Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Why Can't Comedies Be Funny?

I am on vacation and I love to laugh and I love good comedies. I have often found the movies of the Farrelly brothers to be funny. "There's Something About Mary," was many things, but of all the many things it was, funny was at the top.

So today I went to see the movie "The Heartbreak Kid" which was supposed to be funny. The movie lasted for almost two hours and I almost left a couple of times out of complete disgust. I was waiting, however, for a good laugh. The good laugh was on me. I watched this supposedly outrageous comedy and found myself remarkably bored. This movie is awful. If you were debating on whether to go see this or watch a rerun from one of the CSI's or one of the Law and Orders, stay home and watch the rerun. I'm not all that easy to please. I even laughed a few times during "Dodgeball." This movie, however, is awful. It is filled with unlikable characters who are incredibly pathetic on so many levels and, worst of all, it isn't funny. Ugh.

I wonder why comedies can't be funny. Other than the occasion laugh on "Two and a Half Men," which appeals to the 8th grade boy still dwelling in me, and the occasional skit on Saturday Night Live, I watch TV comedies and never laugh. I never even come close to laughing. There are laugh tracks with people laughing in places I would have never though to laugh. I believe that many shows ditched the live studio audience because they felt it might have been a bit unnerving to people to watch the 'laugh now' lights light up when nothing funny was going on.

Humor is great, but comedy does seem to be a lost art. I miss it!

1 comment:

G Coyle said...

Have you watched The Office? My fave funny TV show. At this point the only movie comedy I can count on making me laugh has Ben Stiller in it. Although we just watched "Nacho Libre" and School of Rock with Jack Black and they were both very funny.