Heckling 101: A Brief Guide to Movie Mocking
While anyone can heckle a bad movie, there is an art to heckling it well.
The following list offers a few pointers to improve your movie mocking
experience.
- Make sure it's funny.
- In-jokes are a double-edged sword.
In-jokes can be very funny, but only in the proper context. An obscure
reference to "Dune" could be hilarious to a group of sci-fi geeks, but
just draw blank looks from your family.
- Stop talking if someone else has started to comment.
If someone else has already started to make a comment, let them talk. If
you're both talking, the audience won't hear either of you.
- Avoid repetitive comments.
A running joke throughout a film can be funny, but if it's used too often
it can stop being funny.
- Don't monopolize the heckling.
Let everyone have a chance! If you find that you're making a majority of
the comments, let some other folks make some, too.
- Time your comments appropriately.
The best time to heckle are in the pauses during dialogue or between scenes.
Some of the best riffs come from referencing the plot, characters, and
dialogue, and if you can't hear what's going on, you'll lose a lot of
opportunities for humor.
- Don't perform a soliloquy.
Keep your comments short. Longer comments are harder to follow, and often
stop being funny.
- Have fun.
In the end, having fun is what heckling bad movies is all about. Enjoy it!
In addition, if there are younger kids present, there is one final rule to
keep in mind: Keep it clean.