It Is Funny Because the Squirrel Gets Dead

Pixar

• Mr. Fredricksen yells at Dug, "Learn to bark like a real dog!"

  Dug: I can bark! (Barks in front of Kevin) And here's howling. (Howls until Kevin squawks at him to stop)

• The scene at the very beginning when Carl meets Ellie, and she encourages him to get his balloon.
  • Especially the board suddenly cracking out from underneath Carl. Admit it — you laughed. And if not, the Ambulance Cut immediately after likely sealed the deal.
  • Also, when he hits himself in the face with his cast and his girlish scream when shocked at seeing Ellie come through his window.
  • Not to mention the scene where Carl is pretending to be Charles Muntz.

    Announcer: He hurdles Pikes Peak! (Carl jumps over a rock) He hurdles the Grand Canyon! (Carl jumps over a crack) He hurdles Mt. Everest! (Carl tries to jump over a tree stump, but fails) He goes around Mt. Everest!

• Carl's Daydream Surprise, figuring how he'll get rid of Russell. Namely, he imagines lowering him down with a string.

  Carl: (back from the Imagine Spot) Well, that's not gonna work.

• Alpha's "voice" and how it makes a doberman pinscher alpha sound like a high-pitched chipmunk.
  • And Russell's comment that he likes the old one better when Muntz fixes the collar back to its normal Evil Sounds Deep version.
  • Beta trying to be diplomatic and telling Alpha his collar sounds broken before Gamma just shouts, "Your voice sounds funny!"
  • When Alpha calls Dug, Dug starts the conversation by saying Alpha's voice sounds funny. The way Alpha snarls "I know! I know!" with his lips curling back and his teeth showing is absolutely hysterical.
• The looks on the dogs faces when they worry Muntz won't give them a treat if they lose Dug.
• What really happens if two senior citizens get into a swordfight. Owww, my lumbago!
  • Special mention goes to the moment when Muntz has Carl pinned down and tauntingly asks if he has any last words. He urges Carl to "spit it out", and so Carl obliges— spitting out his dentures right in Muntz's face.
• Dug gets put into a cone collar as a punishment and quietly remarks, "I do not like the Cone of Shame."
• Gamma referring to Russell as a "small mailman."
  • And later the Brick Joke when Russell is captured by Muntz's dogs and tied to a chair:

    Gamma: (smugly, to Russell) Scream all you want, small mailman! None of your mailman friends can help you now.

• Dogs. Playing Poker. (Who are you calling an art history nerd?)
  • Pay close attention, one of them is cheating. He has an ace tucked in his collar. This is a Shout-Out to the original painting ◊ by Cassius Coolidge ("A Friend in Need") where one dog is passing an ace under the table.
• When Mr. Fredricksen says to Kevin, "Hey, get off of my roof!", Dug replies, "Yeah, get off of his *RUFF*!"
• "Who wants the ball?" Specifically, the protagonists distract Alpha's hench-dogs by throwing a ball to them.
  • (Beat) "OH, I DO, I DO, I DO!! OH, ME, ME, ME!!"
• The running gag of dogs shouting, "SQUIRREL!". Eventually, it causes the planes to crash!

  Gamma: (after the crash) I hate squirrels!

• When Dug comes back, he says, "I was hiding under your porch because I love you"
• Russell: With my Explorer GPS, we'll never be lost! (Accidentally tosses the GPS out the window while gesticulating)... Oops..
  • Made even funnier when Carl doesn't have a clue what a GPS is, being a standard technology blind elder. If you look closely, the house doesn't have anything more modern than the TV, and even that looks like it was made in the 70's at the latest. This gets a Call-Back in the credits where Russel is trying to teach Carl how to use a computer and Carl stares in befuddlement at the mouse.
  • Another credits gag is a photo of Russel holding up a GPS tracker. Either he got a new one, or they found the original one!
• Dug tells a Black Comedy joke about a squirrel dying, then follows it up with "It is funny because the squirrel gets dead."
• The "WTF?!" face of the frog after a sleep-drunk Carl hits it upon waking up, a la alarm clock.
• Kevin's good-byes to Russell, Carl, and Dug. Russell gets an affectionate head-hug (which some parrots will do with people they really like), Carl gets his head gently patted (as she saw Russell doing earlier), and Dug gets an avian obscenity rasped at him — which he doesn't react to in the least.
  • Gains a Call-Back at the end when one of her babies does the same thing to Dug.
• The Star Wars homages. The camera angles in that scene are just perfect.

  Beta: Grey leader, checking in!

• Carl instructing Russell that they will "walk to the falls quickly and quietly with no rap music or flashdancing" as Russell trails behind, "Uhhuh...sand...I FOUND SAND!"
• In the past, the child Ellie sees a puppy out her window and says, "I will bring it back for SCIENCE."
• Russell has a typical little-kid-on-a-long trip moment while he and Carl are "walking" Carl's house to Paradise Falls:

  Russell: I'm tired! And my knee hurts!
  Carl: Oh yeah? Which knee?
  Russell: (Beat) My elbow hurts!

  • And after Carl just grumbles at him and decides to continue on when a moaning Russell collapses out of boredom, he starts dragging Russell along like he's literal dead weight.
• Carl decides the best thing to do about Dug is just keep walking. Russell points out, "But it's a talking dog!"
• When Carl tries to shoo Kevin away, Kevin instead mocks him, to the point of even copying how Carl is moving.

  Carl: Shoo! Shoo! Get out here!
  Kevin: (copying Carl) Bwabwabwabwa!
  Carl: Go on! Beat it!
  Kevin: (still copying Carl) Bwabwabwabwa!
  Carl: (frustrated) Aaagh!
  Kevin: (still copying Carl again) Bwaagh!

• Russell smooshed up against the glass of the Spirit of Adventure. Then being dragged against its side. Watch Muntz's face - his eye twitches.
• When Carl tries to get Dug and Kevin to leave him alone and he points at them with his walker: (Points to Dug) I don't want you here. (Points to Kevin) And I don't want you here. (Kevin squawks at him in indignation while he points to Russell) And I'm stuck with you.
  • Dug isn't listening; he's transfixed on the tennis balls on Carl's walker.
• When Carl speaks his mind to the building contractor in classic old guy fashion:

  Carl: You in the suit! Yes, you! Take a bath, hippie!

• "I believe I made my position to your boss clear."

  Worker: You, uh, poured prune juice into his gas tank.

  Carl: (chuckling) Yeah, that was a good one...

• Kevin choking up Carl's cane, followed by her babies choking up the feet/balls of his cane. At this point Carl cheerfully gives up the cane for lost, and lets Kevin keep it. Sure enough, he no longer uses a cane after this.
  • Doubles as a Heartwarming Moment. She'd adopted the whole swallow-and-regurgitate-the-cane routine as a friendship ritual to Carl, and then taught the same thing to her chicks!
• When all those dogs went over the cliff like lemmings. Don't worry they got better.
• When Carl goes through his morning routine and goes outside and we see all the construction around that one little patch of home.
• The car-counting game at the end.

  Russell: Red one!
  Carl: Blue one!
  Dug: (who is of course a dog) Grey one!

• Carl's attempt to get rid of Kevin and Dug.

  Dug: Hi, master!
  Carl: ...Afternoon.
  (Dug spits it out the ball onto Carl's hand, still covered in drool)

• This moment when Carl and Russel first meet Dug:

  Russell: Sit! (Dug sits) Hey, he's trained! Shake. (Dug shakes) Speak!
  Dug: Hi there!

• Dug saying, "Will you be my prisoner?" to Kevin.
  • What really sells it is when Dug is holding onto Kevin's leg like a beggar and Kevin continues dragging Dug along. And Dug has a huge smile on his face the whole time. "OH PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE BE MY PRISONER!"
• Carl sending Russell out on a Snipe Hunt and when he actually finds a snipe.
• Every time the leafblower is used.
• This exchange:

  Russell: Cool! My mom loves that game!

• What the dogs were saying when Muntz invited them into his airship.

  Dog: I like you temporarily!

• Dug's first appearance:

  Dug: I can smell you!

  Carl:...What? You can... smell us..?

  Dug:...I can smell you!

  • And before that, when they realize that what they thought was a person was actually a rock Russell says, 'Heh, you were talking to a rock, Mr. Fredricksen.' You can just see him thinking, 'But the rock was answering!'
• Dug tries to stop the dogs chasing Carl, Russell, and Kevin.

  Dug: Stop you dogs!

  (Dogs ignore him and run past)

• There are only two lines in the movie spoken by a dog that aren't a Funny Moment, and both of them are spoken by Alpha. Everything else is hilarious, even the Tear Jerkers and Heartwarming Moments. Especially those.

  Gamma: Your mailman friends can't hear you now!

• Russell's reaction to finding out Kevin is not a Kevin at all...
• Dug exclaiming, "Point!!!!" when he's pointing.
• Ellie's summation of where she wants to go:

  Ellie: South America! It's like America... but south!

• Ellie to Carl: "Y'know, you don't talk much... I like you!"
• After Carl has sent his house into the air, he sits back and prepares for a rest when the door knocks. Startled, he opens the door and finds Russell on the front porch, holding on for dear life:

  Russel: Hi, Mr. Fredrickson!
  Carl: What're you doing out here, kid?!
  Russell: I followed the snipe under your porch, but it had a long tail and it looked more like a large mouse...
  (The wind rips a pennant off Russell's pack and it flies off)
  Russel: (utterly terrified) Please let me in.
  Carl: (Beat) ...No. (Slams door)

• Carl and Ellie's wedding. We first see the bride's half of the room going absolutely bugnuts, clapping and hollering and jumping around and even firing off shotguns. Then we see the groom's half, which is stone cold silent and expressionless (except for stoic clapping).
  • Even funnier is that Ellie's family are dressed in bright clothes, while Carl's family are damn near dressed for a funeral.
• After Carl turns his hearing aid off, watch that scene with captions or subtitles on. Either that, or listen close enough:

  Russell: There's a storm coming. It's starting to get scary. We're gonna get blown to bits! We're in big trouble!

• The way Russell says, "I thought you were dead!"
• One of the tracks on the CD is called "Giving Muntz the Bird."
• Alpha goes after Dug, and manages to get his head stuck in a megaphone. The dogs refuse to follow him anymore because it looks like he's wearing the Cone of Shame, and promptly declare Dug their new Alpha.

  Dog: (gasps) He wears the Cone of Shame!
  Alpha: (in chipmunk voice) Huh? What?! Do not just continue sitting! ATTACK!
  (The dogs all start laughing at him)
  Alpha: NO! NO! STOP YOUR LAUGHING! GET THIS OFF OF ME!!
  Dug: Listen, you dog. SIT!
  (Alpha sits, as does the rest of the pack)
  Dogs: Yes, Alpha!
  Dug: Alpha? I am not Alpha. He is-Oh!

  • It's the way Dug's ears perk up once it dawns on him that sells it.
  • To top it off, if you pay attention, Alpha is still wearing the Cone during Russell's ceremony.
• This exchange:

  Russell: Can I tell you a secret?

  Carl: No.

  Russell: Okay, here it goes.

• Carl tricking Muntz's dogs by throwing one of the balls on his walker. They all look so happy at first that they get to play... until they realize that they've been tricked and Gamma drops the ball in shock.

Documentary Series

• Everything involving Tony in 7 Up. He's tiny, hyperactive and the epitome of the Cheerful Child trope. Special mention goes to this iconic line:

  I wanna be a jockey when I grow up! Yeah, yeah! I wanna be a jockey! I wanna be a jockey!

• Paul's response to being asked whether he thinks he'll go to university in 7 Up toes the line between this and a light Tearjerker:

  What does university mean?

• The Funny Background Event of Suzy's dog chasing down and killing a rabbit before giving it to her as a present in Seven Plus 7. Suzy's response? Not Again!
• The opening of 21 Up, in which the children are all gathered together to watch the original documentary. Much Face Palming ensues. Of particular note is the interaction between Tony and John, the two subjects who arguably represent the two farthest extremes of the working and upper class, during the after party. While they both agree that 7 Up gave a skewed perspective of their respective circumstances, Tony believes that he was made out to be the "bad" guy while John believes just the opposite.
• Charles making faces while John talks about his disdain for Brits who choose to leave the country in 21 Up. In general, the fact that Charles has become rebellious and counter culture while his old schoolmate John has become the very picture of posh conservatism.

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Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Funny/Up

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