Leslie Nielsen Syndrome

Whitney's been watching a load of Murder, She Wrote this weekend, and there was an episode where the captain of an ocean liner was played by Leslie Nielsen. After Airplane and Naked Gun it's totally impossible to watch him do anything seriously now, because you keep expecting something to happen like him saluting with a kettle in his hand and smacking himself in the face, or to knock over a load of background objects in a Tom and Jerry chain reaction. It helps that he acted just as straight-faced in his comedy films as he did in the straight ones.

Dead Ringers (not the film) also did this to me with Charlotte Green, who I could no longer listen to reading the news because I was always waiting for the joke. And it unexpectedly did it with Crimewatch as well, which is unfortunate given that it's actually serious, often disturbing and doesn't regularly include coverage of the multiple song-homicide of the Sing Something Simple Singers.