Above is an image from my dark comedy/fantasy short film titled "Grow the Fuck Up!". The image is from a "throw away" joke I couldn't resist adding. The puppet was originally built by my mother, Theresa Griffin, and was modified by professional puppet builder, Jeny Cassady. The cover of the "teddy porn" magazine was created by my good friend, and former roommate, Ed Appleby.
I love comedy. I really really love comedy. As a kid, even though I had plenty of friends, because I was born with an unusual brain, I often felt misunderstood. Not many things brought ease to that sense of loneliness; comedy proved to be my best medicine. Comedy movies like “The Naked Gun” and “American Pie”, and tv shows like “The Drew Carrey Show” and “Married with Children” helped me to laugh my woes away. I was never a “class clown”, nor did I much care for class clowns, and I didn't think of myself as funny. My first realization that I could write comedy, came in “Grade 7”. I wrote a comedic short story for a class assignment. It was about an incompetent private investigator. My teacher didn't even grade it, she merely marked it with a “?”. My classmates though, loved it. They all passed it around, and I couldn't believe the laughter it generated.
People love watching funny movies. Comedy has been a major genre in film since the very beginning of the silver screen. Life is hard, and people like to laugh their worries away. Life is full of struggles and tragedies we can't control, so we can choose to sulk in it, try and ignore it, or laugh at it. Making fun of serious situations helps to take the power away from those painful realities. It's a way for us to fight back, when there is no other way to fight back. We turn pain into pleasure, when we turn tragedy into comedy. It's a very human way to cope.
In recent years, there has been a war waged on comedy. Cancel culture, political correctness, and a growing fear of facing hard truths. This has resulted in comedians, comedic writers/directors/producers censoring themselves. The thing is, only a small percentage of viewers want to sweep comedy under the carpet. Most viewers want to laugh; it's true that different people have different tastes in comedic material, but why should any of them be denied? Why can't we all have something to laugh at? Why can't we laugh at people and situations that frustrate us? Why can't we laugh at ourselves? Why can't we have a chance at reframing life situations, and at looking at them from a different angle?
During the pandemic, I started to watch “reaction videos” on Youtube. There are legal questions to consider when it comes to reaction videos, I'm sure, but I'm not going to go into those here. I'm also not a lawyer. Watching younger adult viewers, and viewers outside of North America, watch movies like “Airplane” and “Police Academy” and laugh their heads off, is therapeutic for me. It's become more popular for people to “react” to older controversial shows like “All in the Family”, “Married with Children”, or “In Living Color”. Even adult “Generation Z” viewers can relate to the characters in these shows, get the jokes, and see the relevance and intention behind the jokes. There are plenty of smart and secure young people who can understand and enjoy this content. One thing many of them say though, sadly, is that “this show couldn't get made today”. A lot of those shows should be made today, dammit! At least new original shows that take similar risks.
Last year was a good year for edgy comedies in the cinema, at least for those who watched them. “Champions”, “No Hard Feelings”, “Theatre Camp”, and “Joy Ride” were all brilliant movies. None of them were big hits at the box office, but I sure as hell loved watching them. I don't know what current filmmakers have to do to best market comedies these days. Maybe all those horrible “Netflix Original” comedy movies made audiences weary of modern comedies? Maybe too many comedies bowed to cancel culture, and audiences assume all comedies have? Despite all of this, I'm certain audiences desperately want cuttingly funny movies.
There's a reason why standup comedy specials, by brilliant artists like Dave Chappelle, Ricky Gervais, and Shane Gillis, are doing so well. Sure they aren't everyone's cup of tea, but they don't have to be, we should all be able to watch comedies that we personally enjoy, without control freaks dictating to us what's “right” and “wrong” in comedy. I personally have written jokes about necrophilia, miscarriages, crucifixions, mental disabilities, and countless other taboo subjects, and I don't plan on censoring any of it.
You can learn more about the author, Chris Griffin, at www.angrybearfilms.com
You can watch his short film "Grow the Fuck Up!" at https://youtu.be/c53JSPBooTw?si=nv8f-eSov4wwoZdA
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