Get Premium
Dark mode theme is available exclusively for premium users. Learn more about the benefits of subscribing.
No fees, cancel anytime.
Dark Mode 
No fees, cancel anytime 
25submissions
1week left
20 Years And 60 Watches: Movie Jokes That Took People Many Years To Understand
Honesty hour – have you ever laughed at something just because people around you were laughing? Or pretended to get the punchline of a joke at a comedy club when it made no sense in your head? No?
Well, even if you won’t admit it, I know I’m not the only one having missed the point of the joke; maybe even more than once. A bunch of people have, too, and they confessed to it in a thread on the ‘Movies’ subreddit. That’s where the user ‘ferrous_second_vowel’ asked netizens about movie jokes they didn't get until years later, and many came forward with their stories. Scroll down to find them on the list below!
Below you will also find Bored Panda’s interviews with two people who are well-familiar with jokes and humor: the CEO of Humor That Works, author, and speaker, Andrew Tarvin, and comedian, television writer, and radio/podcast host, Chris Duffy, who were kind enough to answer a few of our questions.
Click here & follow us for more lists, facts, and stories.
This post may include affiliate links.
#1
There's a scene in Star Trek: Generations in which Data laughs at a joke that was told to him by Geordi LaForge in the first episode seven years earlier. When this is pointed out, Data says, "I know! I just got it! Very funny!"
Flash back to 1987 and the first time watching Spaceballs. Colonels Sandurz says, "Prepare ship for metamorphosis! Ready, Kafka?" I had no idea what that line meant, but the delivery made me laugh.
Flash forward to 1997. I'm working in a bookstore, restocking the paperback classics when I pull out a small stack of, you guessed it, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. I burst out laughing.
Then I almost immediately thought of Data's line and started laughing even harder.
It was a good day.
RELATED:
#2
Addams Family Values. When Wednesday's sort-of-boyfriend is showing her his collection of serial k*ller baseball cards, he says "I've got 'em all. I'm only missing Jack the Ripper and that Zodiac guy."
Jack the Ripper and the Zodiac were two serial k*llers who were never caught.
#3
"I know a man with a wooden leg named Smith."
"What's the other one named?"
I watched Mary Poppins when I was four, and didn't get that joke until I was 30.
“At the most basic level, a good joke follows the setup / punchline structure, where the setup creates an expectation in the audience and the punchline delivers against that expectation in a surprising way,” Andrew Tarvin, the CEO of Humor That Works—a leadership development company that teaches professionals how to use humor to achieve better business results—told Bored Panda, discussing what makes a good joke.
“To me, what makes a good joke is when you have to work ever so slightly to get it,” he added. “If it's too obvious, it's not funny. If it's too complicated, it goes over your head. But if you have to ‘figure out’ the joke, the reward is even greater when you finally do get it.” (Even if it takes years or decades, as it did for some of the people on this list.)
#4
Toy Story.
Buzz: “I think the word you’re searching for is space ranger.”
Woody: “The word I’m searching for I can’t say because there are preschool toys present.”
#5
It took me 30 years watching Wayne's World to realize why Noah's Arcade promotes they have two of every game. Yknow. Like Noah's Arc.
Another expert in humor, comedian, television writer, and radio/podcast host Chris Duffy—who is currently hosting How to Be a Better Human—noted that a good joke is funny (adding a much-needed “duh”), but also clever and without cruelty. “You can make people laugh by saying something shocking or by being mean, but I don't think that's a good joke,” he said.
“I've talked with some scientists who study humor and one way that the science of jokes was explained to me that lines up with my experiences as a comedian is that a good joke is like a secret code where the person hearing it has the key and all of a sudden it clicks and makes them laugh. Also good jokes should be short, unlike my answer to ‘what makes a good joke?’”
#6
In “Cars” Lightning tells Mater that Doc won the Piston Cup 3 times!
Mater responds with, “He did what in his cup?!”.
#7
“I’m sure your job gets pretty dangerous”
“That’s why I carry a big gun.”
“Aren’t you afraid it might go off accidentally?”
“I used to have that problem”
“What did you do about it?”
“I just think about baseball”.
- The Naked Gun: Files From Police Squad!
#8
In Disney's Hercules, a little snippet of the Zero to Hero song goes:
>From appearance fees and royalties
>Our Herc had cash to burn
>Now nouveau riche and famous
>He could tell you "What's a Grecian urn?"
This is a reference to an absolutely ancient Vaudeville joke that flew miles above every kid's head in the 90s. The joke goes something like,
"My wife brought home a Grecian urn last night."
"What's a Grecian urn?"
"About $25 a week, unless he owns the restaurant."
Andrew Tarvin seconded the idea that jokes shouldn’t be too lengthy. “You can be clever, just don't be longwinded or boring in the process. As Kevin from The Office said, ‘Why waste time say lot word when few word do trick?’”
Delving deeper into the structure of jokes, the expert noted that one way to understand the setup and punchline structure is to think back to your days of learning propositional logic: “If A -> B, and B -> C, then A->C. A good joke has a setup (A) and a punchline (C). If the audience can infer what's supposed to be funny (B), they'll laugh.
“So in order to be clever, but not complicated, you have to give just enough information in the setup (A) to help the audience get B, but not so much that it's confusing or takes too long to understand,” Tarvin explained.
#9
When the hunter buys the gun in Jumanji and the salesman says "you're not a postal worker, are you?". I think I thought he was just making fun of his clothes, I had no idea what "going postal" was.
#10
It seems every time I watch Hot Fuzz I find something knew I missed like them cocking the guns everytime they run at the end. But the biggest one for me is:
‘Do you know why they’re called the Andys?’
“Because they’re both called andrew?”
“And talking to them is a bit of an uphill struggle’
Took me waaaay too many watches to catch the Andes/Andy’s difficulty hike but. I blame the immediate trash can to the face as a distraction.
#11
In Monty Python and the Holy Grail when the taunting Frenchman calls the knights "keniggets" I thought it was just some obscure British insult I wasn't getting. It took me years to figure out he was pronouncing "knights" phonetically.
Duffy suggested that the balance between a joke being clever and too complicated depends on who you're trying to make laugh. “It's going to be a very different balance if you're trying to make a classroom full of 5-year-olds laugh (you can't go wrong with a silly face) and if you're trying to make a conference of philosophy professors laugh (probably some joke about what it even means to have a face at all). There's no universal rule when it comes to comedy, it's all specific and context dependent,” he told Bored Panda, adding that knowing your audience is hugely important when it comes to humor.
“My friend, the very funny comedian Myq Kaplan, has a great joke about how comedy is one of the only art forms where the audience gets to decide what the art is. His joke is ‘If you laugh at what I say, it's a joke. If you don't laugh, it's a poem! You decide.’”
#12
In Ghostbusters, Louis Tully, the Keymaster, kept locking himself out of his apartment.
GeoffreySpaulding:
39 f*****g years and I just got that.
Carteeg_Struve:
Took me forever growing to realize the Gatekeeper and Keymaster titles were literally talking about privates.
#13
“You ever been on a shrimp boat?”
… “no, I been on a real big boat”
This one probably took me 20 years and 60 watches [laugh out loud].
JackRagz:
Bubba asks Forrest if he’s ever been on “a real shrimp boat”, but Forrest thinks he’s asking if he’s ever been on a really small boat.
#14
In shawshank redemption when Red is being asked whys he called Red he quips its probably because he's Irish. In the Stephen King book Red isn't a black man but rather an Irish man w red hair so it makes sense.
Tarvin, too, believes that knowing your audience is incredibly important when it comes to jokes and, according to him, there are two main reasons for that. “First, humor is predicated on an audience being able to ‘get’ the joke. If you reference something they don't understand, such as a pop culture reference or Gen Z slang, there's no chance for them to get the joke. Second, comedy often comes from breaking expectations in a surprising way. How can you break expectations if you're not even sure what they are to begin with?
“One caveat to keep in mind is that you are also part of your intended audience. Sometimes writers will put in jokes that are primarily for themselves, and if you as an audience member enjoy it as well, that's a bonus,” the expert added.
#15
Rango, when the villagers are trying to lure out the molerats/groundhogs by putting on a theatrical play.
*"What is that?"*
*"I think they're thespians."*
*"Thespians? That's illegal in seven states!"*
The joke being he misheard thespians as lesbians.
#16
In Austin Powers 2, when describing Austin's Mojo Dr. Evil has a line like - "what the French would call: I don't know what."
Always thought the joke was that Dr. Evil was just being stupid - didn't learn until much later in life this is the literal definition of 'je ne sais quoi'
Upon a recent rewatch that was probably my favorite joke in the entire franchise.
#17
In the first Shrek movie when Shrek and Donkey first get to the giant castle and Shrek says “you think he’s compensating for something?”.
When it comes to humor on the big screen, Chris Duffy believes that jokes make the characters relatable and likable. “But I think they also serve to release the tension, which is a huge and important tool when you're writing scripts in any genre,” he added.
According to Andrew Tarvin, there are countless uses for jokes in movies. “It could be used to release tension, break the ice, make a character likable and charismatic or cruel and vindictive,” he said, adding that humor is a universally human trait, so it can be used in nearly any manner.
“However, one of the most important things it can do is just keep the movie engaging. When a character uses a joke, not only does that develop their persona more, it also makes the movie more entertaining. And as soon as that first joke hits, you're now on the lookout for the rest of the movie for the next big laugh, making you even more engaged in the material.”
#18
In the Faculty, a teacher is begging the principal for dunding for sets for the drama club. The principal responds "Can't they just reuse the set from Our Town?"
Our Town is a play typically stage without a set, which I only learned many years later.
#19
First Avengers film.
On the Helicarrier for the first time, and Captain America gives Nick Fury $10 - The way the latter takes the money, I thought it was the former giving him a tip, as some odd 1940s reason.
I watched it the other day, and FINALLY realized it's a follow up to the exchange in the Gym - where Captain America says that nothing could surprise him anymore, Fury replies saying $10 says you're wrong.
“While all of these things apply to characters in movies, it also applies to you in real life,” Tarvin continued. “How and when you use jokes has a massive impact on how you're perceived by others, which is why there are over 30 benefits to learning how to effectively use humor as well.
“Also, you don't need a whole team of scriptwriters to be funny. Anyone can learn the skill of humor, and watching movies and analyzing why the jokes worked (or didn't) can be a great place to start.”
#21
The Dude listening to Creedence's "My Back Door" after getting a physical.
ImNotThaaatDrunk:
I was today years old when I made that connection.
#22
Toy Story 2: Near the end, after Jessie impresses him by opening the door by leaping from the Hot Wheels loop, Buzz pops out his wings.
It's a visual [excitement] allusion.
#23
Rick Moranis in _GhostBusters 2_ tells the baby the story of Snow White to get him to sleep. But as an accountant, he explains that the dwarfs' trading Snow's housekeeping work for room & board while not paying payroll taxes was a good deal for them, though technically illegal.
#24
“I got you flours”
-Will Ferrell, Stranger Than Fiction
He’s trying to woo a baker; he gives her various bags of flours. I always thought they were bags of flower seeds.
Me = moron.
#25
Not quite a joke, but I had probaby watched Shawshank Redemption a dozen times before I realized the significance of the Warden saying “salvation lies within” when he handed the Bible with the rock hammer hidden in it back to Andy.
You might also like: Hollywood careers: 29 actors who squandered their potential
Add Your Answer! This post is a community curated
Add Your Answer!
Related on Bored Panda
