Monday, April 27, 2020

Wordplay.

Blogging from A to Z Challenge


Theme: Humor in film -- what makes me laugh:


Wordplay.

I love a good play on words... puns, literal meanings, tongue twisters...

It took me awhile to catch on that an island in The Incredibles (2004) named "Nomanisan" would make it "No-man-is-an Island." (A poem by John Donne.)

Igor (Marty Feldman) in Young Frankenstein (1974) breaks into a lab to steal a brain and mistakenly reads a jar's label as "Abby Normal", thus Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) puts an abnormal brain into his monster.

Spaceballs (1987) is not one of my favorite Mel Brooks films, but I did get a kick out of the literal use of some phrases. To "jam the radar" a huge jar of jam gets launched into it. When the jam  trickles down the radar screen, Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis) tastes it, and realizes he's been given the "raspberry." When told to "comb the desert" to look for the princess, the men drag gigantic Ace-brand combs through the sand. Hilarious!

In The Muppet Movie (1979), Kermit the Frog gives directions and tells Fozzie Bear, "Bear left!" and Fozzie answers, "Right frog!"

My favorite tongue twister comes from The Court Jester (1955) in a scene where Hubert (Danny Kaye) needs to remember, "The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle, the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true."

Movieclips: The Court Jester - 
The Pellet with the Poison's in the Vessel with the Pestle

Later, he is told the chalice from the palace broke and they replaced it with a flagon with a figure of a dragon, and the poison was put in there instead of the vessel with the pestle so he needs to keep track, "The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon; the vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true."

I crack up when both times he is told, "Just remember that."

(In the clip above, lightning strikes his suit of armor
right before he puts it on... making it magnetic.)
Movieclips: The Court Jester - The Flagon with the Dragon


Do you enjoy playing with words?

6 comments:

  1. Funny! Yes, word play is a great feature of humor. Abby Normal.

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  2. @Janet ... There are times I think *I* am Abby Normal! hahaha I love Marty Feldman's character, Igor (Eye-gor)

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  3. I never caught on about the Island name in The Incredibles. That's funny. Weekends In Maine

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  4. @Weekends in Maine ... I think most of us miss it even after viewing three or four (or more) times. It's very subtle.

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  5. I thought of the film "Bruce Almighty" again. Bruce has godlike powers, and he makes his rival Evan at the news station, brilliantly played by Steve Carell, speak gibberish while on the air. It is extremely funny!

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  6. @Sue ... That sounds like a funny scene. How did I miss seeing that movie??

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