Line #33 Main/ComedyAsAWeapon


1	%% Image selected via crowner in the Image Suggestion thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1452266899092104700
2	%% https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php?crowner_id=7l95qrl2
3	%% Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread.
4	[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/ToontownOnline https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cog_battle_us_site.png]]]]
5	[[caption-width-right:350:Laughter may be the best medicine, but here it's also the best ailment!]]
6
7	->''"Well, the Slayer always says a pun, or a witty play on words, and I think it throws the vampires off and makes them frightened because I'm wisecracking. Okay, I didn't exactly have a chance to work on that one, but you try it all the time."''
8	-->-- '''Willow''', ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer'': "Anne"
9
10	Instead of [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower sheer force]], a {{BFG}} or a [[BlackMage great display of magic]], a character uses jokes, puns, slapstick, laughs, etc... to fight an enemy or achieve a goal.
11
12	Sometimes humor may be used to distract the amused opponent or even leave them HelplessWithLaughter, while at other times the humorist may literally cause his audience to DieLaughing.
13
14	SubTrope of ArtAttacker.
15
16	----
17	!!Examples:
18
19	[[foldercontrol]]
20
21	[[folder:Anime and Manga]]
22	* In ''Anime/PokemonTheOriginalSeries'', Ash's Haunter[[note]]Technically it's not owned by him. Ash's Gengar in ''Journeys'' is completely unrelated.[[/note]] saves the day by making [[TheDreaded Sabrina]] laugh with its antics, causing her to lose focus on the Gym Battle and thereby giving Ash both a Gym Badge and his friends' freedom from Sabrina's clutches.
23	* ''Manga/BoboboboBobobo'' is nothing BUT ComedyAsAWeapon - in-universe, it's an actual ''fighting style'' known as Hajike (Wiggin in English) used by most of the main characters. It mostly consists of unpredictable attacks sight gags and puns used to confuse or drive their opponents (and sometimes their allies) crazy.
24	* In ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', it's Ms.Joke's whole schtick. Her Quirk, "Outburst", makes her opponents laugh uncontrollably and lose control of their motor and cognitive skills, which makes it easy for her to finish them off with a good brass-knuckles-boosted punch in the face.
25	* One ''Manga/BlueSeed'' omake involved Kunikida, normally a lame pun-user, manage to make a joke so funny, the victim would DieLaughing.
26	* ''Anime/{{Hamtaro}}'': In episode 198, the Ham-Hams were able to save Snoozer from the dream-eating Baku through a combination of Howdy's terrible Baku-related puns and tickling its body to make it laugh hard and spit out Snoozer's good dream.
27	[[/folder]]
28
29	[[folder:ComicBooks]]
30	* The obscure Creator/MarvelComics superhero Captain Ultra (who became a standup comedian in his secret identity) once faced 'Angrr, The Demon Without Humor'. He defeated it by telling a joke. Justified in that it was a magical being vulnerable to comedy, though Ultra claims that "telling Ultra-Funny jokes" is ones of his powers. (Not likely.)
31	* The [[ComicBook/DisneyDucksComicUniverse Donald Duck]] comic story "Zio Paperone e i predoni dello spazio" has Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge go after SpacePirates, but first they run into a helpful, but pacifistic RealityWarper animal which transforms their disintegrator rays into laughter-inducing rayguns. These prove highly effective in debilitating the pirates.
32	* ComicBook/SpiderMan explains exactly how this works in the ''ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManRenewYourVows'' miniseries:
33	--> "There's a reason I tell jokes. It centers me. It calms me. It rattles bad guys. And when they laugh, their cheeks rise, their eyes squint. Their vision's impaired. And their head tilts back… exposing their jugular."
34	[[/folder]]
35
36	[[folder:Fan Works]]
37	* ''Fanfic/{{Coyote}}'': Riley Coyote's quirk allows him to access cartoon physics and hammerspace, which he frequently deploys for combat situations, including a dosage of verbally making fun of his foes. This deactivates, however, if he goes too far with the joke with someone he feels is undeserving and begins to feel bad about it, at which point his powers cease functioning.
38	[[/folder]]
39
40	[[folder:Film]]
41	* In ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit?'', Eddie [[spoiler:defeats the Weasels by making them laugh until they die]]. Roger even states that in dire situations, laughter might just be the only weapon you have.
42	* In ''Film/PatchAdams'', the titular character believes in helping patients through humour and laughter.
43	* Assuming the 'etc' above includes music, the way Music/TheBeatles fight the Blue Meanies in ''WesternAnimation/YellowSubmarine''.
44	* In ''Film/SongOfTheSouth'', [[spoiler: after Johnny is attacked by a bull and rendered unconscious, Uncle Remus gets him to come to by telling him the story of Br'er Rabbit and the Laughing Place]].
45	[[/folder]]
46
47	[[folder:Literature]]
48	* ''Literature/TheDarkTower''
49	** In ''Literature/WizardAndGlass'', Eddie kills Blaine the Mono by telling him a lot of lame jokes. They are not just lame jokes, they have no logic, no smart puns. He basically kills Blaine with non-sequitors.
50	** [[spoiler:The monster Dandelo]] in [[Literature/TheDarkTower2004 the final book]] has the ability to tell jokes that induce literally killing laughter in his victims.
51	* In the end of ''Literature/MakingMoney'', [[spoiler: Mr. Bent, a bank manager who's the son of a clown,]] upsets the trial of Moist von Lipwig by throwing pies and performing stunts with a ladder. Admittedly, he mostly only serves as a distraction, but he does manage to also bring the ledgers that Vetinari needs in order to determine that the gold was stolen before Moist arrived at the Royal Bank.
52	** More seriously, he also nearly manages to [[FelonyMisdemeanor paste Vetinari in the face with a pie.]] Given the reputation damage that would have resulted, and that in Ankh Morpork's political instability it could have ended Vetinari's tenure as patrician, Moist jumping in front of it is treated as TakingTheBullet.
53	* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban'', Boggarts are introduced as beings that transform into the viewer's worst fear, but laughter repels them. Professor Lupin teaches his students the spell ''Riddikulus'' to turn the scary displays into funny ones to inspire laughter.
54	* In the 1937 short story ''Mr. Laughter'' by [[UsefulNotes/RussianReading Alexander Belyaev]], the protagonist Douglas Spolding discovers the secret mechanism of humor and gains the ability to make anyone laugh uncontrollably. At first, he uses this power more-or-less benevolently, to consult a failing standup comedian named Backford, making the latter an international star again. However, when Backford refuses to pay him, Spolding weaponizes his knowledge, almost giving his employer a heart attack by making him laugh at his jokes until he writes him a check for 10 million dollars. The authorities try to apprehend Spolding, but he just sends entire police squads into uncontrollable laughter fits, proving himself virtually untouchable. His downfall then comes when he decides to marry the wealthiest heiress in the world, carefully preparing a "plan of attack" to force her to accept without killing her... except he finds out that Ms. Fight is already enamored with "the Laughter King", so his entire plan turns out to have been unnecessary -- which he finds so funny, his own mind snaps, and he falls into a clinical depression for the rest of his life.
55	[[/folder]]
56
57	[[folder:Live Action TV]]
58	* Series/MontyPythonsFlyingCircus has covered this a few times:
59	** The "World's Funniest Joke" sketch revolves around a joke so funny that everyone who hears it or even reads it will fall down and DieLaughing, even with precautions such as somber music and funeral chants. The military has it translated into German to use as a weapon against the Nazis in UsefulNotes/WorldWarTwo. Even then, people translating portions of the joke have been hospitalized for accidentally reading too much at a time.
60	** In the "Piranha Brothers" sketch, Doug Piranha kept his underlings in fear by his use of sarcasm. "He knew all the tricks - dramatic irony, metaphor, bathos, puns, parody, litotes and... satire. Grown men would pull their own heads off rather than see Doug."
61	[[/folder]]
62
63	[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
64	* In ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' a [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Great Wyrm Copper Dragon]] can, once per day, tell a [[BrownNote joke so funny it makes the listener die laughing.]] For obvious reasons, they don't actually provide an example of such a joke.
65	[[/folder]]
66
67	[[folder:Video Games]]
68	* The results of sword fights in the ''VideoGame/MonkeyIsland'' games are based entirely on insults and puns.
69	* In ''VideoGame/QuestForGloryIV'', The Hero [[spoiler: must make use of The Ultimate Joke in the game's final battle. While the joke itself is not lethal, it will incapacitate anyone (even a vampire with no sense of humor!) by making them laugh uncontrollably the first time they hear the joke]].
70	* In ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVII'', the jester class has a variety of abilities that make enemies laugh, preventing them from attacking. They tend to be {{Useless Useful Spell}}s due to ContractualBossImmunity, but it's worth using the "One-liner" ability on {{mook}}s just to see all the jokes the game has to display.
71	* In ''{{VideoGame/Undertale}}'' Snowdrake can be spared after laughing at one of his jokes, and monsters accompanying him can be spared after making your own joke.
72	* ''VideoGame/ToontownOnline'': The battle system for the Toons is based entirely on ZanyCartoon gags and jokes, which can deal damage, stun, and heal fellow Toons. It's stated in-universe that their enemies, [[CorruptCorporateExecutive the Cogs]], can't take a joke and that gags are the things that can defeat them.
73	[[/folder]]
74
75	[[folder:Webcomics]]
76	* In ''Webcomic/EightBitTheater'' Black Mage accidentally kills an arc villain [[LamePunReaction using bad puns]].
77	* In ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'', Elan [[TookALevelInBadass takes a level of the Prestige Class "Dashing Swordman"]], which makes him vastly more effective in combat by letting him apply his Charisma bonus (basically a measure of his charm and/or force of personality) to attacks with a weapon ''if'' he [[YouFightLikeACow uses a pun or otherwise uses some clever wordplay while attacking]]. But his target apparently has to actually ''get the joke'' (and he can't just repeat the same line if he's used it before).
78	** Eventually he runs into an opponent who is ''also'' trained in this style combat, resulting in a duel where they are literally matching wits and blades at the same time, parrying each others' physical blows with rapid wordplay until one of them flubs his reply (while distracted) and is immediately disarmed by the other.
79	[[/folder]]
80
81	[[folder:Western Animation]]
82	* In a ''US Acres'' short on ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends'', aliens who consider laughter a powerful weapon try to steal Earth's comedy, and Orson and company try to make them laugh in order to defeat them.
83	* In ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', Jimmy saves himself from a vengeful pimp by telling him jokes to distract him.
84	* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': In part 2 of the series premiere, Pinkie Pie teaches her friends to literally laugh in the face of danger [[ThatRemindsMeOfASong with a song]], which happens to banish an illusion conjured by Nightmare Moon.
85	[[/folder]]

Context Main / ComedyAsAWeapon