Sandbox / Trailer Wick Decay

• Trope: Trailer Joke Decay
• Laconic: A joke featured in a movie trailer gets so popular that by the time the movie is released, it's no longer funny.
• Wicks: 116
• Intended target: 50 wicks (52 examples)

A joke is overplayed in trailers to the point it isn't funny anymore (23/52)

1. YMMV.The Iron Giant: The scene of Hogarth and the Giant making their respective cannonballs into the lake. It was in all of the commercials and has since been quoted and re-enacted by pretty much every kid who saw it to the point of being a Bottom of the Barrel Joke. Fortunately, the joke's actual punchline manages to keep it as one of the funniest scenes in the movie.
2. JustForFun.You Know You Read Too Much TV Tropes When: You never watch trailers anymore because of Trailer Joke Decay, Never Trust a Trailer, Trailers Always Spoil and Missing Trailer Scenes.
3. YMMV.Shang Chi And The Legend Of The Ten Rings: When Shang-Chi first wakes up and gets dressed, he puts on a dress shirt and tie. The audience is meant to believe he'll be the guy getting out of the fancy car, only to find he's actually the hotel valet. But since that scene has already been in almost every trailer, the joke doesn't really land.
4. Trivia.Zootopia: Missing Trailer Scene: Almost every trailer and TV spot showed Nangi saying "All the way down!" at her yoga class (to the level of Trailer Joke Decay). She never utters this line in the movie.
5. Funny.Joy Ride 2023: Audrey and Lolo's first meeting avoids Trailer Joke Decay. We already know Lolo is going to punch the racist kid. What we don't know is that he'll run away and get hit by a kid on a swing. The title card is him lying on the ground, his parents tending to him, while the two new friends swing together.
6. YMMV.Fantastic Four 2015: The television spots constantly showed the gag of Johnny adjusting his seat and the failed fist bump with Reed, taking the humor out of them.
7. Eternals: This joke hit a bit of Trailer Joke Decay but trailers excluded the cursing at the end. Phastos' emphatic delivery of the last word makes it funny even if you've seen the trailer a dozen times.
8. YMMV.Popstar Never Stop Never Stopping: A lot of the best ones get hit with this, such as Seal's wolf attack, Adam Levine's holograms, Owen's DJ head, and arguably the footage of Connor playing drums as an infant. It doesn't help that they were basically displayed in their entirety before the movie's release.
9. NeverTrustATrailer.Live Action Films: Another backfiring example: Men in Black. An early trailer made it look like an eerie sci-fi FX extravaganza punctuated with mild humor. In truth, humor is its greatest strength. Sadly, later trailers spoiled some of the best humor. The trailers also committed the common sin of including scenes (and dialogue) that were nowhere to be found in the actual film.
10. YMMV.Guardians Of The Galaxy 2014: "What a bunch of A-Holes," was in nearly every single promotional thing about the movie. Some who liked the joke didn't like it by the time the film came out. Quill's "mechanical middle finger" is also uncensored in the film, which ends up looking pretty awkward, especially since the trailer's "Obscene Gesture Imminent" bit was a pretty good joke on its own, though for what it's worth, this can still be seen in some televised versions of the film.
11. MissingTrailerScene.Animated Films: While the scene itself was present, the "You scared the jelly out of him!" line that was used ad nauseum in TV spots for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 was completely different in the actual film.
12. TrailersAlwaysSpoil.Anime And Manga: This trope, together with Trailer Joke Decay, was discussed in The Dissociation of Haruhi Suzumiya (the ninth novel), when Haruhi decides to make a sequel to "The Adventures of Mikuru Asahina". She talks about how much this annoys her and decides to avert this by producing the trailer before even starting the filming of the actual movie.
13. YMMV.Rio 2: While Nigel's cover of Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive" is an awesome Villain Song, as to be expected of Jemaine Clement, some fans felt that the song ended up losing its charm due to how much it was played on repeated in trailers leading up to the film's release.
14. YMMV.Kung Fu Panda 3: The "chit-chat" scene with Po and Kai was also done to death, though the trailers don't show the full joke. The other example lacks complaining.
15. YMMV.Meet The Robinsons: Tiny's "I have a big head and little arms!" line was spammed constantly throughout the film's advertising. It's a testament to how good of a bit it is that people still loved it despite the oversaturation.
16. YMMV.Osmosis Jones: Several jokes found in the film are first shown in the two trailers, making them less funny.
17. YMMV.Deadpool 2016: Many jokes suffered this, with the punchlines being in many trailers, such as "You look like an avocado had sex with an older avocado." The movie does occasionally use alternate takes that were not used in the trailers, but still got this reception from some fans.
18. YMMV.Euro Trip: Several of the not as racy jokes are prominent in the marketing of the film, which might have been the reason why the film failed at the box office.
19. YMMV.Star Trek Discovery S 2 E 08 If Memory Serves: The "goodbye Spock" scene is still reasonably entertaining, especially when Burnham and Spock disappear and you learn it's a Talosian illusion. Even so, it probably would have been more amusing if not for "Say goodbye, Spock" "Goodbye, Spock" being continuously played in a trailer for the season as a whole throughout the season.
20. YMMV.The Road To El Dorado: The trailers gave away some of the more memorable quotes before the film came out.
21. YMMV.Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2014: "It's just a mask" was shaping up to be this since it appeared in all of the early trailers, though its Memetic Mutation status didn't help. Luckily, later trailers and TV spots laid off on it.
22. YMMV.Ru Pauls Drag Race: Happened in Season 6 with Laganja Estranja's "Come on Season 6, let's get sickening!!! *death drop*", as it was played in just about every preview trailer before and during the season. Especially annoying in that afterwards it became obvious Laganja was purposely trying to invoke herself as a Fountain of Memes, and most likely said the line because the clip would be trailer-bait. The other example is non-comedic.
23. Conversational Troping: From the Balcony, a Muppet web series, has Statler and Waldorf discuss a trope and give it a neologism Once an Episode: Trailer Joke Decay (Dej-hah-vous), Incurable Cough of Death (Cough-in), Evil-Detecting Dog (Doggie-dar), Career Resurrection (Travolted), Never Trust a Trailer (Con-mercial), Spontaneous Choreography (Coinci-dance), Fanservice (Run-derwear), Sequel Gap (Weak-quel), Poor Man's Substitute (Hack-tors), Dyeing for Your Art (Fluctu-weight), Narm (Laughter-math), Militaries Are Useless (Armed farces, no relation to the trope), and many more.

A joke is overplayed in trailers, no mention of it becoming less funny / more annoying (21/52)

1. YMMV.Atlantis The Lost Empire: Milo going swimming with Kida and his shorts inflating was played in most trailers and TV spots.
2. YMMV.The Internship: The "fist me" bit and the Professor Xavier scene were in every trailer.
3. YMMV.Two Broke Girls: Just about every promo featured the joke "Twitter is stupid, and Instagram is Twitter for people who can't read."
4. YMMV.The Croods A New Age: The lines "Whoa, peanut toe!" and "Never apologize for an effective kill circle" have been repeated endlessly in trailers and ads for the movie.
5. YMMV.The Amazing Spider Man: Spidey's quip about the small knives to the would-be carjacker since nearly every trailer and commercial have included this bit.
6. YMMV.Turning Red: The bathroom "OMG!" scene appeared in nearly every trailer and commercial for the movie.
7. YMMV.Space Jam A New Legacy: The advertisements really wanted you to hear Granny say "Haters gonna hate”.
8. Spoiler Opening: An interview that played before the Insider Access to Inside Out event spoiled Bing Bong's death when talking about how his voice actor (Richard Kind) cried while recording the character's last words: "Take her to the moon for me...okay?". What's even worse is that the trailers for the event spoiled some parts of the movie's climax, including the scene where Joy runs through Imagination Land, the scene where Anger gives Riley the idea to run away and the scene where Joy and Sadness splat onto the window of Headquarters after Fear says "I wish Joy was here!"^note admittedly, the last mentioned scene could account for Trailer Joke Decay as well
9. YMMV.Power Rangers 2017: Zack's line of "That's a lot of gold" has been used in nearly every trailer and teaser after appearing in the 2nd released trailer.
10. YMMV.Inside Out: Try to find a trailer or TV spot that doesn't show the 'brain freeze' gag.
11. Toothbrush Floor Scrubbing: In a bit that suffered Trailer Joke Decay, one of the punishments issued in Detention was to erase a comically-oversized blackboard with a toothbrush.
12. YMMV.Encanto: Several trailers and clips constantly repeat the scene where Antonio says that the rats told him everything while instructing his jaguar Parce not to eat the rats.
13. YMMV.Kung Fu Panda 3: Every TV spot showed the "Dumpling Squad" and "Noodle Squad" scenes. The other example is closer to complaining.
14. YMMV.The Country Bears: Every TV spot included that clip of the policemen's hair getting messed up in the car wash, eventually reaching the point where Disney released a commercial that contained nothing but that clip.
15. YMMV.Spider Man Homecoming: The "you guys aren't the real Avengers!" gag. Not only has it been used in multiple trailers and TV spots, but the line quickly turned into a meme not long after the first trailer was released. This trope was actually subverted altogether when the actual joke that Peter makes in the movies is much different than this often-advertised gag.
16. Advertised Extra: In the trailers and commercials for Turning Red, the bathroom "OMG!" scene with Stacy Frick shows up to the point of Trailer Joke Decay but she only has a handful of lines across two scenes.
17. YMMV.Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix: The "who are you and what have you done with Hermione Granger?" exchange played in most trailers.
18. YMMV.Madagascar 3 Europes Most Wanted: The shot of Marty painted with polka dots while singing "Afro Circus" was used in nearly every trailer.
19. YMMV.Frozen 2013: "It's like a little baby unicorn..." when Olaf gets his nose for the first time but only a little is sticking out. Almost every trailer shows it.
20. YMMV.Raising Helen: Sarah's "who's going to check my nose boogies for infection?" line was played in all the trailers and TV spots.
21. Trivia.Norm Of The North: Missing Trailer Scene: The line "I'm big boned!", despite being used in every main trailer, is never actually said in the film.

Complaining that the scene wasn't funny to begin with (1/52)

1. YMMV.Ferdinand: The "bull in a china shop" bit. Despite being a brief, unimportant (albeit technically impressive) scene, it's splashed all over the marketing and interviews, and the crew generally seems to be under the impression that it's funnier than it is.

A non-joke scene is overplayed in trailers (1/52)

1. YMMV.Ru Pauls Drag Race: Also happens with runway outfits. Courtney's angel wings would have been absolutely stunning if we hadn't seen them in every preview.

Lacks context / just quotes or says the overplayed scene (4/52)

1. YMMV.Rango: "That's for my gun. That's gun lotion."
2. YMMV.The Book Of Life: "There's no one that big, man!" Both examples fall under this category.
3. YMMV.Dark Shadows: "Are you stoned?" "They tried stoning me, my dear. It did not work."
4. YMMV.Christmas With The Kranks: The frozen cat, which even appears on some posters.

Ambiguous / other (2/52)

1. Trailers Always Spoil: This trope can lead to Trailer Joke Decay.
2. WMG.Cars 3: [McQueen's Crash is Off Screen in the Film,] Explaining the Trailer Joke Decay and G Rating.

Total:

• Complaining a joke was made less funny by overplay (current definition): 44%
• A joke being overplayed without mention of its comedy: 40%
• Complaining about the joke, but not about overplay: 2%
• Complaining about a non-joke scene being spoiled by overplay: 2%
• Just saying the joke without context: 8%
• Ambigious/other: 4%