Wonder of wonders: Many of the stabs at levity in TPM actually succeed

Oddly enough, while I find the throwaways in Attack of the Clones and Return of the Jedi to be almost uniformly groan-inducing, I think this, the most savaged SW film, is host to some fairly satisfying humor. Sure, there's little that gets a real guffaw out of me (those are reserved for A New Hope), but I recall at least ten exchanges/gags that manage to "bring warm feelings to my heart."

1. "The negotiations were short."
2. "What's this?" "A local." (The adults in the audience ate this one up.)
3. "He is sentenced to be...PUnished. (The connotations quite evident by the grin on Nass's face.)
4. The escalating underwater confrontations, capped by: "There's always a bigger fish."
5. The Vulcan nerve pinch performed on Binks. ("You overdid it.")
6. Qui-Gon's doomed manipulation of Watto. ("Credits will do fine." "No, they won't!")
7. Jinn's snaring of Binks's tongue, which punctuates the Jedi reflex conversation.
8. Jabba's casual killing of the creature prancing on the ledge. (Deliciously mordant character-moment.)
9. Sebulba's single-word curse after having lost the race.
10. Fortuna having to rouse Jabba from slumber. (All the more amusing if you fancy the Pod Race sequence to be needlessly prolonged.)


Toilet humor aside, weren't there a few gems to be gleaned?

 

Oh, yes.

I'll throw a few more into the mix:

- "Moya moy, you saved my again!" (You have to love the comical brevity of Qui Gon saving Binks' life twice in a matter of seconds. I've always thought that Jar Jar and Qui Gon are a great double act.)

- "Oh, don't worry. This hasn't been our day for warm welcomes." (Obi Wan deftly sums up the start of the saga.)

- "Viceroy, we have captured the Queen."/"Ah, victory!" (I love the way Nute inflects "victory".)

- The scene between Panaka and Qui Gon, where Panaka tells Qui Gon that a "handmaiden" wants to tag along, is golden. This is a very coy moment exceptionally well played by both actors.

- "I hope you didn't kill anyone I know for it!" (Watto rules).

- "I saved the pod... mostly." (Love the way Anakin intones "mostly"; Lloyd is underrated in these moments.)

- "Why do I get the sense that we've picked up another pathetic lifeform?" (Obi Wan's good nature shines through his limited Jedi training here.)

- "What has that got to do with anything?"/"Everything!" (Yoda as worried bank clerk. His answer cracked people up at the cinema I was in.)

- Call me childish, but I've always found it hilarious when Jar Jar is swinging on the tank gun turret. Some of the physical humour really works for me.

- "And you, young Skywalker, we shall watch your career with great interest." (C'mon, now -- that's a brazen line!)

 

Those were all good.

However, some of these made me throw up in my mouth a little bit.

Jar Jar just gets in the way here and distracts me from the main plot.

Meh, I can live with it, but I could live without it too.

I knew what was up the second I saw this as did just about any and everyone else in the audience, so I was wondering why a well trained Jedi that was there couldn't figure it out. Kinda knocked me back into reality for a second.

I disagree. I think it's just bad acting and one of the main reasons some (not all) people think the part was miscast.

Again Jar Jar gets in the way. I don't need to see him get kicked in the testicles or farted on every 5 minutes.

Strilo edit: The scientific term please.

 

Uh, Qui-gon knew that Padme was the Queen. He knew, that's why he and Obi-wan exchange that look and why Qui-gon keeps giving her crap.

"Throughout the film, I have been playing with the fact earlier on that Qui-Gon knows that Padme is the Queen, and he uses that, especially when they go on Tatooine, he taunts her a couple of times, and in the podrace he taunts her a couple of times because he is having fun with her because he knows she?s the Queen but the others around her don?t. So he?s been waiting for her to step forward and reveal herself. Anakin is completely surprised but Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon aren?t."

--George Lucas, TPM DVD Commentary.

 

AH! Even better then, why doesn't our little hero with all the those midichlorians flying around realize this.

 

Because he has no Jedi training at this point. He has the potential, but the abilities just aren't there yet.

 

Think that through. He can foresee the future. He can race at a rate higher than any other normal human would be able to. He's extremely in tune with the force... and this is what throws him off?

 

He has the potential to develop his senses/abilities into powerful tools but right now his force power is raw and undeveloped. Therefore he can't see through Padme's disgusie like Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon can.

 

I should have known that this thread would be quickly derailed by bashing.

I both agree and disagree. Yes, he gets in the way, but only to the extent that he's meant to (at least here, in my opinion). The comedy value comes from Qui Gon brushing him off and then saving his life again, only ingratiating himself further with Jar Jar. An important idea about Jedi arrogance also appears here: Qui Gon is forced to reconsider his initial assessment and becomes more tolerant when he senses the Force trying to tell him something.

Anakin has tremendous abilities -- but he's also still a kid. He needs to be exposed to more of the world, his mind needs to be trained and his potential needs to be shaped. He is very naive on some issues, especially those of trust, and evaluates people based on how they treat him, not necessarily how they behave. Padme treats him well. He doesn't sense deception from her. This mentality carries over in his dealings with Palpatine.

 

Cryogenic, I agree with all of the points you've made in your post. Anakin is trusting by nature and he befriends and trusts Padme quickly. The same applies to his relationship with Palpatine. He sees him [at least while he was young] as a nice man who likes him and looks out for him. So Anakin trusts him.

 

Dark Jedi I would in fact say that his abilities were somewhat developed considering what he could do at that point. I have a hard time putting my head around him being able to do all this other stuff and not figure out who she was. Not a biggie though.

And Cryogenic I took 5 of your quotes and said I like them because I genuinely do. I took the other 5 and told you why I didn't care for them. That's more balance than bashing, and if I wanted to pick I would have said that your 10 made you a gusher. We are debating and posting our thoughts here, right? Or are we all just going to agree and call it a day?


*Sigh* Nice edit while I was making my points

 

Dark Jedi I would in fact say that his abilities were somewhat developed considering what he could do at that point. I have a hard time putting my head around him being able to do all this other stuff and not figure out who she was. Not a biggie though.


Look at it this way, Anakin had the hots for Padme. That alone would cloud his vision. Also when she put on the makeup to become the Queen, she was no longer as attractive. Anakin just couldnt comprehend makeup.

 

We are indeed debating and posting our thoughts here. But your post was obviously skewed in the negative: you quickly rounded up the quotes you agreed with and have spent the rest of your duration in this thread picking apart the logic of the film, instead of remaining focused on the topic of humour; this, in turn, has made others, myself included, attempt to refute your claims. I might have been gushing about the film, sure, but at least I was gushing on topic. What I have said stands: this thread has been derailed by bashing.

Since I am the only person, as of this writing, to have edited a post between your penultimate and last, this remark must be logically directed at me, so allow me to retort: I edited my post at 3:33pm, whereas you made yours at 3:38pm. I can't be held responsible for you not seeing the additional text. The fact that you then edited your own post at 3;42pm, presumably to make, and only to make, that last remark, is your decision, not mine. I can only lament an action in which someone sighs and subtly implies deception/backpeddling on my part. There simply is none.

 

Times of edits and postings are based on when you hit the "Post Reply" button. If i'm in the middle of posting a response and then you decide to add more to your post than "I knew this thread would get derailed by bashing" during that time the times mean very little, especially if I took the time to go get a beer.

I am not bashing and I'm not saying that you are gushing. I don't think either group is good or bad. I am simply saying that 5 of those quotes brought a smile to my face and the other 5 did not. If that is "skewed" then so be it. I didn't think I should post a response to the things I didn't particularly care for without explaining why. Don't take it so personal. I'll take 5 outta 10 most of the time.

 

Let's please get back on topic. kthx

 

TPM has some great humorous moments, most of them involving Qui-Gon or Obi-Wan. Jar Jar's humor I've never found very funny however, I also don't usually find it all too intrusive.

 

I found sebulba particularily humorous, especially his use of huttese to say, certain things.

I've noticed that huttese has a very slight similarity to latin languages. Not noticeable, but when I was reading "Darkness" once I found myself understanding the basic part of what an Ando speaking in Huttese was saying.

If I'm right, then Sebulba said one very un-pg thing to his twi'lek slaves...

 

What did he say? (send to me in PM's if have to. )

 

TPM is very light hearted, and that is why I enjoy it. The pit droids were very funny and really neat to watch.

 

I was completely unspoiled going into TPM. Frankly, I don't watch movies much and didn't even know who Natalie Portman is. Call me an idiot but.....they got me! It didn't seem to make sense that one of the handmaidens was more important than the queen and I probably should have caught on.....but i didn't. Seriously. No. I hadn't been smoking crack. Personally, I rather like the idea more that Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan were shocked. That would have been cooler. Qui-Gon playing all sneaky with the Queen's life in front of the Handmaiden and later finds out that the Queen was watching him. It takes away from that "Qui-Gon is perfect" idea.

Now that you mention it, there WERE great lines.

1. "The negotiations were short."

- God, Obi-Wan was pretty amusing as a Padawan. I'm surprised Qui-Gon didn't kill him for this one.

2. "What's this?" "A local." (The adults in the audience ate this one up.)

Humerous.

3. "He is sentenced to be...PUnished. (The connotations quite evident by the grin on Nass's face.)

I can't agree with this one. I did find the Gungan city to be breathtaking, but was underwhelmed by this exchange.

4. The escalating underwater confrontations, capped by: "There's always a bigger fish."

That was great stuff, watching Qui-Gon feeling the currents of the living force to tell him that he was not in danger.

5. The Vulcan nerve pinch performed on Binks. ("You overdid it.")

It's pretty funny now, but Ewan did not speak clearly enough. I wasn't sure WHAT Obi-Wan said.

6. Qui-Gon's doomed manipulation of Watto. ("Credits will do fine." "No, they won't!") "I hope you didn't kill anyone I know for it!" "YOU CHEATED! You knew the boy would win!"

A lot of what Watto said was so backwater planet slimy business man. He was a GREAT backgroundish character. Frankly my favorite Watto part is in AoTC. "You are Ani! A Jedi! Whaddya know! Hey! I'm have a problem with some Deadbeats....."

7. Jinn's snaring of Binks's tongue, which punctuates the Jedi reflex conversation.

This does annoy a lot of people, but it is well placed and somewhat moves the plot along. It isn't just Jar-Jar smelling a fart.

8. Jabba's casual killing of the creature prancing on the ledge. (Deliciously mordant character-moment.)
I was repulsed by the announcers and the starting "gunshot" being Jabba spitting some creature out into some bell. Very Lame. A lot of the Podrace was horrible.

9. Sebulba's single-word curse after having lost the race.

I did like sebula, but I just don't find this line to be funny.

10. Fortuna having to rouse Jabba from slumber. (All the more amusing if you fancy the Pod Race sequence to be needlessly prolonged.) I thought it was funny in the context of the pod racing event being too long, and in the context that so much is at stake here for so many people, and Jabba probably has more money than anyone riding on the event. Yet, that amount of money is not even worth him staying awake to see if he wins or looses. Shows how financially in control of the planet Jabba was.

- "Moya moy, you saved my again!" (You have to love the comical brevity of Qui Gon saving Binks' life twice in a matter of seconds. I've always thought that Jar Jar and Qui Gon are a great double act.)

Oh God, shoot me. The only exchange I find remotely funny is "We're in Here, big fish out there...all sinking and no power? whensa yousa thinking wesa in trouble?!?!?!

- "Oh, don't worry. This hasn't been our day for warm welcomes." (Obi Wan deftly sums up the start of the saga.)

That's pretty decent humor out of Obi-Wan again.

 

I do have to add that when Qui-Gon and Kenobi exchanged glances. I can see more of a "I KNEW IT!!! I KNEW IT!!! I TOLD YA' SHE WAS THE QUEEN!!!" look to them. They probably had a side bet going, or something.

As to the mostly negative response to Episode One. I think it the superior against Eposode Two. In many ways including humor. I never really thought about Fortuna having to wake up Jabba as a joke though. But now that I think about it. It works as a spot of humor.
And as far as the Gungan's go. I loved them. Nass and Jar Jar most of all. Jar-Jar's stupidity, naivety(sp), and eager to please attitute are so important to the Saga as a whole. It's amazing. Only he could have nominated immediate emergency power to The Supreme Chancellor. Which despite the outcome, is his moment of triumph.
And yes Episode One is the funnier of the three.
From us all being PUNished. To the bad Chinese Take-Out accent of Nute Gunray.

 

The best laugh in TPM is after Nute Gunray talks to Darth Sideous and Darth Maul walks into the hologram:

"This is getting out of hand! Now there are TWO of them!"

 

I've always liked when TC-14 drops the tray of drinks when the Jedi ignite their light sabers and she says, "Sorry!".

another favorite of mine is when Qui gon force pushes a battle droid on Naboo and the droid says "D'oh!"

Nute and his boys always said things which made me laugh, if even unintentional.

Also when going through the planet core and Jar Jar has an A.D.H. D. episode and Qui Gon firmly yells, "RELAX!"


Good thread.
These moments in the film helped me tolerate the movie back in the days when i despised TPM ( i obviously grew to like it)

 

I too thought Quigon and Obiwan didn't know about the Queen, I thought the looks they made sort of implied this:

Obi Wan: Damn, shouldn't have called her a b"#)$ huh Quigon?

Gui Gon: Shut Up Obiwan, this is embarassing enough as it is.



But of course it isn't

 

Actually, I was referring to a later scene, during the race, wherein Jabba flicks another of these docile creatures to its death. Demonstrative of his ethos.

It might help if you substitute this with a certain four-letter word one would shout after a fender-bender.

I enjoyed your input. Thanks.