Supernatural: Funniest 10 Times Castiel Didn’t Understand Sarcasm

The angel Castiel became an instant hit the moment he was introduced in season 4 of the cult fantasy drama, Supernatural. One of the things that made the character immediately adorable was its complete inability to blend with the human experience.

Apart from failing miserably to sense emotions, Castiel found it extremely hard to fathom certain things about the human vocabulary, such as sarcasm and the copious amount of pop culture references that is a part and parcel of the colloquial human language. This gap in understanding brought about a number of hysterically funny moments in Cas’ interactions with the Winchesters, and especially with Dean, who was inherently sarcastic by nature, an exact foil to Castiel.

10 “That Must Be Uncomfortable For You”

Over the years Castiel became much savvier in grasping sarcasm and even delivered a sassy dialogue now and then. But there was a time when he was quite incapable of getting sarcasm of any kind.

In season 7 Cas lost his memory for a good while after he had torn down the wall in Sam’s mind in a moment of frenzy. He resurfaced as the healer Emmanuel when Dean came across him quite by chance as he strove to help Sam who was practically being driven mad by Lucifer’s antics. At this time, on their way to help Sam, Dean and Cas — now as Emmanual–met with the demon Meg, and Emmanual was able to discern the discomfort between his companions. When he pointed it out, Dean retorted sarcastically that Meg made people awkward, which the angel took literally and empathized with Meg, telling her that having such an impact on people must make her uncomfortable.

9 “I Don’t Have A Harp”

In season 12 when Mary Winchester returned from the dead, thanks to Amara, she had an understated but funny first encounter with Castiel.

Cas introduced himself to Mary as an angel which caused the latter to be taken aback. Of course, seeing that she had just been resurrected after staying dead for years, meeting an angel should have been less disturbing. But astonished she was, and then Dean decided to soften the surprise by telling her that Cas was indeed an angel like those that had wings and played harps. He was, of course, being Dean, but Cas responded by telling Mary very seriously that he didn’t play the harp.

8 “They Are Not Incontinent”

In season 5, when some of the first signs of the impending Apocalypse were showing up, the boys came across a case where couples were literally eating each other up in their passion.

Castiel arrived on the spot to tell the boys that this was the deed of a Cupid, which according to him was a lower order of angels known as cherubs. Dean, in his inimitable manner, asked him if he was talking about the little flying fat kid in diapers that was popularly known as the Cupid. Castiel, as usual, took it seriously and responded by telling him that Cupids were not incontinent, meaning that they did not need diapers.

7 “Uriel Is The Funniest Angel In The Garrison”

A lot of the hilarious moments involving Cas appear in the first half of the series, which is when the angel was particularly serious and excessively literal, unable to come back with smart retorts, or even understand half the things being said to him.

In season 4, Castiel and another angel called Uriel took off with Dean, trying to get him to torture the powerful demon Alastair. Dean wasn’t going to budge so easy; he threw his sarcastic one-liners at Uriel, and when the latter vanished, he remarked that the angels were sure to put on weight if they kept on disappearing from one spot and appearing in another, instead of ever taking a walk. Cas stared at him curiously to which Dean stated that Uriel seemed to have a better sense of humor than him. Inevitably, Cas responded that Uriel was, in fact, the funniest in their garrison, apparently a well-known fact.

6 “The Whore”

In the episode, “99 Problems”, Castiel literally went on “a bender”. He appeared, completely stoned, apparently having consumed an entire liquor store, to help the brothers crack a case at a town where a young prophet, Leah Gideon, had appeared.

When Dean asked Cas the next morning what he thought of the prophet Leah, he retorted, still sloshed, by saying that she was the whore. Dean asked him, of course, sarcastically, what he really thought. And Cas, naturally, had no clue that he was being sarcastic and went on to explain that she was the Whore of Babylon.

5 “I’m Agent Beyoncé. This Is My Partner…Agent Jay Z”

Some of Supernatural’s funniest moments are played out by Castiel and the demon Crowley. In season 12, the two teamed up, much to Cas’ discomfort, to locate Lucifer who was walking the earth.

Cas posed as an FBI agent, as was the custom with most hunters. He had learned from the brothers the trick of picking off agent names from pop culture references. But unfortunately, knowing just that was not enough. As it happened, Cas ended up calling himself Agent Beyoncé and had absolutely no clue that he would never be taken seriously with such a name. Crowley, of course, immediately got on the bandwagon as Agent Jay Z, just for fun, being much more conversant in popular culture than Cas.

4 “Dean And I Share A More Profound Bond”

In season 6, when Sam came back from Lucifer’s Cage, he attempted to get in touch with Castiel several times, since he couldn’t bother his brother, who he thought was finally settling down into an apple-pie life.

Castiel did not respond to Sam’s prayers but when Dean finally called upon him, it took him literally seconds to appear. Assumptions of Destiel aside, that wasn’t the only funny thing happening here. Sam felt affronted at having been ignored all this time and asked Cas if he liked Dean better, and again Cas was unable to get the sarcasm dripping from his voice, and said that, in fact, he did.

3 “I’m Not Supposed To Talk About It”

Undoubtedly one of Cas’ funniest moments was his perplexity at the pizza man’s odd behavior in the pornography he chanced upon while promising to help the boys find Crowley.

It is difficult enough for Castiel to grasp human emotions and the little nuances of their twisted vocabulary. But porn is something he simply cannot figure out, taking it way too literally and trying to rationalize it as he did everything else. Here he got told off by Dean for watching porn in a room full of dudes and when Samuel Campbell, Sam and Dean’s grandfather, entered the room, he repeated to him–with his eyes still glued to the screen– what Dean had told him not moments ago, about not being supposed to talk about watching porn.

2 “How Important Is Lipstick To You, Dean?”

Castiel had a lot of funny moments in season 7 when he lost his mind after taking on the mantle of crazy from Sam. Until then, Sam was almost on the verge of going crazy as he continually hallucinated.

Not all of what Cas said or did in his disoriented state had to do with sarcasm. But in one hilarious scene, he asked Dean whether lipstick meant a lot to him, completely oblivious to the fact that Dean would have very little use with lipstick. Dean, being Dean, simply cleared his throat and told him that it wasn’t very important to him, all the while staying deadpan.

1 “He Is Not On Any Flatbread”

In season 5, Castiel had begun to give in to doubts regarding the true motives of the angels and had started questioning Heaven’s orders.

In his helpless state, he decided to look for God who had left Heaven but was the only person sure to be able to take on Lucifer. He informed Dean of his plans to look for God, to which Dean replied characteristically that he could be on a tortilla in New Mexico, a reference to the popular fad of Jesus’ face appearing on tortilla bread. Cas actually took a moment to consider this and then told Dean in all seriousness that God wasn’t on any flatbread. This was Castiel at his best.

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