Are comedies dead?

The last 2 quality comedies I've seen are Tropic Thunder and Deadpool. Both are years old. I would say good comedies are simply on life support. Oh and let's not forget that comedy smash, Ghostbusters 2016.

Thor Ragnarok was okay too, but it isn't very funny if you haven't seen all the other MCU movies and doesn't hold up on its own as a standalone.
 
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Jennings said:
The last 2 quality comedies I've seen are Tropic Thunder and Deadpool. Both are years old. I would say good comedies are simply on life support. Oh and let's not forget that comedy smash, Ghostbusters 2016.
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Please don't say Deadpool is funny.

The Death of Stalin is funny.
 
Scotty W said:
Please don't say Deadpool is funny.

The Death of Stalin is funny.
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Death of Stalin was pretty funny. Lots of entertaining performances and casting choices here.
The-Death-of-Stalin-Banner-Poster.jpg
 
Theatrical yes it's dead who wants to head to a theater to watch safe af non offensive comedy sequels but there's decent romcom efforts on Netflix and other streaming exclusives. So yes the genre is changing formats but it's not dead.
 
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I was just thinking about this. The 90s were great of course, but there was a nice renaissance in the mid 2000s. Stuff like Old School, Step Brothers, TropicThunder, and all the Seth Rogen/Judd Apatow movies. There were some last gasps around 2015 or so, but it's dire now.

I guess the few people holding the genre up just got too old to make those kinda movies any more. And yes, the world is way too uptight now.
 
Comedy doesn't thrive in an environment where people are easily offended. Things will change again one day, but for now it's something of a lost cause for movie studios to pour money into making them. Sad but true.
 
clerks-iii-kevin-smith.png


I want Clerks 3 to not suck soooooo badly

Please Kevin Smith, pull this one through.

I can't even remember the last time I was this excited for a new movie.
 
Seems that in all media, everyone wants to be taken so seriously these days and be seen as "authentic", "artistic", or having righteous "social messaging". It's all so boring and uncreative.
 
teezzy said:
clerks-iii-kevin-smith.png


I want Clerks 3 to not suck soooooo badly

Please Kevin Smith, pull this one through.

I can't even remember the last time I was this excited for a new movie.
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Clerk wasn't really funny though, he just lucked out with jay and silent Bob and those are films for young teens anyway with itspsudeo intellectual and groan inducing stoner humour. Plus cheap to turn a profit on.
 
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I'd say it's dormant. There's new comedies coming out but nothing that's really noteworthy.

Keep in mind - we see comedic moments every few minutes in Marvel movies, that's kinda the bar for comedy at the moment.

Other things like Santa Inc try to pass as comedy, but the jokes are "hurr hurr antivaxxers am I right?" Really dopey stuff.

Give it a few years and things should change.
 
*Nightwing said:
Comedy isn't dead, society lost its sense of humor… big difference
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I think as people are getting ilder and lives are getting more and more miserable/boring/repetitive, they are really not in a mood for laughing, especially when all the comedies, stand-ups etc. are so fucking fake and forced, it only pisses people off even more than anything. But then there are all the animated movies which are supposedly for kids but the dialogues are actually for adults, and thise are indeed fun as hell, so I don't know maybe all those current comedies reall aren't fun and the actors/comedians are tryharding way too much.
 
Huge American corporations are in charge of the big cinema comedy movies. Those are probably infected by woke, humour is impossible for them. You better look in other places these days.
 
It isn't dead. We see it in Always Sunny and Curb. There's just not a lot of people who are good at writing it in movie form.
 
The new season of curb isn't great either. It's worse than the last season and it's nothing in comparison to season 1-7.
 
DKehoe said:
Not a film but for anyone who hasn't seen it I'd highly recommend I Think You Should Leave. Incredible sketch show.
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Yeah, this show is great. Some of the sketches are misses, but at least they're original and creative.

This sketch had my crying. Hardest I've laughed in a while.




teezzy said:
clerks-iii-kevin-smith.png


I want Clerks 3 to not suck soooooo badly

Please Kevin Smith, pull this one through.

I can't even remember the last time I was this excited for a new movie.
Click to expand...
Clerks 2 was better than I expected, but I don't know. I have a bad feeling about this one. I started to watch the Jay and Silent Bob reboot and it just seemed like a 3rd rate Kevin Smith comedy. I think he's too old and out of touch. He's been in with the Hollywood crowd for too long.
 
Used to like Bill Burr but eventually got tired of him, rants and observations just got tedious after a while. Realised I wasn't laughing when I used to. He Was great in mando and BB though. Think ill stick to his not comedy TV work
 
Palm springs came out last year and was pretty funny. But yeah, it's been slim pickings in the last few years.
 
Ionian said:
Clerk wasn't really funny though, he just lucked out with jay and silent Bob and those are films for young teens anyway with itspsudeo intellectual and groan inducing stoner humour. Plus cheap to turn a profit on.
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Stoner Humor is really the lowest form of comedy. I would rather take a 3 hour film of fart jokes over Stoner trash.
 
EverythingsOverrated said:
Clerks 2 was better than I expected, but I don't know. I have a bad feeling about this one. I started to watch the Jay and Silent Bob reboot and it just seemed like a 3rd rate Kevin Smith comedy. I think he's too old and out of touch. He's been in with the Hollywood crowd for too long.
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He's left it too long, I don't buy into the concept of a group of 40 something guys still working and hanging around a convenience store being cynical. At least Clerks 2 switched it up.
 
EverythingsOverrated said:
Yeah, this show is great. Some of the sketches are misses, but at least they're original and creative.

This sketch had my crying. Hardest I've laughed in a while.





Clerks 2 was better than I expected, but I don't know. I have a bad feeling about this one. I started to watch the Jay and Silent Bob reboot and it just seemed like a 3rd rate Kevin Smith comedy. I think he's too old and out of touch. He's been in with the Hollywood crowd for too long.
Click to expand...

The problem with Smith is that he is still trying to make the same jokes he did in the 90's. He isn't looking at his life NOW and making jokes. So he draws on his friends to show up for a cameo but it's the same old material.

You'd think a guy deep into the pot production business, making cheap ass CW TV shows, and driving his daughter to "showbiz" meetings full of touchy old men would be comic GOLD but nope, he is still pulling from those 90's experiences for his shows.
 
They don't make hardly any movies besides marvel anymore. Tv comedies are still good. What we do in the shadows, pen15, reservation dogs are all still going and, to me, very good.
 
teezzy said:
clerks-iii-kevin-smith.png


I want Clerks 3 to not suck soooooo badly

Please Kevin Smith, pull this one through.

I can't even remember the last time I was this excited for a new movie.
Click to expand...
It'll suck. Kevin Smith made a few great films, then I suppose he smoked himself retarded.... Don't get me wrong - I have nothing against smoking weed, but Kevin is clearly the kind of guy who gets stoned and thinks every idea he has is awesome.

Also, this lovely behind the scenes image:
aij1HVj.png
 
Scotty W said:
Please don't say Deadpool is funny.

The Death of Stalin is funny.
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Different kinds of comedy.

For 'North American' comedy, Deadpool is great. Obvious, blatantly rude and somewhat offensive childish jokes.

The Death of Stalin is more refined and subtle. More to my tastes.
 
EverythingsOverrated said:
Yeah, this show is great. Some of the sketches are misses, but at least they're original and creative.

This sketch had my crying. Hardest I've laughed in a while.





Clerks 2 was better than I expected, but I don't know. I have a bad feeling about this one. I started to watch the Jay and Silent Bob reboot and it just seemed like a 3rd rate Kevin Smith comedy. I think he's too old and out of touch. He's been in with the Hollywood crowd for too long.
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This is funny?!
 
Ryan Reynolds is the main problem. Hyper, random and sensitive with a superficial understanding of 'meta.' The meta in Deadpool is only surface level meta. There is so much potential in that kind of writing while still being accessible. "Adaptation" is a good example of this. Unfortunately, Charlie Kaufman has abandoned his commitment to laughter and all forms of enjoyment.
 


This was pretty funny, even though it is a democrat hit peice. I have nothing wrong with taking the piss out of the right, but its not like left are any better.
 
Coolwhhip said:
The new Curb season is great. How is the new Always Sunny season? I watched the first episode but it seemed terrible to me.
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One of Sunny's best seasons for the writing and acting. Can't remember the last season I laughed this much. If you can get past the crazy amount of green screen usage that is.
 
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This was the last great comedy I saw in theaters:
Popstar_Lonely_Island.jpg

Very underrated, if I remember right it completely bombed in the box office and I never see anyone talk about it.

Please do yourself a favor and check out out of you haven't already, especially if you're a music fan.
 
I think styles/expectations grew for comedy. We completely give up on a style once it runs it's course. They'll all come back in fashion again but it's trends.

Character actor films like Austin Powers, Love Guru or the Nutty Professor were seen as cliche.
Parody films like Scary Movie, Not Another Teen Movie, etc were getting stale.
Surrealist ran it's course with Napoleon Dynamite, Tim & Eric and other Adult Swim inspired shows.

Like him of hate him, Judd Apatow's style defined comedy in the early/mid 2000's and had his signature on everything he produced (knocked up, super bad, anchor man, etc). I think this is where we still are and we're waiting for the next trend to hit again.

Comedy doesn't really "hit" if we've been stuck in the same trend too long. Someone will re-popularize or start something new soon. My guess is it'll go to Jackass. Authentic reactions are always fun and that's probably why I watch more twitch/youtube atm.
 
My favourite movie ever still is Drop Dead Gorgeous. My dad nearly choked to death by laughter, I thought he was really dying. Definitely a movie that would never be made today. So much timeless one liners.

www.newyorker.com

“Drop Dead Gorgeous,” Which Is Finally Streaming, Is Possibly My Favorite Movie of All Time

There is a profound and unlikely sweetness to the performances in “Drop Dead Gorgeous” that transforms the material of the script into something resembling the performance of femininity itself.
www.newyorker.com www.newyorker.com
www.theguardian.com

Drop Dead Gorgeous at 20: how dark pageant comedy works better in 2019

The pitch-black small-town mockumentary was a flop on release and left critics cold but 20 years later its vicious indecency remains daring
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com


 
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