Jokes you don't/didn't get

[bloodteller]

i know there’s the thing of “the joke isn’t funny if you explain it” but were there ever gags in Red Dwarf you didn’t get? and if so, what?

i never quite got what Cat’s “stan and ollie” line in White Hole was about, for example. nor did i get what “see you in ten minutes?” (repeat x10) from Pete was all about, and also Rimmer’s “steers and queers, which are you boy?” joke from Meltdown

Topic

[Joe]

[Dave]

[Moonlight]

Or, the Cat secretly longs for the sweet release of death. See also:

This particular kind of meta joke doesn’t fit Red Dwarf very much in my opinion, and it feels way more like a commentary on other works of fiction than anything about the show it’s in. How often has anyone actually shot at them before this episode in the first place? Off the top of my head, Justice, I guess, and Holly is the only one who gets shot at and missed. Hardly enough of a pattern to justify making this joke.

But then I wouldn’t like it even if there was, and the audience seems to agree with me either way because I remember there either being no reaction.

[GlenTokyo]

Don’t Hudzen 10 and the Inquisitor both take shots and miss at some point? Or take shots able to be ducked away from, The Inquisitor in particular would be fresh in the mind, though only for the audience at home.

Can always site the Pan-dimensional liquid beast from the Mogidon cluster and I suppose Hogey the Roguey though that’s a different incarnation of Dwarf, as examples of their off screen escapades.

[International Debris]

Cat’s line is just an extension of the general joke, which is that the Kinatowawi are so violent, that them not electing to immediately murder them is a sign of high hospitality. So Cat’s confusion is about “well we’re still alive” being a very low bar for a “good” outcome.

Ah, yes, that makes sense. I still think the way it’s read makes it sound odd. Also because the threat has already been built up so nobody should be surprised. Maybe that’s why I thought it was a Cat line, it sounds more like something he’d say than Rimmer. 

[Moonlight]

Don’t Hudzen 10 and the Inquisitor both take shots and miss at some point?

Fair point on The Inquisitor. Hudzen I had to check, and he does it once – but he mostly uses his own strength, which led to me forget he even fires a shot. It seems a little odd for him to shoot at Rimmer and then stop using his gun. But even then, it still doesn’t feel like enough of a trend to justify breaking the fourth wall to comment on how it supposedly constantly happens. It feels like the joke only works if you’re kinda broadly talking about this kind of situation coming up in sci-fi moreso than because that happens particularly often in Red Dwarf.

I will admit though, my not liking what the joke is trying to do in the first place is probably driving a lot of my reasoning here. I’m extremely picky about what meta humor I’ll accept, and it changes depending on which show we’re talking about. This one feels too much like a really basic pointing out of a common trope (tantamount to HAVE YOU EVER NOTICED HOW THE STORM TROOPERS ALWAYS MISS?????) and I’m so over that kind of gag these days.

[Warbodog]

This particular kind of meta joke doesn’t fit Red Dwarf very much in my opinion, and it feels way more like a commentary on other works of fiction than anything about the show it’s in.

Cat’s watched so many TV shows & movies that he’s applying flippant criticisms of those to real life rather than being more appropriately relieved, and from thence humour arises.

That was my favourite line from Quarantine and maybe all of Red Dwarf as a kid.

[Formica]

remember there either being no reaction.

[Flap Jack]

[Podey]

[Warbodog]

[Podey]

I’m going to need to take the morning off after that. Amazing.

[Dave]

Brilliant.

[Unrumble]

[Dave]

It’s true, Warbo’s post was classic Flapjack.

[Flap Jack]

[Dave]

[Unrumble]

[Unrumble]

[International Debris]

Maybe it was an intentional reference to me mixing up Cat and Rimmer in the post that inspired the meme.

[Flap Jack]

[Unrumble]

[Ian Symes]

When I was little, I misheard this as “most handsome guy in the shit”. I assumed it was in the sense of “in big trouble”, in reference to being stranded three million years from Earth. It’s somewhat concerning that that’s how my brain worked at about eight years old.

[Moonlight]

[Podey]

[Flap Jack]

Too easy really, but I’ll allow myself one, as a treat.

[Unrumble]

[Podey]

Those who have ever contracted norovirus will be nodding sagely right now 

[Moonlight]

Those of us who’ve fought in 18th century military conflicts too.

[Dave]

I think everyone’s felt like this the morning after a takeaway.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

[Joe]

[Dave]

[Ian Symes]

[International Debris]

Why’s everyone having a Mandela effect about Cat saying Rimmer’s line?

Just realised nobody did this one

 

Just a shame he’s not eating chicken.

[loadoftottnumb]

In Out of Time, after Kryten learns that Lister ends up in a jar, he gets all emotional, talking about ‘today of all days’ and uses up all the chillis after Lister says there will be none left for tomorrow. 

Was it just him being hysterical, foreshadowing S7 Kryten or did the future selves indicate ‘it’ was about to happen? 

[Dave]

It’s a weird one.

I think the idea is clearly that Kryten knows it’s about to happen. Obviously it didn’t work out that way for our timeline, but the suggestion seems to be that in the original timeline this would have been Lister’s last day pre-brain-in-jar.

Which you have to assume must be linked to the future selves arriving. So was there an original timeline where their encounter with their future selves went differently – without Rimmer destroying the timedrive, and with the future selves doing enough damage to Lister to leave him body-less? Or was it something else entirely that caused Lister to end up in a jar?

It’s never really explained, but I guess that for the purposes of the gag it doesn’t need to be. And leaving it vague helps to build the tension for what’s about to happen later in the episode. 

[Flap Jack]

It seems unlikely that the future crew would have explained to Kryten the when and how of Lister’s accident (they don’t seem to be trying to use time travel to stop it, Kryten is tiptoeing round even acknowledging it, and the only reason Kryten goes alone is to avoid finding out too many details about their own future).

So, I’m going to chalk this up to semi-hysterics on Kryten’s part. He doesn’t know if that day would be Lister’s last day with his body, but it is the last day that he knows for sure is pre-accident. From then on, it could happen any time. The day is special from that perspective.

[Dave]

It seems unlikely that the future crew would have explained to Kryten the when and how of Lister’s accident (they don’t seem to be trying to use time travel to stop it, Kryten is tiptoeing round even acknowledging it, and the only reason Kryten goes alone is to avoid finding out too many details about their own future).

I feel like the unseen conversation between Kryten and the future selves (right after “we are ready to communicate”) probably would have touched on it once they revealed future-Lister’s predicament.

[Flap Jack]

Touched on it, probably yes. I guess they might have spilled the full details if they were just trusting past-Kryten to go through with erasing his memory afterwards. But even so, they wouldn’t have had any real reason to do it, and should have known it would still be risky.

Maybe I just like the Stasis Leak/Out of Time fan theory too much to want it contradicted by the “Lister became a brain in a jar the day after they found the time drive” interpretation. 😅

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

Oh speaking of that Flap, you may be interested in this: https://ifdb.fanedit.org/red-dwarf-present-from-the-future/

[Flap Jack]

Oh, yes, that is intriguing…

[Podey]

I don’t think that Kryten’s line is all that complicated, it’s just like how you wouldn’t want to argue with a loved one on the same day that you learn that they don’t have long left to live. 

[Kris ‘Drivaaar’ Carter]

I’m sure it’s been mentioned before, can anyone explain the Welsh Fish & Chip shop gag?

Growing up in the South Wales valleys, there was a chippie near me that closed for lunch, so this gag landed pretty well for me.

[Smeg4Brains]

Oh speaking of that Flap, you may be interested in this: https://ifdb.fanedit.org/red-dwarf-present-from-the-future/

I might be being dim but… How do you watch it? There’s nothing showing on the video tab. 

[International Debris]

There’s a FAQ page linked at the top with info on where at least some fanedits can be found (ifdb is basically just a database of what exists, like imdb). No sign of this one, sadly. Or many Dwarf ones in general.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

I’ve got a copy on one of my old hard drives but my PC’s out of commission at the moment. If anyone’s interested that’s got a Discord account I’d be happy to DM you a link as soon as I have a way of accessing the file.

[Podey]

At the start of C&P Holly says that the lowest form of life in the universe is “a man who works for the post office”. 

What’s that about, then? I’ve never been aware of any stigma around working for the post office in my lifetime.

[Future Producer of Series IX – aaaaany day now]

I suspect it’s a comment on how menial the job is.

That, or it’s a jab at a very specific postal employee one or both of them had a bad experience with.

[desbug]

I suspect it’s a comment on how menial the job is.
That, or it’s a jab at a very specific postal employee one or both of them had a bad experience with.

Very prescient comment on the people who covered up the post office Horizon scandal 

[Author]

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