Quentin Tarantino’s second directorial feature, Pulp Fiction, is a black comedy through and through. side by side with morbid themes like murder, kidnapping, and drug use are hilarious and uncomfortable situations for both the characters and the audience. Part of this is reflected in the snappy dialog which most fans have committed to memory.
The following list will present the ten funniest jokes in the two and a half-hour anthology masterpiece. Most of these are more general conversations and reactions than they are punchlines since the humor is found in the characters rather than a conventional joke one would tell at a party.
Picking Brains Out Of A Car
After Vincent Vega accidentally shoots Marvin in the face and The Wolf comes in to fix the pressing matter, he and Jules get to work cleaning the bloodied car. Jules complains and Vincent retorts with a saying about how a man should be forgiven once he admits and knows what he does was wrong.
Jules then replies “The (person) who said that…never had to pick itty-bitty pieces of skull.” Other than this line, Vincent’s behavior is comedic as he seems bothered by the fact that he has to literally clean up a mess he made.
The Watch
After Butch wins the fight in which he was supposed to take a dive, he and his girlfriend plan and immediate getaway. However, Fabienne forgets his invaluable gold watch which his father’s comrade gave to him.
He’s infuriated by her mistake and says “Do you have any idea what he had to go through to get me that watch? I don’t have time to go into it but he went through a lot.” On its own it is a throwaway line, but viewers remember that his father hid it where the sun does not shine for several years.
My Name’s Paul And This S###@’s Between Y’all
When delivering the briefcase the Marsellus Wallace, Vince talks with Paul, another employee of the organized crime kingpin. When Paul inquires about his upcoming task accompanying Mia Wallace while the boss is out of town, Travolta’s character gets standoffish. Paul then defuses the questioning by saying “hey, my name’s Paul, and this S###@’s between y’all.”
As he walks away, Vega mutters under his breath “Then why’d you…ask me about it for,” punctuating the remark by referring to him as a particularly dirty and unseen part of the human body.
Take Care Of?
When Vincent and Jules are on their way to the low bit crooks’ apartment, Vega talks about the favor Marsellus asked regarding Mia. His exact words are “Take care of,” which sparks some confusion from Jules who repeats the phrase as a question and puts a finger gun to his head.
He thought maybe the big man asked Vega to assassinate his wife when he really meant taking her out for some company. Given their line of work, one always has to be careful and clarify when using certain phrases.
It’s Not Motorcycle, It’s A Chopper
The last scene chronologically sees Butch and Fabienne driving off on a chopper taken from Zed who was too dead to have any use for it. As she’s walking down the stairs to the bike, she calls it a motorcycle twice. Both times, Butch corrects her, saying it’s a chopper, and she rephrases the question using the correct terminology.
Most people wouldn’t be offended by the mix up of words, but perhaps the funny exchange says something more about their relationship. It also could just be a gag to relieve tension after the tense kidnapping he experienced.
Three Little Fonzies
During the last scene when Jules has the robber at gunpoint and the second criminal points her gun at the hitman, Jules says “nobody’s gonna hurt anybody. We’re all gonna be like three little Fonzies here, and what’s Fonzie like?” Yolanda answers that he’s cool. Part of the humor is using such a inane pop-culture pun during a tense life and death situation.
Interestingly enough, the Ukrainian subtitles for the movie replace Fonzie with “Eskimo.” Perhaps whoever translated the movie figured Eastern European audiences wouldn’t understand the allusion to Happy Days. Unfortunately, changes like this remove some of the humor and rob audiences of the opportunity to discover something about American pop culture.
Foot Massages
Another topic of conversation between Jules and Vincent involves a man Wallace threw out a window for allegedly giving his wife a foot massage. The two disagree about how intimate a foot massage really is. Jules says they don’t mean anything personal, but Vincent says they always mean something.
Vince runs him into a logical corner when he asks whether he would ever give a man a foot massage. As terrible a person Vince may be, he certainly has a point in this argument.
Needle Scene
Mia Wallace’s overdose is one of the movie’s most tense moments. When Vince drives her to his friend’s house, they attempt to revive her with a special shot delivered straight to the heart.
Moments before Vega plunges the needle through her chest, the camera focuses on three faces individually. The first two focus on Vince and his friend’s face as they are looking extremely concerned and scared, and the third close up shoes the dealer’s wife, but she has a smile on her face and is excited to see what happens next. A few lines of dialog also make the scene funnier than it has any right to be.
Weapon Of Choice
After Butch breaks out of his restraints, he is moments from abandoning Marsellus before having a change of heart. Before taking out the two men who took them hostage, he has to find a weapon. The scene plays out with him slowly finding different arms before settling on a Katana.
It’s an uncomfortably long scene when one considers what is transpiring in the other room. Butch really should have sped up his weapon selection.
What Does Marsellus Wallace Look Like?
Of all the quotable lines in this movie, this one stands out as especially iconic. It definitely helps that Sam Jackson delivers the line with a gusto few other could possibly muster. The rest of the exchange is too explicit to type out here, but the moment is also accentuated by him daring the dealer to say what again as the scared victim keeps repeating the word at the bizarre line of questioning.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t end well for everybody in the room who isn’t named Vincent or Jules, but they should have known what they were getting into being characters in a Quentin Tarantino film.
Next: 10 Crime Movies To Watch If You Like Pulp Fiction
