Line #18 Funny/TheMoomins


1	For the 1990s series, [[Funny/Moomin1990 see here]].
2
3	!!Books
4	* The oath Moomintroll and Sniff make in ''Comet in Moominland:'' "May the ground swallow me up, may old hags rattle my dry bones, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking may I never more eat ice cream]] if I don't guard this secret with my life."
5	* Sniff annoying the Hemulen, who believes that he is being asked about insects rather than a comet.
6	-->'''Hemulen:''' One more question, my learned friends. What does this remarkable creature feed on?\
7	'''Sniff:''' (giggling) On Hemulens.\
8	'''Hemulen:''' (red in the face) Little animal - that is not funny. I shall now leave with grave doubts of your scientific knowledge.\
9
10	* The Hemulen acting as Thingumy and Bob's translator in ''Finn Family Moomintroll'', especially since he keeps missing a few points and telling Sniff that they're insulting him.
11	* The Mymble's Daughter's continued and failed attempts at "bringing up" Little My in ''Moominsummer Madness''. For some reason Little My does not get more cooperative and just finds it funny when her sister runs around yelling: "My! My! Horrible little menace! My-y-y! Come home so I can pull your hair!"
12	** Later in the book, My gives Snufkin some advice on how to handle children, based on her sister's attempts ("Tell them if they don't shut up you're going to whack them silly, then you ask them to forgive you and give them candy"), but when prompted she cheerfully admits that the advice is lousy and the methods don't work.
13	* ''Tales from Moominvalley''
14	** In "The Invisible Girl", Moominpappa tries to prank Moominmamma by pushing her into the sea. Ninny, the invisible girl, gets furious upon seeing this and ''bites his tail''.
15	** "Cedric" sees Snufkin attempting to comfort Sniff, who is upset over giving away his favourite toy, with a tale about his great aunt. Sniff keeps interrupting and missing the point, until eventually Snufkin reaches the end and calls him "an ass, or still worse, a spoil-story".
16	** "The Fir Tree" has the Moomin family [[ComicallyMissingThePoint completely misunderstand what Christmas is]] due to them normally sleeping through winter. Never having heard of Christmas before, they come to the conclusion that it's the name of an evil being, and that holiday traditions like decorating a tree and gift-giving are rituals meant to protect them against its wrath.
17
18	!!Comic Strip
19	* In the first storyline of the comic strip, Moomintroll briefly dresses up as a soothsayer, upon which a ghost appears, thinking he's dressed up as a ghost and getting angry at him for "haunting without a lisence."
20	* In one instance, Snorkmaiden and Mymble make an outfit for Mymble, using parts of an old bearskin rug to make a fur stola. Moominmamma's reaction when she sees the bearskin rug with a huge chunk missing: "Oh! This ''has'' been a bad moth-year, but still..."
21	* The storyline where Sniff tries to run a sports shop is pretty much one CMOF after another, partly because this is one rare instance in the comic where Sniff ''isn't'' a KarmaHoudini and becomes more like the ChewToy like his book and anime counterparts:
22	** He inherits the shop from his great-aunt, and immediately discovers that it has no customers because for reasons known only to his great-aunt it's located in a forest, with no other buildings or people around.
23	-->'''Sniff:''' Don't you think it's a good site for a shop? After all, it has no competition!
24	** One customer does show up, but can't decide what to buy, and Sniff ends up breaking half the sports equipment in the shop while demonstrating it, whereupon this conversation takes place:
25	-->'''Sniff:''' Now you've tried everything in the shop, I think.\
26	'''Customer:''' Yes, it was a lovely afternoon. Be seeing you!\
27	'''Sniff:''' But -- don't you want to buy anything?\
28	'''Customer:''' Oh, I have no ''money.'' But I love shopping!
29	** Deciding that he needs to advertise, Sniff for some reason decides to target Mrs. Fillyjonk, flooding her house with objects from the shop, all of which bear the text: "Buy from Sniff's." Among the more bizarre things he arranges is a spring-loaded boxing glove in her fridge, a football inside her vacuum-cleaner, and an old shoe in her soup. Somehow he even manages to fix her toothpaste tube so that the toothpaste come out spelling ''SNIFF.''
30	** When this campaign surprisingly doesn't work, he decides to try subliminal messages instead. Unfortunately, his idea of subliminal messaging is to stand outside her bedroom window and shout "REMEMBER SNIFF'S!" into a loudspeaker. The result is that she thinks she's being attacked by Martians and hoses him down with a garden hose.
31	** Finally, after much failure, he does manage to implant a subliminal message, all he manages to influence her into doing is come up to the shop and hit him on the head with her umbrella, claiming that "all morning I've felt an irresistible impulse to do this."
32	** Moomin then suggests that he use the equipment to become a famous sports star, leading to a bit of meta humor:
33	-->'''Moomin:''' All sportsmen are famous. What Finns, for example, does one know?\
34	'''Sniff:''' I don't know.\
35	'''Moomin:''' Why... Well, if we ''did'' know any, bet they'd be sportmen!
36	** The plan fails anyway because both Moomin and Sniff are hopeless with sports -- as, it turns out are all the inhabitants of Moominvalley, leading to a lot of mishaps, and one instance where Moomin and Sniff believe they've killed someone after accidentally having knocked a scarecrow's head off with a throwing hammer.
37	** Finally, Stinky of all people buys a lot of equipment because "these are the finest burglar's tools I've seen!"
38	-->'''Sniff:''' Well, don't rob any of my friends' houses!\
39	'''Stinky:''' Ha! They don't have anything worth taking!
40	** Constantly gushing about the marvellous burglar's tools and how the person who made them must have been a master criminal, Stinky even successfully breaks into a house with the tools and gets away with a lot of money -- but immediately loses it again, whereupon it's found by the money-less customer from the beginning of the storyline. At the end, it turns out that the person he robbed was Sniff's rich uncle, whom Sniff hopes to inherit one day. So in the end, ends up selling the entire shop to the selfsame customer for all the money, so that he can give it back to his uncle.
41	-->'''Moomin:''' Aren't you happy? You got rid of the sports shop!\
42	'''Sniff:''' Happy! When I'm bankrupt, destitute, ruined! Ha! ''(and then, in the last panel, he [[BreakingTheFourthWall looks at the reader and smiles]])'' ...Well, just between ourselves, it ''is'' rather a relief, of course.
43	* Snorkmaiden spends her and Moomin's pretend relationship in ''Moomin Engagement'' teaching him how to be the ideal fiancé. She believes he should start wearing a hat, and gives him a round bowler, which Moomin initially refuses to wear because he'll look silly. Snorkmaiden butters him up for a few panels.
44	--> '''Snorkmaiden''': You look respectable,\
45	'''Snorkmaiden''': ... a man in a leading position, \
46	'''Snorkmaiden''': ... a pillar of society. \
47	'''Snufkin''': [[SmashCut You look silly in that hat.]]
48	* In one strip, Moomin has a hangover for the first time.
49	-->'''Moomin:''' How can you be so thirsty after drinking the all night?
50
51	!! Mumintrollet (1969)
52	* In one episode, the Moomin family show the King the Moominvalley prison, and the prison is just one bizarre instance of [[InsaneTrollLogic Insane (Moomin)Troll Logic]] after one another:
53	** The cells are all equipped with shovels and crowbars, because there's no reason why being in jail should stop the poor criminals from practicing their chosen professions.
54	** It's explained that all the criminals are in jail only for as long as it takes them to dig themselves out -- "one has to work for one's freedom." Petty criminals are placed in cells with a soft earth floor that's easy to dig through.
55	** The jail is equipped with an ''electric chair''... which turns out to be a chair with an electric light attached, so that the police chief can sit in it and read his crime novels in the evening.
56	** In one cell, the Moomins' still is located. Since stills are illegal, it's kept in jail -- though in an open cell, because it can't run away anyway (and this way Moominpappa can make moonshine under the watchful eye of the police chief).
57	* The theatrical play the Moomin family put up in the last episode (heavily inspired by the one they put up in ''Moominsummer Madness'') quickly becomes SoBadItsGood. The plot makes no sense (mostly revolving around an old woman plotting to have a lion eat her cousin so she can inherit said cousin's porcelain), the lines swap between being in rhyme and not, stage directions go wrong, the actors keep missing their cues and fumbling their lines or going off to make coffee when they're supposed to be on stage -- except for Misabel, who [[ChewingTheScenery Chews The Scenery]] to a ridiculous degree and at one point begins doing Moomintroll's lines when he forgets them, playing both sides in the conversation.
58
59	!!Comet in Moominland (1992)
60	* Everything about the Muskrat's TheComicallySerious ramblings about philosophy and the end of the world.
61	* Snork's attempts at insulting the Angostura bush. "You pathetic plant! You failure of a geranium! You stink!"
62	** It's even funnier in the Finnish dub, where the first thing he says is "Idiot! That's right, idiot!"
63
64
65	!!Moominvalley (2019)
66	\
67	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/untitled71_6.png]]
68	[[caption-width-right:350:Moominmamma, your inner [[Film/GoneGirl Amy Dunne]] is showing.]]
69
70	\
71
72	----
73
74	* The first episode pretty neatly {{Lampshades}} how Moomins usually don't wear clothes, but do wear pyjamas. Moominpappa is awoken by a knocking on the door, then realizes he's still in his pyjamas and can't answer the door in such an indecent state of dress... so he takes the pyjamas off and goes to answer the door naked.
75	* Moomin and Moominmamma on Moominpappa:
76	-->'''Moominmamma:''' I'm afraid your father's off to live a life of wild abandon.\
77	'''Moomin:''' ''[[OhNoNotAgain Again?!]]''
78	* Sniff's first appearance in the series has him taking advantage of the arrival of spring by trying to sell snowballs, whom he predicts are going to be in "high demand"... and not having accounted for the fact that the snowballs melt along with the rest of the snow. He also has this exchange with Moomintroll, revealing that he's got a bit of a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} streak in this series:
79	-->'''Sniff:''' This is the big one! I tell you, this'll make us a fortune, as sure as my name is Moomintroll!\
80	'''Moomintroll:''' Your name is "Sniff," Sniff.\
81	'''Sniff:''' "Sniff-Sniff"?! Twice as good!
82	* The first appearance of Mrs. Fillyjonk. She's visiting the Moominhouse, and Moomintroll scares her with his talk about bad jam (actually a glass jar containing a dragon -- it's a long story). When Moominmamma tries to calm her down by pointing out that "Worse things happen at sea," which freaks out Mrs. Fillyjonk even more, as she just happened to book a sailing trip. Twice as funny if you know that Mrs. Fillyjonk is voiced by [[Creator/KateWinslet Kate Winslet]] who, indeed, [[Film/{{Titanic 1997}} had some problems at sea]].
83	* Moominpappa accidentally chops his hat in half when chopping wood. When coming home for lunch, he takes Moominmamma's offer of honey slightly differently than what it was intended, and uses the honey to try and glue his hat back together. What lifts this to CMOF is Little My's ''total look of disbelief'' as she watches him.
84	* Sniff's HeroOfAnotherStory subplot in the "Moominsummer Madness" episode. When the valley is flooded, Sniff goes out (using a complaining Muskrat as a raft) in order to find the "plug" so he can drain all the water out of the valley and be celebrated as a hero. Apparently this plan actually works, because the next time we see him and the Muskrat, they're paddling for their life to escape a giant whirlpool, with Sniff lamenting that "I should never have pulled that silly old plug!"
85	* In "The Trial", he accidentally destroys the King's Ruby, and the angry Hobgoblin punishes him... by giving him empathy. Cue Sniff approaching other characters and having heartfelt conversations with them, until he approaches a random Hemulen, we expect another epiphany, and then...
86	-->'''Sniff:''' Um... I don't really know you. Sorry.
87	* In "Monster Fish," Moominmamma worries about the current drought and its effect on her vegetable garden:
88	-->'''Moominmamma:''' If we don't get some rain soon it'll be Pine Needle Surprise for supper.\
89	'''Snorkmaiden:''' Ooh! What's the surprise?\
90	'''Moominmamma:''' You can have my portion.\
91	'''Snorkmaiden:''' ...I'll get some rain.
92	* The titular encounter with the Monster Fish (the Mameluke) in the same episode is one big CMOA... until we learn that it was all just a tall tale and the actual truth is much more prosaic. (Moominpappa and Moomintroll actually didn't catch a single fish and the box of tropical seeds they brought home just randomly floated past them instead of being coughed up by the Mameluke.) Despite that, everyone except for Moomintroll prefers the tall tale because it's just a better story.
93	* Moomintroll ends up looking like a chump in the story because he lets go of the fishing rod and later gets even with his Pappa when, in ''his'' story, Moominpappa's careless opening of the door puts everyone in peril.
94	-->'''Moominpappa:''' I don't see why ''I'' had to be the one to let the bush beast escape. It could just as easily have broken out on its own.\
95	'''Moominmamma:''' Yes, dear. And the Mameluke could just as easily have broken the fishing line on its own.
96	* The ever sweet and genial Moominmamma [[BewareTheNiceOnes fantasising about getting terrible revenge]] when Mrs Fillyjonk criticises her one time too many.
97	-->''(Cut to Moominmamma opening Mrs. Fillyjonk's window and dumping a tray of dust on her)''\
98	'''Moominmamma:''' There's some extra dust for you to dust. Why don't you live in a plastic bag yourself, ''Madam''?\
99	(''[[DayDreamSurprise cut back to Moominmamma]]'')\
100	'''Moominmamma:''' Hmm, perhaps I'd better not do that. I won't be able to apologise... [[BaitAndSwitchComment because I'm right!]]
101	** The Finnish dub implied she actually did it, not just imagined it.
102	* When Moominmamma is arrested for murdering (sorry, "doing away with") Mrs. Fillyjonk due to a particularly bad misunderstanding, Moominpappa tries to solve the case by himself. Eventually, he decides that the murderer is... himself, because he managed to eliminate everyone else.
103	** And the Hemulen policeman sees nothing wrong with that logic and puts him in jail together with Moominmamma.
104	* When Moomintroll tries to break his Mamma out of the jail, she uses [[BiggerOnTheInside]] characteristics of her handbag to produce a long rod, steals the keys, and gets out before her son even ''finishes'' explaining his complicated plan!
105	--> '''Moominmamma:''' No need for all of that, my sweet.\
106	'''Moomintroll:''' What? How did you...\
107	'''Moominmamma:''' Oh, this isn't my first jailbreak.
108	* When the family learns that Thingumy and Bob are kleptomaniacs:
109	--> '''Moominpappa:''' I too sensed we shouldn't have trusted them. I mean, who even has a name like that?\
110	'''Little My:''' Thingumy?\
111	'''Moominpappa:''' No, Bob.
112	* Every single thing Snorkmaiden does in "The Trial" in her role as the clerk of the court, but ''especially'' after a long and boring monologue by Muskrat, when she says that she forgot to put a paper in her typewriter and makes him say the monologue again. Which he does and everybody falls asleep out of boredom and the Groke just ''rolls her eyes''.
113	* While "Farewell, Snorkmaiden," has a lot of poignant and sad moments, there are some very funny bits, particularly the Hemulen builder who just tears Moomintroll's and Snorkmaiden's house at the end of the episode and takes it away because they didn't pay his bill ("Always read the fine print!"), and Moomintroll interpreting (twice!) Snorkmaiden's pleading to "let go" as metaphorical, while she actually wants him to let go of her hands because he squeezes them too hard!
114	* The animation for the Moomins in general as well. The show is directed by Aardman veteran Steve Box, which seems to lead to the Moomins being capable of a lot more Gromit-esque snarky expressions than what they're known for.
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Context Funny / TheMoomins