Funny / The Flash (2023)

• Barry prepares to head out for his mission, gearing up in his running pose as the film's title begins to materialize...only to fade out when a group of teenage fangirls (and one boy) start geeking out over him.
  • Because Barry hasn't gotten his morning calorie intake he needs to super-speed, he begs one of the other girls for her half-finished candy bar, claiming to need it "for justice". She happily throws it to him (and kisses the candy bar before she throws it), but it hits his head and falls on the ground because he's distracted talking to Alfred.
• The entire sequence of Barry rescuing babies, a nurse, and a dog that fell out of a collapsing hospital. As he appears to try and figure out which baby to save from horrible deaths, he instead lunges toward the falling vending machine and start devouring snacks until he's at peak energy. Then he proceeds to save each child, even putting one in a microwave to avoid it getting roasted alive. When Barry finally makes it to the ground, the nurse is screaming her head off even as Barry tries to assure her everything is fine.
  Barry: I understand that these events can be psychologically scarring. You should seek the services of a mental health professional. The Justice League is not very good at that part yet. Trust me.
  • The first set of end credits plays over a slo-mo of the dog falling from this scene. Eyes wide, tongue out, we follow the dog as it runs into such items as a towel, a baby, and a Batman plushie when Michael Keaton's name is shown.
• The effect of Wonder Woman's Lasso of Truth on both The Flash and Ben Affleck's Batman, generating embarrassing confessions from them both.
  • The look on Diana's face suggests this has happened way too many times and it doesn't faze her anymore.
  • One of Bruce's confessions is: "I’d do a lot better just giving all my money away. Yes, if I really wanted to end crime, I should end poverty." ^note  This also serves as a meta joke since a common criticism of Batman in today's world is that he never addresses the causes of crime. With an added layer that this was something that The Batman (2022) did actually touch on.
  • Only to be outdone by Barry. And he even tries to claim that the sex confession was "a metaphor for Gothic literature".
    "I know sex exists, I've just never experienced it!"
• Before Barry suits up at the beginning, he deals with a snarky café worker who lazily prepares his sandwich as slowly as possible. Barry later returns to the shop after struggling through an entire action sequence, only to find that the guy has just now finished wrapping the sandwich.
• Before Iris visits Barry, he uses his powers to clean up his apartment. But his way of cleaning ends up failing as soon as Iris enters the room.
  Iris: I'm not gonna lie, it's a lot tidier in here than I expected.
  Barry: Yeah? Yeah, well, um... Yeah. (Laughs) I'm a pretty tidy person.
  [Barry's wardrobe opens, spilling plenty of items that he shoved inside.]
  Barry: Can I offer you a drink?
  Iris: Sure!
  • Another thing that adds to the hilarity is a jack-in-the-box suddenly springing open after everything spilled out of the wardrobe. Look closer, and it's actually Pennywise!
• While getting a beer for Iris, Barry opens his apartment fridge and sees a handful of disgusting, expired food items and no beer. His solution is to phase through the wall and steal beer from his neighbor. Barry then makes an odd remark to Iris about having refrigerated beer, like it's a major accomplishment.
  • Of course, vibrating at super-speed with a carbonated beverage in your hand is a good way to get bubbles sprayed all over you when you open it, which is exactly what happens.
• When Barry sees his alternate self outside, about to enter his house even though Barry is with his family, he tries to excuse himself. Poorly.
  Barry: Oh, shit. I... have to shit. Outside!
• During a conversation between Barry and his younger self, they're interrupted, which leads to this hilarious response.
  Nora: Barry, are you okay up there?
  Barry and Barry (Alternate): We're fine! I'm fine!
• Barry's attempt to give his alternate self superpowers is chock full of these.
  • Immediately after Barry phases himself and Alternate Barry through the Central City Crime Lab door, it simply slides open.
  • It then leads to a disagreement between the two Barries when the alternate Barry isn't pleased about the possibility of getting electrocuted to become the Flash. The way the camera rotates around the Barries' wide-eyed faces as they argue only adds to the moment's insanity.
    Barry: And that's when the lightning hits.
    Barry (Alternate): Wait. (Stands up) I get hit by lightning?
    Barry: No, no, no. (Pushes Alternate Barry down to his seat) You don't get hit by lightning.
    Barry (Alternate): Okay, 'cause for a second I thought you said...
    Barry: The lightning hits the chemicals... which then you get bathed in, and that's what electrocutes you.
    Barry (Alternate): (Standing up again) Okay, but I don't want to be electrocuted, though.
    Barry: (Pushes Alternate Barry down again) Sit down.
    Barry (Alternate): No, you sit down.
    Barry: I already have the powers!
    Barry (Alternate): You already have the powers!
    Barry: Exactly!
    Barry (Alternate): I am not getting struck by lightning!
  • Then the fateful lightning bolt strikes Barry, going through him and hitting the Alternate Barry. It also causes one of Barry's teeth to be zapped out, sending it flying into the younger Barry's mouth. And did we mention that all of this is set to the operatic "Qui la voce sua soave... Vien, diletto"?
  • After the lightning strike, Barry tries to get himself and his alternate self out of the Central City Crime Lab by phasing through a wall. But Barry doesn't know that he's lost his powers yet, which leads to the two of them colliding with the wall, falling flat on their faces.
  • Realizing this, Barry presses himself against the wall with a comedically strained face, before attempting to run like he usually does with super speed: flailing his arms and legs. At normal speed, however, he just looks like an exaggerated, goofy runner, which Barry realises to his frustration.
    Barry: SHIT! ...I'm slow.
• Before running for the first time, Young Barry briefly strikes a Speedy Gonzalez pose, which Barry recognizes and also confesses to having done "many times [himself] ".
• The younger Barry, upon getting his powers, decides to have some fun and runs into the city, only to catch fire and cause multiple car accidents and even a temporary blackout. He is then forced to flee back home nude because his clothes caught fire.
• Barry teaching Alternate Barry how to use the ring is funny enough, thanks to the latter mockingly whispering Black Speech as he puts it on. And then he activates the ring and shoots the suit out... before proceeding to stand there while the suit falls to the floor with a deflating noise.
  Barry (Alternate): (Laughs) It was so tiny for a-
  Barry: You're supposed to put it on before it hits the floor.
• In the new 2013 timeline, Barry is baffled to learn that Eric Stoltz really did go on to play Marty McFly, while Michael J. Fox was the star of Footloose, and Kevin Bacon was Maverick.
  • Which begs the question, what happened to Tom Cruise ...?
• When stuck in the alternate timeline with Zod's warship arriving to destroy the Earth, Barry tries to hunt down the other Justice Leaguers as to their whereabouts in 2013. Except Victor Stone isn't Cyborg yet, he has no idea where Diana could be as the only Wonder Woman on the Internet is a third-rate Vegas magician, and there's too many Clark Kents in Kansas (12,805 to be exact) for Barry to narrow it down.
  • He remembers that Arthur's dad runs a lighthouse in Maine, and so calls over there to find out if he can get in touch with Arthur. Except that in this timetime, Tom Curry never rescued and mated with Arthur's mother. When Barry tries to describe Arthur's mom as "an Atlantean princess," the camera pans over to an overweight middle-aged woman who doesn't look one bit like Nicole Kidman.
    • Also, you haven't lived until you hear the voice of Boba Fett call Barry "Asshole" over the phone.
  • Freaking out that there are no metahumans to handle Zod, Barry rants about "There's no Cyborg. There's no Aquaman. There's no Wonder Woman. There's no Superman. There's no Batman...." only for one of Alternate-Barry's roommates replying "I'm Batman." Well, more like burped it out.
• When the Barries meet Michael Keaton's Bruce Wayne for the first time, he looks more like the Dude than what we would expect from a retired Batman (such as in The Dark Knight Rises).
• How does Alternate Barry beat Michael Keaton's Bruce Wayne, after the latter attacks the Barries? He simply steps out of the way with his speed while Bruce leaps towards him, causing Bruce to crash into a table of food.
• Alternate Barry has plenty:
  • Just the fact that his reaction to seeing the 1989 iteration of the Batmobile was to cry out, "Holy shit!" Apparently getting Michael Keaton back wasn't nostalgic enough.
  • Seeing the old Batman all suited up causes him to faint. Keep in mind mainline Barry wasn't fazed at all.
  • When Supergirl flies alongside the Batplane, Alternate Barry records her on his phone. Mainline Barry finds this to be a bit uncouth, which is made even funnier with the fact that he quickly changed the subject of what he was talking about beforehand, without breaking a sweat.
    Barry: What I do know is that Zod somehow controls the World Engines, which will be destroying much more than just Metropolis now with every passing second that we don’t stop him- Barry, what are you doing?
    Barry (Alternate): What...? Our kids are gonna want to see this!
    Barry: Your kids?
    Barry (Alternate): Well, you know, like- like, everybody's kids! I mean, the children of the world! They're gonna wanna see this.
• Just before Barry's attempt to recreate the lab accident that gave him his powers, he tries to reassure the skeptical Alternate Barry that this attempt will work, because they have Batman here. His response?
  Bruce: Uh, for the record, I think this is insane.
• Alternate Barry making his own suit from the Batman Returns costume is accompanied with heroic music. Which stops when Alternate Barry tries to cut the horns off the cowl, creating plenty of squeaking noises.
• Right before landing into the final fight, Alternate Barry puts on his custom-made cowl, which has been shown to restrict head movement. So when he turns to Barry, we get the hilarious view of the cowl distorting to cover his eyes.
• When Barry and Alternate Barry prepare to run towards Zod's forces, their choice of Pre-Asskicking One-Liner is... bizarre, to say the least. And it's even funnier when Barbie (2023) came out a month after this film!
  Barry: Come on, Barbie.
  Barry (Alternate): Let's go party?
• During the final battle, Barry warns Alternate Barry about the latter's excessive stored electric charge. Alternate Barry's response is to ask Barry if can just "emperor" Nam-Ek. He even does the same hand gestures that Palpatine did to shooting lightning, which is goofy to watch. And when he finally shoots the lightning, he is blasted back by it's uncontrollable power!
• When the two Barry's launch off each other's feet during the climactic battle, Alternate Barry, being the immature kid that he still is, punches several grunts in the groin in slow motion.
• In the climax, as the Flashes' efforts to fix the timeline tear The Multiverse apart, among the cameos from legacy DC films and shows, we see none other than Nicolas Cage from the infamously unmade Superman Lives. And yes, he's fighting that giant spider. No doubt Jon Peters is shedding Tears of Joy right now seeing his dream come true.
• And right before that, we pass by Earth-66, where we hear Adam West's voice deliver a familiar lament: "Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb!"
• After Henry Allen's trial, Bruce calls Barry to offer his congratulations, and pulls up to the courthouse in his car. As Bruce gets out, he's mobbed by reporters, and Barry walks up to see that he no longer looks like Ben Affleck... but rather, to Barry's confusion, George Clooney.
  • The best part is Barry's only reaction is an exasperated "Who the fuck is this?!"
  • And as Barry tries to explain himself to this new Bruce, Barry's tooth falls out.
• The post-credits scene of Barry trying in vain to explain what happened to Arthur Curry, who's either too drunk to care or needed a couple of rounds to make it through the conversation.

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