#Kim possible

[superiorsturgeon]

Pyrrha: *kicks hideout door down* Jaune!

Jaune: *tied to a chair* Pyrrha!! Thank goodness you’re here! How did you find me?!

Pyrrha: I just traced the microchip tracker on my phone! 😊

Jaune: …wait…microchip…?

Pyrrha: …whoops… 🫢

Jaune: Did you Ron-Stoppable me?!

Pyrrha: …I mean…

Some time ago…

Pyrrha: *carefully pressing something into a block of cheddar* Would you like a piece of cheese, Jaune? 🧀

Jaune: Sure! Thanks, Pyrrha! *pops cheese block into his mouth* 😋

Pyrrha: 😇

Back in the present…

Jaune: OH COME ON!!! I didn’t mind being Ron to your Kim Possible but now it’s like I’m your dog!! 😫

Jaune: Next you’re going to tell me you have a collar with my name on it ….😓

Pyrrha:

Jaune: …oh gods, you actually have a collar with my name on it, don’t you?

Pyrrha: 😣

[mdnet]

Camila Mendes as Shego.

[archivist-goldfish]

[punkeropercyjackson]

@pinkpinkmermayyy

MADELAINE PETSCH and CAMILA MENDES As Kim Possible and Shego for Halloween 2024

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

How to Use Absurdist Humor

I will often excuse away the “worst” of Marinette’s behavior with a very dismissive, “It’s an obvious joke, so there’s no point taking this as a serious character beat. Let’s not waste our time here.”

While I stand by that statement, I can see why some people struggle with this approach. Miraculous has made the unfortunate choice to tie the humor to parts of the narrative that have actual meaning to the audience. This undercuts the power of the humor, making it hard for some people to separate the humor from the actual character beats, so let’s step back and look at a show that did this right to show what I mean.

That’s right, folks, it’s time for more gushing about Kim Possible!

For today’s case study, we'll start with episode 17 of season one: The Twin Factor. In this episode, Kim is stuck babysitting her little brothers while on a mission to stop her arch nemesis. You may be thinking that Kim's "flaw" in this episode is the fact that she brings two 10-year-olds on a dangerous mission.

You would be wrong.

This is the lead-in to Kim bringing the twins along:

Kim: Er, speaking of forgetting, I totally spaced on the baby-sitting. Mrs. Dr. Possible: Kimmy, you made a commitment. Kim: Two commitments, actually. I'm suppose to go on a mission today. Mr. Dr. Possible: You'll just have to take the boys. Kim: Mom, can you please tell Dad that's a bad idea? Mrs. Dr. Possible: Oh, Kimmy. I'm sure Jim and Tim would love to visit a secret lab with you.

This is how you do absurdist humor. Is this technically horrible parenting? Yes, but there is no way that anyone is taking this seriously. It’s just so over the top that anyone trying to criticize the Possible’s behavior comes across as completely missing the point.

The other important factor is that Kim’s parents are played as genuinely loving and supportive parents, just in a really absurd way. This is a very natural bit of loving family dialogue about a totally ridiculous version of a normal family conflict. None of these three characters show off flaws that we expect to see address here save for their complete lack of concern about Kim’s life-risking adventures.

If Kim’s parents were shown to be genuinely neglectful or if Kim’s adventures were played more seriously, then this humor wouldn’t work anywhere near as well as it does. It would still be an obvious joke, but it would stumble the landing if you knew that the episode would go on to see Jim and Tim die. (They don’t, btw. The absurdist humor carries on, I’m just giving an extreme example of a plot beat that would kill – or at least weaken – this humor.)

Another example of Kim Possible doing absurdist humor right comes from the next episode in season one: Animal Attraction. In this episode, Kim is up against Senior Senior Senior, an eccentric billionaire who pursues villainy as a hobby, leading to exchanges like this one between him and his son:

Jr.: Did we not leave Kim Possible on a conveyor belt to her doom? Sr.: Yes. A proper villain always leaves his foe when he's about to expire. Jr.: Why? Sr.: Well, it would be bad form just to lull about, waiting for it. Jr.: Why? Sr.: Tradition!

This episode has a lot of moments like this. Moments where Jr asks why they don't do the obvious, more easy/effective thing and his father blows him off because that's not how villains do things! It's totally illogical logic and it's great. I love it! Perfect example of absurdist villains and a great way to keep the show from getting too serious. The writers never wanted you to feel like Kim was in over her head.

If you look at these two examples and compare them to Miraculous, you'll notice a big difference. While Miraculous does occasionally pull off good absurdist humor, a lot of the absurdist humor is more questionable because it's tied to the show's central conflicts.

As an example, let's talk about Marinette's inability to confess to Adrien and all the nonsense tied to that. Her many failures and attempts to know him better are clearly jokes, but they have this serious edge because the show has not set up the love square as nothing more than a source of humor. This is our end game couple. The audience expects to see their romance developed. The longer the show goes on without doing that and the more absurd Marinette's attempts get, the less the comedy works.

Another good example is Lila's lies. There is a solid argument to be made that the writers are trying to be funny with Lila's extremely obvious lies, but it doesn't work because the lies are a source of serious conflict. Lila is working with the villain! She gets Marinette expelled! We want to see her outed! Every obvious lie she tells just grates on our nerves because this is not the time for jokes!

To be fair, you can use absurdist humor in more serious shows. Another of my personal favorites is The Good Place, which relies heavily on absurdist humor, but has a very serious and heartfelt overall plot. The humor works there because the show knew when to use the humor and when to be serious and also because The Good Place is not a formula show. It's a serialized show. One big story told in 20-minute chunks. This meant that the humor had more room to breath and could be more closely tied to serious conflicts. When every story has to stand alone and be finished in 20-minutes, that blending rarely ever works. You're trying to do too much.

Kim Possible's writers knew this, too. The two tie-in movies (Kim Possible: A Sitch in Time and So the Drama) are still comedies, but they both have far more serious tones because they had the time to do that. While the episodes run about 20 minutes, both movies run a little over and hour which meant they could be more serious than in a standard episode.

So why did I write all that up? Because I was watching Kim Possible and thinking about how much better the humor generally was and I suddenly realized how easy it would be to be confused by Miraculous' humor if you didn't have this kind of background. I've seen enough absurdist humor to identify it with ease and even I struggle with Miraculous at times. Like I'm still not sure if Lila's lies are supposed to be a joke or not.

If you're new to absurdist humor or struggle to interpret less overt humor? Then I can see how you'd take Miraculous way more seriously than the writers intended because a lot of the absurdist humor simply isn't absurd enough. That doesn't change the fact that it's humor and I'm still going to treat it as such, but I can see why it goes right over some people's heads and leads to complaints like, "Marinette has his schedule for the next three years!!!" That was a joke, but I get why you're missing it.

[filmfanaticforlife-blog]

that one episode of Kim Possible. IYKYK

Mad scientist with a huge ego. they hypnotize you and dumb you down so much you nearly lose all common sense. When they explain basic things to you, you can't understand a word they say, but you can't stop singing their praise.

[sewnshutt]

Prom 2005 🪼

[bluecrocss]

..

I interrupt your usual Percabeth variant discourse... "Hiccup/Astrid", "Kataang or Zutara" (whichever. Don't put me in the middle), blah, blah, blah, and I present...

Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable (if Annabeth was the protagonist instead of Percy).

Fanart by Viria

[its-to-the-death]

Battle of the Gingers Wave 2 Preliminary Round #14

Only one will make it into the bracket

[nyancrimew]

im the worlds most dorky transfem dj

📷/📹: Cosimo Augustoni

[anti-anticheese]

so true demi

[lilliangst]

color wheel challenge but make it girlboss insanity

rest in pieces lilli lilliangst

[drawnfamiliarfaces]

i was a (pre)teen hero once, but then i took some trauma to my psyche

[shittymoviedetails]

kim possible without her iconic moustache

[archivist-goldfish]

Alice Delish - Shego - Part 1

Part 2 / Part 3