MovieChat Forums > I Love Lucy (1951) Discussion > The Lines that Got Away

The Lines that Got Away


There are many funny lines on ILL that either the studio audience didn't pick up on, or they were drowned out by the continued laughing of the previous lines.

Two examples:

In "The Kleptomaniac", Lucy is trying to convince Ricky and Fred that she doesn't have Fred's clock under her coat. As she attempts a beeline to the bedroom, Lucy says the last bird she imitated was " part cuckoo." The audience laughs so much that Fred's followup line, "I know someone who's ALL cuckoo" gets buried

In "The Freezer", when Fred, Ricky and Ethel are carrying a frozen-stiff Lucy out of that chest, the audience is laughing at Lucy's predicament so hard that Ethel's line, " Be careful going around corners - you don't want to snap off an arm!" barely registers.

Any other examples?

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That's an interesting thought. I can't think of any at the moment. But there must be some more.

There is one line that I always thought "got away" from the writers. I think that it could've been funnier if worded differently.

In "Lucy Tells the Truth" she says that she likes to color thing and Ricky responds with, "Well didn't you say so. I'll buy you some watercolors."

Responding about color with watercolors didn't seem too funny to me.

I think the line would have been funnier if Ricky said, "Well tomorrow, I'll pick up some brushes and a can of paint for you."

Or, "I'll stop at an art supply store and buy you some crayons and a sketchbook."

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I've always noticed that too. Yeah, it's an unwritten law that you never say the operative word twice in a joke or gag line. Doing so can really make it unfunny, as it does here. Rare misfire for this show, especially in a script as sharp as "Truth."

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Oh, I didn't know that was a real thing in telling a joke or a gag line! It just didn't sound funny to me. The line just clunked!

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