YOU ARE NOT IMMUNE TO VETRIX COUCH

Let me start this page off by saying that my sense of humor is completely and utterly broken beyond repair; otherwise, there is no feasible reason why I should find this concept so funny. There is no joke here. There is nothing inherently comedic about it. But somehow, for some reason God only knows, there exists a completely innocuous set of images from episodes 61 and 62 of Yugioh Zexal that make me absolutely fucking lose my shit.

(above meme courtesy of plasticdino)

I am talking, of course, about the scenes where Vetrix is sitting on a couch. Again, stay with me here. There's no inside joke about this in the show or anything. It's not like anything is important or special about him being on a couch. There's no gags from other characters. There is nothing about these scenes that make them any different than any other scene in the show. But they're fucking hilarious to me. Like, 'they send me to the verge of tears because I'm laughing so hard' level of hilarious.

For some reason, Yugioh has a history of weirdly framed shots of characters and furniture. Don't ask me why; I don't presume to know what goes on in the minds of those working at Studio Gallop. But there's a very real trend of 'Yugioh home decor syndrome' (classification pending) where rooms are enormous and completely devoid of any furniture except for a bed in the middle. All this goes to show is that, yes, okay, sometimes they cut corners, or they don't bother spending much time on non-essential, non-action shots. I totally get that. I don't begrudge them for it.

Jack Atlas bed - spiritual precursor to Vetrix couch?

But this particular instance is special. There is an air of inherent hilarity to it. I first saw this image well before I even started watching Zexal. I was trying to learn more about the character in question because I thought his design was really cool. This showed up in Google images amidst renders from games, fanart, and other screenshots. I was like... "Haha, he's tiny." I continued on my way.

The OG frame that started it all

However, that would not be the end of it. Not by a long shot. I kept thinking about Zexal while I debated if I should watch it out of order, and every time I thought about it for long enough, I remembered this picture. It's just goofy. It's funny. Not laugh out loud funny, but you know, like, it's this evil scary guy and he's just sitting on this couch that's too big for him. So every time I thought about Zexal I remembered this picture, and I would think, 'That was pretty funny,' and I would look for it again.

Well, evidently this was not enough for me. I decided it was funny enough that I should keep it on hand. Why? Fuck if I know, dude. I eventually decided I could put it on my funny pictures page. So I saved it in my Discord messages, which is where I keep things I'm saving for later, and there it languished for two whole months for no reason, because it still has not made its way onto my funny pictures page yet. I guess technically I can delete it from Discord once I post this page and I have it saved to my website. I can just open up this page instead when I have the urge to see him sitting on a couch, which is shockingly often for reasons I cannot comprehend.

Okay, on that note: why the FUCK is this image so funny to me? What is it about a cartoon character sitting on a couch that fills me with such absurd joy? I do have some thoughts on the matter. Let me run through these real quick for you.

1.) Vetrix as a character is inherently funny.
He is. He undeniably is. There's something about his design that is so absolutely perfect. Like, you know those villains that you just want to punch right in the face? Well, this is a villain that I want to punt directly into the stratosphere. Look at how fucking tiny he is. What is he going to do about it? Semi-related, I found a height sheet comparing him to other characters, and just about nearly lost it again.

Vetrix is a genuine force of chaos and unadulterated evil, and to see him just fuckin chilling out on this random couch - not even in his secret evil lair, just some normal room - is so out of place. It's really, really funny. On that note -

2.) The image composition is inherently funny.
WHY call attention to how tiny he is? Why make him sit on a couch that's way too big for him instead of giving him a chair that fits him? He spends most of the series either in a cool looking throne or floating above people, so it's not very often that his height is called into question, aside from the scenes where you can obviously tell he's shorter than everyone else. There is one scene where they emphasize how young he looks and mention how creepy he is, but that's about it. But at the point in the series where this image occurs, he is a legitimate threat, and legitimately scary. To suddenly toss him out of his abandoned mausoleum hideout into a random brightly lit room and throw him on this comically large couch is just SO FUNNY AND FOR WHAT!!!

And - let me add this here - I was informed before I watched this episode that not only is he sitting on this stupidly big couch, THEY DONT EVEN KEEP IT CONSISTENT. Because here he is in chilling on the couch in another scene just minutes later:

WHAT GIVES?!?! In the other picture he was half this size. His head didn't even come close to the top of the couch. His legs didn't even get to the edge. And now you're telling me he can sit like this and his feet almost touch the floor? I guess technically maybe he could have just scooted closer to the edge, but either way, the sudden drastic change in size is ANOTHER LAYER of comedy.

3.) The context of the scene makes it funny.
This takes place at the same time as a REALLY serious fight. Vetrix is sitting on this couch because he's watching Shark, who he's mind controlling, duel Yuma, and is gaslighting Shark and encouraging him to beat the shit out of Yuma so he can go commit murder. (This is a fun show for kids by the way.) This is a big turning point that's gearing up for the final battle in the season, and is very much not funny. And yet... they paired it with Vetrix couch.

He continues saying and doing creepy evil shit like he always does, but he's just engulfed in this huge couch while he does so. It's just so dumb. It takes you out of the scene when it cuts to him on this stupid leather couch. And the fact that they thought this juxtaposition would work is what makes it funny. He's still a freak but you cannot take him seriously in this setting. Even his mannerisms that are intended to be childlike and off-putting don't quite land like they usually do. I kept cracking up every time they cut back to him and it got in the way of my #hashtag immersion.

The little leg kicks just about slayed me im not going to lie I was this close to busting out laughing

Don't stand on the fucking couch I guarantee he's yelled at his kids for doing this before

Conclusion
I started writing this at 3:30 in the morning because I couldn't sleep and I almost started cry laughing at this Discord message from my friend:

Literally the funniest god damn thing on Earth to me. I cannot stand it. If you read this whole thing: why? And also, sorry. To make it up to you, take these 88x31 buttons I made for some fucking reason. Use them wisely and just know that if I ever see them on your website I will keel over laughing and maybe die.



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