Why are comedies of the 80s much funnier?

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Cornetto trilogy started last decade, but finished this decade. Attack the block comes to mind. Jump Street, Scot Pilgrim, Grand Budapest Hotel, Death of Stalin, Kick Ass, Hunt for the Wilder People, The Favourite (although it's quite a different type of comedy), Bridesmaid,

Game Night, Silver Linings Playbook (don't lik this movie at all). You can the difference, in content from 90s, 80s etc. Deadpool... Forgot that
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I think it depends on when you consider a film a comedy. I feel like a lot of the better comedies that have been released recently are not purely comedy, but also drama.
Would you consider Parasite, Jojo Rabbit and Knives Out comedies?
If you do that would be three examples of recent comedies that I think are great films and those were all released just last year.



I've noticed that it just seems harder each year to do a comedy, given the minefield of politicized sensitivities, the desire of movie investors to please everybody and the nature of comedy over the ages, which is often mocking, sarcastic and extends into demeaning. I was looking back and think I saw at least 3 of them in 2019. Of course Jo Jo Rabbit passes the PC test because nobody's defending nazis. Stan and Ollie was excellent because it trod lightly on Stan and Ollie, who often kept to a very gentile, self-mocking humor. Laurel and Hardy are long ago and iconic. Once Upon a Time In Hollywood had Tarantino behind the camera, and nobody expects a Tarantino movie to not have outrageous elements....and, it mocks Hollywood celebrity culture, which always seems like a fair target.

A movie comedy has to go past the formulaic TV sitcom with its setup-setup-punchline rythymn and since it has to be more than 21 minutes long, avoiding the minefield and doing a good 90 minute comedy seems like a serious challenge in this time. It doesn't surprise me that kids are still watching Ghostbusters after all these years.



Harold Ramis had alot to do with it. He would write and collaborate with guys like Dan Ackroyd, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray and John Candy.

These guys also seemed happy to work together, forming comedy duos.



I've noticed that it just seems harder each year to do a comedy, given the minefield of politicized sensitivities, the desire of movie investors to please everybody and the nature of comedy over the ages, which is often mocking, sarcastic and extends into demeaning. I was looking back and think I saw at least 3 of them in 2019. Of course Jo Jo Rabbit passes the PC test because nobody's defending nazis. Stan and Ollie was excellent because it trod lightly on Stan and Ollie, who often kept to a very gentile, self-mocking humor. Laurel and Hardy are long ago and iconic. Once Upon a Time In Hollywood had Tarantino behind the camera, and nobody expects a Tarantino movie to not have outrageous elements....and, it mocks Hollywood celebrity culture, which always seems like a fair target.

A movie comedy has to go past the formulaic TV sitcom with its setup-setup-punchline rythymn and since it has to be more than 21 minutes long, avoiding the minefield and doing a good 90 minute comedy seems like a serious challenge in this time. It doesn't surprise me that kids are still watching Ghostbusters after all these years.
I don't think it's solely about 'political sensitivity' but that casual racism and sexism was more acceptable in the seventies and eighties so you could get an easy laugh, whereas nowadays people would either be offended or just not find it particularly funny. Comedies weren't more edgy back then and movie investors have always been concerned about pleasing as many people as possible because you want as big an audience as possible.



There's certainly good comedies being made today, and as someone posted earlier it's the drama-comedies that are often the funniest and most creative.

On the other hand the typical R rated comedy anymore is usually uninspired, dumbed-down and relies on shock humor and gross out jokes to get a laugh. It's like Beavis and Butt-Head grew up and became schlock comedy directors.



I think it depends on when you consider a film a comedy. I feel like a lot of the better comedies that have been released recently are not purely comedy, but also drama.
Would you consider Parasite, Jojo Rabbit and Knives Out comedies?
If you do that would be three examples of recent comedies that I think are great films and those were all released just last year.
I would say that's one obvious shift that comedy focused on wit/satire has tended to not end up in "pure comedy" releases as often post millennium.

The biggest shift in comedy over the past 50 years I'd say was actually around the mid 90's when a broader more screwball style(most obviously Jim Carrey's earlier work) became the dominant style at the box office, Prior to that I would say that the 70's and the 80's you might have had some of this but there was also a lot more successful comedy focused on wit. You look at the difference between the original Ghostbusters and the remake for example and I think the difference in style becomes quite clear.

Perhaps also Hollywood is less keen to promote "genre" films these days? comedy, horror, etc tend to limit a films market these days moreso than they did in the past.



2010 Easy A
2011 Paul
2012 The Dictator
2013 The World's End
2014 Walk of Shame
2015 Sisters
2016 The Nice Guys
2017 Fist Fight
2018 Destination Wedding
2019 Booksmart



I _Love_ The World's End.



Don't forget This is The End (2013)
Hot Tub Time Machine (2010)
and
Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (2019)



Harold Ramis had alot to do with it. He would write and collaborate with guys like Dan Ackroyd, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray and John Candy.

These guys also seemed happy to work together, forming comedy duos.

And don't forget John Belushi.



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Hot Tub Time Machine and Jay and Silent Bob Reboot are not good arguments for the 2010s being good for comedy, though. The former is literally about going back to the '80s and the latter is all about making call-backs to a bunch of movies from the '90s and '00s.
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Well there has been this talk that Hollywood does not want to make comedies anymore because they are afraid of offending people, but I rewatched Dumb and Dumber again recently, and laughed my butt off. A movie like that doesn't offend any particular group does it? Can't Hollywood make comedies like that nowadays and it won't offend?



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I guess, but isn't that one group that Hollywood doesn't care about offending ?



Hot Tub Time Machine and Jay and Silent Bob Reboot are not good arguments for the 2010s being good for comedy, though. The former is literally about going back to the '80s and the latter is all about making call-backs to a bunch of movies from the '90s and '00s.
So the good ones are actually going back to 80s to make it enjoyable enough, makes sense



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I think because there was a different, peculiar sense of humor.



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Even though Hot Tub Time Machine is transported back to the 80s, the humor in it is very much 2000s. So therefore, does taking it to the 80s really make a difference for older audiences, if they just have to watch 2000s humor in it?



I don't think it's solely about 'political sensitivity' but that casual racism and sexism was more acceptable in the seventies and eighties so you could get an easy laugh, whereas nowadays people would either be offended or just not find it particularly funny. Comedies weren't more edgy back then and movie investors have always been concerned about pleasing as many people as possible because you want as big an audience as possible.
I'm thinking less about political than politicized in the sense that sensitivities are not so much about party politics but more about various comedic devices that offend someone out there who might not buy a ticket or who gets righteously offended. If you look back at an awful lot of comedies, they depend to a great extent on "making fun" of somebody, be it personal characteristics, behavior, life style or whatever. It's hard to imagine making a 3 Stooges short or one of Jerry Lewis's characters or Gomer Pyle or mocking people who have something that could be considered a disability or almost any ethnic/racial/gender or religious humor in an environment where almost everybody has an attitude about something and lines that can't be crossed. I'm not even thinking that's all wrong but making a comedy seems like it would be a lot like navigating a minefield where people keep placing more mines and moving the old ones. A lot of old comedies have not aged well, and what was funny decades ago now makes someone angry.

A couple nights ago, scanning the cable, looking for something to divert me from lockdown, I watched an old episode of Hogan's Heroes. It featured comedy about WW II, a funny POW camp and Jewish actors portraying bumbling, lovable Nazis. There are just so many ways that it's hard to think of that happening now in a movie or TV show. I think I'd just have to get out of the comedy business.



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And it's kind of ironic because Hogan's Heroes was about 30 years after the holocaust, where as now it's 70 years later, and people more sensitive about it now than 40 years ago.

However, why would it be risky to make a 3 Stooges movie today? There was one made in 2012 and a lot of people liked it, didn't they?



I always wondered about the concept of Hogan's Heroes even as a kid.

Wish it had been delved into a little bit in the movie Auto Focus (2002) where Greg Kinnear plays Bob Crane - a really freaky bio-pic if you ever get the chance to see it. But although the show was mentioned in the film and even portrayed the actors making the TV series, the concept of Nazis as humor was not touched upon (but I thought at least maybe a 5 minute scene about the controversial nature of such an idea would have added to the movie).

I just always wondered what concerns were raised when the show was pitched - a prime time sit-com about a Nazi POW camp?
Now we know it was based on the hit movie Stalag 17 (1953) which was a comedy drama - but the dramatic parts were still handled seriously giving it balance for the subject matter.

I was always impressed when I read an interview with Werner Klemperer (who played Col. Klink in Hogan's Heroes) about him being a German who was cast in all these roles (TV & movies) as a Nazi... he said he hated the Nazis so much that he was glad to make them look foolish at any opportunity - thus he relished playing the bumbling Col. Klink