The Gilroy 08.06.08: Our Generation of Comedy

Posted by Ben Quick on 08.06.2008

Who needs SNL?

Over the past decade there have been plenty of comedies. Last week I mentioned that I dislike the death of the big time thriller, well, that certainly hasn't happened to the comedy genre. Other than maybe comic book movies, comedies probably do the best at the box office as far as consistency is concerned. It's pretty simple, people like to laugh. With Pineapple Express coming out Friday, it got me to thinking about the comedy genre in general. In the 1980's we had Bill Murray and Chevy Chase, then in the 1990's came Chris Farley and Adam Sandler and for most of the 2000's we've been laughing to the likes of Ben Stiller and Will Ferrell. Though I think everyone can agree there's a new form on the horizon. The three films I list below are all connected by basically two men, Seth Rogan and Judd Apatow. The comedies of the 1980's and 1990's tended to more situational and goofy. The comedies we've been watching the last decade have been more about celebrating the ridiculous. Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow have teamed up for three films that have given a glimpse into possibly a new wave in American cinematic comedy. What about these films are different?



40 Year Old Virgin

I remember when I watched this for the first time back in 2005. It honestly felt like a breath of fresh air. I'm not going to lie. I laugh when I watch Zoolander, but something about the comedies that had been coming out was just boring. You'd laugh and everything, but nothing was every really good beyond the laughter. 40 Year Old Virgin was a return to the R rated comedy that many people had felt was lacking in mainstream movies. I'm not trying to pretend that the movie was very deep, if deep at all. It was a big running gag on a forty year old guy not having sex for his whole life. What the film did was focus most of its humor on conversational jokes. It wasn't about mocking a spaceship for looking like the male reproductive organ. The lines in 40 Year Old Virgin were something you could've said with your friends.

The idea of making a comedy more about character interaction rather than situation is risky. The dialogue has to be really good. Sure, there's plenty of humor in 40 Year Old Virgin that plays on the situation too, but the best and most memorable moments came from just two characters talking. For all the hype the chest waxing sequence has gotten, I hear much more joking about "You know how I know you're gay?" than any of the situational comedy. No one can envision themselves going back to grade school, but who can't see themselves mouthing a friend while playing Mortal Kombat?



Knocked Up

This movie was one hell of a surprise. It just goes to show you what word of mouth can do for you. I mean, no one I knew had even heard of this movie before it come out. Then people started saying how good it was. The reviews were excellent, especially for a comedy. I remember when I asked someone if Knocked Up was any good and the guy replied "Did you like 40 Year Old Virgin? Well, it's ten times better!" So, a friend and myself went to see this about two weeks after it had come out and the theater was about as full as I've seen a theater be two weeks after a release for something that wasn't Batman or Star Wars. Well, Knocked Up is well over two hours long and I couldn't stop laughing for the entire time.

One part where conversational humor can succeed as where situational cannot is that there doesn't have to be any let up. With conversational humor you don't have to stick the funny part in and around the story. The story of a pothead getting a career woman pregnant offers plenty of chances for clichéd humor, but even with the drama of the reality of having a life changing event like the birth of a child Knocked Up still had the ability to keep you laughing. Even more so than 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up was a true breath of fresh air. The gimmick of having a baby wasn't as pronounced in the humor as the virgin angle, and the main star of the movie was Seth Rogen. Rogen is a great and true normal guy ala the dude renting you videos at Blockbuster and so it gives the movie a more authentic and less glossy feel.



Superbad

Superbad should forever be thankful to Knocked Up. I'm not saying that the movie wouldn't have made money without Knocked Up's success coming first, but with such a cool new comedy coming out in June and then followed by a similarly styled movie in August, you know it added some viewers. People had just seen Seth Rogen become the funniest movie star in the world two months earlier and then came another movie with him that looked just as funny, if not more so, a few months later. While the two films hold the same idea as to what's funny, they are quite different. Knocked Up deals with an adult theme of having children, while Superbad deals with the wildness of teenagers. Knocked Up has more of a story and had stronger characters, but Superbad runs with more jokes.

When picking which film is better it really becomes just splitting hairs. 40 Year Old Virgin showed us the window to a new kind of humor. Knocked Up blew that window open and Superbad pulled us through it. The funny thing is, this style of humor isn't really new. All three movies are pretty just solidly crude and vulgar. There have been several movies in the same vein. The thing was we some how lost those movies in the 1990's. So, when we now have movies that we can laugh at beyond a PG-13 level, it feels good. I'm not saying all comedies have to be vulgar. Sometimes it's good to watch Friends, but then I also like to watch Californication.

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With 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up and Superbad we got a new set of movies to look forward to. For the longest time I would wait to see comedies on DVD. Now, I'm considering going to see Pineapple Express. Generally I only go to see movies that I expect to deliver a really cool experience. Normally I go to see stuff that's a little more serious like The Departed or American Gangster. Yet, with Seth Rogen and Judd Apatow releasing movies that I not only enjoy going to see, but want to buy, there are now comedies I feel are can't miss. I never felt that way with Adam Sandler, Mike Myers or Will Ferrell. I don't consider Seth Rogen a star like those other actors. So far, there's something more pure to his work. The problem is that is a high pedestal. Will it continue?



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