History Main / HumorDissonance

* The commentary for ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' notes that the creators took pains to avoid this (which is important, given that the whole film revolves around making a child laugh), and so refused to have Boo laugh at anything that didn't make them laugh too. In general, the film gets away with this because most of the things Mike does to make Boo laugh are {{slapstick}}, which has a pretty universal appeal, while his actual attempts to tell ''jokes'' usually don't land with her and are played more for SoUnfunnyItsFunny (and she's a small child, who don't tend to have a very refined palate when it comes to humor).

[[folder:Film -- Animation]]

[[folder:Film -- Live-Action]]

* ''Fanfic/BackToTheFrollo'': [[OriginalCharacter Danisha]] tells a joke about "a Hoosier and a Kentuckian" that all the characters treat as absolutely hilarious. The actual joke[[note]]A Hoosier and a Kentuckian are out fishing in boats one night, and the Kentuckian complains that nothing's biting where he is. The Hoosier offers to turn on his light so he can walk across the beam to where he is, to which the Kentuckian responds with "Do you really think I'm that stupid? [[RightForTheWrongReasons You'll turn the light off and I'll fall in the water]]!"[[/note]] utterly fails to live up to the hype, being ''maybe'' worth a few chuckles.

* In-universe example: In ''WesternAnimation/TheLegoMovie'', the most popular (and as far as we can see, only) television program in Bricksburg is a sitcom called ''Where Are My Pants?'', which appears to [[OneJokeFakeShow consist only of a pantsless man asking the titular question to his wife in a broad, affected tone]]. Main character Emmett finds this ''hilarious'', but the rest of the characters see this as just one more example of how incredibly bland he is.

* ''WesternAnimation/BartokTheMagnificent'': Viewers may disagree with Prince Ivan and Vol on just how funny Bartok is.

* ''Film/TheRoom2003'': The supposedly AllLovingHero Johnny bursts out laughing at a story his friend Mark tells him about a two-timing woman who got hospitalized after being beat up by one of her boyfriends once he found out about her cheating. Even odder, this was apparently {{corpsing}}. The rest of the cast and crew tried to explain to Creator/TommyWiseau that he probably shouldn't laugh at a story about DomesticAbuse, but his attempts to read the line in a serious tone were so much ''worse'' than the takes where he laughed that they finally gave up and used a "laugh" take.

* ''Curse Of Bigfoot'' has a scene where a folklore teacher is teaching kids about monsters, including [[BigfoodSasquatchAndYeti Bigfoot]]. At one point, he points to a picture of a [[OurGriffinsAreDifferent griffin]], and asks a kid to explain what it is. The kid proceeds to give a ([[SadlyMythtaken mostly incorrect]]) description of what it is, and ends with saying that it would drag people off and "eat everything except their shoes. When the griffin got you, all they'd ever find, was your shoes!" This inexplicably makes all the other students laugh their asses off.

* {{Played for drama}} and {{enforced|Trope}} in ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'', where one scene has everyone laughing uproariously at gory war footage of another country as if it was some BlackComedy masterpiece. The one lady who doesn't is escorted out [[Room101 to make her find it funny]].

* ''Series/TheMarvelousMrsMaisel'': Zig-zagged. The show is about comedians, so the plot lives and dies on the characters' routines being as funny or unfunny as the show says they are. In general, the comedy is much better than most in-universe comedy routines you find in media. However, the show is set in the 1960s, when stand-up comedy was very different from today. Even though Midge and friends have edgier material for their day, it's nowhere near today's standards, so viewers accustomed to Dave Chappelle or Bill Burr may be left scratching their heads as to why audiences are rolling in the aisles. The show is also very funny in and of itself, so it's a bit of a victim of its own success. The stand-up comedy scenes tend to be the least funny scenes in any given episode.

* In ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'', the Nuwisha (werecoyotes) are depicted as hilarious tricksters, but your mileage may vary as to whether they're funny or just annoying.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' had Jimmy alter his father's brain to make him "[[TwentyPercentMoreAwesome 500% funnier]]." An example of one of the jokes he told under said influence: "I can smell the learning, oh wait, that's Butch. Do you ''ever'' shower?" Well, 500% of 0.000001 still isn't much.

* ''WesternAnimation/PhineasAndFerb'' has [[TheQuietOne Ferb]] going up on stage and saying "So, how about that airline food?" This prompts everyone in the audience to burst out laughing, pound their fists, and even overturn a table because they find it so funny. Not only that but then Stacy -- who was laughing along with everyone else -- says she doesn't even know what airline food is.

* An episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'' had Jimmy alter his father's brain to make him "500% funnier." An example of one of the jokes he told under said influence: "I can smell the learning, oh wait, that's Butch. Do you ''ever'' shower?" Well, 500% of 0.000001 still isn't much.

** Played straight with The April Fool: A famous stand-up comedian in Fairy World and the spirit of April Fool's Day. A lot of people in the show find him funny despite his routine being mostly made up of lame and predictable jokes and puns and adding rim shots and his catchphrase: "What's up with that?"

* [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] in ''Manga/NoMatterHowILookAtItItsYouGuysFaultImNotPopular'': For the audiences in-universe ''JustForFun/AYouthLikeThis'' comes up as an awkward amateur movie and most of the jokes don't seem to land with the rest of the students. This is also the impression readers would probably had of the movie, but given fans are aware of the entire TroubledProduction, the reasoning behind the weirder choices and the in-universe RealitySubtext plus the awkwardness of the situation feeding to the CringeComedy readers tend to except of this manga leads to fans finding the movie much funnier that the characters do, albeit for different reasons Tomoko intended to.

* Every single episode of ''WesternAnimation/WidgetTheWorldWatcher'' (not to be confused with a WidgetSeries) [[EverybodyLaughsEnding ended with everyone laughing]] at some "cute" thing someone said that was distinctly not even remotely funny.

* ''Manga/NoMatterHowILookAtItItsYouGuysFaultImNotPopular'': [[JustifiedTrope Justified]]. For the audiences in-universe ''JustForFun/AYouthLikeThis'' comes up as an awkward amateur movie and most of the jokes don't seem to land with the rest of the students. This is also the impression readers would probably had of the movie, but given fans are aware of the entire TroubledProduction, the reasoning behind the weirder choices and the in-universe RealitySubtext plus the awkwardness of the situation feeding to the CringeComedy readers tend to except of this manga leads to fans finding the movie much funnier that the characters do, albeit for different reasons Tomoko intended to.