# Intentional comedies you thought were serious (when you first saw them) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 13, 2013, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentional-comedies-you-thought-were-serious-when-you-first-saw-them/660858 "2013-06-13T00:07:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2013, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentional-comedies-you-thought-were-serious-when-you-first-saw-them/660858/21 "2013-06-14T22:28:12Z")
> [@bleach](#): > > Not a movie, but Phil Hendrie’s radio show is based on this premise. He’ll have on a “guest” who is so extreme or annoying that first-time listeners _simply must_ call in to confront the guest. As it happens, Phil is both the host and the guest. The comedy comes from the both the extreme views of the guest and the outrage from naive callers. Man I loved his show. Sadly it no longer plays in my area. I would always think to myself, “Man there can’t be that many new listeners. Can there?” ---
**Author:** ![Satchmo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/satchmo/32/4223_2.png) [@Satchmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satchmo)\ **Post date:** [June 14, 2013, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentional-comedies-you-thought-were-serious-when-you-first-saw-them/660858/22 "2013-06-14T23:02:12Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > This is probably more than an hour in, but anyone would be figuring that out once Ruby Rhod comes on the scene. I was rolling on the floor from his schtick. > > I don’t think “Big Trouble” is really a comedy, it’s more of a light-hearted homage to some kinds of Chinese fantasy kung fu pictures, combined with American tough-guy action movies. > Roddy I think the comedy in “Big Trouble” comes from Jack Burton, (Kurt Russel), who believes he’s the hero of a John Wayne Action movie, when he’s really the sidekick and nobody in the movie has the heart to tell him. I saw “Beetlejuice” in the theater, not knowing anything about it, I didn’t figure out it was a comedy until they got to the afterlife civil service area. Then later, when Michael Keaton showed up, it got hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![tomcar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@tomcar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomcar)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2013, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentional-comedies-you-thought-were-serious-when-you-first-saw-them/660858/23 "2013-06-15T13:11:09Z")
> [@John\_DiFool](#): > > _Starship Troopers_ is probably a rather iconic codifier for this. I am not sure it was a “comedy.” It’s a satire which isn’t always the same thing. ---
**Author:** ![diggerwam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/919ad9/32.png) [@diggerwam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/diggerwam)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2013, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentional-comedies-you-thought-were-serious-when-you-first-saw-them/660858/24 "2013-06-15T13:17:47Z")
Friend of a friend told me when he saw Pulp Fiction at the movie theater the couple behind him came to that realization about half way thru the film. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2013, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentional-comedies-you-thought-were-serious-when-you-first-saw-them/660858/25 "2013-06-15T13:40:14Z")
_Gremlins_. Sure, it’s a fun adventure/horror movie, but it was supposed to be a laugh out loud absurd take on horror, and I, amongst many (from what I can recall at the time), didn’t realise that. The sequel is far more overtly comedic, deliberately so that audiences could go back to the first and see it for the level of comedy it was intended as. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2013, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentional-comedies-you-thought-were-serious-when-you-first-saw-them/660858/26 "2013-06-15T13:52:41Z")
Not a movie but if you were reading comic books back in the eighties, you might remember Sidney Mellon. I’ll admit, to my embarrassment, that it took me several months to realize it was a joke. In my defense, you really could hear people saying the same things he was. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2013, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentional-comedies-you-thought-were-serious-when-you-first-saw-them/660858/27 "2013-06-15T14:01:30Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > Back when the movie “Heathers” first came out, I went to go see it on the recommendation of a friend of mine. I had no idea going in what the movie was about, and spent the first half of it trying to decide if it was a comedy or not. I love my dead gay son! ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2013, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentional-comedies-you-thought-were-serious-when-you-first-saw-them/660858/28 "2013-06-15T15:26:41Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > This is so embarrassing… I watched the first hour of “Big Trouble in Little China” before I realized it was a comedy. > > And the same damn thing happened with “The Fifth Element.” About an hour in, and only then the penny drops. Oh! This is funny! I don’t think they were “comedies”. But both movies had a lot of comedic elements to them. I always have a problem with what I call “Sundance Film Festival comedies”. Quirky indy films like Garden State or Little Miss Sunshine or any Wes Anderson film that I’m told are supposed to be comedies (or comedy dramas I suppose). I enjoy them, and they are really good films, but they don’t seem particularly hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2013, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentional-comedies-you-thought-were-serious-when-you-first-saw-them/660858/29 "2013-06-15T15:33:26Z")
Harold and Maude. I was really appalled in the first five minutes. Then it started to dawn on me. ---
**Author:** ![Leiko](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Leiko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leiko)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2013, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentional-comedies-you-thought-were-serious-when-you-first-saw-them/660858/30 "2013-06-15T15:49:20Z")
So, not a movie, but I definitely didn’t understand that Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman was meant to be particularly comedic until I listened to the Lenny Henry-performed audiobook. Especially the old ladies in Florida and Anansi himself are way too easy to take seriously when read instead of heard in character voices. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2013, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentional-comedies-you-thought-were-serious-when-you-first-saw-them/660858/31 "2013-06-15T22:40:49Z")
I didn’t know anything about the Coen Brothers when I saw “Fargo”, only that the movie was good, and I was hesitant about laughing at certain scenes. :o As for murders in Brainerd, MN in 1987, IIRC their police blotter did have two - an elderly man who was beaten in a home invasion, and a young woman who had a baby and left it somewhere to die. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2013, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentional-comedies-you-thought-were-serious-when-you-first-saw-them/660858/32 "2013-06-16T00:01:19Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > Back when the movie “Heathers” first came out, I went to go see it on the recommendation of a friend of mine. I had no idea going in what the movie was about, and spent the first half of it trying to decide if it was a comedy or not. > [@Maserschmidt](#): > > I love my dead gay son! “I mean, this is Ohio. If you don’t have a brewski in your hand you might as well be wearing a dress.” **Heathers** is one of my favorite movies. I think it’s one of the greatest dark comedies ever made. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2013, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentional-comedies-you-thought-were-serious-when-you-first-saw-them/660858/33 "2013-06-16T00:33:50Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > I was a really young kid when I first saw the 1960s Batman, and I took it very seriously. I had the same problem. “What do you mean it’s ‘campy’, dad?” ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2013, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentional-comedies-you-thought-were-serious-when-you-first-saw-them/660858/34 "2013-06-16T00:41:36Z")
“Lost In Translation” with Bill Murray - I just asked my husband this question, and this is the movie he came up with. I questioned him even now - “That movie is supposed to be a comedy?!?” Yup, Google says it is a comedy-drama. Hunh. Shouldn’t you laugh at a comedy once or twice? ---
**Author:** ![lisiate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f05b48/32.png) [@lisiate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lisiate)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2013, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentional-comedies-you-thought-were-serious-when-you-first-saw-them/660858/35 "2013-06-16T00:42:46Z")
Peter Jackson’s _Forgotten Silver_ was premiered on New Zealand TV as a documentary. A lot of people took it at face value. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2013, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentional-comedies-you-thought-were-serious-when-you-first-saw-them/660858/36 "2013-06-16T00:50:57Z")
If you see (as I did) “Escape from LA” before seeing “Escape from New York,” it’s easy to just read it as yet another cheeseball 90s action movie. If you see NY first, it’s pretty obvious that LA is an intentional genre parody. It’s also a masterpiece (although the Bruce Cambell sequence is a little too camp). The Princess Bride, as a ten year old kid, didn’t seem any more comedic than a lot of the other 80s-era fantasy adventure films, like Willow or Labrynth or The Neverending Story. As an adult, yeah, that there’s a comedy. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2013, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentional-comedies-you-thought-were-serious-when-you-first-saw-them/660858/37 "2013-06-16T01:03:41Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > Back when the movie “Heathers” first came out, I went to go see it on the recommendation of a friend of mine. I had no idea going in what the movie was about, and spent the first half of it trying to decide if it was a comedy or not. Given the final third, I’d say the producers had the same problem…! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intentional-comedies-you-thought-were-serious-when-you-first-saw-them/660858.md?page=1)