*sigh*
To go beyond just this movie, I think that in general there is a "comedic divide" among the 18-30 set that started in the 90's.
I remember in high school, after the majority of the early 90's SNL cast had already left (Sandler, Carvey, Spade, Rock etc) and the Ferrel/Shannon handover became a reality, there was a distinct split amongst people who thought that the show wasn't funny anymore and among those who thought it was hilarious in a whole new way. I remember the cheeleader sketches and the "superstar" (whatever the fuck her name was) sketches were all the rage among people at school who I considered tragically lacking in intelligence and self-awareness. It seemed like that kind of humor put a premium on attempting to be as deliberately loud and dumb/flaky as possible, which can be funny at times, but also grating. Most of it also seemed extremely lacking in wit IMO, and for me wit makes the funny.
Ben Stiller's brand of comedy was already in line with the late 90's/early 00's SNL style of humor, dating back to his Ben Stiller Show days. Stiller always prefered "silly" to "slick", but he made silly work.
Now that this set of comedic talent has been years graduated from strictly televsion work, the comedic divide is surfacing in film. Some people think Zoolander, The Royal Tenenbaums, Old School, and Meet the Parents are among the funniest films in history. Then there are others who struggle to laugh consistently throughout them. I'm generally in the second set, but I'm not totally dismissive and have tried to be open-minded about what I consider funny.
I laughed during Anchorman, but there were a lot of times where I caught myself almost trying to laugh in spite of myself. Although I went to an early showing with few people in the theater, there weren't too many moments where everyone in the place busted out in hysterics (most of them involved Brick's Saget-esque myopics). More often than not I was laughing at the mood of the whole thing..the 70's suits, feathered hair, flaky lingo etc.
Dodgeball was funny also, but mostly because Ben Stiller took his character straight over the top (his fucking hair lol) and because Vince Vaughn's comedic delivery is masterful. Vaughn is one of the few of this new comedic set who can be genuinely witty. I'd say that Anchorman had more flat jokes than Dodgeball, but that Dodgeball took far fewer chances than Anchorman.
But back to the larger discussion, when I hear people talk about how funny Old School/Meet the Parents etc are, I can't help but think of how Super Troopers trounces the dogshit out of those movies. In fact many of the same people who dislike ST for getting lame at the end (sure the story gets corny but the jokes are just as good) are of the same ilk who praise films like Anchorman etc that swing far more lowbrow.
Anyway I have no clue where I was taking this..I guess I was just wondering if anyone else had noticed this kind of dichotomy of opinion with regard to new comedic films..
