Funny / Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

• Funny moments specific to the 1971 film can be found here.

Original Novel

• Grandma Josephine's brutally honest reaction to the story of how Veruca Salt got her Golden Ticket: "That's even worse than the fat boy."
• Mrs. Gloop screaming at Wonka to smash the pipe when Augustus gets stuck.
  • Also, the contrast in reactions between Mrs. Gloop and her husband during their son's misadventure; Mr. Gloop seems more annoyed that he almost got his best suit covered in chocolate and is amazed at how far up the pipe Augustus got before getting stuck. Meanwhile, Mrs. Gloop is about ready to murder Mr. Wonka right then and there.
    • The fact that Mr. Gloop is surprised that Augustus got so far up the pipe implies that he thought his son was even fatter than he already is!
• Mr. Wonka's assurance to Mrs. Gloop that he'll ensure that her son won't be turned into fudge — because nobody would want to taste, much less buy, "Augustus-flavored chocolate-coated Gloop!"
• The opening couplet from the first Oompa-Loompa song: "Augustus Gloop! Augustus Gloop!/The great big greedy nincompoop!"
• Veruca Salt isn't impressed by the stated effects of Hair Toffee. "Who wants a beard, for heaven's sake?" Mr. Wonka notes "It would suit you very well" before changing the topic. Particularly funny in the 2013 audio book, owing to Douglas Hodge's delivery of the Stealth Insult (almost under his breath).
  • Willy Wonka also noting that thanks to his hair toffee there will be no bald little kids, only for Mike to point out that children don't go bald.
• Mike asks Mr. Wonka if other things could be transported via Television Chocolate, such as breakfast cereal. Mr. Wonka is horrified by that prospect: "Do you know what breakfast cereal is made of? It's made of all those little curly wooden shavings you find in pencil sharpeners!"
• Mr. Wonka prescribes Mike "Supervitamin Candy" to fatten him up once he's been stretched back to his original height. Among the vitamins it contains is vitamin Wonka, which will "make his toes grow out until they're as long as his fingers..." Mrs. Teavee is horrified even as he points out "It's most useful. He'll be able to play the piano with his feet."
  • Mr. Wonka lists 24 of the candy's vitamins in alphabetical order. The candy doesn't include Vitamin S because it will make Mike sick and Vitamin H because it will make horns grow out of Mike's head.
• In the last Oompa-Loompa song, they admit that tossing out the TV set and giving kids books to read instead won't produce instant results, and that parents will have to put up with "all the dirty looks,/The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,/And children hitting you with sticks" for a while.
  • Also, this brief postscript to the Author Filibuster, which hadn't mentioned Mike at all:
    P.S. Regarding Mike Teavee,
    We very much regret that we
    Shall simply have to wait and see
    If we can get him back his height.
    But if we can't — it serves him right.
• The Square Sweets that Look Round, instead of appearing to be round, they have eyes that they use to look around.
• Wonka tells one story of an Oompa-Loompa who floated into space after drinking a Fizzy Lifting Drink. Wonka points out that the Oompa-Loompa should've burped, and in fact he kept saying to him, "Burp, you silly ass!", but the Oompa-Loompa never burped, perhaps because he was too polite.

Audiobook-specific

• In the 2002 audiobook read by Eric Idle, Idle manages to stretch Grandpa Joe's first "Yippee!" (when he realizes Charlie's found a Golden Ticket) out a good five seconds.
• In the 2013 audiobook, Douglas Hodge manages to make characters like Mrs. Gloop, Mike Teavee, and Violet Beauregarde even funnier than they are as written simply with the voices he assumes for the roles — especially Violet's, owing to an impressive aversion of Larynx Dissonance in order to make her The Ditz.

2005 Film

• Depp as Wonka gets at least one funny moment per major room, and often between rooms.
• Grandpa Joe tells Charlie about how he was a "much younger man" working in Wonka's candy shop 20 years earlier... in the resulting flashback, he looks exactly the same as he currently does. (Of course it wasn't too long ago, since he's supposed to be about 80 years old at present time.)
• When the group is meeting with Wonka for the first time outside the factory, he's been more or less happy and pleasant. Then Grandpa Joe brings up a touchy subject.
  Grandpa Joe: Mr. Wonka? I don't know if you'll remember me, but I used to work here in the factory.
  Willy Wonka: *instantly turns bitter and serious* Were you one of those despicable spies who tried to steal my life's work and sell it to those parasitic, copycat, candy-making cads?
  Grandpa Joe: No, sir.
  Willy Wonka: *smiles* Then wonderful, welcome back!
• Mike Teevee's introduction, and Grandpa George flipping out.
  Mike (on TV): I don't know. I hate chocolate.
  George: Well, it's a good thing you're going to a chocolate factory, you ungrateful little ba-
  • Followed by Charlie's father covering his ears for some time, while George passionately goes on what we can only assume is one hell of a Cluster F-Bomb.
• Unlike everyone else watching, Augustus and Mrs. Gloop seem to be pleasantly entertained by the horrifying puppet show.
• "I'm Violet Beauguarde!" "Oh.... I don't care."
  • "I'm Veruca Salt, It's very nice to meet you sir!" "I always thought a "verruca" was a type of wart that got on the bottom of your foot. Haha!"
  • The only kid besides Charlie that Wonka acknowledges first, "You. You're Mike Teavee. You're the little devil who cracked the system."
  • "Good morning, Starshine!"
  • Wonka's disgusted and/or frightened reaction when Violet suddenly hugs him and Veruca jumps in front of him before introducing themselves.
• Whenever Wonka can't spit out the word parents.
  Willy Wonka: I'm sorry, I was having a flashback.
  Mr. Salt: I see. (Brings Veruca a bit closer to himself, showing a Papa Wolf side)
  Mr. Teavee: These flashbacks happen often?
  Willy Wonka: Increasingly... today.
• After leaving the factory, Augustus, now covered in chocolate, doesn't seem to have learned a thing, and is quite happily gorging on the chocolate he was previously submerged in.
• Wonka: Everything in this room is eatable. Even I am eatable, but that is called cannibalism, my dear children, and is in fact frowned upon in most societies.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter would later go on to make pies out of humans.
    • And then Douglas Hodge, who originated the role of Willy Wonka in the 2013 stage musical, played Titus Andronicus — another gruesome pie-maker — at Shakespeare's Globe in 2006.
    • And then Timothée Chalamet played a cannibal in Bones & All shortly before taking the role of Wonka in the 2023 prequel to the novel!
• Mr Salt commenting that the Oompa Loompas' number felt rehearsed. Just imagine what happened off-camera. It might be something like this: "OK, let's practice for when those nasty children meet their demise. Augustus will be first to go, down the river . . ." and so on and so forth. (Indeed, Robot Chicken did a skit about the Oompa-Loompa writer's room in the Season Six episode "Immortal"; while it's specifically parodying the 1971 film, it needs little tweaking to apply to other versions.)
• Willy Wonka tries to relate to today's kids when explaining Hair Toffee: "It's in the fridge, daddy-o! Are you hip to the jive? Can you dig what I'm layin' down? I knew that you could. Slide me some skin, soul brother!"
  • Even better is Mike's face when he finishes.
• When Violet first chews the meal gum against Wonka's wishes:
  Violet: [enthusiastically] It's amazing! Tomato soup! I can feel it running down my throat!
  Wonka: [same tone] Yeah! Spit it out.
• Then as she keeps chewing:
  Wonka: I'm just worried about—
  Violet: Blueberry pie and ice cream!
  Wonka: …That part.
• Finally, as she begins to color into her namesake:
  Mrs. Beauregarde: What's happening?
  Willy Wonka: Well, I told you I hadn't quite got it right, 'cause it goes a little funny when it gets to the dessert. It's the Blueberry Pie that does it. I'm terribly sorry! [shudders, then yelps and ducks for cover]
  Violet Beauregarde: Mother, what's happening to me?
  [continues to turn purple and starts to grow]
  Grandpa Joe: She's swelling up!
  Charlie Bucket: Like a blueberry! [Violet swells up to a blueberry that is about ten to twelve feet in diameter. As she's maxing out....]
  Willy Wonka: I've tried it on, like, twenty Oompa-Loompas and each one ended up as a blueberry. It's just weird.
  Mrs. Beauregarde: But I can't have a blueberry as a daughter! How is she supposed to compete?
  Veruca Salt: You could put her in a county fair.
  Willy Wonka: (Gives an "Ooh, that's actually a good idea" look of wordless agreement)
  • After that, Mrs. Beauregarde arcs her eyebrow, as if she's seriously considering that idea.
  • Even funnier is how in the one shot Wonka peeks up and watches Violet inflate, and in the next shot, he simply looks in disgust and sloooooowly goes back down.
  • There's a shot of Violet looking at her hand turning violet. Then it reverses the shot, and we see the other guests trying to back away subtly.
  • As Violet's face is turning blue and the transformation is just getting started, Veruca is seen quirking her eyebrows in amusement and clearly holding back her laughter at the sight.
  • Violet's mother shouting "Violet, you're turning violet!".
• While Violet's transformation into a blueberry is terrifying, to say the least, the sight of Oompa Loompas dancing upon her and rolling her across the room as she's some sort of a giant circus ball is kinda funny.
• When they reach the Nut Sorting Room, Mr. Salt mentions that he's in the nut business as well and instinctively hands Wonka his business card. Wonka takes it and throws it away without looking at it all in a single motion while Mr. Salt obliviously continues talking. As if this wasn't quite enough by itself, Wonka's response is to laugh uproariously and tell Mr Salt how weird he is.
• Veruca wants a squirrel. Wonka says no. And then perfectly imitates Mr Salt's voice just to mock the both of them. (Also a Moment of Awesome.)
  Wonka: [in Mr Salt's voice] I'm sorry, darling. Mr Wonka's being unreasonable. [mocking pout]
  • While the squirrels swarm Veruca, Wonka pulls out a massive key ring and nonchalantly struggles to open the door via Key Confusion:
    Wonka: There it is...[turns key offscreen, pulls it back] There it isn't.
  • As the squirrels start carrying Veruca to the garbage chute.
    Mr. Salt: Where does the chute go?
    Wonka: To the incinerator.
    Mr. Salt: (look of horror)
    Wonka: (smiles) But don't worry, we only light it on Tuesdays!
    Mr. Salt: (look of horror intensifies)
    Mike: Today is Tuesday!
    Wonka: (Beat) Well there's always the chance they decided not to light it today.
  • When Mike corrects him, Wonka takes a moment to glare at him before continuing.
• The Puppet Hospital and Burn Center. It's relatively new.
  • And, as the impetus for that Brick Joke, director Tim Burton burning "it's a small world" in effigy. The bright and colorful singing puppet show is awesome, then the show ends when the pyrotechnics fail, causing the show display to burst into flames and grind to a halt. As the group looks on in confusion, the camera pans across them slowly to reveal Wonka standing at the end, applauding wildly. "I was worried it was getting a little dodgy in the middle part, but then that finale...wow!"
  • And why wasn't Wonka on stage for the puppet show when he was clearly supposed to be? "Well, I couldn't very well watch the show from up there, now, could I, little girl?"
  • The puppet's song begins by describing Willy Wonka as "modest"... then, without missing a beat, dives into how unbelievably awesome he is, ending with "he's the best darn guy who ever lived".
  • Most of the guests seem bemused by the puppet show, except for Mrs. Gloop who is smiling and moving to the music (at least until the whole thing bursts into flames).
• The bit where young Wonka is walking past lots of flags like he is traveling the world, only for it to then be revealed that he's just in the flag room of the local museum.
  • That's not even the best part of that scene: it's a flashback that starts with young Willy indignantly telling his dentist father Wilbur that he's going to run away to become a chocolatier and Wilbur says that, when Willy inevitably comes home, he won't be there waiting for him. After the flag room scene, Willy does go home, and the entire house is LITERALLY gone! (Could also count as a Tear Jerker moment based on why it's gone.)
  • When Charlie convinces Willy to reconcile with his father, they take the glass elevator to his home, which is inexplicably in the middle of a barren field covered in snow — the entire house, exactly as it looked before. And when Wilbur answers, he asks if they have an appointment. It's hard to tell if he actually gets clients out here and is still doing business, or is so strict and regimented that he asks on principal, but either way it's absurd and hilarious.
    • As they approach the steps, Willy tries some Implausible Deniability: "I think we've got the wrong house."
• The throwaway gag of one of the Oompa-Loompas watching The Oprah Winfrey Show as the tour group arrives in the television room. Also, the Oompa-Loompa's frustration when Wonka and the tour block his view of the screen.
• One of the faithfully-adapted running gags from the book: Whenever Mike Teavee points out some logical impossibility or absurdly circuitous process, Mr. Wonka accuses him of mumbling and then goes right back to pointing out impossible/impractical things.
  Willy: MUMBLER!
• When Mike points out that everything in the factory is seemingly pointless, it leads into another flashback with Mike's voice being replaced by Wilbur's as he unknowingly paraphrases the man. Seeing a little boy suddenly speak with the booming voice of Christopher Lee somehow ends up being hilarious.
  Mike: It's stupid! [in Wilbur Wonka's voice] Candy is a waste of time!
• When Mike tries out the television-teleporter and they're waiting for him to appear, Wonka muses he hopes "none of [Mike] gets left behind" because the technology isn't perfected and sometimes not all of what they're teleporting comes through.
  Wonka: If you had to choose only one half of your son, which one would it be?
  Mr. Teevee: (incredulous) What kind of question is that!?
  Wonka: No need to snap, it was just a question.
• How will they get Mike Teavee back to size?
  Willy Wonka: Let's go put him in the taffy puller!
  Mr. Teavee: Taffy puller?
  Willy Wonka: (offended) Hey, that was my idea!
• After the Elevator ruins Charlie's house by crashing through the roof...
  Grandma Georgina: I think there's someone at the door.
  • After Willy Wonka leaves, she says that things are going to get much better. The narrator notes that for once in her life, she knows what she's talking about, as things get better for the Bucket family afterwards.
• Grandpa George's response when Wonka insults Charlie's family.
  Willy Wonka: You can't run a chocolate factory with a family hanging over you like an old, dead goose. No offense.
  Grandpa George: None taken, jerk.
• After Charlie tells Wonka to make up with his father:
  Wonka: Y'know, I've got transpor— [walks into elevator door] ...to be more careful where I park this thing.
  • Note that this is the second time he walks into the glass doors.
• When Veruca and Violet size each other up inside of the factory and then pretend to like each other with the most blatantly transparent compassion girls their age could muster.
  Veruca: Let's be friends.
  Violet: Best friends.
  [They walk down the hallway together, stone-faced and fiercely arm-in-arm]
• By Violet's interview, it's clear that the reporters are starting to get disgusted by the winners.
  • And the Buckets' reaction to her:
    Grandma Josephine: What a beastly girl!
    Grandma Georgina: Despicable.
    Grandpa George: You don't know what we're talking about.
    Grandma Georgina: ...dragonflies?
• One of Grandma Georgina's Non Sequitur's is "I love grapes".

2013 Stage Musical

• In the now-deleted "Creation Overture" opening animation, the unseen narrator (aka, as it turns out, Willy Wonka) explained what a chocolatier does with the basic chocolate mixture:
  He mixes in sugar and butter and what else? — well what else do you want? — vanilla, coffee, toffee, kiwis, seaweed, liquorice, cinnamon, bicycles, babies, anything you like...
• The first onstage lines, via grouchy sweet stall owner Mrs. Pratchett:
  Chocolate! Chocolate! Rots your teeth and makes you fat! Get your lovely chocolate here!
• The Establishing Character Moment for Charlie:
  The Tramp: Look at this mess! People just guzzle up their chocolate and throw away the wrappers without the slightest thought.
  Charlie: I'm glad they do that.
  The Tramp: Glad?
  Charlie: If people didn't throw things away, then I'd have nothing to pick up.
  The Tramp: Very philosophical I'm sure.
• According to "When Veruca Says", the first thing she asked for after finally getting a Golden Ticket was North Korea!
• When Mrs. Pratchett realizes that an Idle Rich Lovebird Couple's accidentally wound up at the dump, she calls out "Chocolate, (very expensive) chocolate!" and overcharges them for a few Wonka Bars. Then, when Charlie winds up with a stray pound note after they run off, she calls out "Chocolate! Only a pound!"
• When the media, headed up by Cherry Sunday, descends on Charlie's home after he finds his Golden Ticket:
  Jerry: Cherry, where are you?
  Cherry: (brightly) Jerry, I'm in a shack!
• When Charlie and Grandpa Joe arrive at the factory gate and are mobbed by the press:
  Cherry: Charlie! The world's watching, is there anything you want to say?
  (beat)
  Charlie: (in a voice barely above a whisper) Umm, how d'you do?
• At the top of Act Two, Wonka rushes through greeting each of the Golden Ticket winners in "Strike That, Reverse It". It's rife with funny lines — some are on the show's main page, representing such tropes as Dispense with the Pleasantries, Ice-Cream Koan, Last-Second Word Swap, and Quick Nip — but one highlight is:
  Willy Wonka: Mike Teavee, aren't you the boy who got your Golden Ticket by hacking into my computers!
  Mrs. Teavee: Now Mr. Wonka, those are just allegations.
• The showbiz-savvy Mr. Beauregarde initially thinks that the Oompa-Loompas are Wonka's entourage!
• A sample of Willy Wonka's comments on the dreadful fates of the naughty kids:
  On Augustus Gloop: At least he died doing what he loved.
  On Violet Beauregarde: She didn't explode...her bubble just burst, that's all.
  On Veruca Salt: But we mustn't mourn; that's not what Veruca would have wanted. And let's face it, Veruca always got what she wanted.
  Summing up the tour: True, we did lose a few children along the way...but we all learned something and that's the important thing!
• Violet's transformation is the subject of "Juicy!" — a combination of "The Villain Sucks" Song and a Gratuitous Disco Sequence. The song is such a gorgeous pastiche that the Black Comedy of the situation, culminating in her exploding in a shower of glitter, is that much funnier.
• On that same token, Mr. Beauregarde's hilarious reaction:
  Mr. Beauregarde: ...She exploded!
• During the run to the Nut Room, the tour group passes several storerooms for unusual objects, all of which have their function: whips for whipping cream, turkeys for Turkish delight, and Scotch for...well, Wonka likes Scotch.
• When Mike gets sent to the virtual world:
  Willy Wonka (half-heartedly): Mike, no...
• As Mike Teavee gets lost in the virtual world, the Oompa-Loompas perform an electronica-inspired song, "Vidiots", complete with funky lighting effects and video screens...and a heck of a Cryptic Background Reference gets brought up with but one line:
  Willy Wonka: It's years since I've been to a rave!
• Mrs Teavee's Meta Guy nature returns as her son shows up on the computer screens.
  Mrs Teavee: The little people are singing again. That's never a good sign.
  • She also sings and dances along with her son's exit song, more enthusiastically than even the Oompa-Loompas!
• As "Pure Imagination" begins, there's a sweetly funny exchange as Wonka and Charlie board the Great Glass Elevator:
  Willy Wonka: Let's hope this works, because I just invented it this morning...Push that button.
  Charlie: The one marked Don't Push?
  Willy Wonka: That's the one.
  Charlie: Something crazy is going to happen now, isn't it?
  Willy Wonka: How did you guess?
• The Brick Joke during the first half of the curtain call: As Charlie Bucket takes his bow, a spotlight comes up on one of the boxes, revealing Willy Wonka cheering him on. He didn't waste a moment ingratiating himself into our world!

2017 Broadway Retool and Touring Productions

• During "Strike That, Reverse It," in a hold over from London, Wonka takes a Quick Nip of Mrs. Teavee's "homemade lemonade." Mrs. Teavee's response in the Broadway staging takes the cake:
  Mrs. Teavee: You should visit my factory sometime.
  • Wonka’s reaction to the “lemonade” is just as funny. In the soundtrack version, he simply starts wheezing, but in some live performances, he bursts out singing different songs. For example, in this one, he sings Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You”.
    Willy Wonka: WHOA, NELLY!
• As Augustus falls into the chocolate lagoon/waterfall:
  Mrs. Teavee: Mike, stop filming other people's tragedy.
  • Even funnier? The line itself implies that this has happened before.
  • Tour specific: Wonka dons a firefighter hat and gets a hose to get Augustus out of the chocolate waterfall. He succeeds to pull him out, but all that can be seen are a pair of legs dangling from spout and a bulge in the hose.
  Willy Wonka: This sucks! [puts hose in waterfall]
• In the Mixing Room, Wonka describes one experiment:
  Willy Wonka: Why, only yesterday I was mixing a bunch of bananas with some uranium.
  Rest of Cast: Uranium?
  Mr. Salt: Actually, we also do that in Russia.
  Willy Wonka: I was aiming to invent a lollipop you could suck and charge your phone with at the same time, but in fact, I got this.
  [pulls out glowing yellow ball on a stick]
  Isn't it beautiful? Complete waste of time, but beautiful nonetheless.
  • Charlie decides to dub the invention "Liquid Sunshine" and suggests that it could be used for reading comics. Wonka shoots this down:
  Willy Wonka: Cool your jets, Bucket! There's "Blue Sky Thinking" and there's just plain loopy!
  Liquid sunshine... it could never work! It's far too practical!
  [Wonka calls Oompas on phone]
  Oompas, mix up two barrels of "Liquid Sunshine" and get the patent. Thank you!
• During the last part of "When Willy Met Oompa", Wonka suddenly gets a pair of bedazzled maracas.
• After sending Mr. Beauregarde to help fix his daughter after she explodes, Wonka has this to say:
  Willy Wonka: It's very sad. Athough fermented blueberry juice does go very well in a gin fizz, doesn't it, Mrs. Teavee?
  Mrs. Teavee: That is true!
• After the Mixing Room:
  Willy Wonka: Mike, are you doing yoga?
  Mike: I'm trying to get a signal. Wonka, this tour is boring! Can't you just kill another kid and we'll get to the prizes?
  Willy Wonka: No signal? Oh dear. May I? [takes phone from Mike; proceeds to angrily stomp on and break Mike's phone]
  Willy Wonka: I think that signal's pretty clear, don't you?
  Mike: What am I supposed to play now?
  Willy Wonka: Maracas? [shakes Mike's broken phone like a maraca]
• The Maze of Deadly Traps. The actors mime out going through an obstacle course and getting "injured" by the traps, which include a wind tunnel and a Taffy Swamp, complete with hitting a gong at the end.
  • After Wonka explains the maze, he sums it up thusly:
    Willy Wonka: See? Easy as pie! ...too soon?
  • Then after all that, Wonka doesn’t want to leave Grandpa Joe behind, so he instructs that they go to the Nut Room instead, through a path completely out of the way of the obstacle course, which leads to this.
    Mrs. Teavee: He’s loopy!
    Mr. Salt: He’s bats!
    Veruca: He’s bananas!!
    Mike: He’s crazy.
    Willy Wonka: Wait for it…
    (Mike gets hit right in the face by one of the traps with a loud *CLANG!*)
• As they reach the Nut Room, looking remarkably similar to the maze they just went through
  Willy Wonka: Welcome to the Nut Room. It's-
  Mrs. Teavee: It's the same room!
• After Veruca gets finished off by the squirrels, the rest of the cast stands there in Stunned Silence, resulting in a rather long beat bordering on Black Comedy. Even Mike Teavee looks absolutely horrified, though he later proclaims it was "so cool."

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