The pink panther (or is slapstick still funny)

I know these movies are kinda old but i just watched both of them (the Steve martin ones), i beeing young consider myself part of the new "smart" comedy generation or the awkward humor things like the office and movies like forgetting sarah marshall, and superbad. And i considered poo gags, trips, hits to the head, adam sandler, robin willieams a thing of my grandfathers that are no longer funny.

Well i found myself quite embarrased to be laughing at these films, good thing i was watching them alone, i was very surpised that about 70% of the stuff made me laugh and some of it even cackle uncontrolably.

I dont know if steve marting is a genious or im getting old but i really liked these films, and this "dumb" humor was very entertaing. Or maybe it was a slapstick humor movie done right.

any comments???

For The Pink Panther check out the originals with Peter Sellers. And if you like Steve Martin acting dumb you have to see The Jerk.

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"Don't be so gloomy. After all it's not that awful. Like the fella says, in Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love - they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock."

Wait, how old are you? That travesty of film making The Pink Panther, (Steve, it pains me to say it but I'm beginning to despise you a little) just came out in 2006. And the next one came out this year. So are you just messing with us or what?

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We are both the source of the problem and the solution, yet we do not see ourselves in this light...

"marting" is obviously a genius (not sic) if he gets paid for those flicks. Suggestions: Use SpellCheck and watch better movies. Plus, "Grow Up!"

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If Casablanca and Zulu are on the original poster's favorite movie list, and he/she calls the new Pink Panther an old movie, I think he/she is pulling our leg.

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thx for your reply's,

Im 19, and i meant that these movies are kinda old in that they came out a few years ago and are not playing in theaters so they are not as recent as say drag me to hell so they are not in everyone's minds.

I agree that those movies are "travesty's" and i understand that they are awful but i dont know why but they made me laugh.

By that logic carrot top is a genius because he got payed for chairman of the board, or Paulie Shore for that matter, he made a bunch of movies.

Sorry for my bad grammar but English is not my primary language and i am doing the best i can. And sometimes the video store runs out of better movies and you have to settle for anything you haven't seen.

As i said by saying old movie i was merely referring to the fact that its been out for a while and its not recent. And those movies where made before i was born, and i only heard of them because of recommendation (i heard about casablanca when will smith mentioned it in men in black).

what im trying to figure out is if the slapstick genre of comedy which i had dismissed as silly, really has some merits if its done right, or if it was Steve Martins genius that made the movie funny for me, maybe any other comedian would not have been able to make it funny.

Ah, thanks for clarifying. We get a lot of people here who like to try and stir things up by trolling for responses.

If in fact you want to see what the genre has to offer I suggest you follow Harry Lime's suggestion up thread and check out the movies he recommended.

Welcome to MoFo!

Wait, did miss the meeting when found out Adam Sandler was ever funny? Be very worried if my Grandparents were watching his films

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This is confusing to me. Modern humor is generally considered less sophisticated than the humor of eras past. "Poo gags, trips, hits to the head" etc are far more the province of recent comedy than the few decades prior. Sure, straight slapstick had a nice run ages ago, and the modern style draws a bit from it, but if the overall argument is that new comedy is "smarter" than what came before, I completely disagree.

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thx for the welcome, it is not my intention to create any arguments, just intersting dialogue and the exchange of ideas.

ok maybe i exagerate by saying grandparents, but most +30 year old's seem to enjoy happy Gilmore and billy Madison. i find him not funny.

The comedy i find prevailing curretly is the Apatow type (knocked up, forgetting sarah marshall, superbad) wich relys more on conversations to be funny. Older comedys are more accident oriented like alot of chevy chase and Leslie Nielsen movies or gross out types like Tom Green movies.

Thus it is my conclusion that comedys based on conversation rather than visual gags are smarter because they require the viewer to follow a dialogue and not just view people getting injured alaa 3 stooges.

im my view conversational humor started to appear around 2005 with 40 year old virgin, before that early 00's and 90's was gross out humor with movies like theres something about mary and 80's was slapstik N.L. family vacation movies.

Im beeing very specific but this is just to make a point. It does not mean that films where exclusivly that type and some cointain multiple comedic elements.

But thats just my 2 cents

P.s XXXX movie (epic, dance,disaster etc.) are horrible for any era and they have been around forever, IDK why.

Surely you jest.

I don't know how he'll feel about being called Shirley, but he's very wrong in that statement of his.

Maybe a big Tylenol would help?

i do get the Shirley reference LOL

i dont know if im wrong but we each have our opinion and lets leave it at that, as i said thats just how I see it.

O-M-G!!!

LOL

GTFO!!! (was that a hip and happening enough response for you my enlightened young friend!?!)

I get this kind of mouth breathing dribble from some of the youngsters at work...it makes me LMAO that they are so arrogant as to think that nothing good existed before they were accidently conceived! It isn't just you cloer...trust me...I've seen this attitude multiple times...

Makes me wonder...when I was that young...was I that dumb? ...probably was LOL!

Hell, I'm about the same age as cloer and I would like to clarify that not every 19-year-old is like that. At least I hope not.

But yeah, that "conversational humour starting to appear in 2005" thing is a new level of stupidity that I just hope is fake and trying to get a reaction.

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Im glad to hear i am not the only pperson who think that way. From the feedback i have been getting on this thread i was beginning to think me and my friends where the only ones who thougth that way.

And while my views might be somewhat arrogant they certainly arent dumb, and i would appreciated if you be more mindfull of using this word as i migth accidentaly get offended.

I am not trying to get a reaction, thease are just my views, maybe i was not born early enough to be of age when some of the movies you have in mind where made, the comedy movies i remember growing up while some where funny, almost all did these by using the slapstick/gross out method, of course they where exeptions (like Canadian Bacon and monthy phyton some of my favs) but as i said before i am generilizing to get my point across in a clearer way. Naked Gun series, national lampoon, american pies, XXXX Movie series, various tom green/jim carrey/adam sandler movies all relied on the slapstick/gross out.

And like i have said in my view comedies started to smarten up around the time of the 40 year old virgin, now jf you would like to continue to debate this subject i would ask you to do so respectfully, and if you have any good commedies pre 2005 i ask that you reccomend them to me please, i would very much enjoy watching them.

Thx

Good comedies Pre-2005:

City Lights
Modern Times
The Gold Rush
Sherlock, Jr.
College
The Freshman (1925)
Safety Last
Why Worry?
Speedy
The General (1926)
Steamboat Bill, Jr.
Our Hospitality
The Kid Brother
Seven Years Bad Luck
The Circus
The Kid (1921)
For Heaven's Sake (1926)
Seven Chances
Three Ages
The Cameraman

Those are all very good, but they're ALL silent movies, so maybe they're not conversational enough. Of course, if you want really OLD conversational comedies, you should read the comedies of Shakespeare, Oscar Wilde and Bernard Shaw.

Here are some OLD "conversational comedies":

Arsenic and Old Lace
It Happened One Night
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
Bringing Up Baby
The Front Page
His Girl Friday
Jewel Robbery
Love Me Tonight
Trouble in Paradise (1932)
Ninotchka
The Shop Around the Corner
To Be or Not to Be (1942)
Heaven Can Wait (1943)
Christmas in July
The Great McGinty
Sullivan's Travels
The Palm Beach Story
The Lady Eve
Hail the Conquering Hero
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek
You Can't Take It With You
Pygmalion
The Importance of Being Earnest
One, Two, Three
Some Like It Hot
Sabrina (1954)
Love in the Afternoon

I'll list some more later.

I'm not going to condone anyone calling anyone stupid or idiotic, but the idea that The 40 Year Old Virgin represents some new type of "conversational" comedy that didn't exist before simply isn't accurate. It's not really a matter of opinion, and it's the kind of belief that wouldn't be possible unless someone had simply not seen many older comedies -- would it be fair to say this describes you?

Either way, I'd definitely recommend checking out some of the films Mark's listed. There's a lot of good stuff there.

Thx for the list mark

I did not have a chance to find out much about each one you posted but after a quick google of several i see that in the first batch of silent films alot are charlie chaplin, now i dont denny that charlie Chaplin is extremely funny and i have seen a few of his films in school and i say again it would indeed be clasified as slapstick humor, or am i wrong???

The second batch look all to be pre 1950, and like yoda says it migth be that i dint grow up in that time period so i have never heard of them, i have only seen at the earliest 70's and up comedy so i have know idea about those films

what i have been talking is my own experience with comedic films that i saw growing up, maybe you read to much into what i said about the 40YOV and im not one to deffend it, its not one of my favorite comedies but i did enjoy it and fromwhat i can recall thats when commedies started to be "smarter" in my eyes as they are relevent to todays topics. Im not hailing it as the comecidy messiah of all movies meerly a turn in the page.

Im not saying that comedy did not exist pre 2005, what im saying is that comedies in the 80s, 90s and early 00s relied on the gross out/slapstick, i am not one to speak of commedy movies from 70s back because i have not seen them and to be honest i dint even now they existed.

As you can see from the examples i have listed i did not take into account films that are that old, i do agree that good comedy trancends time and thats why i still chaplin and cantinflas funny.

But i may be going out on a limb but ask most teenagers who they think is funnier Chaplin or Mclovin, what was funny yesterday is not as funny today.

But my original argumant is, or what i was trying to find out is that why was the pink phanter funny, was it the splastick geanra or was it steve martin, as before i had belived the two to be a products of a past era that no longer held much appeal with newer generations.

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OK i was not understanding why people where getting so upset so i whent back and read all the post, and i think i understand, you people seem to think i am talking about all commedies since the begginning of film, i should be more carefull because poeple here seem to take thing to literal, i found that out when Powdered Water said

to clarify by old i meant 2006, and movies i have been talking about are 1980+, i dind not realize that poeple here also where fans of classical cinema, my fault i will try to be more clear on all my subsequent posts.

Thx