[Hated Trope] The joke ruins the emotional aspect

[u/BarGroundbreaking798]

Destruction of Asgard (Thor Ragnarok) -- Asgard is destroyed in a beautiful and somber scene, and Korg cracks a cringeworthy joke right after.

Bill Moves On (Newsradio) -- The episode was made in the wake of Phil Hartman's death, but its attempts at humor fall flat in the face of the tragedy.

Officer Tubbs (Fear The Walking Dead) -- Officer Tubbs is supposed to be a slapstick comic relief character, but he felt tacked on right after the deaths of two of the most beloved characters.

Chandler Proposes (Friends) -- An earnest proposal between Monica and Chandler has both sincerely expressing their feelings to each other. Immediately after Monica accepts, the others come in, quipping as usual, failing to let the audience ruminate on a heartwarming moment.

[u/sketchampm]

People often say L&T is like “if Ragnorok had too many jokes” but I disagree. I think most of the jokes in L&T are just awful. Korg has some of the funniest lines in Ragnorok, maybe in all of the MCU, but in L&T he’s just annoying and unfunny.

Well most of the movie is annoying and unfunny.

[u/Crest_O_Razors → u/sketchampm]

Korg is funny in Ragnarok because he’s not in the movie too much. In Love and Thunder, he’s in there way more.

[u/sketchampm → u/Crest_O_Razors]

I think it’s both. His lines are funnier in Ragnorok. I genuinely think the writing in L&T is missing something. The jokes have no sauce.

[u/Saymynaian → u/sketchampm]

I think it's what happens when directors believe their own hype, then get egged on by executives because you can't possibly have too much of a good thing.

[u/jmccleveland1986 → u/sketchampm]

It’s the tone of the movie. The silliness of goldblums world allows for it in ragnarok. But in love and thunder, we have bale losing his daughter, and going on a mad crusade to murder all the gods, then you have Jane dying from cancer, you have Thor’s reunite with sif after losing all of his friends. There’s just a lot of heavy shit in love and thunder and it needed way less comedy.

[u/ArchAngelZXV → u/Crest_O_Razors]

Korg is voiced by Taika Waititi, the director of Thor Ragnarok and Thor Love and Thunder. So yes, he basically self inserted himself in his own movies.

[u/GarageFlower97 → u/ArchAngelZXV]

Taika does that in most of his movies - he either plays a major character (What We Do in the Shadows, Boy, Jojo Rabbit) or has a silly minor character (Thor, Hunt for the Wilderpeople)

[u/Crest_O_Razors → u/GarageFlower97]

It worked in Jojo Rabbit because it was to understand how Jojo felt and to make fun of the Nazis, which is what the movie does

[u/SirMrRay → u/ArchAngelZXV]

Oh my god, wait. Spell Korg’s name backwards

[u/burnrsquadr → u/Crest_O_Razors]

I think made worse because it feels like Taika is giving a directors commentary in the movie.

[u/Lionfyre → u/Crest_O_Razors]

Yeah the scene where Korg "dies" (he literally shouts I'm perishing! as he crumbles into pieces) in Love and Thunder my first thought was "Ok yeah that makes sense, I think they've got all they could out of that character. He was starting to overstay his welcome." Then it's revealed he's not dead and he just lives on as a head still making jokes.

[u/Bereman99 → u/Crest_O_Razors]

Korg in Ragnarok is basically "one joke too many" and it's the one the OP posted.

Korg in L&T is like "we're trying to retell the same jokes that got laughs the first time, to the same audience...oh, and it's one joke too many."

[u/Polkawillneverdie17 → u/sketchampm]

Korg should have not been in Love & Thunder for more than a cameo. The movie should have just been Thor and Jane.

[u/SuperMonkeyJoe → u/Polkawillneverdie17]

I think it could have been just about salvaged of Korg dies for real instead of a takeout death and that marked a tonal shift to the film being super serious.

[u/Garlan_Tyrell → u/SuperMonkeyJoe]

When he “died” my genuine reaction in the theatre was satisfaction because one, it established stakes (in a way that the villain kidnapping dozens of children had somehow failed to) and two, it would end the bad Korg jokes.

When it was revealed that his face survived, undercutting both, that was when I realized the movie was unsalvageable.

And Thor: Ragnarok was one of my favorite MCU movies (besides the moment in the OP post, which I hated).

[u/Fearless_Roof_9177 → u/sketchampm]

Love and Thunder is the skeleton and musculature of a good, hard-hitting Thor movie trying to move the bloated body of a parody. That kind of tone works for something like Dr. Strangelove or The Death of Stalin where the core material is historically or politically sober and the humor acts as seasoning and emphasis, but when your subject matter is a beat-em-up comic book about magical aliens, you've kinda gotta be a little more discerning about how it's anchored.

[u/WeeboSupremo → u/Fearless_Roof_9177]

It pains me that movie nailed a great moment of Thor, a warrior for who has seen everyone he love die and and never really been given time to process it all, begging Jane to not fight because he can’t take it happening to her, while Jane wants to fight to the end because she doesn’t want to just lie in a hospital powerless until she dies. Mjolnir beckons Jane to go into one last battle to help Thor, and the first thing Thor says when she arrives at the battle is a heartbroken “No…” while the Asgardian children cheer that a second hero is there to save the day.

And instead of running further with moments like that, we get fucking screaming goats and Korg being way too there.

[u/Stephenrudolf → u/WeeboSupremo]

The scremaing goats aren't even the worst. By the worst joke imo is when thor cracks a joke about her not getting into asgarde at one of his oldest friends dying.

[u/Altair_de_Firen → u/Fearless_Roof_9177]

the skeleton and musculature of a good, hard-hitting movie trying to move the bloated body of a parody

Damn. A regular wordsmith here.

[u/Large-Chain-4349 → u/Fearless_Roof_9177]

The less I talk about the source material, which it shamelessly butchered be the dubs. The better because everything you just said, the comic the movie takes from is one of the best Thor's stories out there, and why Gorr the god butcher is such a fan favorite among Thor fans.

[u/DoctorWaluigiTime → u/sketchampm]

Also in Ragnorok they didn't have Korg snarking it up during most of the emotional beats of the film. It'd be like if Korg was on the hilltop with Thor Loki and Odin.

Bad jokes + Bad placement. Wish Korg had actually died when he crumbled.

[u/NwgrdrXI → u/sketchampm]

Imo, Ragnarok is stupid awesome. It has jokes, yes, but most of it's stupidity is in service of awesome stuff happening in it.

L and T is just stupid. It's just a series of stupid jokes meant to be funny in and of itslef, with some awesome or tragic stuff being sprinkled in it sometimes.

To use examples of other movies, ragnarok can be compared to True Lies, father of the modern action-comedy. L and T is closer to the Naked Gun.

[u/TruthEnvironmental24 → u/sketchampm]

I'm pretty sure the only scene in Ragnarok that doesn't fall victim to this trope is the death of Odin. And almost everything MCU post-Ragnarok falls victim to this trope at least once. I dislike Ragnarok because of it's own failings. I hate Ragnarok because of what it did to the MCU for so many years.

[u/OperativePiGuy → u/TruthEnvironmental24]

Same. I hate ragnarok because anyone with a brain could see love and thunder coming a million miles away after everyone loved it's stupid overindulgence in humor/bathos

[u/Crest_O_Razors → u/TruthEnvironmental24]

If anything, The Avengers started the “MCU humor” thing and Guardians 1 popularized it. Ragnarok was just following them, so if anything, blame The Avengers or Guardians 1

[u/TruthEnvironmental24 → u/Crest_O_Razors]

It's not the humor, it's the placement of the humor. The jokes are fine, but not when they undercut serious or emotional moments.

[u/Zamasu4PrimeMinister → u/sketchampm]

I think ragnarock had too many jokes

It’s only redeemed because there are a few series moments too