On Comedies

Now that Hot Tub Time Machine is out on DVD, I've been thinking about how much better it is than the huge comedies that get all the attention these days. When I saw Get Him to the Greek, it was like seeing The Hangover all over again, and I don't mean that in a good way. The Hangover was fucking terrible, and utterly lacking in that crucial feature of comedy movies- COMEDY. The trailer for 'Greek' even claims that it is the funniest movie since The Hangover, which I find hilarious (more hilarious than the entirety of the Hangover).

When I saw the Hangover in theaters, I was immediately struck by the fact that the first ten or so minutes went by without a good laugh. It's a fucking comedy! Where are the jokes? Yes, the situations the characters find themselves in are funny, but the writing was completely dead.

And Get Him to the Greek? What the fuck is with all the moralizing bullshit? Who gives a shit if Aldous Snow is addicted to heroin? It's supposed to be a goddamn comedy. Apatow's movies have always walked a fine line between raunchy comedy and heart. Movies such as the 40 Year Old Virgin and Knocked Up walked that line very carefully, but as his "brand" gained clout he seemed to give less and less of a shit. Superbad and Funny People were both about 45 minutes to an hour too long. When you toy around too much with "heart", your movies are in danger of being self-indulgent pieces of shit. As a counterexample- Role Models fucking nailed it (except for the painful last 30 seconds).

Anyways this post is too long already, so I'm not even going to discuss how fucking great Hot Tub Time Machine is. But what has me worried is the fact that everyone and their cat seems to love the fucking Hangover. Apparently everyone has a terrible sense of humor- but if everyone thinks an unfunny movie is funny, does that just make it... funny?

I hope not. Support the cause. Watch Hot Tub Time Machine.

In everyday life, we, sadly, rarely can alter time and space with a hot tub. Life is, instead, a bitch. Listen to this mashup I made of Nas' 'Life's a Bitch'.