Best comic-relief puns in ST fiction -- any nominations?

[E-DUB]

The word "bit" has, as one definition, the meaning of a part of a comic performance, as in, "They did the bit on SNL last night......."

So it's use by a character in a comic film in the manner described above would be "breaking the fourth wall".

I did not know that the phrase was more commonly used in the UK, but since Sellers was British that makes sense.

 

[zarkon]

Yeah, it's super-common here.

 

[Christopher]

To me, "the next bit" just means "the next part." A bit is a piece or part of something, like when something is blown to bits or done a little bit at a time.

 

[DimesDan]

Yeah, it's super-common here.

It may be a regional thing, can't say I've ever heard anyone say that phrase.

 

[zarkon]

In London at least, I hear - and say - both it and myriad variations on it pretty much all the time

 

[JD]

I've started finding myself using it lately, but I think I picked it up from watching British shows, or shows from other Commonwealth countries (New Zealand and Australia).

 

[trampledamage]

To me, "the next bit" just means "the next part." A bit is a piece or part of something, like when something is blown to bits or done a little bit at a time.

Yeah, this is what I would read it as.

The use of "bit" specifically as a piece of theatre is a new meaning to me that I've only got in the last couple of years from reading Teller write about working with Penn Jillette.

 

[tomswift2002]

It's not really a line, but more like the idea behind the whole book. "The Haunted Starship" has Geordi LaForge on the U.S.S. Benjamin Franklin NCC-013, when the starship encounters a "ghost" of its former commander, who roams every deck of the ship, just like Geordi would do on the E-D when Ro and him were cloaked "ghosts".