Standard of films comedy today.

the herr blair bunch

Went to see Good Boys lately, was very disappointed, barely laughed once.

Was Seth Rogan even involved or was he just "guest producer" or whatever term some films do whereby they add on a famous name who had feck all to do with it? His stuff is usually decent.

Put it this way, the likes of Blazing Saddles wouldn't get made today with self-appointed offence squad waiting to unleash the next twitter storm. Modern comedy as a result is becoming too self-conscious, therefore on the skids.

El_Duderino 09

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Put it this way, the likes of Blazing Saddles wouldn't get made today with self-appointed offence squad waiting to unleash the next twitter storm. Modern comedy as a result is becoming too self-conscious, therefore on the skids.

But be fair. Blazing saddles was more relevant back when it was made. There was a real change where there were jobs that it was impossible to imagine anyone but white people doing, beginning to be done by non white people. And blazing saddles played out that anxiety through the medium of a western.

It wouldn’t be relevant today so of course it probably wouldn’t get made. But since we seem to have to discuss this in terms of PC. Wasn’t blazing saddles wildly PC? The black guy comes into a situation full of racists and wins them over because he’s so awesome and all the white people are actually cowards who won’t stand up to the bad guy. The jokes were at the racists expense.

I’m pretty sure the same people would be furious about the PC side of blazing saddles if it were made now.

Wompa1

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

But be fair. Blazing saddles was more relevant back when it was made. There was a real change where there were jobs that it was impossible to imagine anyone but white people doing, beginning to be done by non white people. And blazing saddles played out that anxiety through the medium of a western.

It wouldn’t be relevant today so of course it probably wouldn’t get made. But since we seem to have to discuss this in terms of PC. Wasn’t blazing saddles wildly PC? The black guy comes into a situation full of racists and wins them over because he’s so awesome and all the white people are actually cowards who won’t stand up to the bad guy. The jokes were at the racists expense.

I’m pretty sure the same people would be furious about the PC side of blazing saddles if it were made now.

It could get made today but only back a black film maker. Which based on the film, that's understandable. Some black people don't like that movie much.

El_Duderino 09

Wompa1 wrote: »

It could get made today but only back a black film maker. Which based on the film, that's understandable. Some black people don't like that movie much.

Why bother making it today? The premise that it’s unthinkable to have black propel in certain jobs, isn’t relevant anymore.

But anyway, this thread isn’t about what black people people like or don’t like. It’s about grumpy, old white people giving out about PC.

Hoboo

Black Dynamite isn't PC, hilarious too.

Gregor Samsa

The PC bogeyman is being way overplayed. If there’s a market to justify the budget, it could get made. There’s plenty of non-pc stuff bring made, some of it very popular. Fashions change like the wind, genres move in and out of popularity. We’re currently in an age of superhero movies, a decade ago, it was horror movies. Comedy movies will have their time again

As for saying that there’s no way X or Y would be made today, it’s a bit pointless. Casablanca wouldn’t get made today because the expectations of modern audiences in terms of what constitutes a good movie are completely different to that which they were in 1942. If the plot behind Casablanca was made in any other decade (50s, 70s, 90s, now) it would be a completely different movie. People watch it now because it was a classic back then - not because it would be a classic if it was made fresh now (with the same script, acting, directing, editing, etc). Things are of their time and are viewed as such.

biko

Don't worry, Hollywood will rehash and destroy Casablanca like so many other movies.

Gregor Samsa

Gregor Samsa wrote: »

The PC bogeyman is being way overplayed. If there’s a market to justify the budget, it could get made. There’s plenty of non-pc stuff bring made, some of it very popular. Fashions change like the wind, genres move in and out of popularity. We’re currently in an age of superhero movies, a decade ago, it was horror movies. Comedy movies will have their time again

As for saying that there’s no way X or Y would be made today, it’s a bit pointless. Casablanca wouldn’t get made today because the expectations of modern audiences in terms of what constitutes a good movie are completely different to that which they were in 1942. If the plot behind Casablanca was made in any other decade (50s, 70s, 90s, now) it would be a completely different movie. People watch it now because it was a classic back then - not because it would be a classic if it was made fresh now (with the same script, acting, directing, editing, etc). Things are of their time and are viewed as such.

Casablanca is still a classic, and merits repeat viewings. The cracking dialogue jumps off the screen.

Harry Palmr

It feels as if every comedy is now either a lame "rom-com" aimed at the 18-40 female cohort or a shoddy gross out (mixed with a strain of gooey sentiment) comedy of the painfully obvious acted out by obnoxious loud mouths for the college jock crowd. There are some good one being made I'm sure but bet not many reach your local fleapit.

Funny that Blazing Saddles should come up, I was prompted to remembeer it last night and it struck me that it was a regular on Film4 but either they lost the rights to a pay channel or it's no longer acceptable to be shown!

Wompa1

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Why bother making it today? The premise that it’s unthinkable to have black propel in certain jobs, isn’t relevant anymore.

But anyway, this thread isn’t about what black people people like or don’t like. It’s about grumpy, old white people giving out about PC.

Blazing Saddles wasn't present day when it was released. It was set in the old Frontier days. Could release it at any time since that history won't change. Some black people don't like it because they see it as white people making money and having fun with racism.

Jordan Peele could make it today and it would be fine. If someone like Todd Phillips or Judd Appatow made it, it wouldn't be received well.

Princess Consuela Bananahammock

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Subtlety of monty python. Are you doing comedy now? Monty python was closer to slapstick than subtlety. Monty python really only gets laughs through nostalgias now. It’s not very funny anymore. It’s certainly not relevant to what’s happening in culture, but that’s not it’s fault, It’s just old.

It's both to be fair. The philosopher football sketch is a good example.

Disagree that it's not funny any more.

But the bit in bold holds the answer. The OP could be phrased thusly: teenage comedies were funny when I was a teenager. Now teenage comedies are stupid and not funny.

Imagine seriously not realising that your own sense of comedy changes over time. There are plenty of comedies aimed at older adults. But probably fewer than are aimed at young people. There probably aren’t many comedies aimed at people over 60 for example. So as you get older they’ll be making fewer and fewer comedies for you.

The problem is that teenage comedies used to be aimed at teenagers. Now they're aimed at adults. Part of the dumbing-down of society.

fatknacker

Yes I too lament for the times when classics like Weekend at Bernies and the National Lampoons movies were the peak of side splitting, knee slapping and unforgettable comedy.
One never forgets the subtle and uncomfortable yet jarring satirical commentary drawing parallels to the Cold War through the use the candy bar floater scene in Caddyshack.

Gregor Samsa

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Casablanca is still a classic, and merits repeat viewings. The cracking dialogue jumps off the screen.

Out of the mouths of wooden actors. We forgive it’s faults and limitations (by our modern standards) because of the time it was made, and the impact it had at that time. Same with everything.

El_Duderino 09

Wompa1 wrote: »

Blazing Saddles wasn't present day when it was released. It was set in the old Frontier days. Could release it at any time since that history won't change. Some black people don't like it because they see it as white people making money and having fun with racism.

Jordan Peele could make it today and it would be fine. If someone like Todd Phillips or Judd Appatow made it, it wouldn't be received well.

I didn’t think the movie was made in the 1800s. The story (black man in position of authority) was culturally relevant when it was made because it was something that was in the process of changing after the civil rights era. Placing it in the frontier era exaggerated the point (because it would have been even more ridiculous to have a black man on authority back then) while also abstracting it a bit from everyday life.

My point is that it wouldn’t be relevant to today. Black people can be in everyday positions of authority without attention today (barrack Obama a decade ago was a bit different because POTUS isn’t an everyday position of authority.

There are load of shows when racial banter now. If people are kissing the dreaded ‘n’ word, they needn’t look too far in modern film. I really don’t get the point of complaining about PC anyway. Blazing Saddles was as PC as it can get in so far as the black lad was the hero and the stupid, cowardly white people eventually learned the error of their stupid, white, racist ways and emplaned the black guy as their hero. What on earth isn’t PC about that? Because they called him a n1gger and applied racial stereotypes to begin with?

Likewise Django was a PC storyline answer a black guy hero. Lots of racism and stereotypes thrown at the black guy. But he overcomes the evil racist white people and wins the day for the PC brigade.

What exactly are the people complaining about PC, complaining about?

El_Duderino 09

fatknacker wrote: »

Yes I too lament for the times when classics like Weekend at Bernies and the National Lampoons movies were the peak of side splitting, knee slapping and unforgettable comedy.
One never forgets the subtle and uncomfortable yet jarring satirical commentary drawing parallels to the Cold War through the use the candy bar floater scene in Caddyshack.

Yeah, again I’m struggling to figure out if someone calling these shows “subtle” is a joke or not.

People fall in love with shows when they’re young and when the show was culturally relevant. And naturally they forgive them ageing terribly and losing their cultural relevance.

E.G. the life of Brian was so edgy for satirising Christianity, it was banned in some countries including Ireland. That’s cultural relevance. Now the fact that it played with the origin of the religion is just an angle. Nothing new. It was relevant, now it isn’t. So it’s lost one of its legs and might or might not be able to stand as an interesting comedy.

Hobosan

Films can become less relevant for sure. But I had no problem enjoying the classics from the 60`s onward (and many lesser known films of that era) from a very young age.

I immensely enjoyed the first Lego movie. The level of care put into film was crystal clear.

It's easy to repeat the mantra, "you're just getting old", but to gloss over the quality of modern films with that excuse is as lazy as the effort put into modern films themselves.

Or maybe I am getting old, and Terminator 36 really is a great, original, film and not a symptom of a decline in overall standards.

But I don't mind. The critiques on YouTube of some modern TV and Cinema releases are absolutely hilarious.

Agricola

The people that bank roll film production in the US now are absolutely petrified of loosing huge profits by making less huge profits on original ideas. Why make back 2 or 3 times your budget on something original when the moneymen are projecting a 5 fold return by making a mindless, cobbled together CGI laden shítfest with Part 5 in the title.

That, plus the whole PC thing has been the deathknell for cinema outings for me. There's still the odd release that I will necessitate a big screen, but theyre few and far between.

El_Duderino 09

Hobosan wrote: »

Films can become less relevant for sure. But I had no problem enjoying the classics from the 60`s onward (and many lesser known films of that era) from a very young age.

I immensely enjoyed the first Lego movie. The level of care put into film was crystal clear.

It's easy to repeat the mantra, "you're just getting old", but to gloss over the quality of modern films with that excuse is as lazy as the effort put into modern films themselves.

Or maybe I am getting old, and Terminator 36 really is a great, original, film and not a symptom of a decline in overall standards.

But I don't mind. The critiques on YouTube of some modern TV and Cinema releases are absolutely hilarious.

I don’t think anyone thinks terminator 36 will be a great movie. But it might sell well to people who were young when the original terminator movie was released.

But picking any one movie and basing criticism on it is a bit unfair. The shyte movies from the 60s are forgotten already so the ones that are remembered are the good ones.

There certainly are more movies now than back then. So any hook that can get market share is important. So franchises and remakes have brand recognition.

The main thing is that comedies are aimed at a young target market. As you get older, fewer comedies are aimed at you. That might be frustrating, but I really doubt your grandad thought the comedies aimed at you when you were young, were good because they were aimed at young people.

The day I hear old people agree that “the art aimed at young people is really fantastic these days” is the day this dynamic has changed. Old people ‘saying the art aimed at young people is crap and not as good as the art aimed at me when I was young’, is not news. It’s just something old people say.

Hobosan

Hoboo wrote: »

Black Dynamite isn't PC, hilarious too.

The spiritual successor to this is called "The Outlaw Johnny Black". Most of the crew of Dynamite are involved.

They said about a decade ago that they'd like to cross Black Dynamite with Blazing Saddles, and that appears to be what they're going for.

Not sure they'll catch lightning in a bottle twice though.

Conall Cernach

Gregor Samsa wrote: »

Out of the mouths of wooden actors. We forgive it’s faults and limitations (by our modern standards) because of the time it was made, and the impact it had at that time. Same with everything.

Wooden actors? Bergman, Bogart and Rains had shelf loads of awards like Oscars, Tonys, Emmys as well as nominations between them.

dxhound2005

From a different context, but just to show that "everything was grand in my day, and the world is going to hell in a handcart now" is nothing new when it comes to standards. This was written in England in 1967, harking back to a golden age 20 years before.


It is unfortunate but true that during the last 20 years or so there has been a steady decline in general standards of behaviour and what can only be called " the attitude of the individual." History shows that this is one of the results of war and its aftermath, when all sorts of things are done for reasons of expediency or in the exigencies of the moment. Inevitably, this tends to engender an off -hand attitude to what is right, carried on into the day-to-day life of too many individuals.

In the end, it becomes the done thing to " work a quick one if you can get away with it." This leads to a deterioration of standards generally, as evidenced (to quote only one example) by the coarse vulgarity of much of what is shown on TV, and the witless ignorance of many people whose opinions are publicised merely because they happen to be notorious.

Hobosan

Conall Cernach wrote: »

Wooden actors? Bergman, Bogart and Rains had shelf loads of awards like Oscars, Tonys, Emmys as well as nominations between them.

Screen acting has vastly improved since those days. It's a young art form, nothing surprising about the fact acting in many old films was bit odd.

Even the Inbetweeners wouldn’t get made today.

No way.

Quantum Erasure

RocketRaccoon wrote: »

Can you give me an example of a good, non pc, comedy movie released in the last 5 years?

i love black comedy... Night School would be up there, Kevin Hart, comedic genius

El_Duderino 09

Batrachotox wrote: »

Even the Inbetweeners wouldn’t get made today.

No way.

Lol. That’s the attitude alright. People seem to believe it even though the inbetweeners is a perfect example of the contrary.

El_Duderino 09

What would count as a non PC comedy? Any examples?

BuboBubo

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

What would count as a non PC comedy? Any examples?

Benny Hill

Silentcorner

Let's face, music, film, two of the biggest pillars of modern day culture is not in a golden era that much is clear.

Comedy is no where near as entertaining as it used to be, there was a time when you could listen to an album repeatedly over a period of time, watch a movie dozens of times over a period of time, watch a comedy special dozens of time of a period of time and people could relate to it across the generations....what has been produced in the last 10 years that you could say any of the above about!

El_Duderino 09

BuboBubo wrote: »

Benny Hill

Never saw it. I’m familiar with the chase scenes with the benny hill music.

Was it good? Would it stand up today?