Search/Recent Changes
DBTropes
...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!

Nothing Is Funnier

 Nothing Is Funnier
type
FeatureClass
 Nothing Is Funnier
label
Nothing Is Funnier
 Nothing Is Funnier
page
NothingIsFunnier
 Nothing Is Funnier
comment
There's a lot to laugh about when a funny joke is told. It could be the wordplay, the delivery, the sheer amount of silly puns being thrown rapid-fire, or all manner of things. Jokes are funny, and are a great way to make people laugh.
Sometimes, however, the best comedy is something only the viewer can imagine. For instance, let's say there exists a location called "Big Tit Creek". Sure, you could go into detail, about how the creek was actually named after a large bird of the tit family, but it would be funnier to just let the viewer wonder, "How DID the creek get that name?"
As Nothing Is Scarier refers to the concept of leaving the object of fear to the viewer to think about, this is leaving things to the imagination of the viewer when it comes to comedy because nothing you could come up with could be funnier than whatever outlandish scenario they thought up. However, the two could still overlap in Black Comedy.
In short, the writer leaves out details, because of Rule of Funny.
Compare and contrast with Worse with Context. Related to Don't Explain the Joke. See also, Take Our Word for It.
Subtropes include:

Ambiguous Criminal History: A character is known to have committed a serious crime, but it's never explained.
Ambiguously Trained: The most probable reason why an Inexplicably Awesome character is like that is because he saw military service, but the story refuses to reveal it outright.
Big Ball of Violence: Some fights are funnier when left to the imagination.
Censored for Comedy: It's so disgusting you can only see vaguely what it looks like behind censor pixels.
Clingy Aquatic Life: A character gets out of the water, revealing that sea creatures got stuck to them or inside them somehow.
Cluster Bleep-Bomb: You don't need to know what exotic words someone is using to imagine how bad (and funny) it is.
Comic Sutra: Head-Tiltingly Kinky sexual acts with vague or poetic names (e.g. "Crossing the Silk Scarves") which are never described in detail and of course never shown, the better to let the audience imagine what they might be.
Gilligan Cut: "I'm never doing that!" Cut to them doing that. How it happened is better skipped over.
Inanimate Competitor: An inanimate object is involved in a competition somehow. Bonus points if they've apparently done something offscreen.
Narrative Profanity Filter: Stating or implying that a character used profanity, often leaving the exact words to the imagination.
Newhart Phone Call: The audience only hears one side of a phone conversation and has to imagine the other half themselves, usually based on what the one they can hear is saying.
Noodle Implements: A bunch of seemingly-outlandish requirements for a task are given, leaving the viewer to imagine their use.
Noodle Incident: A mysterious incident constantly referred to but never seen or explained.
Offscreen Crash: No writer could come up with a more chaotic scene than your imagination can.
Orphaned Punchline: When the end of a joke is told, and the beginning is left for the viewer to try and imagine.
Orphaned Setup: The beginning of a joke is told, but the punchline is left out.
Relax-o-Vision: Discretion Shot for the purpose of a gag.
Stealth Pun: Implying a pun without actually saying it aloud.
Subverted Punchline: When a potential bit of wordplay is waved in the audiences' faces and then ignored.
That Poor Car: Some big accident happens offscreen, setting off a car alarm, or several car alarms.
That Poor Cat: Some big accident happens offscreen, and based on the yowl, a cat was involved somehow.
Undisclosed Funds: Take our word for it, this is a lot of money.
You Do Not Want To Know: Something is apparently so unmentionable, the characters have to tell other characters (and the audience) that really, they don't want to know the specifics.
Example subpages:
Calvin and Hobbes
 Nothing Is Funnier
fetched
2024-04-19T00:00:53Z
 Nothing Is Funnier
parsed
2024-04-19T00:00:53Z
 Nothing Is Funnier
processingComment
Dropped link to BeleagueredAssistant: Not an Item - FEATURE
 Nothing Is Funnier
isPartOf
DBTropes
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_12ffd3e9
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_12ffd3e9
comment
Megas XLR: In his second appearance in the series Magnanimous returns despite having been sucked into a miniature black hole. His only response as to how he escaped was that “it wasn’t easy�. The hilarity comes not just from the vagueness of his answer, but also from the fact that one of the casualties he apparently suffered from his escape was an eye twitch (and he seems to be more upset about that than the scar he received on his other eye).
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_12ffd3e9
featureApplicability
1.0
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_12ffd3e9
featureConfidence
1.0
 Megas XLR
hasFeature
Nothing Is Funnier / int_12ffd3e9
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_1d6f193a
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_1d6f193a
comment
In Tales of Berseria, Eizen's "Reaper's Curse" means that any coin he flips will land on "tails". Rokurou and Eleanor try to "Beat" it by having Eizen flip a two-headed coin. The first time, a crow snatches it mid-air. The second time, a gryphon who resides at the location snatches it. The third time, all that's heard is a "boom" noise followed by Rokurou saying You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!.
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_1d6f193a
featureApplicability
1.0
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_1d6f193a
featureConfidence
1.0
 Tales of Berseria (Video Game)
hasFeature
Nothing Is Funnier / int_1d6f193a
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_3cc61f13
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_3cc61f13
comment
We Bare Bears episode "My Clique" features the bears and Chloe playing charades. We watch Panda and Grizz struggle hard at the game, but Ice Bear quickly manages to nail every single answer just from Chloe's gestures. Conveniently, the camera stops focusing on Chloe and instead closes up on Ice Bear once the prompts go from simple (pizza, Statue of Liberty, snowman) to far more complex and wacky (Richard Nixon, Old Faithful, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings), leaving it up to the audience to guess what exactly Chloe must be doing off-camera.
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_3cc61f13
featureApplicability
1.0
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_3cc61f13
featureConfidence
1.0
 We Bare Bears
hasFeature
Nothing Is Funnier / int_3cc61f13
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_400469e
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_400469e
comment
Calvin and Hobbes has its own page on the subject. It's also the Trope Namer for Noodle Incident. Whatever the aforesaid "noodle incident" was, Calvin swears up and down that he was innocent, but wrongly blamed. Any particulars of the incident are never addressed. Instead, just bringing up the Noodle Incident would cause Calvin to immediately go into a panicked defense, insisting that it wasn't him or that no one could prove it, all played for comedy. Comic author Bill Watterson said in the Tenth Anniversary Calvin and Hobbes Collection that he intended to visit what happened the Noodle Incident someday, but eventually talked himself out of it. The reason he never explained what happened during the Noodle Incident was that he decided nothing he could come up with would ever be as funny as anything the readers would be able to come up with in their own minds.
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_400469e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_400469e
featureConfidence
1.0
 Calvin and Hobbes (Comic Strip)
hasFeature
Nothing Is Funnier / int_400469e
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_4b44a132
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_4b44a132
comment
Stupid Kids: Bazsi asks an unseen audience where to hide Dani's gift then gets disgusted by their unheard suggestion in Boldogat és még boldogabbat (Merry and even more).
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_4b44a132
featureApplicability
1.0
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_4b44a132
featureConfidence
1.0
 Stupid Kids (Web Animation)
hasFeature
Nothing Is Funnier / int_4b44a132
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_71169c78
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_71169c78
comment
Chowder: In the episode "Sing Beans," Schnitzel tells a joke that makes Mung crack up, though Chowder's just confused (Mung refuses to explain it, saying Chowder will get it when he's older). Due to Schnitzel's One-Word Vocabulary, the audience has no idea what the joke is, just that it's very dirty, leaving viewers (especially older ones) to fill in the gaps with their own dirty jokes.
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_71169c78
featureApplicability
1.0
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_71169c78
featureConfidence
1.0
 Chowder
hasFeature
Nothing Is Funnier / int_71169c78
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_81c929fa
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_81c929fa
comment
At one point in Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Cal asks his robot companion BD-1 for a joke. Thing is, Cal understands BD-1's language while we do not:
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_81c929fa
featureApplicability
1.0
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_81c929fa
featureConfidence
1.0
 Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (Video Game)
hasFeature
Nothing Is Funnier / int_81c929fa
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_8a08048e
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_8a08048e
comment
Taskmaster:
One episode has a task where a contestant must be blind-folded, but the one who won was able to see a bit because Alex didn't fit the blindfold properly. Greg assures us that Alex will be punished, but without giving any details about what will be done to him other than apparently it happens quite often.
Another has Munya Chawawa bring in "The Suckertron 3000" for the prize task, a small handheld vacuum, and assures the audience that it's not the official name and thus, for obvious reasons, you probably shouldn't Google it. Alex does exactly that on his tablet while Munya talks, is visibly disturbed, by what he finds, and then shows it to Greg. The audience doesn't get to see what he found, only their reactions.
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_8a08048e
featureApplicability
1.0
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_8a08048e
featureConfidence
1.0
 Taskmaster
hasFeature
Nothing Is Funnier / int_8a08048e
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_8aa7c509
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_8aa7c509
comment
Star vs. the Forces of Evil: "St. Olga's Reform School for Wayward Princesses" has a visual gag involving Star running offscreen in a panic to hide at the mention of St. Olga's. It cuts to a wide shot of the room with Star's legs kicking from beneath a rug… only for Star to emerge from a different location. The second time this happens, Marco questions the legs, but Star's response only raises more questions.
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_8aa7c509
featureApplicability
1.0
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_8aa7c509
featureConfidence
1.0
 Star vs. the Forces of Evil
hasFeature
Nothing Is Funnier / int_8aa7c509
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_90b916ba
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_90b916ba
comment
This is what helps sell one the funniest scenes in Batman: The Animated Series, specifically "Joker's Millions". At one point, Joker appears to swear off crime after inheriting a fortune, yet inexplicably sends his accountant in his place (complete with badly done makeup) to the Iceberg lounge while Bruce Wayne also happens to be there. Sensing something amiss, Batman investigates when 'Joker' walks off to the bathroom. Discovering the switch, he interrogates the accountant, who claims ignorance. Batman proceeds to give the man a Swirlie in an upper-class club lavatory. We don't get to see this happen; all we get are the sounds of frantic pleading followed by extremely loud and repeated flushing, and the disquieted reaction of Penguin, who is right outside the bathroom door and decides against intervening to spare himself the trouble. This forces us to imagine Batman bullying this hapless pencil-neck accountant in a bad Joker outfit by shoving him headfirst into a toilet, and the mental image that conjures up is doubtless funnier than anything that could have been animated.
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_90b916ba
featureApplicability
1.0
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_90b916ba
featureConfidence
1.0
 Batman: The Animated Series
hasFeature
Nothing Is Funnier / int_90b916ba
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_ae806378
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_ae806378
comment
During the Sonic Juice fight in No More Heroes III, Travis is asked why he doesn't like RPGs. He elaborates by saying the entire genre was ruined by one game because the characters looked 'fucking'... Both the name of the game and the adjective used to describe them are bleeped out. The characters even repeat the word a few times to hammer in that we don't get to know what it is.
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_ae806378
featureApplicability
1.0
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_ae806378
featureConfidence
1.0
 No More Heroes III (Video Game)
hasFeature
Nothing Is Funnier / int_ae806378
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_b0fc9724
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_b0fc9724
comment
Saturday Night Live: In this sketch, Steve Martin and Bill Murray stand and stare at an unknown object and ask "What the hell is that?" ad nauseam. The audience is left to imagine what the object looks like.
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_b0fc9724
featureApplicability
1.0
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_b0fc9724
featureConfidence
1.0
 Saturday Night Live
hasFeature
Nothing Is Funnier / int_b0fc9724
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_b2cac7f5
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_b2cac7f5
comment
Naru-Hina Chronicles Mini-sodes: Ino decides to pull a prank on Naruto by claiming that the girls changing room (where Hinata is currently changing into a two-piece swimsuit) is actually unisex. Naruto enters it and Ino is waiting to hear a major reaction. However, she's confused when she hears nothing. She looks into the changing room and says "Oh, that explains it.", but what she's seeing is not shown.
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_b2cac7f5
featureApplicability
1.0
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_b2cac7f5
featureConfidence
1.0
 Naru-Hina Chronicles (Webcomic)
hasFeature
Nothing Is Funnier / int_b2cac7f5
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_b7f04ccc
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_b7f04ccc
comment
The Patrick Star Show: In "Best Served Cold", Gladys is currently reading an expose called Secret Evil: The Untold Truth of the Easter Bunny. Exactly what this is "untold truth" is never explained and left to the viewer's imagination.
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_b7f04ccc
featureApplicability
1.0
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_b7f04ccc
featureConfidence
1.0
 The Patrick Star Show
hasFeature
Nothing Is Funnier / int_b7f04ccc
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_e5be67c8
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_e5be67c8
comment
Green Eggs and Ham (2019): In "There", Gluntz uses a technique to stupefy the Goat, trapping him in what she claims is a happy memory. We're never shown the memory, just the Goat screaming "AAAAAAH! NOOOOOO!"
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_e5be67c8
featureApplicability
1.0
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_e5be67c8
featureConfidence
1.0
 Green Eggs and Ham (2019)
hasFeature
Nothing Is Funnier / int_e5be67c8
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_f451ef7
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_f451ef7
comment
The classic example from Three Men in a Boat is the scene where the hapless characters, who have embarked on an ill-advised and poorly planned boating holiday down the Thames, attempt to open a stubborn sealed can with a tree, as nobody remembered to pack a can-opener; the only details the author provides the reader with are the fact that a straw hat saved the life of one, while another escaped with only minor injuries. The humour comes from the way the author avoids describing exactly what happened and leaves it up to the reader to guess.
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_f451ef7
featureApplicability
1.0
 Nothing Is Funnier / int_f451ef7
featureConfidence
1.0
 Three Men in a Boat
hasFeature
Nothing Is Funnier / int_f451ef7

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

 Nothing Is Funnier
processingCategory2
Comedy Tropes
 Nothing Is Funnier
processingCategory2
This Index Does Not Exist
 Shards of a Memory (Fanfic) / int_3db9abb5
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Demolition Man / int_3db9abb5
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Dirty Work / int_3db9abb5
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 How to Train Your Dragon / int_3db9abb5
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Cheers / int_3db9abb5
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Monty Python's Flying Circus / int_3db9abb5
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 The Whitest Kids U' Know / int_3db9abb5
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Go! Go! Hypergrind (Video Game) / int_3db9abb5
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 DaThings (Web Animation) / int_3db9abb5
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Overly Sarcastic Productions (Web Animation) / int_3db9abb5
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Stupid Kids (Web Animation) / int_3db9abb5
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Dark Simpsons (Web Video) / int_3db9abb5
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Neuro-sama (Web Video) / int_3db9abb5
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Ghosts of the Future (Webcomic) / int_3db9abb5
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Naru-Hina Chronicles (Webcomic) / int_3db9abb5
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 qxlkbh (Webcomic) / int_3db9abb5
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse / int_3db9abb5
type
Nothing Is Funnier
 We Bare Bears / int_3db9abb5
type
Nothing Is Funnier