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I was having a discussion with my brother last night, and it was actually extremely difficult for us to come up with a relatively recent comedy movie that either of us truly liked, or liked enough that we would watch it a second time. We decided to scroll through all of the comedies offered by Netflix and HBO GO, and after ~15 minutes of looking came up with only about a handful of available movies we would watch...4 of which we had already seen multiple times.

What do you think? Am I just living under a rock, or are all of these new comedy movies generally terrible? I fear we will never have another comedy great like Rodney Dangerfield making movies because of all of this PC nonsense that has been spreading like a plague.
I was having a discussion with my brother last night, and it was actually extremely difficult for us to come up with a relatively recent comedy movie that either of us truly liked, or liked enough that we would watch it a second time. We decided to scroll through all of the comedies offered by Netflix and HBO GO, and after ~15 minutes of looking came up with only about a handful of available movies we would watch...4 of which we had already seen multiple times. What do you think? Am I just living under a rock, or are all of these new comedy movies generally terrible? I fear we will never have another comedy great like Rodney Dangerfield making movies because of all of this PC nonsense that has been spreading like a plague.

12 comments

[–] PMYA 2 points (+2|-0)

In the US, yes. I have not seen an American comedy film that has been watchable in a long time.

I think it is partly because of the way they are made, not because of the actual content in them. There seems to be a formula for American comedies that just works, and by that I mean there is a specific way to do things in a comedy film that makes people go and see it. It is not a coincidence that there are a ton of American comedies with very funny comedians in them, but all of them are total shit.

I recommend watching this.
[–] phoxy 2 points (+2|-0)

Another symptom of targeting the widest market for the biggest revenue: bland and safe to appeal to everyone.
[–] jobes [OP] 2 points (+2|-0)

That does a good job of explaining a lot of types of content that are missing from so many movies. The constant dialog-only comedy is very bland in so many movies. I'd rather watch Rodney Dangerfield sitting in a chair telling jokes for 6 minutes than almost any recent American comedy.
[–] TheRedArmy 2 points (+2|-0)

In terms of big budget comedy movies, I completely agree. Things like Pop Star and Office Christmas Party is the most basic, slapped together shit you'll find in Hollywood movies, for the most part. "Oh look, a guy did something crazy and hi-jinks ensued. It's so funny!" No thanks.

There are some smaller movies that come out - as recently as last year - that are primarily comedies and actually look rather good, but they don't get wide released at all, and there seems to be little to no marketing for these things, so I don't even hear about them until after the fact. So I think decent US comedies exist, but you have to look for them, and you won't find them in most theaters.
[–] PMYA 2 points (+2|-0)

I think that is probably the reason American comedy has gone down this road though. Because stand up is so popular, they try to exploit it by having long drawn out scenes that are lightly scripted and rely on the comedians to salvage it and make it funny. When that happens, there is no directing going on whatsoever.

There is another type of American comedy too that you could probably describe as a sketch movie. Basically all of Adam Sandler's films since 2000 fit this genre. Instead of doing improv, they write 20-30 sketches and link them together, which has the effect of each cut to another scene feeling like you're jumping into a different film altogether.

The thing both have in common is they're trying to get to the laugh as fast as possible without really considering all of the other factors that make a good full length comedy film.

It isn't just comedy either, I have noticed something similar happening in horror films. Consider The Shining and Paranormal Activity. From a directing standpoint, The Shining might be the best horror film ever made. In Paranormal Activity, they tried to take the extreme of horror films and make it the only focus (jumpscares). Jumpscares can be great after 15 minutes of story or character development and some half decent directing, but having it be the sole focus subtracts from the effect you want them to have.

American comedy and horror films feel cheap as fuck because they're trying to condense the best parts of better films in the genres. I think it's a money thing, and the worst part is that its probably working, because these films wouldn't be getting made if it wasn't.
[–] jobes [OP] 2 points (+2|-0)

they try to exploit it by having long drawn out scenes that are lightly scripted and rely on the comedians to salvage it and make it funny

That formula works well only under certain circumstances. Curb Your Enthusiasm generally did a good job at that, but some scenes just turned out bad or lackluster and resulted in there being several episodes I would not want to re-watch.

they write 20-30 sketches and link them together, which has the effect of each cut to another scene feeling like you're jumping into a different film altogether.

I watched Ted 2 because it was on HBO, and it was exactly this. It was kind of painful to watch. I remembered liking the first one, but maybe it's because I was stoned.

And fuck jumpscares. I think Cabin in the Woods is the most recent American 'horror' film I've seen that I enjoyed.
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