Someone Counted Every Joke in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Marvel Studios movies have made an unstoppable brand out of superhero action/adventure films that [...]

Marvel Studios movies have made an unstoppable brand out of superhero action/adventure films that are rife with wit and humor. In honor of the lighthearted fun side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe - in the never ending battle to quantify it - one fan, Goerge Hatzis, has counted up every joke that's ever been told in the MCU saga:

Every Joke Ever Told in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Click HERE for Hi-Res Version

If there's ever been anything that properly illustrates a decade-long trend in humor, it's a statistical report gull of graphs and figures...

In all seriousness though, this chart is a pretty interesting visual representation of how the 'Marvel movie formula' has evolved over the years that Marvel Studios was perfecting its brand through trial (Iron Man) and error (Iron Man 2). Some big takeaways are:

  1. After Joss Whedon's script influence on Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers, the MCU humor quotient definitely jumped.
  2. One outlier to the above trend was Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which was much more of a darker action-thriller, a definitive point where Marvel started to diversify the genre influences on its films.
  3. The clear champion is Spider-Man: Homecoming, which was basically vignettes of comedy sketches pieced together into a (great) movie. Next is The Avengers, with its rapid-fire sequence of Whedon quips and one-liners. Thor: Ragnarok follows at no. 3, which is no surprise.
  4. Adding Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2 to the above list, 2017 was Marvel's most comedic year by far; yet the frequency of humor was highest in Phase I. Could be the difference between trying too hard to impress, and finally finding your rhythm and confidence.

Black Panther opens on February 16, 2018. Other upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe movies include,Avengers: Infinity War on May 4, 2018, Ant-Man and the Wasp on July 6, 2018, Captain Marvel on March 8, 2019, the fourth Avengers movie on May 3, 2019, the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming on July 5, 2019, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in 2020.

0comments