Stealth Pun/Film

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Stealth Puns in Films include:

  • In South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Gregory (the French revolutionary kid), at the beginning of the song montage that got the film nominated for an Oscar, jumps up on a wooden box to sing about freedom and rights etc. On the box in big stenciled letters is the word SOAP.
  • In Shrek, the evil Lord Farquaad is alleged to have been based partially upon then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner, who had a falling out in the mid-Nineties with Jeffrey Katzenberg, who would go on to found DreamWorks—the company that produced Shrek. "Farquaad" is rumoured to be a cloaked insult aimed at Eisner, calling him a fuckwad.
    • According to Word of God, it's a reference to the "Far Quad" on the campus of the writer's alma mater, Notre Dame—full name Notre Dame du Lac (Dulac is the name given to Farquaad's little kingdom). However, the obvious pronunciation-gag was not missed by FoxTrot, which used the second meaning as a stealth punchline.
    • Also, anyone familiar with ND will recognize a certain building outline (The Golden Dome) on the back of Shrek's vest.
    • In Shrek 2 the potion given to the King to make Fiona fall in love with the first man she kisses is labeled "IX". It is not mentioned then that it must be Love Potion Number 9.
    • In the scene where Shrek and Donkey (in human and horse forms) are in a bar after their plan fails, the barmaid says to Shrek "Why the long face?", while Donkey is standing right next to him.
  • In Coraline, the seats of the theater are filled with small dogs—Scotties. Later, when the world shows its dark side, the dogs become skeletons... Night Terriers?
    • The toy tank in the Otherworld bedroom resembles the British Mark 1, which nickname is... Mother.
  • In Up, there is a scene in which several dogs pilot fighter planes, making them... dogfighters.
    • Also, Dug's name. No, that isn't misspelled.
    • The dogs are introduced in order of the Greek alphabet; Alpha, Beta, Gamma... Epsilon. There is never a Delta shown, there is however Dug. Furthermore, he is the fourth dog named.
  • In Cars, Sally Carrera, the female lawyer car, is a Porsche. The term Portia is a slang term for a female lawyer; it was lifted from the female lead from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, who impersonated a lawyer to defend Antonio against Shylock.
    • In a later scene, Lightning notices Sally (who used to be from Los Angeles) has a decal just above her bumper, the car equivalent of a tattoo on the small of the back, which is sometimes known as a "California license plate".
    • In another scene, Lightning claims Doc Hudson is a famous racing car, the Hudson Hornet, who "won three Piston Cups!", causing Mater to Spit Take and say "He did what in his cup?"
  • In The Incredibles, the name of Syndrome's island is only mentioned once: a passing reference to "current temperature on Nomanisan" during Mr. Incredible's second visit. "No-man-is-an Island". This could also serve as a Meaningful Name, if you consider the way Syndrome became who he is now.
    • This is also the reason for Violet's Meaningful Name (she's painfully shy, i.e., a "Shrinking Violet"). Or it could refer to ultraviolet, referencing her powers (energy shields and invisibility). Same with her brother Dash who is extremely fast.
    • Jack-Jack, as his powers are a "jack of all trades" thing.
    • Their ironic pun of a last name: Parr. As in average.
  • WALL-E: When EVE comes back with a plant, activating the centuries old recolonization protocol, a manual pops out, which the captain orders to relay its information. AUTO shows him that the pages must be turned by himself; i.e., it is Manual.
    • WALL-E's name. It's actually A113 (a common running gag featured in many Pixar films, such as "Directive A113", also from this movie), but written in Leet Speak and with a "W" added to the front.
    • WALL-E (with the E standing for Earth-class) eventually runs into an Axiom-class version of himself named WALL-A. Actually, he runs into two of them. Which of course means that they're... WALL-A WALL-A. *rimshot*
  • In Toy Story 2, Woody has a nightmare about Andy throwing him away. In Toy Story 3, Woody tells the other toys he needs to get to Andy's house, which is on Elm Street. Woody had a nightmare on Elm street.
    • Woody is the leader of Andy's room—in the first movie, we see that Slinky is (or used to be) the second-in-command. A cowboy... and a "long little doggy"...
    • In 3, one of the toys at Sunnyside Daycare is a blue stuffed kitten. Who gets played with by a little girl that tells it "Boo!"
  • At the very beginning of Finding Nemo, just right before the divers take him away, causing his father to go after them, the titular Nemo can be seen attending school with several other young fish. A group of fish is actually called a school.
    • Almost every name in the movie is a reference to fish or something water-related. Gil, Marlin, [Captain] Nemo, Anchor, Chum... Even Deb (Flo and Deb, or, if you prefer, Ebb and Flow).
  • Ratatouille has a few to boast of as well, including Alfredo Linguini, whose name is so dreadfully punny it's almost painful to utter aloud, and Anton Ego. Along with the title of the movie, of course, although that's lampshaded.
  • In Disney's Robin Hood, Maid Marian (a vixen) has a hen as a nursemaid, but nobody references the aphorism about "setting a fox to watch the henhouse".
    • Probably because a hen is watching the foxhouse, which isn't a thing.
    • There is, however, the saying about someone who is constantly anxious and worried being a "mother hen".
    • It could also mean that Maid Marian is "henpecked" by her nursemaid.
    • A scene specifically depicts Friar Tuck, who is portrayed as a badger, cheering during a fight scene, while the music playing in the background is the fight song of the University of Wisconsin Badgers.
  • In Corpse Bride, the bar where Victor first arrives is called the "Ball and Socket", making it the Ball and Socket joint. And the bar is a popular place, or a "hip joint".
  • The first Veggie Tales movie contained—without comment—a bunch of city guards whose weapons were long poles with fish on the ends of them.
  • The writers behind Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs claim they had to turn one of the opening lines into a version of Stealth Pun #2. To wit:

Flint: (narrating) But when all seemed lost, I stared at da feet and found hope.

  • In A Matter of Loaf and Death, Wallace attempts to stop Piella's bicycle by having Gromit throw tea cakes between his knees and the bicycle and squeezing them. He says he should have tried the granary rolls, which makes sense; after all, Let us break bread together on our knees... no?
  • In The Great Mouse Detective, Basil and Dr. Dawson walk into a bar to find information on Ratigan, who lures them into his lair and into a gigantic trap. The name of the bar they enter? The Rat Trap.
  • In The Iron Giant, Dean, the artist, directs the Giant to make a mobile, a hanging children's toy, out of cars. Automobile
  • In Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole, there is a Training Montage/Good Times Montage which involves various shots of Ga'hoole—a vast city full of owls. (Well, vast if you're an owl, anyway.) Over said montage, there's a cheerful song called "To the Sky." The song itself is not a pun on the action happening... until you realize what band is performing it.
  • Porco Rosso is about when pigs fly.
  • At the end of The Princess and the Frog, the firefly character dies, and a funeral is held for him.
  • Toward the end of the "Pomp and Circumstance" sequence from Fantasia 2000, a female dove actually bursts into tears after Donald Duck throws her mate over the railing of Noah's Ark so that he can find the olive branch.
  • One of the lyrics from the song "Topsy Turvy" from The Hunchback of Notre Dame is "...every clown's a king and every king's a clown...". The song is question is actually sung by Clopin, a colorful and enigmatic character who constantly refers himself as the king of the Gypsies, and dresses up in a clown suit.
  • Atlantis: The Lost Empire featured giant insects that for some reason caught fire and exploded if they made contact with anything on the ground.
    • At the end of the film, Kida is last seen climbing up a large rock structure wearing a long, flowing dress and a tiara with pink and blue feathers coming out of the back, making her a High Queen.
  • In Antz, the two main characters come across two insects by the name of "Chip" and "Muffy" who talk with Thurston Howell III type accents and act in other ways consistent with the stereotype of a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant. While never specifically named, its obvious from their character models that they are in the order hymenoptera, specifically WASPS.
  • This little tidbit shows up at one point in the film Brave: ACXIII.
  • The Rugrats Movie had Charlotte say towards the beginning of the movie, when referring to the soon-to-be-born Dil, "You know what they say - born under Venus, look for a--" which is then interrupted by her cellphone ringing.
  • Saved has several blink-and-you'll-miss-it stealth pun moments, including "is he going to come out or not?!" and "your mother's missionary position...." They make no sense out of context and are pretty hard to explain, but in the film they're just a few of many subtle moments of brilliance.
  • In the middle of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, Nick asks Russ where he learned artificial respiration after he delivers it to Amy. Russ replies, "In French class". Nick doesn't get it and the build-up is left unfinished... then, at the very end of the movie, right after the Fade to Black, Nick suddenly gets it and laughs hysterically.
  • In Evan Almighty, Evan's wife is Joan. And the movie is about building an ark.
    • This one may also count as a Genius Bonus. When God shows up in the back of Evan's car and scares the pants off him, God replies "Let it out, son. It's the beginning of wisdom." Proverbs 1:7 states "The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom"
    • Noah had a son named Ham. Evan has a son named Ryan, or Ry. Ham and Rye.
  • In The Rocky Horror Picture Show, the meal the characters have been eating is suddenly revealed to be the remains of Eddie, played by the singer Meat Loaf. The audience traditionally fills in the joke: "Not Meatloaf again!"
    • "That's a rather tender subject."
      • "That's a rather tasteless joke."
    • And don't forget the well-hung speakers.
    • Meat Loaf also made an appearance on Tales from the Crypt. Take a wild guess at what happened to his character.
  • In Scotland, PA, an adaptation of Macbeth set in and around a fast food restaurant, it is casually mentioned that Donald (Donalbain in Macbeth) and Malcolm's father, Duncan, made most of his money through donut sales. Duncan Donuts. Later, Donald takes over the restaurant, which had been renamed to McBeth's, and calls it, well, guess what... McDonald's, of course.
  • In the 2009 Star Trek movie, the alien in the bar that sits between Uhura and Kirk has elongated features. So why didn't the bartender say "Why the long face?"
    • Riff Trax did it.
      • The character was credited as "Long Face".
  • In yet another Star Trek film, the commanders of a Klingon vessel give the order of "Fire at will." There is an immediate cut to the bridge of their target, the Enterprise, currently commanded by Commander Riker. Will Riker.
  • It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World: The guy at the beginning of the movie, who tells the four drivers about the treasure buried under a big W, as he dies, kicks a bucket with his foot.
    • I used that same visual pun in a production of The Fantasticks when the Indian dies.
  • In The Dark Knight Saga, the police convoy is diverted by a large vehicle that had been set ablaze. When you see the vehicle up close, you realize what it is and the stealth pun indicates it as one of the Joker's jokes. It's a fire engine.
    • And by the end of the second act, the Batmobile has lost a wheel (well, two, but whatever) and the Joker got away.
  • In the original Flash Gordon the aliens have ray guns that fire gauntlets/armored gloves which strangle and throw people. That's right, the aliens have HAND-guns.
    • It's also a case of "throwing down the gauntlet" (i.e., challenge) to the good guys.
  • In Jeepers Creepers, the two main characters are nearly run off the road by a truck with a Vanity License Plate which says "BEATNGU". Darry guesses it just meant "beating you", but it's never stated what it really meant: "be eating you", as the driver is really the man-eating monster.
  • For the first shot of the villain in The Neverending Story II, she has no face until she takes a swipe of some mystical glowing gunk on her hands and swipes it over her face. Guess she just had to put her face on.
    • Either that or it's Face creme.
  • The title of the excellent German short film Schwarzfahrer means fare dodger, though it could literally be interpreted (with some license) as "black rider". It features a black man sitting on a tram next to a Racist Grandma who puts him through racial abuse, including saying all black people had AIDS. When the conductor comes round to collect the tickets, the black man eats her ticket, making her a lawbreaking type of schwarzfahrer. For added irony, a biker onlooker who never had a ticket gets let off.
  • This may or may not be a stretch, but after the makers of Monty Python and the Holy Grail ran out of money, they just had the film end with everyone being arrested by the police for the death of a historian earlier in the film. In other words, the ending is a cop-out.
  • The Bride's exchange with O-Ren Ishii in Kill Bill Vol. 1 could count, since (unless you were able to get a good look at her passport when she flew to Japan) we don't learn until Vol. 2 that her name is Beatrix Kiddo:

O-Ren Ishii: You didn't think it was gonna be that easy, did you?
The Bride: You know, for a second there, yeah, I kinda did.
O-Ren Ishii: Silly rabbit.
The Bride: Trix are...
O-Ren Ishii: ...for kids.

    • A possible double bonus: So you're saying that they called a woman named Beatrix a "rabbit"?
    • Additionally, Bill repeatedly calls the Bride "kiddo".
  • In Clue, Professor Plum: "I work for U.N.O., the United Nations Organization. I work for a special branch, the World Health Organization." (I.e., he works for UNO [you know] WHO.)
  • In Terminator 2, the T-800 chases John Connor through a mall carrying a box of flowers with a rifle inside. For 50 points, what was the name of the band that had a breakaway hit for the movie?
  • In the Æon Flux movie, when breaking into Trevor's estate, Æon's partner shows off her new genetically modified feet, altered into hands for added utility. When Æon asks how they're working out, she replies, "Useful". In other words, "Handy".
  • In Mean Girls, Janis Ian (named for a lesbian folk singer) has been hounded throughout high school by rumors that she's gay. While hating her former best friend for starting the rumors and causing her to be ostracized, she never actually denies liking girls, and at times it seems the movie is teasing us with the question. Then at the end, she winds up in a relationship with Kevin, after he comes up to her to find out if she fits his policy of "only dating women of color":

Kevin: You Puerto Rican?
Janis: Lebanese.
Kevin: I feel that.

  • The end credits for Stranger Than Fiction include a few visual puns. For instance, the credit for the casting director has a couch underneath it.
  • The title character of Bubba Ho-Tep yells vulgarities in hieroglyphics during the final confrontation. The mummy's curse.
  • Hot Shots! Part Deux has the rescue action take place in a Qurac country (albeit one with a sufficient enough jungle backdrop to allow parodies of the Vietnam set Rambo: First Blood: Part 2). They actually show it on a map by fashioning it out of the Iranian side of the Iran/Iraq border. Presumably due to the upheavals which lead to this split, Iran is labelled simple as A Hard Place. In other words, it was placed between Iraq and A Hard Place.
  • In Zombieland, twice Tallahassee guns down zombies whilst riding a rollercoaster. In other words it's an on-rail shooter.
  • Dungeons & Dragons has the villain knock the hero to the ground and shout "not so Talented now, are you Mister Ridley?.
  • In Inception, during Yusuf's dream, in the first level, Cobb accidentally creates a locomotive in the middle of the street. He was probably thinking about his dead wife, Mal. In other words, it was his train of thought.
    • And also the moment their plan goes off the rails.
      • It also tells us that the relationship turned into a real trainwreck
  • In Back to The Future Part II Doc Brown warns about meeting yourself from another time, thus creating a paradox. Near the end, you actually have Doc Brown meeting up with himself; thus creating a "pair o' Docs".
  • In Land of the Lost film it's telling that the place with an above average tachyon flow is one decidedly lacking in taste.
  • Riddled throughout Hot Fuzz, normally in the form of a Stealth Bond One-Liner. For example, Simon Pegg and Timothy Dalton have a stand down in a small model town. The pun? This town isn't big enough for the both of us.
    • Also lampshaded when a swan causes the villain to crash his car during his escape. with this exchange:

Nicholas Angel: I feel like I should say something smart.
Danny Butterman: You don't have to say anything at all.

    • I guess you could say it was his swan song.
  • When Larry finds what he needs to place in the action figures inSmall Soldiers, he triumphantly exclaims, "Hello, Mr. Chips!"
  • The Blues Brothers has a stealth pun in the White Supremacist Rally scene. The Rally speaker refers to their party as the American Socialist White People's Party, or, if you were to initialize it, ASWPP. The neo nazis are ASsWiP(P)es.
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