History Main / BottomOfTheBarrelJoke

* ''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 {{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".

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* Invoked disapprovingly by Creator/RogerEbert in his [[CausticCritic caustic review]] of Tom Green's ''Film/FreddyGotFingered'', which is filled with such jokes:
-->"This movie doesn't scrape the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't the bottom of the barrel. This movie isn't below the bottom of the barrel. This movie [[InsultToRocks doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence with barrels]]."
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[[folder: Stand-Up Comedy ]]

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* Bill Watterson, in the ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes Tenth Anniversary Book'', discusses how he would sometimes "[[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!").

* ''Series/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 {{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".

* ''Series/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 {{Oxbrdge}} 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".

->"You say, 'We'll do a level on Lust! That'll be easy!' But then you really struggle to push the boundaries. Then you get kind of silly about it. You know, 'Let's just hang a huge penis out there and call it a day.'"

Pulling out a Bottom of the Barrel Joke is resorting to shock value when you normally wouldn't. If you can't think of anything clever or insightful for your characters to say, sometimes you need to have them say something shocking or raunchy instead. Hey, at least it's better than just not submitting something this week, right?

Compare StockShticks for more low-effort humor. Compare and contrast VulgarHumor.

* 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.

Compare StockShticks for more low-effort humor. Compare and contrast RefugeInVulgarity, when VulgarHumor is the entire tenor of the work.

[[folder: Live Action Television ]]

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

Compare StockShticks for more low-effort humor.

* On one episode of ''ChillyBeach'', characters watch a terrible reality show, prompting April to comment that the network is ''really'' scraping the bottom of the barrel. Then Jacques changes the channel to a show that is actually called ''Scraping the Bottom of the Barrel''.

* You wouldn't ordinarily think [[http://www.virtualshackles.com/421 a joke]] about the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heisenberg_uncertainty_principle Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle]] would be one of these, but the creators of ''Webcomic/VirtualShackles'' agreed that if they ever used the joke, they would stop making the webcomic, and they passed the comic on to a new team altogether.

--> The developers of ''VideoGame/DantesInferno'', [[Webcomic/PennyArcade going back to the penis well.]]

** DaveChappelle perhaps faced the worst of this with [[Series/ChappellesShow his show]]. He fought to maintain the quality of his comedy while [[ExecutiveMeddling executives tried to push for lower-brow comedy]]. As his audiences began to show they preferred what he saw as a BottomOfTheBarrelJoke, Chappelle [[ArtistDisillusionment quit]].

* Jerry Holkins, the writer of ''PennyArcade'', refers to this as "Going [[BackToThePenisWell back to the penis well]]," largely because, when he can't think of something insightful to say about video game culture, his colleague will talk him into making a dick joke.
* DominicDeegan has used this a few times in interesting ways, often [[PlayedForDrama twisting it to dramatic effect]] instead of comedic.
* ''ArthurKingOfTimeAndSpace'' sometimes does jokes about modern-arc Arthur, updating his own webcomic, saying how much he hates having to do "can't think of a joke" jokes.
* {{Subverted}} in a ''SluggyFreelance'' filler story (which are of course pretty bottom-of-the-barrel as it is, but in a broader sense), when the protagonists suspect someone of being an android. They take him away and the next strip starts with them standing with a knife in front of a table with a gory mess on it, saying they found no inorganic parts in the guy. Torg even goes "What's this? An intestine?" and ''eats it''. Then the guy they suspected is shown looking from behind an x-ray screen and asking what they're doing with his spaghetti and meatballs.

-->''"If I have my way, there will be two easy jokes I will never do in [[QuestionableContent QC]]; One being the [[NotWhatItlooksLike "Wacky Misunderstanding"]] referenced in [[http://questionablecontent.net/view.php?comic=712 this strip]] and endlessly overdone by [[SitCom television comedies]], the other being the "Oh hey it [[RightThroughTheWall sounds like Marten and Dora are getting it on in the bedroom]] but when Pintsize opens the door it turns out Marten's just helping Dora into a corset or something.""''

* You wouldn't ordinarily think [[http://www.virtualshackles.com/421 a joke]] about the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heisenberg_uncertainty_principle Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle]] would be one of these, but the creators of ''VirtualShackles'' agreed that if they ever used the joke, they would stop making the webcomic, and they passed the comic on to a new team altogether.
* WebComic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal is a delightfully odd potpourri of high-level insight on mathematics, science, economic and political theory, and philosophy... mixed with the occasional observation that genitals look funny.

* 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 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...

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

* 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 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 N-word 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...

* You wouldn't ordinarily think [[http://www.virtualshackles.com/421 a joke]] about the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heisenberg_uncertainty_principle Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle]] would be one of these, but the creators of {{VirtualShackles}} agreed that if they ever used the joke, they would stop making the webcomic, and so they passed it on to a new team altogether.

** DaveChappelle perhaps faced the worst of this with [[ChappellesShow his show]]. He fought to maintain the quality of his comedy while [[ExecutiveMeddling executives tried to push for lower-brow comedy]]. As his audiences began to show they preferred what he saw as a BottomOfTheBarrelJoke, Chappelle [[ArtistDisillusionment quit]].

** 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. Another panelist takes a guess at what the forfeit is and gets it: "One Direction"

** Subverted again when the question is "What has 20 legs, 5 heads, and can't reach its own nuts?" One of the panelists calls out "Westlife", but is not forfeited. Another panelist takes a guess at what the forfeit is and gets it: "One Direction"

->"You say, 'We'll do a level on Lust! That'll be easy!' But then you really struggle to push the boundaries. Then you get kind of silly about it. You know, 'Let's just hang a huge penis out there and call it a day.'"

[[AC: Live Action Television]]

[[AC: Newspaper Comics]]

[[AC: Radio]]

[[AC: Stand-Up Comedy]]

[[AC: Web Comics]]

[[AC: Western Animation]]

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