MikeT14 Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 I was having this conversation with my wife this weekend. Every decade, I feel like we had gems of teen comedies - raunchy, romantic, whatever - that were great. Thinking back to the 2010's, I feel like they were few and far between. Even then, the majority of them were in the early part of the decade. Lady Bird, Blockers, Scott Pilgrim were all solid additions, but the decade as a whole was poor. What happened? I feel like generally these do well to recoup at the box office. Also, what are your Top 5 or 10? In no real order, here's 8: American Pie, Fast Times, Superbad, Clueless, Ferris Bueller, Dazed and Confused, 10 Things I Hate About You, Can't Hardly Wait Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PARROTHEAD Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 Everything wants to capitalize on tshirts, figurines, videogames and use licensing rights to their fullest potential. Plus its all been done. Hard to stand out and be different anymore. 1 PORKYS SERIES 2 Hollywood Knights 3. American Pie Series 4. American Graffiti 5. Bill and Ted Series 6. Johnny Be Good 7. Revenge of the Nerds 8. Rock of Ages 9. Dazed and Confused 10. The Van How you have a list without Porkys Mike is beyond me. The "We'll call the police and have them send over a sketch artist...." is the greatest scene in movie history. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MacReady Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 Comedy is the deadest of genres. The only funny movies out there are written by wildly talented scriptwriters too intelligent for modern audiences. Blockers made 94 million dollars. What We Do In the Shadows made under 7 million dollars. There you've got the worst comedy I've sat through in 4 years next to the best comedy I've seen since... Maybe Hot Fuzz. Speaking of Hot Fuzz... It made 80 million worldwide. The World's End made 46 million worldwide. Shaun of the Dead made 30 million worldwide. Every once in a while you'll have a somewhat well-written comedy that does well. This Is The End was really funny until it fell apart in the final act. It made 126 million. The Hangover was funny until they didn't realize that you can't just remake it two times. Judd Apatow, who doesn't have a funny bone in his body, seems to think that Hollywood stopped buying comedy scripts after the writer's block and just decided to start making a comedy every once in a while with a quick hire writer, cast and director. I think Hollywood just stopped buying his scripts because he's flat out not funny. With how things are now, there are probably plenty of great scripts out there. Those great scripts get bought, and then they get ruined by: Studio interference (everybody trying to inject jokes that they think are hilarious that aren't)Imitation (one funny line of dialogue or delivery can't go unused in every other comedy the rest of that decade) --What I mean by this is how every single comedy reuses nearly identical delivery, sometimes identical dialogue, in every single movie. How many times have you seen someone do the whole, "I mean..." thing, or "Wait, what?" There are more examples that aren't coming to me right now, but as soon as there's a funny delivery or line or saying, it's reused ten thousand times to the point it's annoying. Actors - They're trying to create comedy stars instead of making the script the star. John Cena is not funny. Period. He can't act, he is not funny. Terry Crews is not funny. Period. He cannot act, he is not funny. Wanda Sykes is not funny. This one really kills me. Since when did obnoxious/unique voices become synonymous with being funny? I blame Bobcat Goldthwait. No, I don't blame him. He had a funnyunique voice, but he also knew the power of DELIVERY. Watch Scrooged and the scene he's tearing up the place. The way he says "With her!" in the middle of his rant is hilarious. Amy Schumer is not funny. Then you've got ten thousand character actors who have specific schticks they can't get out of and Hollywood throws them in and tries to make them something they're not. I could keep writing, but I don't want to spend my whole day speculating on and theorizing about how and why comedy in Hollywood is dead. But it is. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
THE DUKE Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 Part of the problem is no one in Hollywood wants to offend anyone anymore. Comedy used to be about taking risks and pushing the boundaries. Now it's about toeing the line and pre-approved targets. 8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Apparition Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 The fact that they were the product of a very specific zeitgeist that simply doesn't exist anymore. Also, most of them weren't funny. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobbyPhil1781 Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 Teen comedies? Here's something I can get on board w/! 1. The American Pie series. Once they started branching off to those that weren't the original 4, I can't speak for them. I understand I like these movies probably more than most people and I'm OK w/ that. 2. Anything Judd Apatow touched that fits this genre w/ Seth Rogan Then the rankings get hard so I'm going to do w/ tiers: Top Tier: Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Breakfast Club, Dazed and Confused, Clueless, Not Another Teen Movie, (Do we consider the Jump Street movies "teen"??) Next Tier: House Party series, 10 Thing I Hate About You, She's All That, Easy A, Mean Girls, Fast Times, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, Eurotrip, Can't Hardly Wait Final Tier (still good movies): John Tucker Must Die, Accepted, Idle hands..... I need to think about this more... there's so many good ones out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobbyPhil1781 Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 1 hour ago, THE DUKE said: Part of the problem is no one in Hollywood wants to offend anyone anymore. Comedy used to be about taking risks and pushing the boundaries. Now it's about toeing the line and pre-approved targets. This is precisely it. The second (literally THE SECOND) someone gets made fun of there's a group of people whining and crying and trying to cancel everyone and everything associated w/ the content. People not understanding how to cope w/ their feelings really is making things far worse than they need to be. People really need to lighten up a little bit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeT14 Posted July 27, 2020 Author Share Posted July 27, 2020 5 hours ago, PARROTHEAD said: How you have a list without Porkys Mike is beyond me. The "We'll call the police and have them send over a sketch artist...." is the greatest scene in movie history. I will confess, I have seen this movie, but it was a LONG time ago (probably at least 20+ years), when the jokes were a little less understood on my end. I'll watch it again soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeT14 Posted July 27, 2020 Author Share Posted July 27, 2020 1 hour ago, THE DUKE said: Part of the problem is no one in Hollywood wants to offend anyone anymore. Comedy used to be about taking risks and pushing the boundaries. Now it's about toeing the line and pre-approved targets. It's a good point, but I listened to Patton Oswalt on ... I think it was Pardon My Take. They asked him about this. I am doing this from memory, but he more or less said the best in the world actually thrive off this. You have to come up with new and creative ways to do comedy. I'm butchering it some, but he had a good counter-point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeT14 Posted July 27, 2020 Author Share Posted July 27, 2020 18 minutes ago, BobbyPhil1781 said: Final Tier (still good movies): John Tucker Must Die, Oh man, an underappreciated gem. Better than it probably got credit for. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
43M Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 The better question is "what happened to COMEDY?" Then again, thats not a question I personally need answered. I already know the answer. However, the answer to "what happened to TEEN comedies" can only be answered after you address what happened to comedy in general. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
August4th Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 they got turned into superhero films Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fl0nkerton Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 betcha everyone in here LOVES Ricky Gervais when he hosts award shows 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PARROTHEAD Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 2 hours ago, MikeT14 said: I will confess, I have seen this movie, but it was a LONG time ago (probably at least 20+ years), when the jokes were a little less understood on my end. I'll watch it again soon. If your wife hasnt seen it. Watch it tonight! Would love to hear how a fresh pair of adult eyes responds to the "sketch artist" scene. I didnt see it till I was probably in college and the tears were flowing laughing so hard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozzy Posted July 27, 2020 Share Posted July 27, 2020 To me if one is talking the funniest, Superbad is easily the funniest of them all it is not even close. No mention of Napoleon Dynamite? That is a classic and easily one of the best teen comedies ever made and one of the funniest comedies, it is absolutely original in every sense of the word. Mean Girls is outstanding as well, 10 Things I hate About you and The Perks of Being a Wallflower but that is not really a comedy it is simply a great movie. There are some serious parts but Juno should be considered as well, great movie. 21 Jump Street, sure the main characters are college aged but still takes place in a high school and is pretty damn good. Beavis and Butthead Do America considered a Teen comedy? Should be. The Sitter but Jonah's character is out of high school in that one, The Mighty Ducks has to be in it, not really always in the school setting but takes place with school aged kids and is very fun and entertaining. Crazy, Stupid, Love maybe but probably not since the main character is not in high school but his son is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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