Our Funny Decade

Writing about the future blows. We’re months into 2010, and I can’t yet tell what the defining trends of the decade are. What’s taking so long... twenty-teens? That’s why it seemed like a much better (and easier) idea to look back at the past decade in comedy films, and talk about what made the era tick.

Given that this article is online, I should clarify that I’m only discussing North American comedy movies. Since Giggleflicks never once paid for me to travel abroad during the past decade (possibly because they did not yet exist) my focus will remain much closer to home. Specifically, my home. Though I will add that Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz are two of the greatest films of the decade. Period.

So, what made us laugh? Or what didn’t make us laugh, but got made anyway...

Judd Apatow Better get this out of the way first. Despite the fact that Apatow didn’t become a major movie player until directing 2004’s Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, it seemed like he had a hand in every single successful comedy, either directly or through influence, for the next 6 years. I swear that ever since 40-Year-Old Virgin came out, I just naturally assume that every comedy trailer I see is for ‘the new Judd Apatow’ movie. 

Will Ferrell Much like Eddie Murphy ruled the 80’s, and Jim Carrey the 90’s, it was SNL’s Will Ferrell who dominated the ought’s. Ever since outright stealing the show in 2003’s Old School, Ferrell has moved from hit to hit to... well, nobody’s perfect. In the aforementioned Anchorman he perfected his “blustery, clueless alpha male” persona, which he carried through Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Blades of Glory, Semi Pro, and Step Brothers. As the decade closed Ferrell expanded his range, displaying his leading man chops in Stranger Than Fiction.

R RATED COMEDY It’s hard to believe that comedy aimed solely at adults (and kids with lenient parents) went out of vogue for so long. Sure, Kevin Smith and American Pie sorta kept the torch going through the 90’s, but it’s been some time since movies like Beverly Hills Cop, Caddyshack, and Blazing Saddles unquestionably ruled the box office. But things started to turn around with 2000’s Scary Movie, and by the time Anchorman became the most quotable movie of the decade it seemed like every year we got a new Wedding Crashers, Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, and recently The Hangover. Comedy is dependent on its ability to surprise us, and subvert our expectations. Which is easier to do when your studio isn’t sanding the edges off your script to bring in a teen audience at the multiplex. They’ll watch it at some point anyway. Which leads me to...

THE ADULT COMEDIAN            One of the biggest faults of the 90’s comedy movies was its reliance on teens to sell comedies. The problem is, teenagers usually don’t have the comedic chops to carry a movie (Michael Cera has yet to prove longevity for me). As far as I can tell, the only cast member from American Pie still working in comedy is Sean William Scott. This decade our biggest comedy stars have all mostly been over 35: Will Ferrell, Paul Rudd, Tina Fey, Ricky Gervais, Vince Vaughn, Simon Pegg, Steve Carrell, David Cross... the list goes on. The difference is that these performers have paid their dues, and have the skill and talent to back up an initial burst of popularity. I argue that you rarely see the “overnight success” in comedy – it’s usually the result of years of hard work on the performer’s part. Better for us.

SMALL NAME STARS This may seem counter-intuitive to my last point, but few of our best comedies of the last decade have relied on big name stars. Hopefully, I suspect the days of $20 million Jim Carrey paydays are behind us. Now, our stars are men and (sometimes) women with strong comedic backgrounds – Steve Carrell was a relative unknown in Anchorman, but he was a star at Chicago’s Second City in the 90’s (along with Stephen Colbert). Ed Helms cut his teeth for years on The Daily Show before The Hangover (much as costar Zach Galifinakis toiled for years on the alt-stand-up circuit). Point is, the major studios seem to be learning a lesson that should have been apparent all along: A quality script and idea, plus talented performers, equals a funny and successful movie. Not piles of budget-money. But that brings up my next, less enjoyable trend...

PENISES The past comedy decade was ruled by dudes (perhaps the least positive after-effect of the Apatow influence). Even though we had some great female performers on the scene, very few of them got to carry movies. I’m a big Tina Fey fan, but I have yet to see her carry a great movie (Baby Mama was mainstream formula; Mean Girls, though excellent, had her take a backseat; and 30 Rock is... well, on TV). People seem to love Amy Poehler (I don’t get it) but she’s mainly supported in films, while starring on TV. Perhaps this has to do with the industry’s dirty secret that 60% of the TV viewing audience is female.

“REAL” COMEDY We saw a lot of successful comedies play with the idea of “real events”. Christopher Guest continued his successful run of mockumentaries with Best In Show, A Mighty Wind, and (to a lesser extent) For Your Consideration. Perhaps he was buoyed by the genius of The Office (UK). But the other man who played with how real a movie could get was Sasha Baron Cohen. There’s no doubting that the guerilla-comedy-mockumentary Borat perfectly caught the zeitgeist of a post-911, Bush era America. It made us laugh and shocked us at the same time. It was also a hard feat to replicate, with Bruno failing to click with audiences. 

So that’s my take on what impacted the American comedy movie this past decade. There were a few trends (mostly negative) that I didn’t get to:

• the rise of inappropriate adult comedy in kids’ movies (see Shrek, Alvin & the Chipmunks, Transformers 2).
• Date Movie, Epic Movie, and any other witless parody that somehow keeps getting made.
• Big-budget remakes of old sitcoms (Bewitched, The Honeymooners, Fat Albert), which I fear we’re just going to see more of. 
• Oh, and Dane Cook sucks. But at least box office receipts seem to agree with me.

If you have any thoughts on this (especially about movies and trends from around the globe that should be included) drop me a line. Hopefully we’ll be able to do this again in 10 years... if our robot overlords allow it.

by Ian MacIntyre

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