After (crash-)landing in the Invisible Hand, Obi-Wan doesn't even let his fighter come to a stop before ejecting and leaping into battle. In a notable role-reversal, the normally Hot-Blooded Anakin carefully lands and unbuckles his flight harness, makes sure R2 has ejected, and only then joins the fight. It's not the first time they switch roles in their cold master—heated apprentice relationship. In Attack of the Clones, it's Obi-Wan who jumps through a skyscraper window to chase after a machine after an assassination attempt on Padmé, undoubtedly risking his life, and it's Anakin who then boosts a speeder and tries to back him up. Ironic.
In the scene where Anakin finds out he did not receive a promotion to Master, Obi Wan and Yoda can be seen sharing uncomfortable glances in the middle of Anakin's temper tantrum, as if from second-hand embarrassment.
In the opening space battle, one of the things that flies past Anakin's fighter is a literalkitchen sink. It's official, folks, in this battle we have everything... including the kitchen sink!
Even funnier - where did the sink come from? Is it the kitchen sink... or the bathroom sink? Either the star-cruiser has had its kitchen blown up... or someone exploded the crapper!
Obi-Wan and Anakin being stuck in an elevator. Anakin's response is to cut a hole in the roof and jump out.
Obi-Wan:(sighs) Always on the move.
Obi-Wan then does the sensible thing by calling R2 to activate it. Except R2 then sends the elevator plummeting at breakneck speed, flooring Obi-Wan and forcing Anakin to grab onto the nearest ledge for dear life. Obi-Wan's fading shout of "R2!" as the elevator drops from under Anakin's feet is just icing.
Anakin and Obi-Wan take time out from the opening battle to comment on R2's performance. For about five seconds they sound like his parents, with Anakin being the protective one and Obi-Wan asking why he's always the bad guy.
Obi-Wan: Well, R2 has been— Anakin: Ehh, no loose wire jokes. Obi-Wan: Did I say anything? Anakin: He's trying. Obi-Wan:[defensively] I didn't say anything!
This:
Battle Droid: Hands up, Jedi! [Anakin, hanging by his hands inside an elevator shaft, gives the two Battle Droids an "Are you serious?" look]
There is also:
Battle Droid A: Drop your weapons. [Obi-Wan and Anakin pause and look behind them] Battle Droid A: I said drop them... Roger. Battle Droid B: Roger, roger. [Anakin and Obi-Wan slice the battle droids to bits.]
Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Palpatine's brief exchange right before the Jedi sparred with Dooku.
Obi-Wan: This time we will do it together. Anakin: ...I was about to say that. [Dooku flips over the railing and lands away from the Jedi. He begins walking towards them.] Palpatine: Get help, you're no match for him. He's a Sith Lord! Obi-Wan: Chancellor Palpatine, Sith Lords are our speciality!
Also, the Dramatic Irony of Obi-Wan telling Palpatine that "Sith Lords are their speciality." You can almost hear Palpatine thinking, "Oh, really?"
And then Obi-Wan gets his butt kicked by Dooku a second time in the ensuing fight. Not funny in that Dooku drops a balcony on him, but that he was talking about how adept they are with fighting Sith Lords, and here Dooku thrashes him again.
Palpatine's "kidnapping" is hilarity in general: The opening scrawl even has a bit of fun with it by stating that it was a "daring move" on Dooku's part. And that the entire action opening turns into a farce considering that it was all a ploy engineered by Palpatine, the "kidnappee". And then we see Palpatine's..."prison" a huge empty room with a little normal sized chair, with Palpatine sitting there calmly with two very small force bands around his wrists. You get Palpatine was going for Refuge in Audacity to not blow his cover right away.
Grievous declaring it is "Time to abandon ship!", firing off not only his own escape pod, but every escape pod the Invisible Hand has.
The juxtaposition of the Invisible Hand and the Guarlara going at it while Anakin works on getting himself, Obi-Wan and Palpatine out of the room they just fought Count Dooku in. Outside, an epic duel between two mighty warships is going on, and inside, Anakin is having tech problems.
It's the tone Anakin uses that really takes the cake: An utterly exasperated, yet resigned, one, as if to say: "Of course the elevator isn't working after the day I've had. Typical."
It's easy to forget in the heat of things, but Dooku's corpse was left lying on the floor of The Invisible Hand's observation deck... juuussssttt before the ship gets shot out of space, rights itself, starts falling out of space again (this time for good), and then breaks in half. The body (and head) of the refined and sophisticated founder, leader and champion of the Confederacy of Independent Systems was probably being flung around like a ragdoll.
When Obi-Wan regains consciousness while Anakin is carrying both him and the Chancellor, while hanging for dear life in an elevator shaft.
Obi-Wan: [wakes up] Uh... Wha! Ah! [Clutches Anakin for dear life] Anakin: Easy. We're in a bit of a situation. Obi-Wan:Did I miss something?! Anakin: Hold on. Obi-Wan: What is that? Anakin: Uh, oops. [Cut to an elevator heading straight for them.]
Even better? Anakin told R2 to activate that elevator a couple of minutes ago, and promptly whips out his comlink to get R2 to shut it back down.
In the novelization, Obi-Wan wakes up to find himself staring at Anakin's butt...at least, he thinks it's Anakin's butt, though he can't be sure because he's never seen Anakin's butt this close up, and he has no idea how he wound up in this position.
Even better in the novelization, where Obi-Wan notices that yet again, Anakin has misplaced his lightsaber. When he tries to call this out, Anakin manages to throw it right back into his face. And then Palpatine winks at him, as if sharing the joke.
Obi-Wan: Oh Anakin, where is your lightsaber? Anakin: I know exactly where it is. [pointing at a battle droid] It's right there. Obi-Wan: How could you let this happen? Anakin: Hey, he's got your lightsaber too, you know. Obi-Wan: I really don't think that's the point. Anakin:This weapon is your life, Obi-Wan! Obi-Wan: Yes, alright, you've made your point.
Anakin advises Obi-Wan to be patient and wait for R2's arrival. R2 promptly barrels into the hallway and brings about 40 other droids in tow, chasing after it. When cornered, R2 shocks the closest Super Battle Droid, which gets it kicked over like some trash can.
Anakin: I say patience. Obi-Wan:[clearly incredulous] Patience? Anakin: Yes. R2 will be along in a few moments, and then he'll release the ray shields. [enter R2 careening in through a nearby doorway and crashing into the opposite wall] Anakin: See? No problem. [battle droids show up] Super Battle Droid: Don't move. [gets zapped] OW! [kick] Obi-Wan:Do you have a plan "B"?
One wonders if Obi-Wan's incredulity here is at least partly due to AnakinSkywalker advocating patience.
This is also funnier in the novel, with Anakin Tempting Fate by assuring Obi-Wan that they can easily take out a security patrol made of "those skinny useless little battle droids". This is immediately followed by the arrival of "four of those skinny useless battle droids" - and eight destroyer droids, sixteen super battle droids, and two of Grievous' custom-designed, Jedi-killing MagnaGuard droids.
Obi-Wan: You were saying?
Virtually all the snark from the droids at the beginning of the film.
Right before they are captured, R2 runs away from super battle droids and hits a wall. And then he repeatedly shakes his head as if to avoid getting dizzy, like people do when they've hit their head on something.
When General Grievous snatches two lightsabers out of a poor downed battle droid's hands.
Battle Droid: You're welcome.
You practically feel the snark from that one. It passes by Obi-Wan and Anakin as it gives their lightsabers to Grievous and even says "Excuse me."
The scene where Anakin heckles Grievous.
General Grievous: Anakin Skywalker. I expected someone with your reputation to be a little... older. Anakin: General Grievous... you're shorter than I expected. General Grievous: ...Jedi scum! Obi-Wan: We have a job to do, Anakin. Try not to upset him.
Consider also that Grievous is about a head taller than Anakin even while hunched over.
Another moment in the novelization. General Grievous subscribes to the school of You Have Failed Me management, and he has an even smaller tolerance for failure than Darth Vader. Eventually leading to when he gets fed up with one last panicking crew member... and then realizes he just killed the last of his bridge crew. A smaller moment in the same vein as this is Grievous killing his senior gunnery officer for a relatively petty reason, and then turning to the junior gunnery officer and telling him "Congratulations. You just got promoted. Take your post." The poor guy can't even stammer out a complete sentence.
Obi-Wan lopping off a MagnaGuard's head and casually walking away. His attempted badass exit is promptly ruined by the droid attacking him again, forcing Obi-Wan to turn back around and fend it off with an expression that screams "I just cut your head off! Why aren't you dead?!"
There's just something funny about a stampede of frightened Neimoidians and battle droids fleeing The Bridge while two Jedi are busy slicing everything to pieces.
Obi-Wan's total lack of reaction to everything going to hell during the battle of Coruscant.
Anakin:We lost something. Obi-Wan: Not to worry, we are still flying half a ship.
Or this:
Obi-Wan: Can you fly a cruiser like this? Anakin: You mean, do I know how to land what's left of this thing? Obi-Wan: Well? Anakin: Under the circumstances, I'd say the ability to pilot this thing is irrelevant. Strap yourselves in.
For that matter, the entire Coming in Hot scenario, with increasingly large portions of the ship bursting into flames and/or falling off as Anakin brings them in for a forced landing. What should be a terrifyingly catastrophic scene (all of those chunks of the ship are falling over a very large city, and the ship itself takes out several buildings at the spaceport when it ditches) ends up being hysterically funny, thanks to Anakin and Obi-Wan's deadpan commentary.
Obi-Wan:[obviously winded] Another happy landing.
While Anakin and Obi-Wan are completely calm and collected throughout the whole scene, Palpatine looks downright terrified for his life... and a bit like he's reconsidering the master plan that now hinges on the two madmen next to him managing to land half a ship without getting the three of them killed on impact.
Palpatine's look of (feigned) annoyance at Artoo for cheering when they land.
When Anakin and Obi-Wan argue about how many times the young apprentice had saved his master.
The whole post-battle conversation is amusing in that Obi Wan is telling Anakin that today he gets to be the poster boy for the Republic's latest victory, while Anakin tries to downplay his heroism. It becomes clear that while Obi Wan respects Anakin, he's mainly buttering Anakin up so that the butt-kissing politicians have someone to schmooze over while Obi high-tails it out of there.
Fridge hilarity when you realize that's a public transport Obi-Wan is about to board. A master Jedi, galactic peacekeeper, warrior monk with supernatural powers... is riding the bus.
Palpatine's inflection when he recounts how Darth Plagueis died (courtesy of him) practically oozes with his feelings on the matter:
Palpatine: Darth Plagueis was a Dark Lord of the Sith, so powerful and so wise...["Yeah, right"] Unfortunately, ["lol"] he taught his apprentice everything he knew, ["What an idiot"], then his apprentice killed him in his sleep. ["What the hell else did he expect?"] Ironic... ["That was fun"]
The novelization has a number of darkly funny moments whenever Grievous is forced to put up with Nute Gunray. Most notably: "Grievous resisted his natural inclination, which was to boot the Viceroy so high he'd burn up on reentry."
When General Grievous enters Utapau, he doesn't even wait for the ship's ramp to open before storming out. Wat Tambor is standing in the background with a gesture that's saying "really?".
General Grievous at one point delivers this line...
The novelization has a moment that somehow manages to be both funny and sad at the same time. Right before engaging Grievous, Obi-Wan reflects that he might well die. He's not particularly bothered by the prospect of becoming one with the Force, but for some reason, he'd always thought that when he died, Anakin would be with him. Ouch.
What does Obi-Wan Kenobi say after dropping into a hangar full of a whole army of droids, plus General Grievous?
Immediately after, Grievous sends his Magna Guards in, Obi-Wan prepares to fight them... Then he lowers his lightsaber and lifts his left arm, dropping a large weight on the guards. One even looks up at what was causing that strange shadow... And one wasn't completely squished, having it cry in pain repeatedly as it crawls to the electrostaff and gets back ready to fight just in time to get casually beheaded by Obi-Wan.
Obi-Wan, immediately after killing Grievous with a blaster of all things:
Obi-Wan: SO uncivilized...
Becomes even funnier when you realize that he's not referring to Grievous, he's referring to the act of using a blaster. It's a Call-Forward to a line in A New Hope, in which he describes the lightsaber as a "elegant weapon" and subtly expresses disdain for blasters.
Commander Cody receives the order to execute Order 66 mere seconds after handing Obi-Wan his lightsaber. Cody even lampshades the unfortunate timing of the Order in the novelisation:
"Was it too much to ask for the Order to come through before I gave him back the bloody lightsaber?"
From the novelization: Obi-Wan and Yoda are considering how they will get back to Coruscant post-Order 66, and look dubiously at the small one-seater spaceship Obi-Wan arrived in.
Obi-Wan: I suppose... if you don't mind riding on my lap...
Yoda's subtle flick of his wrist to effortlessly knock out the two Royal Guards with the Force as he enters Palpatine's office while not even breaking his stride doubles as a Funny Moment of Awesome. On the DVD Commentary, they claim that this was not intended to be a humorous moment. Of course not.
His banter with Palpatine before the fight starts is rather humorous, too.
Palpatine: [politely] Master Yoda! [grumbling] You survived.
And, not that much later, Yoda Force-pushes Palpatine across his office, into his chair, knocking him ass-over-teakettle and letting us see his pants as his robes fall up.
After the previous scene, Sidious immediately somersaults towards the door, only for Yoda to jump in front of him and suddenly cut his escape route. Sidious actually emits an audible, disappointed "argh" at that moment, clearly translating as an inner This Is Gonna Suck realization upon knowing he will have to duel Yoda.
He may be an Evil Overlord, but Palpatine shows he knows how to have fun while throwing Senate seats at Yoda. He's cackling all the time, and even when Yoda finally stops one seat out of the many Palpatine has thrown at him, the Sith Lord chuckles, as if to say "oh, that's cute".
An incredibly Black Comedy example right before Anakin and Obi-Wan's final duel.
Anakin: YOU TURNED HER AGAINST ME! Prolonged Beat as Obi-Wan blatantly stares at Padmé's strangled and unconscious body mere feet away with a "The hell is he talking about?" expression. Obi-Wan: You have done that yourself.
When Anakin and Obi-Wan are fighting on one of the massive arms of the factory, and hot lava and rocks start raining down, they break off their duel momentarily to take cover. The annoyed expressions on their faces are amusing, but you almost expect them to resume snarking at each other. "This is another fine mess you've gotten us into!" "You're the one who brought us out here, Master!"
While Anakin and Obi-Wan are squaring off on a very thin pipe, one of the lava-collecting droids pops up. It looks at Anakin, then Obi-Wan, then pauses for a second before hightailing it out of there.
C-3PO's reaction to hearing that he's going to have to undergo a mind-wipe.
Bail Organa: Captain Antilles, I'm placing these two droids in your care. Treat them well, clean them up, have the protocol droid's mind wiped. 3PO: What?! R2:(beeps in a way that can only be interpreted as Blowing a Raspberry followed by laughter) 3PO: Oh, no...
Anakin and Padmé desperately attempting to hide their relationship from Obi-Wan is a major plot point of the film, with Anakin insisting that they can't tell Obi-Wan about it... while the theatrical films and The Clone Wars imply, and the EU states outright, that Obi-Wan knew about it the whole time. So did Captain Panaka. And Palpatine. And Rex. And Ahsoka. And Bail Organa. And all of Padme's staff (minus 3PO, presumably). It's even implied that Mace Windu suspected something. Great job keeping it a secret, guys!
Heck, in the Legends novel Wild Space, the very first thing Yoda does after the Jedi return from Geonosis is to tell Obi-Wan he has to go over to Padme's apartment and tell them to knock it offnote Obi-Wan and Yoda were right there when she ran over to Anakin and threw her arms around him after the duel with Dooku. In the novel, she promises Obi-Wan they'll end it, and he's got enough on his mind that he takes her word for it , which he does. Admittedly, it's unclear whether or not Yoda realized they were continuing afterwards.
There's some humorous Fridge Logic when you consider that Anakin and Padme are trying to keep their marriage and pregnancy a secret...yet seem to share the same apartment. Did they think nobody would notice a famous Jedi Knight and a famous senator for the Republic spending a lot of time in the same place together?
In the novelization, as part of his manipulation, Palpatine claims Obi-Wan was seen leaving a Senator’s (Padme’s) apartment at an unseemly hour. Anakin immediately assumes Obi-Wan was sleeping with a different (male) senator. It also counts as a heartwarming moment, as he trusts Padme and Obi-Wan so much they’re the last people he'd assume will betray him, and a tearjerker as he falls victim to Palpatine’s manipulations.
Palpatine: The rumor is that he was seen leaving this Senator's residence this very morning, at an... unseemly hour. Anakin: Who? (Anakin opened his eyes and sat forward.) Who is this senator? Let's go question him.
Anakin once called Satine Obi-Wan's girlfriend. Apparently Anakin is an LGBT ally!
It's also mentioned offhand that Obi-Wan "The Negotiator" Kenobi once nearly caused an intergalactic incident due to being allergic to a type of soup.
Palpatine informing Nute Gunray and the other members of the Separatist Council that his new apprentice, Darth Vader, will be arriving soon to "take care of them." If the double meaning was intentional (and let's face it, it probably is) Palpatine has a warped sense of humor.
Probably no version beats the European Spanish dub at this scene, as instead of offering the Spanish translation of "take care of you," it changes the line to "give you what you deserve". By this point, Sidious has completely jettisoned subtlety - and still, the Separatist Council doesn't seem to get it, as if they believed Vader is coming with a huge cake or something.
The novelization ups the Black Comedy even further by having Anakin crack Bond One-Liners and make Puns as he butchers the Separatist Council members. Highlights include responding to Shu Mai's desperate pleading that Sidious promised them "a handsome reward" with "I am your reward; you don't find me handsome?" moments before cutting her down, and this exchange between Vader and Gunray:
Nute Gunray: The war... The war is over-Lord Sidious promised- He promised we would be left in peace!
Darth Vader: The transmission was garbled. He promised you would be left in pieces.
The novelization has a bit where Palpatine tells Anakin that he thinks the Jedi Council is making up this "Darth Sidious" in order to scare him. Funny enough, in a Dramatic Irony sense, but then the conversation following really takes the cake:
Palpatine: Do you know what I would do, if this "Darth Sidious" of yours were to walk through the door right now, and I could stop him killing you on the spot, do you know what I would do? I would ask him to sit down, and then I would ask him if he has any power he could use to end this war sooner. And if he said he did, I'd bloody well offer him a brandy and talk it out!
Pin down the Invisible Hand long enough for Obi-Wan and Anakin to mount their rescue mission-and with two damaged ships and a crippled one, all of them outdated (the task force consisted of a Dreadnought-class heavy cruiser as the flagship and three Carrack light cruisers. One of the Carracks was wiped out and the Dreadnought was heavily damaged). He wasn't even in command until his superior on the flagship became unreachable-hence he benefitted from the You Are in Command Now trope.
Deliver a death threat to Grievous. With those ships. Grievous obviously didn't take him seriously. Then Needa, thinking Palpatine and the rescue party were dead, delivered via Summon Bigger Fish.
The fact Needa almost got the future Emperor and Darth Vader killed-by trying to avenge them. One gets the impression the real reason Vader killed him was because he still nursed a grudge and finally got an excuse...
When Anakin whips out his lightsaber and announces to Palpatine that "you're the Sith Lord," you can almost see Palpatine internally rolling his eyes and thinking, "Well, no duh!"
As General Grievous flees from the burning Invisible Hand, he reflects that for the first time in his life he is disobeying orders by leaving behind Chancellor Palpatine, despite having been given express orders by Darth Sidious to leave Palpatine alive. Then he shrugs and sighs.
The novelization explains a large influence on Anakin's decision-making process in the movie is that he had been seeing a vision of Padme dying every time he slept for weeks, so he swore off sleep... Meaning the Republic fell, the Jedi were purged, and the Sith won because Anakin was sleep deprived.
Deleted Scenes
The cut scenes are pretty funny as well. At one point Anakin and Obi-Wan flee into the fuel lines of Grievous' ship.
Anakin: We're safe for the time being. Obi-Wan:[incredulous] Your idea of safe is not the same as mine.
They then crawl to the maintenance shafts, and Anakin welds one shut to stop the fuel explosion they're waiting for.
Obi-Wan: Anakin, you still have much to learn. That will never hold. Fuel explodes, ruptures the hull and dents the welded shaft. Obi-Wan:[Beat] Alright, I still have much to learn.
There is also the longer version of them taking the elevator.
Anakin: R2, where are they holding the chancellor? R2-D2:[Beeps] Anakin:[looking at his comlink] No text. [hits comlink] R2-D2:[Beeps] Anakin: It's broken. Can you understand what he's saying? Obi-Wan: I'm not a protocol droid. Anakin: I'm pretty sure that beep [perfect binary] is down. Obi-Wan: I sense Count Dooku is above us. Anakin: Oh, yes yes yes, you're right. Beep [perfect binary] is up. [nods]. Obi-Wan: Ah. [starts for elevator] Anakin: I think... anyway, I agree. Up it is.
Followed by the above mentioned elevator scene with the battle droids and this gem:
Obi-Wan: Roger. Anakin: Roger.
In a deleted scene between Padmé's Committee and Chancellor Palpatine, there's this dialogue:
Palpatine: You must trust me to do the right things, Senator. That is why I am here. Fang Zar:Surely, you— Palpatine: I said I will do what is right. That should be enough for your... Committee.
The look that Padmé gives Anakin before she and the Committee leaves.
Followed up by this dialogue exchange between Palpatine and Anakin:
Palpatine: Their sincerity is to be admired, although, I feel as though there is more to their request than they are telling us. Anakin: What do you mean? Palpatine: They're not to be trusted. Anakin: Surely, Senator Amidala can be trusted? Palpatine: These are unstable times for the Republic, Anakin. Some see instability as an opportunity. Senator Amidala is hiding something. [Almost sing-song. Ish.] I can see it in her eyes. Anakin: I'm sure you're mistaken. Palpatine:[Sounding surprised] I'm surprised your Jedi insights are not more sensitive to such things?
