Guardian List 5 Silliest Moments Of 24

zimovain

That's it for 24, then. After forcing Jack Bauer to endure eight increasingly hellish days of professional strife, personal torment and almost no toilet breaks whatsoever, it's been officially announced that the show won't return for a ninth season next year. A 24 movie is in the works – but how will it squeeze in all that double-, triple- and quadruple-crossing into just two hours? 24 as we know it, is dead. Some may remember the show for its brave real-time narrative, its depiction of post 9/11 paranoia, or the way that it almost single-handedly introduced the concept of boxset telly to the world. Not me. Because if 24 is to be remembered for anything, it should be its relentless and unapologetic silliness. Since 2001, 24 has easily been the dumbest show on television and, to mark its passing, it only seems fitting to look back at its five silliest moments.
President Wayne Palmer (season 6)

While 24 rightly earned praise for creating a credible black president figure in David Palmer eight years before Barack Obama took office, it lost an equal number of credibility points when his brother then took over. Not only did Wayne Palmer look about 15 years old, there was no way that the American public would ever trust in the decision-making skills of a man who would voluntarily grow a beard that silly.
First Wives Club (seasons 2 - 7)

It doesn't matter what kind of 24 president you are – resolute and strong like David Palmer and Allison Taylor or a cackling, moustache-twirling pantomime villain like Charles Logan – chances are you'll end up marrying a lunatic. Sherry Palmer was a power-crazed murderer, Henry Taylor was a grief-tormented conspiracy theorist and Martha Logan was mentally unstable and ended up stabbing her husband. Wayne Palmer's wife was never seen, probably because she didn't want to be associated with that stupid beard of his.
The CTU HR problem (seasons 1 - 8)

For a high-security organisation that's regularly involved with matters of international importance, CTU doesn't exactly have an exemplary human resources record. It employs mole after mole – including this year's Dana Walsh, a former convict and murderer with an assumed name and known links to the season's big villain – and then makes sure that there are enough abandoned corridors and dark corners for them to conduct all sorts of nefarious telephone conversations in. Nice going, CTU.
The magical heroin cure (season 3)

Between the second and third season of 24, Jack Bauer became a heroin addict to buy himself some undercover credibility. However, rather than slow 24 down with constant scenes of harrowing drug use, Jack was simply tossed a tube of pills by a worried colleague at about 2pm. By teatime, everything was tickety-boo and Jack went back to only being addicted to torturing foreign-looking people. See also: the nuclear bomb in season six that went off at 10am and was forgotten about by midday.
Kim's cougar trap (season 2)

For the obvious (and wrong) reasons, 24's producers were eager to keep young and pretty Kim Bauer on screen as much as possible in the second season. That meant including a scene where – for no reason whatsoever – she got caught in a chain trap while a cougar looked at her in a funny way. More than anything else that's happened since 2001, this will probably be the scene that 24 will go down in history for. Distilled silliness.
These are just my favourite of 24's silly moments, of course. There are thousands of others. Why not leave yours below? It's what Jack would have wanted.

Mr Freeze

Those might be silly. But its still class.

unreggd

Gael taking Kim hostage in Season 3
How the fxck would that be more logical than just lettin her in on the sting. If he just told her, and explained the importance, then most likely she would have gone back to work and shut the fxck up.
But no, he ties her to a chair, which would clearly make someone weary of why she's gone so long = go look for her = Gael wrongly exposed as a mole = whole sting operation royally fxcked!

Gahhhhhh

The "delay tactics" scene from S05 with Logan and Martha :P That HAD to be on purpose tho!!

J-blk

CKWPORT wrote: »

Those might be silly. But its still class.

+1 - the absolutely ridiculous plot twists and clichés are what make 24 everything it is . In fact, I've enjoyed the last 2-3 episodes of the current season the most this year, exactly because they use quite a few of the ludicrous "classic" 24 plot devices...

TheDoc

The most silly thing I saw and still remember is from season 1, the shootout with the Drazens.

As jack swiftly reloads his dual usps, and rises up before the final push, you can clearly see a guy standing beside him in ballistic plating for safety, right in the shot, just standing there, beside jacks face....really...really...silly

Have a look back at it and youll see what i mean, you dont even have to look hard

silvine

Um all of Season 6. Jack's Dad a terrorist? Come on.

minotour

the tarty lesbians blowing up the airliner in Season one, pretty early in the season, proabably ep 2 or 3, was completly forgotten about by ep 5. Given this was not long after (i hate this phrase) 9/11 it should have featured very heavily throughout the day but didnt. This just shows how they had to ramp up the threat each season. I tuned out mid season 4 i think, it just got ludicrous, not helped by the shows runners admitting they had a neo-con agenda............yuk i feel dirty for having watched it.

mewso

I'm currently rewatching Series 4 which isn't too bad but some of the errors are laugh out loud funny.

In one scene after Curtis has been taken hostage in an office building CTU trys to ring him. One of the terrorists looks at the ringing phone and says to the other guy "What should we do?". The other guy says "Nothing. Let them wonder where their agent is". Eh hes exactly where they sent him you idiots. One floor up Marwan is trying to melt down Nuclear powerplants and nobody seems concerned that CTU might come looking for their agent who isn't answering his phone and his last known position is this building. Amazing stuff.

In a later episode they release a suspect because he is being protected by some Amnesty guy. Jack grabs him in his car, breaks a few fingers, gets the info. and finally knocks him out. Tick tock end of episode. Next episode immediately after the "This episodes takes place.." intro. we see this guy in CTU medical wide awake and getting his broken fingers treated. Hilarious.

Elmo

minotour wrote: »

the tarty lesbians blowing up the airliner in Season one, pretty early in the season, proabably ep 2 or 3, was completly forgotten about by ep 5. Given this was not long after (i hate this phrase) 9/11 it should have featured very heavily throughout the day but didnt. This just shows how they had to ramp up the threat each season. I tuned out mid season 4 i think, it just got ludicrous, not helped by the shows runners admitting they had a neo-con agenda............yuk i feel dirty for having watched it.

Reason why this show is great. And the Airplane plot was connected to the Assassination threat on David Palmer, even 24 hour news would have the terrorist info that quickly, come on a bit of realism.

9/11 happen after the show (that episode) was produced, and FOX may have wanted to avoid any more 9/11 talk during the show, especially when "the terrorist" weren't in the Balkans any more, neo-cons moving the goal post yet again and scoring an own goal.

You should check out Day 5.

Silliest moment for me was Day 3's Baby :rolleyes: in CTU. Oh, and Terry sudden Amnesia.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TwentyFour

Chimichangas

I have to watch 24 in subtitles coz I cant hear what the main characters whisper. Does anybody know if you need to be able to continuously talk in a dull whisper to work in that kind of organisation?

Elmo

Chimichangas wrote: »

I have to watch 24 in subtitles coz I cant hear what the main characters whisper. Does anybody know if you need to be able to continuously talk in a dull whisper to work in that kind of organisation?

"Jack Bauer is a man of Extremes he spends half his life shouting and the other half whispering gruffly and nodding and looking around."

I have posted this before but sure here it goes

Chimichangas

Thanks Elmo, it was worth posting again. Would have been good to see years ago. Well summed up.

Scuid Mhór

Kim's cougar trap (season 2)

For the obvious (and wrong) reasons, 24's producers were eager to keep young and pretty Kim Bauer on screen as much as possible in the second season. That meant including a scene where – for no reason whatsoever – she got caught in a chain trap while a cougar looked at her in a funny way. More than anything else that's happened since 2001, this will probably be the scene that 24 will go down in history for. Distilled silliness.

i remember watching this and i lol'd the whole way through. it was just ridiculous. in fairness though, the show itself is utterly ridiculous. that's what makes 24 what it is.

my cousin makes fun of me for watching it, saying it's completely unrealistic. well, duh. but it's fun and good entertainment, that justifies watching it pour moi.

dancingmonkey08

Silly beard and cougar FTW!

And yeah the magic heroin cure was stupid, I would of understood if he had a heroin problem until the end of the season and then it was magically gone by Season 4 because he could of gotten help for his problem after he was fired from CTU and then would of being fine by the start of Season 4. Another thing I thought was not silly but stupid is Renee's death. Finally Jack had a chance for happiness and they took it away from him again! Couldnt they have had come up with a better season ending where Jack didnt become a fugitive and Renee didnt die

But maybe thats just me, I thought Jack deserved a happy ending after 8 years of pain

Elmo

dancingmonkey08 wrote: »

But maybe thats just me, I thought Jack deserved a happy ending after 8 years of pain

Well they want a Movie but otherwise I think the series ended on a high. Jack was never going to able to have a normal life, every time he tried he was roped back into helping his country, becoming the man he hated.

I think the relationship with Pres Taylor was well done as she began to be roped into Pres Logan's Lies.