Agreed with you and the Captain. It’s also worth pointing out that many (most?) of the nominations here are also nominated in the “comedies that DO hold up” sister thread.
I love both versions of The Producers, but I think in the original, the LSD (Dick Shawn) character was too contemporary to 1968, so it loses something as the years went by. But Mostel and Wilder as Bialystock and Bloom were great then and would be great now. And Lee Meredith of 1968 would certainly pass as acceptable looking even going by 2014 standards.
To be fair, that wasn’t the first time Lane had played a Zero Mostel character (or the last.)
I knew it! I’m surrounded by assholes!
Spaceballs: Still going from suck to blow in 60 seconds.
I’ll have to watch that again, because I remember it fondly. Especially when I make egg salad. But I don’t think it can be compared with MST3K. They can stand outside the movie and make jokes, which is far easier than making jokes while sticking to continuity within the movie. I can’t think of anyone else who has ever pulled this off.
Well, they aren’t doing it in front of teachers, or parents, or other old people, they do it when off on their own, goofing around having a good time. It certainly was common enough in suburban Michigan in the 80’s and 90’s for guys to do this, and I highly doubt it’s stopped other than for the highly oversensitive types.
You think?
The 80s and 90s were 25+ and 15+ years ago, respectively. There has been a very large shift in public perception of homosexuality in the past couple of decades, which includes perceptions of slurs such as “fag”. I’m sure there are youngsters who use the term as a friendly greeting, but I really doubt it’s anywhere near as common as it was in the 80s or 90s. Culture can change significantly in a generation.
…lul, whut?
Dudley is the main character and star of the movie, his name is Arthur. The movie is called “ARTHUR.” “The 40 Year Old Virgin” is not about Leslie Mann’s character. She’s a one-off character portrayed as being comically horrific because of the drunk driving.
There’s a HUGE difference between a single scene played for laughs by a side character and the main character of the move being portrayed the same way or engaging in the same kind of behavior.
The problem with the Cadillac “joke” is the stereotype that African-Americans love Cadillacs, even to the point of hooting and cheering at the mere mention.
I teach at a large, suburban high school our kids do not call one another, “fag”, with affection. It is considered an insult here in Michigan.
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Huh, had no idea about the Cadillac thing. Can anyone else confirm that? I mean, they actually were in a Cadillac in the movie. I thought race was treated interestingly in AIB because they made it really obvious that those nice suburban kids actually were racist in that they were initially terrified of the black guy who helped them with their car.
I did not say that kids these days call each other fag. They do use “gay” in a similar way, which means to me that they’d understand that teenage boys used to use a different word to each other too.
FTR I don’t mean “gay” being used to mean lame, I mean them actually saying things ike “you’re so gay you…” See the Forty-Year-Old Virgin for an example; it’s not intended to actually say being gay is bad, it’s just that teenage boys and some grown men tease each other a hell of a lot and some of it can look very offensive from the outside.
Right. The scenes are played for laughs the exact same way (if anything, 40yov is much worse), they’re funny for the exact same reasons, but your entire argument boils down to the names of the characters.
Gotcha.
I think it’s stronger than an “impression.” During that scene, the song “Crying Game,” is actually played. The connection couldn’t be stronger unless expositional subtitles were used.
In my late teens – long ago now – I recall that in the “I’m more serious / sensitive than you” one-upmanship games which freshman-level university students played with each other, you gained “cred” for claiming (truly or falsely) to have found the Alice books, as a kid, unsettling / creepy / sinister: to have enjoyed them and laughed at them, made you a highly shallow twit.
Reading the books in childhood, I (genuinely) found them marvellously crazy and funny; except that for me, Wonderland started off slowly and tediously. The first few chapters, with all the underground stuff and growing-bigger-and-smaller, I found dull and slightly depressing; once those first chapters were out of the way, the fun started but good, and never ceased. Through The Looking-Glass, I found a delight right from page 1.
I don’t think it’s plausible that the scene in Ace Ventura was intended to be making fun of audiences for being shocked that there was a transgender character in The Crying Game, and if that was their intent then you may be the only person who “got it”. Ace Ventura was a popular movie when I was a teenager, and it’s my recollection that the joke was widely understood to be basically “Ha ha, it’s funny that a straight guy unwittingly did something gay!” The Jim Carrey character’s reaction was supposed to be humorously over-the-top, but I don’t think the audience was expected to find the very idea of a straight man being upset at kissing a transgender woman to be ridiculous. And it’s not like the transgender character in Ace Ventura was portrayed sympathetically. She was the villain.
It also seems unlikely the the vomiting was supposed to be referencing audience reactions to The Crying Game. I doubt many of the people who watched Ace Ventura had even seen The Crying Game. The “twist” in The Crying Game was so well-known that people could be expected to make the transgender woman/The Crying Game connection even if they hadn’t seen the movie. A year before Ace Ventura, Hot Shots Part Deux had even included a joke (a “spoiler” during the closing credits) about how well-known the plot twist in The Crying Game was. Anyone watching Ace Ventura who had already seen The Crying Game would have understood the scene to be directly referencing The Crying Game itself and not audience reactions to that movie – in The Crying Game the main character runs into the bathroom and vomits after seeing the pre-op transgender character nude. The Naked Gun 33 1/3, released the same year as Ace Ventura, also had a scene spoofing The Crying Game in which a man vomits after discovering that a sexy woman (played by Anna Nicole Smith) has a penis.
Jesus.
Viewers react differently depending on the character’s significance to the story they are engaged in. They will accept side or tertiary characters behaving in ways they would not accept the primary character to behave. Arthur- PRIMARY character. Drunk Girl in 40 Year Old Virgin- NOT the primary character. Do you understand how this works?
Yes. Do you understand that someone who is predisposed to picketing a movie over a comedic drunk driving scene isn’t going to give a flying fuck either way? Do you understand that you’re picking a ridiculous nit? Do you understand that, thanks to you, this thread has taken an utterly absurd turn?
Dont you people know that…
Arthur he does as he pleases
All of his life, he’s mastered choice
Deep in his heart, he’s just, he’s just a boy
I was inspired to watch that scene again on YouTube, and it’s frickin’ hilarious!
Love that movie.
This is veering real close to “fried chicken and watermelon are delicious” territory. Yes, there is a stereotype about African Americans and Cadillacs, but I think you also have to remember that a lot of people love Cadillacs. Especially old white men. Furthermore, I also think it’s a stereotype that wasn’t as strong when AIB was made almost 30 years ago.