One of the reasons for the series's divisiveness is the amount of unintentional humor present throughout it:
open/close all folders
In general
Aincrad
- After Kirito, Asuna and company defeat the Gleam Eyes and Kirito is left with almost zero points, Asuna emotionally hugs him. This is not narmy by itself; the narmy part comes when she stays clamped to his chest for minutes, giving her back to the group and without uttering a word, all while Kirito speaks normally with them as if nothing is out of the ordinary. Keep in mind that, even if at least Klein could see they were attracted to each other, they were not even lovers by that point (and although they had been, it would have been equally silly). Also giggle-worthy is that only a few people seem to find this even a bit melodramatic.
Fairy Dance
- Kirito vs barrier! As soon as Kirito learns that Asuna really is trapped at the top of the World Tree, he goes into a blinding rage and flies straight at the World Tree, where he promptly and repeatedly slams headfirst into the barrier put in place to prevent players from flying higher than a set height. The scene is supposed to show Kirito's despair that he had kept bottled up, but it's hard not to laugh at this display of watching Kirito smack his head pointlessly into an invisible wall.
- The scene where Kirito frees Asuna from her chains, after killing Sugou in-game. It's meant to be a heartwarming reunion, but many fans can't get over the fact that Kirito hugs Asuna and cries on her shoulder while she's topless. Unlike similar scenes from other series, Kirito doesn't gives Asuna his jacket or any similar gesture, and the two of them don't seem to care about her state of undress. From the position Kirito is in, he's basically pressing his face against her bare boob.
Phantom Bullet
- Kirito's visualization in the anime of Death Gun killing someone in real life through a game. That is to say, he imagines a bullet traveling through a phone line and then launching out of it to land square in the forehead of a victim. The fact that this moment is played completely seriously, complete with dramatic music swell, and as some sort of horrified idea of how dangerous the situation is on Kirito's part is a complete Mood Whiplash to how ridiculous it is.
- When Kirito and Sinon are theorizing on how Death Gun commits murders, Kirito figures out that there is more than one player behind him. So that when one Death Gun members them kills a player in-game the second Death Gun member kills the person in real life. This is immediately accompanied by visual symbolism of a scorpion killing a lizard. This motif is so ridiculous it completely flips the seriousness of the scene and invokes laughter. Even Bryce Papenbrook made fun of this bit in the bloopers.
- From the scene in which Kirito and Sinon are trying to figure out how Death Gun kills, as Kirito wonders why Death Gun switched from the handgun (the weapon used in the murders) to the rifle when Kirito arrived to save Sinon. Immediately before Kirito realizes that Death Gun couldn't use the handgun to kill him, the scene shows a shot of Sinon's backside, making it seem as though Kirito got a "Eureka!" Moment from staring at Sinon's butt.
- During the climactic battle between Kirito and Death Gun, when Death Gun tries to cloak himself, Kirito draws his pistol in slo-mo and shoots Death Gun while leaping forward so he's in the air. Once Death Gun gets uncloaked he panics and slashes Kirito about twenty times, all the while Kirito is still airborne and slowly spinning in midair before his feet finally touch the ground. Given Death Gun was able to get in that many attacks in the time it took Kirito to drop to the ground, it's fair to assume that Kirito must have been lagging.
- After Death Gun has been taken out, Shinkawa goes nuts in Shino's apartment and attacks her, which would be scary and dramatic if not by his hilariously exaggerated "crazy face" and his vociferous, Motor Mouth-style cries of her name.
Mother's Rosario
Ordinal Scale
Alicization
- Kirito and Asuna's use of Photon Swords in GGO is very hard to take seriously given the sound effect of the Laser Blades resembles a farting sound. This may be a case of Real Life Writes the Plot, as the stock lightsaber sound effect is likely off-limits to them now since Disney bought the franchise in 2014, but they could have still found a less funny replacement (such as the one used in the anime adaptation of Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online which used a different electrical sound effect that still managed to sound cool).
- Johnny Black attacking Kirito with a syringe would have been scary and dramatic if it wasn't for the fact that an absurdly good Kendo practitioner like Kirito, wielding an umbrella (a popular weapon in real-life self-defense systems, albeit admittedly a bit of a narmy one by itself), managed to get beaten by a lunatic with a syringe. That's right; syringe beats umbrella! Even funnier is the fact Kirito somehow manages to incapacitate Johnny by jamming said umbrella's dull tip into his leg.
- An otherwise emotional scene ends up being laugh-out-loud funny when Kirito breaks down into tears overseeing his flower garden dug up. While It Makes Sense in Contextnote , his reaction still feels overdramatic. There's also the fact Kirito only explains this after the flowers have been destroyed. This line in particular gets taken out of context.
- When the corrupt pair of noble students, Raios and Humbert, try to have their way with Ronye and Teise, the girls and Eugeo all react as one would expect, but the pair of nobles play off the entire thing as just another game as the whole scene rapidly descends into an unintentional Black Comedy filled to the brim with too much ham to be taken seriously. In particular, as he's talking to Eugeo mid-sentence, Raios literally disrobes and leaps at the girls in the same motion, complete with the camera lingering on him in the air for a few seconds like it's something out of Lupin or a tag team Professional Wrestling match! It was so jarring that even Reki Kawahara (who was otherwise not involved in the production of the episode) himself admitted
he was surprised to see it on his Twitter (said jump is an anime-original scene and was not in the light novel).- One of the most infamous moments of season one, what with Sugou licking up Asuna's tears to revel in her despair, even gets replicated here as if the pair are trying to make this as theatrical and over-the-top as possible. The fact that they suffer extraordinary amounts of Off-Model and Art Shift to become particularly Gonk once Eugeo loses his shit doesn't help either.
- Then there's the moment when Raios and Humbert are about to completely consumate their respective rapes right before Eugeo manages to break free from his Taboo Index induced paralysis. They both get ready at unison and show quite ridiculous grins on their faces, while the animation does a sudden momentary freeze frame for dramatic effect that makes the whole moment unintentionally funny.
- Quinella, the Pontifex and esteemed ruler of the Human Empire, spends almost the entirety of her appearance stark naked without the narrative staying dead serious throughout this. If this in itself isn't already funny, then what is definitely amusing is the main cast having a complete lack of reaction to her state of dress. Especially glaring for Kirito, the guy who gets subjected Once a Season to Accidental Pervert, doesn't even blush, awkwardly avert his eyes, or act like anything is out of the ordinary. Even Bryce Papenbrook poked fun at this by having Kirito say "Has anyone noticed this chick is naked?" in the bloopers.
- Most of the Dark Territory commanders have fearsome titles, except for the Orc warlord who leads the raid on Rulid Village: Morikka the Foot Harvester?
- There is hilarious Engrish in Episode 35 as American players log in to the Underworld. "Hell to the yes!"
- The scene, where Kirito, Asuna and Alice fly in space and use their godly powers to kill a regenerating moon monster to protect an Underworld that has reached interstellar travel. It has to be seen to be believed, and clashes so ridiculously with the prior fantasy world arc that it's like extensive whiplash.
Alternative Gun Gale Online
- Pitohui is generally referred to as Pito in the show. Spanish-speaking fans will be more than happy to point out that "pito" is Spanish slang for penis.
