The 10 most unintentionally hilarious movie scenes of all time
For as long as there have been movies, there have been comedy movies. While straight-up funny films aren’t as popular these days as they were in their various heydays, viewers still retreat to the cinema when they’re looking for a laugh. Writing a funny scene is a hard task, as comedy is extremely subjective. However, it turns out that these scenes can sometimes just happen by accident.
Laughing at a moment in a film that is supposed to be funny is one thing, but it’s an entirely different pleasure to indulge in a bit of schadenfreude. It might not be the most morally sound approach, but rejoicing in the misfortunes of others is part of human nature. It’s what separates us from the animals!
These scenes are all perfect examples of why comedy is so much better when you’re not expecting it. Bad acting, terrible CGI, unexpected nudity, these movies have it all, and it’s all unintentionally hilarious.
There won’t be any low-budget or famously bad movies on this list. If you’re expecting to see the likes of Tommy Wiseau screaming, “You’re tearing me apart, Lisa!” then you’re going to be extremely disappointed. That’s a topic for another time. This is all about ‘proper’ films with big budgets and huge casts that absolutely should have known better, but thank God they didn’t.
The 10 most unintentionally hilarious movie scenes:
Kylo goes topless – ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ – Rian Johnson
On the whole, The Last Jedi is by far the best instalment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy. Rian Johnson wasn’t afraid to take risks, and, for the most part, they paid off. Unfortunately, not every scene is a winner.
When Rey (Daisy Ridley) has a telepathic conversation with Kylo Ren (Adam River) about why he killed his father, viewers were thrown when they saw the villain standing shirtless. This was clearly inserted to show how buff Driver had gotten, but it made absolutely no sense and was completely out of place.
Tom on the run – ‘Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation’ – Christopher McQuarrie
The ‘Tom Cruise run’ is one of the most recognisable and debated features of the diminutive action star’s arsenal. To achieve maximum speed and coolness (in his eyes, anyway), Cruise sprints with his arms at perfect right angles, hands fully outstretched, looking like a robot who’s just realised he’s late for the bus.
The funniest example of this is in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation. Cruise’s Ethan Hunt is running to jump aboard a moving plane, an undeniably badass moment. However, it’s hard to take him seriously when the seconds leading up to the jump have him running across what is essentially a static shot, frantically calling out to Simon Pegg’s Benji to open the door. It just looks silly!
Sator’s death – ‘Tenet’ – Christopher Nolan
There’s much to find funny about Christopher Nolan’s time-bending, mind-numbing James Bond-wannabe Tenet. The confusing rules, the ludicrous final fight scene, the fact that John David Washington’s character is just called ‘The Protagonist’. However, nothing is as tragically hilarious as the death of Kenneth Branagh’s character—the ‘Russian’ oligarch Andrei Sator.
Sator ends up dead as a doornail, shot by his wife Kat (Elizabeth Debicki). What is supposed to be a cathartic moment soon turns to pure farce as she then shoves Sator’s limp body off the side of his yacht, sending it flopping into the water like a fleshy slinky.
Rock bottom – ‘The Mummy Returns’ – Stephen Sommers
Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson is now one of the biggest movie stars in the world. However, we’ve all got to start somewhere, and the wrestling icon’s first major movie role is one he’d ideally like to forget.
Johnson lends his likeness to the big bad ‘Scorpion King’ during the final sequence of The Mummy Returns. His appearance—half-man, half-scorpion—is meant to strike fear into the hearts of all. Instead, it led to uncontrollable titters. The CGI job here was so bad, even by 2001 standards, that Johnson looks like a bad PS1 character. That’s hardly the image of an all-powerful ancient villain.
The fake baby – ‘American Sniper’ – Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper was already courting controversy for its rose-tinted lens on the Iraq war when somebody noticed something odd about a scene involving Bradley Cooper’s character and a ‘baby’.
The problem here is that the infant is obviously a toy. You can see Cooper waggling its arm with his finger in a half-hearted attempt to make it look real, like something out of a bad soap opera and not a $59million movie that was nominated for Oscars ‘Best Picture’. Eastwood has given his reasons for using a prop child, but that doesn’t make this scene any less hilarious.
“A whaaaat…?” – ‘Jaws’ – Steven Spielberg
You can pack a movie with as many acclaimed and talented actors as you like, but all it takes is one bad extra to completely ruin a scene. Case in point: this infamous moment from Steven Spielberg’s Jaws.
During a scene where a bunch of people are discussing the recent shark attacks on Amity Island, standing around an open-mouth carcass of one, Richard Dreyfuss’ Hooper mentions a ‘tiger shark’. Cue Dick Young, the actor playing a character aptly named ‘Pratt’, responding in the campest manner of all time. His delivery of “a whaaaat…?” has gone down in bad acting folklore. Try taking a tiger shark seriously again after witnessing this masterpiece.
Vader’s scream – ‘Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith’ – George Lucas
Another Star Wars moment, this time from the ill-fated ‘prequel’ trilogy. At the end of Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, fans were treated to their first shot of Darth Vader, following Anakin Skywalker’s (Hayden Christensen) run-in with a volcano. Upon hearing that his wife Padmé (Natalie Portman) has died, the newly-minted Sith lets out a blood-curdling “Noooooo”. At least, that was the plan.
Vader’s scream is so over-the-top that it’s impossible not to laugh. This pantomime-level response is not what people expected from their first canonical look at the ultimate Star Wars villain. Oh well, at least that video where it’s translated into different languages is funny.
Surfing the ice – ‘Die Another Day’ – Lee Tamahori
There are a lot of unintentionally funny moments from across the James Bond franchise. Roger Moore’s iconic delivery of “a woman” from Moonraker almost took this spot, but instead, it’s time to look at some more bad CGI.
In Die Another Day, Pierce Brosnan’s 007 is caught in an avalanche. In true Bond fashion, he’s got a gadget for that and rides the ice waves with the series’ iconic theme music blaring in the background. There’s just one problem. The water looks fake as hell. Did they hire the same effects team from The Mummy Returns or something? It’s not even the right shade of blue!
Brosnan loses it – ‘Taffin’ – Francis Megahy
Keeping things Brosnan, here’s an absolutely brilliant moment from his pre-Bond days. In Taffin, the Irishman plays the title character of a no-nonsense debt collector. In one scene, he gets into an argument with his girlfriend Charlotte (Alison Doody) about certain activities going on in their town.
When she quite reasonably suggests that, as long as she’s living in the town, she has a right to know what’s happening, Taffin offers an utterly unhinged delivery of the line, “Then maybe you shouldn’t be living here!” Why Brosnan decided to go full goblin mode remains a mystery, but for the purposes of this list, we’re so very glad he did.
“Not the bees!” – ‘The Wicker Man’ – Neil LaBute
The 2006 remake of The Wicker Man is an abomination. Everyone involved in this systematic destruction of a classic should never be allowed to work in film ever again, and that’s without taking into account this legendary moment from the unrated cut of the movie.
You’ve all seen this before—Nicolas Cage has a weird…cage on his head, and some guy pours a load of bees into it. He screams, “Not the bees!” and flails around like a toddler having a supermarket meltdown. It’s all great stuff. And, if this is the only moment you’ve seen from this version of The Wicker Man, then keep it that way. You’ll be grateful.
