Why is that classic comedies seem better?

[immortalchaos]

I mean really, I was watching stripes tonight and i realized that older comedies are better than most anything that has come out in the past 10 years if not longer. We got Stripes, Real Genius, Goonies, Ghostbusters 1 and 2, Caddyshack, Gremlins ( yes I consider it a comedy) etc...

What do we have after that that is really great comedy? Yeah there has been some good ones but not great. We really need some of the old comedy writers to do movies again.

Am I the only one that really feels this way?

[krazeyeyez]

Nah, i just think comedy evolved same as all other genre's, although there was a lot of great talent during the time your talking about. I laugh just as hard watching run ronnie run, or grandma's boy as i do watching stripes though.

I also think much of what your seeing is actually do to the audience more then then the film makers, actors, writers etc..... The attention span is not what it used to be and i have seen some movies recently i consider to be great but here comments like "it was good but there were times i wasn't laughing". SO you see more sacrifice of heart, soul, and story line in order to fit a few extra one liners or something.

[Blu-Ron]

Originally Posted by immortalchaos

I mean really, I was watching stripes tonight and i realized that older comedies are better than most anything that has come out in the past 10 years if not longer. We got Stripes, Real Genius, Goonies, Ghostbusters 1 and 2, Caddyshack, Gremlins ( yes I consider it a comedy) etc...

What do we have after that that is really great comedy? Yeah there has been some good ones but not great. We really need some of the old comedy writers to do movies again.

Am I the only one that really feels this way?

If you go back even further...you'll noticed that Comedies are even better.

[iori]

I just saw Stripes on tv, and was thinking the same thing.

[immortalchaos]

Originally Posted by JHM

I just saw Stripes on tv, and was thinking the same thing.

Yeah I am watching it again on AMC as we speak.

[immortalchaos]

I saw Grandma's Boy and wasn't impressed. Yes it had it's funny moments but so much of comedy has turned to stupidity over funny. 40 Year Old Virgin had it's funny moments but mostly stupid humor. Knocked Up had a few laughs but again a lot of stupid. Almost all the Jay and Silent Bob movies do nothing for me. Mallrats was entertaining though. Even though Waiting was funny as hell I still wouldn't consider it great. It still had a lot of stupid humor. Love Guru is hilarious but not great and again it is mainly stupid humor, then again most Mike Myers movies are dumb as bricks.

Maybe I am just getting old at 28.

[Mr.White]

Pretty much all of Mel Brooks' films are awesome!

[immortalchaos]

Originally Posted by Mr.White

Pretty much all of Mel Brooks' films are awesome!

Almost forgot about his stuff. Robin Hood Men in Tights and Spaceballs.

Almost anything by Harold Ramis was great too well up until his later stuff that started turning into the rest of the modern stupid humor comedies.

Hot Fuzz was pretty good though as was Shaun of the Dead. They just aren't the same quality as the old stuff was though.

[Rob J in WNY]

It's funny how classic comedy does seem better (heh, no pun intended ). Maybe it's because so many modern comedies try to go 'over the top' on their humor, but I also think that, for those of us in our 30s and 40s (and older), it may have something to do with our first seeing all those great movies during more impressionable times of our lives.

[STARSCREAM]

I gotta agree, the older comedies are classics. I can watch them over and over and still love them. Most newer ones start getting old after a few viewings.

[Lord_Stewie]

Originally Posted by Mr.White

Pretty much all of Mel Brooks' films are awesome!

+1. Mel Brook works are the best.

[J. J. Hunsecker]

Originally Posted by Blu-Ron

If you go back even further...you'll noticed that Comedies are even better.

Amen.

I had the wrong idea when I read the title of this thread. I thought it would be about comedies older than just the past 25 years. In fact, I don't consider Caddyshack, Goonies, Ghostbuster, et al, to be "classics." Maybe it's because I'm older than most of the people here -- those movies were released when I was a teenager, so I don't think of them as old.

To me, classic comedy means the films of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, The Marx Brothers, and The Ealing Studios (the ones starring Alec Guiness). I would also include some of the screwball comedies of the 30's, as well as Mel Brooks's and Woody Allen's earlier, funnier comedies of the late 60's and early 70's. I also like the satiric humor of films like Little Murders, Cold Turkey, Dr. Strangelove, and the original Bedazzled.

[immortalchaos]

Originally Posted by J. J. Hunsecker

Amen.

I had the wrong idea when I read the title of this thread. I thought it would be about comedies older than just the past 25 years. In fact, I don't consider Caddyshack, Goonies, Ghostbuster, et al, to be "classics." Maybe it's because I'm older than most of the people here -- those movies were released when I was a teenager, so I don't think of them as old.

To me, classic comedy means the films of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, The Marx Brothers, and The Ealing Studios (the ones starring Alec Guiness). I would also include some of the screwball comedies of the 30's, as well as Mel Brooks's and Woody Allen's earlier, funnier comedies of the late 60's and early 70's. I also like the satiric humor of films like Little Murders, Cold Turkey, Dr. Strangelove, and the original Bedazzled.

By all means I agree with you. However I grew up as an 80's kid. So all those seemed to be the best at the time but some stuff from earlier stand out as well. I will say I do have a hard time getting into the more slapstick comedies of the 30s and 40s even with their originallity for being the first to do a lot of the stuff that is common now. Also I have never seen the appeal of Woody Allen's movies. I could never really get into them. Kinda boring to me. Some of the stuff from the 70's was great and some 60's. I mean Martin Short's early work and Bill Murray's early stuff was great. The Jerk, the previously mentioned Stripes and Caddyshack even the Original Vacation movie was hilarious and still are even by today's standards.

[adh56]

Top comedies for me:

-This Is Spinal Tap
-Dr Strangelove
-Some Like It Hot
-There's Something About Mary

And I have to admit Tropic Thunder has to be the most/hardest I've ever laughed in theaters

[steve_dave]

Older comedians and directors, like John Hughes and Mel Brooks, knew there was a line between timeless comedy and "here & now" comedy.

Sure, American Pie still has funny moments but after some time you become numb to the shock jokes.

For example:

Seeing a pie attached to the front of some poor kid in American Pie is only going to be funny so many times before its meh.

While...

The sheriff taking himself hostage in Blazing Saddles is still hilarious. Its not the shock, its the delivery of the lines. Going from deep-voiced hostage taker to high-pitched hostage.

That's why the new Insert Movie Genre Here movies are not going to be timeless. We can still watch Duck Soup and Three Stooges shorts and still laugh because it was all in the delivery and towing the line between double entrende & shock.

[assydingo]

1. You've seen them a million times. People appreciate things more with multiple viewings.

2. Maybe a little nostalgia.

3. They're simply more polished/thought-out/better (sometimes. not really the case with anchorman which is perfect imo.)

[Batman1980]

Honestly? I prefer the new comedies by Apatow and his ilk and the Smith films and the Farrelly brothers from time to time.

[Al_The_Strange]

I agree that the older comedies seem better in a way. It could be nostalgia, 'cause I don't think they make 'em like they used to. And it seems like they don't make as many, and many they do make are not as original. Parodies these days seem to be really bad too (like all those "[Insert Adjective or Noun] Movie" movies).

Come to think of it though, there are some bright spots. Judd Apatow's work is original and funny. I loved "Tropic Thunder." And I like some of the more obscure comedies (like "Hamlet 2" or "The Onion Movie").

But for the most part, it's just not the decade of big comedies. This is more like the decade of superheroes, big-budget blockbusters, mindless action, and the occasional prestige pieces.

[J. J. Hunsecker]

Originally Posted by immortalchaos

By all means I agree with you. However I grew up as an 80's kid. So all those seemed to be the best at the time but some stuff from earlier stand out as well. I will say I do have a hard time getting into the more slapstick comedies of the 30s and 40s even with their originallity for being the first to do a lot of the stuff that is common now. Also I have never seen the appeal of Woody Allen's movies. I could never really get into them. Kinda boring to me. Some of the stuff from the 70's was great and some 60's. I mean Martin Short's early work and Bill Murray's early stuff was great. The Jerk, the previously mentioned Stripes and Caddyshack even the Original Vacation movie was hilarious and still are even by today's standards.

The best slapstick comedy is from the 20's, by the likes of Keaton, Chaplin and Harold Lloyd. In the 30's and 40's the major studios wouldn't let their stars take the kind of major risks that Keaton and Lloyd took. Stunt doubles and wires were used to accomplish what the earlier comedians did on their own. Maybe that lessons the impact of the comedy when one can tell the stunt isn't real.

For the 30's, most of the comedy is in witty repartee, since playwrites were lured to Hollywood in that era to write scripts. I always loved the one liners by Groucho Marx, for instance. I think comedy suffered in the 40's because many talented writers left the business to return to writing books and plays. Cary Grant's movies really suffered because of that. (Although there were still some good comedies made, like those by Preston Sturges.)

It's the earlier, gag based comedy by Woody Allen that I love, not the later, more self-conscious films he started to make by the late 70's. I'm taking about Take the Money and Run, Bananas, Sleeper, and Love and Death. (Woody Allen has referred to those movies as being more like cartoons.) I care for only a few of his later movies, like Zelig and The Purple Rose of Cairo.

Vacation was indeed a funny movie. It had some of that anarchic, "anything goes" feeling left over from the early 70's. Have you ever seen a movie called Where's Poppa?, from 1970? It really ridicules some taboo subjects and skirts the edge of tastelessness without ever going over. No small feat for a movie about senility.

[J. J. Hunsecker]

Originally Posted by Wolverine1980

Honestly? I prefer the new comedies by Apatow and his ilk and the Smith films and the Farrelly brothers from time to time.

Originally Posted by Al_The_Strange

I agree that the older comedies seem better in a way. It could be nostalgia, 'cause I don't think they make 'em like they used to. And it seems like they don't make as many, and many they do make are not as original. Parodies these days seem to be really bad too (like all those "[Insert Adjective or Noun] Movie" movies).

Come to think of it though, there are some bright spots. Judd Apatow's work is original and funny. I loved "Tropic Thunder." And I like some of the more obscure comedies (like "Hamlet 2" or "The Onion Movie").

But for the most part, it's just not the decade of big comedies. This is more like the decade of superheroes, big-budget blockbusters, mindless action, and the occasional prestige pieces.

The only real problem I have with the Apatow type comedies is that they try too hard to be "heartwarming" by the end of the film. Characters either learn their lessons, or save the day, etc. If one is going to make broad comedies about characters that are basically buffoons, one can't expect the audience to love them because they finally make the right choice by the end of the picture. A buffoon is too stupid to be lovable. It would be better if the films had a funny or ironic ending, instead of a happy ending. A movie like Cold Turkey, whatever its flaws, is at least braver than the Apatow movies. Cold Turkey doesn't go for a pat happy ending, where the characters realize their potential, get their wishes fulfilled, and save the day. Instead, it's a bleak, ironic ending. I love Dr. Strangelove for the same reason. Just when you think the day is saved...well, you know.


Oh, and I really agree with Al_The_Strange's assessment of this decade.