Trailer Joke Decay

Trailers have to promote their production; to do this, they will invariably use notable scenes from said production. In the case of comedies, the notable scenes of choice are Crowning Moments of Funny. Provided the makers of a trailer do their job correctly, on its first showing, these funny scenes will get the audience to laugh out loud. The problem comes when this same trailer (or different trailers with the same scene) airs on a regular basis, on several network channels and popular websites; those same people end up seeing the same amusing scene again and again. When the audience finally sits down to watch the movie or TV show, the joke falls flat. They've seen the joke so many times that they either fail to laugh, or worse, groan at its lameness.

This is Trailer Joke Decay. You can expect almost every comedy movie to fall victim to this; non-comedies with humorous moments are not immune. Even if the advertisers are smart and avoid the pitfall of overexposing the funny scene, any sufficiently popular movie can be afflicted with Memetic Mutation, as the easily-amused milk the joke for all it's worth.

One way a trailer can get around this problem is to play the joke out of context; when audiences then see it in context, the gag is funny on a different level. Sadly, trailer-makers rarely seem to put that much thought into them.

See also Never Trust a Trailer and Trailers Always Spoil.

Examples of Trailer Joke Decay include:

Film - Animated

• Ice Age suffers from this. Many of the Scrat-related jokes were already run in the trailers, seriously diminishing their humor value when finally seen on the big screen.
  • It's gotten to the point where the trailers are just entire Scrat segments, due to the fact that the kids love him so much. The 3D trailer for Dawn of the Dinosaurs managed to effectively say nothing about the movie's plot besides "Scrat's here".
    • You could also say it's largely a subversion as well, as Scrat is basically a walking Non Sequitur Scene who rarely even remotely touches the plot.
• This is thankfully averted with Pixar's movies by using extraneous footage not used in the final product. e.g. The Incredibles trailer has a now-too-small belt buckle ricocheting everywhere and taking out the lights - this did not stay in their movie. The Monsters, Inc. trailer involved an unused scene of Mike joking around with Sully in a kid's room (which is perhaps non-canon because Mike's job does not involve him entering the houses).
  • Though there have been exceptions particularly during the movie's completion as seen with the final trailers for Up and the "squirrel" gag.
  • Pixar frequently creates footage specifically for its teaser trailers (both Toy Story sequels and Cars 2 are other notable examples), the above mentioned material was never at any time intended to be a part of the films.
• Every trailer for The Simpsons Movie made absolutely sure to include the "Spider-pig" scene. In every commercial break, the entire joke played over and over and OVER again, until by the time the actual movie came out it was more of an annoying meme than a joke.
  • Also, the entire wrecking ball scene. You were basically watching a trailer in the middle of the movie that the trailer was advertising.
• Quite a few Lilo and Stitch trailers featured a scene in which Lilo placed Stitch's claw onto a record player, then opened his mouth, and "Hound Dog" started playing. When Lilo actually tried this in the movie, Stitch played "Suspicious Minds".
• Despicable Me clearly had a monstrous advertising budget, with trailers and ads everywhere. And these ads used several of the best jokes in the movie, particularly the memetic "IT'S SO FLUFFY!!"
• The commercials for the fourth Shrek movie used about every joke and surprise.
• The trailers for Hoodwinked's sequel. Alright, we get it, granny farts, and Twitchy doesn't wear pants.
• The Lorax: "That's a woman?!"
• Alright, we get it, Dreamworks Animation! Marty's circus afro dance is funny. There's no need to put in every frickin' trailer and TV spot for Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted!
  • Especially since it's becoming popular over the internet, leading us to watching the dance for an hour.
  • A dumb person's reaction to the dance.

Random Person: How is it annoying?
Person Next to Random Person: Because it goes like this. Da-da-dadada-da-da-circus, da-da-dadada-da-da-afro, circus afro, circus afro, polka dot, polka dot, polka dot, afro!

• • It's almost a sentient example of this trope. One advertisement seemingly portrays Marty as trying to dethrone "I Like to Move It Move It" as the franchises's Leitmotif with this new song, by interrupting King Julien and seemingly making him feel uncomfortable.
  • The movie's out now. And with all the exposure they put us through, the Circus Afro dance is now officially the most annoying song ever since Rebecca Black's "Friday".

Film - Live-Action

• The trailer for My Big Fat Greek Wedding highlighted the scene where Nia Vardalos' character slams onto the ground due to her still holding onto the phone. Come screening time, not so funny.
• Lex Luthor yelling that Lois Lane's "WRONG!!!!!" in Superman Returns. Not only was it overexposed in the trailer, it was already an Internet meme weeks before the damn movie even premiered.
• While not a comedy film, every ad ever for the sixth Harry Potter film included this humorous exchange:

Hermione: Hey, she's only interested in you because she thinks you're the Chosen One!
Harry: But I am the Chosen One!
[SMACK]

• Many of the Pirates of the Caribbean trailers, specifically Elizabeth's "try wearing a corset" and "I don't think now's the best time" lines from the first and third films respectively.
  • Averted with a gag from the second one - the trailer had the following exchange:

Will: We have to go back for Jack!
Jack comes running around the corner, chased by natives
Will: Never mind, let's go!

• • The trailer had used an outtake - Orlando Bloom had made a mistake, and was indicating that they should try the line again.
• The "We are actors, not astronauts!" line from Galaxy Quest.
  • Though averted as the much-played scene of Jason saying "The whole thing was just a misunderstanding" with the last part muffled by Sarek's hand over his mouth didn't end up in the film.
• Spider-Man's "You're not Superman, you know."
  • Lampshaded in the film, as Peter Parker chuckles at the joke—probably the way anyone would. In the trailer, the line is followed by Peter's over-serious look from later in the scene. So the trailer version is actually funnier.
• Men in Black II had an ad lib from Will Smith concerning the autopilot driver for their vehicles. Even the director was upset because he felt it ruined the joke by showcasing it ahead of time.

Kay: Does that come standard?
Jay: Actually, it came with a black dude, but he kept getting pulled over.

• The Master of Disguise: "Am I not turtley enough for the Turtle Club? Turtle, turtle!"
  • "This is what you are doing. This is what you should be doing."
• The Year One trailer overexposed every funny moment.
• The Sherlock Holmes trailer featured an originally humorous gag where Holmes picks up a small hammer to fight a large goon with a several times larger hammer and throws it at the guy after noticing said disparity, having no effect on said large goon. By the time the gag showed in the theater, nobody in the audience was laughing at it.
• There is also anything showing clips from Napoleon Dynamite, which holds an odd distinction of being a film that has its gags ruined by trailers, word of mouth, and merchandising. Yeesh.
• Every TV spot of The Country Bears included that clip of the policemen's hair getting messed up in the car wash, eventually reaching the point where Disney released a commercial that contained nothing but that clip.
• The trailers and commercials for Hancock seemed to go out of their way to spoil every single joke in the entire film, long after they'd secured an audience. Of course, by the third major trailer they were also giving away the giant plot twist, so their marketing team obviously has issues.
  • Probably the biggest offender was the whale scene. In the teaser, every actual trailer and a Best Buy advertisement that got a ton of airtime in the US.
• Trailers for There's Something About Mary included all of the major jokes in the movie, severely degrading the viewing experience.
• People laughed out loud when the trailer of The Mask came out, whetting the viewers' appetites. Sadly it showed most of the funniest moments of the movie leaving those who saw the trailer unsatisfied with the movie.
• Two Words. Old Dogs. All of the jokes (not just the notable ones) were in the trailers and ads. This was so bad, that watching the movie was pointless. All you really need to do is watch the trailer. Don't worry, you won't miss a thing.
• The trailers for the Yours Mine and Ours remake left absolutely NO gag unrevealed.
• The trailers for The Informant! always included the line "They call me 0014, cuz I'm twice as smart as 007." Probably the only funny joke in the movie.
• The trailers for The Change Up highlight two instances of Toilet Humor involving Jason Bateman: the first having a baby take a crap on his face and the other being Leslie Mann having a case of diarrhea which prevents them from having sex. Not only were the jokes overused, they weren't even funny to begin with.
• Selena Gomez wearing cowboys boots at a fancy dinner party in Monte Carlo. We get it, her character is from Texas. This was even on the posters.
• Perplexingly subverted in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, as pointed out in RedLetterMedia's review. Compare the reasonably amusing comic timing of the take used in the trailer, versus the humor-exsanguinated one used in the film.
• Every single trailer for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World showed the "No clue/Gets it" clip.
• "Cop Out". Looked funny, especially this gem (skip to 2:04) between Seann William Scott, Tracy Morgan, and finally, Bruce Willis:

Scott: Knock Knock
Morgan: No. No. Nn Nn. Nn Nn. No. No. No, No, No. NO! HELL NO! NO! NO! I refu- NO! No.
Willis: (Deadpan) Who's there?

• • Needless to say, that scene was not in the movie, turning it into a colossal downer for those of us who watched it in the theater.
• Big Trouble subverted this by editing a joke from the movie into a new one for the trailer. Good thing since the movie was pushed back six months due to 9/11.
  • The joke in the trailer:

Monica:Sir, have you been drinking?
Jack:No.
Whiskey bottle crashes to the ground.
Jack:Yes.

• • The joke in the movie:

Walter:Is this your gun?
Jack:Yes. (Beat) No.
Monica:Sir, have you been drinking?
Jack:Of course not.
Whiskey bottle crashes to the ground. He runs.

Live-Action TV

• iCarly: This happens pretty much Once an Episode now, especially since they started calling them all 'specials' and airing one episode every 2 months. If the audience is lucky it's just the funniest joke, and not the entire episode, like happened in iGot A Hot Room.
• This was Lampshaded in NBC's coverage of the 1997 World Series. Throughout the series, NBC showed numerous promos for their new sitcom Working. Play-by-play announcer Bob Costas pointed out after one particular spot that although the clips were funny, viewers might not find them as humorous in the actual show due to having seen those particular jokes so often.
• Glee had a Vogue parody starring Sue. It probably would've been funnier and more surprising if they hadn't shown the entire thing in a trailer at the end of the previous episode.
• Cartoon Network's terrible with this. The trailer for the new Regular Show episode overuses Mordecai's imitation of a dance music beat. You know, "uhn tiss uhn tiss uhn tiss uhn tiss uhn tiss".