History Main / BottomOfTheBarrelJoke

Compare StockShticks for more low-effort humor.

* A feature of Music/{{Eminem}}'s period of [[CreatorBreakdown/{{Eminem}} pill-addled writer's block]] was the increasing use of unfunny, over-the-top grossout and FanDisservice material in place of what had once been witty and poetic LightmareFuel. A few good examples are the gerbil-stuffing doggerel of "FACK", the Shady verse on Music/FiftyCent's "Peep Show" which is about him kidnapping strippers and then shitting on them, and forcing a woman to huff his farts and become dependent on colostomy bags in "Ballin' Uncontrollably". Unusually, he got out of the writer's block by pushing it so gross that it started to verge into horror, which eventually became Eminem's artistic direction, releasing the {{Horrorcore}} SlasherMovie ConceptAlbum ''Relapse'' after [[CreatorRecovery healing from his drug problems]].

* Invoked disapprovingly by Creator/RogerEbert in his [[CausticCritic caustic review]] of Tom Green's ''Film/FreddyGotFingered'', which is filled with such jokes:

* When [[Series/TheColbertReport Stephen Colbert]] does it, he reminds the viewers that he won a Peabody.

** Subverted on one occasion where the question is "Can you tell me the biggest joke ever to come out of Alaska?" and one of the panelists responds with "Sarah Palin." This was not a forfeit, since it was "so obvious".

* ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide'': A few comics basically amount to an apology from Gary Larson for being unable to come up with anything better.

* Bill Watterson, in the ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes Tenth Anniversary Book'', discusses how he would sometimes "[[SugarWiki/AwesomeArt go for broke on the illustration]]" when time could not allow for good writing (the example provided was of Calvin popping an especially huge bubblegum bubble, winding up with bubblegum all over his face, and then saying "I think I blew my head inside out!").

* This can be a tactic of stand-up comedians who are floundering on stage and find themselves desperate to re-win the audience. Sometimes it works, like when Creator/GilbertGottfried saved himself from a 9/11 joke by randomly telling TheAristocrats. Other times it doesn't, like when Michael Richards infamously used the word "nigger" at a group of black hecklers. He was reportedly trying to [[CrossesTheLineTwice Cross The Line Twice]], but only crossed it once and failed to get back over.

* This can be a tactic of stand-up comedians who are floundering on stage and find themselves desperate to re-win the audience. Sometimes it works, like when Creator/GilbertGottfried saved himself from a TooSoon 9/11 joke by randomly telling TheAristocrats. Other times it doesn't, like when Michael Richards infamously used the word "nigger" at a group of black hecklers. He was reportedly trying to [[CrossesTheLineTwice Cross The Line Twice]], but only crossed it once and failed to get back over.

* ''Series/{{QI}}'' often puts the punchlines to these as forfeits, such as "Piers Morgan" for the question "Name a poisonous snake", "Janet Street-Porter" for "What has large teeth and only one facial expression?", and "Have you been talking with my husband?" to Stephen Fry's request "Tell me about the Great Disappointment."

* Radio/GetThis: Towards the end of the show's tenure, Fridays were taglined "all jokes must go!", insisting that all the really bad jokes should be saved for Friday, after the week was over and they had run out of all other material.

* This can be a tactic of stand-up comedians who are floundering on stage and find themselves desperate to re-win the audience. Sometimes it works, like when Creator/GilbertGottfried saved himself from a TooSoon 9/11 joke by randomly telling TheAristocrats. Other times it doesn't, like when Michael Richards' infamously used the word "nigger" at a group of black hecklers. He was reportedly trying to [[CrossesTheLineTwice Cross The Line Twice]], but only crossed it once and failed to get back over.

* This can be a tactic of stand-up comedians who are floundering on stage and find themselves desperate to re-win the audience. Sometimes it works, like when Creator/GilbertGottfried saved himself from a TooSoon 9/11 joke by randomly telling TheAristocrats. Other times it doesn't, like when Michael Richards' infamously used the word "nigger" at a group of black hecklers. He was reportedly trying to [[CrossesTheLineTwice Cross The Line Twice]] and failed spectacularly. Well, he crossed it once alright. Just failed to get back over...

* ''Radio/ImSorryIllReadThatAgain'' once had a sketch where a very serious critic for one of the intellectual heavy Sunday papers delivered a review of the show that was couched in highbrow intellectual language, in a style akin to an {{UsefulNotes/Oxbridge}} don discussing literature, comparing the humour to that of great mediaeval comedies such as Rabelais, Chaucer and Boccaccio, freely quoting from these great literary works and using technical and academic literary terms for the modes of humour employed by the show. "Rabelaisian persiflage" [[note]]read: "a barrage of double entendres"[[/note]] wasn't the half of it. The highbrow critic paused for a breat at the end and added "And I especially liked the knickers jokes".

** Subverted on one occasion where the question is "Can you tell me the biggest joke ever to come out of Alaska?" and one of the panel responds with "Sarah Palin." This was not a forfeit, since it was "so obvious".
** Subverted again when the question is [[ItMakesSenseInContext "What has 20 legs, 5 heads, and can't reach its own nuts?"]] One of the panelists calls out "Westlife", but is not forfeited. Double subverted when another panelist takes a guess at what the forfeit is and gets it: "One Direction"
* [[Creator/ConanOBrien Conan O'Brien]]'s monologues use this kind of humor in spades, every single episode. In fact, most of the actual humor in the monologues comes not from the jokes, but from Conan's funny apologies for the jokes.