Things that Game of Thrones is known for: heart-wrenching drama, sprawling worldbuilding, power plays, manipulation, death. Things that Game of Thrones is less well known for: slapstick, yuks, gut-busting comedy. That said, Game of Thrones is actually a funny show, with enough humor to balance out the darkness of the episodes. There was no lack of nominees in this category, and narrowing it down to a top 5 was quite the task, but here we are. The finalists for the Watchers on the Wall Award for Funniest Scene are:
- Jon, Sansa and Davos face the 10 year old Lady of Bear Island, Lyanna Mormont. Watch Here
- The Queen of Thorns puts the Sand Snakes in their place. Watch Here
- Sam is greeted at the maesters’ Citadel by the worst help desk in Westeros. Watch Here
- Tormund makes eyes at Brienne at dinner. Watch Here
- Tormund sighs over an unimpressed Brienne, and Dolorous Edd realizes he’s the Lord Commander. Watch Here
You can see the detailed results from the round 1 poll HERE.
Final round rules: Cast your vote for the winner in our Funniest Scene poll. In the finals, unlike the preliminaries, fans have one vote to cast in each category. At the end of 72 hours (Wednesday 9/14/16 at 6PM EDT), the scene with the most votes will be the winner! The results of the poll will be revealed during the live Watchers on the Wall Awards ceremony, which will take place in early October. Specific date to be announced in the near future!
Tormund!
Hodor
and EMMYS!
I suspect many will vote for Tormund and Brienne so my vote goes to Sam and the Citadel maester. “I suppose life is irregular” hahahaha
I still don’t see anything humorous about the meeting with Lady Mormont.
Tormund! At last it has to be a stop in this Lady Mormont takes it all thing.
Tormund makes eyes at Brienne at dinner 😉
Tormund and Brienne’s tête-à-tête of course!
Btw, I don’t understand how the 2nd Tormund scene + Dolorous Ed = Lord Commander can qualify as one single “funniest scene”. There’s 55 seconds between both and they have nothing to do with each other in the slightest.
Tormund shows his manners to Brienne at dinner! At last it has to be a stop in this Lady Mormont takes it all thing.
The eyes have it. 😉
I’d be happy with any of these winning.
Clob,
Sixty-two
“I suppose life is irregular.”
Funniest Scene: Sam is greeted at the maesters’ Citadel by the worst help desk in Westeros.
Honorable Mention: The Queen of Thorns puts the Sand Snakes in their place.
“Let the grown women speak.”
He’s the man. He has got the looks. He has got the beard!
Game of Thrones won 13 online television and film association awards ! 😀 http://www.oftaawards.com/television-awards/20th-annual-tv-awards-2015-16/
Tormund’s ‘Pickmepickmepickme’ grin does it for me.
Funniest Scene: As everyone leaves Castle Black, Tormund sighs over an unimpressed Brienne, and Dolorous Edd realizes he’s the Lord Commander.
I absolutely agree that there is a lot of humor in GoT – sometimes it is in the writing, sometimes it is in the delivery, but usually it is in both. While these five scenes were all fantastic, there were so many more humorous moments that didn’t make the cut!
Now that she has left King’s Landing, Lady Olenna needs to sass someone other than Cersei and she made short work of the Sand Snakes. They need to get up a lot earlier than they are at the moment to outwit Olenna and I loved the scene between them; aside from it being a perfect demonstration of how Cersei, and to an extent the Lannisters more generally, constructed the demise of House Lannister, it was well-paced and amusing (not things we have always connected with the Dornish scenes).
As the Sand Snakes were slapped down by Olenna, so was Team Stark by Lyanna Mormont. She may have the best 62 men in the North, but she wasn’t giving their services away for free. Her timely reminders to Jon that he is a Snow and to Sansa that she has married two sons of House Stark’s biggest enemies were a reality check and delivered with confidence.
The three scenes I ended up choosing from were those with Brienne, Tormund, Edd and Sam. I have loved seeing Sam grow since season one and while he is more mature now, I do like to see him still get that bit of comedy in his scenes. The actor who played the unimpressed maester was fantastic, and the two played off each other so well. Sam is right, life is irregular; hopefully Sam’s humor remains going forward!
In the end, however, I reflected on what my favorite humorous bits of the season were – and they were all things Tormund and Brienne. The arrival of Brienne, Sansa and Pod at Castle Black gave us a character encounter that dreams are made of. Like most, I didn’t know I wanted to see Brienne and Tormund in scenes like these, but giving the viewers things they didn’t know they wanted is a huge part of Thrones. The one that missed out was the encounter at dinner, inclusive of Edd’s tacit seal of approval. We should all have someone that looks at us like Tormund looks at Brienne while biting the hell out of his chicken. I am hopeful that Brienne makes a speedy return northwards, so that we can have more of these scenes!
In the end, I chose the Castle Black departure scene – partly because of Brienne and Tormund, and partly because of Edd. The look on Brienne’s face when she sees Tormund eyeing her up again is priceless. It was great to see Gwendoline Christie get some comedy scenes this season – she is so good at them! I think Dolorous Edd is fantastic – certainly my favorite minor character – and the look of resignation on his face as he looked around him to find that he had been stuck with running the Night’s Watch was just perfect!
Since my choice wasn’t in there, it has to be TORMUND! The looks he casts at Brienne are hilarious and I’m still hoping for something to happen between the two of them.
Olenna “putting Sand snakes in their place” is priceless. But Tormund’s eye play on Brienne was just hilarious.
Um yeah, not “funny.” It was a “Damn! Well, that’s hardly any help and a bit of a waste of time and travel.” Even on a show that isn’t about being funny there were many more deserving things. Hell, Bronn slapping Pod was more funny.
Rhaenys Stark,
I see Peter won the supporting category. *sigh* I wonder if this impacts the Emmys in any way.
Where?
Definitely Tormund making eyes at Brienne over dinner. Awesomely hilarious scene, which proves that you don’t need dialogue to make a great scene – just two very good actors who hit all the right notes.
Funniest Scene: Tormund makes eyes at Brienne at dinner.
Also Considered:
–Sam is greeted at the maesters’ Citadel by the worst help desk in Westeros
–Tormund sighs over an unimpressed Brienne, and Dolorous Edd realizes he’s the Lord Commander.
Back in the nomination stage, I felt very confident that one of the two Tormund/Brienne scenes would ultimately win (looking at the vote totals for the Preliminary Round, the initial scene at the dinner table would seem to have the edge). However, since both of them made the finals, I do wonder if there’s a slight possibility that vote-splitting might allow one of the other nominees to eke out a victory. I guess it will depend on just how overwhelming the support is for the greatest, as-of-yet unrealized love story of our time …
Olenna’s put-down of the Sand Snakes. It was not only funny, but it reflected what we watchers wanted. “You look like a little boy”! Too right! Tormund and Brienne was wonderful but didn’t accomplish as much. I didn’t think the Bear Island scene funny–it was a significant and dramatic turning point with a touch of humour in the discomiture of Jon and Sansa.
I went with Tormund making eyes at Brienne, one of my only laugh out loud moments of the season.
Flayed Potatoes,
These people seem like they’re mainly just trying to ape what they think the Emmys will do. That said, the OFTA have nothing whatsoever to do with the television academy. Not a single one of their guest acting picks actually won an Emmy last night, and from the looks of it anyone in the US or Canada can apply to become a voting member. I’m not really sure what, if anything, elevates these awards above most online polls or the Gold Derby awards (which Kit and Lena won). It’s nice to see Game of Thrones supported, but these results don’t mean anything for next Sunday. The television academy voters are their own distinct brand of awful.
Clob,
2 words- “Sixty two”
OH no! The Tormienne vote will be split!!
Well I for one felt the dinner scene was far better of the two. And the rest aren’t even close. 🙂
Hah! Good point. It doesn’t pay to get overly emotionally involved in who wins what award. Every one of these competitions represents some degree of cronyism, favor-trading and people in an industry patting themselves on the back. And the fan polls are even less meaningful by a long shot – especially since in some of them, people can vote multiple times.
I suppose that if you win an Emmy, it feels good to get respect from your peers, and it helps you get future work; but they must all know that there are plenty of deserving people and productions that don’t ever get nominated because they don’t have a high level of commercial visibility. It’s like the Oscars: How often does a genuine low-budget indie film get a nom outside the documentary or short categories? Hardly ever.
In other words, we shouldn’t let ourselves get too worked up about this stuff.
Tormund! 😀
The eyes have it, as they say. What a hysterical, ridiculous, wordless moment.
So bummed Khal Moro didn’t make it. In his absence, I voted for Queen of Thorns.
Queen of Thornes – not only was it funny in itself, but it was made more so by the fact that many fans had been saying something similar about the Sand Snakes!
Tormienne forever!
Tormund making eyes at Brienne.
At least GoT won more gongs than any other show. It was especially appropriate that the OFTAs recognised GoT for best Ensemble in a drama Series. These days everyone in the top tier of GoT stars is doing strong work. Apparently the OFTAs allow seven nominees in a category. I found it interesting that in many categrories, especially Supporting Actress, the acting nominees closely tracked the Emmy nominees.
Clob,
Sansa attempt of flattery and my little bear giving the maester the ” talk to the hand” was equal measures awesome, dramatic and comedic moment!
Um… i’ll go with Lyanna Mormont but I am quite sad that the only funny scene in the whole season (top things in life by dothraki) didn’t even make it to the finals. 🙁
Sam’s arrival at Oldtown was my absolute favourite. Fantastic acting by Bradley.
As everyone leaves Castle Black, Tormund sighs over an unimpressed Brienne, and Dolorous Edd realizes he’s the Lord Commander.
“What they took with them” – A video about the refugees with Kit, Cate Blanchett, Keira Knightley and more https://twitter.com/albino_direwolf/status/775281385821052928
Can’t help it, gotta be Tormund!! I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard at GOT…:)
And I still don’t understand why two separate scenes that have nothing to do with each other ended up as one single “funniest scene”…
Tar Kidho,
They literally are part of the same scene. Watch the video.
If you look at the detailed results linked in the post, you’ll see that one came in 6th in the voting. Too bad, it was a funny scene!
The Tormund scene is great but this has to go to Lyanna. She was amazing!!!
It wasn’t just Tormund making eyes at Brienne, it was Edd’s reaction as well.
This scene reminded me of the funny scene at the Small Council when Tyrion dragged his chair around the table!!
Watch the video: they are entirely unrelated scenes with 55 seconds of stuff in between. I would have been fine with either one (or both) here, but not as a single scene. Now some people vote for Tormund and some for Ed’s reaction, and the votes are added up for no rational reason.
Flayed Potatoes,
And GOT lost best Drama… will that affect it also?
I’m torn between Lyanna Mormont and the fourth-wall breaking of Olenna criticizing the Sand Snakes (to the point of not allowing Tyene to speak and saying no one wants to hear her talk ever again – she didn’t have a single speaking line all season, actually).
….Lyanna Mormont is cute but the scene didn’t ultimately play out funny; yes she’s a child but the actress played it as a serious political leader stepping up. So it was snarky, but ultimately veered towards the serious.
….yeah I’m going to have to lean towards the “Olenna mocks the Dorne subplot” scene. I wonder how that got in there.
Do the showrunners…think people actually LIKE these changes? That is, they said the real focus was “we wanted to give Indira Varma more to do” – the real focus is on Ellaria, not so much “the Sand Snakes”. Do they…think people actually still “like” Ellaria as either hero or villain? Because this scene seemed like at least partial acknowledgement that it didn’t turn out well.
Some people hated that. But I utterly cannot resist a Monty Python reference!! So I didn’t have a problem.
Tormund eyeing Brienne as they prepare to leave made me laught out loud very suddenly.
You forgot to include the scene where Jon first walks among the crowd at Castle Black where Tormund says a God wouldn’t have a pecker that small and Jon tells Edd not to burn his body just yet. Then Edd says “That’s funny. You sure that’s you in there?” That scene made laugh more than any of the others listed. 🙂
++Sam
I went with Sam but I believe Tormiene will get this
Queen of Thorns, easily.
Alba Stark,
Thanks for reminding me that Lyanna pointed out that Jon was a SNOW…no matter how much Stark swag Sansa dresses him in. (I added that last part 🙂
And, yes, Brienne/Gwen was great in those scenes. Actually, that woman can do things with her chin that makes me laugh my ass off. Her chin trembles(round the dinner table) as she looks away from Tormund. I was amused at first, but that tremble made me lose it.
….I’m pretty sure the Lyanna Mormont scene wasn’t supposed to be a funny…
It will be interesting to see how important both of these things are going forward. Lyanna Mormont declares Jon King in the North in spite of the fact that he is a Snow rather than a Stark; Sansa is overlooked although she is the true-born child of Ned – is that as a result of the patriarchy and martial culture that exists in the North, or is it partly that and partly her marital history? The likes of Lady Mormont and Lords Manderly, Glover and Cerwyn have no idea that she was forced to marry Tyrion, or the extent of Littlefinger’s manipulation in her marriage to Ramsay; in their eyes, she married a Lannister and then a Bolton, sons of the two families most prominent in the downfall of the Starks. Jon did not chose to be a Snow, it was out of his control – but perhaps in their eyes (though it was not the case) Sansa was very much an active participant in her fate.
Alba Stark,
Lyanna’s mother was a warrior that fought and died for Robb. If Sansa wasn’t Sansa but was Lyanna’s mom instead, in addition to having leadership experience(Night’s Watch), I think she might have been chosen. Of course, Sansa’s martial history is suspicious. You’re not going to get a job at the local synagogue if you’re Hitler’s ex wife…let’s not kid ourselves!
Names don’t really matter, do they? At least that’s what’s being revealed to me. Everyone in Westeros says they matter, but when it comes down to brass tacks, we see that they don’t…not really.
I think they have some idea. Sansa told Lyanna that she married to “survive”. Lyanna had some idea. Sansa learns that there’s a price for everything. You can’t talk smack about your family in one city and marry the enemy then expect everyone back home to not consider your conduct suspicious. If that happened, then it would really be a fantasy!
Lyanna pointed out the facts to refute the lie being told to her face. The facts are: Jon is a Snow and Sansa is a Lannister-Bolton. Later on, she shows that she(Northern Lords) are more rational about their choice for a leader, than choosing someone only for their name.
???
But is it a funny scene, or a quote? That scene ends with Varys claiming Fire and Blood. So there’s a funny bit in the scene, but I don’t know.
Strange; I cannot vote. I mean no poll there. Is it already Wednesday??
Well, I would have voted for Olenna and the Sand Snakes (great band name, by the way – or it would have been, in the sixties).
Sou,
That happened to me, too, but it was my browser (Firefox), not the site. If you’re on Firefox, go to the upper-left corner of your screen. You’ll see a little shield-looking thing. Click on it, then click where it says “disable protection for this session.” It should reload the page, and you should see the poll. At least that’s what worked for me. It looks like you still have a day left to vote, too.
Well, there’s a whole subculture called wizard rock (or just “wrock”) of bands who play songs whose lyrics are inspired by the Potterverse. I have written about a dozen wrock songs myself. So why not a Planetos-based rock or folk subgenre? There might be an Olenna and the Sand Snakes out there already, singing jolly medieval or traditional-sounding ballads about the joys of backstabbing, poisoning and whatnot!
The question is, what to call it, without dissing fans of one character or another? Dragon rock or direwolf rock might be too divisive.
Nerevanin,
you are right, that was indeed FUNNY!
I chose Sam meeting the Citadel maester. Handing the letter was so fun to watch.
I went with Lady Olenna’s withering put down of the sand snakes. It felt like she was talking for many of us viewers! 😀
I loved the unexpected Brienne/Tormund thing, though we should’ve seen it coming. Tormund, being the Wildling he is, would, of course, fall for such a tall and strong “shieldmaiden”! What made it hilarious was Brienne’s reaction. (“As to that Wildling fellow with the big beard… [ugh]”) Despite being a warrior, she’s very much a southron lady – and in love with somebody else. But it was nice for Brienne to see that there are men who’ll find her attractive and desireable physically. She didn’t know how to react. She was surprised, secretly flattered and pleased, confused, awkward… I loved all the “Tormienne” scenes, and they were hilarious, but Brienne’s story is with Jaime. She loves him spiritually and physically, he loves her spiritually, and maybe even physically. Poor Tormund doesn’t stand a chance. 😀
As to Sam with the Citadel “Cerberos”… My uni departmental library used to have a jobsworth like him and I had a chuckle but the scene wasn’t outstandingly funny to me. Maybe I was just too worried about Gilly and baby Sam so I couldn’t appreciate the humour. Sam, thanks to the portrayal of John Bradley, has often served moments of light relief through the years. I hope he’ll still do that, though looking ahead, Sam’s role in the great war might get serious – I mean, he’s got to find something important in the Citadel, right?
Lady Lyanna Mormont owning the Northern Lords was kind of funny (because she’s a young girl) but I felt it was more of a dramatic rather than funny scene.