Why isn't the anime as funny as it used to be?

[Kool-aid man]

I've been watching Pokemon Johto journeys episodes on tv lately and quite frankly it's been really making me explode from laughter, and while Black and White do occasionally get me to crack a smile, it definitely isn't as funny as season 1-13 and based on what i've seen so far, the X and Y doesn't seem to be going to change thar, i don't know if its a 4kids thing or not but the snarky remarks from Ash and his friend's and the violence-base slapstick humor that comes from team rocket abusing Meowth sure make the older episode funnier than the newer ones, why is that?

 

[Misty Calls Masquerain]

Because:

(1) TPCi can't write nearly as well as 4Kids.
(2) Pokemon: The Johto Journeys relies on timing and the character's natural personalities, while DP and beyond rely on cheap, unfunny, overused gags and exaggerated versions of the characters we loved (in the case of DP and Da!).

 

[MedievalMovies]

Because you've grown up.

 

[Kool-aid man]

^Woah hold up, i thought dp was pretty funny, certainly funnier than bw and xy.

 

[noworry]

well, every new episode seems to just be some kind of representation of a Pokémon.. Like "this is Scraggy, we've got to help him" stuff

 

[Kool-aid man]

well, every new episode seems to just be some kind of representation of a Pokémon.. Like "this is Scraggy, we've got to help him" stuff

Come again?

 

[Lugia trainer]

Personally I think it might have something to do with team rocket appearing in practically every episode along with the fact that they're extremely predictable. Almost every situation involving team rocket goes as follows: 1: They come up with a plan to steal Ash's pikachu or some other pokemon they see as valuable. 2: They put their plan into action/attempt to put their plan into action. 3: When they think their plan is going just the way they want they come across someone (usually Ash and his friends) or something that ruins their plan and sends them blasting off. I know that they're supposed to be comedic and serve as comic relief but in my opinion I think that while their comedic attributes are obvious their frequent appearances and predictability cancels out their comedic side. I also believe that the show doesn't need comic relief and various situations where comic relief would be appropriate tend to be caused by team rocket themselves (you know what I'm talking about(AG 01 and XY 02)). I also think that they tend to ruin an episodes plot. So I think that's part of the reason why the show isn't as funny as it used to be. So do you agree?

 

[Team Gaara]

As of BW, I feel like they're trying to hard to be funny. And if you're trying too hard, then it probably won't end up being funny.

Then there's the fact that Iris and Cilan just aren't funny characters like Misty and Brock were. So they have to over-rely on running gags to try to make them seem funny.

That's just my opinion though~

 

[Sakuraa]

The only series that I didn't find funny was BW. I think it tried too hard to be funny with overused gags which were more annoying than anything. Every series before that had a lot of humor, imo, and I'm currently loving XY's humor. In only the first 7 episodes, I've laughed way more than in the entire series of BW.

So basically, I think that the overused gags that weren't even funny in the first place were really a killer of humor in the previous series. Hopefully XY won't reuse gags and ruin any real humor the show has to offer.

 

[noworry]

well, every new episode seems to just be some kind of representation of a Pokémon.. Like "this is Scraggy, we've got to help him" stuff

Come again?

Uh, what I meant was like, it isn't that funny when it's like a pokemon version of Animal Planet. It's cool to learn about new Pokemon, but not when it's all they are focusing on, they should focus on battles too, and the Pokemon League, because the Unova League was quite... boring. The characters may have been a bit lame in BW too (no offence), but I think the biggest problem is that they didn't do that much with the battle strategies and Pokemon League.

(my English may be a bit bad...)

 

[DracoMan]

As of BW, I feel like they're trying to hard to be funny. And if you're trying too hard, then it probably won't end up being funny.

Then there's the fact that Iris and Cilan just aren't funny characters like Misty and Brock were. So they have to over-rely on running gags to try to make them seem funny.

That's just my opinion though~

Misty had some good Snark-to-Snark Combat going with Ash, and it involved original lines. Not like Iris saying "What a kid!" every other ep. A good example comes in "Make Room For Gloom" after Brock goes gaga over Florinda, whom Ash doesn't see right away:

Misty: If you want to see a beautiful girl, just turn around. *giggles*
Ash: Misty, please. Only one of us can hallucinate at a time.

We just don't have dialogue like that anymore.

 

[P0KEM0N]

I think BW was going for a comedic tone (relying on running gags) and failed miserably at that. I think XY was just as funny as the first thirteen seasons were.

 

[SatoshiKun]

What about AG? Doesn't anyone think that was funny? While the humor started to give way more in DP for better storytelling, I think that it really sunk in BW. Some of the running gags in that series were just awfull.

 

[Flynn]

Houen-era AG is right behind Kanto in terms of humor, imo. Too bad they really toned it down by the time BF came along.

 

[Clash King Dan]

I think the humor dropped because they started shying away from doing constant gags. Not every joke in Kanto or Hoenn was funny, but they made enough attempts that sometimes they would make something funny. By the time the BW series came along, it seemed like they had dropped most of the humor, but it looks like they're going back to the Hoenn pacing for XY as far as the individual episodes go, and there are a few gags each episode that make me laugh.

 

[The Power of Pika]

When it comes to comedy that really appeals to me and makes me laugh that would be Kanto, Johto and Sinnoh. Those are the series I found alot of funny things in.

Comedy does rely on tastes. You can have a comedian do a comedy routine in one country and become a massive hit and loved for their comedy and yet when they do that same routine in another country you'll have everyone walking out wanting their money back. A few months back I actually read of a incident that happened exactly like that to a comedian. Everyone has different tastes in comedy.

As for why isn't the show funny anymore for you. That's not an easy thing to answer because everyone has different tastes and may see comedy in areas another would not.

One thing I thought was interesting about BW was that it's comedy was more for the younger audience. What I saw on the forums is alot of adults analysed it. I even did the same thing for a while. However the comedy in this series is not noticeable with analysing. For example Oshawott. Some people find him annoying but he's comedy releif to the kids.
Stunfisk is another one. People complain about it or it's english voice and yet kids loved it because of it's looks and it's english voice. They thought it was funny in a good way.
Scraggy, emolga. You name it. They even laughed at ash at points in movie 14.

One thing I like about the Australian event airings in theatre is that I am always amongst fans of all ages which I find a good sample size. I notice people my age tend to take notice of different things to the children. The children will laugh at thing that the adult don't even notice.

It just shows how an adult or teen reacts to a scene compared to a little kid's reaction to the very same scenes in a theatre.

However of course every series has it's own comedy and thus are different to one another which is why kanto's comedy isn't the same as say Unova. Some comedy isn't going to appeal as much to some as others depending on the person. What maybe funny to one person, may not be funny to another.

In my opinion it's less to do with BW not being funny and more to do with it's comedy being very simple and being more appealing to a young child audience or people who love really simple comedy. It's going to go right over the heads of many adults in alot of cases depending on the person.

Personally I'm starting to see the comedy of BW. It's the little quirks that the Pokemon and even Ash and the characters have that make the series comedy wise. It's fun though it's a simple way of watching.=3

 

[SammyW27]

My theory is that they dropped the slapstick to appease their 4Kids masters (for a long time, it felt like the producers were making the show 4Kids wanted made, not theirs), and shut up the ever meddlesome soccer moms who'd raise a stink at seeing kids smacked around (kinda like how Looney Tunes and Tom & Jerry are pale imitations of their former selves)

(1) TPCi can't write nearly as well as 4Kids.

Let's hold on a minute there. The Show's problems with humor are already there. TPCI merely has the unenviable task of translating them. (And 4Kids writing really wasn't so great either).

Misty had some good Snark-to-Snark Combat going with Ash, and it involved original lines. Not like Iris saying "What a kid!" every other ep. A good example comes in "Make Room For Gloom" after Brock goes gaga over Florinda, whom Ash doesn't see right away:

Misty: If you want to see a beautiful girl, just turn around. *giggles*
Ash: Misty, please. Only one of us can hallucinate at a time.

We just don't have dialogue like that anymore.

And it should be noted that was 4Kids working around a name-pun for Misty's Japanese name, "Kasumi", which means "pretty girl" (which happened fairly often)

That's another problem. The Show (over)relies waaayyyy too much on jokes that are only allegedly funny in Japan :-(

And just to clear things up, that's not being elitist. A good joke should make you laugh the moment you see or hear it, not make you look into another culture/language just to decide if it's funny or not. I've seen plenty of foreign movies/TV Shows that made me laugh without being an expert on their countries. Conversely, I've seen a lot of would be comedic works made in my country that failed to make me laugh.

Like all those "mis-said name" jokes. I get that in Japan everyone's name has a meaning and getting it wrong gives that name a completely different meaning (and view of the person it belongs to). But to us gaijin, getting someone's name wrong a bunch just makes you an idiot or a douchebag.

And here's the funny thing about running gags: 1) You can only say a joke so many times before it stops being funny, and 2) repeating a joke over and over does NOT make it funnier.

In fact...here's something I've often been a little curious about...are those joke REALLY so much funnier/better to the Japanese people than the rest of us

 

[Misty Calls Masquerain]

Let's hold on a minute there. The Show's problems with humor are already there. TPCI merely has the unenviable task of translating them. (And 4Kids writing really wasn't so great either).

The show as is, is already unfunny, true. But then, TPCi isn't helping, either. They rarely spice things up like 4Kids did, if they do at all. (4Kids writing was at least funnier and more witty than TPCi's.)

Agreed on the name gags. I like Butch's, but not Stephan's or Dawn's Diamond Dandruff one (if the latter counts).

 

[SammyW27]

Let's hold on a minute there. The Show's problems with humor are already there. TPCI merely has the unenviable task of translating them. (And 4Kids writing really wasn't so great either).

The show as is, is already unfunny, true. But then, TPCi isn't helping, either. They rarely spice things up like 4Kids did, if they do at all. (4Kids writing was at least funnier and more witty than TPCi's.)

True. Despite 4Kids' many flaws, they usually tried to make the replacement jokes good, or at least acceptable.

Agreed on the name gags. I like Butch's, but not Stephan's or Dawn's Diamond Dandruff one (if the latter counts).

Funny, I feel the opposite way about the first two. I hated Butch's wrong names (how the heck could people get "Biff" from that?!), but really liked how they handled Stephan's.

Though I'm in total agreement about that whole Pikari/Dee Dee nonsense. Bad joke is still bad, no matter what language it's in. (Namba was way worse)

 

[Bluelatios]

I think the difference is between witty dialogue combined with action vs funny mannerisms and reactions. These days it feels like the joke is in getting a character to have an immature or childish behavior or expression more than focusing on what was said or done aka slapstick. I'm not a fan of it either. Having Ash look shocked for a moment followed by a bummed out expression and an "aww man" feels kind of stale compared to him saying something silly and having say, Misty react with a good comeback line and possibly a hammer. I can't really understand why the humor is what it is, though I sometimes wonder if it has something to do with lower quality of script production.