I grew up in the 80's when there was a constant stream of great American comedies. Trading Places, Stir Crazy, Down and Out in Beverley Hills, etc. Even the first Police Academy was watchable.
Since Something About Mary (which was OK) everything coming from the US seems to rely on the basic teen humour more reminisant of Porky's than well thought out adult humour.
Are there any good American comedies that I may have missed from about 1990 onwards that aren't full of sexually frustrated collage kids trying to loose their cherry?
From 1990 onwards, that covers a lot of ground, but here are some good choices I think.
What About Bob Groundhog Day Swingers Napoleon Dynamite Bowfinger Mystery Men Deconstructing Harry O' God Where Art Thou? Welcome To Collinwood Dodgeball The Big Lebowski
Anchorman The Ballard of Ricky Bobby Austin Powers Starsky & Hutch
I feel there has been an overall dumbing down in the American comedy genre though, but then again there's dumbing down in everything now.
You're allowed to get away with being a lot thicker now than you used to and as for the kids and teenagers... Kids and teenagers, so fick it's unbelievable.
So many just pop into your head after you've posted.
Christopher Guest films: Best in Show Waiting for Guffman A Mighty Wind.
And then there's
High Fidelity Grosse Point Blank Almost Famous Rushmore The Royal Tenenbaums Clerks Shanghai Noon/Shanghai Knights Election About Schmidt City Slickers.
I'll leave some for other people to post. I appreciate all personal opinions, but I must disagree with navyguy about 'Old School'.
As someone said the americans dodn't do clever comedy very often and hardly ever do satire or sarcasm or irony, they just don't get it
anyway here is my list
Clerks
This was amaising for the budget it was made on, it was funded entirely on creditcards and for a lot less than $50'000, If you like woody allen then you will like this as you could be forgiven for mistakenly thinking you're watching one of his films as Kevin Smith very cleverly emulates his satire and directing style in this film. Dogma is another Kevin Smith film that is well worth a watch
Dumb and Dumber
This is one of my favourite comedies of all time, Jim Carey and Jeff Daniels(sp?) make such a team, I know it is american slapstick in parts it doesn't go over the top and it is clever in parts like the bit where he is driving and thinking about the girl and she drops her top to reveal flashing Headlights and opens her mouth to honk like a horn!
Bruce Almighty Another Jim Carey movie, but I thought this was very origional and Morgam Freeman played God perfectly. This film doesnt really have many Slapstick moments if any but rather suprising or clever humour. By surprising I mean the bit where he's asking God how many fingers he's holding up
"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man"
"Embiggens, phfft that isn't even a word"
"Of course it is Lisa, it's a perfectly crumulent word"
Originally posted by _DISCODAVE_: As someone said the americans dodn't do clever comedy very often and hardly ever do satire or sarcasm or irony, they just don't get it
I have to strongly disagree with that. Just sticking to the subject of films, 'Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb' (arguably the finest satire of all time) was an American production. Then of course we have films like 'Being There' and 'Bananas'. As for clever ironic comedies then look no further than Christopher Guest's films as well as 'This is Spinal Tap'. Then of course there is the great Woody Allen with intelligent yet gut-bustingly funny films such as 'Deconstructing Harry', 'Manhattan', 'Annie Hall', 'Bullets Over Broadway', 'Everyone Says I Love You', 'Manhattan Murder Mystery', 'Radio Days', 'Broadway Danny Rose' and many more including the aforementioned 'Bananas'. Throw in recent films such as 'The Royal Tenenbaums', 'Rushmore' and 'I Heart Huckabees', along with old favourites such as 'The Producers' and 'The Apartment', as well as 'Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy' which was an entirely ironic film, and you've barely scratched the surface. And going beyond films, American televison at the moment is producing much sharper satirical television than the UK.
Firstly I didn't say they never do it, I had already mentioned Woody allen with Manhatten in mind and This is Spinal Tap was also a good film but I dont know too much about it. As for Dr Strangelove athough stanley Kuberic directed it and he is a very clever director, the whole idea of making a comedy about the Horrors of Nuclear war to shock people is genious but for me it is Peter Sellers that makes that film and he was British, No one else could have pulled those roles off the way he did
As for the Producers yes this was a totally american film however Mel Brooks has a very clever sense of humour while catering to the more simple american styles
As for the other films you mentioned I cant comment because I don't know much about any of them having not seen them but.
Anyway a lot of the films you have mentioned are from the 60's when a lot of these types of flims were getting made and they were the "in" thing with the exeption of a lot of Woody Allen films and this threat was supposed to be post 90's lol, that doesn't take any away from your arguement but humour evolves and todays america favours a much simpler approach to humour than British mentality today that is not an insult it's just how I see it.
By the way I'm dissapointed you didn't mention my favourite American comedy in you little list, The Odd Couple, this was a very cleaver film by Neil Simon that played on how two friends attitudes change towards each other when they start to live together
Thank you for your input anyway H.Claufeild, I'm not above accepting anothers point of view, It's just my opinion that American comedy of today is a lot simpler then British
As for TV the last comedy that I really got into out of the states was Fraiser, a very well written show and superbly performed buy all the actors however I don't see the big hype about Friends, imo it is the most over-rated show to come out of the states I do find some of it funny, but to me it just seems to be simple american humour so am I missing somthing here? You are correct however that the states is producing better quality programming than her atm as our country seems to be stuck in the mire of celebrity tv and reality tv shows, but if you took some of the great British clasics such as Only Fools and Horses or Porridge they would not do well in the states as they just wouldn't get the humour
"A noble spirit embiggens the smallest man"
"Embiggens, phfft that isn't even a word"
"Of course it is Lisa, it's a perfectly crumulent word"
I agree with the OP about the lack of good comedy from America these days. Most of what's coming out now just doesn't appeal to me. To me much of it seems juvenile, contrived, and simply not funny, yet there are LOTS of people out there who completely disagree with me. Maybe I have an old-fashioned sense of humour. Here are some recent (post 1990) comedies (imo) that I did enjoy:
Groundhog Day Dumb and Dumber Ace Ventura Austin Powers Forrest Gump Hot Shots! The Naked Gun Wayne's World Jackass The Movie Pulp Fiction Fight Club Ed Wood Toy Story Ice Age The Truman Show Shrek Rush Hour Pleasantville
Originally posted by _DISCODAVE_: Firstly I didn't say they never do it
quote:
I did not say that you did. You said that they don't do clever comedy very often, which implies that they rarely do it.
As for Dr Strangelove athough stanley Kuberic directed it and he is a very clever director, the whole idea of making a comedy about the Horrors of Nuclear war to shock people is genious but for me it is Peter Sellers that makes that film and he was British, No one else could have pulled those roles off the way he did
quote:
There are several points to this comment. First of all, you do actually have a very good point that the source material was from a British novel. However, within the context of film making, the novel could have only been brought to the big screen via the imagination of Stanley Kubrick and the wonderful Terry Southern, a rather brilliant American screen writer (whose credits I won't bore you with here). Also, yes, Peter Sellers is of course wonderful in the film, but I personally believe that the greatest asset of the film is actually the dialogue of general look of the movie. Who else could have pulled off all those roles? Perhaps nobody, but then you would just cast different actors in each respectful role. And bearing that in mind, I actually believe that the funniest performance in the film is actually by George C Scott.
As for the Producers yes this was a totally american film however Mel Brooks has a very clever sense of humour while catering to the more simple american styles
quote:
Isn't arguably the most clever form of comedy, making intelligent humour accessible to the masses?
a lot of the films you have mentioned are from the 60's when a lot of these types of flims were getting made and they were the "in" thing with the exeption of a lot of Woody Allen films and this thread was supposed to be post 90's
quote:
I actually only mentioned three films from the sixties, and I acknowledge that the thread was supposed to be post nineties, I was simply trying to illustrate the tradition of intelligent comedy in American cinema. I perhaps misunderstood the original comment which I responded to, I felt that by suggesting that American's do not do clever comedy very often, that you were meaning in general. I now understand that you meant within the context of a post nineties disussion.
that doesn't take any away from your arguement but humour evolves and todays america favours a much simpler approach to humour than British mentality today that is not an insult it's just how I see it.
quote:
I appreciate and respect your opinion, I personally think that there have been many post nineties titles mentioned in this thread to perhaps debunk that argument. Most films in general are not very good, and that is not peculiar to today, that has always been the case. If you were to select ten great American comedies from each decade since the thirties, I don't think that you would have much trouble. With each generation quality lasts, and the crap gets forgotten. Post nineties films will be no different for future generations. If we are sticking purely to films as subject matter, then I am finding it very difficult to be able to compare post ninetie's American comedies alongside British comedy films. I can think of very few clever british comedy films over the past seventeen years, and I would actually like some input. I suppose that 'Four Weddings and a Funeral' should be included, and perhaps 'The Full Monty' although I am the only person in Britain never to have seen it. 'Peter's Friends' was slight, but rather good as was 'In the Bleak Midwinter'. Although overrated in my opinion, I would also add 'Shaun of the Dead' into the mix
By the way I'm dissapointed you didn't mention my favourite American comedy in you little list, The Odd Couple, this was a very cleaver film by Neil Simon that played on how two friends attitudes change towards each other when they start to live together
quote:
Lol, I almost did mention that film, but ironically I didn't want to delve too far into the past to illustrate a point. I agree with you entirely about this film. The scene in the restaurant where Jack Lemmon is clearing his nasal passages is a brilliant example of physical comedy.
Thank you for your input anyway H.Claufeild, I'm not above accepting anothers point of view, It's just my opinion that American comedy of today is a lot simpler then British
quote:
Thank and I appreciate your input also. Don't get me wrong, I love British comedy, and some great television has been produced in recent years, such as 'Peep Show', 'Early Doors', 'Extras', and 'The Office'. But we also have to accept that we are being fed 'My Family' and 'Little Britain'. America has produced some comedy shows in recent years but also some gems such as 'The daily Show' and 'Arrested Development', which in my opinion are both as sharp as anything coming out of the UK at the moment, and certainly not what you would call 'simple comedy'.
As for TV the last comedy that I really got into out of the states was Fraiser, a very well written show and superbly performed buy all the actors however I don't see the big hype about Friends, imo it is the most over-rated show to come out of the states I do find some of it funny, but to me it just seems to be simple american humour so am I missing somthing here?
quote:
No, lol. You are not missing anything at all. Friends was a piece of pop culture, that is all. If you ask any Friends fanatic what they love about the show, they will firstly mention the relationships, the fashion etc and about fourth on the list they say, "oh yeah, it's quite funny as well". On the top of the list, if someone asks you why you love a comedy show, the fact that it's funny should be the first thing that pops into your head. As for Frasier, yes I concur, it was brilliant. The aforementioned 'Arrested Development' is also extremely sharp comedy and 'My Name is Earl' is another recent gem, as is 'Weeds'. Alongside 'Frasier' however, 'Seinfeld' (although admittedly the pilot aired in 1989) and 'The Larry Sanders Show' were definitely it's equal in the nineties.
if you took some of the great British clasics such as Only Fools and Horses or Porridge they would not do well in the states as they just wouldn't get the humour[/QUOTE]
I agree with you that they wouldn't get the references, but I do think that good humour travels. Anyway _DISCODAVE_, it was certainly food for thought .
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