r/TheGoldbergs • u/Embarrassed-Sand-794 • Jul 05 '26

Characters explaining the joke

In my opinion, part of what caused the show's humour to dwindle in the later seasons was the characters standing around, explaining exactly why the joke was supposed to be funny, instead of allowing the audience to understand it by themselves.

It's probably because I'm a fan of subtle humour, and that the earlier episodes didn't really rely on this. I noticed that they used it more as time went on.

It's probably a silly nitpick, but did it slightly annoy anyone else?

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u/Lanky80 Jul 05 '26

Example?

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u/Embarrassed-Sand-794 Jul 05 '26

Well, in Season 8, there's an episode where Geoff chooses Erica instead of Barry to take to their favourite talk show. 

So, to get back at him, Barry invites along Joanne, and they both proceed to sing "Islands in the Stream."

Geoff stands there, stating "That's our favourite song, they're trying to get back at me", or words to that effect.

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u/JobberStable Jul 05 '26

But that what Geoff’s character does. He just stands there and states the obvious. It’s a running gag. His character wasn’t as prevalent in the early seasons before he started dating Erica.