"Funny Aneurysm" Moment cleanup

"Funny Aneurysm" Moment is, in essence, a joke or moment Played for Laughs stops being funny due to its similarity to later traumatic events, not something being uncomfortable because of real life events with little to no similarity to the content.

If Jim Saville played a paedophile in a comedy sketch or paedophilia was joked about, it would be an example.

I agree with the comments made in this thread. I recently nuked a FAM example from the X-Men: Apocalypse page (which was referring to the in-film comment that "third films are always the worst" being backed up by the film's critical reception being lackluster).

There have been some pretty bizarre examples I've had to nuke, such as one from the subpage for The Simpsons listing Lisa claiming to have seen every Pixar movie except Cars, only for Cars 2 to be even worse received.

Or one from the "Other" subpage listing an ad involving Leonard Nimoy coughing, as Nimoy passed away from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which involves coughing. A similar entry listed as Harsher in Hindsight on the YMMV page for Atlantis: The Lost Empire listed his character dying after being gut-punched, because he coughed somewhat from internal bleeding.

And once again, The Simpsons page is causing problems, though surprisingly few are due to the election. One entry was about a mention of Arnold Palmer (or rather, the drink named after him) who since passed away, the other was a Treehouse of Horror segment depicting Prince being murdered and even states that isn't how he died.

Regarding the election, the relevant episode states the economy was in a bad state following a Trump presidency. Trump was elected last week and will be inaugurated in two months, meaning it is way too early to be making those kinds of statements, which at this time are purely speculative.

Although I was wrong about the most bizarre entry I've found, as one entry (also a conversation on the main page) insinuated Curious George was racist because he's a monkey.

Bump. Most of the Trump entries violate ROCEJ. They need to be cleaned up IMO.

There's also a dedicated thread to cleaning up ROCEJ-breaking Trump examples. So far, the idea has been to purge "Funny Aneurysm" Moment examples that reference Trump, the idea presumably being that it was shoehorned in to make a political comment. For reference: link to the thread

Sorry to bring up a thread after two years, but I think "Funny Aneurysm" Moment and Harsher in Hindsight still have a lot of misuse.

From YMMV.Seinfeld I've left out the entries that aren't questionable. I'm not so sure about the entries for "The Puerto Rican Day", "The Label Maker", "The Contest" and Susan's death, and "The Fire" is definitely FAM since it was Played for Laughs, but the rest seems like misuse:

• "Funny Aneurysm" Moment:
  • In, "The Puffy Shirt", Estelle insists George take a civil service test, to which George retorts, "I'm a college graduate, you want me to be a mailman?" George should have counted his blessings (if he had any), fast-forward over a decade since that episode, with today's economy and job market, even a degree or diploma are not very likely to get you a job.
    • The whole story arc of George needing to move back in with his parents was meant to demonstrate what a loser George is, though again, with the dwindling job market and raising property costs, it's becoming depressingly more common for people to need to move back home.Seems like a gross overstatement of the economic situation
  • This whole scene from the episode "The Label Maker" involves Kramer and Newman playing a game of Risk, in which they proceed to make fun of the country of Ukraine by calling it weak and an easy target. This was before Russia's annex of Ukraine in 2014, which has led to the country suffering from arguably some of the most extreme cases of poverty and corruption in modern European history.
  • Susan's death from poison envelopes, after the post-9/11 anthrax scare. Even worse when you know it was done because it was the only "funny way to kill someone" they could think of.
  • In "The Contest" Elaine finds out John Kennedy Jr. is interested in her, and gushes over possibly becoming "Elaine Benes Kennedy Jr." Now you can't help but feel she was pretty darn lucky it didn't work out, as five years later John John would crash his plane, killing himself and his wife.
  • Jerry revealing himself as a comedian to George's girlfriend in the middle of a depressed facade in "The Visa" is Played for Laughs because of how implausible it sounded at the time for a depressed person to have such a job. Nowadays, especially after Robin Williams' suicide, it is common knowledge that a fairly large amount of comedians do in fact struggle with depression and turn to comedy as a sort of coping mechanism."Common knowledge", or Common Knowledge? This seems like an overstatement
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • The Banned Episode "The Puerto Rican Day". Here he accidentally sets fire to the Puerto Rican flag and comments that riots are common in Puerto Rican neighborhoods. This one is worse thanks to Michael Richards' racist outbursts at The Laugh Factory.
  • In the episode "The Fire", George Costanza overreacts to burning food in the kitchen during a birthday party, and then flees by shoving over, among others, an old lady in a walker and a birthday clown to flee out of the door, earning him the wrath of several birthday attendees. It becomes significantly more uncomfortable to watch after similar behavior was witnessed on-board the Costa Concordia when it capsized and sank.I'll be moving this to Funny Aneurysm Moment
  • In "The Blood", Kellie Waymire plays a friend of Elaine's who is seriously ill and wants Elaine to take in her son if she dies. Waymire had already been diagnosed with heart trouble, and died five years later.Pretty weak connection, since the character just says she has health issues and wants Elaine to be her son's godmother. Standard "actor died" entry misuse
  • At the end of "The Millenium", Mrs. Hamilton is seriously ill and can't call for help because she hid Jerry's number under her poison control button. Her actress Louan Gideon died of breast cancer.Very weak connection, since the scene ends with her daughter hanging up on Jerry, meaning anything else is speculation. Standard "actor died" misuse
  • Krueger showing how he can spin around in his chair with "no feet." Daniel Von Bargen later lost a leg to diabetes, and attempted suicide when told the other one might have to go too, dying shortly afterward.Pretty weak connection, seems like an "actor died" misuse
  • Elaine being mistaken for a little boy's grandmother and telling him she was dying was pitch-black humor in the first place, and got even darker when Julia Louis-Dreyfus was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017.
    • And the episode where she gets Jerry obsessed with whether or not his girlfriend has implants. After accidentally touching them, she's now certain that they're real, because "I've touched mine." This was presumably during the course of the self-exams that women were once widely encouraged to do.
    • And several other episodes—"The Shoes", "The Gum"—where Elaine's cleavage was a slight plot point....WOW. That's extremely weak

I think I'll just delete the weak connection and "actor died" stuff, but I'm not sure about the other stuff I mentioned.

Edited by maxwellsilver on Jan 4th 2019 at 1:17:40 PM

Does "Funny Aneurysm" Moment count when it's intentional? For example, a seemingly innocuous scene where a character overreacts to peanuts in their food comes back a season later as foreshadowing for the villain learning of the character's severe peanut allergy and attempting to force-feed them peanuts so they'd get an allergic reaction and die.

Edited by Crossover-Enthusiast on Jan 10th 2019 at 4:19:40 AM

The page says that "intentional" uses are Cerebus Retcon.

That seems to make the improbable assumption that it's never pre-planned.

If it's pre-planned, it would be either Foreshadowing or Cerebus Retcon, or both.

As I have understood it, FAM is something that happens outside the control of the writer/creative staff.

Well, the Trope Namer example is entirely In-Universe, so the creators had full control of it. I don't think the definition was ever meant to exclude intentional examples.

A Cerebus Retcon is about retconning those previous gags to fit the newer Darker and Edgier tone. A "Funny Aneurysm" Moment doesn't have to be retconned, and if it isn't, it's not Cerebus Retcon. In other words, the description isn't correct.

We do have This Index Is Not an Example for tropes where the Trope Namer isn't an example.

But if the description is wrong and plot developments count, then it should be corrected.

That trope page was created with that example in mind, though. It isn't a pun, something that sounds catchy, or a reference (which is the case of most of the examples on This Index Is Not an Example).

In that case, the description should be corrected.

Some questionable examples on FunnyAneurysmMoment.Web Original (my notes as quotes underneath)

• The YTP "Shiteo Games" (a parody of the song "Video Games" by Black Out Band) ends with the lead members running off to their house to play video games.....only for a missile to suddenly explode on them. The lead singer of the band, Hunter Watson, later died in a car crash at only 20 years old.
  Being killed by a missile and dying in a car crash don't seem similar enough to qualify.

• This video by Videogamedunkey, the fake quote from Jon Tron ("Fuck you dunkey, I do not watch your videos because you are black") has become uncomfortable, considering that Jon Tron just went on a stream to talk about how he believed black people committed more crime and sympathized with those who want preserve a white majority in the United States.
  • This also taints a great deal of Jon Tron's episodes, most especially "Food Games," which outright depicts Jon owning a slave named Grimbo.
  These ones seem like they fit the definition (indentation issues aside), but I'm worried they might be too controversial.

• During this video, Food Games Part 2, Jontron talks about how the game seems to depict a post apocalyptic New York, but that Trump Tower seemed to still be standing, prompting him to say "Oh god, this is the alternate universe where Trump wins, isn't it?"
  This one should definitely be removed since Funny Aneurysm Moments about presidential elections are apparently forbidden.

• This Super Smash Bros. Brawl Parody video from Dec 22, 2007 has one character comment at 1:15 "If I'm somehow not in this game, I'm blowing up Japan." kinda awkward considering the earthquake they had in 2011.
  "Blowing up" and earthquakes seem a bit too distant to qualify.

• On an automotive blog, someone wrote an article entitled "Fifty Shades of Grey" - which was a Take That! at some well-known automobile manufacturers, and the Chinese automobile industry. Now, though, with Fifty Shades of Grey out in novel form, the title of the article seems less funny than originally.
  Why is it "less funny"?

• In a similar vein, three years later a balloon version of Keith Haring's "Figure With Heart" bumped into the booth where the hosts were broadcasting from. No one was injured, though, and they were quick to make jokes about it afterwards.
  On top of being badly indented (this example is in the middle of Homestar Runner examples), is it really a "Funny Aneurysm" if nobody was injured and the "victims" themselves were okay joking about it?

• The Pokémon fan trailer Pokémon Apocalypse depicted a Darker and Edgier version of the Pokémon universe, and was released as a parody in late 2010. The parody lost all its humor on October 8, 2012, when PETA protested Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 with a Flash game called Pokémon Black and Blue; depicting Pokémon fighting back against their abusive trainers. The game has been met with resounding criticism from fans and the video game community. Also qualifies as Harsher in Hindsight.
  This sounds like a way to complain about Pokémon Black and Blue and PETA.

• In December 2017, Alyson Stoner released a music video mashing up the melodies of the year’s hits with lyrics of the year’s most significant news. Towards the end, in the “Sorry Not Sorry” part, she sings “I’m surprised Kanye had no 'off days'”, a dig at how erratic he was acting in 2016. He was relatively calmer in 2017; it was the ''next’’ year when he would be back to spouting some interesting opinions.
  Potential Rule Of Cautious Editing Judgment since it only qualifies if you disagree with Kanye's "interesting opinions".

• Epic Rap Battles of History's "Hitler vs. Darth Vader" and "Clinton vs. Trump" battles both became this to the series' creative team after the 2016 presidential election. Not only did they stop performing the Hitler battles during their 2017 tour, the series has gone on an indefinite hiatus due to the current US political climate.
  ROCEJ again.

Suitable candidates for chainsawing.

If anything, the Fifty Shades of Grey entry is funnier now.

This was a "Funny Aneurysm" Moment I think does not apply to "Weird Al" Yankovic. (Link takes you to the YMMV page for Weird Al.)

This does not apply, because if you replace the lyric with any company that sells toys, the line would still make sense.

Example:

Also, having our sue-happy protagonist sue a company whose stores are close for good would be funny.

So, delete or no delete or add something to this example to make it qualify?

Jesus Christ.

Can we just, like... get rid of this page? Please?

Cut it. The lyric's not even about the toy store closing.

Edited by Primis on Mar 10th 2019 at 11:37:54 AM

What page?

"Funny Aneurysm" Moment. But it's not a serious-serious proposal so much as just an expression of disgust at how bad that (and so many other) "examples" are.

I thought it was either that page, the main page for Weird Al, or the YMMV page for him.

Also, Toys R Us isn't entirely dead, and more importantly, did not close due to a lawsuit from someone choking to death on a toy or anything like that.