MovieChat Forums > Police Squad! (1982) Discussion > Subtle Jokes

Subtle Jokes

posted 13 years ago by Dysphasic
7 replies | jump to latest

What are some subtle jokes that you found while watching?

I have a few:

1) When one of the men brought out the cake for Terri's birthday, his dress coat was covered with cake cream.

2) When Stella was shooting at the Shooting Target Poster (trying to kill Frank), it was in the shape of a standing human before the shots were fired and then it turned into a man grasping his chest as if it were a real person being shot.

3) The background (in the car or in the police headquarters or in the apartments) are mostly pictures of historical landmarks. I saw The Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum, etc.

4) After beating up the thugs in the ballet room in episode five, there's a shot of Frank up close with blood and cuts on his face making it look like the thugs landed a couple of punches on him. But the next shot, the blood and bruises are all gone.

5) Not jokes, but some interesting bits from the freeze-frame endings: In episode one, both Frank and Ed looked at the camera just before the end, probably intentionally. In episode five, Frank was making eye movements and grimaces, suggesting that he was being burned by the coffee.

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[–] wordsatplaytoday 8 years ago

Al says to Frank that a couple of other cops are looking through the records for clues.
And in the background you see them looking at different record albums.
It's hard to pick up on because Al and Frank are doing another gag while that joke is going on.

"Fill 'er up!" Says Al or Frank to gas station attendants.
And then they start putting what looks like suitcases into the back seat of the car.

"Have you hugged your kid today?" is on the back of the boxers robe. Kinda hard to read.

Damn, I'm good.

[–] smoothsagetx 8 years ago

My favorite jokes :

" Do you know what it's like to be married to a wonderful man for 14 years?

... ran him out of town like a common pigmy."

all of the little Italy stuff is gold.

The kids and Mr. Olsen the scientist. This bit just kept getting weirder and weirder.

Super subtle joke they recapped every person they sent to jail at the end of each episode. It happened like right before the freeze frame.

[–] snelling 8 years ago

I have seen all of them many times but when Terri was kidnapped, the father asks the police, "What do I do?"

Frank says, "I seem to remember you work in textiles." Something like that.

I never caught that joke because Leslie says the line so quietly.

"'Extremely High Voltage.' Well, I don't need safety gloves, because I'm Homer SimpZZZZZZ--" - Frank Grimes

[–] izzy520i 8 years ago

The kids and Mr. Olsen the scientist. This bit just kept getting weirder and weirder. --> smoothsagetx

It was certainly getting weird, to the point where you feel guilty of laughing since you know it's morally wrong in our present times.

They did similar jokes in Naked Gun (obviously) and Airplane!, the latter was even more weird with the 'Billy have you ever seen/ been' running jokes.

[–] smoothsagetx 8 years ago

Right, it did get uncomfortable. It reminds me of a quote from the INCOMPARABLE Steve Martin.

Comedy is not pretty.

[–] franzkabuki 7 years ago

"Since you know it's morally wrong in our present times".

It was morally wrong for middle-aged men to screw kids in 1980 as well. Don't know why anyone should feel guilty about it though - now or then - because these are mere jokes (and funny ones, too) in a film filled with all manner of similarly outrageous humor and nothing should be safe from sending up. It would be a different story had Captain Ouver, for instance, graphically described what he would like to do to the kid in a private setting... but then again that wouldn't have been funny so there's that.

"facts are stupid things" Ronald Reagan

[–] avortac4 (3443) 2 years ago

"The detectives are working around the clock", and you see then literally gathered around a grandfather clock.