In Mai-Otome, Haruka is laughing uproariously over Nao getting Natsuki arrested for indecent exposure while trying to hitch a ride to Aries, prompting Yukino to tell her that she's being rude. When Haruka shows Yukino the photo, however, Yukino briefly cracks a smile before quickly clearing her throat, as Natsuki happens to be in the room with them.
Starmon's reaction to the Digimon Emperor (who he works for) being called an "Earth reject" in an episode of Digimon Adventure 02.
In the fifth episode of Kotoura-san, Manabe gives Kotoura an embarrassing photo of Moritani, a girl that had recently befriended Kotoura after previously tormenting her. Kotoura tells Manabe off because giving that photo is a mean thing to do. Once alone though, she can't help but crack up, and spends the whole of the next day trying not to around Moritani. She uses the photo as a pick-me-up at the episode's end after a failure in a relay race.
Comic Books
At the end of The Killing Joke, Batman actually ends up laughing at the joke The Joker tells, despite him having earlier crippled and humiliated Barbara Gordon and then kidnapped and tortured Commissioner Gordon. You can see why when you realise how the joke relates to them and their views of humanity.
Another story, involving Harley trying to get a glum Joker to smile again has Robin exclaiming that, "A barracuda down the pants IS kinda funny." Batman is not amused however.Note It's Batman Adventures, vol 2, no 3.
A Spider-Man version that may well be inspired by the above Batman example:
Green Goblin: I wasn't always going to call myself "Green Goblin". At first, I was going to call myself "Mister Coffee". Can you imagine how weird the last few years would have been if I'd done that? [Pause] Both: [Crack up laughing] Spidey: Heh-ha-ha! Look out kids, it's Mister Coffee and his latte of doom! Goblin: Oh God, stop!
In the Fantastic Four, Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm are always taking shots and pulling pranks on one another, but every now and then they have to chuckle at each other's quips.
Sue has just made an invisible monster visible with her powers Johnny: AAAAUGGH! It's horrible! Make it invisible! Make it invisible! Susan: Then how is Ben supposed to hit it? Johnny: I was talking about Ben! Ben: You little... Naw, wait. That wuz a good one.
In the Bone series, Thorn is in understandably shocked at learning about her past and her destiny. She shouts "I'm a princess! I have magic powers! What does that make me?" Fone rather unhelpfully suggests "A fairy princess?" Thorn reacts coldly to this remark. Later, Fone tries to apologize, but Thorn says it was actually pretty funny now that she thinks about it.
In Watchmen, Dan tells the story of a masochist who used to follow the Masks round pretending to be a supervillain in the hopes of getting beaten up. Then he eventually tried it on Rorschach and got thrown down an elevator shaft. Laurie says it's not funny, but both she and Dan are trying and failing to suppress their laughter.
In one Deadpool comic, Bullseye tries to carry out a contract on Deadpool given to him by Osborn, and they spend the comic trying to kill each other in various ways. Deadpool and Bullseye end up sharing a laugh about it all at the end.
Halfway through the fight, Bullseye decides he doesn't actually want to kill Deadpool because he enjoys their fights too much. Seeing as this is Bullseye we're talking about, that's no small feat.
This also happened in the Joe Kelly era where Bullseye and Deadpool remembered the time they fought over Heinrich Zemo's grave and beat each other with his corpse. They have a laugh about it later. This trope pretty much sums up Deadpool's and Bullseye's relationship.
In the Green Lantern miniseries Guy Gardner: Reborn, Guy, having lost his ring, tries to get powers from the New Guardians (who, for the purposes of this story, are portrayed as New Age Retro Hippies). He eventually annoys them to the point that Gloss hits him so hard he goes flying off their island.
Tomas: That was not very enlightened, Gloss. Beat Tomas: But I have to admit, it was pretty funny.
In one A Mad Look At article, a student tells a teacher an apparently offensive joke. The teacher steps out into the hallway, laughs, then returns to the classroom and reprimands the student for the joke.
One story in Batman: Black and White concerned the Black and White Bandit, an artist who became obsessed with black and white after going colorblind. At the end of the story, he's laughing hysterically as the police take him away — apparently one of the uniforms told him to "get in the black and white."
At one point in Impulse, Inertia impersonated the title character and went about his daily life. His friends noticed that he was more snide and mean-spirited than usual, especially in regard to a disliked teacher, but they couldn't help cracking up when he asked "Does 'Pavlov' ring a bell?"
Comic Strips
One Calvin And Hobbes strip has Calvin combing his hair, putting on his dad's glasses and marching up to his parents saying, "Calvin! Go do something you hate! Being miserable builds character!" Calvin's mom was laughing hysterically, and the dad, while annoyed, admitted that "okay, the voice was a little funny".
"...But that's still one darn sarcastic kid we're raising."
Fan Fiction
Most of the tricks the protagonist of Sophistication And Betrayal plays on his marefriend Rarity fall under this. Her usual response to them is to react in a completely deadpan manner, before breaking down and admitting they were actually pretty funny.
Film
In E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Mary snickers when Elliot calls one of his siblings "Penis Breath", and then chastises him for language.
Combined with Throw It In. That was the actress's genuine reaction.
When Paul and Jimmy are being given crap by their rival detectives in Cop Out, our heroic pair gets off a few insults that even the rivals have to give them credit for.
Paul: I know that Mangold's wife is very unhappy. She says he's all foreskin. Mangold: That's actually clever.
God (played by Morgan Freeman) remarks as such in Bruce Almighty, recounting Bruce's blasphemous statements from earlier on in the movie.
God:[quoting Bruce] "The gloves are off, God!" "God has taken my bird and my bush!" "God is a mean kid with a magnifying glass!" "Smite Me, O Mighty Smiter!" Now, I'm not much for blaspheming, but that last one made me laugh.
In Donnie Darko, Donnie is brought before the principal for telling a teacher "to forcibly insert the lifeline cards into [her] anus" (his teacher's words, not Donnie's), and the teacher's distressed recital of that line causes Donnie's father to start laughing and cover it up with a cough.
Also, during a heated argument with his sister, Donnie tells her to "Suck a f**k." She responds "How exactly does one suck a f**k?" After a pause, they both crack up.
And the dad starts laughing when the youngest daughter asks, "What's a f**ka*s?"
A variation occurs during the opening scenes of Eurotrip, wherein protagonist Scott's girlfriend leaves him for another man. This man happens to be the lead singer of the band performing at the party Scott attends that night, and the man sings a song entitled "Scotty Doesn't Know", about how he stole another man's girl and the poor sap remains oblivious. Though Scott's humiliated at first, the song starts to take off in popularity (his best friend has it as a ringtone by the end), and even he's admitting that it's a pretty catchy song.
In Catch Me If You Can, Frank Abagnale's parents get called in after the school finds out he's been impersonating a substitute teacher for a week. The parents make a show of being angry at him, but the smirk on his dad's face shows that he thinks his son is actually pretty awesome.
Near the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, vile Nazi toad Toht and all-American hero Indiana Jones both find humor in the fact that the Ark which so many people have fought and died over appears to be filled with nothing but sand.
Jay in Dogma laughs hysterically at Azrael's "Holy Bartender" joke after he's taken a few minutes to get it. He's Late to the Punchline, even though the joke involved Azrael repeatedly shooting the bartender.
Love Actually has this in two deleted scenes. Emma Thompson's character is called into a parent-teacher conference because her son drew, for his greatest wish, a picture of a world where people's farts are clearly visible. Emma Thompson excuses herself with her son and seems about to lay into him before she announces that it was "bloody brilliant" and takes him off for ice cream. A later scene shows the teacher with her lover, commenting that it took her half an hour before she realized they weren't coming back to which her lover comments that the idea was actually pretty funny and they both start laughing.
In the Steve Martin film Cheaper by the Dozen, Steve Martin is chastising his children for soaking their eldest sister's boyfriend's underwear in meat and then siccing the dog on him.
"You soaked his underpants in meat... That was wrong. Funny. But wrong.
In war movie The Colditz Story the Gestapo liaison asks for prisoners to work for the German Reich in exchange for privileges. One French soldier volunteers saying he'd rather work for twenty Germans than one Frenchman. When asked his job he replies "undertaker". Even the Kamp Kommandant laughs at this.
In the animated black comedy film Bebe's Kids during a confrontation in the womens bathroom between Robin and Dorthea, they start cracking Yo Mama jokes and Robin fires off one that makes Dorthea's friend Vivian crack up.
Dorthea: That's ok, yo mama so dumb she thought a quarterback was a refund! Robin: Well ain't that a little.. yo mama so dumb, they told her it was chilly outside she went and got a bowl! Vivian: *cracks up*
The mayor's reaction to some of the antics of the sociopathic new mailman (specifically glueing an old woman's cheque to the inside of her mailbox) in The Mailman.
King Candy: You wouldn't hit a guy with glasses would you?
*Ralph takes off Candy's glasses and breaks them over Candy's head*
King Candy: You hit a guy with glasses. That's... that's well-played.
Literature
In Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood, Jimmy is shocked when he hears that MaddAddam have been genetically engineering mice that eat electrical insulation, parasitic wasps that spread disease, asphalt destroying microbes, etc., but when he hears about the neon-coloured herpes, he thinks it's "pretty funny".
In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Draco Malfoy mocks Harry's fanboy Colin Creevey. Harry, who's by that time very tired of Colin's constant squealing, finds the imitation both cruel and rather accurate.
There's some sort of variation in the book Deadline by Chris Crutcher. The main character gets into an argument with the teacher about his school project. His teacher ends up saying "I think now's a good time to take your leave, Mr. Wolf." This causes his brother to stand up and say "Okay, but I don't see what I did." Even someone who hated his brother thought it was funny, but the teacher's opinion was never directly stated.
One of the Soup books opens with Rob bringing a note home saying he made a rude remark to the school nurse. She had asked him "Did your bowels move today?" and, in accordance with a lesson earlier that chapter, he answered "Yes, thank you. Did yours?"note The lesson in question boiled down to "when asked a question, the proper response is answer AND return, not just answer". The nurse's question was rather obviously an exception to the rule, but had never been explicitly pointed out as such. Once he confesses that he and Soup drew straws to see who would ask, his mother gives him only a halfhearted whipping.
The Last Hurrah: Meta-example. Mayor James Michael Curley, who was the real-life basis for the main character, crooked machine politician Frank Skeffington, was supposedly asked what his favorite part of the book was. He is said to have replied "The part where I die!"
It happens multiple times in Anne of Green Gables, the best example being after Anne has told off Rachel Lynde for calling her a homely, freckled carrot-top. Marilla gives her a talking-to and makes her apologize, but she feels guilty about wanting to laugh.
Turns up several times in A Big Boy Did It And Ran Away, mostly to new English teacher Raymond Ash. Best example? He'd set his class a short essay on A Midsummer Night's Dream, and they'd been busy beavering away at it all lesson. When he collects them in at the end of the lesson, every single student hands in a crudely drawn cartoon penis, complete with ejaculate. Ray was desperately trying not to show how hysterical he found that, while thinking it wouldn't be the last time he'd set an assignment and receive a pile of wank.
In Lord of the Flies, Jack does an impersonation of Piggy in the middle of a heated argument with Ralph. Ralph couldn't help but smile, much to his chagrin.
In The Dresden Files it happens several times when Harry makes a sarcastic or snarky comment in a tense situation.
Live Action TV
In Smallville, Bizarro laughed reluctantly when Brainiac compared him to a mollusk.
At the end of the first episode of Sherlock, Sherlock jokes about a serial killer while John unsuccessfully tries to keep a straight face.
John: (laughs) Stop. (holding back laughter) We can't giggle - it's a crime scene, stop it.
Sherlock: You're the one who shot him, don't mind me.
John: Keep your voice down! (giggles)
In early episodes of Home Improvement, Brad and Randy were relentless practical jokers, but more often than not, Tim found their antics to be hilarious rather than reprehensible, much to Jill's chagrin.
One episode after Brad pulled a prank to a teacher, Tim and Jill were discussing punishment. Tim brought up a Noodle Incident prank that Jill pulled in school. Her only line of defense was "Nobody proved it was me."
On Boy Meets World Mr. Feeny is usually stoic, deadpan, serious, and dry in how he carries himself. In the episode where they're pulling pranks on each other, he finds their prank of putting a VW Bug in Rachel's dorm room to be hysterical and makes jokes at her expense with them.
In Supernatural, Sam and Dean try to kill the Trickster, but actually find his punishments, particularly the alien and the frat boy, rather funny at times. Until he goes after them.
In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, at one point, Giles is talking about how the phases of the moon exert a great deal of psychological influence, and the full moon "tends to bring out our darkest qualities." Xander quips, "Yet, ironically, also led to the invention of the moon pie." Buffy and Willow are unimpressed as always but Giles almost cracks up.
An episode of The Daily Show featured a clip of George W. Bush, during a trip to Ottawa, thanking all the Canadians who came out to wave at him "with all five fingers". Jon Stewart, a vocal critic of Bush, admitted that it was actually pretty funny.
He was forced to admit the same thing when Sarah Palin tried her hand at stand-up on The Tonight Show. In fact, he gave advice that he usually doesn't give to new stand-ups: "If you had a day job, I'd tell you to quit it" (a Stealth Insult on multiple levels).
On The Odd Couple, Felix is perturbed by Oscar's house guest Wild Willie Boggs (played by Roy Clark) who is prone to making crude practical jokes. He finally confronts him about it. Willie says "Felix, you don't like them because you've never tried them", adding, "do you want to play a trick on Oscar?". Felix delivers the "about-face" line, says "No. What?". Willie gives Felix a rubber hot dog to give to Oscar. With insane glee, Felix sets the trap and calls Oscar in for a snack- which of course Oscar just eats as if it were normal, saying, "The bun's a little stale."
In Wings, Roy's mother was going to marry a con man, but the con man had a heart attack. He was leading a game of Simon Says when he had the attack. He said, "Call an ambulance." No one moved, because he didn't say "Simon Says". When Roy told everyone about that, he was laughing. Everyone called him cruel for that, but they started laughing too.
Occasionally in Married... with Children, Jefferson will laugh at Al's cracks at Marcy when she's not looking.
Jefferson pretty much always thinks Al's funny, he just knows better than to let Marcy see him laugh.
An early episode of Scrubs had the guy who played Jack from Will and Grace be JD's rival for an episode, and he cracked a joke at one point. JD tried to hold his laughter in, but giggled slightly, and admonished himself for it.
Another episode has Kelso get mad about someone changing the Sacred Heart sign to "Sacred Fart." He does quietly chuckle and admit to Turk that he does find it a little funny.
While initially annoyed by the huge public display of his return to the hospital, Dr. Cox later admitted that he loved JD's Welcome Back Coxer T-shirts.
When Jenna shocks Liz on 30 Rock with her willfully ridiculous diva antics, one of Jenna's entourage has this to say:
Patrice: Oh, Melissa? Your face is on the phone. Soccer practice is over and you need to pick it up. Liz: All right, that’s a pretty good burn, Patrice.
Spin doctor Malcolm Tucker in political satire The Thick of It is unremittingly awful in the wittiest way possible: for example, at one point, Hugh Abbot complains that the massive windows of his new office make him feel like a "whore in a window." At that point, Terri Coverly knocks on the window for Abbot's attention, whereupon Malcolm remarks "How much, love?" And despite living in daily fear of Malcolm's visits, in that moment, Hugh is clearly seen trying not to laugh.
A very famous example from The Mary Tyler Moore Show: Chuckles the Clown, the host of a children's show, is killed at a circus parade after being attacked by an elephant while dressed as a peanut. The entire episode is full of characters making jokes and laughing about the absurd circumstances, while Mary continually reprimands them and insists that it isn't funny. The episode concludes when Mary is suddenly struck by the humor of every joke she'd heard as she bursts out laughing in the middle of the funeral. Only to burst into tears when the minister assures her Chuckles would want her to laugh.
Whenever a leftwing pundit or comedian puts on a satirical sketch of Glenn Beck (from Jon Stewart to Keith Olbermann) Beck will promptly replay it on his show and then follow up by admitting it's funny, if it is. He spent almost a half-hour of his radio show gushing about the parody of him in the South Park episode "Dances with Smurfs".
Olbermann did the same thing when Stewart skitted him, and absolutely loved the SNL skit where Ben Affleck parodied Olbermann.
On the flip side, Jon Stewart conceded during said skit that Olbermann's description of Rush Limbaugh was a good one.
Art Bell enjoyed Phil Hendrie's spoofs of his show. Jim Rome, not so much. Hendrie, however, was not appreciative of what he saw as theft of his material by Glenn Beck.
Similarly, Bill O'Reilly is actually a huge fan of Stephen Colbert, whose entire show is a half-hour long parody of O'Reilley's.
On The Muppet Show, when Milton Berle reacts to Statler and Waldorf by saying he has a good mind to punch him in the nose. Waldorf says, "Please, not while I'm holding it." When Berle admits, "That's pretty funny," Waldorf says he can use it.
Which is funny too because part of Milton Berle's stage persona was he stole all his material (similar to Jack Benny's persona of being a miser).
On an episode of George Lopez, George decidedly tells his kids they must tell the truth or be punished. His son Max confesses that he's been shrinking his sister's clothes to make her think she's fat. George yells at him "That's horrible! You bad b-" but doesn't make it to the end of the sentence before laughing out loud.
During Australian Idol's 2004 season, an auditionee was singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow". Ian Dickson gave a glowing review of the performance - by the dog she had brought in as a prop - then turned to her and said, "You on the other hand..." The contestant laughed and took the rejection well.
In an episode of Dead Like Me, after Roxy tries to stab Mason for stealing food from her.
Mason: Did you see that? I mean, just because I wanted some of her hashbrowns. Rube: I was there. Mason: I've never seen such violence over such small potatoes. Rube: Now, that was almost clever. Mason: What was almost clever, Rube? Rube: The thing about hash browns being small potatoes. Mason: I don't get it. Because hash browns are small potatoes. Rube: Never mind.
How I Met Your Mother purposely uses this trope- the creators didn't like how most sitcoms involved a character cracking a joke only to have just the audience laugh, so they told the actors to giggle as they saw fit. Ted in particular concedes that burns aimed at him are pretty funny.
Big Brother US had Creator's Pet Jessie return in season 12 as a "punishment" from Pandora's Box. It's no secret that everyone hates him, but the circumstances involving his cameo in Season 10 was actually pretty funny. Pandora's Box promised Britney a chance to talk with a former Big Brother player who will give them tips. She took it, and watched the houseguests get a Luau while Jessie gave her tips on weight-lifting.
The season 9 episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000, featuring Werewolf, had Tom, right out of the gate, quip, "I dunno, you had 'em last!" Crow complains that Tom can't say that and that he's gonna tell Mike. When Mike shows up and Crow tattles, Mike actually thinks that it was funny, forcing Crow to backtrack to save face.
At the end of the complaint cards scene from NewsRadio, Dave takes out a cards that reads, "Help I'm being held prisoner inside a complaint box" and then says, "Which is actually pretty funny."
In an episode of Andromeda, Tyr Anasazi finds himself alone with (and obliged to be polite to) Charlemagne Bolivar, a fellow Nietzchean (played by James Marsters) whose pride has some history with Tyr's, all of it bad.
Tyr: (coldly courteous) What would you like, Jaguar?
Charlemagne: The usual: hundreds of grandchildren, utter domination of known space, and the pleasure of hearing that all my enemies have died in terrible, highly improbable accidents that cannot be connected to me. And you?
Mick Foleyfinally gets The Rock back for all the years of "It doesn't matter!" During a promo in 2000, Foley tells Rock he's in the upper echelon of WWE Champions, and asks how it makes him feel. Rock barely gets a word out before Foley bellows "IT DOESN'T MATTER HOW IT MAKES YOU FEEL!" Foley promptly runs around the ring celebrating, and Rock can't help but chuckle at that one.
John Bradshaw Layfield, around Wrestlemania 29, was defending Zeb Colter and Jack Swagger's views to anyone who would listen, but then Jerry Lawler commented on Colter: "Somebody needs to tell him Yosemite Sam wants his mustache back!" prompting JBL to say, "I gotta admit, that was pretty funny, King."
Radio
In Nebulous, Professor Nebulous reveals that at school, his nickname was "Nobulous", which causes his assistant Rory to laugh and then say "Ahem... kids can be so cruel".
Seems to be the general reaction to this◊ epitaph for Gary Gygax.
Theater
A slightly different version: In a production of Thoroughly Modern Millie, after Millie reads back Mrs. Meers's monologue and proving she has enough evidence to send Meersie to prison, Mrs. Meers looks at the audience and says "You can clap, that was good."
Vigoro: I believe the worth of a man can be measured by his popularity with women. Gilder: Hm, I kind of like that. I should remember that for later.
In the Sam And Max Freelance Police game Abe Lincoln Must Die!, Sam is being put down by Chuckles, the President's body guard:
Sam: What do you do around here? Chuckles: I give out free T-shirts to the visitor who asks the dumbest question of the day. Please accept my apologies, but we're all out of husky boys' sizes. Max: Oooo! Double-burn! Sam: I thought you were on my side, Max. Max: I just call 'em like I see 'em, Sam.
From Dragon Age: Origins, when Morrigan happens to ask Alistair about his training:
Morrigan: So I take it you did not enjoy your templar training? Alistair: That's directed at me, I take it? Morrigan: Do you see any others about who have failed at their religious instruction? Alistair: I didn't fail- I was recruited into the Grey Wardens. Morrigan: And if you had not been recruited? What would have happened, instead? Alistair: [completely deadpan] I would have turned into a drooling lunatic, slaughtered the grand cleric and run through the streets of Denerim in my small clothes, I guess. Morrigan: [amused] Your self-awareness does you credit. Alistair: I thought you'd like that.
In Knights of the Old Republic, one of the ways you can defuse a confrontation with some young (idiot) Sith is to tell them a Mandalorian joke. If Zaalbar is in your party, The Big Guy will actually get a good laugh out of it.
In the same confrontation, Jolee Bindo manages to get a chuckle out of the otherwise stoic Canderous Ordo.
Lashowe: Do you know how many Sith there are here in Dreshdae? Jolee: Twelve! No, wait, Thirteen! Canderous: Nice one, old man. Jolee: Thank you, it takes effort to be properly irreverent at my age.
Occurs in Lufia: Curse of the Sinistrals, except that it wasn't really funny, or even a joke. Distressed Damsel Jessie just can't help laughing when her captor calls her boyfriend Guy an idiot.
In Strong Badia the Free, when Strong Bad asks about the incomplete effigy the protesters have set up:
Strong Bad: Why'd you bring that ugly, misshapen stick? Homestar: She organized the protest rally! Strong Bad: Not Marzipan! {softly} Though that's a pretty good one, gotta remember that.
It's hard to tell if Osmund Saddler's chuckles at Leon's quips in Resident Evil 4 are genuine or not, but he gets a couple, once at "Saddler, YOU'RE small-time", and again at "Senior Moment".
A rather tragic example in Batman Arkham City. The Joker is dying, having accidentally knocked the only cure for the after-effects of Titan serum out of Batman's hands. As he lies there, choking to death, Batman tells him "You want to know something funny? Even after everything you've done, I would have saved you." The Joker's dying words are "That actually is... pretty funny!"
In G-Senjou no Maou a girl whose family name is Usami introduces herself as Usami Bin Laden. The joke falls flat in game, but the player may find it pretty funny despite the bad taste.
Every now and then, a Griefer in a video game does something that even the moderators admit is this trope, but have to ban them anyways. Second Life is a good example.
Web Animation
Happened more than once on Homestar Runner when Strong Bad gets indignant over a joke but then actually realizes it was kind of funny.
Strong Bad has to respect it when normally Dumb Muscle Strong Mad gets a witty retort:
Strong Mad: (holding up a grease-stained Blubb-O's bag) YOU'RE NOT ON THE LIST! Strong Bad: The list? You're looking at a greasy bag of fast food! Strong Mad: DON'T BE SO HARD ON YOURSELF! Strong Bad: Wait, what? Strong Mad, did you just make a joke?! That was pretty good!
Web Comics
Tycho and Gabe of Penny Arcade are friendly rivals rather than enemies, but they still mock each other mercilessly. They have very different tastes, but occasionally, one will admit "That was actually pretty clever."
Sluggy Freelance has an interesting one when a man is torturing Torg for information.
Torturer: Just tell us what we want to know, and we'll stop. Torg:YOU HAVEN'T ASKED ME ANYTHING YET! Torturer starts laughing Torg: Hey! Torturer: Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Anyway, we want to know where Doctor Steve's lab is. Torg: I don't know that! I couldn't tell you if my life depended on it! Torturer starts laughing After a moment, Torg starts laughing too
Ben's father has to laugh about "dingle-choad" in this strip of Loserz.
Black Mage has a moment of this near the end of 8-Bit Theater where, after having become a super-powerful, super-evil version of himself, he stops in the middle of slaughtering his former allies to admit that a prank they pulled on him 700 or so strips earlier actually was pretty funny.
Web Original
This video featuring iJustine and a terrible date.
Despite the Batman & Robin movie being labeled the worst film ever and driving the Nostalgia Critic to homicidal rage over a Bat Credit Card, "the Riddler suit here is kinda clever."
He also liked one scene in Jingle All The Way, when Myron the mailman threatened some police officers with what he thought was a fake bomb in a package, only for it to go off after he leaves the room. However, an unfortunate case of Mood Whiplash ensues when the officer from the bomb squad is shown comically charred but still alive.
Although he absolutely hated Baby Geniuses 2 (though not quite as much as the original), he still begrudgingly admitted that the twist was pretty good, in that he didn't see it coming and it made perfect sense in hindsight.
Critic: So the Grinch goes crazy and starts attacking the folks. Grinch: (to a car spinning out of control) Taxi!...It's because I'm green, isn't it?! Critic: ...okay, that's a good joke.
Despite his extreme hatred for the so-called "great" films he reviews, Confused Matthew does make his best effort to point out the good things about them he sees.
In his The Lion King review, he admitted "Circle of Life" was a good song and that the scene with Timon dancing the hula made him laugh hard.
He also made note of Samantha Morton's excellent performance in the epilogue of his Minority Report review.
He said the end of Titanic was well done.
On a similar note, in a review of Highlander II The Quickening. Spoony admitted that MacLeod and Ramirez simply getting into a car and ramming an armed barricade relying on their immortality to protect them from all the times they'll be shot is actually pretty clever. However, he also points out all the Fridge Logic that undermines this, the biggest ones include the fact that they put the (mortal) Love Interest in the trunk of said car, and that the Big Bad didn't simply tell the Corrupt Corporate Executive he's working with about the immortals and to cut their heads off.
Similarly, he said the protective collar worn by The Guardian in Highlander The Source was an ingenious idea for the series. Sure, they never use it again, but still. He also praised the Guardian's "There can be only ME!" line and a scene (which he didn't include in the review itself and only mentioned in the commentary) in which Methos kills a biker by throwing his sword against a tree blade first right in front of the biker, decapitating him.
And more literally, during his Phantasmagoria2: A Puzzle of Flesh LP.
Trevor: I've got a date for dinner. Curtis: Tell me about him. Trevor: Nooo...okay. Spoony: Okay, that was good.
* In one of his Counter Monkey videos, Spoony describes a Dungeons & Dragons game where he played a half-orc thief. The party's wizard mocked him by asking how someone that big and hard-to-miss could possibly pick anyone's pocket. Spoony responded by clubbing the wizard over the head and then taking the coin purse from his unconscious body. The wizard's player laughed and gladly admitted to losing the debate.
NTom: What's a moray? FTA: When the moon hits your eye, like a big pizza pie, that's a moray. NTom:(clapping) Well done, that is actually well deserved.
Bill: When he sits down to meal of juice, toast, milk, and Trix cereal— Mike: Uh oh, where's he going with this? Bill: And he looks at his bowl of Trix and he says "THIS! IS! SPART OF A BALANCED BREAKFAST!" Kevin: Wow! Mike: Wow, you pulled it out! Nicely done.
At the end of the first season of commodoreHUSTLE, the villain Geoff, who's determined to ruin LoadingReadyRun because of their comedy's reliance on the Groin Attack, is kicked in the balls by Paul's ball-kicking robot, Mr. Ballsmotron. As he collapses, he says "That... was Actually Pretty Funny."
Subverted in Dragon Ball Abridged. Frieza makes a Double Entendre pun while handing out a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown to Nail. Nail starts to chuckle, and Frieza assumes this trope is in effect. Then Nail tells him the real reason he's laughing: because Nail suckered Frieza into wasting time while a plan by the good guys to use the dragonballs and thwart Frieza was being played out.
Blogger Beware: In the "Night of the Living Dummy" review, Troy admitted the joke about Russian and Yugoslavian songs was pretty funny.
Western Animation
In The Simpsons, Marge scolds Bart for somehow tattooing "Wide load" on Homer's rear, but then chuckles at it behind his back.
She's also done this when Flanders poured his heart out in a letter to Homer. She insisted they take the letter seriously, and then left the room to snicker.
In yet another episode (where Homer becomes an astronaut), Marge chastises Bart for writing on the back of Homer's head, but when Homer turns and inadvertently shows her the message ("Insert Brain Here"), she has to hold back her laughter.
"I'll tell you something that's not so funny. Right now, Superintendent Chalmers is at home crying like a little girl. * students laugh* Well, I guess it is a little funny."
After Chief Wiggum 'kills' Homer's homicidal toupee in a Halloween special:
Chief Wiggum: Now, that's what I call a bad hair day! (General laughter.) Marge: May I remind you that two people are dead? Oh, wait, I just got it! (Laughs.)
They're watching a Rainier Wolfcastle movie, and he's just snapped the neck of a jet fighter pilot in mid-flight after jumping onto the plane:
During a parole hearing, Chief Wiggum is forced to admit this about one of Sideshow Bob's remarks, after finally getting the joke.
Wiggum: Sideshow Bob has no decency! He called me "Chief Piggum!" (Entire courtroom laughs.) Wiggum: Ha ha, oh, now I get it. Ha, that's good.
During Sideshow Bob's campaign for Mayor, Bart has this reaction to Bob's suggestion that "Councilman Les Whinen should do more thinking and less whinin'!" despite knowing that Les Whinen doesn't exist.
Happens at the end of the Itchy & Scratchy Land episode, Lisa lobs her shoe at Bart's head to prove to Marge that violence is funny when it's not happening to you. Marge does find it funny, but sends Lisa to her room.
In a variation, in the episode where Lisa becomes a vegetarian, at one point Homer declares "You don't win friends with salad!", which Bart turns into a Conga Line. They leave the screen and return with Marge on the end of the line; Lisa gets upset, and Marge apologizes, saying it was catchy. Unfortunately this gag is usually cut in syndication.
In an obvious parody of Beauty and the Beast, Mr. Burns sings a song about how he wants to kill the Simpsons' puppies to make into a coat. Afterward Bart is humming the tune loudly.
Lisa:Bart! Bart: Sorry. You gotta admit, it's catchy.
Again in "Itchy And Scratchy And Marge", Marge is watching one of the kids' cartoons after it supposedly leads Maggie to attack Homer with a hammer. She is left in disgust by the violence, while Homer, despite still suffering from head injuries, is tittering quietly to himself. After she issues a complaint to the studios, they respond by making a squirrel caricature of her being killed by the stars, leaving Homer in hysterics.
Stan: Come on, fatass, we have to go! Cartman: Ay! Don't call me fat! Cartman's Mom: (Laughs). Cartman:Mom, don't laugh! Cartman's Mom: I'm sorry, hun'. Cartman: I can't go with you guys now. Stan: Yes you can, Porky. Cartman's Mom: (Laughs harder) Cartman: Mom, seriously! Cartman's Mom: That's not funny, boys. Eric's not fat, he's big-boned. Kyle:He must have a huge bone in his ass then! Cartman's Mom: (Laughs hysterically) Cartman:GOD DAMN IT, MOM!
Gaz from Invader Zim is usually disdainful of her brother's obsession with Zim, but in one episode when Zim is sent into absolute hysterics after Dib hits him with a muffin (which she had initially dubbed "horrible") she snickers and comments that "Actually, that was kind of funny."
On an episode of Mission Hill, Kevin French is brought to the principal's office for using the word "douchebag" in class, which is such awful profanity that the principal is too polite to say it out loud and instead writes it down on a piece of paper. Kevin and his older brother, Andy both crack up immediately when they see how the word's written all neatly and in cursive. Cursive, people.
This fits as a written version of Sophisticated as Hell: profanity written in a formal, polite style. And yes, it was actually very funny.
I'm sorry, I've just never seen it written so neatly.
On Futurama, Leo Wong tells the story of how the Native Martians were "scammed" out of most of the planet by trading it for a single bead. Leela chastises the group for laughing at the story, despite admitting that it is funny.
It turns out that the bead is a huge diamond.
On Jimmy Two-Shoes, when Mrs. Gerkin launches into an Evil Laugh over her Zombie Apocalypse, Jimmy asks what's so funny. She points to two of the zombies who keep running into each other. Jimmy admits he's amused.
Archer:(bursts out laughing) Malory: You think this is funny? Archer: Do you not?
And in "White Nights":
Malory: Go see Krieger this instant! Archer: I don't need a doctor, mother. Katya doesn't have VD. Malory: You haven't had sex with her? Archer:(sarcastically) Oh, ha ha. For your— (beat) That was pretty good.
In the episode "Baby Cakes", Pinkie Pie becomes the victim of a running gag. The only way the foals she's baby sitting will quiet down is if flour gets dumped on her (in one case while she was soaking wet). At the episode's end, the foals do the flour gag to themselves to cheer up Pinkie. She admits they were right, that is funny.
In an earlier episode, "Griffon the Brush Off", Pinkie applies this to her love of pranks. She won't pull a prank on someone who's sensitive enough to take even a harmless prank seriously, which is why she aborts a prank when Fluttershy winds up the one it would have hit.
In an episode of Sabrina: The Animated Series, Sabrina gets her wisdom teeth removed by magic with the result that she starts being brutally honest to everyone around her. In one scene, Sabrina responds to one of Gem's insults with "Oh, real funny, Gem! ...Actually, it was pretty funny."
In the second episode of Bob's Burgers, Bob has been complaining about Linda's nagging by calling her things like "Nagatha Christie", which makes her mad, until he calls her "Secretary of Nagriculture", which causes her to laugh and admit that "that was a good one."
On one episode of Family Guy, two mob thugs come to beat up Joe Swanson, bringing a message from their boss that if he doesn't pay his debt to them, he'll make Joe into a "Swanson frozen dinner." Joe can't help chuckling a little at that.
An episode of Hey Arnold had Gerald get his tonsils removed. Before, he had an amazing tenor singing voice, given a role to sing the ending lyric of "Moonlight Bay". After, his voice is so raspy and baritone that, during rehearsal, it distracts the other kids and gets them all hysterical. Mr. Simmons tries to calm them down saying "It wasn't that funny," but then admitted "OK, it was.... pretty funny." To his credit, he tried to look serious and understanding the whole time.
One episode of Spongebob Squarepants has Karen show Plankton a montage of all his humiliating defeats by Krabs. The last one, where Plankton is left a blubbering wreck after Krabs can't even be bothered with him, always cracks her up.
In the Thomas the Tank Engine episode "Dirty Work", Diesel spreads insulting stories about the other engines to try and frame Duck. When Gordon, James, and Henry confront Duck about calling them "a galloping sausage", "rusty red scrap iron", and "old square wheels", respectively, Duck simply tells The Fat Controller that the names are so fitting he only wishes he could take the credit. The Fat Controller himself almost chokes, trying not to laugh.
From Codename Kids Next Door: In the climax of "Operation: T.H.E.S.H.O.G.U.N.", Numbuh Four bursts into Shogun Roquefort's throne room, only to find the villain sprawled out on the floor, Numbuh Two having defeated him already. Numbuh Two apparently has made a Face Heel Turn, and starts to threaten Numbuh Four. Numbuh Four nervously starts to plead with his friend, saying he'll fight him if he has to... And then Numbuh Two bursts out laughing, saying he couldn't believe Numbuh Four actually believed him. Then Roquefort chuckles, and says, "You gotta admit, that was kinda funny..."
Then there was "Operation: B.U.T.T." After Numbuh One quit the team (for no apparent reason) his teamates were upset, confused, and in Numbuh Three's case, crying. Then they found out that the reason was that the Delightful Children From Down the Lane had blackmailed him, threatening to put a photgraph of his bare behind in the school paper. All of a sudden, they started to get the giggles, and Numbuh Two started making all sorts of jokes about a big butt, until Numbuh Five (who was usually the first one to call him out for his bad jokes) burst out laughing. (They got over it in time to help him fight the villains later, however.)
The Powerpuff Girls: In "The Mane Event," Blossom goes into seclusion after Buttercup and Bubbles butcher her hair just as a multi-eyed monster is rampaging Townsville. The Professor convinces Blossom to laugh along with everyone, and it works for her, as the Monster is laughing so hard that its eyes are all shut, giving the girls the chance to knock it into space. And Blossom gets the last laugh on her sisters at the end.
Similarly in "A Made Up Story," Blossom is the only denizen of Townsville who had not fallen victim to Mask-Scara's reign of defacing people and signs with cosmetics...up until the end, when she falls victim to a Humiliation Conga and now everyone is laughing at her.
In Littlest Pet Shop (2012), episode "Frenemies", Zoe and Pepper get competitive each planning a different party for Penny Ling. When Pepper explains her clown rodeo party plan, she includes a moment where Zoe would get hit with pies, then she admits she's just kidding (or is she?). Then Zoe explains her tea party plan, and has her comeback:
Zoe: And last but not least, there'll be a dunked skunk dunking booth with Pepper at the dunking tank.
Pepper: WHAT?! What does a dunking booth have to do with a tea party?
Zoe: Nothing. I just want to see you get dunked.
Pepper: Well, that is— heh, it's kinda funny, actually.
Real Life
This was George Bush's response when Vladimir Putin brushed off allegations of human rights abuses in Russia by referencing the fact that at least they didn't have Dick Cheney shooting people in their forests.
(paraphrased): "I promise you that we're gonna do the same thing to you that you do to that chicken [dinner]. So you think real hard before you touch that chicken." So he looked at me and looked at the Klan, then he picked up the chicken and he kissed it... Even the Klan was laughin'! "You gotta admit, that was funny!"
Bill O'Reilly made a joke that the cover of Earth (The Book) features a picture of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. The cover actually features Jon and a monkey. Colbert liked it.
In the middle of the Enron debacle, which created power outages in California, Jeff Skilling, the CEO of the company, made a joke at a meeting: "What's the difference between California and the Titanic? At least when the Titanic went down, the lights were on."
During a monologue about his artificial right foot, Adam Hills talked about how his family would constantly crack jokes about it. The best came from his brother who broke up an argument between Adam and a (much shorter) friend by saying "You two are both the same - because you both need to grow a foot!" Adam commented, "Have you ever wanted to punch someone but couldn't because you were laughing too hard?"
Comedian/motivational speaker John Bytheway has a bit where he laments the lame jokes people make about his last name. He then tells a story where an airport security guy asked him if he was going to name his son "Owen", which actually got a chuckle out of him.
As anyone who works with kids can tell you, every now and then, kids break the rules...and what they do is actually pretty funny.
Same with animals, too.
Jarvis Cocker disrupting Michael Jackson's performance of "Earth Song" at the 1996 BRIT Awards got him arrested and became a Never Live It Down moment for him (especially outside the U.K.), but Cocker got some support not only from his fanbase, but U.K. commentators and show producer Brian Eno for livening up the show and taking Jackson down a peg for his Messianic Archetype posturing.
One group of German prisoners in an internment camp during WW 2. They weren't allowed to have radios, but wanting to know how the war was going, they built a radio into the seat of a chair. The camp commander suspected they had a radio and had their rooms searched repeatedly. Each time, the commander came along to see that the search was done properly. Each time, the prisoners offered him a chair - the one with the radio in it. Each time, the chair wasn't searched, because the commander was sitting on it. After the war, one of the ex-prisoners told the commander how it was done; the commander apparently thought it was pretty funny.
Similarly to the John Bytheway example above, Tim Allen copped a lot of jokes when he was a kid resulting from his real full name - Timothy Allan Dick. Yes, you read that right. In Don't Stand Too Close To A Naked Man, he commented that most of the resultant jokes were terrible, except one time when he was telling a woman about it, and she came back with "Too bad you don't have a sister named Anita."
