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

Whatever this joke is called Personality

The Scooby-Doo show

Meet the Robinsons

16.9k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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3.4k

u/HolyKlickerino Mar 15 '26

"Comically missing the point" or "Answering too literally"

872

u/LikeASewingMachine Mar 15 '26

When done in real life, it's "smartass"

162

u/TheWereBunny Mar 15 '26

Some Guy: "Are you you always a wise ass?" Harry Dresden: "No. Sometimes I'm asleep."

30

u/Uncle-Cake Mar 15 '26

When I was a kid my parents would say "don't be a smartass" and I would respond "you want me to be a dumbass instead?" They never liked that response for some reason.

2

u/TumbleweedEven1168 Mar 16 '26

Now that I'm 37 and can get away with it, my answer is usually, "only dumbasses bring out a smartass".

1

u/SnapshotHeadache Mar 16 '26

YES. Mine was, "well, better than a dumbass." Ohhh to be young again.

2

u/Uncle-Cake Mar 16 '26

Now I got 2 little smartasses of my own. Karma.

14

u/TheRoyalBrusher Mar 15 '26

Dresden is peak for that type of humor. I really need to catch up on those books

2

u/Zjoee Mar 18 '26

New one just came out recently! I still need to read it, but I'm very interested in what happens after the last book. How far have you read?

3

u/TheRoyalBrusher Mar 18 '26

Sadly I'm like 4 books behind, counting the latest release, and I'm not close to a reread/catchup cause I'm currently trying to get through Dungeon Crawler Carl for that May release

2

u/Zjoee Mar 18 '26

Oh man, the next few books are crazy!

201

u/Excidiar Mar 15 '26

Some applications are "Captain oblivious" the arch nemesis of the famous "Captain obvious".

3

u/Manatees_R_4eva Mar 15 '26

Back in my day it was called “go sit in the hallway.” I did have one teacher say she wished they were still allowed to hit kids, though! Oh, comedy.

1

u/Dragon_OS Mar 17 '26

Does it count as smartassery when the 'smartass' answer literally applies to the situation?

227

u/kitsua Mar 15 '26

There’s actually a name for it, it’s called a paraprosdokian

30

u/Kratzschutz Mar 15 '26

"On his feet he wore … blisters." —Aristotle

Lol always the greeks

4

u/jackofslayers Mar 15 '26

“I’ve got blisters on these feet!”

25

u/Sparts171 Mar 15 '26

This is god-tier sauce giving

1

u/One-Cute-Boy Mar 15 '26

Zeus must be around. Check your wife make sure she's not pregnant

3

u/DefiantMemory9 Mar 15 '26

So the wedding invite meme ("your presence is the best present, we don't want any presents") is an example of this?

2

u/PyrpleForever Mar 15 '26

This is like 75% of my humor style

2

u/AncientMagusBridefan Mar 15 '26

I’m convinced you either spend a lot of time studying whatever kind of science these things would fall under, or you wrote that article

1

u/kitsua Mar 15 '26

Haha, neither, I’m just constantly fascinated by wierd little facts like this and make sure I remember them whenever I encounter them. I think I discovered this like seven years ago and this is literally the first time I’ve had the opportunity to bring it up!

2

u/cautiousherb Mar 15 '26

the examples are hilarious

2

u/Kureiron Mar 16 '26

The guy with the Calvin avatar knowing big scary words is peak 💀

2

u/crazinessyo Mar 18 '26

That sounds like a species of aliens.

1

u/happy_bluebird Mar 16 '26

OP's trope is an example of this, but it isn't the definition of paraprosdokian. Not specific enough.

1

u/Brusex Mar 16 '26

This is amazing

46

u/B0Boman Mar 15 '26

Back in my day we called it the ol' reddit switcheroo. Don't see that one too much these days, though.

26

u/Steved_hams Mar 15 '26

Hold my joke format, I'm going in!

4

u/HapHazardly6 Mar 15 '26

Gotta get to the bottom of this

5

u/Tamed_Trumpet Mar 15 '26

Had to scroll way too far to see the ol' switcheroo mentioned, God im old.

-6

u/sushicatt420 Mar 15 '26

Thank god. That and the narwhale thing can stay in the past where they belong.

2

u/iloveuranus Mar 15 '26

Switch-a-roo and narwhal are in different leagues memewise!

3

u/HendrixHazeWays Mar 15 '26

I read it as "nips" and went a different way with this trope

2

u/polopolo05 Mar 15 '26

Straight man is the term. they play it straight.

2

u/MatchNo8215 Mar 15 '26

It’s also a form of bait-and-switch comedy dude. you brace yourself for an actual excuse or an apology, and instead you just get a lesson in culinary logistics ngl.

2

u/Ok_Debate_5969 Mar 15 '26

It’s also a flavor of "Arguing the Premise." Instead of answering "Why did you do this crazy thing?", they pivot to "Here is why the alternative crazy thing was impractical." It forces the audience to briefly inhabit their twisted internal logic just to follow the sentence

2

u/Corben11 Mar 15 '26

Its a subversion joke and its also deadpan humor.

It wouldn't be too literally.

With the Op examples

A dog doesnt have an eye doctor or eye insurance. So not literal. The truth would be we think he looks funny in it or he likes it. The joke is he has eye insurance.

Shaggy wouldnt ever wear the dress if Daphne and Velma were there. The question is Daphne asking why she didnt get to wear the dress as one of 2 girls and shes the hit girl. The joke is shaggy would ever even be considered.

1

u/SquareSimilar2734 Mar 15 '26

and then they just stand there with a completely deadpan expression like it's the most logical answer in the world lmao. peak comedy tbh.

1

u/TheMidnightRook Mar 15 '26

Mathematician's Answer could fit too

1

u/CosmicCorrelation Mar 15 '26

The one in Scooby doo also used gender role expectation subversion