The artists speak.

January 31, 2014 2:04 PM

"Goodfellas was amazing to us,” Friedberg said. “I remember one day we said it could be funny if there was a spoof movie where, ‘Funny how? Like I’m a clown? I’m here to amuse you?’ — and then you cut to the guy and he’s wearing full clown makeup."

Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, the masterminds behind Date Movie, Epic Movie, Disaster Movie, Meet the Spartans, The Starving Games, and Vampires Suck, "do not practice the same craft as P.T. Anderson, David Cronenberg, Michael Bay, Kevin Costner, the Zucker Brothers, the Wayans Brothers, Uwe Boll, any dad who takes shaky home movies on a camping trip, or a bear who turns on a video camera by accident while trying to eat it. They are not filmmakers. They are evildoers, charlatans, symbols of Western civilization's decline under the weight of too many pop culture references." They are also notoriously reclusive, and little has been publicly known about them, their background, and why-oh-god-why they continue to do whatever exactly it is that they do -- until now.
posted by eugenen (94 comments total)

and then you cut to the guy and he’s wearing full clown makeup."

All my life, I always wanted to be a prankster.
posted by Artw at 2:16 PM on January 31, 2014 [35 favorites]

all gun shots replaced with cream pies and squirting lapel flowers. Henry and Jimmy pulling body after body after body out of the trunk
posted by theodolite at 2:25 PM on January 31, 2014 [28 favorites]

That Grantland interview is a good read. I've never seen any of these movies; they just don't appeal to me, and I won't. But you gain a respect for these two writers. It's a story about persistence, for sure.

After Date Movie and its spiritual sequel, Epic Movie, the two set up a holiday comedy at New Regency, a twist on A Christmas Carol, that was touted as Rainn Wilson’s first big starring role after breaking out on The Office. Days before production was to begin, the studio pulled the plug over budget concerns. “So they don’t do it, and you’re disappointed for a beat, and then you go, ‘Well, OK, what about this?’”

If they're being truthful about not reading or caring about negative press, that's even better. It sounds like they have some range of writing experience, but Hollywood keeps buying spoof scripts and audiences keep buying tickets. So yeah, I'd keep writing 'em too. Like Seltzer says, they've got kids and this is a job.
posted by cribcage at 2:29 PM on January 31, 2014 [2 favorites]

They open the back of a heisted truck and it's all just shoes, clown shoes. Tommy gets mad.
posted by Artw at 2:29 PM on January 31, 2014 [3 favorites]

With ideas that good, they could direct skits at my grade seven summer camp!
posted by The Card Cheat at 2:29 PM on January 31, 2014 [5 favorites]

Yup, good on them. If Americans are willing to buy it, and they're willing to make it, then it's a win win.
posted by ReeMonster at 2:30 PM on January 31, 2014

Holy blap, I didn't realize that they were the guys behind Spy Hard, one of the only movies I've ever walked out of. I think I lasted twelve minutes.
posted by ten pounds of inedita at 2:31 PM on January 31, 2014

"No more shines." - reverse shot and it's the kid from The Shining. Elevator opens up and dumps blood and dganoid steers onto the floor.
posted by Artw at 2:31 PM on January 31, 2014

These guys infuriate me as the false successors of a fine tradition of zany comedy. Boo unto them!
posted by Atreides at 2:33 PM on January 31, 2014

Where is Mel Brooks when we need him?
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 2:34 PM on January 31, 2014 [4 favorites]

And yet I can't get Secrets and Silk optioned. What kind of world is this?
posted by Malory Archer at 2:36 PM on January 31, 2014 [7 favorites]

I know more than a few artists who have had to abandon their dreams of making a living off their talents. Meanwhile, these guys get rich. That's the free market, but it still sucks.

The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity
posted by The Card Cheat at 2:37 PM on January 31, 2014 [6 favorites]

Yup, good on them. If Americans are willing to buy it, and they're willing to make it, then it's a win win.

Artless, tasteless, humorless schlock will always be with us, but woe to the person who makes it. It would be better for him if he had not been born. (Matthew 26:24, slightly paraphrased)
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 2:39 PM on January 31, 2014 [17 favorites]

It's not that having a gangster dressed up like a clown is an unfunny idea, it's that their execution of that idea is unfunny.
posted by dogwalker at 2:39 PM on January 31, 2014 [2 favorites]

I'm gonna take advantage of metafilter's lack of downvoting system to point out that these guys are doing God's work and I hope they continue to produce these masterpieces well into the next century.
posted by mullingitover at 2:41 PM on January 31, 2014 [6 favorites]

This thread reeks of sense-of-humour privilege. Some people legitimately benefit from these movies, OK?
posted by Pruitt-Igoe at 2:43 PM on January 31, 2014 [23 favorites]

Goodfellas but it's stockbrokers and it's hilarious.
posted by Artw at 2:45 PM on January 31, 2014 [2 favorites]

It's not that having a gangster dressed up like a clown is an unfunny idea

I'm not going to say it's not Shakespeare, because have you seen his comedies?
posted by Artw at 2:46 PM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

From the article... People who write movies want to see those movies made.

Seems to me that if you could figure out how write consistently write scripts good enough to sell at Hollywood rates, but not necessarily good enough to get made, you're sitting in a pretty sweet spot job-wise.

I once brought this up with an aspiring screenwriter friend, and you would have thought I suggested killing puppies for fun and profit.
posted by billyfleetwood at 2:50 PM on January 31, 2014 [7 favorites]

Where is Mel Brooks when we need him?

Have you noticed that not a single Mel Brooks movie has like, a proper ending or decent forth act? I mean I love them but the guys worse at endings than Neal Stephenson.
posted by The Whelk at 2:51 PM on January 31, 2014 [10 favorites]

Wall Street but they're all Jewish and they're morons.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 2:51 PM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

I just realized that I described both The a Wolf of Wall Street and Wall Street 2.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 2:53 PM on January 31, 2014 [2 favorites]

I like these guys almost as much as I like the crew making movies at Asylum. They know their audience, they know their product, and they are successful at it. Good on them, I say.
posted by Think_Long at 2:54 PM on January 31, 2014

Can we really say that Kentucky Fried Movie was better?

...

/actually fairly comfortable saying that.
posted by Artw at 2:56 PM on January 31, 2014 [3 favorites]

I'm not going to say it's not Shakespeare, because have you seen his comedies?

Um, yes? I totally don't get what you're going for here.
posted by dogwalker at 2:56 PM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

I dunno Whelk, when you're doing broad satire I'm not so sure that rigid adherence to narrative structure is eaxctly all that important. See also Airplane, Naked Gun(s)...
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 2:56 PM on January 31, 2014

not a single Mel Brooks movie has like, a proper ending or decent forth act?

Counterargument: The French Mistake.
posted by dhartung at 2:56 PM on January 31, 2014 [7 favorites]

But they're still stories! Like Airplane has an ending, the plane lands. The hero wins. Blazing Saddles is the only one that ends satisfyingly just by upending the whole idea of having an ending in the first place.

"YOU BRUTE YOU BRUTE YOU BRUTE."
posted by The Whelk at 2:59 PM on January 31, 2014 [2 favorites]

( also having recently reached Airplane ( shutout YOU'RE wasting your life) it struck me how the "joke" of the balding middle aged businessmen actually being a couple isn't even a joke anymore. It's just going to be inexplicable in another ten years.)
posted by The Whelk at 3:00 PM on January 31, 2014 [2 favorites]

Have you noticed that not a single Mel Brooks movie has like, a proper ending or decent forth act?

Wha ? Spaceballs has a great ending.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 3:01 PM on January 31, 2014 [5 favorites]

Casino Royale (1967) is pretty much the benchmark for "fuck it" endings.
posted by Artw at 3:02 PM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

Robin Hood: Men in Tights has a pretty solid (ahem) ending too.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 3:13 PM on January 31, 2014

Artw: "They open the back of a heisted truck and it's all just shoes, clown shoes. Tommy gets mad."

$ANY_SITUATION. Tommy gets mad.

Goodfellas comedy gold!
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 3:13 PM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

So here's my pitch. Its a parody website of Metafilter. The Google listing mentions that it shares interesting links. When you click on the site, though, all the links are pictures of link sausages and the main character in Legend of Zelda. Sometimes sausages made out of the main character from Legend of Zelda.
posted by Joey Michaels at 3:15 PM on January 31, 2014 [7 favorites]

Sometimes sausages made out of the main character from Legend of Zelda. Tommy gets mad.
posted by Artw at 3:24 PM on January 31, 2014 [6 favorites]

Where is Mel Brooks when we need him?

Strip mining past hits to convert into Broadway musicals, same as Eric Idle.
posted by davros42 at 3:26 PM on January 31, 2014

I would see Spaceballs: The Musical.

Though a small part of me always hoped for Spaceballs 3: The Search for Spaceballs 2: The Search for More Money.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 3:30 PM on January 31, 2014 [15 favorites]

Just happened to read this AV Club "Watch This" article today:

Young Frankenstein hails from an age when Hollywood took spoofs seriously

Nowadays, the depressing go-to model for movie parodies—epitomized by the Scary Movie franchise—involves riffing on the most notable bits from a dozen or more loosely connected box-office hits. Once upon a time, though, there were comic filmmakers capable of crafting a sustained, inspired, affectionate spoof that functions as a movie, rather than a mere collection of half-assed skits.

posted by octothorpe at 3:32 PM on January 31, 2014 [11 favorites]

Their success doesn't eat up all the chances those deserving starving artists would have gotten, had Epic Movie not been made. Not my taste, but no one is forcing me to go see these movies and then to laugh.
posted by Ideefixe at 3:33 PM on January 31, 2014

after Maximum Risk, Friedberg and Seltzer sold an animated movie to Disney that “turned into Cars”

I'm thinking that this has to be figurative? Because they surely aren't claiming that they get to take credit for John Lasseter's baby (albeit one with many co-writers)?
posted by Going To Maine at 3:36 PM on January 31, 2014

I am happy for these movies existing. I was 12 once too. Stuff like this laid a foundation to my current sense of humor.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 3:38 PM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

How hard is it to write a spoof movie with an actual plot anyway? I mean the thing you're spoofing presumably has a plot, so you can just lift that easy peasy.
posted by ckape at 3:38 PM on January 31, 2014

Oh also Hot Shots! is I think the final high tide mark for decent spoof movies.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 3:38 PM on January 31, 2014 [3 favorites]

I don't know why they wouldn't work-for-hire a couple of joke writers... they don't cost much.
posted by Trochanter at 3:39 PM on January 31, 2014

Decent Spoof Movie.
posted by Joey Michaels at 3:40 PM on January 31, 2014

Of for God's sake. They make slightly stupider-than-usual movies, so the fans of just regular stupid movies are all upset?
posted by LarryC at 3:46 PM on January 31, 2014 [4 favorites]

BOO THESE MEN
posted by Pope Guilty at 3:47 PM on January 31, 2014 [3 favorites]

hal_c_on: "I used to think grantland was kinda shitty. Now I'm thinking of turning off all other news and just using grantland. If it's not there, I need not know it. Seriously."

I don't know, I scan it almost daily and there's usually at least one worthwhile article. But mainly I have certain authors there I like to read, and they get the occasional one-off contribution or series that's fantastic, like Mark Harris's Oscar articles leading up to the nominations. But otherwise a lot of their regular writers are pretty fucking awful. They also have this weird ongoing obsession with the Entourage movie.

The other problem I have with Grantland is that quite often the best, longest articles are buried beneath short one paragraph entries about Justin Bieber or, yeah, the Entourage movie. I think their recent site redesign might have helped with that though.
posted by mannequito at 3:48 PM on January 31, 2014

Of for God's sake. They make slightly stupider-than-usual movies, so the fans of just regular stupid movies are all upset?

The thing is, the best movies in this genre aren't stupid at all. Airplane! and The Naked Gun are masterpieces of direction, language and pure comedic construction. The Friedberg/Seltzer movies are that guy in your office who's still doing an Austin Powers impression.
posted by EmGeeJay at 3:53 PM on January 31, 2014 [16 favorites]

Hey now, the Austin Powers movie was pretty funny.

I wonder why they never made any sequels.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 3:54 PM on January 31, 2014 [9 favorites]

Seems to me that if you could figure out how write consistently write scripts good enough to sell at Hollywood rates, but not necessarily good enough to get made, you're sitting in a pretty sweet spot job-wise.

Most scripts don't sell - they're optioned for far less money than is any good, and then they're bought (for the good money) the first day of production. Assignments which go into production often garner the writer a hefty production bonus as well -- at the lower levels of pay, the bonus is often larger than the original fee. And a movie that is made and released garners the writer substantial payouts through residuals (as long as that writer belongs to the WGA). Like - buy a house money. A couple younger screenwriters I know have made far far more money from residuals on a single movie than from their dozen sales/assignments combined.

Studios reward writers whose work gets made.

The other way, LET ME TELL YOU, is not NOT a sweet spot job-wise. NOT. AT. ALL. (ahem)
posted by incessant at 3:55 PM on January 31, 2014 [6 favorites]

My favorite is A Fistful of Yen, the Enter the Dragon spoof from Kentucky Fried Movie. This was Zucker and Abrahams first written work before Airplane and Naked Gun. It's pretty silly.
posted by cazoo at 4:00 PM on January 31, 2014 [3 favorites]

"Not Another Teen Movie" is actually quite funny. These guys didn't make it, but it's really amusing. Their movies are actually more inferior knock-offs of that kind of movie.
posted by drjimmy11 at 4:01 PM on January 31, 2014 [3 favorites]

Hey now, the Austin Powers movie was pretty funny.

You know, I rewatched it recently, and it's not, it's really not. I remember practically crying with laughter in the theaters at Austin Powers 3 though. Then again, I was 16.

These movies are for high schoolers. We don't get upset when kids movies are simplistic and have no swearing. So I think we should calm down about the fact that these sorts of movies have fart jokes and pop culture references. That's what 13-year-olds find funny!
posted by chainsofreedom at 4:09 PM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

We don't get upset when kids movies are simplistic and have no swearing.

I actually get very upset at the " but it's a kids movie!" justification for bad movies.
posted by The Whelk at 4:10 PM on January 31, 2014 [7 favorites]

Spare the moral panic from rich white folks over the quality of the jokes in suburban multiplexes they'll never visit.

This kind of two-minutes-hate for lowbrow culture is really irksome. Stop reinforcing your own social status by shitting on others and what they enjoy.
posted by dontjumplarry at 4:12 PM on January 31, 2014 [3 favorites]

(Talking about the smartass Slate article, not the thoughtful Grantland piece.)
posted by dontjumplarry at 4:13 PM on January 31, 2014

Oh also Hot Shots! is I think the final high tide mark for decent spoof movies.

* shakes head sadly *

Black Dynamite.
posted by furiousthought at 4:23 PM on January 31, 2014 [15 favorites]

Metafilter: Tommy gets mad.
posted by enjoymoreradio at 4:26 PM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

I actually get very upset at the " but it's a kids movie!" justification for bad movies.

yup. carry the logic through and you're justifying feeding young'uns poison because hey, they don't know any better.

when I was that age, I'm sure I fell for some dubious crap but we also had the Monty Python movies all through my teendom and there was never a doubt -- they were the best if you wanted a good laugh
posted by philip-random at 4:52 PM on January 31, 2014

This comment is just to say, "Top Secret."

Here goes:

Top Secret.
posted by Iridic at 4:52 PM on January 31, 2014 [12 favorites]

“do not practice the same craft as ... Uwe Boll”; using Boll as a counterexample of cinematic craftsmanship and/or integrity is a pretty bold call. Buying a video game licence, hiring some streetwalkers to play the characters, hustling the unwatchable final product out the door and writing the inevitable loss off against your tax liabilities could be said to be better conceptual art than gluing together a 60-minute gag reel of celebrity references and bodily function gags, but the latter at least provides some value to an audience (albeit one who, arguably, are either idiots or have been convinced to pretend to be idiots in return for entertainment).
posted by acb at 4:56 PM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

Comedy Central endlessly replaying Robin Hood: Men in Tights got me good and sick of it, but I will never not laugh at "Hey Blinkin." "Did you say 'Abe Lincoln'?"
posted by jason_steakums at 4:57 PM on January 31, 2014 [3 favorites]

As long as people are talking about movies that don't have endings let me just leave this here:

Magnolia

*ducks*
posted by crashlanding at 4:57 PM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

Oh, you've not seen The Master?
posted by Artw at 5:11 PM on January 31, 2014

Magnolia

*ducks*

Frogs, actually.
posted by octothorpe at 5:26 PM on January 31, 2014 [17 favorites]

They're all faint echoes of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
posted by Sphinx at 5:51 PM on January 31, 2014

The Dune miniseries is the The Shining miniseries of Dunes.
posted by Artw at 7:00 PM on January 31, 2014 [3 favorites]

Oh, you've not seen The Master?

What? The Master had a great ending.

Also, I'm glad it was one of the last movies I saw in theater. 70mm is worth it.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 7:04 PM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

Eh, the Dune series at least wasn't painful to watch. The Shining series, not so much.
posted by octothorpe at 7:04 PM on January 31, 2014

Top Secret is the final high tide mark for awesome spoof movies.

It was all downhill for Val Kilmer after that one.
posted by Cookiebastard at 7:12 PM on January 31, 2014 [4 favorites]

Uwe Boll should not be on that list. It diminishes and insults the bear who accidentally turned on the video camera while trying to eat it.
posted by Behemoth at 7:55 PM on January 31, 2014 [5 favorites]

I don't remember watching "Top Secret" but will have to see it [again?]. FFFF might be a kindred spirit because as I was reading the thread I was thinking about how starkly different this stuff is compared to Airplane, The Naked Gun, Hot Shots, Men in Tights, etc. For some reason my mind also wants to rope "The Princess Bride" into the general category of "well done, heartful parodies of tropes and narratives, not just a bunch of on the nose references to specific movies." I think the heart is key, and the new stuff treats every character as a disposable asshole. I haven't seen them all but they seem pretty hostile and crappy in how they portray every human interaction.

It comes off as very uninspired, with a constant churn of "Blah Movies" which pretty phoned in, not-so-wry acting or cleverness. Now, I'm trying to be charitable about the "get off my lawn" and "kids today" stuff and bias for my golden age, so when we talk about these new spoofs being a hodge-podge of skits about a bunch of random movies, "Hot Shots" really did quite a bit of that though it was clearly centered around Rambo plus a few scenes like the 9 and 1/2 weeks food-foreplay part, and again, I liked Charlie Sheen and wanted him to totally win over Valeria Golino. Maybe I'll have to watch that again too.

I was a huge fan of "Wayne's World," no recollection of its sequel. Not a spoof in and of itself IMHO, but had lots of those sorts of spoofy-gags and references, that could've taken in into rapid-fire-LOL-at-this crap but with heartful likeable characters and a plot that kind of had me worried for a minute. I was 10, but still it had some dramatic tension that I don't always like in comedies but the best non-spoof comedies inevitably are going to have a healthy dose of real conflict, and if the movie sucks it's not worth the headache of trying to give a shit about disposable characters with problems.

"The Naked Gun" is where I started watching spoof-style movies and I definitely am dubious about allowing the new stuff to claim it's a continuation of that legacy.

There's definitely a stark mean-spiritedness to movies like "Date Movie," which I managed to catch 10 minutes of while flipping channels, the opening "Shallow Hal" spoof sequence. WTF, that sucks.
posted by lordaych at 10:26 PM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

To really concern troll it up, I think the new movies almost encourage a bullying dismissiveness that is basically hateful and toxic to call "comedy." I think the kids today are more and more obsessed with schadenfreude, as we all are entertained by it, but it's became a whole new "reality TV" genre and you can see it free all over YouTube. The crappy movies are packing it in to keep up with the arms race. Fine, but try to have one person I like in the movie.

"How High" was not a spoof but definitely a crappy movie along similar lines and I remember those scenes where we're supposed to be proud of the main characters being complete dicks to people. It's like hey, I kind of liked that guy for a minute, now he's an asshole.

"Half Baked" on the other hand, again not a pure spoof movie, and Chapelle hated how it turned out, but I liked the freakin' characters and could laugh when Thurgood pulled change out of the homeless guy's cup even though that's a mean thing to do, because the movie did a decent enough job of making his character likable and it faded in and out of absurdity without keeping it constantly cranked up to "WTF is going on." It'd be even better if later in the movie he dropped an ounce of chronic into the cup to make up for it but what can you do.
posted by lordaych at 10:34 PM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

Can we really say that Kentucky Fried Movie was better?

That's Armageddon!
posted by JHarris at 10:48 PM on January 31, 2014 [2 favorites]

Of course. It finally makes sense now, how these films can even exist. Their creators aren't visual designers, writers, directors, comedians, actors, or any other stripe of artist, they're entrepreneurs. Their filmmaking method essentially amounts to an algorithm: Reference pop culture. Non-sequitur gag. B-list celebrity cameo. Show to audience of teenagers. Pull anything that doesn't get laughs. Make on a shoestring budget. Collect profits. Repeat repeat repeat.

I don't know what's more depressing, how oblivious these guys are to why this so offends people who personally cherish the craft of filmmaking, or the fact that they've had a large enough audience to consistently make money on these films for over a decade.
posted by Ndwright at 10:49 PM on January 31, 2014 [1 favorite]

Reference pop culture. Non-sequitur gag. B-list celebrity cameo. Show to audience of teenagers. Pull anything that doesn't get laughs. Make on a shoestring budget. Collect profits. Repeat repeat repeat.

Wait, how did the conversation get switched over to talking about Seth MacFarlane?
posted by JHarris at 10:53 PM on January 31, 2014 [5 favorites]

For a brief moment in college, I had a sort of fascination with these films (call it "ironic", whatever) I watched a few of them before giving up. They all play out like Family Guy episodes, with a 'main' character of sorts basically walking from one reference to the next, going so far as to call out the references as they make them ("Look, the Transformers Cube!" is an actual line). I don't really know how to criticize it without sounding snobby, so I won't, but these films are NOT the successors of the likes of Mel Brooks, and it's a shame they're considered as such.

The one bit of credit I will give "Meet The Spartans" is that it features Kevin Sorbo, TV's "Hercules" as "Leonidas"'s Man-At-Arms. Maybe it's because he can actually *act* and knows to be in on the joke (or whatever), his lines/scenes were genuinely hilarious amid all the graceless references and RAMPANT homophobia,
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 12:19 AM on February 1, 2014 [2 favorites]

The problem I have with these films is the implication that we, as a culture, are going backwards. The racism, homophobia and misogyny of early Brooks films or Zucker and Abrams or (less so) Python could generously be attributed too being "of its time".

What excuse do these films have?
posted by fullerine at 2:43 AM on February 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

The damning message is that we as a culture get the movies we reward.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 5:56 AM on February 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

Can we really say that Kentucky Fried Movie was better?

Well, sure we can, because Kentucky Fried Movie comes equipped with Big Jim Slade. Big Jim, former tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs, is outfitted with various whips, chains, and an appetite for spoof that will knock your socks off! Big Jim has satirized films throughout the world, and the capital of Nebraska is Lincoln!

These other movies: sadly bereft of Big Jim Slade. Hell, most of them don't even have Terry Crews.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 5:57 AM on February 1, 2014 [2 favorites]

Kentucky Fried Movie is the Ferdinand Magellan of spoof comedies, sailing an original route from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Friedberg/Seltzer just suck. I was looking for a good Magellan metaphor for them too, but they just suck.
posted by Cookiebastard at 10:00 AM on February 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

1. Young Frankenstein
2. Blazing Saddles
3. not a movie: it's Garth Marenghi's Darkplace, and if it had Gene Wilder too it would probably be #1
posted by jason_steakums at 11:07 AM on February 1, 2014 [2 favorites]

Huh, so I'm not meant to dislike or make fun of lazy, even occasionally cruel comedy because teenagers like it or it's a sign of snobbiness?

Bugger that. Some movies are better than others, not everything made from Hollywood is pap but we can also want films to be better, hard-working mediocrity (with a heaping of nepotism) gets you further than talent alone, and it's possible, just possible, to dislike the pair's movies and find them woefully unfunny and poorly made without being instantly transported into a snobs vs. slobs comedy.

Not everything that's popular is terrible, but some things that are terrible make shitloads of money. Or at least in this case are considered profitable enough to make more. The films don't have to suck so much, but they do, and they're not getting any better. Anyone who want to say otherwise, watch them all in a row and get back to us. Defend them for them, not just what you say they represent.
posted by gadge emeritus at 11:27 AM on February 1, 2014 [5 favorites]

So this is the thread where we unwittingly advertise when we were 13?
posted by one_bean at 11:28 AM on February 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

I remember being maybe 13 or 14 when I went up to my dad's for the weekend and was sat in front of Animal House, Airplane, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Blazing Saddles, and History of the World, Part 1.

That was a pretty excellent weekend.
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:47 AM on February 1, 2014 [2 favorites]

I'm pretty sure I saw my first Monty Python anything the week of my thirteenth birthday. It was And Now For Something Completely Different showing in the local twin cinema. It changed my life. Because here was all of this stuff that had been bugging me about the world of adults (which is to say, the world) not just made fun of, but laid out and eviscerated.

I LOVED IT.

I was hardly a sophisticated kid but one thing was now very clear. I would NOT grow up to be these kind of people. I would not be a fool.

Can't say I've succeeded fully, but I'm still trying ...
posted by philip-random at 12:19 PM on February 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

Cookiebastard: It was all downhill for Val Kilmer after that one.

Come on, Batman Forever has to be one of the greatest Batman spoofs ever.
posted by AzraelBrown at 4:35 PM on February 1, 2014 [1 favorite]

It was all downhill for Val Kilmer after that one.

Counter argument: bad Luetenant: Port of Call New Orleans and Kiss Kiss Bang Bang. Oh, and Heat.

Also, he's doing done sort of Mark Twain Live thing now.
posted by Bunny Ultramod at 11:52 PM on February 1, 2014

Pope Guilty: "I remember being maybe 13 or 14 when I went up to my dad's for the weekend and was sat in front of Animal House, Airplane, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Blazing Saddles, and History of the World, Part 1

That was a pretty excellent weekend"

If severe stomach pain is your idea of excellent, at least.
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 4:05 AM on February 2, 2014

Now go home and get your fucking shinebox!

*HONK HONK*
posted by angryostrich at 6:02 AM on February 2, 2014 [1 favorite]

If severe stomach pain is your idea of excellent, at least.

No, I'm going to go with Pope Guilty's assessment.
posted by JHarris at 6:15 AM on February 2, 2014

If severe stomach pain is your idea of excellent, at least.

When it's from laughing uncontrollably, yes. See also the recent Breaking Madden post.
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:33 AM on February 2, 2014

I loved Home Alone growing up.

I'd probably hate it now.

Different audiences, different interests.
posted by effugas at 5:10 PM on February 2, 2014