Wasn't That Fun?

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Didn't we have some fun, though? Remember when the platform was sliding into the fire pit and I was like "goodbye" and you were like "NO WAY!" and I was all like "we pretended we were going to murder you"? That was great...
GLaDOS, Portal

The characters have just gone through a harrowing experience. They've Outrun the Fireball, survived the Death Course, ridden the Rollercoaster Mine and, amazingly enough, gone through it with their extremities intact, making them bona-fide Action Survivors.

While the other characters are catching their breath and trying to regain their bearings, one of them quips, "Well, wasn't that fun?" (or "Let's do it again!", or some other enthusiastic rejoinder). Depending on the speaker, this could be either a sincere statement or old-fashioned sarcasm.

A popular way to end a Chase Scene or an Indy Escape. The Deadpan Snarker, Lovable Rogue or Nightmare Fetishist is the odds-on favorite for delivering the line.

Opposite of I'm Not Doing That Again. See also Does That Sound Like Fun to You? for when a character thinks something would be cool, but an older or more experienced character is sure that they know better.

Examples of Wasn't That Fun? include:

Anime and Manga

  • In Hidamari Sketch, the girls visit a water park and go down a very high waterslide. Yuno screams the loudest of the four girls, and seems genuinely terrified as she goes down, but when she comes up out of the water, she's all smiles. "It wasn't as scary as I thought!"
  • Pretty much every Pokémon movie ever.
  • In Tokyo Mew Mew:

Pudding: "Let's do that again!"
Ichigo: "One ride per customer!"

  • Helen goes on a wild ride with Sonic in Episode 14 of Sonic X that takes them to and across an island in the middle of a lake where Helen says there is a beautiful patch of white flowers. The two are being chased by government troopers trying to catch them and bring them to the President's annual party honoring Sonic's heroics against Dr. Eggman, and with Sonic's speed and attitude and all that, damn, he and Helen have never had this much fun together in a long time.

Comic Book

  • This happens mid-chase in the Sin City comic "A Dame to Kill For". Dwight McCarthy has just been betrayed, is bleeding to death, is being chased by cops, and has Heroic Sociopath Marv behind the wheel of the getaway car. The entire situation is harrowing for him to say the least but Marv quips how fun the situation is.
  • In Action Comics #1, the very first appearance of Superman, Supes wants to question a corrupt minion's lobbyist and he obviously won't cooperate. To change his mind, Supes grabs his foot and gives him a terrifying run on power lines and super leaping around the city. Upon landing, Supes says "Wasn't that fun? Let's do it again!" At that, the crook begins to sing.

Fan Works

  • In the Neon Genesis Evangelion Alternate Universe Fic Nobody Dies, Rei Ayanami somehow drags Kensuke Aida inside the angel Ramiel then takes his advice on how to attack its core, after which they ride out the positron beam fired through the angel by Uriel Sohryu in Evangelion Unit 02. When Rei punches a hole in the side of the dead angel and the two of them hop out to the street, Kensuke says, "That was awesome! Let's do it again!"

Film

  • In Ice Age, after the animals all go hurtling through an Ice Helter Skelter and slam into a wall, Diego punches the air and asks who wants to go do it again.
    • Also in the third movie, when the herd is leaving the underground world, Buck states that they should have that adventure full of mortal peril again.
  • In DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp, Scrooge and company take a wild ride down a raging underground river under a wicker basket in order to get out of the treasure trove of Collie-Baba. Once it's all over, Louie says "I wouldn't mind doing that again, now that I know you can live through it."
  • It happens in Romancing the Stone, when Jack faceplanted between Joan's legs after a mudslide. Jack has been acting like a Jerkass up to that moment, but the excitement of the fall makes him lighten up.

Jack: "Woo hoo! What a ride!"

McCoy: "Well, this is fun."

  • Galaxy Quest: The friendly aliens' method of transporting the protagonists to their ship can be described roughly as "fly them into orbit at insane speed with nothing but a huge blob of jello to shield them". Everyone looks thoroughly traumatised and nauseated by this experience, except for the engineer... who just remarks "That was a hell of a thing."
  • The Incredibles: After dropping from a cruising altitude, landing on a crowded interstate, taking out half a dozen other cars, somersaulting down the road, and stopping in a vacant parking spot...

Mr. Incredible: "Everyone okay back there?"
Violet: (dizzy) "Super-duper, dad!"
Dash: "Let's do that again!"

  • Up: After the house goes plummeting off the blimp, Carl looks over the edge to see Russell swinging from the other end of the garden hose he's holding, barely escaping falling to an inevitable, painful death.

Russell: "That was COOL!"

  • In The Brave Little Toaster, Kirby throws out a sarcastic quip as the entire party is sinking helplessly into a mud puddle, with him being the first to go.

Kirby: "Oh, this is great! Let's make this an everyday!"

  • From The Hangover: Alan says a variation of this ("That was awesome!") after he almost navigates them into a semi truck on the freeway while they're driving to Vegas.

Doug: That was NOT awesome, what is wrong with you?!

Rose: "I never dreamed that any mere physical experience could be so stimulating!"

  • In 127 Hours, Aron scares the hell out of Kristen and Megan by dropping suddenly into a crevasse and plummeting out of sight. He lands far below in an underground pool and, after convincing them to jump too, they climb out and dive back in several times, even filming themselves.
  • In Master and Commander The Far Side of The World, Captain Aubrey grins and says "now tell me that wasn't fun" after retrieving a sailor from the sea.Note that said sailor had just been assigned to rig up a decoy for a terrifying French frigate to shoot at, allowing the Surprise to escape.
  • Fievel chimes in "Let's go on that ride again!" after he and his family have a terrifying trip down a sewer waterfall in a discarded tuna can in An American Tail: Fievel Goes West.
  • In Shrek, after Donkey and Shrek hear the Duloc greeting song for the first time and have their photo taken by the booth, they both gape in bewilderment. Then Donkey says "Wow...let's do that again!" but Shrek stops him.
  • Finding Nemo: After undergoing a terrifying roller-coaster like exit from the East Australian Current, Marlin surprises himself by gasping "That was... fun!. I enjoyed that."
  • The Fifth Element: Ruby Rhod proclaims the attack of the Fhloston Paradise as the "best show I ever did."
  • Spice World had a scene where the women with two fans exploring the River Thames. All of them living life vests. Of course, a log gets in the way, causing the fans and Victoria to fall off. Melanie C dives in the river to rescue them, only for three safety on very log. While Victoria was scared and agued with Melanie C, two fans wanted to do that again as they thought it was part of the ride. It wasn't.

Literature

  • Played straight and subverted in one Animorphs story. Marco, Tobias and Ax go sliding down several stories worth of staircase bannister in cockroach form on their bellies at warp speed. When they get off, they exult in how awesome it was... just before agreeing to never, ever do that again. Also, Marco is fond of saying things like this.
  • In Barry Hughart's The Story Of The Stone (sequel to Bridge of Birds), four characters go over an improbably long series of rocks and other nearly-lethal water hazards while escaping from enemies via a river. The narrator (known as "Number Ten Ox") and the story's sensible heroine are forced to sit on the Old Master ("Master Li Kao") and the ridiculously oversexed sound-master Moon Boy until they stop demanding to go back and shoot the rapids again.
    • In the third book, Eight Skilled Gentlemen, Master Li Kao has apparently learned his lesson; after shooting through yet another series of water-filling tunnels, Master Li simply looks at them wistfully and comments that the man who could re-create that experience would make a fortune.
  • In Rebel Strike, the Wraiths and three Jedi have to infiltrate Coruscant by sort of parasailing down into the atmosphere, in things which aren't even big enough to be called drop capsules. On the way down, Luke controls nervousness, confers with his wife, and monitors the emotional state of the third, younger Jedi, Tahiri. He worries that he'll have to comfort her when they're down; it's bad enough for him, how much worse for her? Of course, when they do land she's absolutely thrilled, saying that she wants to do it again.
  • Icecarls in The Seventh Tower enjoy joking about going back and facing dangerous circumstances again. They typically say so deadpan, as though they're serious, which really freaks out Tal until Milla doubles over laughing at his expression.

Live-Action TV

  • Doctor Who seems to do this, constantly.
  • Used in the ninth season of Stargate SG-1. After the team has posed as drug dealers, been captured by drug dealers, got beaten up, captured by the Lucian Alliance, etc, they finally get back to Earth.

Mitchell: "We have the best jobs in the world."
Pause
Sam: "I'm going to hit the showers."
Daniel: "I'm going to find the doctor."
Both exit
Teal'c: "We are indeed suitably employed, Colonel Mitchell." (Exits)
Mitchell: (To himself) "Yeah, good day."

Mayor: "This officially commences the Hundred Days. Nothing can harm me until the Ascension." [[[Beat]]. Breaks into a fit of gleeful giggles] "Gosh, I'm feeling chipper! Who's for a root beer?!"

  • After teaming up with Buffy and Angel to fight a whole bunch of other vampires...

Spike: "Now that was fun. Don't tell me that wasn't fun. It's been so long since I had a decent spot of violence. Really puts things in perspective."

  • After Faith persuades Buffy to abandon all pretense of strategy and just rush blindly to attack half-a-dozen sword-wielding vampires...

Faith: "Tell me you don't get off on this."
Buffy: "Didn't suck."

  • In Sherlock, Sherlock and John have an important one of these after a chase, as John realizes his limp actually is psychosomatic and going on Sherlock's little adventures makes him forget the pain. The moment doesn't last long.
    • In the episode "The Great Game", Sherlock is given very little time to solve a series of seemingly impossible crimes, with the life of an innocent, including a blind woman and a little kid, on the line. And he enjoys the game, something John and Lestate find unsettling.
  • Turned into a Running Gag on Dinosaurs. Whenever Baby endured any kind of physical punishment, ranging from being hit to being thrown across the room, and one time, even falling out of a tree, one of the first words out of his mouth was an enthusiastic, "Again!"
  • From Christmas Eve on Sesame Street, after Oscar the Grouch takes a bad spill while ice skating, falling down a staircase, then crashing through two walls, then falling down another staircase and then hitting a wall before falling through the fire escape door and collapsing:

Big Bird: Oscar, are you all right?
Oscar: All right? Let's go back and do it again!

Newspaper Comics

  • Baby Blues: More than once this trope was the final panel, after Hammie got himself into trouble, and back out of it with the help of Wanda or Darryl. One strip had him falling off of the backrest of a chair he was trying to reach the candy at the top of the fridge from, and after Wanda caught him he cheerfully cried, "Again!"

Theatre

  • In Once Upon a Mattress, at the end of the Spanish Panic, all the dancers but Winnifred have collapsed:

Queen: "Are you feeling a little weary, dear?"
Winnifred: "No, let's do it again!"

Theme Parks

Web Comics

  • Girl Genius features this after Agatha, Gil, and Tarvek try revivification.

Video Games

  • Max of Sam and Max loves this trope; the lagomorph thinks physical abuse is a form of affection. In Hit the Road, fresh from the "Cone of Tragedy" ride that has given Sam a cardiac arrest:

Max: "Ooh, I feel tragically empty."
Sam: "Me too. It's as though an integral part of my essence has been ripped from my being."
Max: "Let's do it again!"
Sam: "Maybe later, chum."

  • One of the possible dialogues in Left 4 Dead 2 after the characters drop down a cliff in Dark Carnival. Ellis says it was fun, but Nick disagrees.

"Falling and breaking my neck is not fun, Ellis."

  • Kyle Katarn says this word for word in Jedi Academy, often after having escaped some incredibly hazardous situation.
  • Subverted in Max Payne 2. After getting rid of dozens of mobsters trying to kill Vinnie Gognitti and finally escaping, Vinnie comments "Well, that was fun -- in a fuckin' terrible, sick, not-at-all-fun way".
  • Ezlo from The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap says this when you ride the mine carts in the Cave of Flames for the first time. If Link clearly screaming in horror wasn't an indication...

Western Animation

  • Lampshaded in an episode of the original Transformers cartoon: One of the Autobots has just survived a harrowing attack by the Decepticons, and quips something like, "Well, that was a lot of fun." Another character retorts, "Remind me to talk about your definition of 'fun' some time."
  • My Little Pony:
  • In the 2009 The Strawberry Shortcake Movie: Sky's the Limit!, the girls survive a crazy ride down a hill on a leaf (an attempt to catch up with their friend), and Blueberry Muffin, who had been opposed to riding the leaf in the first place, is the first to admit how much fun it was.
  • Happens in an early episode of The Simpsons, when the family goes to Itchy and Scratchy Land. After a rather deadly roller-coaster that ended in the family jumping out of the way of a buzz saw onto mattresses, Bart and Lisa title-drop the trope.
  • Quipped by Carl in an episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force after returning from another dimension with gigantic hands.

Carl: Well, that was fun. I'm gonna take a nap now, and then I think I'm gonna call, uh, some hospitals.

  • Uttered by Phyllis Diller after going down a trap door chute in a haunted castle in her episode of The New Scooby Doo Movies: "Wasn't that F-U-U-N, fun?"
  • In the Batman: The Animated Series episode "The Man Who Killed Batman", while Batman is presumed dead, the Joker holds a "funeral" for him, which ends with Joker tossing the man whom everyone believes killed Batman into the coffin and lowering the coffin into an acid pit while Harley Quinn plays "Amazing Grace" on kazoo. After the coffin disappears into the acid, Joker waits a Beat and asks, "Well, that was fun, who's up for Chinese?"
  • In one segment from the Care Bears Giving Festival movie, Oopsy and Wingnut help Trueheart get over her fear of rollercoasters. Part of their method involves riding the ferris wheel first, but they accidentally set the wheel to super fast, sending the wheel spinning at at a terrifying pace. Once they get it stopped, Trueheart seems to be in shock, until she says, "That. Was. AWESOME!"
  • A frequent utterance of Tuck in My Life as a Teenage Robot, starting from the very first episode.
  • In an episode of Zigby, Zigby and his friends McMeer & Bernie explore a cave. They end up sliding right out of it and hit the ground hard. Bernie says that she thinks she's broken her feathers. Zigby (a zebra), says that he thinks his stripes are jumbled up. "Let's do that again!" comments McMeer.
  • In "Buster's Bath," a story from My Friends Tigger & Pooh, when the group can't convince Buster to take a bath, they decide to try hosing him down. This results in a madcap scenario in which the water builds up because Eeyore is sitting on the hose, then when it all gets released, Piglet goes up in the air with the hose and it sprays around wildly. At the end of the whole thing, Roo exclaims "Let's do that again!"
  • Animaniacs: Wakko in "Ups and Downs", after the maintenance men raise the elevator he and Dr Scratchansniff are trapped in and drop it really quick:

"Wasn't that neat?"

  • In one episode of Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes, Dr Doom sends the Baxter Building into space. Reed has to fly it like a spaceship, using Doombots as thrusters, before crashing it into the Latverian Embasssy. Most of the building's residents are terrified by all this, but one dotty old lady wants to do it again.
  • The season 2 finale of The Venture Brothers After fighting off dangerous Guild helicopters, having the X-1 crash into The Cocoon, and the whole lot of them winding up crashed in the Grand Canyon, Brock plucks Hank out of the water. The first thing Hank says?

Hank: Again! Again!

  • Teen Titans: One episode of Teen Titans has Raven forced to take three little kids who are potential superheroes to a safe place to stop them from being kidnapped by the Brotherhood of Evil. At one point, she and the kids are trying to escape from Monsieur Mallah by riding in a cable-car, and the wire snaps. They go plummeting down the mountain in the car, which eventually crashes, but the kids land harmlessly in the snow. The two who can talk both promptly sit up and scream, "Again! Again!" Raven's reply? "NO AGAIN."