Concern for Comedy

I know comedy, like most things, is subjective. I also know that it isn't my place to tell people what is funny and what isn't, because it's necessary for people to discern for themselves. Despite this, there are certain things I don't feel anyone could find funny, and yet I've seen a surprising amount of it in the past few years. Let's take a look at a few of them.

One of my biggest problems with Comedy movies has been the "Genre" Movie movies, i.e. Scary Movie, Disaster Movie, Epic Movie, Dance Flick. I've complained about them before, their tendency to simply re-hash a scene from another movie, throwing it at you hoping that it might be unexpected enough to elicit a laugh. The unexpected itself can be funny, but entire movies full of this takes the element of the unexpected away after a time. And when that's the entire joke during these segments, then it's bound to just start being tiresome. It's a clear sign of tired, uninspired writing. And whatever opinion writers may have of their audience, I think audiences have a tendency to pick up on this. You have to respect your audience. This is something I will probably say a lot to a lot of people for a lot of reasons. It was a big complaint for me regarding fantasy novels. Give your readers/viewers some credit. I know these "Genre" Movies are kind of brain dead comedies, but that doesn't mean the people who watch them are brain dead. Mix things up. At least try to provide some entertainment.

Another disturbing trend I see is pain to animals as comedy. A lot of comedies seem to end up involving animals being hurt or even killed. It deeply, deeply disturbs me that someone might find harm to living creatures to be funny. I guess it makes sense, in the vein of slapstick where the comedian receives physical punishment in order to elicit laughter, or the retributive pain to assholes with the idea that if it's justified then it can be funny. Even if you find this kind of thing to be funny there's still an important difference here. In those situations the people are basically asking for the physical pain. The asshole is asking for it, again, as retribution, and the slapstick character is asking for it by being ridiculous. You know it's coming and you expect it. But animals are not asking for it. The animal did not do anything wrong beside not being able to voice out opposition. Even Kant, who considered animals "things" and not good enough to obtain the ranking of "personhood" felt that animals should not be mistreated for fear of your personhood. Yet comedians seem to have a sickening fascination with this idea. I would like someone to explain to me why this sort of thing is supposed to be funny, because I don't really see why this would be anything but disgusting.

Which leads me into my last point. Much like what I described last week, the sense that assholes are not heros, neither are they comedians. I know there are "comedians" who's every joke is saying something incredibly mean, but that doesn't mean they are actually funny. I know I've said a number of particularly mean things on this site, but I don't do it to be funny. I do it to be mean, because I feel those people get far too much praise for being really bad at what they do. So what I'm saying is, Paul Rudd. YOU ARE NOT FUNNY. Sitting there, spouting out off-handed insults to the rest of your cast members does not make you funny. It makes you an asshole. And being an asshole is not interesting. It's insanely boring. I realize assholes are the fault of the writer, usually the writer lashing back with his (probably only) talent at a world he doesn't quite belong too. Wow. Self-reflective moment...aaaaaaand I'm back. What I suggest, writers, is that YOU GET THE HELL OVER YOURSELVES. Making one of your characters a sharp tongued asshole doesn't make you clever. It makes you trite. So cut it out already.