MovieChat Forums > Night Gallery (1969) Discussion > Can anyone explain the "How to Cure the ...

Can anyone explain the "How to Cure the Common Vampire" skit?


What's the joke in this segment? Totally confusing minute and a half.

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I dislike most of the black-out comedic sections of Night Gallery.
this is the script

Executioner (Holding the mallet to drive stake into vampire heart): “Are you sure?”
Other man: “Well, it couldn’t hurt.”

But I think the joke of this section is really based on the double entendre of "Well, it couldn't hurt." From the perspective of the vampire, it would hurt physically-- quite a lot. From the perspective of the vampire hunters, "hurt" is metaphorical in that it refers to the prospect of being successful in their efforts to kill the vampire. Not a physical "hurt."

That's it. And it isn't laugh-out-loud funny. It's not even mildly amusing.
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Never say never...

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Thanks for the clarification. I was hoping I had missed a clever pun or something. Guess not. The segment is so bizarrely pointless it almost feels intentionally Samuel Beckett-esque, like something out of the Absurdist school of thought or something. :)

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I usually like the blackout bits (or, as I called them, "short shorts"), but this one was horrendous! As fate would have it, that was from the show's final episode.



Annoying the world since 1960!

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I think the "short shorts" actually disrupt the continuity and tone of the entire show. And in this case, it was a pity it was in the series finale. Back then, it probably just left people shaking their heads.

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Never say never...

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