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Bad Bad Acting: Difference between revisions
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Also like [[Hollywood Tone Deaf]], in that professional actors can, well, ''act''. If they ''aren't'' very good at their job, you wouldn't be able to tell if they were sucking on purpose for the [[Show Within a Show]]. Those that are good at acting typically couldn't mimic a poor actor, and even then, just like above, it'd be hard to tell if the actor was trying to fail -- though it's something like common wisdom that only someone who's ''very'' good at something can be ''deliberately'' bad at something. Also, as per [[Rule of Funny]], genuinely poor acting isn't amusing -- or at least not as amusing as [[Bad Bad Acting]]. Impersonations done in [[Bad Bad Acting]] tend to involve [[Hugh Mann]] and [[Most Definitely Not a Villain]].
Just to reiterate, this is where characters try to act and do a horrible job at it, ''not'' when you think someone does a legitimately horrible acting job or even a [[So Bad
[[Stylistic Suck]] is the [[Super Trope]] of this.
Contrast [[The Power of Acting]].
{{examples
== General ==
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* All the characters in ''[[Boogie Nights]]'' in their movie-within-a-movie pornos. Amber Waves' affectless "You have a giant cock" is a good example.
* In [[Charlie Chaplin]]'s ''[[The Circus]]'', the Tramp amuses the crowd by accident, but fails utterly when the circus master tells him to be funny.
* In the [[So Bad
* ''[[My Big Fat Greek Wedding (Film)|My Big Fat Greek Wedding]]'' has Toula's aunt acting this way when they're trying to trick Toula's father.
* ''[[Daddy Day Care]]'' features a scene where Marvin has to fill in for a professional actor. His attempt can be put in this category.
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*** This was ''actually'' Harold Ramis making sure he hit his mark -- the director thought it was so perfect he kept that take.
*** This scene was later referenced in ''Ghostbusters''' [[Spiritual Successor]] ''[[Evolution (Film)|Evolution]]'', with the main characters doing a really badly acted commercial for Head & Shoulders.
* Likewise Alexander Dane, [[Alan Rickman]]'s character in ''[[Galaxy Quest (Film)|Galaxy Quest]]'', when the out-of-work and typecast actors are advertising the opening of an electronics store. Note that Alexander Dane is a perfectly good [[Classically
* Averted in ''[[Cold Souls]]'': when the newly [[The Soulless|soulless]] Paul Giamatti is acting in Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya", his performance is not stilted or hammed up, but it is still very noticeably and realistically ''bad''.
* ''Outrageous Fortune''. Shelley Long's Russian acting instructor asks her to simulate being shot, which she grossly over-acts. Later on in the movie he takes a shot at her for real and appears to have killed her, but it turns out her performance has improved.
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** In an episode, Barclay performs a play with Dr. Crusher. He is terrible at acting, stammering and forgetting lines. The audience, however, is too nice to criticize him and politely applaud the performance while saying things like "bravo" -- except for Data.
** In "Time's Arrow, Part II" the ''Next Generation'' crew have travelled back in time to 1893 San Francisco. When the landlady Mrs. Carmichael demands their overdue rent they pretend to be actors rehearsing ''A Midsummer Night's Dream'' and encourage her to read the part of Titania. Captain Picard then praises her stilted performance, and Mrs. Carmichael is so flustered she forgets about the rent for another day.
* Lampshaded and parodied in several ''[[Mad TV]]'' skits entitled "Prehistoric Glamazon Huntresses A.D" that poked fun of [[B
{{quote| "You are not a scientist... from the future... '''AS''' I am."}}
** The ''modus operandi'' of ''Mad TV'''s "Dolemite" skits, where everything from acting to camera work is [[Rule of Funny|extremely shoddy and cut-rate]].
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One can only imagine the "real" script directions for Jared and Jensen who were told to act as Sam and Dean(normal), who are acting like Jared and Jensen(would already be difficult) who are acting as Sam and Dean (OMGWTFBBQ).
* Everyone on ''[[Soap Within a Show|Acorn Antiques]]'' from ''Victoria Wood as Seen on TV''. But especially Miss Babs.
* Jack Donaghy on ''[[
* Ed Norton (no, not that one) on ''[[The Honeymooners]]'' when Ralph Kramden's [[Zany Scheme]] of the Week is to sell a multi-purpose tool on TV. "Can it core an apple?" However, when the time comes to actually do the commercial (live, of course, in those days), Ralph is even worse: "Homminahomminahommina...."
* ''[[The State]]'' does this sometimes. A classic example is the "[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujIZdgrhuWA Spaghetti and Fried Bumblebees]" sketch.
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* The ''[[Its Always Sunny in Philadelphia]]'' episode "Dee Reynolds: Shaping America's Youth" featured an [[Stylistic Suck|absurd showing of a fan film]] made by the main characters: ''[[Lethal Weapon]] 5''. Aside from all its other problems (like the horrible racism), it featured some of the worst acting imaginable. Of particular note are Charlie's dreadful line readings ("Turns out someone tainted - tapped the tainted water supply! The person who just died was '''''your''''' wife!") and Frank's turn as the screeching [[Large Ham]] villain.
** The Gang's venture into musicals in "The Nightman Cometh" also featured loads of bad acting.
* The [[Myth Busters (TV)|Myth Busters]] sometimes do [[Stylistic Suck]] videos that illustrate a myth that they're doing. When they do this, the acting is either over-the-top or oddly stilted. While this is somewhat justified by the fact that none of them (with the possible exception of Adam) are professional actors, it still manages to be [[So Bad
* A ''[[Murphy Brown]]'' episode had the title character hired for a cameo on a comedy show. Unfortunately, Murphy keeps delivering her single line in a horribly stilted manner:
{{quote| '''Murphy''': I GOT your APOLOGY, Kelly! NOW I'm SORRY that I filled your CAR with HERRING!}}
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* ''[[Psychonauts (Video Game)|Psychonauts]]''
** The theater stage, where all of the actors play out past events from Gloria Von Guten's life in this manner.
** And "The [[Milkman Conspiracy]]" level, with all of the FBI agents [[Paper
{{quote| '''Agent:''' I am a road worker. This is my stop sign.<br />
'''Agent:''' I am a sad widow. Boo, hoo. Boo, hoo, hoo. }}
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'''Sokka:''' What did you call me?<br />
'''Katara:''' A giant-eared cretin! Look at those things. Do herds of animals use them for shade? }}
** And then there's pretty much the entirety of "[[Who Would Want to Watch Us?|The Ember Island Players]]".
* In the ''[[Sealab 2021]]'' episode "Swimming in Oblivion", which features the crew as [[Animated Actors]], Hal, playing Capt. Murphy, sandbags his lines because he thinks they're stupid.
* ''[[The Critic]]'' does that quite a bit. Jay Sherman ''is'' a movie critic who ends up seeing mostly bad films....
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{{quote| '''Daggett:''' Oh my! It's going to crash into!... Us? Save yourselves!<br />
'''Daggett:''' The End... Question mark? }}
** Heck, practically every other episode features at least one example. In-universe [[B
** The Beavers idolize Oxnard Montalvo and he is probably consciously or subconsciously emulating him. (And really, why wouldn't anyone want to be Just Like Oxnard Montalvo.)
* In the episode of ''[[Metalocalypse]]'' where Dethklok acts in a movie, they all do this.
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