Has it really been over a month? I’m sorry, if any of you are reading this. I did warn you guys.
Anyway, for lack of anything better, I’ll talk about different types of comedy. Yay.
I just started thinking about this, apropos of nothing, the other day. I’ve noticed that, in movies especially, there seems to be three broad categories of comedy: smart comedy, good-stupid comedy, and bad-stupid comedy.
Smart comedy is exactly what it says. It’s comedy that makes you laugh by being genuinely insightful about human existence and emotion. It’s the sort of comedy that you’re allowed to like, and will admit to liking. Of course, there’s always the risk of going for smart-comedy and ending up with unfunny and prentetious, but not to worry. There will always be a small subset of people who like what you’ve done, albeit only because they’re “supposed to”. But that’s a rant for another day.
My favorite “smart-comedy” is Stranger Than Fiction. It’s a story about a guy who’s the main character in a novel. It’s smart, it’s funny. And, like all great comedies, it can be truly heart-breaking. Packed with an all-star cast and headed by Will Ferrell, who gives an outstanding performance as the meek accountant Harold Crick, it’s a great movie that plays with our ideas of reality and destiny, while still being pretty damn hilarious. It’s one of two scripts that I will kick myself forever that I didn’t write (the other being another one of my favorite smart comedies, Grosse Point Blank).
And then there’s good-stupid comedy. Everyone knows this. It’s basically just crudity and pop culture references. But you still laugh anyway. You know you shouldnt, but it’s genuinely funny. The best make you wonder if it was a work of genius or the work of a twelve-year-old. I find Anchorman, another Will Ferrell movie, to be a great example of this confusion. I mean, it’s so dumb… but they CAN’T expect anyone to take it seriously, can they? Gah, it makes my head hurt just thinking about it.
And, finally, stupid-stupid comedy. Self-explanatory. Schlock like Meet the Spartans. Comedy so unbelieveably dumb that you can’t figure out who pays to see it. Answer: frat boys and bored nerds who like picking it apart.
Of course, the lines can be blurred (South Park is usually a smart-comedy, with elements of good-stupid comedy and the occasional stupid-stupid comedy moment), but those are the basic categories. That I’ve noticed, anyway.
Yeah.
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