Funny / ParaNorman

• The actress in Norman's cheap scary movie screaming as a zombie inches slooooowly toward her... so slowly that she stops screaming for a moment and casts an exasperated look off-camera. She even has to push away the boom mic away when it leans too far while screaming.
• Norman, on behalf of and quoting his grandmother, asks his parents to turn up the heater because her feet get cold. When you learn immediately afterwards that she's actually dead, it comes across as a very morbid joke. No wonder his parents and sister were so startled!
• The silly image of Norman standing directly in between his parents' respective paunches when they're talking to each other in front of him at the beginning.
• The welcome sign for Blithe Hollow has the slogan “A great place to hang!” Complete with a smiling lynched witch.
• The drama teacher, Ms Henscher, just for being an absolute Large Ham, with Alex Borstein rivaling BRIAN BLESSED himself.
  Ms. Henscher: No, no, Norman! With gusto! Like this! “They put her on trial and HAAAAAANGED HEEEEEEER!"
• "Um... That's not his chin."
• After Neil finally convinces Norman to throw the stick, it promptly ricochets off a tree and beans Neil in the face.
• Norman's epic struggle to take the book from his dead uncle's hands.
  • He finally gets it... and then his uncle's body falls on top of him, and his tongue rolls out onto Norman's face.
• Mitch taking down a zombie by punting his head like a football.
  • Even earlier, when that zombie just stands there as the van bears down on it!
• A local, a rickety vending machine, and the approaching zombies.
  • He finally decides to run screaming, only to run right back and retrieve his snack before fleeing in terror again.
• The incredibly awkward car ride with Judge Hopkins to the witch's grave with Norman's family. Especially with Norman, Courtney, and the Judge acting like kids arguing in the back seat.
• "What are you doing firing at civilians? That's for police to do!"
• "I knew something like this was going to happen!" "You did? Wow. Because that zombie bit really threw me."
• "If I had known there would be so much reading involved, I would've brought a completely different group of people who hate me."
• Norman's grandmother is hilarious:
  Norman: Dad says not to talk to you anymore.
  Norman's grandmother: Jackass.
  • This is even funnier when you realize she's calling her son a jackass.
• This bit:
  Mom: Hey Norman, what were you watching there?
  Norman: (flat) Sex and violence.
• This bit, too:
  Mr. Prenderghast: Swear to me!
  Norman: Like... the F-word?
• And this gem from Mitch, with Courtney realizing she had been completely wasting her time with Mitch all along:
  Mitch: You're gonna love my boyfriend. He's like a total chick-flick nut!
• And:
  Alvin: I'll punch you in your boobs!
  Neil: I don't have boobs! These are pectorals! (Alvin punches him) Ow! My boobs!
• Let's not forget "Itchy Wieners."
• Every time the movie pushes its PG rating, it's so worth it.
• Neil trying to scare off Uncle Prenderghast with hummus. "It's spicy!" Even funnier because it works!
• "That statue just 'psst' (pronounced "pissed") at us?"
• The hick woman pulling out a shotgun and firing on the zombies when the townsfolk first see them. No running around and screaming in panic for these people!
  Woman: Kill 'em in the head!
  • And then the townsfolk kick the crap out of the zombies. One little girl is seen ripping an arm off one of them and throwing a flaming teddy bear at them with bloodthirsty glee. And before that, she was biting the zombie!
  • For that matter, the zombies' arrival in town. First, they see a billboard of a woman with money stuffed between her breasts and groan excitedly. But then they experience Culture Shock and get freaked out by the various stuff in town, gasping each time, such as a drunk couple stumbling out of a pub, a punk spray painting graffiti of a skull on a wall, a man eating a burger in his car and spraying ketchup over the windshield, and finally, a TV flipping through channels, first of a man using a machine gun, then a monster truck rally, a lipstick commercial, a nuclear explosion, a rock star concert, and lastly, a kids' show. Then, one of the zombies screams in a high-pitched voice! Part of it makes sense: the zombies are Puritans and are shocked that this country they founded to be a place without sin is filled with sex, violence and corruption wherever they look.
• At one point, Alvin grabs Courtney's butt. What makes it funny is how loud it is, there's an audible clap meaning he grabbed it pretty hard. Courtney is briefly shocked, meanwhile Alvin? Stone faced.
• Perry tempts fate by asking where the police are when needed. A policewoman then immediately crashes into his car with a motorbike and collides with Perry, tackling him to the ground.
• During the Shaming the Mob scene, Alvin says emotionally, "You should all be ashamed!" and points at random people in the crowd before adding, "How dare you!" What makes this funny is that this is Alvin, school bully, sounding like a prissy middle-aged lady.
• When Mitch gears it, leaving the six voiceless zombies (bonus point on one of them coughing) in smoke, and their reaction when they see Judge Hopkins hanging on the speeding van for dear afterlife. It's even funnier when you realize in life the fastest vehicle they probably ever encountered was a horse-drawn carriage, which also explains why that one zombie just stood there, staring at the van, before it ran him over. No wonder the Judge was screaming.
• Alvin trying to impress the ladies with his sweet dance moves.
• This exchange:
  Mitch: Neil! Will you get the door?
  Neil: I'm busy.
  Mitch: Are you freeze-framing Mom's aerobics DVD again?
  Neil: No! (the next shot shows he's doing exactly that)
• "Do I look crazy to you?" (goofy grin, before blowing toilet roll out of his face)
• Towards the beginning of the film, after the students sing a song in a school play, most of the audience claps, but one guy cries out "You suck!" At a bunch of kids doing their school play.
  • The song in question is also "Season of the Witch" by Donovan.
• When the angry mob makes their way to town hall, Mitch thinks it's the zombies at first. The following exchange is utterly hilarious:
  Mitch: There's something moving out there. I think it's the zombies.
  Alvin: (scared) Hide!
  Mitch: No, it's just grown-ups.
  Alvin: (with more fear): Hide!!
  • Earlier in that same scene, Neil is pretty proud of himself for reading twenty-six pages in a book.
  • Shortly after the above...
  Courtney: I can't believe this is your plan! I'm gonna get bitten, and start eating people's brains... I'm supposed to be vegan!
• As the witch is rampaging through the town, you can hear the following on the car radio:
  News Anchor: Officials are urging people to PANIC AND RUN FOR THE— (the channel is changed)
  • Following that scene, the entire Uncomfortable Elevator Moment in the car with Norman's family with the Judge zombie.
• Of the various scenes in vehicles, this one takes the cake.
  Neil: You're the oldest!
  Mitch: Not mentally!
• When Norman tells the others he'll go it alone, Neil insists on staying with him, telling his brother "I'm not going, and you can't make me!" Cue his brother effortlessly lifting him up and carrying him like a football.
• When Mitch accidentally drives over a zombie, runs out to see if its okay, and accidentally breaks off the head in his hands.
  Mitch: Does anyone know CPR?
• It's during a fairly tense moment, and is kinda dark, but Perry saying he'll come back and haunt his son if a heart attack kills him is kinda amusing.
• "Better start talking, buddy!"
• When the zombies are chasing Norman and Alvin:
  Alvin: Are they gonna eat our brains?!
  Norman: I think you'll be safe.
  Alvin: Oh thank god! (beat)
• In the midst of a dark sequence at the beginning of the climax, as Norman is trying to convince Aggie of their similarities and she angrily counters that he's not DEAD, there's something chuckle-worthy in how she follows that up (in a tone reminding us that whatever else she is, there's a part of her that is still an eleven-year-old girl) with, "And you're a boy."
• When the group is trying to get into the town hall, they all turn to Alvin, assuming that he knows how to pick locks because he's a delinquent. He assures them that he can totally do that, and proceeds to grab an announcement board, break the window on the door and use the opening to unlock the door from the other side. The fact that he's so proud of this, combined with everyone else's confused stares, is priceless. And the cherry on top? The sign board he grabs was advertising a crime prevention seminar.

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