You Call That Funny?
The other day I finally finished watching Office Space for the first time (I know, I know). Watching any movie with my brothers always implies a fiery debate afterwards. The issue this time was about modern "comedy" and what is defined as "funny" with American audiences. We watched Mr. Deeds a few days earlier and the thing that bothered my older brother was that he thought some jokes were just too stupid to be funny (ie. "frost-bite foot gag"). I disagreed, it is stupid but not so much that someone would not get a good laugh out of it. Although the Sandler flick was much cleaner than the profanity laiden Office Space, he liked the latter better. Reason? Subject matter of course: a satire about software engineers and contentment with jobs. What more can you ask from a movie?
For me things can only be funny if you can relate to them. All the material around them is irrelevant. No one likes to be caught in some perpetual "inside joke". We ageed on that. We also agreed that Office Space in a lot of ways had a sense of realism which is required for good humor. Now the place where opinions part is another aspect of comedy: the shock or wacky punchline. In reality, anything goes. Should it? I cannot stand things like South Park (sorry guys) or Tom Green movies, but love watching re-runs of wild Chris Farley (rip) or Will Farrel skits. The ironic thing is that what passed a few years ago as inane, outlandish or obscene is mild by today's standards. What can you do? If you want to get a good laugh, then don't expect too much. Hey, if it's funny then laugh. If not you can always watch the Simpsons.
1 Comments:
merrick miranda on June 19, 2003 ~ 10:22 PM
aint that what i be sayin fo like a million years, if ya laugh its good enough for me!