Comedy, to laugh or not to laugh ??

Before I start I'd like to say that I started to write this while taking dump...

So while I'm currently working on a comedy movie right now I have conducted a bit of "research" to help me work on in it. since my movie extracts allot from popular culture forming a comedic abomination that would force you to laugh (or at least I think it would), I had to be familiar with said popular culture before actually trying to criticizing it. so based on some peoples comments (like scott and nick) I spread out to check mel brooks, properly this time not just like a couple of scenes of space balls but actually seeing history of the world and blazing saddles, but then I'm an avid movie goer/downloader so I also go see movies that are playing right now. now I also remembered (well a friend of mine talked about him allot) woody allen, now I tottally respect him as a comedian and although I didn't see allot of his work (the full ones I saw were like ANTZ and scoop, I saw bits of others but that's not allot) so I downloaded manhatten since my friend told me it was his favourite, at the same time I was dowloading Hot Rod (because Isla Fisher is hot, don't judge me I'm a dude I have two heads I use for thinking and as an equal opportunity employer I employ both heads for equal times, {in retrospect that sounded disgusting}) and both downloads ended within 10 minutes of each other so I skimmed quickly both of them.

Then it hit me (it seems to be hitting me allot these days) comedies right now are all slapstick in your face joke driven farces that are just joke after joke with a minor plot just barely holding the movie together (like a spaghetti strap tank top on a 500 pound woman) while older movies the jokes where a little more subtle, like in manhatten for instance woody allen inserts the lines inbetween to grab your laugh while you're not really paying attention, while modern movies are mostly forcing it out, I'm not saying that is bad, but seriously is this all we can do regress to the days of the three stooges and laurel and hardy (which were awesome in their own way) of pure physical comedy and gags and not really have a script to pull it out together.

most scripts now are lacking some substantiality along with the laughs that kinda dilutes these movies. I loved superbad and the forty year old virgin and knocked up, seth rogen is hilarious so is steve carell, but then a movie like superbad was successful as a box office hit, but then go to the critics and they'll be raving on what a piece of crap this is and how it is not really a movie worth paying for, the public loves it, but really has the public degressed to not wanting to use their brains at all to laugh, I mean you can get clever jokes, the writers are capable of doing that, having a more clever premise to a movie that would provide you with even more laughter.

Like how disney or shrek would slip in more clever jokes for the older viewer (or in horton hears a who the anime scene for the geeks that still love Dr. suess beyond their teen years) those are clever, the simpsons did the same and were subtly commentating on their surrounding without much vulgarity, whereas in southpark the only quote I can think of is "Kyle you stupid asshole !!", I still watch these shows and movies for fun (hell they ARE funny and I like to laugh ALLOT) but then why are they growing and really good smart comedies are starting to dwindle, it's the same back home the most successful comedies are like "El Lemby" or "Elly Baly Balak" which highly depend on the physicality of the actor acting stupid. Borat did the same thing but Sasha Baron Cohen (who is a better actor and Isla fisher's fiance and father of her Daughter {creepy stalkerisms don't worry I'm not that creepy in person} ) was clever enough to send a proper message with his movie, as ridiculous as it was, it still was a clever commentary on modern day america (coming from a british dude acting kazakhestani).

Tarantino and Rodriguez two of my most favourite Directors of all times make movies that might not fit within the comedy region, but still the humor in them is enough to get you laughing for a while, even without knowing so yourself or even wanting to. Their humor is clever in subtle ways, you'll laugh in the midst of the action, with the trademark restaurant conversations of Tarantino such as the "like a virgin" or "I don't believe in tipping" in reservoir dogs or even the very famous quarter pounder speech in pulp fiction (btw in egypt we have both quarter pounder and mcroyale and their both way over a quarter of a pound) are hilarious in their own way because they are clever enough to resemble a real life ocnversation yet crazy enough to be funny, same for rodriguez when he inserts small lines that add the humour element, like "are you a mexican or are you a mexican't" from once upon a time in mexico as well as the bartender moving with the bar to avoid bullets in the begining of that movie. simple elements that just make you laugh without even wanting to.

so if those elements are possible why not then are there more substantial comedy movies that have more elements to them then just jokes followed by jokes that dilute the movie enough to make it not really purposeful anymore. I'm saying this and my current script is already like that, and I can't do anything about it right now since I'm about to finish it, and it's more than halfway done, but i tried to add substantiality to it in a subtle way although i think it might not completely go through, but hey I'm trying my best for a first attempt. you see i never thought i would go into comedy, i always thought comedy was sort of a transitional phase for bigger better things, when I started doing strips for my school newspaper, they started to become a hit and people loved them, but i always wanted to go for bigger stories more than just comedy. people started telling me they like my comedy, I did standup a couple of times and people liked it too, so it got me thinking hey what if my strongest element IS comedy, and don't get me wrong that was a hard Decision because around people I'm NOT FUNNY, and I get told that over and over again, but when I do a comic strip, a stand up act or even art that has humor within it, people like it and tell me so, so i hope I'm not fooling myself by illusions of people just saying that because they're trying to be polite, and they are actually enjoying it, or else I'll be falling into a trap of which I can't get out of, because now I realised that comedy in itself is an art, and not an easy one to delve into, the art of making people laugh without resorting to stupidity or ridiculousness is hard but hopefully I'lll be able to reach that point where I can make you laugh, and you would laugh without just trying to be polite...