After a rocky couple of years under Disney’s guidance, the Star Wars franchise ended its mainline series, dubbed “the Skywalker saga,” with The Rise of Skywalker. This saga was a nine-part giant, or a “trilogy of trilogies” as some have termed it, and it was 42 years in the making.
The first six parts were guided by a singular creative vision as George Lucas steered the ship, and the last three were all over the place as Kathleen Kennedy hired a committee to design a horse, but one thing that all nine movies have is a healthy dose of humor. Here are the funniest moments in each Skywalker Saga movie, ranked.
The Phantom Menace: Sebulba Loses The Pod Race
Although Star Wars fans initially reacted negatively to The Phantom Menace, and it’s far from a perfect movie, there are a few highlights. The pod race is one of them. It’s a visceral action sequence brought to life by rhythmic sound design and kinetic camera movements.
At the end of it, Anakin manages to take down his rival, Sebulba, who’s been trying to sabotage him throughout the whole race. As Anakin rockets past the finish line, Sebulba’s racer slides to a halt in the desert and he cries out, “Poodoo!”
The Rise Of Skywalker: Poe’s Final Non-Verbal Flirtation With Zorii
The unfunniest moment in The Rise of Skywalker is definitely when the line “They fly now!” gets spoken three times. It’s kind of funny the first time C-3PO says it, because he’s a serial panicker and it’s worth a chuckle, but when Poe and Finn both say it too, it just becomes tiresome. The funniest moment, on the other hand, lands.
At the end of the movie, as the Resistance celebrates its victory over the Final Order, Poe Dameron gives Zorii Bliss a look that suggests that he wants to get back together, but she gives him a look that quickly shuts that down, and he gives her a look that says he accepts it. It’s a small moment, but Oscar Isaac and Keri Russell play it beautifully.
Attack Of The Clones: “Good Job.”
As Attack of the Clones takes us into the climactic third-act set piece, Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padmé are all chained to posts in a gladiatorial arena, waiting to be fed to a trio of Lovecraftian beasts.
When Obi-Wan asks Anakin for an explanation, he says, “We decided to come and rescue you.” Obi-Wan looks up at the shackles on his wrists and, with pitch-perfect timing from Ewan McGregor, dryly quips, “Good job.”
The Force Awakens: “That’s Not How The Force Works!”
A couple of the comedic moments in The Force Awakens are kind of cringeworthy (although not quite as cringeworthy as some of the comic relief in the prequels), but this one brought the house down. Arriving on Starkiller Base, Han asks Finn what the next step of his plan is. Finn says he was never really a Stormtrooper and actually worked as a janitor, saying they should use the Force to get inside. Then, an incensed Han cries out, “That’s not how the Force works!”
Okay, this line undid all of Finn’s character development, turning him from a soldier who fought on authoritarianism’s side and doubts he can redeem his past mistakes into a harmless custodian — but it’s still a funny moment.
Return Of The Jedi: Han Steps On A Twig
In the second act of Return of the Jedi, Han, Leia, and a few other Rebels travel down to the forest moon of Endor to knock out a power station keeping the second Death Star safe.
As Han sneaks up behind a Scout Trooper, he accidentally steps on a twig, alerting the Scout Trooper to his presence. Han has always had awkward run-ins with Stormtroopers; it’s practically a running gag throughout the original trilogy.
The Last Jedi: Luke Tricks Rey
A lot of the humor in The Last Jedi doesn’t land, including the “your mother” joke that opens the whole movie. And there’s a lot about Luke’s characterization that doesn’t work either as he’s become a bitter old hermit who doesn’t care about the fight against evil. But the scene in which Luke begins Rey’s training is really funny.
He tells her to close her eyes and reach out, then brushes a plant across her hand and asks if she feels anything. She thinks she’s tapping into her Force sensitivity until Luke snaps her out of it by slapping the plant across her hand.
Revenge Of The Sith: “So Uncivilized.”
After losing his lightsaber during his battle with General Grievous, Obi-Wan finds himself hanging from a ledge, with the Jedi-killing tyrant rapidly approaching. He uses the Force to summon a blaster and shoots Grievous in the chest until his exposed beating heart catches on fire and blows out his eyes.
As he leaves the arena of combat, Obi-Wan tosses the blaster and says, “So uncivilized.” From a Jedi’s point of view, a blaster is an ugly, messy way to kill someone, far removed from the elegance and precision of a lightsaber.
The Empire Strikes Back: Leia Calls Han A Nerf-Herder
At the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back, as Han prepares to leave the Rebel base on Hoth to pay off a debt he owes to Jabba the Hutt, he decides to stay when it becomes clear that Luke is in danger.
While Luke recovers, Han flirts with Leia and she says, “Why, you stuck-up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf-herder!” Han’s reaction is priceless: “Who’s scruffy-lookin’?” Of all the insults that Leia has just hurled at Han, “scruffy-looking” is the one that got to him.
A New Hope: “Boring Conversation Anyway.”
Harrison Ford reportedly improvised the line, “Boring conversation anyway,” after an Imperial officer on the intercom figured out that Han was an outsider who’d infiltrated the Death Star and simply shot the control panel with a blaster.
This line established Han as the king of quippy one-liners, long before the moviegoing public would meet Tony Stark, and it’s a perfect example of the unique and curious tone of Star Wars — a tone that Disney struggled to recapture over the past five years.