Unfunny Comedies?

An average of 20 million viewers at it's peak is something others would wish for, even at the end in 1989, with satellite tv coming out and 4th channel to compete with, it was still getting a fantastic 9 million viewers. Thames TV got so many letters and complaints when he was sacked that finally after his death in 1992 they relented and played some repeats, which once again, rated well.

 

In think that Will Farrell works best in short sketches. On "Saturday Night Live" I found him quite funny (especially "Alex Trebek" in "Celebrity Jeopardy), but I didn't find him that funny in "Anchorman."

In a way I think he is similar to Tim Conway. As part of an ensemble cast on "The Carol Burnett Show" he was outstanding, and he was also great when paired with Don Knotts on "The Apple Dumpling Gang." However, on his own Tim Conway hasn't had the same success (he's had a number of shows that didn't last very long).

 

I'm going to be very careful about I phrase this

I think they speak to women's perspectives more than they do men's. The bit they did at the Golden Globes seemed pretty lazy to me...making fun of the May/December romance with George/Amal Clooney seemed like a cheap shot. But if you view their age gap as an elephant in the middle of the room that no one wants to acknowledge, I can see how somebody would laugh at that.

If they are indeed "women's" comediennes, they're not especially good ones. More Dane Cook than John Oliver.

 

Anything starring Larry the Cable Guy. Remember when Hollywood tried to turn him into a legitmate movie star during the mid-'00s? ("Delta Farce," "Witless Protection," "Health Inspector")

Thank God that's over.

 

Did their jokes really make fun of the age gap? Clooney's 17 years older than his wife, which isn't THAT huge a difference, especially for a movie star...

 

OK, I apparently conflated two separate instances. Tina Fey said he (Clooney) would "rather float away into space and die than spend one more minute with a woman his own age" when Gravity was out. The Golden Globes quote was this:

"George Clooney married Amal Alamuddin this year. Amal is a human rights lawyer who worked on the Enron case, was an advisor to Kofi Annan regarding Syria and was selected for a three-person UN commission investigating rules of war violation in the Gaza Strip. So tonight, her husband is getting a lifetime achievement award!"

That one actively pi**ed me off. It's the Golden Globes, not a UN conference. Apparently, you're only allowed an award if you do better than your spouse.

I always wondered if they realized what they were implying about Amal...basically that she's shallow and has daddy issues.

 

I don't see the lifetime achievement award joke as a negative comment on Amal at all. I don't even view it as a strong poke at Clooney himself - I think it was more making fun of the shallowness of the Globes than anything else...

 

Fair point. I may have been biased by her earlier comment (although I still think the Gravity comment does take a shot at her, inadvertent as it may be,)

 

I'm sticking with the "Gravity" gag as being aimed solely at Clooney and other Hollywood actors who always have much younger woman as their cinematic romantic interests.

Though I'm not sure how much that applies to Clooney on screen - it'd be interesting to look at the women with whom he's been paired in movies. In real life he went for much younger women, but I'm not sure that's the case for his movies...

 

Larry the Cable Guy in Call Me Claus 2

 

Anything starring or written by Jennifer Saunders.

Dawn French is saved by the Vicar of Dibley which from the small amount I've seen, has promise, but the French & Saunder's sketch show is crap, and the only reason to watch Absolutely Fabulous is the occasional funny line by Joana Lumley

 

To paraphrase W C Fields, I'd rather have two women of 21 than one of 42.

 

How on earth can you put Monty Python in the same category as Adam Sandler??

 

because that category is 'things i find unfunny'.

 

Envy

Ben Stiller. Jack Black. Worthless piece of ****.

Identity Thief

This is when I realized I shouldn't give Melissa McCarthy any more of my time and/or money.

Big Top Pee Wee

As a kid who loved 'Big Adventure' and was too young to understand the process involved in making movies I assumed this film would be wicked awesome too. Lesson learned.

Ghostbusters II

Statue of Liberty walking down the street? I'm out.

 

Little Fokkers

I liked "Meet the Parents"....enjoyed "Meet The Fokkers"....but this final installment was the biggest piece of tripe I have ever seen. Just utter worthless nonsense. Rock bottom. The absolute worst. Even Jessica Alba in undies couldn't redeem this. I felt so cheated and used. I hope Ben and Bob enjoy their paychecks. Gah. Unbelieveable. Dry up.

 

I think MM has made other good movies - I really liked "The Heat" - but I agree "Thief" was terrible. Just stupid and idiotic.

And lazy. IIRC, the MM character lives in Winter Park, FL, which is near Orlando. When the movie offers establishing shots of her location, it places her near the ocean, which isn't accurate.

Why put her in Winter Park and then show the ocean? Why not just say she lives in Daytona or someplace near the beach? Winter Park had nothing to do with the plot, so there was no logical reason she had to live there.

"Deep Impact" made it look like Richmond VA was near the shore, too, but at least that worked into the plot...

You got that right. From my review:

"When I saw and adored 1985’s Pee-wee’s Big Adventure, I assumed that its charms occurred due to the creative influence of Paul Reubens, the creator and portrayer of Pee-wee Herman. I’d never heard of director Tim Burton, so I figured he was just a stooge who helped enact Reubens’ warped vision.

In 1988, I found out just how wrong I was. Burton scored a moderate hit with Beetlejuice, a flick that fell short of Adventure’s glories but managed many of its own pleasures and signaled Burton as a distinctive talent. Reubens, on the other hand, put out his own follow-up with Big Top Pee-wee.

My friend Kevin and I both eagerly anticipated Top and saw it opening night. To relate our reaction as disappointment would represent a gross understatement. Frankly, we felt absolutely shocked at what we saw, for we could scarcely imagine a less funny and entertaining film."

 

Caddyshack is a movie that I've tried and tried to understand the appeal of. I grew up loving lots of comedies from that era, and yet it really only has a few moments that make me laugh. It's far from terrible, but its universal "comedy classic" status has always kind of confused me.

 

I agree, even though I like it. I saw it when I was 13 and liked it a lot then - still think it's funny but it's so radically inconsistent!

 

My favorite comedians can quickly move from comedy to confrontational performance art, putting a spotlight on the most dismal aspects of humanity—but that is the archetypal role of the Jester, right? A comedian with no teeth is just a fart.

 

THIS. I wish I could have the 2 hrs or so of my life back that I sat in the THEATER watching this crap... horrible. And hordes of people were hysterically laughing around me.... I don't get it, wasn't funny to me at all.

 

I saw a making-of documentary a while back that pretty much confirmed my suspicion that the cast and crew basically threw a huge booze and coke party and happened to film a movie at the same time.

 

I'm not a Will Ferrell movie fan at all. The only one I have seen that I like is Stranger than Fiction. The director probably held a gun to Ferrell's head during the entire shoot and said "don't try to be funny".

 

I more or less agree with the first three (kind of the big three of the last 10ish years). I don't really find them good when they try to be funny.

Steve Martin has a great sense of humor but it does not translate to film well. He has some good ones though.