#and the ending is a shitty punchline that’s most likely way funnier in my head

[beardedhandstoadshark]

COWER BEFORE ME FOR I HAVE MATCHED THE POWER OF GODS AND CLAIMED IT AS MY OWN <- non-writer who wrote something

[alexanderwrites]

Tim Heidecker & Neil Hamburger @ Soho Theatre Review - 21/8/17

Tim Heidecker starts his 40 minute set in the cramped downstairs lounge of the Soho Theatre with two minutes of physical comedy - he wrestles frustratedly with the microphone and its stand, desperately trying to fit the mic into its holder and aim it at his mouth. It’s an easy task, but Heidecker makes it look like the most physically challenging action a person can undertake. It’s such an hilariously incompetent way to start a show, and it’s a bit that has some of that Story of Everest sketch from Mr Show formula in its blood - the longer it goes on, the funnier it gets. And the more painful it gets, the funnier it gets. The microphone swings wildly at the end of its cable, sometimes coming within inches of audience members, at other times crashing loudly to the wooden floor. As well as feeling dangerous and unorthodox, its a test of endurance, and like the rest of his and Turkington’s set, it dares you to keep laughing at it. It’s comedy that is so furiously funny that you have no choice but to keep laughing. Heidecker, getting progressively furious and demanding the music be turned off, is a master of playing a character that is completely losing control, as is Turkington. 

The concept of a lack of control is at the centre of the two sets. Heidecker’s routine is a terrifyingly accurate parody of those terrible, right-wing “i’m anti-PC!” comedians - his ugly leather jacket, unflattering dad jeans and sweat stained shirt make his character look like a stressed out alcoholic who is furious at his audience. “I say to people ‘I’m a comedian’, they say ‘what, like Tim Allen’, and I say “OOOOUUGGH?”, is one of his opening lines, a line that references Tim Allen’s, erm, catchphrase - a reference so dated and awful that it could’ve come from Tim Allen himself. Heidecker has such a perfectly tuned ear for how this kind of person talks, a catchphrase spouting, self-praising blowhard who spends most of his set talking about how twisted his mind is. It’s such a perfect distillation of a comic blowing their own set through anger and incompetence, and aside from being jaw-achingly funny, it actually has something to say about the hypocrisy and foolishness of a very specific brand of white male comedians who mistake their own anger for edginess, and mistake that edginess for something that people would actually want to hear.  

Early on in the set, he asks “What do you call this, London? England?”, at which point he makes direct eye contact with me. I nod, and he angrily says “you’re just nodding, which fucking one is it?”. Being the target of his frustration would be uncomfortable if it wasn’t so unbelievably funny. The audience members are hostages, and his inability to interact with them successfully keeps us at gunpoint. Because it feels so loose and purposefully sloppy, it has a feeling of anything-goes mayhem which makes it funny in such an immediate and urgent sense. At one point, he looks down at my girlfriend who has been laughing through the entire set, and for no apparent reason asks “Are you alright?”, in a kind of “What the fuck is wrong with you, why are you laughing?” voice. When she says yes, he pulls a face that’s hard to describe, and is best illustrated by using this screenshot from Heidecker’s web short Tim’s Cook Off:

Later, someone says something quietly in the audience, to which he loses his temper and insists on restarting his interminably pointless story about a movie theatre (”I went to the movies last week, we saw....uh...Superman”) that had Pepsi instead of Coke. He curses himself, and gets angrier and angrier as he routinely blows the most simple of “punchlines”, and like the microphone that he couldn’t put onto its stand, it gets funnier and funnier the more he misses. His crowd-work ranges from almost non-jokes (he walks over to me and says “Lets talk to the guy with the hair, I love it! What’s your name? Alexander? Alexander the Great! Here we go!”), to defeatist and aggressive (”Kyle? I have nothing for that name, you understand that? You’ve given me fucking nothing”), which all manages to be funnier than most comedians’ actual jokes. 

Fans of his work will know how funny he can be physically, and he puts that on display when regaling the audience with a story about his wife dragging him to the opera. His face when describing his anger is the kind of face that he does so well, the kind that has spawned endless GIFs across the internet - clenched teeth, face trembling in thunderous anger, head twitching to the side - it is such an hysterically unfitting over-reaction to the situation, and it develops this horrible character that he’s playing: someone with a whole bunch of misplaced, impotent fury. The story ends with him saying he jumped from his seat, leant towards the stage and screamed “SHUT THE FUCK UUUUPPP!!!??!” at the performers. And he claims this story received a ten-minute standing ovation at his last show, implying that we were rude not to do the same. 

The bit is a perfect distillation of who this character is: the loudest man on earth with the worst, most toxic opinions, who thinks he’s brave for saying what everyone else is supposedly “afraid to say”. Throughout Heidecker’s career, no matter how surreal and abstract his work has gotten, it shouldn’t be forgotten that what he really is is a satirist. Whether he’s making fun of late night talk shows, right-wing-targeted action TV programmes or self-important male comedians, what he really is - and what his set really demonstrates - is that he is one of the best satirists in comedy.

And so is Gregg Turkington, whose set as Neil Hamburger follows Heidecker. If Heidecker’s persona is someone desperately trying to hold on to some semblance of control, Hamburger is Heidecker in another 10 years: off script, off the road, and wallowing in chaos. There is no control whatsoever with this person. His comedy is Andy Kaufman-esque, playing with the basic form of comedy itself. Some people have described this style as “anti-humour”, which is a term i’ve never been fond of. Turkington isn’t anti-comedy: he clearly loves it, and is bending it and twisting it to his own unique style. He doesn’t subvert typical comedy by resisting it - he subverts it by taking typical comedy and channelling it through an abrasive, ugly man in the middle of a meltdown. 

It isn’t anti-comedy, because the comedy and the material is there - although in some senses, it’s not really the material that matters: it’s the performance. You can go and see Hamburger for the jokes, but what his shows are really about is a man who clearly has such a disastrous personal life that it has seeped into his work, and now his show - and his hair - all drip with booze and fear. Some bits don’t even have clearcut punchlines, because he is this joke. When he tells jokes about Gene Simmons, the thing that is funniest about it isn’t the punchline, it’s the progression towards it. He starts by calling him “Leeeegendary” and showering him with superlatives, but somehow over the course of his rambling, his descriptions of Gene Simmons have turned to “Physically disgusting, repugnant, worthless singer...”. Like the Heidecker character, the anger inside this man is turning all of his jokes into assaults, and if someone dares to boo or shout “That’s stupid”, which someone does after a bit about Ozzy Osbourne biting the head off a cooked chicken, he snarls “No it isn’t, because it’s true to life”. 

Moments of clarity in his character like that are some of the funniest, and that clarity is deftly juxtaposed with convoluted absurdity - and there is a kind of genius in how he balances both in his stories. One, for example, is about a joke Paul McCartney told while judging a contest for charity. The story about the contest rambles on with a fair amount of reasoning and believability, and this in itself is funny - the idea of this drunk, wet haired, comb-overed, phlegm-clearing old insult comic being at some sort of contest with Paul McCartney - and finding it delightful - is a deeply funny image because it places this nightmare in front of you in the real world. And then, he twists it into another absurd direction where suddenly nothing makes sense, when he nonchalantly reveals that it was a pissing contest that he was judging. For charity. And that’s not even the punchline, but it might as well be. (The punchline is that Paul McCartney, when choosing a winner - after seeing 150 contestants - said ‘Peed Best!). 

His references are largely ancient and esoteric - they’re jokes that’d require you to know specifically about the works of bands like the Grateful Dead, and whether you do or do not doesn’t matter - it’s the seeming disgust and discomfort he seems to have in his own material and his own being that is key to his work. After a more current joke about Linkin Park earns encouraged groans from the audience, it’s his disbelief that anyone could find it distasteful that is the biggest laugh. “Don’t worry, i’m sure they’ll keep making shitty music for you and your shitty friends”, he says, seeming to hate everyone in the room for not liking him, as well as hating himself for putting himself in this situation. With a lesser performer, it could be simply unpleasant, but with Turkington, it’s that unpleasantness that makes it kind of funny, and, to paraphrase Tears for Fears, kind of sad. Under all the nastiness, there is something human and tuned-in about these guys that stops them from being simple exercises in irony. There is an ugly, human truth in them that’s as tragic as it is hilarious. There’s almost a bit of sympathy in there, too. 

A very good movie came out a couple of years ago called Entertainment, a surreal road movie where Turkington plays himself and Hamburger, and the influences in that movie make it clear where he is getting his influences from: all over America. Hamburger is a great amalgam of old, dusty comedians in darkened barrooms who refuse to alter their personality despite it doing them no good, and self-sabotaging losers that live in Tom Waits songs. Hamburger’s and Heidecker’s personas come directly from these types of people, and they are worthy and potently funny portraits of these broken rejects. Moreover, the show as a whole says more about comedy than most documentaries about comedy do. They are trapped in a past that never really was, where they’re certain this material would kill. Heidecker and Turkington, in real life, do kill in Soho. They do the seemingly impossible and control the uncontrollable, masterfully managing their sets while still allowing them to feel chaotic. They put on an exciting show of two halves which compliment each other beautifully, and as well as being smart, on point, and terrific performances, they are uniquely and fiercely hilarious. 

Oh, and Tim is a really nice guy, too. 

Heidecker and Turkington (or Hamburger, if you like) are playing at the Soho Theatre in London until 2nd September, and you can and really should get tickets here. 

[knightofbalance-13]

Missing The Point Entirely

http://dudeblade.tumblr.com/post/163837445715/chibi-review-10-12

(Points at a rock on the ground) this is your head (Points up at a cloud) That’s the point.

1.

Cool Uncle.

Oh hey! Another way to make Qrow “I drink because EDGE, and I break rules all the time” Branwen seem ‘cool.’ Because that is totally something to teach to kids in you KID-FRIENDLY SPIN-OFF SHOW! - This was weak, and was actually kinda painful to sit through. Can’t wait to see how the fans try to use this skit as “proof” that Qrow is actually Ruby’s dad, though. - Maybe that will be fun.

Wow, I have never seen someone miss the point so entirely: The show is portraying Qrow as IRRESPONSIBLE for all of this, using Taiyang as a straight man and Butt Monkey in the joke. Seriously, you act like Taiyang wasn’t even there when his reactions ARE THE PUNCHLINE. No wonder you found it weak: You completely glossed over the funniest part of the skit. In fact, you don’t even MENTION Taiyang at all despite being integral to the skit. Jesus chirst: How do you fail at this level of not getting a joke? Oh right, you don’t understand that misery is important to comedy.

Clean Behind the Ears.

Whe… Where was the joke? Was the joke that Michael Sun decided to wake up Kerry Neptune JUST to tell him that he was going to the shower? - Is this an inside joke or something?

... And once again: the like completely flies over your head. THe joke is the upcoming misery of the Geist Grimm (Who I think was an excellent addition to the series but rather unutilized) . If you had added in SOMETHING about the Grimm then this could have been a valid critique. But since you completely disregard the punchline AGAIN, you just come across as bitching.

Cool Dad.

This was also painful. Mostly because the things that Qrow was saying made no sense. Also what he was doing. Is it normal for his nieces to watch him do some dives? - And does he wear that cape EVERYWHERE? - Though, personally, I think it would have been funnier if Coco had called Tai weird - If only for the gag of the voice actors.

... Okay, you judge an entire skit with several jokes in it... on the end...right after an iconic moment in RWBY Chibi...

Dudeblade, you suck at reviewing comedy. You ignore jokes entirely, ignore the punchline, cherry pick what is going on, are completely oblivious to how comedy is setup and focus on only the most miniute details: You are failing at these reviews. S either get good or shut up.

1.

Movie Night.

Okay, yeah. This got a laugh out of me. It’s enjoyable to poke fun at movies. Superhero movies are always about origin stories, romance stories typically have an idiot, etc, and etc. And then all the rest. Also, this is the reason why when I go out to a movie with my friend, we already know in advance what we’re going to watch.

Are you not gonna comment on how the movies they suggest are reflective of who they are (Pyrrha wants to see a romance with Jaune, Sun wants to see a cop movie ect.) or what about the subversions/parodies in the movies (like how when Jaune tries to “save” Pyrrha, he ends up failing completely or how about when Neptune lampshades the “wlaking away as something explodes” cliché and acts like a normal person when it happens: freaked the fuck out ect?) These are all jokes too and they are a part of the skit: Ergo, you need to review them. Once again: You fail, except you fail at being POSITIVE as well. Especially since you DIDN’T address everything so they don’t know if the parodies/character interactions where good or not.

2.

Wore it better.

… Oh I get it. Neo was inspired by a female Roman cosplayer, and here, Neo is the one cosplaying… I hope that that’s the joke, otherwise I’m just looking like an intellectual. And who wants that when you watch a comedy show that’s the spinoff of a serial show that makes fun of men in dresses?

No, no you don’t. You don’t look like an intellectual because you have been constantly failing at the very definition of reviewing seeing as you completely forget to mention Roman is there as his lines are the build up as well as separate jokes (Weiss is seen as a spoiled brat, Roman has an irrational hatred of Ruby) as well as the punchline being his silent response in Neo’s own way of talking to how she wears HIS uniform. And yeah, she does wear it better. Who knew you could make a trenchcoat and boulderhat cute?

Evil Genius.

1.

Yes Ozpin. You should feel guilty for doing stuff like this. You are basically making CHILD SOLDIERS to fight a war with Salem that YOU probably started… At least Jaune got hurt. I enjoy it when Jaune is the victim of slapstick. I like to think that it’s karma for not respecting Weiss’ refusal to go out with him.

...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQBqSt15Vi0

Okay... There is so much wrong with this... “review” that I dunno wher eto begin.

At the beginning I suppose: It was NEVER once hinted at that Ozpin STARTED the war except by Salem...WHO IS THE BIG BAD. In fact, the only reason you say this is because you have a hate boner against the male characters and automatically think all males are default the bad guys (https://knightofbalance-13.tumblr.com/post/163808997355/what-you-see-in-the-mirror) and that you were whiteknighting Salem (http://dudeblade.tumblr.com/post/160955995697/rwby-theory-ozpin-is-a-fraud) ... USING A NON-CANONICAL SOURCE OF INFO.

You also ignore the fact that Ren and Ruby where getting hurt as well. And the fact that Ozpin was sending them to find random stuff like how he just sort of launched them into the woods to find chess pieces in Volume 1 and how Ruby and Ren caught onto what Ozpin was doing but Jaune didn’t. AKA you failed to review the FULL skit.

And by this logic, Pyrrha getting shot was karma too because she did the exact same stuff as Jaune...but WORSE in a lot of cases. Look at how much of an asshole you look like now.

2.

Uh… is the joke here the fact that Jaune’s weapon is so simple and straightforward that maintenance isn’t something needed- Waitaminute! Why doesn’t he sharpen it? Isn’t that basic sword maintenance 101? - Ugh, incompetent Jaune is incompetent.

The joke was that everyone else was being professionals at doing weapon mantinece but the one person who was never trained as a Huntsman fails in such a ridiculous way that you have to face palm. Like Port whom you completely ignored AGAIN.

3.

The what-glove? … Eh, I’m just going to assume that Ruby saw that Roman was having a bad day, and decided to sheer him up with that slapstick. That feels better, and doesn’t make Ruby out to be more incompetent than Jaune… Also, what is evil about Wi-Fi? If Wi-Fi is evil, doesn’t that make any company that uses the internet evil? I mean, by that same stretch of logic, RoosterTeeth is evil because it uses Wi-Fi… If you are one of those Critical Fans, go nuts with this logic.

Once again, you completely overlook Neo whose reactions are a PART of the joke, the OTHER evil inventions while lampooning how they always malfunction, and that the Froyo stopped Ruby while all of Roman’s complex inventions. AKA the complex plans fail while the simple accident WORKS.

Except this is has even MORE problems. Like the implication that Ruby can’t be incompetent, like she has to always be good at everything or she can’t have isolated instances or slip ups. AKA he’s literally criticizing Ruby for not being a Mary Sue when in the past he criticized for Jaune being a Mary Sue in his eyes.

And the part about the Wi-Fi is pathetic because the Wi-Fi was added on after the “embodiment of evil!” comment, meaning that by the way English is structured, Wi-Fi would logically not be included in the “evil” category. And then he ends by encouraging Insane Troll Logic in order to bash Rooster Teeth.

So to recap: Dudeblade does not understand comedy in the slightest, completely ignores certain aspects of skits (read: most of the skits), has a severe bias against male characters that seeping into his reviews meaning pretty much every review involving a male character is gonnq be shitty, whiteknights females and acts like they can do no wrong and SHOULD do no wrong and outright encourages people attacking Rooster Teeth for stupid reasons.

TL;Dr: Dudeblade should be doing anything critical. He does not have the capacity for it.

[kanralovesu]

Konosuba is Amazing and Here’s Why [First Episode Breakdown]

Its no secret that Konosuba is amazing, and if you’re just learning this now, literally stop whatever you’re doing and go watch all of season one. Its free on Crunchyroll. Do it. This post will cover pretty much all of episode 1 of Konosuba season 2. Free Crunchyroll users like myself just got it so watch that episode before reading this. Now, as they say in Brazil, LETS BREAK IT DOWN!

Konosuba derives almost all its comedy from one thing and one thing alone, and that is the subversion of expectations. Now, you probably already understand this considering Konosuba is a very obvious parody of the isekai genre (see Re:Zero or Sword Art Online if you’re not sure what I mean by this). While parodying isekai shows is one way Konosuba subverts your expectations, it by no means is the only way it does and we can see plenty of great examples in the episode. 

(Text Scroll) The first great use of this is in the Star Wars text roll. Not only does this instantly tell a new audience what kind of show this is, it also delivers an amazing joke. While Kazuma is rattling off his exposition about how amazing his journey is, the background shows a different story, almost always showing the exact opposite of what he’s describing. For Japanese viewers this joke is even better because you don’t have to read subtitles, and the scroll is in English so they’ll naturally ignore it and get the full extent of the funny recap. Again, what makes this so great is that it sums up the entire show for new viewers. This is a show about nerdy references and heroes who act all high and mighty but are really just idiots. This is the perfect introduction shot. 

(Phoenix Wright Reference) Note how when Konosuba uses a reference to another medium, they don’t just reference it directly. Instead, they take that thing you’re familiar with it and play with it to subvert your expectations. We expect a Star Wars text roll to be epic and world building, but instead we’re treated to something that wants to seem epic but really isn’t. Later, in the courtroom scene, we get more than a few Phoenix Wright references, but note how the titular “Objection!” is actually underplayed when Megumin does it. This subversion of expectations is actually less for comedy and more to show how weak our team is. The prosecutor is the one getting the awesome movement and motion lines, and when we see Megumin objecting, we expect to have the same result but aren’t given it. This isn’t sets off our brains and says “Yeah she doesn’t have a chance does she.”

(Kazuma gets Arrested) The second scene continues on this trend, but does it using the flaws of the characters. Its no secret from watching the first season that these characters are parodies on standard rpg tropes, each with their own quirk and fatal flaws, so I’m not going to bring that part of the scene up. What I really want to talk about is the new characters, the police women and the crowd (they act as a single character). For the police women, this scene is 100% set up for the next scene which I’ll get to later. For the crowd, however, we’re treated to some good old-fashioned expectation shattering. This is supposed to be the hero moment we’ve all seen in movies a thousand times, where the chanting starts and the crowd convinces the mean old government that our main character isn’t evil. Instead, we see them quickly cave under pressure, thus triggering a major shift in the direction of the scene. Whereas before, the individual jokes where themed around defending Kazuma, now they’re themed around pretending they don’t weren’t involved. Now, this by itself would be a funny joke, but what I think turned this into an amazing joke is how at the very end the crowd supported Kazuma in the trial, but only after he effectively won. A decent comedy writer makes a good job but a great one uses that joke to build to an even great one. When we see the crowd supporting Kazuma we realize just how fickle these people are and if we can’t laugh at that on its own they even throw in the part where the judge nails the main crowd guy in the face. This is the kind of instant karma, people loves viewing. 

(Combination Lock) So now we’re in the prison with one of the most memorable comedy moments in recent history. Of course I’m talking about the combination lock. So why did this joke stick in our heads? We take I’ll give you a hint: it has to do with expectations and breaking. Unpredictability is a must for breaking expectations and nothing in this episode caught me more off guard than the fact that a prison cell uses a combination lock. But that alone wouldn’t have been funny if it hadn’t been for the crazy good build up to the joke. We hear Aqua’s master plan for escape and as a view we of course expect it to be total bullshit, so when it actually makes sense we’re caught off guard. By the time Kazuma goes to unlock the door we’re like “Wait, this is actually going to work.” BAM It’s a combination lock. There is no way anyone could have expected it and so don’t you dare spoil this punchline to anyone. 

(Second Jail Scene and Why its Not as Good as First) Now the second iteration of this joke certainly wasn’t as good as the first but it still made you chuckle. The reason why its worse is because we can clearly see that this plan is doomed to fail the minute Aqua throws the saw in with Kazuma instead of using it herself. We’ve seen establishing shots of the jail cell so the fact that the window is too high is nothing new to us. The part that made this funny was Aqua thinking she could just convince the guards to give him the box, but that punchline pails in comparison to what we just saw and it does so because we already know Aqua is an idiot. We’re not surprised by the fact that she didn’t think this through. Its may be funny that she’s stupid, but it won’t have you rolling on the floor like last scene.

(Interrogation part 1) While I think the combination lock is the single best punchline in the episode, the interrogation scene is by far the funniest in my opinion. The base level comedy here is that because of the magic bell, Kazuma is being forced to admit he’s a real loser. The music in this beginning bit really sells it, at first being mysterious like a real interrogation, but cutting out during parts where Kazuma answers. This beginning bit also master’s the one-two knockout punch which is ironically the opposite of what I’ve been praising the show on so far. You see, the reason why Kazuma answering about why he fight the Demon King is so funny, is because we know he’s instantly going to lie. It’s a joke built on creating an expectation rather than breaking a preexisting one. This punchline also triggers a shift in the music to a more lighthearted joking tune. 

(Interrogation part 2) While that’s funny, it certainly isn’t Konosuba level funny. The shift in direction directly after that is what makes this scene amazing. The police women apologizes and admits she might be wrong about Kazuma. This enables him to take control of the scene and start acting like a big shot, something he does rather well. Now, I don’t know about you, but during this entire part of the scene I knew Kazuma was going to try and get her to say something that would use the bell of truth against her, and I thought that at least once they’d make the bell ring for her just to show the audience it could. They would then go on to subvert this soon after. What I did not at all expect was that the very first question Kazuma asks her would deflected so easily. Just to recap, just in that small scene, the writers had me create an expectation of what was about to happen and then shatter it immediately. This is bold as its really hard to guarantee that everyone was thinking the same thing I was, but it shows they really have trust in the intelligence of their fans. They know we picked up on the bell’s alternative use and they know what we think will happen. They don’t even need to show it to us because they know we know. This is frankly amazing and whoever wrote this should be proud. The good news is in case you didn’t get what Kazuma was going for they show the bell during the police women’s answer telling us through good direction what his intent was. Just like with the guy in the crowd, we then get immediate karma for Kazuma. The police women has shown herself to be superior in terms of character and proceeds to tell him about how everyone shits on him behind his back. All that remains is a little story and we’re off to the courtroom scene.

(Courtroom) This scene really isn’t as funny as the rest of the episode, but it serves a narrative purpose and has Darkness’ character moment at the end. Besides that, the scene gets by on a prolonged Phoenix Wright reference which also highlights how much of a shitty person Kazuma is. The ongoing joke is how flawed the court system is, which I’m sure would have been funnier to me if I had played a Phoenix Wright game. My friend always tells me about stupid shit they do like interviewing animals and accepting testimony from the victim through channeling. 

(Final Scene) The last scene is a fairly standard joke, but a great way to summarize this whole breaking expectations thing. This mainly plays with the trope of the adventurer opening a door to signify a new chapter is beginning, with the guards (cleverly placed in one of the last scenes by the way) breaking down the door instead. They seize all of the groups property, but more importantly they remind us what Kazuma was really doing when he was opening that door, not starting a life of adventure but returning to his comfortable mansion where he had tons of booze and other luxury items. So not only did they destroy your expectation that Kazuma was going to open the door, but they also reshaped how you viewed that whole thing. 

And so there you have it, a really fucking long paragraph of text about why Konosuba is amazing. I probably didn’t need to go as in depth as I did, but hey I already wrote it so I sure as hell am not turning back now! Plus, learning through example is a great thing. Hope that didn’t seem to repetitive, its just that they do use the same formula in almost every joke, and that’s not even a bad thing. Konosuba has mastered the formula for making you laugh and I can’t wait to see what the next season has in store for us!

TLDR: 

(Because this is so long I included markers for what scene I talk about where, so you can skip to a particular one you want to read about)

Konosuba uses the art of breaking expectations to deliver some of the best jokes in anime. When it uses a reference, it doesn’t just do what that reference does, it uses it as a basis to set the audience’s expectations and then subvert them. The first jail scene has one of the most memorable punchlines in recent memory and the reason for that is because of its brilliant buildup and the completely unexpected twist. The second jail scene doesn’t do as well because we already know Aqua’s stupid and so her acting stupid isn’t that funny. The interrogation scene is by far my favorite in this episode because of the massive shifts of control which are abused for comedy. Also, the scene not only creates and expectation but shatters it as well, which is bold considering you need your audience to all be on the same page. Then we get to the courtroom, which is just a long Phoenix Wright reference that gives Darkness a character moment. Finally, the show decides its going to subvert the hero walking through door cliche and its pretty funny.