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Drop the Cow: Difference between revisions
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Originally coined by the members of ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'', on the subject of sketch comedy -- if a scene is starting to go on too long, drop a cow on somebody. Used to mean any point where, if the comedy dialogue is wearing thin, you skip to silliness. Can also use [[Everything Explodes Ending|explosions]].
This usually works because of the [[Rule of Funny]]. If humour isn't your thing, see [[
For other gratuitous uses of cows, see [[
{{examples
== Anime and Manga ==
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* Used in the early episodes of ''[[Saturday Night Live]]''; averted in recent episodes, resulting in fans and critics complaining that ''SNL'''s sketches are [[Overly Long Gag|overly long gags]] with thin premises. That's true in some cases, but not all.
** At times, SNL castmembers and guest hosts have [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] overly long sketches; notable examples include the final appearance of the Greek diner sketch and the Incredible Hulk sketch with guest host George Foreman.
* On ''[[Whose Line Is It Anyway? (TV)|Whose Line Is It Anyway]]'' the "Cow" was the ending buzzer, which Clive Anderson used to great effect, and Drew Carey... less so.
** This gets spun into a [[Running Gag]], with Ryan dragging Colin offstage to end his acts on several occasions.
* The unnamed Newsman on ''[[The Muppet Show]]'' once had a cow dropped on him as he read on a [[Dead Line News|stock market report]] that beef was [[Incredibly Lame Pun|falling]]. Most of his other reports had similar results. [[Jim Henson]] once said that if he didn't know how to end a sketch, he would blow something up, have a monster eat everything, or [[
* The entire point of ''[[The Gong Show]]'' (to the extent that it had one) was to see how long an act could go without one of the "celebrity" judges "dropping the cow" by gonging them off stage.
** The Red Faces segment of Australia's ''[[Hey Hey Its Saturday]]'' also used this technique. Most of the time the gonging was done by Red Symons, but occasionally an act was so terrible another of the judges would grab the mallet off him and do the gonging themselves.
** Similarly, the show ''30 Seconds of Fame'' had an approval meter for each act that was controlled by the audience, and if it got too far into the red before the titular 30 seconds were up, the act would end abruptly and not be among the ones being voted on for the top three spots.
** Also of a similar nature: during the Amateur Night segments of ''Showtime At The Apollo'' acts that were bombing would, after air raid type siren sounded, get ushered off stage by Sandman Sims (a disheveled looking old black man, who was actually a legendary tap dancer), who would dance a quick jig before returning offstage for the next act.
** ''America's Got Talent'' ([[
*** Or, in at least one instance, if one judge dislikes the act so much that they (read: she) press all of the buttons, sometimes wrestling the other judges away from their buttons in order to press them.
*** Or, in an especially hilarious one, two judges IMMEDIATELY hitting the button, while the third leans back and just smiles - the other two, after several seconds of uncomfortable pause jump on his button. (The act? The world's oldest champion male stripper.)
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* ''[[Girl Genius (Webcomic)|Girl Genius]]'': "Well - we've found that none of the Heterodyne plays really suffer if Punch and Judy start throwing pies."
* An example from the subscriber section of ''[[Drow Tales]]'' happened in a story where the users put in options, and the story [[Rule 34|naturally devolved into porn]]. The next page showed Ariel punching Liriel to get the story back on track, since the premise of the section is that it's the daydream of a character telling it to the audience.
* It could be argued that much of the humor of ''[[
* ''[[Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|Order of the Stick]]'': The Empire of Blood's gladiator pit does this by [[
** Discussed by the [[Genre Savvy]] General Tarquin, who points out that he can't use the Allosaurus too often or it will stop being interesting.
* In ''[[Dubious Company]]'', the heroes needed to deal with their backstabbing crew once and for all. Sal [http://dubiouscompany.com/comics/2007/05/19 warned them] not to piss off [[Random Number God|Phred]].
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