| ▲ | sugarpimpdorsey 5 days ago |
| It's a good time as any to remind everyone that The Jerk is still one of the funniest movies ever made. It could never be made today, and I suggest you pick up a copy if you've never seen it. |
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| ▲ | cloudfudge 5 days ago | parent | next [-] |
| I watched it again recently because someone I knew had never seen it. It's actually not very funny anymore. I am still amused at a lot of the jokes in it, but more in an academic sense because I remember how funny it was. There's a lot of stuff in it that's really funny on paper but just doesn't make you actually laugh anymore. Comedy doesn't really age that well, and I believe that it's because what surprises us and what's considered "clever" inevitably changes over time. |
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| ▲ | chr-s 5 days ago | parent | next [-] | | There's certainly something to novelty wearing off with time but I don't think that diminishes historical work. When I listen to Abbott and Costello perform "Who's on First?" (c. 1938) - it's still funny. It's not intrinsically less funny because I've heard it and things it inspired many times over. It's also in how you watch things. I sometimes catch old films in the theatre and the room is filled with laughter. I was belly laughing to The Palm Beach Story (Sturges, 1942). Heck, I've been to see Shakespeare where everyone's laughing. | |
| ▲ | mattpallissard 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | I agree most of it doesn't, especially if it's about current events or captures the feeling of the era. My Cousin Vinnie is an example that holds up still. No current events, no racist jokes, just typical social interactions that are still relevant. | |
| ▲ | socalgal2 5 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | It wasn't funny when it came out, for me, and I was a big fan at the time :P Steve Martin's comedy in general isn't funny anymore for me. I listened to his 70s albums which I found hilarious when I was a kid. Nothing about them is funny anymore. The jokes themselves aren't funny. It's only the delivery that made them funny and that style of delivery doesn't work anymore. He's been in some great movies, some of which are comedies and still funny but his own stand up comedy isn't anymore, at least for me. |
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| ▲ | mixmastamyk 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Why not? I haven't seen it since the 70s, although that should be warning enough. I do remember "a rags-to riches-to rags story" tagline however. |
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| ▲ | variaga 5 days ago | parent | next [-] | | >> It could never be made today. > Why not? M. Emmett Walsh, Carl Reiner, Maurice Evans and Jackie Mason are all dead, for one reason. | | |
| ▲ | shawn_w 5 days ago | parent [-] | | Not that big an issue in this age of AI generated deepfake videos. |
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| ▲ | aspenmayer 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Speaking of warnings, this one is all caps. They must mean business! > The Jerk (1979) "For Theater Owners Only" Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GZMbj8dt1o It’s hard to be this bad intentionally, and it somehow wraps around to being good again, and that’s knowing it’s an ad and the premise is suspect. Steve Martin is that good. It raises an interesting point that I’ll put to the projectionists of HN: Were there really trailers intended for the theater owners only? It seems absurd on its face, but I’m willing to believe that it’s been tried before, and definitely has since. I mean, ad targeting already exists, but it was probably a bit harder to do back in the day. That’s enough for this content hole. | | | |
| ▲ | bee_rider 5 days ago | parent | prev [-] | | Hmm. Whenever I see that expression in the context of a comedy, I assume they mean some non-PC elements are present. Maybe there are some jokes that would need to be modernized, but IIRC (saw it decades ago), it was mostly positive (like the Black family that adopted him is portrayed as poor, but nice and loving, right?) OTOH it was a moderately-budgeted, somewhat clever comedy, those have trouble getting made today. |
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| ▲ | LaundroMat 5 days ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| I learned about it through Freaks and Geeks, so I was in the right mood when watching The Jerk decades after its release. |
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| ▲ | e40 5 days ago | parent | prev [-] |
| I didn’t find it very funny when it came out. It seemed too long for the single joke. |
