History Funny / Gremlins

Sure, the Gremlins are horrific little bastards, but they're also ''[[LaughablyEvil hilarious]]'' little bastards. Plenty of BlackComedy ensues with their antics.

For ''Film/Gremlins2TheNewBatch'', see [[Funny/Gremlins2TheNewBatch here]].

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1_2_25.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Not your typical Christmas caroling.]]

* At the start of the film, Rand starts trying to hawk his Bathroom Buddy to Mr. Wing. Not only does he decide this. . . bizarre shop (who he himself snarked at the probable lack of foot traffic) would make a good place to sell his gizmo, as he launches into his pitch he talks about a hypothetical person having a bad case of "Dragon Breath," before realizing where he is and who he's talking to, taking a moment to appreciate the poor choice of words by looking at a dragon statue (punctuated with a gong sound effect) and decides to simply rephrase to "bad breath."
* The posted hours of operation for Deagle Real Estate: 10:30 - 11:15 M-F. The woman only works forty-five minutes a day. . . but at least she puts in a full week.
* The gremlins [[ChristmasCarolers caroling]]... singing their own theme tune instead of Christmas songs.
** It gets better. They ''start'' with an actual Christmas carol ("Joy to the World"), though they're more humming than singing. Soon as Mrs. Deagle opens the door, they switch to "The Gremlin Rag". They are indeed Gremlins, but they're also {{troll}}s.
** Mrs. Deagle's death. It'd be kind of sad seeing her break down into hysterics like that if she wasn't such a cold-blooded {{Jerkass}}. Instead, it's vindictively hilarious to hear why she's freaking out ([[WrongGenreSavvy she assumes they're demons there to escort her to Hell]]) just before her motorized chair lift, which one opportunistic Gremlin had tampered with, catapults her at high speed out the second-floor window of her mansion. Simply put, she's a glorious example of AssholeVictim.
* The gremlins watching ''WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs'' and loving it.
** Also when it cuts from the gremlins singing along to "''Heigh Ho''" to Gizmo doing the exact same thing.
** Also, one of the gremlins is wearing [[WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse mouse]] [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks ears]].
** Two words: "Milk duds." Specifically when that gremlin says it after Stripe gets up to go get more food. It's literally like a movie theatre patron telling their friend to pick up some more candy.
* Gizmo crying out "WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}!" when he sees a deer in ''Snow White''.
** In the same vein, when Mr. Wing tosses Randy Peltzer's money on the couch, Gizmo exclaims "Moolah!"
** His tiny "Uh-oh" when Billy drips a single drop of water on him to showcase the Mogwai spawning method to his science teacher.
** When Billy first opens the box and lets Gizmo out, Barney leans in to look, and Gizmo can be heard saying "Woof-woof?"
* When Randal says the new batch of Mogwai could replace the dog as a family pet, Barney gives a whimper and stands up as if he was offended by that. Becomes a bit of a MoodWhiplash when Billy finds Barney strung up outside on Christmas Tree Lights.
* Stripe and the other mogwai making an unholy racket to get Billy to feed them. Hell, just their general loud-mouthed nature compared to Gizmo.
--> '''Billy''': Jeez, what's with you guys? How about shutting up for a change, huh?
** Made even funnier that they get EVEN LOUDER after he says this to them as if nonverbally saying ShutUpKirk and they move in place so fast that they're practically having a seizure.
** Gizmo's disgusted grimace when his "offspring" messily devours the chicken Billy gives them. Billy was lucky not to lose a finger.
* When Pete first meets Gizmo, he gushes over how cute the Mogwai is, and Gizmo just smiles and rolls his eyes like he's thinking "yes, yes, I'm adorable, can we move on?"
* During the Gremlins rampage through town, a man stops by a mailbox to drop off some letters. From inside, a Gremlin gurgles "Yum yum!"and then proceeds to spit back each of the letters one by one to the very confused man.
* The scene where the Gremlins have taken over Kate's bar and have her serve drinks along with the vignettes of them behaving like regular barflies.
** A lot of the stuff in the bar, particularly when one of the Gremlins sticks his finger in a light bulb socket while holding a lightbulb in his other hand. The lightbulb actually lights up, but steam starts coming out of the Gremlin's ears (accompanied by a steam-whistle sound effect straight out of Looney Tunes) and another Gremlin rushes over with a fire extinguisher.
** Stripe and a bunch of other Gremlins are playing poker, and one Gremlin has aces taped up behind his ears. Then another Gremlin (dressed up and wearing lipstick to play Stripe's moll) apparently informs him the other Gremlin is cheating, and Stripe shoots him dead and cackles maniacally.
** One gremlin is sitting alone at a table with a cigarette and a bottle of Jack Daniels. When another gremlin starts annoying him with a pair of hand puppets, he gives an AsideGlance to the camera and conks him on the head with a hammer.
** A gremlin drinks himself into a stupor and falls off his chair. The gremlin sitting next to him leans over, apparently tells the gremlin on his other side, who then cackles with laughter.
** The Flasher Gremlin who freaks out Katie by pulling open his trenchcoat, which is especially funny considering all gremlins have BarbieDollAnatomy anyway, and there's really nothing to expose.
** The Flashdance Gremlin, complete with a loose 80's neon-pink sweater and leg warmers.
** Also in the bar scene, when Kate attempts to light the cigarettes(plural)of a Gremlin she's serving at the bar, he repeatedly leans away from the light of the match. Eventually, he falls off his stool!
** When Kate begins to use a camera flash on the Gremlins to scare them off, she also speeds up the ceiling fan that a Gremlin is hanging from, making him spin out of control until he flies off and into a light headfirst.
* From the first film's {{Novelization}}:
-->"I forgot to tell him not to feed them after midnight," [Billy] said, disgusted with himself.
-->"Don't worry," Pete said. "I'll stop by after I do my Christmas tree routine. It'll only be eight o'clock."
-->"You won't forget?"
-->Pete crossed his heart. "Word of honor," he promised. "May I turn into a Christmas tree forever if I forget."
-->''end of chapter''
-->'''CHAPTER ELEVEN'''
-->Pete forgot.
-->''end of chapter''
* When Billy gives chicken to the five spawn Mogwai, they devour it eagerly, prompting Gizmo to make an adorable expression of disgust.
* Kate's Christmas story somehow manages to straddle the line between this and a TearJerker. It's certainly one of [[BlackComedy the darker bits of comedy]] in the film, a twist on the [[SantasExistenceClause "yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus"]] story that guns for shock value and will likely provoke a SpitTake from you, not knowing whether to laugh, cry, or both.
* In the commentary, Zach Galligan becomes rather irate at the climax. As originally shot, there were two blinds that needed to be pulled to finish off Stripe, and Gizmo got one, then Billy got the second, but a clever editing trick gave sole credit for Stripe's defeat to Gizmo. Joe Dante rather cheekily asks Zach if he'd like to guess who was responsible for that edit, and Zach replies "No, because I'd like to work for [[Creator/StevenSpielberg him]] again in the future."
----

Sure, Gremlins are horrific little bastards, but they're also ''[[LaughablyEvil hilarious]]'' little bastards. Plenty of BlackComedy ensues with their antics.

* In the commentary, Zach Galligan becomes rather irate at the climax. As originally shot, there were two blinds that needed to be pulled to finish off Stripe, and Gizmo got one, then Billy got the second, but a clever editing trick gave sole credit for Stripe's defeat to Gizmo. Joe Dante rather cheekily asks Zach if he'd like to guess who was responsible for that edit, and Zach replies "No, because I'd like to work for [[Creator/StevenSpeilberg him]] again in the future."

** Mrs. Deagle's death. It'd be kind of sad seeing her break down into hysterics like that if she wasn't such a cold-blooded {{Jerkass}}. Instead, it's vindictively hilarious to hear why she's freaking out (she assumes they're demons there to escort her to Hell) just before her motorized chair lift, which one opportunistic Gremlin had tampered with, catapults her at high speed out the second-floor window of her mansion. Simply put, she's a glorious example of AssholeVictim.

** Made even funnier that they get EVEN LOUDER after he says this to them as if nonverbally saying ShutUpKirk

** Made even funnier that they get EVEN LOUDER after he says this to them.