10 MCU Scenes That Went From Comedy To Serious So Fast It Gave Us Whiplash

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The Marvel Cinematic Universe is notorious for its difficulty in balancing comedic and serious tones, often whiplashing from one emotional beat to another with violent speed. The films of the MCU are well-known for their quippy sense of humor, which has often been criticized as a crutch the franchise uses to maintain mass appeal at the expense of earnestness. Though serious scenes being interrupted by comedy is a far more frequent problem in the MCU, the reverse can be true almost as often.
In many cases, a lighthearted or comedic beat in the franchise will be suddenly interrupted by the sudden development of a very serious plotline. This is often the fault of the films" editing style, which can result in haphazard cuts that abruptly shift more humorous scenes into far more dramatic moments with little warning. In other cases, the tone will slingshot from funny to heavy over the course of the same continuous scene, making for an emotionally confusing time. Even if some MCU movies lean too heavily on comedy, they often need more time to let their jokes breathe.
9 Spider-Man Gets A Ride To Prom With The Vulture Spider-Man: Homecoming

Michael Keaton"s Vulture is one of the most underrated villains of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. Once a normal blue-collar worker, the disgruntled Adrian Toomes becomes The Vulture after a valuable contract repairing the Battle of New York"s damage is poached by Damage Control and Stark Industries. Becoming a black market arms dealer trading in exotic tech, Peter Parker shockingly discovers that the villain is none other than his prom date"s father.
The car ride in which Adrian figures out the identity of his daughter"s date starts out quite jovial, with plenty of typical Dad jokes thrown Peter"s way oblivious as to the stress he"s buckling under. But eventually, Adrian realizes just who the young man sitting in his back seat is, and quickly adjusts his personality to compensate. Threatening to kill Spider-Man and everyone he cares about while still half-maintaining the facade of a normal dad, this bit of tonal whiplash is a rare one that actually works quite well given the context.
8 The Avengers Argument Scene The Avengers

The Avengers was a great proof of concept for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, finally allowing many beloved superheroes to interact with one another on the same set. This made for some memorable banter, like the helicarrier scene, in which the recently-met teammates trade verbal blows. Before long, however, the verbal sparring soon becomes a very personal attack on Tony Stark"s character.
Frustrated by Stark constantly making light of Bruce Banner"s dangerous condition, Steve zeroes in on him, telling him he"s a "Big man in a suit of armor", asking what he"s really made out of underneath the tech. He then goes on to directly insult him, saying that he doesn"t have the guts to sacrifice himself for the greater good of the mission. Of course, Steve is eventually proven wrong way later in Avengers: Endgame, but this cutting exchange springs up quite suddenly from the previously jovial tone of the meeting.
7 Cassandra Nova Goes Inside Logan's Mind Deadpool & Wolverine

Despite mostly being known for it"s over-the-top action and meta sense of humor, the Deadpool series does have serious moments. However, finding a good spot to insert them amid all the jokes and carnage isn"t always a straightforward task, as proven by Deadpool & Wolverine. Most of the film is nothing but fun and games, but the show comes to a screeching halt when Wolverine makes an actual attempt on villain Cassandra Nova"s life.
After playing with him a bit with her telekinesis, Cassandra decides to literally probe Logan"s mind for trauma, finally giving the audience a glimpse into why he"s so tortured. The following imagery of Wolverine making his way back to his fellow mutants only to find them slaughtered is harrowing indeed, a far cry from the typical goofs and gags of the Deadpool series. So deep is Wolverine"s pain that Cassandra is hardly able to bear it when she breaches the inner walls of his fractured psyche, making for a starkly more serious beat compared to the preceding upbeat action.
6 The Avengers Lifting Mjolnir Avengers: Age of Ultron

One of the best scenes in all of the often-maligned Avengers: Age of Ultron is the simple party scene in which the team gets a chance to simply hang out. After all the other party guests have left, the group speculate on the true worthiness required to lift Thor"s hammer, taking cracks at hoisting the legendary weapon for themselves. From Steve"s ability to lift it that the purposefully downplays in order not to embarrass Thor to Clint and Tony"s speculation on the technological mechanisms that might keep up the illusion, it"s fantastic to see the group simply riffing.
Of course, the fun comes to a crashing halt when the first Ultron drone hobbles into view, coldly lecturing the group with his newfound sentience. The new development hits the pacing like a brick wall, instantly tossing The Avengers back into the deep end of combat just when they thought they might"ve finally had a chance to relax. It would"ve been nice to see the rest of the night play out without the intervention of the robotic villain.
5 Sif Tells Thor About Gorr Thor: Love and Thunder

If there"s one Marvel Cinematic Universe director that"s been criticized the most for his awkward mixing of comedy and drama, it"s Taika Waititi. While the novelty of "comedy Thor" and his films" new humorous tone was a breath of fresh air in Thor: Ragnarok at first, audiences soon began to sour on Waititi"s inability to take anything seriously. Thor: Love and Thunder is particularly bad about balancing its serious and humorous moments, with a perfect example being the scene in which Thor finds an injured Lady Sif.
Seeing the carcass of a giant god (who Thor quickly explains was a really cool guy), Thor and Korg stumble upon a dying Lady Sif, having nearly lost her life in a battle with Gorr. Wishing to be left to die so she can enter Valhalla, Thor bursts her bubble by telling her that since she technically survived that battle, she won"t be headed there if she dies now, though her severed arm might. Following this awkward quip, Sif launches into an ominous lecture informing Thor of Gorr"s existence that"s hard to take seriously after making light of the situation.
4 Hulk And Rocket Recruit Thor Avengers: Endgame

Thor just can"t seem to catch a break when it comes to letting a serious moment play out, or vice versa, even outside of the Taika Waititi movies. Avengers: Endgame treats Thor as one big punchline, showing how he"s denigrated into an overweight, alcoholic, shut-in Fortnite player following his failure to stop Thanos in time in Avengers: Infinity War. As much is revealed when Rocket and Hulk go to recruit him for the new mission, having apparently not been in touch with him at all in the prior five years.
After poking endless amounts of fun at Thor"s current and pathetic state, the film suddenly switches gears, asking audiences to empathize with him. The conversation becomes shockingly morose as tears well in Thor"s eyes, insisting to Hulk that he was the one to kill Thanos, and that that should have been enough. If only Thor had been leaned on a little bit less as a joke, this emotional moment might"ve hit a little harder.
3 Thor Reunites With His Mom Avengers: Endgame

Once again, the story"s treatment of Thor in Avengers: Endgame continuously led to many awkward mixes of levity and genuine drama. Traveling back in time with Rocket to capture the Power Stone in the form of The Aether during the events of Thor: The Dark World, Thor gets a chance to reunite with his mother, having been long dead since the events of the film. The moment in which they meet is played for pure laughs at first, with Thor poorly hiding his modern clothes, increased weight, and new mechanical eye.
Eventually, he relents, tearfully admitting "I"m totally from the future!" to his wise goddess of a mother. What follows is a very poignant true reunion in which Thor is unable to save his mother, though he gets one last chance to interact with her. Of course, her last words to her son have to be "Eat a salad", violently parkouring the tone over to the comedic side of things once more before the scene ends.
2 Killian Captures Tony After He Meets The Mandarin Iron Man 3

One of the biggest disappointments many fans had going into Iron Man 3 was the rug-pull that The Mandarin wasn"t an actual villain, but a mere scapegoat for Aldrich Killian to use to disguise his experiments as attacks. It"s at least great to see Tony break into his chambers, only to find a pathetic, pampered actor playing the role of his sworn enemy. The following interrogation is quite comedic on one side, as Trevor Slattery stumbles over himself in an attempt to explain his situation to Tony.
This scene manages to poorly balance two tones at once, as Ben Kingsley hams it up as a pompous down-on-his-luck actor while Robert Downey Jr. plays a furious Tony Stark as serious as the grave. Things take a dramatic turn for the worse when Aldrich shows up, capturing Tony and forcing him to watch him perform gruesome experiments on Pepper with the Extremis. Overall, Slattery"s laugh-out-loud vibe in this sequence feels quite out of place.
1 The Villains Chill At Happy's Apartment Spider-Man: No Way Home

Few Marvel films have as a big a gulf between their highest emotional highs and their lowest emotional lows as Spider-Man: No Way Home. At one point, after realizing that the various Spider-Man movie villains infiltrating his timeline will die if they"re sent back to their origin points without any help, Peter Parker brings the eclectic band of bad guys to a safe space; Happy"s apartment. What follows are some comedic high-jinks as the villains interact with one another and the shared living space, watching TV, getting sand on the couch, and breaking the kitchen.
Peter succeeds in curing Doctor Octopus of his A.I.-induced madness, but before he can finish his efforts, Green Goblin takes over, ominously activating Peter"s Spider Sense. What quickly follows is the harrowing condo fight that ultimately results in the death of Aunt May, leaving Peter distraught and forlorn with no living family left. Few MCU sequences can compare to this one when it comes to the sheer amount of tonal whiplash the takes place over the course of ten minutes or so.

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