Warning: spoilers ahead for IT. Read ahead at your own risk!
Just because a movie is scary doesn't keep it from being funny. With that in mind, Andy Muschietti's new IT adaptation is now in theaters, and while the masterful horror flick definitely delivers the thrills and scares at every possible opportunity, it also features a surprising number of funny moments that are full of heart. In honor of those moments, we have gone through and picked out some of the best of the bunch. Check out our list, and let us know what moments from IT made you laugh in the comments below!
Ben's Love of New Kids On The Block
A running gag throughout IT focuses on the fact that Ben is an avid fan of New Kids on the Block (ironic, due to his status as the new kid on the block), and his constant attempts to hide that fact, or otherwise deflect it. The film peaks with one of these jokes when Ben (unsuccessfully) tries to use his knowledge of the group to try and flirt with Beverly Marsh, and the joke pays off even further later on in the film when the rest of The Losers Club visits his room -- only for Bev to find a big New Kids on the Block poster on his door. In a horror movie filled with blood, guts, and killer clowns, it's nice to stop and make some pop culture jokes now and again.
The Losers Staring At Beverly By The Quarry
The insecurities of hormonal teenage boys are always hilarious, and IT uses that awkward phase of life to deliver some great laughs at The Losers Club's expense. Specifically, the scene in which they all go swimming and the boys cannot help but stare at Beverly Marsh as she sunbathes by the side of the water -- until she looks over and catches all of them staring like she's The Sandlot's Wendy Peffercorn. It is an adorably awkward scene that will relate to anyone who ever went through one of those phases, and it epitomizes that coming-of-age mentality that IT manages to capture so well. It does not matter how big of a game someone like Richie talks (more on that later); when they see a girl, they all freeze.
The "Rock War!"
A bullied kid can only take so much, and The Losers Club finally reach their breaking point when they see Henry Bowers attacking Mike Hanlon by a creek. Arming themselves with rocks, Richie screams "rock war!" As Anthrax's "Anti-Social" begins to blare in all of its thrash metal goodness (this is the 1980s we're talking about, remember?). The sequence is empowering and dramatic for The Losers, but Richie's quick exclamation coupled with the pitch-perfect song choice elevates the scene to comic gold and delivers some great laughs from the audience. If you're the type of person who dealt with a bully at some point in your formative years, then the sequence (not to mention The Losers Club's subsequent victory) represents adolescent wish fulfillment in its most pure form.
Gazebos! Not Placebos
Eddie's severe germaphobia is used for dramatic and comedic effect in several sequences throughout the run of IT's story, but it's the moment in which he starts to overcome it that arguably delivers the best laugh. After learning that the pills he regularly takes are placebos, he goes home to confront his mother about the information he has just received. However, being a kid, Eddie didn't retain the medical terminology that he learned at the pharmacy quite as well as he thought he did. Declaring that his mother has been feeding him "gazebos" he runs off to join his friends in their final battle against Pennywise the Clown -- completely unaware of his glaring errors in vocabulary and pronunciation. It's a cathartic moment for the character and a hilarious one for all of us sitting in the audience.
Richie's Constant Dick Jokes
After only a few minutes watching IT, it becomes incredibly clear that Finn Wolfhard plays a character who is a far cry from Stranger Things' Mike Wheeler -- despite the tonal and narrative similarities between the two properties. Unlike quiet Mike, Richie is a little too cocky for his own good, and (like many 13-year-old boys) spends much of the film making easy dick jokes and fabricating stories about his own sexual prowess. It's a hilariously candid and honest portrayal of how adolescent boys talk, and it doesn't sugarcoat the fact that he's a main character in a major movie. The best joke of them all? Richie's lamentation that The Losers drew straws to pick who would go after Pennywise, rather than using a different sort of measurement to make that decision.
Ben "Bleeding Hamburger Helper!"
Immediately following The Losers Club's first significant encounter with Pennywise the Clown as a group, they stop to assess the situation, and a major argument ensues. Bill wants the Club to keep pressing forward and prepare for the next encounter with the dancing clown -- to which Richie immediately responds by pointing out the fact that Ben got sliced open and is "bleeding Hamburger Helper." Like so many other lines uttered by Richie in the film, it combines an unexpected degree of humor with Finn Wolfhard's intensity, and the result is an exclamation that feels as much like a joke as it feels like a coping mechanism. Richie wants a laugh, but he's also dealing with the fact that he almost got eaten by his biggest fear: a clown.
Richie's "Kill This Fucking Clown"
Finally, Finn Wolfhard's Richie gets one last (and utterly fantastic) line towards the climax of the film when Pennywise gets Bill in his grasp. When faced with the offer to let Bill die in exchange for the rest of The Loser Club's lives, Richie steps forward and monologues about how Bill got them all into this mess, and how he deserves everything that has happened. Richie sounds off on everything that Pennywise has put him through and forced him to do, and he slowly picks up a club and finishes by saying that he now has to "kill this fucking clown." It's beautiful in its matter-of-fact delivery, and one of the few times in which Richie comes off as cool as he thinks he is.
IT is now in theaters, and making all of the money. Make sure to check it out and let us know your favorite funny moment from the film, below!
