Remember the early 2000′s (the Aughts)? The first decade of the new millennium was absolutely filthy with raucous crowd-pleasing flicks that had moviegoers doubled over in hysterics. Especially the mid-Aughts.
Just off the top of my head: Meet The Parents, Anchorman, Bruce Almighty, 40 Year-Old Virgin, Superbad, Team America: World Police, Role Models, Step Brothers (maybe the funniest of all, ahem), Knocked Up, Talladega Nights, Mean Girls, Napoleon Dynamite, Wedding Crashers. Anyway, you get the idea.
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How bout the Nineties? Ace Ventura, Dumb and Dumber, Nutty Professor, There’s Something About Mary, Cable Guy, Liar Liar, any Adam Sandler or Chris Farley movie, the Hot Shots! Movies, Austin Powers, Defending Your Life, Mother, Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, American Pie, South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, Zoolander, and so on.
Eighties: Stripes, Ghostbusters, Caddyshack, Airplane!, Naked Gun franchise, Beverly Hills Cop, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, Spaceballs, Fletch, National Lampoon’s Vacation, The Great Outdoors, Back to School, Top Secret!
All of these came off the top of my head in mere minutes.
Now let’s try from 2010 until today…
Um. The first Hangover movie is honestly I think very overrated. Bridesmaids was pretty funny. We’re the Millers (or was it Meet the Millers?). Hall Pass? That’s all I can pull from my mental data base.
I genuinely cannot recall laughing until my face hurt at anything that has come out since 2010-ish. Perhaps Tropic Thunder? Was that 2012? Couldn’t tell you.
Right now I am going to pause and cheat and Google funniest movies of the past 10 years. Hang on.
OK I’m back and it’s even more dire than I thought.
It’s so dire Collider the internet pop culture site had to resort to Thor: Ragnarok being included in its list of 20. Paddington 2 is on there, too, and although it’s a charming ride from start to finish and Hugh Grant is fantastic as the villain, I did not laugh so hard I couldn’t catch my breath.
A few did pop out, such as the Melissa McCarthy vehicle Spy and the talking bear movie Ted. Both solid comedies but gut-busters? The Nice Guys made the list but The Other Guys did not.
So in the end I’m not crazy. We are in an absolute rut for broad comedies while stuck in a glut of Marvel nonsense. I should have known we were in trouble as far back as 2012, when Anchorman 2 stunk up the silver screen as perhaps the worst sequel to a comedy ever.
But what do I know? I loved Hail! Caesar from the Coen brothers and I laughed A LOT at that movie. Which reminds me I need to scroll up and add Raising Arizona to the Eighties. Now THAT was a scream from start to finish.
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