Comedies

Spencer Hopkins
ENC 1102

That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore
(The Smiths, Meat is Murder – 1985)

“Time flies like an arrow,
fruit flies like a banana.”
- Groucho Marx

What do you remember most about a film? Is it the direction, the acting? Is it the plot line? These all can be great aspects of a film, but one thing that truly grabs the audience is the comedy in a film. If you’re talking about movies with friends, are you inclined to tell them about a dramatic scene? Do they usually talk about a dramatic scene or the like with you? Or do they instead tell a joke or talk about a humorous scene that was in the film? When I talk to my friends about comedies, I generally reference Marx Brothers films and other screwball comedies of the 30s. A screwball comedy takes the name literally: the characters wind up in crazy situations and find crazy ways out of them. It is rare when talking with my friends that I bring up recent comedies mostly because the quality of the comedy in movies has sunken to the depths where it is supposedly funny when someone is vomited on. Back in the first decades that films existed, the jokes were original, well placed and not grotesque. This had to do with good writing and playing out of the jokes by the actors, but also had to do with the effect that the Production Code had on movies. So how has comedy changed over the years?
Lately, companies have marketed their comedies as romantic comedies so that if the jokes fail for the audience, at least the film will have some redemption with its romantic side. The trailers for these types of movies play out the films best jokes in it so that the audience will think the movie has something even funnier in store for them when they go see it. Sure the jokes used in the previews will still get a few laughs in the viewing of the movie, but comedy in films isn’t like it used to be. Have you ever seen a Marx Brothers film or a Charlie Chaplin silent movie? Have you ever laughed throughout a movie non-stop? When I watch comedies from the 20s, 30s and 40s, my stomach gets sore from laughing so hard that after the film is through, I’ll have to stretch out so to soothe the pain. Though it may not sound like it, that soreness is a great feeling. It means that a movie has constantly made me laugh, but unfortunately there hasn’t been a movie that has come out into theaters that has had me invariably laughing recently.
“If motion pictures present stories that will affect lives for the better, they can become the most powerful force for the improvement of mankind” (lines 4&5, Arts Reformation). The Production Code was inducted into the Association of Motion Picture Producers in March of 1930 and it heavily limited how films were made by denying them the ability to show certain situations in movies. A few examples are that married couples were to be shown sleeping in separate beds and there were to be no sexual references or any vulgarity in the least in films. The writers had to work around these boundaries and that made their humor more creative because of the lack of expletives and the films did so much better without the vulgarity. For examples of Haley’s Code (the Production Code) in effect, watch Bringing Up Baby (1938), It Happened One Night (1934) or any of the comedies that came out in the 30s, they so cleverly avoid the code while remaining somewhat taboo. For example, in Bringing Up Baby, Cary Grant is a paleontologist and has lost a bone that is missing which will complete a brontosaurus and Katherine Hepburn has inherited a leopard which escapes. So Grant is looking for his bone and Hepburn is looking for her cat. The films were not allowed to show sexuality, but if done properly they could get away with underlying sexual themes; the humor is more sophisticated rather than spoken or shown outright.
Recent movies defy the Code completely. I saw 50 First Dates (2004) not long ago and while watching, I noted that it had: a walrus vomiting onto a zookeeper, multiple penis jokes, multiple jokes about using steroids and having wet dreams, and a lady diving into a barrel of frozen fish coming out soaked and brown. There were, of course, more distasteful jokes than these, but those that I named were some of the worst. In the theater I heard a few strayed laughs, but none came from me. I didn’t laugh once in this film. I wasn’t trying to hold the laughs back so I can prove my point for this paper – the jokes weren’t smart or funny enough to produce a laugh. It’s tough for a movie labeled as a comedy when most of the jokes fail. “Sandler, like Ben Stiller in Along Came Polly, is seriously coasting on his reputation and past successes here” (paragraph 3, Weekender). The material Sandler is working with can’t recreate a new and fresh experience for the audience, so when the name Sandler is brought up for a new movie, people will think of some of his better comedies such as Billy Madison (1995) or The Wedding Singer (1998) and run out to see this movie because they enjoyed some of his others. This is a way that many movies get attention, because of the actors/actresses they put in which the company then relies on their past experiences for. It’s a cheap shot at making the company look good, but when it all comes down, if there’s nothing there in the movie, they will ultimately fail. “And whatever credibility the movie achieves as a whimsical romance is regularly smothered by the usual barrage of Sandler-movie vomit, bathroom and penis jokes which are injected in every scene with an almost mathematically formulaic precision” (paragraphs 7 & 8, Intelligencer).
I am talking about comedy as a genre, but more so the type of comedy from the early 20th century that when I watch, I do not stop laughing because of the consistent witted tongues, site gags, slapstick comedy, physical comedy and one-liners. There have been some notable comedies that have come out recently, but for one reason or another, the film falls a bit flat. Something’s Gotta Give (2003) came close with its well-meaning,, well placed and written, and for the most part, clean jokes. The first hour of the movie was extremely consistent in making me laugh, but it started lagging toward the last half due to the romantic side and sagged for the rest of the running time. “Alas, the problems lie not in the movie's ideas or casting, but in the sitcom-like screenplay employed by writer/director Nancy Meyers, and in the inability of the filmmakers to cut the movie down to a reasonable length” (paragraph 1, Reel Views). Jack Nicholson plays a character of his age, about 70, who is dating a woman who is three decades younger than him. Many of the jokes have to do with this generation gap and that Jack Nicholson plays along with them even though they’re poking fun at him is what makes the humor work. Some other comedies have been good and humorous, such as School of Rock (2003) and Intolerable Cruelty (2003) but fail to find the edge that Bringing Up Baby and Duck Soup (1933) have. The latter two films I named have short running times – 102 minutes and 70 minutes – and in these times the dialogue and action is non-stop which compliments the laughing and makes for masterful comedies which don’t drag on or feel slow at any time. “Much like Singin’ In The Rain, Bringing Up Baby maintains a level of energy that is almost impossible to achieve. The story, the dialogue and the acting move so fast that one cannot help but get caught up in this 90-minute joke” (paragraph 10, Zertinet).
After seeing the great comedies of the 30s that defined humor, I am not satisfied with what the comedy genre has become. I don’t want what used to be something amazing replaced by unfunny saps like 50 First Dates or gross-out comedies like Old School (2003), I want the industry to bring back what it had going for it decades ago. The scripts for movies lately aren’t anything fresh or original, the public likes them because either: they most likely haven’t seen many classic films and don’t know where comedy is coming from; or maybe they weren’t brought up on classics; or they don’t understand the humor because the wit and sarcasm has eroded through translation of the films to today’s society.
Comedy also has to do with upbringing. When I was growing up, I watched Bugs Bunny, Beanie and Cecil, and Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons which contained sophisticated jokes. If I had not have watched these cartoons at a young age, I might not have understood the jokes in the film Duck Soup when I watched it in my TV1 class in high school. My teacher put the film on for us to watch because he said it was vital to film history. About fifteen minutes into the film, my outbursts of laughter startled the class so much that they kept looking at me as if I had gone mad. None of them were laughing and at that time I didn’t understand why. But now I know that this type of comedy isn’t understood by everyone like I thought it was. For example, in Duck Soup, Zeppo and Groucho, two of the Marx Brothers, are talking during a meeting, Zeppo hands groucho a report:

Zeppo: “Is the report clear, sir?”
Groucho: “Clear? Why, a four-year-old child could understand this report. Run out and find me a four-year-old child. I can’t make a head nor tail out of it” (Jarskie 161).

I was laughing for some time long after the joke was through and the brothers were on to the next. There was maybe a chuckle out of one classmate. I cherish my sense of humor because I know not everyone has the understanding that I do. What I’m trying to accomplish is appreciation of the classics and for the film industry to bring back that style of comedy. There have been a few filmmakers who have written very good humor, but the actual film doesn’t quite make a good story, the film just has some very good jokes. Jim Abrahams and Jerry and David Zucker came out with the movie Airplane! In 1980, that is one of the last films I can remember that is humorous throughout. But what’s different about that movie is that it’s a parody. The writers watch other films and change situations to make them outrageous and funny. Unfortunately, the comedy team of Abrahams and the Zucker brothers broke up later in the 80s and they each went on to make their own films, generally more parodies which haven’t been able to top Airplane!.
Every year, many films come out of Hollywood labeled as romantic comedies. I have been unlucky and have gotten dragged into a few. The scripts for the movies are rewrites of scripts that were already flops, also known as formulaic scripts. There are a few basic situations in the film which all tie into each other and all the writers have to do is find a few things that will fit into the situations and crank out a script. It is thought that by giving it a pinch and twist that it will make it a hit with the crowds, or at least gross well at the box office and ultimately, that’s all the studio really cares about. If the film is no good, but drags in more than it was made for, they will hire the writers and actors back for more because their previous film was a success, but a success only at the box office, not at originality or good writing. In the film festival circuit, not many comedies are entered either, it’s not just Hollywood that’s failing. Comedy is failing all around, someone needs to revive comedy as we know it. Film festivals are comprised of mostly independent films usually dealing with the darker side of life. If I took a poll of the type of movies that are shown at festivals it would most likely show that drama is the dominant genre, not many attempt comedy. It’s not an easy genre to flow with, but if great minds are put together I’m sure comedy can be revised for the better.
Where are the good comedies reflecting films of the past in their greatness and humor? Are you satisfied with what comedy has become? Do you leave the theater after seeing a labeled comedy and feel that the humor was first rate? If the answer is “no,” and it should be, head down to a local library – they’re guaranteed to have classic films from the 20s, 30s and 40s that will satisfy your need for comedy. Best of all, these movies can be checked out with a library card for free and can be borrowed up to a week, whereas the shoddy comedies in cinemas cost eight dollars and leave you bitter. What have you got to lose?


Works Cited
Arnold, William. “50 First Dates” Seattle Post Intelligencer
(http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/movies/160404_dates13q.html)

Bell, Josh. “50 First Dates” Las Vegas Weekly
(http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/2004/02/12/screen.html)

Berardinelli, James. “Something’s Gotta Give” Reel Views
(http://www.movie-reviews.colossus.net/movies.html)

International Movie Database, The. (for movie release dates)
(http://www.imdb.com)

Jarski, Rosemarie. “Duck Soup quote” Wisecracks: Great Lines from the Classic Hollywood Era. Chicago, Illinois: Contemporary Books, 1999. 161.

Reformation of the Arts and Music
(http://www.artsreformation.com)

Smiths, The. “That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore” Meat is Murder. Rough Trade Records, 1985

Snyder, Steven. “Brining Up Baby” Zertinet Movies
(http://www.movies.zertinet.com/classics/bringingupbaby.htm)