CMonster wrote:I would call a "blow-up" like you expected standard and predictable. Actually, I'm pretty surprised you called it predicable when you just wrote that it didn't go where you expected it to...seems kinda counter intuitive..whatever.
It did go where I expected it to. I wrote as much above; "and I actually expected him to "blow up" right around that time".
CMonster wrote: What happened was much more measured. When people quit they generally don't flip tables and go over the top. Shows are often written that way to really "express the anger" that character is going through. This is where being relatable is important. Everybody can understand and connect with actually boiling over and having a little out burst, but not following through with the fantasy of totally losing it. Thus, this goes into why calling the show relatable isn't an appeal to popularity. Being able to relate to a character will vary from person to person. It is an individual thing as to it being relatable, not a populous thing. Doing a really good job and making it relatable to a lot of people is commentary on how well the show is made, not those watching it.
But you're still using other peoples' reactions to do this, as opposed to discussing elements of the show itself that make it relatable!
Again, realize your same argument can be applied to any number of pictures or shows you don't care for. I'm sure an equally wide cross-section of society found
Bridesmaids relatable in some way.
CMonster wrote:Also, stop getting hung up on "punchlines". Humor can come in many different forms as I said before. Set-up/punchline is pretty standard, but one liners, contextual humor, physical comedy, sarcasm, insults, juxtaposition through editing, etc. are all different ways of making something funny.
I agree, but what else can one say? There is no way to prove that a scene is
not funny to someone somewhere for some reason.
By the way, the only one of the elements you listed above that applies here is "insults", and those were too standard and predictable for my tastes. Now, if Walt had included a few racist jabs, indignation that someone of his intellect had to work there, or something else to give those insults flavor, I would have found it funnier.
CMonster wrote: I'm going to commit a cardinal sin here because explaining a joke generally makes it cease to be funny, but since you are getting caught up on the "punchline" thing, I'll break it down. "Fuck you and your eyebrows" is not a set-up/punchline type joke. It is a comical insult making fun of the mans giant eyebrows. It's a silly thing to say. Maybe you didn't find it funny, but it was written as a joke and it made people laugh so clearly it is humor(this might be an appeal to populous but whatever, fuck it).
Had he gone a bit further with the eyebrow bit, or perhaps insulted other aspects of the carwash owner's physical appearance ("you look like a gay, retarded, Armenian Santa Clause!"), I might have found it funnier.
