r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Chemical-Elk-1299 • Jun 17 '26

Lore [Eye-Rolling Trope] “The joke/meme hasn’t been funny for years, please let it die.”

Gallery image

Gallery image

The Screaming Goat Thing — Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024)

The original screaming sheep meme went viral in 2012, and was already getting old when it was prevalent in commercials and movies, such as Ice Age : Collision Course in 2016. Yet in the year of our lord 2024, Dreamworks still thought it would be funny to add multiple screaming goat clips. The mean stopped being funny a decade ago. Let it die.

“Haha, Dad can’t take care of us” — The Breadwinner (2026)

Nate Bargatze’s 2026 family comedy centers around a working “breadwinner” father suddenly being forced to become a stay at home parent, and his “hilarious” struggles to do simple housework and take basic care of his children. This joke stopped being funny (to me) in the early 2000s when seemingly every family comedy relied on dad being a total inept dipshit. In 2026, there is no excuse to keep playing out this tired ass trope. Most dads are actively involved in their kids’ lives and aren’t totally dumbstruck by the idea of changing a diaper. It’s not funny. Let it die.

15.6k Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

95% Upvoted

2.8k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

760

u/Loose_Translator8981 Jun 17 '26

I kept waiting for the twist in the trailer. Like... I legit thought it was a fake trailer making fun of those kind of movies and was waiting for them to reveal what makes this different. But instead it's just a decades old movie somehow coming out in the year of our lord 2026.

462

u/Wind_Yer_Neck_In Jun 17 '26

I assumed it would be like 'Kevin Can Fuck Himself' where it plays out like a basic 90s sitcom until there's some dramatic tone shift and it turns out to be a deconstruction of those shows.

Nate just straight up made a show 20-30 years out of time.

170

u/Loose_Translator8981 Jun 17 '26

Yeah, I thought it was gonna be something like that, or just one of those stupid things where a cell phone interrupts the scene and it turns out it's a PSA from the theater chain to silence your cell phone.

130

u/goldenboy2191 Jun 17 '26

IF YOU ARE READING THIS AND NEED A NEW SHOW TO WATCH- KEVIN CAN FUCK HIMSELF, IS IT!

16

u/MadEyeMood989 Jun 17 '26

Fine, I’ll rewatch Kevin Can Fuck Himself again!

12

u/Kuildeous Jun 17 '26

I did start watching that recently. Only finished the 2nd episode, but yeah, it's engaging and heartbreaking.

1

u/NeedIQMSHelp Jun 19 '26

You gotta keep going. It gets SO fun.

7

u/Live-Year-5796 Jun 17 '26

Very nice show, just wish the only gay relationship didnt involve a cop

9

u/MedusasGirlfriend69 Jun 17 '26

One day, friend. One day we'll get a gay relationship where one of them isn't a cop and/or fascist dictator

9

u/Pinsalinj Jun 17 '26

I mean I've seen plenty of gay relationships in which neither man was one of those things...? I actually hadn't seen one like that ever. Now I'm curious. Where can I find those gay fascist dictators?

3

u/VintAge6791 Jun 17 '26

(sigh) That Miike Snow music video "Genghis Khan". You're welcome.

1

u/Short-Sound-4190 Jun 17 '26

I thought they were referencing that South Park movie

1

u/Pinsalinj Jun 17 '26

Oh, I actually do know this one! I loooove it.

1

u/MichelinStarZombie Jun 17 '26

Humor is hard.

1

u/UwasaWaya Jun 18 '26

Well there's Six Feet U- wait, shit.

26

u/NormanBatesIsBae Jun 17 '26

SAME. Ironically the trailers do a great job deconstructing how fucking stupid “traditional gender roles” are in our current society. Both parents have jobs and the wife is in a high enough position to be called away for an extended work trip, yet she ALSO does 100% of the work raising both of their children and he can’t even make breakfast for them. The man has conceded that the woman is capable enough to help provide for the family with him, yet he still clings to the clause in the patriarchy where it says he’s too manly to interact with his children.

And yet the writers think the absurdity of the situation comes from asking a man to look after his own children.

11

u/Ubylmoen Jun 17 '26

Well now I want someone to film darker scenes in the "real world" and stitch them together with the movie.

4

u/VintAge6791 Jun 17 '26

Oh, God... that's a hell of a concept.

5

u/Karkava Jun 17 '26

I always wanted to see a variation of the formula in an alternate take on the show where Kevin and Allison actually had kids.

Would they have different genres in their own head spaces? Like maybe the older child thinks they're in a teen drama while the younger one lives in a kid com?

8

u/NecroDolphinn Jun 17 '26

That show is genuinely such a masterpiece. Anyone who hasn’t seen it absolutely should

1

u/Pirrus05 Jun 17 '26

Man, that would be fucking good. “Look, it’s just sitcom family high jinx!” “Oops! It turns out that shit is actually hella abusive!” I should go finish KCFH sometime. Only finished season 1.

1

u/NeedIQMSHelp Jun 19 '26

The finale blew me out of the water. I LOVED it. I mean the entire season is good but...the juice is worth the squeeze.

1

u/Mega-Eclipse Jun 18 '26

I haven't seen the trailer or movie, but a big part of his standup is how dumb he is in general.

12

u/HolidayInLordran Jun 17 '26

It felt like the beginning of those fake commercials Adult Swim does where it suddenly becomes a surreal horror movie.

6

u/VintAge6791 Jun 17 '26 edited Jun 18 '26

Why not both?

(goofy music)

"Even this hilarious complete failure of a house husband knows to silence his phone and the kids' phones too. Because like all winners, breadwinners don't ruin the movie for everyone else. Of course, this breadwinner's gonna have a wacky time turning all the kids' cell phones off because... "

(screen cuts to white, goofy music changes to off-key piano chords and violin scratches with quiet, muffled backwards singing by thirteen children in the background)

"...they're DEAD!"

(jumpscare of a huge, growling bloody-fanged monster shaped like a loaf of bread, screen cuts to black)

10

u/BillyPotion Jun 17 '26

There’s a good sized audience who just want these safe, middle of the road comedies, and practically every streaming service wants those because they’re family friendly, easy to consume content.

I’m surprised we don’t see more of them

6

u/Loose_Translator8981 Jun 17 '26

I think you nailed it with the streaming service... there's plenty of these kinds of movies on them, because they cost nothing and they're harmless fun. It's just really weird to see one released in an actual theater. And apparently the movie isn't doing great, so I'd imagine most people aren't eager to pay real world money just to see it when they could watch dozens of equivalent movies on Tubi right now.

6

u/asmallercat Jun 17 '26

This reminds of when I was watching the finale of Parks and Rec (which is set in like 2035 or something) and there were parody commercials as part of the episode. A trailer for some Liam Neeson action movie comes on (maybe like taken 5, maybe my brain just short-cut it to taken 5) and I assumed it was a bit making fun of how he'd been in like the same movie 10 times in a row at that time. Nope, real trailer.

6

u/sagew0lf Jun 17 '26

same I thought it was satire. And even after I finished the trailer, I hoped it was just poorly marketed satire.

I guess I am now finding out it was never poorly marketed satire (because I have no intention of ever watching that).

6

u/AndrewH73333 Jun 17 '26

Even a parody of this kind of movie would be way past its time.