#meta humour

[superbeans89]

I see what you did there

[thepiedcurrawong]

would you ever send an ask to yourself

probably not.

[aphantpoet]

Modern satire.

I’ve been watching a show from my childhood recently; Detentionaire. Through my rewatch I’ve noticed a lot of thing, from the overwhelming diversity that would have contemporary conservative commentators frothing at the mouth to the stunning use of visual foreshadowing. More so I’ve noticed the clever and loving use of satire that lends itself to the shows  comedy and how it contrasts with modern, cynical; “meta humour”.

Detentionaire follows Tenth Grader Lee Ping after he is framed for a prank on the first day of school that skyrockets him into the upper echelons of highschool coolness and lands him a year of detention. Through his investigation he uncovers a conspiracy that changes his life and will make any future therapists of his absurdly wealthy. [spoilers start here]

The show uses elements of the spy/action genre as well a sci-fi and mystery. The writing calls attention to the absurdity and cliches that it employs in a   fascinating way; with it being used by characters we’re not supposed to take seriously such as Lynch Webber [ a minor antagonist] when he has Jenny and Tina [Lee’s friend and crush] tied up because he wants to extort Lee for an important item. When jenny and Tina question him on this and point out he could have just taken Lee; “ Hello!. I’m the bad guy, he’s the hero  and you are one of two damsels in distress and I am in the middle of explaining something?”.  It’s also used with characters who have an established interest in this kind of things or who are there mostly for comedy like Brad [another minor antagonist]. As seen in the season 2 episode “School Hard” when he assigns arbitrary roles[Bad boy seeking redemption;Lee] to the students as they try to avoid the schools robot cleaners who are going on a rampage�� and are shooting things with crystal guns and continues to rationalise the events through that, even asking for a second take for his “breakdown” when Biffy [One of Lee’s friends who was  assigned  “Muscle with a heart of gold”]  gets crystalised .

This kind of meta humour can only comes from a deep love and respect for the genre that you’re trying to satirise and it’s brilliance has made me examine a lot of modern and cynical satire that's seems almost embarrassed by the tropes it uses. 

One of the most recent examples is HBO Max’s Velma which pokes fun at the Mystery Gang in a way that falls flat, ignoring years of characterisation for shallow and one note jokes. Detentionaire was able to keep up the meta humour well into it’s fourth season and even have straight goofy sub plots because they contrasted and gave reprieve from the moments where Lee was questioning his own  sanity. Meanwhile Velma seems ashamed and scornful of the characters and genre it’s trying to be.

What is satire without love?. 

[amr2002amr]

Underrated trope that I eat up: characters making meta comments about the fact that a musical is a musical.

[whinlatter]

What’s something about Ron Weasley as a character that you think is underrated?

That Ron is really, really funny, and that his sense of humour isn't a sign of immaturity or gratuitous comic relief for the reader's sake, but an absolutely essential part of what both Harry and Hermione value in Ron as a character as an antidote to their own tendencies (moodiness and seriousness/anxiousness, respectively). Ron makes bad days bearable to get through for the people around him. I think people mistake Ron making jokes for a lack of emotional awareness, but I actually think it’s the opposite. By the series end Ron is literally the most emotionally well-adjusted of the central canon characters. That line about Peeves’ poem right at the end of DH when the war is won (“Really gives a feeling for the scope and tragedy of the thing, doesn't it?”) is a) brilliant and b) such a great manifesto for how Ron’s outlook on the world — not humour as emotional avoidance, but humour that sits within all the grief and pain and suffering, and makes it that bit more bearable. So yeah Ron Weasley’s love for chuckles is Important and Overlooked and I will keep saying it til I am blue in the face

[numericalbridge]

i think it is especially hilarious that the fandom made such a big deal out of Darius' "only the small ones will get eaten" moment, considering:

how many times characters try to eat someone; not to mention many gags where the core characters are comicaly callous in inappropriate moments. And that Darius' line was framed similary as a comedic moment in canon!

[hereticaldetective]

Autistic Sherlock and Jonk Watson. What a pair they are.

[kacievvbbbb]

Rewatching Gumball is knowing that while there is no actual real overarching plot the episodes are still so amazingly interconnected.

I love how they do foreshadowing, how they build on little moments that we see through out other episodes. It's Banana joe's mom's future paintings being a small joke in "The Shell". Rob being in the deleted place with all the forgotten things in "The Void" after we see that Gumball and Darwin have a hard time remembering him and then completely forget him once Darwin kicks him into the sewers a whole season earlier in "The Pony". He then literally still has parts of the void ingrained in his design when he comes back. It's the fact that Penny and her family being hollow shells with something inside was being played as haunting jokes for episodes before the one based entirely around it. It's the fact that characters like Sarah have always been a little fourth wall breaky and so an episode like "The Fan Fiction" is so completely in line with her character that it's unremarkable in context, hell there's an episode where she sings the ending song to end the show and avoid an awkward conversation her being able to take some control of the show feels like the natural evolution of that.

The background characters in gumball have such distinct personalities that have been pretty consistent and built upon since season 2 which is completely insane and unprecedented for an episodic 2010 children's cartoon. The show might not have had an arc but it has always been continuous.

You do really get the sense that this is a world where everyone is very hyper-aware of the rules in which they operate. The show might reset at the end of the episode but the people don't

[somewhatsentientspellbook]

can't wait for braius to realise the woman drooling over him is his no. 1 nemesis

[sad-endings-suck]

“Why would you even ship that character with anybody?! He’s basically irredeemable to me—“

TO YOU!! He’s irredeemable to you. But some of us are silly geese that like our men to be the sexy, sad, feral, pathetic wet cats that they really are deep down, because we aren’t allergic to joy.

Is that okay with you??!? Is that permissible in the eyes of the Chronically Online Board of Hypothetical Ethics and Human Resources for Fictional Characters That Are Not Real™️®️.

You can go enjoy your curated selection of stale two dimensional wonderbread men in the corner, like the misguided pitiful lost soul that you are. the rest of us will be enjoying ourselves as our pathetic wet rag himbos and twinks kneel on the ground and beg to taste pussy/cock so hard they nearly come, like real men. just as god herself intended.

[it-happened-once-in-a-meme]

Fun Little Gotham Detail (Season 3 Edward Nygma)

In episode 17, we see a picture of Ed on television:

The photograph in question is from the GCPD scene where he makes a big entrance and sarcastically says that he's glad to be back 😂

Meaning that there was either a photographer there that day who was told to take a picture of the sassy ex employee or that they had the idea themselves.

[esevik]

Gachiakuta probably has my favorite twist in a shounen battle I've ever seen. Two characters' fight devolve into a fist-fight only for one of them to go: -Wait, no one else can see or hear us right now? -What? Scared your friends can't save you? -Nope. *pulls out a gun and proceeds to shoot the enemy*

I just find that whole scene hilarious.

[themandazepanda]

[teruel-a-witch]

The Curious Case Of The Most UST Filled Tetanus Shot In History

that time Danny walked in on Steve about to administer himself a tetanus shot after a dive into dirty canal water

because you can always count on Steve to find an excuse to take his clothes off at work

and Danny freaked out disproportionately because he was NOT prepared for Steve to just drop his pants in front of him out of blue, at least give him the decency of two to three business days of warning (sexual frustration always makes him extra aggressive)

Steve, who was still pouting over Danny not joining him for a swim in that canal, suggested Danny look away or cover his eyes

unsurprisingly despite his loud (for show) complains Danny does NOT look away during the money shot

not only that but the entire time after as Steve proceeded to fasten his pants back up

Danny's eyes kept straying and wandering 👀 (which made it all the most obvious that his earlier protests were to save face/for show)

he was fighting for his life trying to focus on the conversation about the suspect

all in all, extremely heterosexual™ happenings at the office feat. Steve and Danny, as usual

Bonus

[loosethreadsofyoursoul]

if nothing else they were committed to the bit

[total-drama-brainrot]

i found ur "p!Noah singing "The Red Means I Love You"" idea interesting and i absolutely love the concept of Chris asking for a song and Noah just jumping to the front with the most maniac grin on his face, and nobody stops him cause they're too afraid to so they just let the guy have his solo LMAO but i have to ask, if he did sing this song, given its a song to be directed at a singular person [or multiple people, if he goes around and singles out one person at a time], who would the person he sings it to be? or would he just sing it to sing it? [imagining him forming a kick-line at some point and cackling]

See I've always had a hard time envisioning Noah willfully singing for any reason- and that applies to all Noahs- save for maybe spite, monetary compensation and/or dedication to The Bit (and even then, I really doubt canon Noah would be committed enough to a joke to 'humiliate himself' by singing). He does sing along to the compulsary songs in canon, though he's not a frequent voice amongst the regular performers.

But p!Noah is pretty much all about committing himself fully to The Bit, so he'd probably jump at the chance to have his own solo song if said solo song was something along the lines of "The Red Means I Love You", or "I Can't Decide", or anything that's gruesome/gorey enough to cause discomfort to his competitors. Bonus points if he gets to demonstrate what he's singing!

As for who he's singing to? ... I have no idea.

I'm a bit (a lot) of a multishipper, and I usually leave my AUs fairly vague when it comes to what romances it'll include (if any) unless said romance plays an integral part in the whole concept of the AU itself. In the case of the Psycho Noah AU, I haven't really put much thought into how relationships would work- let alone which ship would be 'canon' to the AU.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is; it's up to the reader themself to fill in the blanks with their preferred Noah ship!

Saying that, having Noah sing an inherently romantic (if a little violent/fucked up) song without actually dedicating it to anyone is. Really funny. Maybe he's singing to the audience themselves, as yet another way to tease/toy with them?

(And the idea of him somehow roping the others into a kickline is hilarious, though I have no idea how he'd manage it. Not that I doubt he could.)