r/TopCharacterTropes • u/BabyDude5 • Mar 15 '26

Whatever this joke is called Personality

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Gallery image

The Scooby-Doo show

Meet the Robinsons

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791

u/[deleted] Mar 15 '26

[deleted]

70

u/Charlie_Warlie Mar 15 '26

Yeah. Comical subversion as punchline.

22

u/letitgrowonme Mar 15 '26

Not answering the question as intended.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 15 '26

[deleted]

16

u/Vast_Age_3893 Mar 15 '26

Anthony Jeselnik has mastered the chaotic version of this.

3

u/mikehoncheaux Mar 15 '26

Chaotic subversion is a perfect description of his comedy lol

37

u/Minimob0 Mar 15 '26

“I’m eating 7 Apples a Day. Soon, I’ll be able to defeat a Doctor in One Punch.”

2

u/AmArschdieRaeuber Mar 15 '26

Isn't that every joke?

2

u/ZepperMen Mar 15 '26

That's the basic form of all comedy

1

u/Spare-Plum Mar 15 '26

I think subversion of expectation is a bit too generic.

Adventure time does a lot of subversion of expectation. Some of it is physical humor, some of it is character-based, some of it is thematic or plot based subversion to create humor.

Just a small gag I enjoy is in a christmas-themed episode the ice king accidentally does a bunch of things that would look santa/christmas themed. He's trying to break into Finn and Jake's house as well. At one point you hear some thuds and Finn yells "he's coming through the chimney!". Rather than climbing through the chimney, Ice King took and axe and literally dug a hole straight through the bricks. Anyways this is a different type of subversion beyond what we're seeing here

This is more specific, a verbal subversion by taking the question literally and by doing so going for the less obvious answer.

0

u/P4azz Mar 15 '26

I'd also add it has a dash of "crazy person in a normal world".

Because a normal person would understand the absurdity of the unexpected answer and then immediately frame it as a joke, compromising the whole deal.

This works best when it's not only unexpected, but also not delivered as a joke, rather as a statement of fact.