Our Top 5 Funniest Gambling Scenes from TV
Casinos pop up quite a lot in tv and films. Often they are the scene of some dramatic event, such as James Bond winning against the villain, or someone getting caught cheating it a western resulting in a shoot out. However, gambling scenes in tv have also been used to great effect for comedic purposes. Whether that is in a casino setting, playing online in places such as the Vera and John Casino, or a (supposedly) friendly game of cards at someone’s home.
Here is our list of the five funniest gambling scenes on TV.
5. Peep Show
British sitcom ‘Peep Show’ is another one of those brilliant cringe-inducing comedies, and the episode “The Man Show” has a particularly great scene which embodies the characters of David Mitchell and Robert Webb’s Mark and Jeremy. Mark is trying to befriend Jeff, the new boyfriend of Sophie. He figures the way to do this is by doing something “manly”, and decides to set up a poker game, inviting Jeremy too as he is a “more of a fun kind of guy”. Mark, being risk-averse, folds at the first opportunity thinking “I think I’ve got a pretty good hand, but there’s always the chance someone else might have a better one…” (which is rather the point!) Jeremy, of course, has no idea how to play, but bluffs his way through, winning, and becoming Jeff’s new mate, much to Mark’s annoyance.
4. Friends
Sitcom ‘Friends’ might have ended in 2004, but still feels as fresh, funny and relevant as ever today, and has made its way to classic sitcom status. There are a number of times gambling pops up in the show, such as Season 1’s “The One with all the Poker”, but it’s the Season 5 finale, “The One in Vegas”, which we have picked out for the list. In the episode, Chandler and Monica head to Vegas to celebrate their anniversary, only to end up with Phoebe tagging along, and Joey is already there working as a costumed “atmosphere” character at Caesar’s Palace. Of course, Ross and Rachel also end up joining them. There are so many great moments in this 2-part episode. Joey discovering his “hand twin”. Ross drawing a beard and moustache on a sleeping Rachel leading her to exclaim “Ross, I am a human doodle!” And, of course, when Chandler and Monica use a craps table to “bet” on whether they should get married, stacking the odds heavily, by only agreeing to do it if she rolls an 8… guess what happens next…
3. Curb Your Enthusiasm
https://youtu.be/1liVw-fRkTM
The cringe-inducing ‘Curb Your Enthusiasm’ (I mean that in the best possible way!) has a great poker scene in the episode ‘The Shrimp Incident’. The main point of the episode revolves Larry unable to drop the fact that he believes HBO exec Allan Wasserman has lifted some shrimp out of his Chinese food following a take-out mix-up. But the most cringe-worthy part arrives when he is invited to a poker night. All is going well until one of the female players wins a hand, and Larry “jokingly” calls her the c-word… It’s Curb at it’s cringe-inducing finest.
2. South Park
Never a show to shy away from controversial topics, ‘South Park’s episode “Red Man’s Greed” is very much in that mould. The kids and their parents head to a casino on a Native American reservation, which results in Kyle’s dad losing their home on a bet. This snowballs into the entire town being brought up by the casino owners, who plan to demolish it to build a superhighway that connects their casino directly to Denver. The only way to stop them is if they can come up with $300,000 by the next day. Amazingly, they get the money by pooling their cash on a round of roulette… but, of course, greed gets the better of the parents, leaving the kids to save the day.
1. The Office US
In “Casino Night”, the Season 2 finale of the US version of ‘The Office’, Steve Carell’s Michael Scott hosts a casino night for charity in the paper merchant’s warehouse. As with most episodes of the show, so many moments are comedy gold. The real stand out moment comes where Michael goes all-in during the first hand of a game of a Texas Hold’em, uttering the immortal words “if luck weren’t involved, I’d always be winning”.
