These Iconic Movie Jokes Took Some People Over A Decade To Understand

Proof that even your favorite movies can still surprise you… years later.

Jesse

• Published in Film & TV
• December 18, 2024

Sometimes, a joke hits you like a slap across the face… three years later. Whether it’s because of poor context, unfamiliar slang, or your brain simply running in airplane mode, we’ve all had that moment of delayed realization. 

We’ve all been there—sitting in a movie theater or on the couch, surrounded by people chuckling at a joke while you’re just… blank. You smile, you nod, and you laugh a little louder than you should because surely it must be funny. 

Then, days, months, or even years later, it finally clicks. Suddenly, you’re laughing out loud in line at the grocery store, and the person next to you thinks you’ve lost it.

I’ll confess: for years, I thought “Why is Gamora?” from Avengers: Infinity War was just Drax being… Drax. Turns out, it’s an intentionally nonsensical response to “Where is Gamora?”—basically a joke so dumb, it’s genius. Who knew?

But don’t worry, I’m not alone in the Hall of Delayed Laughs, and neither are you. Thanks to the brave souls of Reddit’s ‘Movies’ subreddit, countless confessions of jokes that went over heads have been shared for our entertainment. 

User ferrous_second_vowel kicked off the conversation and the stories that followed? Chef’s kiss. If you’ve ever chuckled along to avoid looking clueless, only to wake up years later with a facepalm-worthy revelation, welcome to the club. 

Scroll through this list and prepare for laughs, relatable cringe, and maybe even a lightbulb moment or two. Just remember—understanding the joke late is better than never getting it at all.

1. When Chunk brings down art…and family awkwardness in one swift crash.

In Austin Powers 2, when describing Austin's Mojo Dr. Evil has a line like - "what the French would call: I don't know what."

Always thought the joke was that Dr. Evil was just being stupid - didn't learn until much later in life this is the literal definition of 'je ne sais quoi'

Upon a recent rewatch that was probably my favorite joke in the entire franchise.

2. The dad joke game is strong here

It took me 30 years watching Wayne's World to realize why Noah's Arcade promotes they have two of every game. Yknow. Like Noah's Arc.

3. Nope, it wasn’t about his hat. Turns out, it’s dark 90s humor at its peak.

It seems every time I watch Hot Fuzz I find something knew I missed like them cocking the guns everytime they run at the end. But the biggest one for me is:

‘Do you know why they’re called the Andys?’

“Because they’re both called andrew?”

“And talking to them is a bit of an uphill struggle’

Took me waaaay too many watches to catch the Andes/Andy’s difficulty hike but. I blame the immediate trash can to the face as a distraction.

4. Let’s just say Stephen King gave us clues we ignored

In shawshank redemption when Red is being asked whys he called Red he quips its probably because he's Irish. In the Stephen King book Red isn't a black man but rather an Irish man w red hair so it makes sense.

5. Ah, kid logic. So sweet, so untainted

Mrs. Doubtfire, when Daniel (as Doubtfire) is talking to Stuart about Miranda, "She has a power tool in the bedroom. It's her own personal jackhammer; she can break sidewalk with it! I'm amazed she hasn't chipped her teeth!"

I saw this movie in the theater when it came out, and I was 8 years old, so I didn't know about vibrators at the time and didn't ask. My best guess at the time was that he was trying to scare Stuart by saying she has some kind of weapon, like keeping a gun or baseball bat next to the bed.

6. Oh, we know exactly what he wanted to say

Toy Story.

Buzz: “I think the word you’re searching for is space ranger.”

Woody: “The word I’m searching for I can’t say because there are preschool toys present.”

7. Keys, locks, and innuendos – Louis Tully had us all fooled

In Ghostbusters, Louis Tully, the Keymaster, kept locking himself out of his apartment.

GeoffreySpaulding:

39 f**king years and I just got that.

Carteeg_Struve:

Took me forever growing to realize the Gatekeeper and Keymaster titles were literally talking about privates.

8. I also blame the trash can

In Disney's Hercules, a little snippet of the Zero to Hero song goes:

>From appearance fees and royalties

>Our Herc had cash to burn

>Now nouveau riche and famous

>He could tell you "What's a Grecian urn?"

This is a reference to an absolutely ancient Vaudeville joke that flew miles above every kid's head in the 90s. The joke goes something like,

"My wife brought home a Grecian urn last night."

"What's a Grecian urn?"

"About $25 a week, unless he owns the restaurant."

9. Will smith’s jokes where ahead of their time

I was watching the original Men in Black just cuz, and it got to the part where Agent J (Will Smith) catches up to a fleeing criminal. He waves his badge in the guy's face and says "See this? NYPD! Means I will knock yo' punk *ss down!"

I've watched this movie multiple times, but for whatever reason it was only on this viewing, 25 years after its theatrical release, that I realized he's make a joke: "NYPD means I will kNock Yo' Punka*s Down."

10. The most important part is that Forrest answered the question—as best as he could

“You ever been on a shrimp boat?”

… “no, I been on a real big boat”

This one probably took me 20 years and 60 watches lmao.

JackRagz:

Bubba asks Forrest if he’s ever been on “a real shrimp boat”, but Forrest thinks he’s asking if he’s ever been on a really small boat.

11. If we’re being honest, Shrek was chuck full of barely PG appropriate jokes

In the first Shrek movie when Shrek and Donkey first get to the giant castle and Shrek says “you think he’s compensating for something?”.

12. Just a Frenchman who took his phonetics a little too seriously

In Monty Python and the Holy Grail when the taunting Frenchman calls the knights "keniggets" I thought it was just some obscure British insult I wasn't getting. It took me years to figure out he was pronouncing "knights" phonetically.

13. The real drama wasn’t on stage – it was in this perfectly misheard line.

Rango, when the villagers are trying to lure out the molerats/groundhogs by putting on a theatrical play.

*"What is that?"*

*"I think they're thespians."*

*"Thespians? That's illegal in seven states!"*

The joke being he misheard thespians as lesbians.

14. Pure comedic immortality

“I’m sure your job gets pretty dangerous”

“That’s why I carry a big gun.”

“Aren’t you afraid it might go off accidentally?”

“I used to have that problem”

“What did you do about it?”

“I just think about baseball”.

- The Naked Gun: Files From Police Squad!

15. We all need a little ‘Spaceballs’ metamorphosis’ moment in life.

There's a scene in Star Trek: Generations in which Data laughs at a joke that was told to him by Geordi LaForge in the first episode seven years earlier. When this is pointed out, Data says, "I know! I just got it! Very funny!"

Flash back to 1987 and the first time watching Spaceballs. Colonels Sandurz says, "Prepare ship for metamorphosis! Ready, Kafka?" I had no idea what that line meant, but the delivery made me laugh.

Flash forward to 1997. I'm working in a bookstore, restocking the paperback classics when I pull out a small stack of, you guessed it, The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. I burst out laughing.

Then I almost immediately thought of Data's line and started laughing even harder.

It was a good day.

16. Mater proved toilet humor transcends all species

In “Cars” Lightning tells Mater that Doc won the Piston Cup 3 times!

Mater responds with, “He did what in his cup?!”.

17. Dr. Evil wasn’t clueless, folks. He was literally fluent in French sarcasm

The title of South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut.

It hit suddenly about a decade after the movie came out.

18. Wednesday’s boyfriend set the bar for ‘quirky hobbies’ early.

Addams Family Values. When Wednesday's sort-of-boyfriend is showing her his collection of serial k*ller baseball cards, he says "I've got 'em all. I'm only missing Jack the Ripper and that Zodiac guy."

Jack the Ripper and the Zodiac were two serial k*llers who were never caught.

19. When the joke hides in plain sight for a decade, you know it’s really uncut humor.

The Goonies

[Chunk knocks over a miniature statue of Michaelangelo's David, breaking off the penis]

Mikey: Oh my God! That's my mom's most favourite piece!

Mouth: You wouldn't be here if it wasn't.

20. Took only 30 years, but now OP can finally laugh at the world’s simplest wordplay

"I know a man with a wooden leg named Smith."

"What's the other one named?"

I watched Mary Poppins when I was four, and didn't get that joke until I was 30.

21. If you know, you know

When the hunter buys the gun in Jumanji and the salesman says "you're not a postal worker, are you?". I think I thought he was just making fun of his clothes, I had no idea what "going postal" was.

Whether it took months, years, or a random shower thought to crack the code, these delayed joke realizations prove one thing: movies are full of sneaky brilliance.

Their jokes are proof that comedy has layers—sometimes too many for us to process in the moment. But hey, better late than never.

Jesse