To me Hype + Comedies = Indifference. It’s rather weird, 'cause people can hype up stuff in other catagories like drama or horror and I’ll love the movies. But if they hype up comedies and I see them, they are usually disapointing to me. Like I expected something way funnier. There are very few exceptions, and the only ones I can think of right now is the stuff done by Monty Python and Rowan Atkinson. Oh, and I love Mystery Science Theater 3000.
What brought this on? I watched The Princess Bride for the first time tonight. Don’t get me wrong, I like the movie. But I must have been expecting something way funnier from the way everybody quotes it. I dunno. Maybe I will appreciate it in time.
Other movies that people find hilarious and I just shrug at are:
*The Rocky Horror Picture Show
*Most Mel Brooks movies, especially Spaceballs and History of the World Part II
*Clerks, Dogma and most Kevin Smith movies.
*Almost all of the teen comedies of the 80s. Yes, this includes Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Again, I like this movie, but not on the level that most people do.
And this isn’t just towards movies. I liked Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy but not on the level that most people do. Which is weird, 'cause I like British comedy.
bean_shadow
Oh, definitely Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: people wetting themselves saying “42” and “Oh, I’m so depressed”. And (sorry, given the largely US readership here) some US imports such as Friends and Cheers.
I like Princess Bride but didn’t find it as funny as a lot of people do – The only real quote I find funny taken out of context is the “nonsense, you’re just saying that cause no-one ever has” one. Mostly build up there I guess from years of everyone promising comedy nirvana.
I didn’t find There’s Something about Mary funny at all. It could be cause I watched it home alone and movies like that are better in crowds, but then again I watched the MST3K movie home alone too, and could barely breath by the end.
Monty Python and the Holy Grail. I watched it the other night and I wanted to like it a lot but I couldn’t. I think it was partly because I recognized a lot of the funny bits before they happened simply from people quoting, etc. I don’t think it was a matter of hype so much - Office Space was very hyped but I laughed and laughed and laughed. I still found bits of MPATHG amusing but overall not as funny as I hoped.
I liked the peasants though. “Help, help, I’m being oppressed!”
I’m glad I’m not the only one who doesn’t worship “The Princess Bride.”
If you read the novel, the dialogue really IS fantastic. But the movie hasn’t aged well; it looks cheap and amateurish by Hollywood standards in a lot of ways, as if it was done on a really limited budget. The direction, photography and music is mostly very poor. Thge film doesn’t even seem to be edited correctly in a lot of scenes. It detracts from the dialogue.
I thought “There’s Something About Mary” was terrible. Most of the jokes were poorly timed, and you know what they say about that. Again, a movie that seemed cheap and badly edited.
You just named almost all my favorite things… though I guess some of the fun from them is the communal thing. If you see Rocky Horror with a bunch of people or trade Hitchiker’s refs with people, its cooler then being on your own. I gotta agree with you on the Mel Brooks and Kevin Smith stuff-- funny, but nowhere near as funny as their cults thing.
I just realized that these are cult things… there are supposed to be people who don’t like them. I definatly see the flaws with “The Princess Bride,” but it is warm and fuzzy and fun.
I can’t think of any movies off the top of my head that fall into this category, but I never, ever found the TV series Seinfeld funny. Which is odd because I think he’s a terrific stand-up comedian. But his show just didn’t do it for me, no matter how many of my friends told me how hysterical it was.
Back in high school, one of my friends assured me that The In-Laws with Peter Falk and Alan Arkin was the funniest movie he’d ever seen. I did not find the evidence presented convincing.
I’ve never understood why people rave about Everybody Loves Raymond. Now that I’m married and have a kid I find it somewhat funnier than I used to, but I still seem to be missing something.
A while ago I watched American Pie on video. About 10 minutes before the end I realised that I had not laughed once. Knowing this ensured that I didn’t laugh for the next 10 minutes and it became the only “comedy” I have watched to completion without a single chuckle.
Strangely I didn’t particularly dislike the movie it was just that every joke could be seen coming.
Most of the stff in the OP I like, except the Brooks movies.
I can’t imagine renting Rocky Horror and expecting to get anything out of it. That would be like reading about paintings in a book with no pictures. The movie is truly, horribly bad.
Now, going to see Rocky Horror Picture Show at midnight with a bunch of people looking to party and who know what’s going on is something totally different. That’s really the appeal. It’s similar to watching a live version of MST3K, only with a lot more people shouting riffs, and some parts are more formalized. It’s usually pretty fun in that situation.
On the other hand, I don’t understand the appeal of Kevin Smith movies at all. I just can’t get into them the same way as most of my friends.
Any comedy featuring Adam Sandler, Chris Farley, or Jim Carrey. I just don’t understand the appeal. Maybe it’s because I’m not overly fond of slapstick.
Like a lot of people who’ve already posted to this thread, The Princess Bride is fine, but it’s not one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen.
A beloved comedy I actively dislike: The Blues Brothers. Who would’ve thought car chases could be so tedious?
And I love screwball comedies, Cary Grant and James Stewart, but thought The Philadelphia Story was at best fitfully amusing. Other classics I’m not that fond of: Born Yesterday and Adam’s Rib. (The jury’s still out on Katharine Hepburn.)
