# Ever watched a comedy that had no laughs? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [December 6, 2022, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094 "2022-12-06T14:56:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2022, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/1 "2022-12-06T14:56:49Z")
So a couple of weeks ago, my wife and I ran across the movie "Drinking Buddies’ from 2013 on Netflix. It’s billed as a comedy/drama/romance, and has the cast to make that work. Olivia Wilde, Ron Livingston, Anna Kendrick, Jason Sudeikis and Jake Johnson. And… it wasn’t funny. Not even one bit. No jokes, no funny situations, no pratfalls, and generally nothing comedic in the least bit. It wasn’t cringe comedy, it wasn’t deadpan/tongue in cheek type absurd stuff. It was a straight up drama- wasn’t even really romantic. Granted I only got through about the first 45 minutes or so, but I’d think that’s enough for the funny to reveal itself. Why do they call this a comedy? Is there some style of comedy that’s not intended to amuse you that I’m unaware of? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2022, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/2 "2022-12-06T15:19:45Z")
I can’t speak for _Drinking Buddies_, but yes, I’ve seen plenty of “comedies” that had no laughs at all. (There are more than one SNL episodes like that.) I attribute that either to my lack of the proper sense of humor for the intent of the film, or the writers being on a coke binge. More likely the latter. ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2022, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/3 "2022-12-06T15:22:54Z")
Haven’t seen it, but descriptions say that it was mostly improvised based on the barest outline of a plot. That would certainly have an effect on the pacing and so forth. ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2022, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/4 "2022-12-06T15:51:27Z")
I think that’s called marketing. By calling it a drama/comedy/romance, they can attract more people to watch it than if they called it a drama—people like comedies, and most women like romances, even ones with a dramatic angle to them. They thought adding the words comedy and romance to the genre would draw a larger audience. You’re proof that it worked. ---
**Author:** ![veryfrank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/87869e/32.png) [@veryfrank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/veryfrank)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2022, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/5 "2022-12-06T16:13:05Z")
There’s a big stretch of time in American comedy that baffles me because there doesn’t deem to be anything actively funny going on. _Private Benjamin_ has like two big laugh lines. _Shampoo_ has one. The whole concept of _Tootsie_ is so unbelievable to me that I’m taken right out of it. Then there are the “comedies” in which characters just act frantic or “zany” to no effect. The original version of _The In-Laws_ is viewed as a classic by many; it’s even recently been added to the Criterion Collection. I watched it with a dull look of boredom and virtually never chuckled. And some supposed comedies do both: _Night Shift_ plods along for most of its running time, then there’s a lot of frantic running around trying to pass as a climax. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2022, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/6 "2022-12-06T16:25:20Z")
Far too many. ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2022, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/7 "2022-12-06T16:45:09Z")
The Goldbergs. Tried to watch it a few years ago. Not funny. Tried again this season after the producers fired one of the most annoying persons in Hollywood. Still not funny. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2022, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/8 "2022-12-06T16:55:10Z")
I’m not what you’d call comedically demanding. I tend to laugh at most comedy, although I will admit that cringe comedy and/or whatever you call Seinfeld/Curb your Enthusiasm isn’t generally my favorite. But I can see why it’s funny to some, and I can definitely tell when it’s _supposed_ to be funny. But this wasn’t that. There just wasn’t anything actually funny about it- the characters weren’t in unintentionally or ironically humorous situations despite themselves playing it straight (I could see that being funny, for example). It was just relationship drama- not even really a romantic movie, despite being billed as a sort of rom-com. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2022, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/9 "2022-12-06T18:16:05Z")
I used to watch Bob’s Burgers, but after a while I noticed that the most it would get from me was a mildly amused smile. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2022, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/10 "2022-12-06T18:20:52Z")
I tried watching _Seinfeld_. I watched about three of the early episodes. It wasn’t funny at all. I quickly decided that it wasn’t for me, so I didn’t watch any more. I later saw the finale. Even seeing them get arrested didn’t amuse me. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2022, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/11 "2022-12-06T18:32:21Z")
Dante’s _Divine Comedy_ ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2022, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/12 "2022-12-06T18:50:55Z")
In middle school our class went to a performance of _A Midsummer Night’s Dream_. Shakespeare called that play a comedy, but I didn’t laugh once. ---
**Author:** ![vislor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/vislor/32/5933_2.png) [@vislor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vislor)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2022, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/13 "2022-12-06T18:55:28Z")
We watched Napolean Dynamite and nothing about it was funny to me. I watched a season of Seinfeld only due to when it was on. One episode had all of the elements come together such that I thought it was brilliant. Not sure if that was the first one I watched but it was early on because I kept watching it expecting that. Nothing else was as good. I don’t enjoy cringe comedy and while it is less, it seems to be the big thing for a while, making me avoid comedies. I didn’t watch SNL for decades from the 90s until 2016. I didn’t find most of it funny. After TLG we watched SNL until covid. What I realized is that not having paid attention to politics before, SNL did a lot of political humor. Yes, I got the big jokes. What I found out, though, is that they would turn some small thing said by some little known politician into a whole skit. If you knew the origin of the skit, it was funny or at least you could tell what they were doing. Without that, it made no sense. (Mulaney’s musicals were funny to me even as weird as they got.) I’m sure with all that I have watched there are more but those were my standouts. ---
**Author:** ![Knowed\_Out](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/knowed_out/32/7380_2.png) [@Knowed\_Out](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Knowed_Out)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2022, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/14 "2022-12-06T19:16:37Z")
Comedy is subjective. Just because you didn’t find it funny doesn’t everybody else will react similarly. _Drinking Buddies_ seemed to have gone over well with critics, at least. > **[Drinking Buddies | Reception](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drinking_Buddies#Reception)** > > Drinking Buddies received positive reviews from critics. As of September 2021\[update\], the film holds an 84% approval rating on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 122 reviews with an average rating of 6.9/10. The site's consensus reads, "Smart, funny, and powered by fine performances from Olivia Wilde and Jake Johnson, Drinking Buddies offers a bittersweet slice of observational comedy." On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 71 out of 100, based on 32 cr A. ... ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2022, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/15 "2022-12-06T19:35:55Z")
Comedy movies are much better seen in a crowded theater than on your couch at home. Laughter is contagious, and comedy movies are much better with a large audience. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2022, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/16 "2022-12-06T19:44:18Z")
I know, that’s why I’m so baffled. It wasn’t a bad movie, it just wasn’t funny. At all. And I’m not a person who didn’t find Seinfeld or Napoleon Dynamite funny. Seinfeld just wasn’t my favorite; it was a show I’d watch if it was on in the dorm TV room and people were hanging out, but that’s it. I actually laughed out loud at parts of Napoleon Dynamite. But “Drinking Buddies” didn’t even have parts where I could identify attempts at humor. That’s what’s so weird about it. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2022, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/17 "2022-12-06T19:51:21Z")
> [@bump](#): > > It was a straight up drama- wasn’t even really romantic. Granted I only got through about the first 45 minutes or so, but I’d think that’s enough for the funny to reveal itself. Was this a case where it was evident they attempted to set up jokes, gags, witty remarks, and funny situations only to fail miserably or there was no effort made to be funny at all because the movie was really a serious drama mismarketed as a comedy? There probably should be a distinction made between the two categories for would-be funny “comedies” in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2022, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/18 "2022-12-06T19:54:15Z")
Maybe they were using an older sense of “comedy”, in which the question isn’t whether the play (or whatever) is funny, but whether it has a happy ending or a tragic one? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2022, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/19 "2022-12-06T19:55:01Z")
Also, not everything called a “comedy” is laugh-out-loud funny. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2022, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094/20 "2022-12-06T20:26:49Z")
I’m guessing the latter; I couldn’t even identify attempts at comedy, and that’s what baffled me so. > [@Dewey\_Finn](#): > > Also, not everything called a “comedy” is laugh-out-loud funny. Sure, but there are attempts at doing things to get you to smile, even if they’re not aiming for belly laughs. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ever-watched-a-comedy-that-had-no-laughs/976094.md?page=2)