failed to deliver, including the Hamel Generator, prompting Grant to quip that "You're better off using something designed by [[Mark Hamill]]!" A few seconds after he and Kari have finished laughing, Tori finally busts out laughing himself, having apparently just then gotten the reference.

 

== Newspaper Comics ==

* Matt Groening's ''[[Life in Hell]]'' has a very cute one. Milhouse Mouse is telling all his friends (including Bongo the Rabbit) a dirty joke about a lady who owned a little dog named "Freeshow." The punchline is that one day the lady was in the bathtub and realized that Freeshow had gotten out, so she jumped out of the tub and ran out the front door, tearing down the neighborhood street completely naked while screaming: "Freeshow! Freeshow!" All the kids laugh except for Bongo, whose face remains expressionless. Then he goes home, does his homework, eats dinner, etc.....before finally climbing into bed for the night, and ''then'' he gets the joke and starts laughing.

 

* A comedian by the name of Tim Sample occasionally started his routine by explaining that you might not get it right away, and that you could, for example, burst out laughing on the highway and drive right off the road.

* [[Denis Leary]] made a joke about finding the youngest Hanson brother in a motel all the way up a hooker's vagina with an 8-ball of cocaine next to them, and how the audience will remember the bit when it comes to pass. "You're gonna laugh about that later. People will say, 'What's so funny?' and you'll say, 'Can't tell you! You had to be there!'"

* British comedian [[Stewart Lee]] runs into these responses fairly often, as his act is rather unconventional. During the course of one show, he informed his audience that "the jokes are there, but some of you might have to raise your game". On other occasions, he has divided the room by response - those getting the joke becoming Team A, while the less receptive audience members become Team F.

 

* Referred to as a "icebox laugh" in ''Picasso at the Lapin Agile'' (i.e., something that you laugh at when [[Fridge Logic]] kicks in) and brought up in relation to an intentionally nonsensical joke about e-shaped pies. Gaston gets the joke while in the bathroom, most likely by, as Einstein puts it, "[[Incredibly Lame Pun|process of elimination]]."

* In ''[[Shrek]]: The Musical'', Shrek gets the usual blank stare from Donkey after joking that Lord Faarquad is [[Compensating for Something]] with his castle. Later, during the "Travel Song", Donkey bursts out laughing when he suddenly gets Shrek's joke.

 

== Web Comics ==

{{quote|"Did you hear about the cannibal that [[Incredibly Lame Pun|dumped his girlfriend?]]"}}

* Leny the Troglodyte in [http://mansionofe.comicgenesis.com/d/20041002.html this installment] of ''[[The Mansion of E]].''

 

== Web Original ==

''[As they walk away, Future Edd appears in a flash of lightning.]''

'''Future Edd''' At last, after many years I have returned. Now it is time to- HEY! That WAS an insult! }}

 

== Western Animation ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Laughter Tropes]]

[[Category:Comedy Tropes]]

[[Category:Meta Concepts]]