Along with Michael Myers and Jason Voorhees, Freddy Krueger has carved a spot on the Mount Rushmore of all-time slasher movie villains. Played eight times by the inimitable Robert Englund and once by Jackie Earle Haley in the long-running A Nightmare on Elm Street horror franchise, what sets Freddy Kruger apart from his baleful brethren is the mordant sense of humor and side-splitting puns he often lobbies at his victims in the moments before their grisly demise.
However, like anything else, a sense of humor can fall victim to the passage of time. While Freddy Krueger boasts a number of funny puns that still make people laugh in 2021, many of his jokey one-liners have grown stale or wildly inappropriate.
10 "It's... Super Freddy!"
As the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise progressed, Freddy Krueger became more reliant on hammy one-liners and decreasingly funny puns. In the fifth chapter, A Nightmare on Elm Street: Dream Child, Freddy couldn't help but equate himself with the Man of Steel in a joke that falls flat today.
While materializing as a papery comic book character in the film, Freddy utters the generic and lame line "Faster than a bastard maniac, more powerful than a loco madman, it's...super Freddy!"
9 "I'll Get You My Pretty, And Your Little Soul Too!"
In the cartoonish Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare, Krueger channels another fictional character from pop culture to threaten one of his teenage victims. While hovering on a broomstick, Freddy quips "I'll get you my pretty, and your little soul too."
While this may have been a fresh line in 1991, it fails to register anything other than a cringy eye roll in 2021. The obvious reference to The Wizard of Oz's Wicked Witch of the West and her threat to Dorothy's dog Toto has no relation to lost souls, nor is it at all scary.
8 "What's The Matter, Joey? Feeling Tongue-Tied?
While quippy puns are among Freddy's humorous strength, there have been a few throughout the series that sound more like a silly dad joke in 2021. In A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, Freddy makes one particular one-the-nose observation that simply falls flat these days.
Just before Freddy fires a web of tongues from his body to strap a victim to a hospital bed (Rodney Eastman), Freddy feels the need to ask "What's the matter, Joey, feeling tongue-tied?" This one-liner is far beneath the best of what Freddy has to offer.
7 "I Love Soul Food!"
Another nonsensical, borderline offensive pun Freddy utters comes in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master when targeting a teenager named Rick (Andras Jones) in a pizzeria. Since Freddy is known to absorb the souls of his murder victims, he makes an offhand remark about soul food in relation to pizza that fails on every level.
While terrorizing Rick at the pizza parlor, Freddy orders "the usual Rick, you little meatball. I love SOUL food." Freddy is then seen picking up little human meatballs off the pizza. But pizza is not soul food, and the joke reaches far to equate Rick as a meatball.
6 "Your Eyes Say 'No, No,'..."
Freddy Krueger owns a number of sexist, misogynistic, and downright predatory puns and one-liners. Even in the two most recent chapters, Freddy vs. Jason and A Nightmare on Elm Street 2010, Freddy shows no decorum.
In Freddy vs Jason, Freddy spouts the line "Your eyes say 'no, no' but my mouth says 'yes, yes'" just before he licks Lori (Monica Keena) with his tongue. If that wasn't bad enough, the line is recycled and updated in the 2010 remake when Freddy repulsively states "Your mouth says no, but your body says yes" while tugging at Nancy (Rooney Mara), who is tied to a bed. These lines would never be accepted in 2021.
5 "Welcome To My World, B*tch!"
While most of Freddy's puns are playful and easily dismissable, he takes the misogyny and sexual predation to a whole new level in 2003's Freddy vs. Jason. Considering where society is these days, the invective would not stand.
Just before he gouges his knife-claw into Lori's crotch in the film, Freddy declares "Welcome to my world, b*tch. I should warn you, princess, the first time tends to get a little messy." The unfunny joke is violently demeaning and betrays Freddy's otherwise silly sense of humor.
4 "Wanna Suck Face?"
A long time ago, the term "sucking face" was used in reference to kissing with an intense passion for prolonged periods. In a pun that was funny in 1988 but not at all today, Freddy uses the turn of phrase to describe a cartoonish fatality.
Just before he grabs a student with asthma and begins making out with her in The Dream Master, Freddy rhetorically asks "Wanna suck face" before inhaling her whole body until she inflates like a blow-up doll. The dusty pun would likely fly over audiences' heads these days.
3 "Sayonara, Rick-San!"
Freddy also proved his prejudicial side a few times through his various quips and one-liners. In The Dream Master, Freddy appropriates an Asian accent to insult a non-Asian character named Rick.
When fighting Rick in a karate match, Freddy uses an exaggerated Asian accent to say "A true warrior needs no eyes...Ninja warriors have calm. Find your balance Rick...sayonara, Rick-San!" The tasteless and insensitive joke would never fly in 2021, nor should it.
2 "Hello Sweet, Dark Meat"
In what was likely meant as a harmless throwaway line for ardent fans of the franchise, Freddy slips another semi-racist one-liner in during Freddy Vs. Jason. When spotting a potential victim in Kia (Kelly Rowland), Freddy muses "How sweet, dark meat."
The line is recycled from The Dream Master, in which Freddy says "How sweet, fresh meat" when eyeing a teenage victim. No matter the intent, this is one of Freddy's jokes that have aged the worst.
1 "You Look Tired, Have A Seat!"
If hurling racial epithets and spouting crude sexist statements weren't bad enough, consider how poorly Freddy's treatment of disabled Will (Ita Heiden) in Dream Warriors has aged.
Confined to a wheelchair and stuck inside a hospital, a young paraplegic character named Will becomes the target of Freddy's constant bullying. Freddy makes fun of the boy's immobility by delivering such weak and ineffective lines as "You look tired, have a seat" and "When you wake up, it's back in the saddle again. It's the chair for you, kid."
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