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Funny / Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

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The Books

  • Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has a lot of surreally funny moments; of note are the moments at the white rabbit's house, the "serpent" bird, the mad tea party and the trial (especially considering that the Queen of Hearts becomes funnier at that point.)
  • Alice's comments while she's falling down the rabbit hole. For example:
    Alice: After such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs. How brave they'll all think me at home! Why I wouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the house!" (Which was very likely true.)
    • She then wishes Dinah were there, then notes that there aren't any mice for her to eat, only bats. She wonders if cats eat bats... and then starts wondering if the reverse is true.
  • After finding the empty jar of marmalade, we get this very blunt line:
    "She did not like to drop the jar for fear of killing somebody underneath."
  • Before drinking the shrinking potion, Alice checks to make sure it isn't marked, "poison", since she knows that if you drink much from a bottle marked, "poison", then it will "disagree with you" soon enough.
  • When Alice is growing, she considers sending mail to her own feet.
  • Alice, at one point, wonders if the reason this is such a strange day is because she's turned into another kid her age. She rationalises that she can't have turned into a particular girl named Ada, since Ada's hair is curly and Alice's isn't, so she wonders if she's another girl, Mabel. Alice realises that she knows a lot more than Mabel and tries to prove it... but when she can't remember the facts, she thinks she must have turned into Mabel after all.
  • Alice is inexplicably mistaken for the White Rabbit's servant Mary Anne and gets sent into his house to find his gloves. She gets a wonderful moment of Skewed Priorities when searching; worrying that she might run into the real Mary Anne and be "turned out of the house" before she find's the Rabbit's gloves. Never mind that finding the gloves would be the real Mary Anne's job and not hers.
  • The White Rabbit sending one of his servants, a lizard named Bill, to dispatch the "monster" in his house (actually Alice, having grown ridiculously huge) only for said "monster" to kick him out of the chimney. The White Rabbit and his other servant, Pat, see Bill shooting out of the chimney and simply say "There goes Bill", as though stuff like this happens to him all the time.
  • The Mad Hatter and the March Hare!
    • "Your hair wants cutting!"note 
    • This exchange between Alice and the March Hare:
    March Hare: Have some wine.
    Alice: (looks around) I don't see any wine.
    March Hare: There isn't any.
    Alice: Then it isn't very civil of you to offer it.
    • The Mad Hatter's famous riddle, "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" What's really funny about it is the way it gets resolved; Alice ponders the answer while the Hatter repeatedly derails the conversation and eventually Alice gives up and asks the Hatter what the answer is. His response?
    The Mad Hatter: I haven't the slightest idea.
    • When the Dormouse falls asleep, the Mad Hatter pours hot tea on his nose to wake him!
  • How the cheering guinea pigs are suppressed at the trial:
    (As that is rather a hard word, I will just explain to you how it was done. They had a large canvas bag, which tied up at the mouth with strings: into this they slipped the guinea-pig, head first, and then sat upon it.)
    "I'm glad I've seen that done," thought Alice. "I've so often read in the newspapers, at the end of trials, 'There was some attempt at applause, which was immediately suppressed by the officers of the court,' and I never understood what it meant till now."
  • The entire chapter "Queen Alice". The Red Queen and White Queen finally appear together, and the result is malapropisms and math puns on a grand scale.
  • And Haigha's Anglo-Saxon attitudes.
    • Speaking of Haigha, when he talks to the White King, he leans into the King's ear as though he's going to whisper...and then screams "THEY'RE AT IT AGAIN!" into the King's ear. The White King is not amused, though Alice and the readers are.

Real Life "behind-the-scenes"

  • Illustrator John Tenniel's not-so-subtle ways of trying to talk Dodgson into removing the "Wasp in a Wig" chapter because he did not want to have to draw a wasp in a wig. In countless letters to Dodgson about other things, he said things such as If you really want to shorten the book and make it more efficient, I'd see no better option than to cut "The Wasp in a Wig"…, or I read the new manuscript yesterday. It really is wonderful, but I'm afraid the "Wasp in a Wig" chapter is a bit weaker than the rest… You should consider cutting it. note 

The Ballet

Other Adaptations

  • One audio drama adaptation has some extra dialogue exchanges between Alice and the Cheshire Cat, after the famous scene where the King goes to fetch the executioner to cut the Cat's head off (despite the Cat only being a head at the time). It gets increasingly obvious that the Cat isn't taking the situation seriously at all.
    Alice: You have to get out of here, Cheshire-Puss! They want to kill you!
    Cheshire Cat: How fun! Now I have to stay so I can watch them try!
    • And what makes him decide to leave? News that the Duchess is arriving.
    Alice: So you are afraid of being killed!
    Cheshire Cat: No, but I can't stand the Duchess.

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