What are your favorite funny episodes of the show, or the first episodes that come to mind when you think of funny episodes?
My go-to episode for comedy is always The Haunting of Villa Diodati, which I think is full of funny moments, and the dance scene cracks me up every time I see it. But particularly I’m just endlessly amused by the way that Lord Byron immediately starts flirting with the Doctor and in return she is very annoyed by him and wants basically nothing to do with him (which is made even funnier and gayer by the fact that just 6 episodes earlier she was going on an adventure with his daughter and gave her a little finger kiss goodbye at the end)
As I read this the first image that popped into my head was the Third Doctor rolling down the street in a wheelchair. So my pick is Spearhead from Space. Pertwee is haming it up and going back to his comedy roots. The looks of confusion from UNIT about the nature of The Doctor, the Poacher and his Wife also add some levity.
One of my hotter takes is that I really don’t care much for it. Definitely some good jokes, especially the “I’ll explain later” bit, but most of it just really doesn’t land for me, and particularly I’ve never liked a lot of the jokes about the regeneration into a woman.
I swear by Nightmare of Eden being the funniest in the show personally! The Chase has some truly hilarious moments as well, and Partners in Crime’s miming segment is of course inspired. On audio my favorite comedy-themed story is Bang-Bang-a-Boom!, although my favorite joke in audio Who is likely the Church of Whoops from Faith Stealer. And in prose, I find it hard to imagine anything would beat Sky Pirates!
In the audio realm, it’s a simple and potentially overdone joke, but Mel attempting to assemble dimensionally transcendental IKEA furniture in The One Doctor always returns to my mind.
Smith & Jones! The Judoon, the lady with the straw, the Doctor pretending to be a dumb lil human, so many little moments. I love it. Also City of Death! “I love your butler, he’s so violent” and “You’re a beautiful woman, probably” are some of my favorite quotes! Plus DUGGAN! And the scene with the art admirers and the TARDIS! So good
I love the Romans!! I agree the whole thing with Nero and Barbara is uncomfortable but the rest is very very good. There’s so many parts of it I love (“the gentle art of fisticuffs!”, “I think I just poisoned Nero”, the Doctor giggling as Rome burns) but the part I’m obsessed with most is Ian and Barbara’s little “Oh can you go get me something from the fridge?” bit. It’s so fun
