Airplane! at 40: Pretend you don’t know you’re in a comedy
July 7, 2020 2:24 PM Subscribe
National Lampoon’s Animal House [trailer] was a box-office hit in July of 1978, and the brains behind that film split up and made two competing films. "In the summer of 1980, [they] were only two big-studio comedies that anyone was buzzing about. Neither one of them was Airplane!" (Esquire)
About those two big-studio comedies:
The directorial debut for the trio was focused on one plot: the a spoof of the disaster film. Specifically, Zero Hour! [trailer], but if you know your airplane disaster films like the folks on AMC's Filmsite, you can find more movie references, but they leaned so heavily on Zero Hour! [14 minute comparison; previously] that they won the 1980 Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (Wikipedia) for Best Comedy Adapted from Other Another Medium.
Roger Ebert gave it 3 stars:
The Making of the Famous Jive Talk Scenes from Airplane! (Open Culture; the clip in question)
About those two big-studio comedies:
But rather than sticking together for an encore, the Animal House brain trust split into two camps, with Landis and Belushi heading off to Chicago make The Blues Brothers [trailer], while co-writers Harold Ramis and Doug Kenney went off to Florida make the anarchic country-club satire, Caddyshack [trailer].And then there's David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker, known together as ZAZ (Wikipedia). In 1971, while attending the University of Wisconsin in Madison, the trio had created a sketch comedy troupe called The Kentucky Fried Theater, and they were fans of absurd re-dubs of serious films. Together, they wrote The Kentucky Fried Movie [trailer], a collection of 25 skits and one short segment (Wikipedia), which was summarized in 2017 for Letterboxd as "a dumb, juvenile, crass, sexist, and racist film that specializes in low-brow humor" and "is occasionally hilarious."
The directorial debut for the trio was focused on one plot: the a spoof of the disaster film. Specifically, Zero Hour! [trailer], but if you know your airplane disaster films like the folks on AMC's Filmsite, you can find more movie references, but they leaned so heavily on Zero Hour! [14 minute comparison; previously] that they won the 1980 Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Screenplay (Wikipedia) for Best Comedy Adapted from Other Another Medium.
Roger Ebert gave it 3 stars:
“Airplane!” is a comedy in the great tradition of high school skits, the Sid Caesar TV show, Mad magazine, and the dog-eared screenplays people's nephews write in lieu of earning their college diplomas. It is sophomoric, obvious, predictable, corny, and quite often very funny. And the reason it's funny is frequently because it's sophomoric, predictable, corny, etc. Example:Besides those great quotes (Quotes.net), how does it hold up? How racist were the race jokes in Airplane! (1980)? (Reddit, with a decent write-up and half-decent collection of comments)
Airplane Captain (Peter Graves): Surely you can't be serious.
Doctor (Leslie Nielsen): I am serious. And don’t call me Shirley.
The Making of the Famous Jive Talk Scenes from Airplane! (Open Culture; the clip in question)
“The whole notion for jive dialogue originated from when we saw Shaft,” said Abraham. “We went and saw it and didn’t understand what they were saying. So we did our best as three nice Jewish boys from Milwaukee to write jive talk for the script.”A parting gift: Surely you can’t be serious: An oral history of Airplane! (A.V. Club)
During the audition, Norman Alexander Gibbs and Al White, old high school friends, delivered a spot on exchange in jive. They were immediately cast as First Jive Dude and Second Jive Dude respectively. “We had to apologize for what we had written,” said David Zucker.
“We came up with the individual dialogue in the movie,” said White. “They wanted jive as a language, which it is not. Jive is only a word here or a phrase there.”
“We actually created a language,” said Gibbs.
“I was sent the script and I thought it was the craziest script I’ve ever read,” recalled Billingsley in an interview. “My part wasn’t written. It just said I talked jive. I went to see the producer and I said I would do it. I met the two black fellows that taught me jive. They're the ones that wrote the jive talk.”
A few aspects are not great, but, yes, it holds up overall.
posted by Chrysostom at 2:37 PM on July 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Chrysostom at 2:37 PM on July 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
jb: The best part of Airplane II is William Shatner.
posted by SansPoint at 2:40 PM on July 7, 2020 [7 favorites]
posted by SansPoint at 2:40 PM on July 7, 2020 [7 favorites]
"I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue" is the official slogan of 2020.
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:41 PM on July 7, 2020 [78 favorites]
posted by grumpybear69 at 2:41 PM on July 7, 2020 [78 favorites]
I just wanted to tell you both good luck. We're all counting on you.
posted by dragstroke at 2:43 PM on July 7, 2020 [21 favorites]
posted by dragstroke at 2:43 PM on July 7, 2020 [21 favorites]
Yes, I remember... I had the lasagna.
posted by SansPoint at 2:45 PM on July 7, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by SansPoint at 2:45 PM on July 7, 2020 [5 favorites]
Yes, birds too.
posted by jquinby at 2:46 PM on July 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by jquinby at 2:46 PM on July 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
It's a good thing you don't know he hates your guts.
posted by Chrysostom at 2:54 PM on July 7, 2020 [9 favorites]
posted by Chrysostom at 2:54 PM on July 7, 2020 [9 favorites]
Seriously, though, the brilliance of Airplane is that everyone played it completely straight - all of these actors who weren't exactly known for comedy up to that point (Robert Stack, Leslie Nielsen, Peter Graves, etc) were suddenly in this completely screwball thing with all of this stuff going on the background and blink-you-miss-it jokes. I can't even tell you how many times I've watched it. Or how many times I watched it before I finally caught the joke that every time they show the jet from the outside in flight...the sound effect is of a large prop plane.
But I tell you this - I have never, not once, walked though an airport in the last 30+ years without reciting some part of this movie's dialogue to myself.
posted by jquinby at 2:55 PM on July 7, 2020 [29 favorites]
But I tell you this - I have never, not once, walked though an airport in the last 30+ years without reciting some part of this movie's dialogue to myself.
posted by jquinby at 2:55 PM on July 7, 2020 [29 favorites]
This 16 seconds of sublimity might be my favorite part of the movie.
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:00 PM on July 7, 2020 [12 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:00 PM on July 7, 2020 [12 favorites]
"How racist were the race jokes in Airplane! (1980)? (Reddit..."
Because if anyone knows racism, it's Reddit.
posted by krisjohn at 3:01 PM on July 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
Because if anyone knows racism, it's Reddit.
posted by krisjohn at 3:01 PM on July 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
I don't know why Caddyshack wasn't more of a box office success. Every damn time I turned around, some of my friends were going to see Caddyshack, and I didn't have anything better to do, so I went with them. I must have seen that movie half a dozen times.
posted by Naberius at 3:07 PM on July 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Naberius at 3:07 PM on July 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
Looks like Caddyshack grossed $40M on a $6M budget?
posted by Chrysostom at 3:09 PM on July 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Chrysostom at 3:09 PM on July 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
TIL that Amazon Women on the Moon was not by the same people who did Kentucky Fried Movie
posted by cheshyre at 3:09 PM on July 7, 2020 [6 favorites]
posted by cheshyre at 3:09 PM on July 7, 2020 [6 favorites]
In addition to his work on Animal House and The Blues Brothers, John Landis had directed Kentucky Fried Movie for ZAZ. Years later, he'd try that sketch format again, producing Amazon Women on the Moon (trailer) with a host of stars (Steve Guttenberg! Rosanna Arquette!) and directors (Joe Dante! Carl Gottlieb!).
posted by hanov3r at 3:11 PM on July 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by hanov3r at 3:11 PM on July 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
Johnny, how about some more coffee?
No thanks!
posted by GallonOfAlan at 3:12 PM on July 7, 2020 [7 favorites]
No thanks!
posted by GallonOfAlan at 3:12 PM on July 7, 2020 [7 favorites]
I’d have to say Animal House is far more overtly racist than either Airplane! or Caddyshack. Hell, just the scenes at the Dexter Lake Club are enough to indict.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:32 PM on July 7, 2020 [8 favorites]
posted by Thorzdad at 3:32 PM on July 7, 2020 [8 favorites]
One thing you young people need to remember if you're watching Airplane! is that while the sort of parody that throws 1000 jokes at the wall to see what sticks has been rode hard since then, at the time Airplane was an entirely different kind of movie altogether.
Though I have to say... as good as Airplane! is, there are parts of it that are just lacking and you can really tell that it doesn't come equipped with
Though I have to say... as good as Airplane! is, there are parts of it that are just lacking and you can really tell that it doesn't come equipped with
____ _____ _____ _ _____ __ __ _____ _ _____ ______ | _ \_ _/ ____| | |_ _| \/ | / ____| | /\ | __ \| ____| | |_) || || | __ | | | | | \ / | | (___ | | / \ | | | | |__ | _ < | || | |_ | _ | | | | | |\/| | \___ \| | / /\ \ | | | | __| | |_) || || |__| | | |__| |_| |_| | | | ____) | |____ / ____ \| |__| | |____ |____/_____\_____| \____/|_____|_| |_| |_____/|______/_/ \_\_____/|______|posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 3:50 PM on July 7, 2020 [22 favorites]
♪ Hevenu shalom aleichem, Hevenu shalom aleichem ♫
posted by delfin at 3:52 PM on July 7, 2020 [8 favorites]
posted by delfin at 3:52 PM on July 7, 2020 [8 favorites]
The Dexter Lake Club scene in Animal House certainly has racist overtones. But I always saw it as: in 1963 (wherever the fictional Faber College was) race relations were not particularly great. A bunch of privileged white college boys show up at this Black club and settle in like they own the place. They even call out to Otis Day like they were best friends! (when they had simply hired him and his band for a party... Otis doesn't even recognize them). Then some of the Black men sidle up to the privileged white boys and ask to dance with their dates... certainly with a menacing tone. And the white privileged college boys take off because they are suddenly terrified.
It ain't a particularly woke scene by any stretch of the imagination. But in 1963 context and considering the characters and their behavior, it sorta makes sense. The real racist part of Animal House is in the very beginning when they shuffle the foreign students out of the way at the pledge party.
posted by SoberHighland at 3:55 PM on July 7, 2020 [6 favorites]
It ain't a particularly woke scene by any stretch of the imagination. But in 1963 context and considering the characters and their behavior, it sorta makes sense. The real racist part of Animal House is in the very beginning when they shuffle the foreign students out of the way at the pledge party.
posted by SoberHighland at 3:55 PM on July 7, 2020 [6 favorites]
All Johnny, all the time: It happened to Barbara Stanwyck!
posted by the sobsister at 4:02 PM on July 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by the sobsister at 4:02 PM on July 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
I regret to inform you all that muttering, "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines" is not a reference a classroom of current high school students will recognize.
That's not to say you shouldn't say it, but it's definitely a different reaction than I expected.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 4:02 PM on July 7, 2020 [38 favorites]
That's not to say you shouldn't say it, but it's definitely a different reaction than I expected.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 4:02 PM on July 7, 2020 [38 favorites]
at the time Airplane was an entirely different kind of movie altogether.
at the time Airplane was an entirely different kind of movie
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:14 PM on July 7, 2020 [64 favorites]
at the time Airplane was an entirely different kind of movie
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:14 PM on July 7, 2020 [64 favorites]
1) One of my favorite characters in an RPG that I didn't make myself was an NPC that I nicknamed Big Jim Slade because he'd literally come crashing through the wall on occasion, at random.
2) I wonder how many nervous young men put on a hat and sunglasses and went to video stores and casually asked them if they had any gladiator movies.
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:22 PM on July 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
2) I wonder how many nervous young men put on a hat and sunglasses and went to video stores and casually asked them if they had any gladiator movies.
posted by Halloween Jack at 4:22 PM on July 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
According to the article, "Airplane!" might have starred David Letterman and Sigourney Weaver?!?
posted by SoberHighland at 4:25 PM on July 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by SoberHighland at 4:25 PM on July 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
I think the pedophile jokes will likely raise more eyebrows than the jive scene.
posted by Windopaene at 4:40 PM on July 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Windopaene at 4:40 PM on July 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
According to the article, "Airplane!" might have starred David Letterman and Sigourney Weaver?!?
Oof. I'm a big fan of Letterman's comedy and TV work, but there's no way he should have been allowed to "act" in anything ever, period.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:49 PM on July 7, 2020 [5 favorites]
Oof. I'm a big fan of Letterman's comedy and TV work, but there's no way he should have been allowed to "act" in anything ever, period.
posted by Greg_Ace at 4:49 PM on July 7, 2020 [5 favorites]
"Hey, would you like to buy a monkey?"
posted by Chrysostom at 5:07 PM on July 7, 2020 [12 favorites]
posted by Chrysostom at 5:07 PM on July 7, 2020 [12 favorites]
"Johnny, what do you make of this?"
posted by Windopaene at 5:13 PM on July 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Windopaene at 5:13 PM on July 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
Windowpaene: I could make a hat, or a brooch, or a pterodactyl!
posted by SansPoint at 5:54 PM on July 7, 2020 [15 favorites]
posted by SansPoint at 5:54 PM on July 7, 2020 [15 favorites]
Speaking of The Kentucky Fried Movie, "And the capitol of Nebraska is Lincoln!" has become a permanent non-sequitur phrase in my head ever since I first saw that movie.
posted by SansPoint at 6:00 PM on July 7, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by SansPoint at 6:00 PM on July 7, 2020 [5 favorites]
A masterclass in writing the absurd.
Roger Murdock : Flight 2-0-9'er, you are cleared for take-off.
Captain Oveur : Roger!
Roger Murdock : Huh?
Tower voice : L.A. departure frequency, 123 point 9'er.
Captain Oveur : Roger!
Roger Murdock : Huh?
Victor Basta : Request vector, over.
Captain Oveur : What?
Tower voice : Flight 2-0-9'er cleared for vector 324.
Roger Murdock : We have clearance, Clarence.
Captain Oveur : Roger, Roger.
What's our vector, Victor?
Tower voice : Tower's radio clearance, over!
Captain Oveur : That's Clarence Oveur. Over.
Tower voice : Over.
Captain Oveur : Roger.
Roger Murdock : Huh?
Tower voice : Roger, over!
Roger Murdock : What?
Captain Oveur : Huh?
Victor Basta : Who?
posted by Ahmad Khani at 6:02 PM on July 7, 2020 [22 favorites]
Roger Murdock : Flight 2-0-9'er, you are cleared for take-off.
Captain Oveur : Roger!
Roger Murdock : Huh?
Tower voice : L.A. departure frequency, 123 point 9'er.
Captain Oveur : Roger!
Roger Murdock : Huh?
Victor Basta : Request vector, over.
Captain Oveur : What?
Tower voice : Flight 2-0-9'er cleared for vector 324.
Roger Murdock : We have clearance, Clarence.
Captain Oveur : Roger, Roger.
What's our vector, Victor?
Tower voice : Tower's radio clearance, over!
Captain Oveur : That's Clarence Oveur. Over.
Tower voice : Over.
Captain Oveur : Roger.
Roger Murdock : Huh?
Tower voice : Roger, over!
Roger Murdock : What?
Captain Oveur : Huh?
Victor Basta : Who?
posted by Ahmad Khani at 6:02 PM on July 7, 2020 [22 favorites]
WZAZ in Chicago, where disco lives foreve---
posted by sundrop at 6:12 PM on July 7, 2020 [8 favorites]
posted by sundrop at 6:12 PM on July 7, 2020 [8 favorites]
I just wanted to tell you both good luck. We're all counting on you.
posted by frodisaur at 6:58 PM on July 7, 2020 [7 favorites]
posted by frodisaur at 6:58 PM on July 7, 2020 [7 favorites]
Stewardess! I think the man sitting next to me is a doctor…
I don't know why Caddyshack wasn't more of a box office success.
It's also remarkable how many lines from Caddyshack have been incorporated into popular discourse.
posted by Ahmad Khani at 7:05 PM on July 7, 2020
I don't know why Caddyshack wasn't more of a box office success.
It's also remarkable how many lines from Caddyshack have been incorporated into popular discourse.
posted by Ahmad Khani at 7:05 PM on July 7, 2020
Johnny was my hero! so absurdist, so campy! I loved him.
posted by jb at 7:18 PM on July 7, 2020 [9 favorites]
posted by jb at 7:18 PM on July 7, 2020 [9 favorites]
According to the article, "Airplane!" might have starred David Letterman and Sigourney Weaver?!?
Be that as it may, but watch closely for the Jonathan Banks cameo.
posted by jquinby at 7:37 PM on July 7, 2020 [6 favorites]
Be that as it may, but watch closely for the Jonathan Banks cameo.
posted by jquinby at 7:37 PM on July 7, 2020 [6 favorites]
According to the article, "Airplane!" might have starred David Letterman and Sigourney Weaver?!?
No Airplane! always had the cast it was meant to have. It just needed a while for Reality to sort itself into the Right Way out of the coke-fueled mayhem of Hollywood in 1979.
posted by hippybear at 7:46 PM on July 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
No Airplane! always had the cast it was meant to have. It just needed a while for Reality to sort itself into the Right Way out of the coke-fueled mayhem of Hollywood in 1979.
posted by hippybear at 7:46 PM on July 7, 2020 [3 favorites]
So much of the movie's dialogue is still on the tip of my tongue, decades later, because so many of those "thousand jokes thrown at the wall" actually work.
posted by wenestvedt at 7:50 PM on July 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by wenestvedt at 7:50 PM on July 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
Seriously, read the AV Club article. It explains the David Letterman thing in detail. Plus, the stories that begin with "He was a virtuoso fart musician." are the funniest thing I've read in ages.
"Oh, God, there are so many Leslie Nielsen fart machine stories."
posted by MrVisible at 7:51 PM on July 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
"Oh, God, there are so many Leslie Nielsen fart machine stories."
posted by MrVisible at 7:51 PM on July 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
It's also remarkable how many lines from Caddyshack have been incorporated into popular discourse.
So it’s got that going for it.
posted by Naberius at 8:11 PM on July 7, 2020 [17 favorites]
So it’s got that going for it.
posted by Naberius at 8:11 PM on July 7, 2020 [17 favorites]
The only thing better than Airplane! is Airplane II
Whence cometh one of my favorite Airplane bits:
"Tell me everything that's happened up till now."
"Well, first the earth cooled. And then the dinosaurs came..."
posted by NorthernLite at 8:39 PM on July 7, 2020 [9 favorites]
Whence cometh one of my favorite Airplane bits:
"Tell me everything that's happened up till now."
"Well, first the earth cooled. And then the dinosaurs came..."
posted by NorthernLite at 8:39 PM on July 7, 2020 [9 favorites]
Airplane! II is sort of a split for me, the first half is trying too hard to ape Airplane! and just not as funny, but once they come in contact with Lunar Base and Will Shatner it really comes into its own.
posted by jmauro at 8:45 PM on July 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by jmauro at 8:45 PM on July 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
The article mentioned ZAZ going on Letterman's show and running the clip, and as luck would have it their appearance is on YouTube (clip starts at about 6:30). Giving Robert Hays the role was definitely the right choice.
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:57 PM on July 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:57 PM on July 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
"Yes, birds too." is such a great, overlooked masterpiece of a line.
It's just a brief, throwaway gag, but imagining the person on the other end of the conversation earnestly asking the question that prompts that response is the kind of work that audiences don't realize they love doing, until the script forces them to do it.
posted by theory at 9:10 PM on July 7, 2020 [4 favorites]
It's just a brief, throwaway gag, but imagining the person on the other end of the conversation earnestly asking the question that prompts that response is the kind of work that audiences don't realize they love doing, until the script forces them to do it.
posted by theory at 9:10 PM on July 7, 2020 [4 favorites]
krisjohn: Because if anyone knows racism, it's Reddit.
I was skeptical when I came across the link, but the initial summary of how the movie addresses race is an interesting read, and there's a comment about Johnny:
Windopaene: I think the pedophile jokes will likely raise more eyebrows than the jive scene.
Yeah, that ... definitely uncomfortable seeing the humor in that.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:18 PM on July 7, 2020 [9 favorites]
I was skeptical when I came across the link, but the initial summary of how the movie addresses race is an interesting read, and there's a comment about Johnny:
Speaking as a gay man, I will say that Johnny is/was pretty awesome, honestly. Yes, he's flamboyant. But it was one of the first/few times an obviously gay person was seen in a mainstream American movie and he was never the butt of the joke. He wasn't the subject of derision by the other characters. He's never "punished" for his flamboyance/sexuality, the movie seems to celebrate it. He mostly functions as a zany "Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck" character.Before reading this, I was ready to cringe about Johnny, but this put things in a different light for me.
Windopaene: I think the pedophile jokes will likely raise more eyebrows than the jive scene.
Yeah, that ... definitely uncomfortable seeing the humor in that.
posted by filthy light thief at 9:18 PM on July 7, 2020 [9 favorites]
So as usual when posts about this movie come up, I inevitably end up watching the whole thing again. And as usual, I noticed something I don't recall noticing before: in a scene near the beginning of the movie, when a misdirected plane smashes into the terminal (which I think is a reference to one of the Airport disaster movies?), one of the women just flings her baby into the air while running away from the crash.
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:29 PM on July 7, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:29 PM on July 7, 2020 [5 favorites]
For those who enjoy listening to comedy writers dissecting how jokes work and geeking out over their favorite comedies, allow me to recommend the Rule of Three podcast, hosted by Joel Morris and Jason Hazeley. The episode with Charlie Brooker as the guest is all about Airplane!.
posted by theory at 9:31 PM on July 7, 2020 [6 favorites]
posted by theory at 9:31 PM on July 7, 2020 [6 favorites]
All Johnny, all the time: It happened to Barbara Stanwyck!
I never noticed the ice cream cone until today.
posted by darksasami at 9:54 PM on July 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
I never noticed the ice cream cone until today.
posted by darksasami at 9:54 PM on July 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
I quote this movie at least once a week, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t closer to once every other day. And that’s without counting all the times I think “and don’t call me Shirley!” But don’t say it because even I know that one has become tired.
We also know precisely when the naked woman runs through the frame, so we can strategically walk in front of the television carrying a giant pillow or Amazon box when we show it to the younger folk.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Police Squad! yet. The movies were eh. But the TV show was glorious.
Drebin: Who are you, and how did you get in here?
Locksmith: I’m a locksmith. And I’m a locksmith.
Just perfect.
at the time Airplane was an entirely different kind of movie altogether.
at the time Airplane was an entirely different kind of movie
I do this all the damn time, but no one ever joins me. I was starting to think I was the only one!
posted by Mchelly at 5:01 AM on July 8, 2020 [7 favorites]
We also know precisely when the naked woman runs through the frame, so we can strategically walk in front of the television carrying a giant pillow or Amazon box when we show it to the younger folk.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Police Squad! yet. The movies were eh. But the TV show was glorious.
Drebin: Who are you, and how did you get in here?
Locksmith: I’m a locksmith. And I’m a locksmith.
Just perfect.
at the time Airplane was an entirely different kind of movie altogether.
at the time Airplane was an entirely different kind of movie
I do this all the damn time, but no one ever joins me. I was starting to think I was the only one!
posted by Mchelly at 5:01 AM on July 8, 2020 [7 favorites]
Let's not also forget the subtle gag of how all the external shots of the plane in the air show a jet with propeller plane noises.
posted by SansPoint at 5:11 AM on July 8, 2020 [6 favorites]
posted by SansPoint at 5:11 AM on July 8, 2020 [6 favorites]
one of the women just flings her baby into the air while running away from the crash
Not so funny when you learn that baby was Donald Trump. And now you know *wheeeeeeeze* the rest of the story.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 7:13 AM on July 8, 2020 [3 favorites]
Not so funny when you learn that baby was Donald Trump. And now you know *wheeeeeeeze* the rest of the story.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 7:13 AM on July 8, 2020 [3 favorites]
Kentucky Fried Movie is extremely Not Okay, and I didn’t even like all of it when I was in its target audience. Yet I will still sometimes add “but it would be wrong.”
posted by Countess Elena at 7:29 AM on July 8, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Countess Elena at 7:29 AM on July 8, 2020 [3 favorites]
all the external shots of the plane in the air show a jet with propeller plane noises.
All the interior ones, too--the propeller noise is always in the background onboard the plane, and it's funny all the way through the movie for some reason. A favorite for me is:
"My orders came through. My squadron ships out tomorrow. We're bombing the storage depots at Daiquiri at 1800 hours. We're coming in from the north, below their radar."
"When will you be back?"
"I can't tell you that. It's classified."
posted by LooseFilter at 8:17 AM on July 8, 2020 [7 favorites]
All the interior ones, too--the propeller noise is always in the background onboard the plane, and it's funny all the way through the movie for some reason. A favorite for me is:
"My orders came through. My squadron ships out tomorrow. We're bombing the storage depots at Daiquiri at 1800 hours. We're coming in from the north, below their radar."
"When will you be back?"
"I can't tell you that. It's classified."
posted by LooseFilter at 8:17 AM on July 8, 2020 [7 favorites]
I continue to remain delighted at how well Airplane! has held up over the years, and how generations of kids who didn’t grow up familiar with all its references still enjoy it and find it funny.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:18 AM on July 8, 2020
posted by The Underpants Monster at 8:18 AM on July 8, 2020
Great tidbit from the AV Club article where the (Black) actors who did the jive scene recount reading a book on Black dialects to research and then come up with a believable but exaggerated language for the film (and to replace ZAZ’s embarrassing placeholder dialogue ).
posted by freecellwizard at 8:47 AM on July 8, 2020 [6 favorites]
posted by freecellwizard at 8:47 AM on July 8, 2020 [6 favorites]
propeller plane noises
This also tickles me extra much because it always makes me remember the first days of Beginning Band in junior high school, when the 5 or 6 new tuba students tried to play a note "in unison" and it ended up sounding remarkably like the prop-driven bombers in those old WWII movies on TV (in fact it wouldn't surprise me if this movie used the exact same sound effect).
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:04 AM on July 8, 2020 [3 favorites]
This also tickles me extra much because it always makes me remember the first days of Beginning Band in junior high school, when the 5 or 6 new tuba students tried to play a note "in unison" and it ended up sounding remarkably like the prop-driven bombers in those old WWII movies on TV (in fact it wouldn't surprise me if this movie used the exact same sound effect).
posted by Greg_Ace at 9:04 AM on July 8, 2020 [3 favorites]
...the first days of Beginning Band in junior high school, when the 5 or 6 new tuba students tried to play a note "in unison"
Reminds me of an old, mean orchestra joke. Q: What’s a ninth chord? A: The viola section playing in unison.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:09 AM on July 8, 2020 [2 favorites]
Reminds me of an old, mean orchestra joke. Q: What’s a ninth chord? A: The viola section playing in unison.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 9:09 AM on July 8, 2020 [2 favorites]
Yeah, it's chock full of casual racism and sexually inappropriate jokes. It seems better than other comedy with the same problems because the jokes are so fast and throwaway, many aren't problematic at all, and some actually subvert stereotypes and expectations.
As I watch it, I realize it requires that level of transgressiveness to avoid feeling like a childish exercise in slapstick that just isn't that funny to adults. I wonder what a really sharp comedian could do with the same material today while being conscious of actually subverting stereotypes. It doesn't seem like it would be hard to red-pen all the racist jokes (e.g., the Peace Corps mission to the African tribe), and rewrite them subversively.
One of the bits I picked up this time was that Kareem Abdul Jabar was taking time off from the Lakers pseudonumously to be a pilot for stress relief.
posted by fatbird at 9:25 AM on July 8, 2020 [4 favorites]
As I watch it, I realize it requires that level of transgressiveness to avoid feeling like a childish exercise in slapstick that just isn't that funny to adults. I wonder what a really sharp comedian could do with the same material today while being conscious of actually subverting stereotypes. It doesn't seem like it would be hard to red-pen all the racist jokes (e.g., the Peace Corps mission to the African tribe), and rewrite them subversively.
One of the bits I picked up this time was that Kareem Abdul Jabar was taking time off from the Lakers pseudonumously to be a pilot for stress relief.
posted by fatbird at 9:25 AM on July 8, 2020 [4 favorites]
[Just to be clear: I'm saying Airplane doesn't feel as NOT OK as Kentucky Fried Movie , but it actually is as NOT OKAY. Slapstick just makes for a slicker vehicle for excusing it.]
posted by fatbird at 9:34 AM on July 8, 2020
posted by fatbird at 9:34 AM on July 8, 2020
We also know precisely when the naked woman runs through the frame, so we can strategically walk in front of the television carrying a giant pillow or Amazon box when we show it to the younger folk.
We rented this movie on VHS so many times. My mom was somewhat sensitive about violent things, but never seem to care about her pre-pubescent to pubescent boys catching a glimpse.
I also had a math teach in high school who constantly quoted the movie as well as making lots of bad puns.
posted by CostcoCultist at 10:23 AM on July 8, 2020
We rented this movie on VHS so many times. My mom was somewhat sensitive about violent things, but never seem to care about her pre-pubescent to pubescent boys catching a glimpse.
I also had a math teach in high school who constantly quoted the movie as well as making lots of bad puns.
posted by CostcoCultist at 10:23 AM on July 8, 2020
"I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue" is the official slogan of 2020.
I definitely remember quoting that line shortly after stopping antidepressants in early 2017, too.
posted by epersonae at 2:46 PM on July 8, 2020
I definitely remember quoting that line shortly after stopping antidepressants in early 2017, too.
posted by epersonae at 2:46 PM on July 8, 2020
And as someone who takes prescription amphetamines for ADHD, the line "Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines." is another fun one.
posted by SansPoint at 4:11 PM on July 8, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by SansPoint at 4:11 PM on July 8, 2020 [2 favorites]
So many high points:
Ted's "drinking" problem.
Everything related to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Johnny
Ted trying over and over again to tell his story
"I want every light you have poured onto that field!"
"The white zone is for loading and unloading passengers"
I use "Good luck. We're all counting on you" almost weekly at work, and my coworkers don't laugh.
posted by hanov3r at 5:10 PM on July 8, 2020 [6 favorites]
Ted's "drinking" problem.
Everything related to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Johnny
Ted trying over and over again to tell his story
"I want every light you have poured onto that field!"
"The white zone is for loading and unloading passengers"
I use "Good luck. We're all counting on you" almost weekly at work, and my coworkers don't laugh.
posted by hanov3r at 5:10 PM on July 8, 2020 [6 favorites]
I hadn’t realized until reading this how many possible interpretations there are of what’s going on in the interaction between Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and the kid.
I always saw that scene as sort of a fourth-wall-break, screwing with the viewer’s willful suspension of disbelief that they’re not just watching that really famous dude from the Lakers, and then they just go on like none of that happened. It never occurred to me to view it as the in-universe KAJ deciding to moonlight as a pilot under an assumed name.
posted by gelfin at 10:46 PM on July 8, 2020
I always saw that scene as sort of a fourth-wall-break, screwing with the viewer’s willful suspension of disbelief that they’re not just watching that really famous dude from the Lakers, and then they just go on like none of that happened. It never occurred to me to view it as the in-universe KAJ deciding to moonlight as a pilot under an assumed name.
posted by gelfin at 10:46 PM on July 8, 2020
KAJ had already been in Game of Death with Bruce Lee in 1972 in a significant role, so he wasn't unknown on the screen; that's why I don't think it's fourth wall breaking.
posted by fatbird at 5:36 PM on July 9, 2020
posted by fatbird at 5:36 PM on July 9, 2020
It never occurred to me to view it as the in-universe KAJ deciding to moonlight as a pilot under an assumed name.
I always saw it like he was moonlighting as a pilot and not a 4th wall sort of thing. And it's possible to do since the King of the Netherlands apparently moonlighted as a airline pilot for 20 years.
posted by jmauro at 10:53 AM on July 10, 2020 [3 favorites]
I always saw it like he was moonlighting as a pilot and not a 4th wall sort of thing. And it's possible to do since the King of the Netherlands apparently moonlighted as a airline pilot for 20 years.
posted by jmauro at 10:53 AM on July 10, 2020 [3 favorites]
It's just a brief, throwaway gag, but imagining the person on the other end of the conversation earnestly asking the question that prompts that response is the kind of work that audiences don't realize they love doing, until the script forces them to do it.
It wasn't until after several viewings that I thought I caught the full gag of the "birds too" line...a nameless controller and Lloyd Bridges are both on the phone. The camera pans left-to-right with the ATC on the phone saying
"...He'll be a menace to himself and everything else in the air.......yes, birds too."
Immediately pans to Bridges who's also on the phone saying:
" Okay, okay. He's a terrible risk, but what other choice have we got?" then he hangs up.
They're talking to each other.
posted by jquinby at 7:34 PM on July 12, 2020 [2 favorites]
It wasn't until after several viewings that I thought I caught the full gag of the "birds too" line...a nameless controller and Lloyd Bridges are both on the phone. The camera pans left-to-right with the ATC on the phone saying
"...He'll be a menace to himself and everything else in the air.......yes, birds too."
Immediately pans to Bridges who's also on the phone saying:
" Okay, okay. He's a terrible risk, but what other choice have we got?" then he hangs up.
They're talking to each other.
posted by jquinby at 7:34 PM on July 12, 2020 [2 favorites]
I just want to tell you both good luck. We're all counting on you.
posted by Tehhund at 4:24 AM on August 6, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Tehhund at 4:24 AM on August 6, 2020 [3 favorites]
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The only thing better than Airplane! is Airplane II, written and directed by Ken Finkleman, better know for his dark comedy The Newsroom (aka the Office, only older and better). He gave us the immortal line: "he made all the big papers - and the Canadian Jewish News!". (RIP CJN ???? - 2020).
posted by jb at 2:37 PM on July 7, 2020 [4 favorites]