The Legend of Korra: Top 12 Funniest Gags

Just for fun, I thought I'd gather together all the moments strewn throughout The Legend of Korra that made me laugh. As in, really laugh. No one ever believes it when people type "LOL" all over the place, but I can promise you that beneath the cut are the twelve times Korra truly did make me laugh out loud.

(They're listed in chronological order, as it's rather impossible to rank hilarity).

1. Bolin takes Korra out for a night on the town, only for him to accidentally burp in the middle of a soft drink. Korra responds in kind, and soon a belching competition is in full swing. However, it's not this that makes the sequence so funny – it's the reaction from the two complete strangers sitting next to them at the bar.

Screenshots from Avatar.Spirit

2. Equalists have infiltrated the Pro-Bending Stadium to spread fear and panic among Republic City's citizens – but commentator Shiro Shinobi bravely soldiers on with his broadcast. Even when an Equalist bursts into his commentator's box, he gives a blow-by-blow account of exactly what's going on... not sparing the audience a single detail.

"Folks, there is some sort of electrical disturbance in the stands. Metalbender cops are dropping like bumbleflies. There appear to be masked members of the audience wielding strange devices on their hands. One of them is in the booth with me right now, folks. He is levelling one of those gloved devices at me now and I believe he is about to electrocute me. I am currently wetting my pants!"

Talk about commitment to your work!

3. Varrick hiding in the platypus bear was the joke that kept on giving. Just when you thought it was coming to a close, it somehow found a way to get even funnier. Whether it's Varrick's disembodied voice floating through the ether, the Gang's realization that Zhi Li is stuck in there with him, Varrick's angry disbelief that his tea has no honey ("we're in a bear!"), the utilization of its backside as a cash dispenser, or the astonishment of the random sailor who glimpsed this through his telescope...

...Varrick lumbering about in a taxidermied platypus bear was the gag that kept finding new ways to be hilarious.

4. When you're a mum, and you can see your eldest daughter descending from the sky in a white shimmery glow as part of an attempt to intervene in a massive battle between two spiritual mega-giants who have been tearing up the city's harbour, there's really only one thing you can holler:

5. Sometimes the most unexpected people can bond over shared experiences. When Lord Zuko travels to the Northern Water Tribe to warn Desna and Eska about a potential prison-break, he describes their prisoner as a woman who can fire-bend with her mind. Coincidentally, she has the same abilities as the man he once sent to assassinate the Avatar back in his day.

But, he's careful to add, it didn't work. Eska lends him some solace. "Don't feel bad. I tried to kill Korra after she ruined my wedding. It happens."

And the icing on the cake? The Avatar's father is right there.

6. This look between Korra and Asami. It doesn't even need context.

7. As the city of Ba Sing Se burns around them, Mako and Bolin's extended family sit tight in their small abode, unable to leave due to Grandma Yin's stubbornness. This is her home, she insists, and she's not leaving it. Is Bolin's touching speech about family being a person's real home enough to shift her?

Nope.

8. Grandma Yin was on a roll this episode, as after the successful evacuation she finally gets the chance to meet the Avatar. Well, after she accidentally mistakes Asami for the Avatar. But on meeting Korra and taking the hands of both girls, she has a pertinent question for her grandson:

"Mako, why aren't you dating any nice girls like them?"

9. Suyin spends the greater part of the season finale worried sick about her daughter Opal. After all, she's in the hands of a terrorist group that seems hell-bent on wiping out anyone who stands in their way. So it's with great relief that she is finally reunited with her daughter – only for someone else to hijack their reunion.

10. When Prince Wu is chastised by Mako for wimping out during a sparring match, he has only one thing to say: "I'm not like you! I wasn't raised by a pack of cops in the woods."

11. Never underestimate the comedic value of people listening to other people arguing. When Bolin innocently asks Toph who Lin's father was, it sets off a fight between mother and daughter that Opal and Bolin have no option but to witness as they eat their dinner by the camp-fire. Awkward. And yet fascinating.

12. Varrick summons his courage and asks Zhu Li to marry him. She accepts, kissing and hugging ensues, and in the euphoria of the moment Varrick declares that now it's time to attach barely-functional flying prototypes to a giant mecha killing-machine.

Whether Zhu Li's response says more about her or their relationship, I'll leave for you to decide:

"This is exactly how I always pictured our engagement!"