Humor is a staple of the Dragon Ball series. Even scenes that are more serious tend to have a joke or two sprinkled in just to lend some brevity to the scene. Furthermore, its absence shows the audience just how bad things have gotten. When the laughing stops, that’s when you know how dangerous the threat is. Even then, it still doesn’t prevent fans from cracking their own jokes.
On the flip side, humor also lets the audience know when a fight shouldn’t be taken seriously. It’s either a filler fight with no real stakes or the opponents just messing around before getting down to business. While the jokes don’t always age well, these fights are some of the funniest scenes in the whole franchise.
8 Gotenks Vs Super Buu (Dragon Ball Z)
Gotenks’ fight with Super Buu is one of the most divisive fights among fans. On the one hand, some viewers find it frustrating to watch. It drags on too long, shows Gotenks in an unfavorable light, and Buu has too much plot armor.
On the other hand, it has quite a few funny moments. These include a squabble between the ghosts, squabbles between Piccolo, and Buu being so desperate for chocolate that his scream of rage blows a hole in the fabric of the dimension. The fight might be frustrating to watch, but it makes fans laugh, too.
7 Goku Vs Blue (Dragon Ball)
Goku’s fight with General Blue is one of those fights that keep switching between funny and serious. At first, Goku seems to have the upper hand and makes a joke out of the strutting rooster. Then, Blue paralyzes Goku with his psychic powers and almost kills him—until Bulma scares Blue with an imaginary rat and allows Goku to beat him.
Throughout all of this, Blue continues to act and speak like a pompous buffoon. Even when he’s a genuine threat, audiences still want to laugh at him. He’s such a ham that he comes off as an idiot waving a big gun.
6 Goku Vs Beerus (Dragon Ball Super)
Fighting a god of destruction is no joke, and for the most part, the fight between Goku and Beerus is serious. For the first half of the fight, however, Goku and Beerus simply mess with each other as Goku gets used to his new powers.
Midway through the fight, things get positively ridiculous. The two of them resort to childish antics such as nose-pinching, screaming in each other’s ears, and in Goku’s case, biting. That’s as far as the jokes go, though. Once Beerus sees how powerful Goku has gotten, things get real. Nonetheless, it was hilarious to watch them be silly for a second.
5 Goku Vs Ninja Murasaki (Dragon Ball)
The first Dragon Ball series was full of adult jokes that wouldn’t fly in children’s media today. This includes a rather dirty—and painful—joke in the fight scene between young Goku and Ninja Murasaki.
Basically, Goku tricks the ninja into landing butt-first on the end of his power pole. The pole gets stuck in Murasaki’s bottom and Goku teases him about also having a tail before eventually taking it back. This kind of joke is already aging badly in adult media. As for having it in a kids’ show, forget it. That would never happen.
4 Yamcha Vs Kami (Dragon Ball)
Some fans don’t particularly like this fight. Yamcha gets picked on a lot in the series and this is one of those instances. On the one hand, Kami clowning around while demonstrating what a genuine threat he is genuinely funny.
On the other hand, the punishment Kami doles out on Yamcha is unnecessarily sadistic and a little uncomfortable to watch. For most audiences, seeing a decent character that they’ve grown attached to get hurt like this is only fun if the character makes a cathartic comeback later—which Yamcha doesn’t.
3 Namu Vs Ranfan (Dragon Ball)
The fight between Namu and Ranfan is definitely a scene that wouldn’t fly today. Rather than being a straight-up fight, Ranfan shamelessly takes advantage of Namu’s gentlemanly nature and uses her femininity against him to win the fight. It works at first, but Namu finally overcomes his hesitation and delivers a knockout blow.
The sheer amount of political incorrectness in this Dragon Ball episode would have people up in arms today. Nonetheless, it doesn’t stop audiences from laughing or from cheering when Namu finally gets serious. It is a ridiculous scene in the worst and the best ways.
2 Krillin Vs Bacterian (Dragon Ball)
Bacterian is the first opponent Krillin fights in the 21st Budokai tournament, and it is both hilarious and hated. Bacterian’s strategy is using his disgusting body odors to distract and knock out his opponents. Krillin defeats him of course, but not before almost being traumatized by the experience.
It’s a gross and repulsive scene that audiences laugh at and fear. Part of it is because they think that Krillin deserved better than a gag fight for his debut. The other part is that they’re scared they might breathe in the poisonous fumes. If nothing else, though, the fact that audiences can almost smell the stench through the screen makes the scene a solid piece of animation.
1 Mr. Satan Vs Cell (Dragon Ball Z)
Before the big fight between Cell and Goku, there’s a gag fight between Cell and Mr. Satan. It’s really not a fight so much as it’s amusing filler until the real players—that is, Goku and the rest of the Z Fighters—can get there.
After easily taking down a series of fighters, Mr. Satan takes on Cell himself. He hits Cell a few times, but Cell is unfazed and contemptuously throws him into the wall. It is both hilarious and a little sad to watch. Still, Mr. Satan maintains his confidence despite getting utterly destroyed, which is a win in and of itself.