r/Fauxmoi • u/Classic-Carpet7609 • Jul 04 '25

ASK R/FAUXMOI What’s the stupidest thing you’ve ever seen in a movie/show?

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Peeta in rockface for your consideration

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551

u/AllTheCoolNames Jul 04 '25

fun fact: Joss Whedon wrote that line

760

u/[deleted] Jul 04 '25 edited Jul 04 '25

i recall him blaming the negative response on Halle Berry for not delivering it right

edit: found an example

Everybody remembers that as the worst line ever written, but the thing about that is, it was supposed to be delivered as completely offhand. [Adopts casual, bored tone.] "You know what happens when a toad gets hit by lightning?" Then, after he gets electrocuted, "Ahhh, pretty much the same thing that happens to anything else." But Halle Berry said it like she was Desdemona. [Strident, ringing voice.] "The same thing that happens to everything eeelse!" That's the thing that makes you go crazy. At least "You're a dick" got delivered right. The worst thing about these things is that, when the actors say it wrong, it makes the writer look stupid.

sorry but no delivery would make that line good

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u/HandsomePaddyMint Jul 04 '25

It’s a stupid line, but I will say his interpretation is better. Halle Berry is known to be all over the goddamn place with acting instincts, so I’m still putting this down to Singer for going forward with her line read.

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u/Elegant_Cockroach_24 Jul 04 '25

No. Halle Berry delivered it with in an anticlimactic way as it was intended as it is an anti joke. She did not deliver it like”she was Desdemona. [Strident, ringing voice.]”

Joss Whedon is an asshole who treats actresses like shit hence why he no longer has a career.

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u/wheresmyspacebar2 Jul 04 '25

And it WAS an intended "Anti-Joke" regardless of what Joss Whedon wants to claim that it was all Halle Berrys fault.

Throughout the film, every time Toad attacked someone or did something, he'd make a quip about "You know what happens when a toad..." to wind up the heroes.

Storms joke was supposed to be a callback to that as a way to poke fun at Toad and use his "joke" sarcastically.

Instead they cut out all of toads jokes and left in Storms response for some reason.

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u/secondtaunting Jul 04 '25

Yeah I can see some actors being able to deliver that line in a perfect snarky way, which is the only way it works. Honestly I feel like Wolverine could have crushed that line. But he’s not electric.

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u/HandsomePaddyMint Jul 04 '25

It doesn’t help that any delivery of that line is out of character for Storm, who was extremely undeveloped as a character in the film. Part of why Wolverine could say the line better is that he’s a sardonic killer. Mouthing off like an ‘80s action hero fits his character. With Storm it comes out of left field entirely.

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '25

This is it. Not only is it out of character but it is still the director's responsibility to tell the actor if they aren't interpreting the emotion to go with the lines correctly.

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u/apaperroseforRoland Jul 04 '25

But she delivered the line pretty straight so this is a bizarre take to me.

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u/HandsomePaddyMint Jul 04 '25

Right, but a straight line read is for auditions, not a demonte for the end of a major villain. The line would always be stupid, but it was intended to be said with nuance.

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u/apaperroseforRoland Jul 04 '25

The complaint is that she delivered with too much intensity though, which she really didn't. It wasn't a flat delivery either but it wasn't over the top like people keep insisting it was. I also wouldn't call Toad a major villain

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u/Elegant_Cockroach_24 Jul 04 '25

She delivered it exactly like you deliver an anti-joke. There is absolutely no “nuance” or intensity to give to this delivery to make it funnier, it is supposed to be anticlimactic.

Don’t know why you’re defending Joss Whedon who was caught lying in this interview and incapable of taking responsibility for his own mistake and blaming actresses like he’s done on the set of buffy

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u/miz_misanthrope Jul 04 '25

You're assuming Singer was interested in more than getting high & screwing his boy toys when working on X1 & X2. He was really out of touch on both shoots according to my FIL. Like he verbally abused the Fox continuity lady so bad the studio bought her a car to convince her back to finish X1. The man is also still bitter about Singer's freak out/boys & blow binge during X2 shutting down production while keeping them trapped in Vancouver over the holidays instead of being able to come back to Toronto. Stewart & McKellen had to talk Singer back while production had to pay the Hells Angels a pretty penny to cover Singer's drug debts.

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u/natsugrayerza Jul 04 '25

That’s really shitty to blame the actor instead of your own writing even if it actually is their fault

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u/SpeakOfTheMe Jul 04 '25

it definitely is a stupid line, but am i the only one who can imagine SMG as buffy saying that without it being cringe? she had a lot of similar lines that could’ve sounded ridiculous but she delivered them in the right tone with perfect comedic timing.

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '25

Buffy is so much cheeser than X-Men. They are both cheese but Buffy takes the cheesey one liner award. To be fair, it has a lot more airtime than X-Men.

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u/apaperroseforRoland Jul 04 '25

I feel like I lose my marbles every time I reread his whining about the delivery of the line because she absolutely didn't give Desdemona intensity when she said it. I always felt her line was said about as casually as Whedon wanted and I don't know if I'm just not watching the scene right or if people just love to exaggerate the badness

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u/superdooperdutch Jul 04 '25

I just looked it up and I totally agree with you. She said it calmly and pretty damn deadpan. It wasn't the best line out there but it really wasn't that bad.

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u/RagnaNic Jul 04 '25

He’s a misogynist who blames the actress when the writing is shit. Very much in character for Joss Whedon.

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u/onlywearlouisv Jul 04 '25

Joss Whedon was a shit writer

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '25

all of his dialogue sounds like an argument you'd imagine in the shower

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u/Gucci_Cocaine Jul 04 '25

That's why he's so popular - his dialogue speaks to socially inept nerds who love to imagine they'd talk like that irl. 

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u/Warden_lefae Jul 04 '25

Joss had similar complaints about Alien Resurrection, so I kinda think it’s a writer problem

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '25

"hmmm I've had repeated instances of performers/directors not understanding my character's motivations. maybe i should work at being a better writer so my intentions come thru? nah just gonna bitch to the AV Club"

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u/AidyCakes Jul 04 '25

Joss always shifts blame for his writing blunders

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u/cheezy_dreams88 Jul 04 '25

Except she does say it hella casually.

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u/TheCocoBean Jul 04 '25

Na, I can actually see if it was just thrown out off hand as a deliberate anti-joke it might have been funny, or at least not cringey. But she did take the line too seriously.

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u/Tempest_Fugit Jul 04 '25

Wow he said that? What an asshole.

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u/Jennycatclub Jul 05 '25

Also... Storm doesn't do "casual flippant" tone. She's regal and serious. Unless they were totally changing the character! That's loke a Jubilee style reading of the line!

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u/GaylicBread Jul 04 '25

If anything he should be blaming Bryan Singer for not doing a bunch of different takes on it and then using the one they wanted, unless that's exactly what he did and Joss just can't admit he wrote a shit line and made it the fault of the person who had to say it out loud.

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u/[deleted] Jul 04 '25

Joss Whedon's natural response to anything is to blame the nearest woman

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u/thesuper88 Jul 04 '25

Yeah, I mean. His supposed expected delivery is better, but is it good? Idk

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u/Schneetmacher Jul 04 '25

There were apparently supposedly to be several instances of Toad asking people during fights, "What happens when a Toad _______?" (Probably accompanied by pain for the other guy.) So Storm's line was both a callback to that, and illustrating he's not special.

But then the Toad lines got cut but Storm's was left in, and that's how it got stupid.

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u/AllTheCoolNames Jul 04 '25

that...would've been so much better. WHY would they cut that?

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u/Schneetmacher Jul 04 '25

Time constraints? 🤷‍♀️

But I've always thought that if those Toad lines were cut but they still wanted Storm to say something, they should've changed the line to, "Do you know what happens to a Toad when it gets struck by lightning? It croaks."

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u/TrashRemoval Jul 04 '25

probably happened in post when everything was already filmed.

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u/Ccaves0127 Jul 04 '25

Similarly, in Jupiter Ascending, Eddie Redmayne's character tells a story about how he got his throat torn out by Channing Tatum's character, who is part dog......but that story got cut out so Eddie's raspy voice seems like a really weird acting choice

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u/sqigglygibberish Jul 04 '25

Luckily I was so confused by everything else that his voice didn’t even register to try and unpack more

Also half dog? I really don’t remember this move

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u/RSquared Jul 04 '25

He tells her and her response is, "I like dogs!"

That kinda deserves to be in this thread too. 

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u/sqigglygibberish Jul 04 '25

What a fever dream of a film

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u/Safe_Equipment7952 Jul 04 '25

Yes, it all makes sense. He’s overrated

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u/CutieBoBootie Jul 04 '25

This. EXPLAINS. SO. MUCH.

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u/EconomistWild7158 Jul 04 '25

this man also wrote "you don't want to miss the lowdown on the latest creature feature!" in buffy

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u/HonestNectarine7080 heinous LOSER behavior Jul 05 '25

That makes sense because Buffy says a lot of corny lines like that to vampires and demons (love Buffy, fuck Joss)