The Decline of Comedies

 The Naked Gun just came out.  And it was hilarious.  It captured the essence of the original trilogy while having fresh, original jokes.

There is one Naked Gun trailer where Liam Neeson talks about how every day a comedy script is getting rejected.  

It's true.  The comedy drama, which has evolved but gone strong since the days of silent films, is dying.  

In the 1941 film Sullivan's Travels, a famous director, best known for comedy, decides he wants to make a serious film about the plight of the homeless.  In a series of circumstances, he finds himself in jail, with nobody believing his true identity.  He attends a movie while in jail, a comedy, and sees how the poor suffering souls in prison all find joy in comedy.  And thus he decides he must keep making comedies.

We are gong through hard times.  We need comedy more than ever.  But unfortunately, I think the sensitivity of younger generations (the target audience for films) has made filmmakers afraid to make comedies.  

Comedies can be offensive.  They can poke fun at cultures and society and politics.  But in the good old days, we were able to laugh at ourselves when we were called out.  

I hate to say the word "woke".  I am a bleeding heart liberal, myself.  But people are afraid to offend, and so they are afraid to make jokes.

Don't get me wrong.  There are plenty of non-comedies that use humor.  The Marvel movies for instance, are not comedies, but certainly use comedy.  (Some might argue that the Guardians of the Galaxy, for instance, might be classified as comedy.)  

It's been a good decade since we had the usual onslaught of comedies that barrage our theaters every year.  Now we may get a few a year.  Comedies also tend to go direct to streaming, perhaps because of the lack of confidence the studios have for them, or a bi-product of the post-COVID era, in which movies in theaters as a whole are fading away as streaming becomes more and more popular.  But I digress.

We have a lot of comedic talent out there, going to waste.  We need distraction more than ever.  The world is serious enough.  Even TV comedy isn't what it used to be, with only a handful of sitcoms out there where there used to be whole blocks of evenings on every network dedicated to comedy, and they would have crossovers even.  Now we have lots of reality, game shows and Law and Order:  Chicago.  (Don't get me wrong, I love those too.  And I know I'm starting to sound like the Gen Xer crying about music videos on MTV.)

Go see Naked Gun.  Support comedies in theaters.  See other comedies.  I try to see as many as I can nowadays because there aren't that many to choose from.  Go have a laugh and escape from the real world for a little bit.