Starting in 2003, with the release of “Old School” then “Anchorman,” a comedy renaissance started with the boom of the Will Ferrell/Judd Apatow/Seth Rogen era (“The 40 Year Old Virgin,” “Superbad,” “Step Brothers” and “Walk Hard.”) Then, the immense success of 2009’s “The Hangover” and 2011’s “Bridesmaids,” which led us to where we are now, which, while despite a few great chucklers having been released, most of the recent comedy releases this past decade have been safe “star-based” movies (think Kevin Hart or Melissa McCarthy).
And so, what happened? The mainstream studio comedy has suffered quite a bit the last few years. Nobody has really cracked the code since the Apatow/Hangover era. It’s incredibly telling that “Game Night” is considered one of the bigger hit comedies recently and, yet, it could only scrape $69 million domestically.
Here’s a theory.
Comedians like to push and push and push until that very fine line of what is deemed acceptable and unacceptable is somewhat squeezed to its very limit. As George Carlin once said, “It’s a comedian’s duty to find the line and deliberately cross over it.” That, to me at least, is what some of the very best comedy can do. Regardless of the situation that we find ourselves in today when it comes to what can and cannot be said in the public sphere, we need to be grateful that classic comedies from Mel Brooks’ “Blazing Saddles” to, more recently, Ben Stiller's "Tropic Thunder“ (2008) were considered perfectly acceptable to exist in multiplexes. That last one was more than years ago.
I mention both movies because every once in a while I try to remind people that comedies like these would just not be able to get made, let alone greenlit, by today’s Hollywood standards. Not in a heavily politicized, social media-driven America. Please, do disagree with me on that. But just four months ago Shaun White dressed up as Stiller's mentally-handicap Tropic Thunder character Simple Jack for Halloween and caused total uproar, to the point where White had to issue an apology to the Special Olympics
It’s not just White, it’s also both Mel Brooks and Ben Stiller that also seems to agree with me on this.
Guesting on Howard Stern's SiriusXM radio show, the 52-year-old comedian told the radio host that "Tropic Thunder" "probably couldn't have been made today."
‘Thunder’ is indeed a landmine for triggered outrage waiting to happen, bless Paramount for having had the chutzpah to release it just 10 years ago, but it’s not just that movie, there are plenty of other comedy classics that would be sentenced to the guillotine in 2019.
There isn't a firm line on what's funny and what's in poor taste anymore, but everyone loves to point out when they they think that line has been crossed. "Tropic Thunder" and “Blazing Saddles” would have Twitter and culture publications up in a frenzy if released today. The universally positive reviews turned into abhorrently negative ones from scared and shrieking critics too afraid to be called racist if they admitted that, shock, they actually laughed at the jokes.
It’s not just censorship but also Hollywood’s Reluctance to make mid-budget originals. Seth Rogen was on a podcast a couple years ago saying how hard it is to get studio comedies made nowadays compared to the 2000s where studios were buying up comedies like crazy because they all tended to turn profits on DVD.
If anything, the 2010s have been characterised by alternative comedies becoming more mainstream? I’m thinking Taika Waititi, Wes Anderson, Armando Iannucci, Edgar Wright for example.
Tim Allen confirmed my beliefs that we are living in some kind of doomsday for comedy. Comedians have been too scared to "go there" and run the risk of offending with a simple joke. Allen was part of a panel discussion when he made these comments [Via EW]:
"It’s a very icy time. I’ve been a comedian for 38 years and I’ve never seen it, like Lenny Bruce said at the Purple Onion, ‘We’ve gone backwards.’ There are things you can’t say. There are things you shouldn’t say. Who makes up these rules? And as a stand-up comic, it’s a dangerous position to be in because I like pushing buttons. It’s unfortunate.”
If you look at the most successful comedies of the '80s, '90s, and '00s, you will notice how irreverent, risky and outrageous many of them were. 90% of them wouldn't be made today just by the sheer fear of offending. No, really, do you think stuff like "Tropic Thunder," "Anchorman," "Team America: World Police," and "Blazing Saddles" have a chance at passing the litmus test in the age of P.C.?