Tropedia

  • All unique and most-recently-edited pages, images and templates from Original Tropes and The True Tropes wikis have been copied to this wiki. The two source wikis have been redirected to this wiki. Please see the FAQ on the merge for more.

READ MORE

Tropedia
WikEd fancyquotesQuotesBug-silkHeadscratchersIcons-mini-icon extensionPlaying WithUseful NotesMagnifierAnalysisPhoto linkImage LinksHaiku-wide-iconHaikuLaconic

Ever since the dawn of humor, people have clung to one simple truth: Other peoples' pain or discomfort is hilarious. Of course, people in a polite society will generally be hesitant to crowd around someone with a horrible, disfiguring physical condition or a debilitating social disorder... at least, not without help.

Enter the Insult Comic. When someone needs to be humiliated on a large scale, and it would require too much suspension of disbelief to get them to wind up on television or the front page, the Insult Comic can take a large room of people and get them to laugh at the unfortunate target.

However, most writers are not stand-up comedians, and this trope is more about highlighting the insecurities of a character than providing legitimate jokes. As a result, the Insult Comic will often have the inexplicable ability to make a crowd of people laugh, even when the 'jokes' are delivered in pure insult form and devoid of legitimate humor.

Examples of Insult Comic include:


Film[]

  • The remake of The Nutty Professor has Dave Chappelle make Eddie Murphy the target of his jokes. Later, when Eddie returns to the club as Buddy Love, he throws it back in Dave's face before stuffing his head into a piano.
  • In Showgirls, Henrietta is an insult comic towards herself, going onstage and mocking her own weight and appearance as a way of mocking the men in the audience. "I'd have to piss on you to give you a clue!"

Live-Action TV[]

  • Marlon takes up this act in an episode of The Wayans Bros, offending his family and co-workers.
  • On Full House, Joey's girlfriend Roxy makes fun of the Tanners in her act. While they don't take kindly to it, they realize she was just insecure about them liking her after Joey told everyone how funny she was. The issue is resolved at the end of the episode.

Western Animation[]

Video Games[]

Comedians[]