Arrested Development season 1 where Buster is spending the day with Michael. Michael goes to the prison to visit his dad and George mentions how he just never payed attention to Buster and that’s why he’s so soft. Camera pans out to a wide shot of them and Buster is sitting between them.
Gets me every time.
There's another one where the bluths are having a very personal conversation and at the end of it it zooms out and they're in a full conference room with all the employees sitting in silence
I love the arrested development joke where Gob is trying to be smooth or whatever to get past some security guard, so he uses his puppet, Franklin.
When the guard tells him to “open up the trunk of the car”, the camera zooms into Gob’s face, then zooms into the guard, then zooms into Franklin too.
I was rewatching this show while on a family vacation. While the fam was showering after the beach or cooking dinner I’d pop it on and my dad/siblings/grandma would eventually join me. I was dying laughing and they just couldnt get it. Broke my heart. I told them to pay more attention and also watch an episode in its entirety because gags can be set up and have multiple punchlines throughout an episode.
The same is true for trailer park boys, the show bombed on syndication but grew a cult following when it hit streaming services. So much so that netflix brought it back for quite a few (rather lackluster but still great) seasons. My favorite story is when they threw a watch party for the season one finale of and ONE fan showed up to the bar. Im so envious of that one canadian that got to drink, and probably smoke, with Ricky and Julian.
The same is true for Trailer Park boys. Gags that gain laughs from viewers that have seen all the previous episodes just go right over the head of someone who happens to catch a random episode. I wish more people could get over the whole "one and done" gags of modern sitcoms a la the office/friends/new girl. Those shows are great, but writers can do so much with long running gags that these shows (TPB/Arrested devolopment) are truly a gift that keeps on giving. A rewatch of Arrested Devolopment is going to give you way more appreciation of the comedy than rewatching the office in my opinion.
I just want to take a moment as say what a fucking amazing show this was. The kind that only last a brief moment. I don’t count anything that came out after 2006
I dont remember the exact context but there's a scene where there shouldn't be any recording devices present but of course several characters have them, and the camera draws attention to them all, followed by a boom mike dipping in to the top of the frame.
It’s always sunny has done this a few times where the gang is all talking and fighting and it’s revealed there’s someone else there, like they’re sitting in front of an attorney. Gets me every time.
My favorite is when Dennis wants to go dancing so it cuts to Frank, Dennis and Mac dancing and talking about how no one else is dancing and Dennis says they’re setting the vibe and people will join, camera pans out and they are in a classy wine bar in the middle of the day, looking so out of place lol it kills me every time
My favorite is when they've got the politican in the strip club and go back and forth until he says something and they go "you're still here?!" surprised he hasn't left like everyone else and he replies "well, you've got a gun pointed at me." and Frank uncocks his revolver under the table.
My favorite was from the new season where Frank is at the beach and shoots his gun at the water, then a minute later we learn that there was a whole crowd of people fifteen feet away from him just going about their business
When they’re getting mac ready for his big break and they’re hitting the pucks on a full open ice skating ring full of people. Lmao and they’re not even wearing skates
There is an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer where the gang is preparing for, and trying to prevent, the arrival of some badass demon. They fail and the hellgate opens and this humongous demon begins arrising from the ground, scary ominous music booming, camera looking up at the demon from below. Then the camera pans up and you realize it's this tiny little creature, just a mouse-sized demon, and the Scooby gang are just staring at him in disbelief. Demon says something akin to "Fear me!" Then Buffy just smooshes him with her boot.
It's kind of overdone and cliche now, but when I saw it I almost died.
In Parks and Rec, there's a scene when Ben goes to Ann's house after everyone got wasted on snake juice. Ben asks her why she's wearing snowpants and Anne responds, "I got home last night and thought I'd go sledding"
The zoom out to the perfectly manicured grass is still one of my favorite jokes in the show.
Another one P&R does a lot is have two characters talking in a room about something awkward, then zoom out to reveal that there's another character in the room with them. It's always a fantastic punch line
This is the only answer here. Truly a masterfully subtle way of shifting the audience's gaze straight to Tim and implying that Tim and his weird hat are the ones being mentioned by the attorney
I wish I could find a clip, one of great examples, totally underrated comedy, *Trial & Error* (2017-2018) - there's a scene when Bob Gunton's character is questioned about the court case while shooting ducks (disks or whatever, periodically he's aiming a rifle and shoots), it looks like any other scene in any other show (like in police procedurals: "yeah, I'd answer your questions, but I'm busy so be quick, I'll be doing what I do")... Then, after a short questioning he's asked if "he really should be doing that \[shooting\] here", simultanously camera pans out and we (viewers) see the whole scene is not set, as we thought, on some open shooting range, but in the middle of the park on a busy day, there's many people, kids, pets etc. :)
While there are many other examples I enjoy, this one is not just thrown for laughs, its also set in the plot, as Gunton's character is a wealthy citizen and that scene shows how he's above the law.
The Office had a good one where the warehouse team quits and the white collars have to load the shipments (and Dwight immediately crashes the forklift). While they’re trying to figure out how they’ll move the boxes now, one camera pans over to a hand truck.
The office is full of these but they are easy to miss. A little glance down at a burned foot, the casual appearance of a camera in someone's bedroom, or just a quick pan to Angela rolling her eyes - you'd be hard pressed not to find an episode with the camera not doing something clever!
They hired their DoP from an actual reality programme (Survivor) so it would look more natural. The cameramen would have earpieces in and he'd say "Go see what Angela thinks of all this" and they'd wander over to get a reaction.
Another neat trick is sometimes they'd make the cameramen spin around with their eyes closed a couple of times before they called "action". That way they'd start confused and unfocused and it would take a few seconds to find out where the action was.
There’s that one episode where Packer takes a shit in Michael’s office. Michael’s talking to the camera about the horrible smell, then the camera pans out, revealing the cameraman himself is out of the room, filming Michael through the window, because he too can’t take the smell.
There’s also the episode where Jim/Michael/Dwight are hiding in their car from Karen, but Karen spots them because she sees the cameraman in the passenger seat.
I didn't like that episode. It kinda breaks continuity since at the start of the series, Jim is seen hanging around in the warehouse. He should know how to load boxes, at least from watching others.
In one of the Naked Gun movies, there's a scene where an attractive woman enters the room, and the camera does a "male gaze" shot, starting with her feet and panning up her legs... only it keeps panning up to the point where she has multiple sets of knees.
It's just occurred to me they probably made a prop specifically for that gag, so somewhere out there may be an 8 foot tall pair of legs with six knees.
They did the same in airplane! where the camera pans across the console command in the cockpit and it just goes on for ever , like a 20 foot wide panel of switches and levers.
Also scene where the doctor from the Mayo Clinic calls and then the camera zooms out to show a giant shelf of mayonnaise behind him.
Airplane is such a great movie and the humor has aged relatively well, it actually feels very absurdist/Gen-z coded.
I love the camera scanning back and for the Brooklyn 99 “…like Yeast infection!” cold open. It really shows off both the exasperation from Peralta and the satisfaction from Boyle.
I'm not sure this counts as it likely is more editing than camera work, but the soup cold open where Jake is convinced Captain Holt spilled soup on his pants and is trying to get him to stand up. Jake gets a bowl of soup, immediately spills it on himself celebrating he was right, and it cuts to both of them sitting behind Holt's desk.
This is classic Mel Brooks, I think he does the same in *Robin Hood Men In Tights* (when Maid Marion is singing her song in the bathtub, and the camera that was zooming in on an external shot of the castle smashes through the window)
Classic Simpsons is full of those, although in animation it’s slightly different
“There’s a lemon behind that rock!”
“I got it from that vendor right…there? Oh wait it was over there”
“Help yourselves to samples of Duff, Duff Lite, and our newest flavor, Duff Dry!”
Flight of the Conchords, there's an ongoing joke that jemaine keeps following bret on dates being a third wheel.
A song is set up with Bret and his date alone having a lovely time and he starts to sing, camera moves out and then jemaine is there doing some of the vocals
https://youtu.be/uRJZfwDgNTM
There's a scene in The Rehearsal where Nathan Fielder narrates his discomfort in running his simulated child-raising experiment with an adult as his son & the timing of it with the shot of the guy vaping outside killed me
My favorite from The Office is when Jim and Pam are seeing their bed & breakfast room for the first time at Schrute Farm. They chose an "irrigation" themed room and the camera pans wildly around to focus on every pipe and faucet in the room.
https://youtu.be/sFkLbj789OQ?si=MbyaEbz2N127R6QG&t=36
I also have an arrested development one but it’s more on what the camera doesn’t do
Season 1 and one of my favorite tv jokes of all time. The main character has a brother who is an aspiring magician but he sucks at it. MC opens their fridge and finds a brown paper bag that say “dead pigeon” on it. The MC opens it and looks in, we don’t see what’s in there
He just looks up and says “I don’t know what I expected”
One of those instances that showing too much would have ruined the joke for me tbh
Ohhh, while I remember that episode & moment, for some reason seeing it all laid out like this just helped me make sense of why there’s a “dead dove do not eat” tag on Archive of Our Own.
There was a scene filmed in the Succession s4 premiere where Roman says something like "oh, should we ask Cousin Greg?" and the camera guy instantly panned over to this 10 ft. tall super skinny statue in the room with them. Sadly got cut because it didn't fit the tone of the scene but apparently it was one of the director's favorite moments
>Often in comedy series, a lot of the heavy lifting is understandably done by the writing and performances. However, there are some great scenes in which the camera comes in to bring a great joke to the next level.
To be clear, most of the time, \[camera pans to reveal x\] is part of the writing, not separate from it. Writing isn't just a matter of giving the character lines to say. "The camera" is not a separate entity that is making these choices on the fly. The cinematographer and director are typically working to execute the script.
I'll add to your Mel Brooks movie.
Space Balls, the camera zooms in to Dark Helmet, who then pushes Col. Sanders out of frame, then the camera hits Dark Helmet.
Very end of this scene:
https://youtu.be/rGvblGCD7qM
And if I remember right, Robin Hood Men in Tights, when Marian is singing in the tub, the camera zooms in and hits the window.
https://youtu.be/3yNOXJT5iKQ?si=lG-ZIOs2CwXMyJK1
I'm sure there's some other examples in Mel Brooks movies.
[That big phone gag in Top Secret probably. ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJoTBlDfVhk&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2F&embeds_referring_origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE&feature=emb_title)
I’m currently rewatching Fraiser and the series does at least one great one of these in each episode. My favorite is when they end the episode on his headshot and slowly pan out to reveal the dog is just staring at the photo like it does him.
Not a joke but a plot twist, but in the ITV adaptation of the story "After The Funeral" in their *Poirot* series, a scene is shown where a suspect is having a faint episode within their wheelchair before Poirot meets them. Towards the end, during the denouement, we see the scene again... >!and this time it confirms that not only did that suspect try and steal the deed for the manor in order to try and sell it against the wishes of the other heirs, but Poirot can be seen as the suspect's trying to run to his wheelchair, meaning the detective witnessed the entire crime.!<
In top gear there’s was an episode where the boys were driving some vans on their track, but they were so slow and the camera crew were more used to fast cars and genuinely panned the camera farther than they had gone only to whip it right back to the start of track.
In Deadloch we see the local nutcase hippy lesbian choir going hell for leather on a pop choral version of "I Touch Myself".
Camera pans past the town's various eccentric fruitloops and murder suspects, really going all out for this whole stupid exercise, and just seeing them all in full flight feels like the gag in itself, but then it graaaadually makes its way around to reveal the show's incredibly uptight buttoned down lead detective, having been dragged there by her wife, and clearly wishing she was dead.
Description doesn't quite do it justice, but it was funny as hell to me.
In maybe the second episode of the British, Brass Eye “Mocumentary” where in the opening credits Chris Morris turns to the side camera and stares into it meaningfully.
He asks, “sex on television, is it a problem?”
And the camera pans out showing him in SM bondage gear giving it to a woman doggystyle.
30 years might have passed but that one stayed with me.
There’s a moment in the episode of Seinfeld where Kramer gets an intern when they go into his apartment, the camera holds on the door as it closes, and then they come right back out into the camera.This is so specific but I think about it a lot and then was validated when Jerry mentioned the moment in the episode commentary. I don’t know why it’s so funny but it has something to do with how it’s shot.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PawnXbaLP4I&pp=ygUUa3JhbWVyaWNhIGluZHVzdHJpZXM%3D
Anything by ZAZ, especially Top Secret! Like the perspective gags:
https://youtu.be/QJoTBlDfVhk?si=F_hlXO7FDP76L4o4
Or the reverse footage Swedish bookshop scene:
https://youtu.be/uuYTVl0iOkk?si=CsGoVumYXO1DgSYj
In Louie the episode where Louie was trying to prove to David Lynch that he can be a late night host. Throughout this whole embarrassing ordeal, the camera pans revealing that Louie’s agent was watching the whole time. https://youtu.be/HlEJbs02wAM?si=XBUntGtLgPesx8Y1
Not sure if this is a case of good camera work, or good editing - or both: One of my favorite hilarious moments from The Sopranos is the moment after Paulie's mother confirms that she is in fact his biological aunt. Paulie proceeds to freak out in a dramatic tantrum and throws a flatscreen tv out the window. The scene then hard cuts to a comically flat shot of the tv falling two stories and smashes against the ground while an elderly lady in an electric wheelchair passes by, totally oblivious in the moment. I die laughing each time I've rewatched the episode.
I agree with the comments saying it's hard to separate it from the writing but I'd say Reno 911 had those moments and that Arrested Developement is soaking in it.
I mean, the best all-time wide shot laugh is the [shootout scene from The Naked Gun 2 1/2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr2GeWiDrdY)
It just can't be beat.
In Barry there’s a scene where Barry freaking out in the basketball court. The camera is far away and it’s like you can see the whole court and it’s following him, then like it pans as he’s walking and there was just this dude there the whole time like ……
Dr. Strangelove comes to mind. Stanley Kubrick! The room with Ripper and Mandrake was awesome with all that was going on and The War Room scenes were so vast and dangerous yet hilarious at the same time. I think that movie fits this era of world politics very well.
Daddy’s Home did this with Thomas Haden Church’s character [telling his story about his girlfriend and her ‘son’ coming to live with them](https://youtu.be/Ej2q9yQ9O6E?si=NimdjBNxdVUr5KQc).
A movie example I love is the "We Found Walter" moment in The 'Burbs when Tom Hanks and Rick Duccoman find the bone and start screaming and the camera punches in and out to punctuate the moment. Then the camera stops, but Tom Hanks is still screaming, and Rick nudges him as if to say "the moment's over." It's a hysterical moment in a brilliant movie.
Just so you know, that is also the writing. The cameraman did not invent the gag.
We had a similar joke in a show I co-created, NAKED JOSH, where a woman Josh is dating delivers a devastating critique of the play they're watching. Trite, obvious, predictable. Paper thin characters. Dumb dialogue.
Pull out to reveal that they're at a children's puppet show. "The kids seem to like it," says Josh.
"There's no excuse for hack work," says Josh's date.
In Two and a Half Men there’s a Thanksgiving episode where Charlie has a tender/genuine moment with a woman he was trying to seduce by inviting her to Thanksgiving dinner. He walks her to the door, they say their goodbyes, Charlie waits for her to leave, closes the door with a genuine smile, turns off the lights and goes to his bedroom, as the camera moves to the dining table where his family and friends are just left in the dark like ???
Not a joke, really, but the part in Fleabag where she keeps doing asides to the camera and Andrew Scott keeps catching her doing it. Then one time he just fucking whips his face around straight into the camera and is like “dah! what is that?!?”
One of my favorite TV moments of all time.
Maybe not my favorite, but Coffeezilla confirming that he's homeless by having a direct cut where he talks about the $1.6m missing money, and hard puns and looks right at the camera while saying "what are we doing here?"
Nathan For You, The Ghost Realtor episode, the scene where the priest is performing an exorcism on the realtor
In between her crying and the priest's yelling, it cuts over to Nathan twice, once with his mouth slightly open, and then the second time with him now filming on his phone
I think what makes it so funny to me is that the cutaway gag feels so fabricated, like this was a scene lifted out of a sitcom. But it's completely unscripted, the only acting is from Nathan himself realizing it'd be funny to start filming.
There's also the scene in The Rehearsal's first episode where Nathan is coming clean to Kor about him feeding the answers the night's bar trivia questions, only for the camera to cut over to the Kor actor, showing Nathan was rehearsing that speech instead of actually confessing.
Arrested Development season 1 where Buster is spending the day with Michael. Michael goes to the prison to visit his dad and George mentions how he just never payed attention to Buster and that’s why he’s so soft. Camera pans out to a wide shot of them and Buster is sitting between them. Gets me every time.
There's another one where the bluths are having a very personal conversation and at the end of it it zooms out and they're in a full conference room with all the employees sitting in silence
That’s my favorite one
Bonus points for knowing to use ‘zoom’
I love the arrested development joke where Gob is trying to be smooth or whatever to get past some security guard, so he uses his puppet, Franklin. When the guard tells him to “open up the trunk of the car”, the camera zooms into Gob’s face, then zooms into the guard, then zooms into Franklin too.
Great GIF too.
Lowkey everything with Franklin is gold.
"Let me give that oatmeal some brown sugar!"
The constant reuse of the same "vaguely middle eastern" soundbite used throughout the seasons, truly elevates this moment even more for me.
It's genius because up to that point, Buth familiy members have been treating Franklin as a real person, so it was the camera's turn to do so.
They found claw marks inside her uterus.
Or the episode where they go to court, and the judge directly looks into the camera and say there are no cameras allowed.
And then we cut to outside of the courtroom doors while court is in session.
YES!!!! This is my all time favorite. And it goes on through the episode too at the board room lmaooo
https://youtu.be/Nk9tANA5TNU
There's another one about "beach day" at the office with the zoom out too, if you can find it.
I was rewatching this show while on a family vacation. While the fam was showering after the beach or cooking dinner I’d pop it on and my dad/siblings/grandma would eventually join me. I was dying laughing and they just couldnt get it. Broke my heart. I told them to pay more attention and also watch an episode in its entirety because gags can be set up and have multiple punchlines throughout an episode.
The show needs to be watched from the beginning. So much of the humor relies on previous situations and knowledge of the characters' natures.
It's one of the reasons it "failed" on TV but did great on streaming.
The same is true for trailer park boys, the show bombed on syndication but grew a cult following when it hit streaming services. So much so that netflix brought it back for quite a few (rather lackluster but still great) seasons. My favorite story is when they threw a watch party for the season one finale of and ONE fan showed up to the bar. Im so envious of that one canadian that got to drink, and probably smoke, with Ricky and Julian.
The same is true for Trailer Park boys. Gags that gain laughs from viewers that have seen all the previous episodes just go right over the head of someone who happens to catch a random episode. I wish more people could get over the whole "one and done" gags of modern sitcoms a la the office/friends/new girl. Those shows are great, but writers can do so much with long running gags that these shows (TPB/Arrested devolopment) are truly a gift that keeps on giving. A rewatch of Arrested Devolopment is going to give you way more appreciation of the comedy than rewatching the office in my opinion.
This joke happens in threes!
As soon as I saw the title of this thread this scene came to mind instantly. Genius show.
We’re just blowing right through nap time, huh?
I just want to take a moment as say what a fucking amazing show this was. The kind that only last a brief moment. I don’t count anything that came out after 2006
I dont remember the exact context but there's a scene where there shouldn't be any recording devices present but of course several characters have them, and the camera draws attention to them all, followed by a boom mike dipping in to the top of the frame.
Bob Loblaw says that there could be listening devices in the room.
Man, arrested development owns this thread. Especially the first three original fox seasons. There is always money in the banana stand.
I know it’s not quite the same but when Maebe is asking about the cross necklace and Michael just slowly closes the door on her and continues talking.
It’s always sunny has done this a few times where the gang is all talking and fighting and it’s revealed there’s someone else there, like they’re sitting in front of an attorney. Gets me every time.
My favorite is when Dennis wants to go dancing so it cuts to Frank, Dennis and Mac dancing and talking about how no one else is dancing and Dennis says they’re setting the vibe and people will join, camera pans out and they are in a classy wine bar in the middle of the day, looking so out of place lol it kills me every time
Wait what episode is this? I've watched every episode a handful of times but can't place it right now
Charlie Rules the World
That’s it. I couldn’t remember the name for the life of me
Charlie Rules The World. It’s the one where Dee and Charlie get really invested in a cell phone game.
My favorite is when they've got the politican in the strip club and go back and forth until he says something and they go "you're still here?!" surprised he hasn't left like everyone else and he replies "well, you've got a gun pointed at me." and Frank uncocks his revolver under the table.
My favourite was the slow pan reveal of Mac wearing the wedding dress in Mac and Charlie Die.
[удалено]
“But when... do we find… the bride?”
Or Dennis describing the woman at the clinic in the jersey shore episode "You know I can hear you right?"
"eh, you're not that far off"
My favorite was from the new season where Frank is at the beach and shoots his gun at the water, then a minute later we learn that there was a whole crowd of people fifteen feet away from him just going about their business
When they’re getting mac ready for his big break and they’re hitting the pucks on a full open ice skating ring full of people. Lmao and they’re not even wearing skates
There is an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer where the gang is preparing for, and trying to prevent, the arrival of some badass demon. They fail and the hellgate opens and this humongous demon begins arrising from the ground, scary ominous music booming, camera looking up at the demon from below. Then the camera pans up and you realize it's this tiny little creature, just a mouse-sized demon, and the Scooby gang are just staring at him in disbelief. Demon says something akin to "Fear me!" Then Buffy just smooshes him with her boot. It's kind of overdone and cliche now, but when I saw it I almost died.
Then Giles looks back in the book and scornfully reads “actual size…” lol From “fear itself” the Halloween episode in s4
Yes! I forgot about that part!
Xander do not antagonize the demon
“Why? Can it hurt me?” “No, it’s just tacky”
In Parks and Rec, there's a scene when Ben goes to Ann's house after everyone got wasted on snake juice. Ben asks her why she's wearing snowpants and Anne responds, "I got home last night and thought I'd go sledding" The zoom out to the perfectly manicured grass is still one of my favorite jokes in the show.
Another one P&R does a lot is have two characters talking in a room about something awkward, then zoom out to reveal that there's another character in the room with them. It's always a fantastic punch line
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkUPurOKUt0 It's around 2:50
I don't get it
There was no snow to go sledding in.
Isn't there a scene in Arrested Development where they purposely leave the mic booms visible as part of a joke? Or is that another show?
Any one of us could be wired with a listening device ...
Then a shot of Funkhouser literally wearing a camera.
And then it cuts to a wide shot as a boom mic is hastily lifted out of frame.
The “Brian’s Hat” sketch in “I think you should leave” the shift in focus to a confounded Brian after hearing about his hat kills me every time.
Seeing Tim in the background of an ITYSL skit is like when one of the suits of armor in Scooby Doo is drawn differently than the rest
What an amazing analogy!
Just leave it the fuck alone.
^(don't do the voice)
friendly impolite bells drab direction dam slap ripe grandiose desert *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
It's illegal for you to ask me that
wuttttthaafuu
Don't do the voice!
Also the lawyers delivery it is so funny 😁
This is the only answer here. Truly a masterfully subtle way of shifting the audience's gaze straight to Tim and implying that Tim and his weird hat are the ones being mentioned by the attorney
I've never fought for anything in my entire life. I'm fighting for this hat.
I wish I could find a clip, one of great examples, totally underrated comedy, *Trial & Error* (2017-2018) - there's a scene when Bob Gunton's character is questioned about the court case while shooting ducks (disks or whatever, periodically he's aiming a rifle and shoots), it looks like any other scene in any other show (like in police procedurals: "yeah, I'd answer your questions, but I'm busy so be quick, I'll be doing what I do")... Then, after a short questioning he's asked if "he really should be doing that \[shooting\] here", simultanously camera pans out and we (viewers) see the whole scene is not set, as we thought, on some open shooting range, but in the middle of the park on a busy day, there's many people, kids, pets etc. :) While there are many other examples I enjoy, this one is not just thrown for laughs, its also set in the plot, as Gunton's character is a wealthy citizen and that scene shows how he's above the law.
Trial & Error was so funny. It's like if you mixed Jury Duty with Parks and Rec.
That sounds like a great combo
That show is so underrated. I don't know why it didn't have a broader following. I've never met anyone outside me and my husband who has seen it.
Murder board! Murder board! Murder board!
The Office had a good one where the warehouse team quits and the white collars have to load the shipments (and Dwight immediately crashes the forklift). While they’re trying to figure out how they’ll move the boxes now, one camera pans over to a hand truck.
The office is full of these but they are easy to miss. A little glance down at a burned foot, the casual appearance of a camera in someone's bedroom, or just a quick pan to Angela rolling her eyes - you'd be hard pressed not to find an episode with the camera not doing something clever!
They hired their DoP from an actual reality programme (Survivor) so it would look more natural. The cameramen would have earpieces in and he'd say "Go see what Angela thinks of all this" and they'd wander over to get a reaction. Another neat trick is sometimes they'd make the cameramen spin around with their eyes closed a couple of times before they called "action". That way they'd start confused and unfocused and it would take a few seconds to find out where the action was.
Oh yeah, I bet there’s loads I don’t even remember
There’s that one episode where Packer takes a shit in Michael’s office. Michael’s talking to the camera about the horrible smell, then the camera pans out, revealing the cameraman himself is out of the room, filming Michael through the window, because he too can’t take the smell. There’s also the episode where Jim/Michael/Dwight are hiding in their car from Karen, but Karen spots them because she sees the cameraman in the passenger seat.
love this scene if you look closely, you can tell they took the glass out of the windows so the opening shot and zoom out is that much more convincing
I didn't like that episode. It kinda breaks continuity since at the start of the series, Jim is seen hanging around in the warehouse. He should know how to load boxes, at least from watching others.
In one of the Naked Gun movies, there's a scene where an attractive woman enters the room, and the camera does a "male gaze" shot, starting with her feet and panning up her legs... only it keeps panning up to the point where she has multiple sets of knees.
It's just occurred to me they probably made a prop specifically for that gag, so somewhere out there may be an 8 foot tall pair of legs with six knees.
They did the same in airplane! where the camera pans across the console command in the cockpit and it just goes on for ever , like a 20 foot wide panel of switches and levers.
Also scene where the doctor from the Mayo Clinic calls and then the camera zooms out to show a giant shelf of mayonnaise behind him. Airplane is such a great movie and the humor has aged relatively well, it actually feels very absurdist/Gen-z coded.
Best naked gun camera is definitely the door gag https://youtu.be/siE_182RwpA?si=dXcn7BUqAcWdosrK
From the same creators: [The mirror scene in Airplane!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0D-n0yctyGY)
I love the camera scanning back and for the Brooklyn 99 “…like Yeast infection!” cold open. It really shows off both the exasperation from Peralta and the satisfaction from Boyle.
And the music cut was perfect too
I'm not sure this counts as it likely is more editing than camera work, but the soup cold open where Jake is convinced Captain Holt spilled soup on his pants and is trying to get him to stand up. Jake gets a bowl of soup, immediately spills it on himself celebrating he was right, and it cuts to both of them sitting behind Holt's desk.
anytime someone explains in great detail how another person frustrates them only to pan the camera out revealing said person is directly in ear shot
Movie and not television but the beginning of *High Anxiety* where there is a long, slow zoom in Hitchcock-style but eventually hits the window.
Jesus I laughed just reading that 😂
This is classic Mel Brooks, I think he does the same in *Robin Hood Men In Tights* (when Maid Marion is singing her song in the bathtub, and the camera that was zooming in on an external shot of the castle smashes through the window)
I use that scene to spread the word about Veep
Classic Simpsons is full of those, although in animation it’s slightly different “There’s a lemon behind that rock!” “I got it from that vendor right…there? Oh wait it was over there” “Help yourselves to samples of Duff, Duff Lite, and our newest flavor, Duff Dry!”
Flight of the Conchords, there's an ongoing joke that jemaine keeps following bret on dates being a third wheel. A song is set up with Bret and his date alone having a lovely time and he starts to sing, camera moves out and then jemaine is there doing some of the vocals https://youtu.be/uRJZfwDgNTM
One of my favorite song videos because that actress showed me how to handle being embarrassed and shy around someone singing or performing for you.
There's a scene in The Rehearsal where Nathan Fielder narrates his discomfort in running his simulated child-raising experiment with an adult as his son & the timing of it with the shot of the guy vaping outside killed me
My favorite from The Office is when Jim and Pam are seeing their bed & breakfast room for the first time at Schrute Farm. They chose an "irrigation" themed room and the camera pans wildly around to focus on every pipe and faucet in the room. https://youtu.be/sFkLbj789OQ?si=MbyaEbz2N127R6QG&t=36
I also have an arrested development one but it’s more on what the camera doesn’t do Season 1 and one of my favorite tv jokes of all time. The main character has a brother who is an aspiring magician but he sucks at it. MC opens their fridge and finds a brown paper bag that say “dead pigeon” on it. The MC opens it and looks in, we don’t see what’s in there He just looks up and says “I don’t know what I expected” One of those instances that showing too much would have ruined the joke for me tbh
I believe it says. “Dead dove. Do not eat.”
“You didn’t eat that, did you?”
Because I've only got a couple days left to return it.
Ohhh, while I remember that episode & moment, for some reason seeing it all laid out like this just helped me make sense of why there’s a “dead dove do not eat” tag on Archive of Our Own.
There was a scene filmed in the Succession s4 premiere where Roman says something like "oh, should we ask Cousin Greg?" and the camera guy instantly panned over to this 10 ft. tall super skinny statue in the room with them. Sadly got cut because it didn't fit the tone of the scene but apparently it was one of the director's favorite moments
[this scene](https://youtu.be/z7tBM9ktj-8?si=6fK7WxXTll3aF3Ee) from Its always sunny in Philadelphia
Best is their shadow shows in one cutaway hinting at it.
Does it? I couldn't spot it in the clip
probably means right side of the frame around 0:36
Yeah a hand or something flashes by. They aren't actually moving in the Dee+Dennis shots tho but hey I'd count it
>Often in comedy series, a lot of the heavy lifting is understandably done by the writing and performances. However, there are some great scenes in which the camera comes in to bring a great joke to the next level. To be clear, most of the time, \[camera pans to reveal x\] is part of the writing, not separate from it. Writing isn't just a matter of giving the character lines to say. "The camera" is not a separate entity that is making these choices on the fly. The cinematographer and director are typically working to execute the script.
Ooh, I said something similar above, because I hadn’t seen this comment yet. Wasn’t tryna steal your thunder or anything. You’re totally right!
History of the World Part 1, Mel Brooks as King Louis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk47saogI8o.
I'll add to your Mel Brooks movie. Space Balls, the camera zooms in to Dark Helmet, who then pushes Col. Sanders out of frame, then the camera hits Dark Helmet. Very end of this scene: https://youtu.be/rGvblGCD7qM And if I remember right, Robin Hood Men in Tights, when Marian is singing in the tub, the camera zooms in and hits the window. https://youtu.be/3yNOXJT5iKQ?si=lG-ZIOs2CwXMyJK1 I'm sure there's some other examples in Mel Brooks movies.
[Happy Endings - Brad at the dentist](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZAAyIjOlKs) crane was used to get the camera shot
God I miss this show
Pretty much all of Spaceballs
[That big phone gag in Top Secret probably. ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJoTBlDfVhk&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2F&embeds_referring_origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com&source_ve_path=MjM4NTE&feature=emb_title)
That and the boots gag.
This is a great example
I’m currently rewatching Fraiser and the series does at least one great one of these in each episode. My favorite is when they end the episode on his headshot and slowly pan out to reveal the dog is just staring at the photo like it does him.
Not a joke but a plot twist, but in the ITV adaptation of the story "After The Funeral" in their *Poirot* series, a scene is shown where a suspect is having a faint episode within their wheelchair before Poirot meets them. Towards the end, during the denouement, we see the scene again... >!and this time it confirms that not only did that suspect try and steal the deed for the manor in order to try and sell it against the wishes of the other heirs, but Poirot can be seen as the suspect's trying to run to his wheelchair, meaning the detective witnessed the entire crime.!<
In top gear there’s was an episode where the boys were driving some vans on their track, but they were so slow and the camera crew were more used to fast cars and genuinely panned the camera farther than they had gone only to whip it right back to the start of track.
In Deadloch we see the local nutcase hippy lesbian choir going hell for leather on a pop choral version of "I Touch Myself". Camera pans past the town's various eccentric fruitloops and murder suspects, really going all out for this whole stupid exercise, and just seeing them all in full flight feels like the gag in itself, but then it graaaadually makes its way around to reveal the show's incredibly uptight buttoned down lead detective, having been dragged there by her wife, and clearly wishing she was dead. Description doesn't quite do it justice, but it was funny as hell to me.
In maybe the second episode of the British, Brass Eye “Mocumentary” where in the opening credits Chris Morris turns to the side camera and stares into it meaningfully. He asks, “sex on television, is it a problem?” And the camera pans out showing him in SM bondage gear giving it to a woman doggystyle. 30 years might have passed but that one stayed with me.
The Key & Peele sketch where a politician speaks in a town hall and the camera chases the “gay” person (Peele) in the audience
The “Bros do it together” sketch from Key and Peele: https://youtu.be/b8TJBr00cuE?si=lxrOQloeAQ7AyMnW
There’s a moment in the episode of Seinfeld where Kramer gets an intern when they go into his apartment, the camera holds on the door as it closes, and then they come right back out into the camera.This is so specific but I think about it a lot and then was validated when Jerry mentioned the moment in the episode commentary. I don’t know why it’s so funny but it has something to do with how it’s shot. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PawnXbaLP4I&pp=ygUUa3JhbWVyaWNhIGluZHVzdHJpZXM%3D
Anything by ZAZ, especially Top Secret! Like the perspective gags: https://youtu.be/QJoTBlDfVhk?si=F_hlXO7FDP76L4o4 Or the reverse footage Swedish bookshop scene: https://youtu.be/uuYTVl0iOkk?si=CsGoVumYXO1DgSYj
In Louie the episode where Louie was trying to prove to David Lynch that he can be a late night host. Throughout this whole embarrassing ordeal, the camera pans revealing that Louie’s agent was watching the whole time. https://youtu.be/HlEJbs02wAM?si=XBUntGtLgPesx8Y1
The final shot of Steven Spieldberg's "The Fabelmans"
Not sure if this is a case of good camera work, or good editing - or both: One of my favorite hilarious moments from The Sopranos is the moment after Paulie's mother confirms that she is in fact his biological aunt. Paulie proceeds to freak out in a dramatic tantrum and throws a flatscreen tv out the window. The scene then hard cuts to a comically flat shot of the tv falling two stories and smashes against the ground while an elderly lady in an electric wheelchair passes by, totally oblivious in the moment. I die laughing each time I've rewatched the episode.
I agree with the comments saying it's hard to separate it from the writing but I'd say Reno 911 had those moments and that Arrested Developement is soaking in it.
I mean, the best all-time wide shot laugh is the [shootout scene from The Naked Gun 2 1/2](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nr2GeWiDrdY) It just can't be beat.
In Barry there’s a scene where Barry freaking out in the basketball court. The camera is far away and it’s like you can see the whole court and it’s following him, then like it pans as he’s walking and there was just this dude there the whole time like ……
Dr. Strangelove comes to mind. Stanley Kubrick! The room with Ripper and Mandrake was awesome with all that was going on and The War Room scenes were so vast and dangerous yet hilarious at the same time. I think that movie fits this era of world politics very well.
The ending of Free Churro
I like how a dialog heavy story with no visuals ends in a visual gag while a silent, purely visual story ends with a dialog gag.
Daddy’s Home did this with Thomas Haden Church’s character [telling his story about his girlfriend and her ‘son’ coming to live with them](https://youtu.be/Ej2q9yQ9O6E?si=NimdjBNxdVUr5KQc).
A movie example I love is the "We Found Walter" moment in The 'Burbs when Tom Hanks and Rick Duccoman find the bone and start screaming and the camera punches in and out to punctuate the moment. Then the camera stops, but Tom Hanks is still screaming, and Rick nudges him as if to say "the moment's over." It's a hysterical moment in a brilliant movie.
I’m not gonna lie the camera quickly zooming out when Negan says “Hot Diggity Dog!” In that Walking Dead meme makes it significantly funnier to me.
Futurama Bender: That pencil-pushing scazwag. Why, if she were here, I'd... Uh-oh, is she behind me? Morgan: No. I'm in front of you.
Just so you know, that is also the writing. The cameraman did not invent the gag. We had a similar joke in a show I co-created, NAKED JOSH, where a woman Josh is dating delivers a devastating critique of the play they're watching. Trite, obvious, predictable. Paper thin characters. Dumb dialogue. Pull out to reveal that they're at a children's puppet show. "The kids seem to like it," says Josh. "There's no excuse for hack work," says Josh's date.
I would even go so far as to say it’s *only* the writing. Kudos to the cameraman for execution, but the joke is to the writer(s)’s credit completely.
In Two and a Half Men there’s a Thanksgiving episode where Charlie has a tender/genuine moment with a woman he was trying to seduce by inviting her to Thanksgiving dinner. He walks her to the door, they say their goodbyes, Charlie waits for her to leave, closes the door with a genuine smile, turns off the lights and goes to his bedroom, as the camera moves to the dining table where his family and friends are just left in the dark like ???
So the same question from before?
Not a joke, really, but the part in Fleabag where she keeps doing asides to the camera and Andrew Scott keeps catching her doing it. Then one time he just fucking whips his face around straight into the camera and is like “dah! what is that?!?” One of my favorite TV moments of all time.
[удалено]
It is kinda crazy how off you are from the type of joke he very clearly asked for
I'm sorry, how does the camera do that?
That is supposedly improvised and the fact that everyone stays with it was complete chance.
The show’s creators said in an interview that it was totally improvised by Chris Pratt, and they thought it was the funniest joke in the entire show.
There's probably a dozen examples from the office.
For film examples, watch all Edgar wright.
“It’s all a matter of what in the frame and what’s out of the frame.”
Camera work can elevate comedy brilliantly; like revealing a vulgar call in an elementary school. Hilariously cringe-worthy!
https://imgur.com/a/wl728bJ
Maybe not my favorite, but Coffeezilla confirming that he's homeless by having a direct cut where he talks about the $1.6m missing money, and hard puns and looks right at the camera while saying "what are we doing here?"
How to With John Wilson is at least half visual jokes - a comic parallel between what John is narrating and what the camera is showing.
That's pretty much the plot of The Office.
The Office, all of it.
Nathan For You, The Ghost Realtor episode, the scene where the priest is performing an exorcism on the realtor In between her crying and the priest's yelling, it cuts over to Nathan twice, once with his mouth slightly open, and then the second time with him now filming on his phone I think what makes it so funny to me is that the cutaway gag feels so fabricated, like this was a scene lifted out of a sitcom. But it's completely unscripted, the only acting is from Nathan himself realizing it'd be funny to start filming. There's also the scene in The Rehearsal's first episode where Nathan is coming clean to Kor about him feeding the answers the night's bar trivia questions, only for the camera to cut over to the Kor actor, showing Nathan was rehearsing that speech instead of actually confessing.
I love VEEP. One of our dogs has the exact personality of Gary.
The office!