Are comedies too dependent on dick and fart jokes?

R

RockmanX3

Well-known member
Don't get me wrong, I love Kevin Smith and Judd Apatow as much as the next guy, but over the past few years, comedy movies have been going a bit overboard with the dick and fart jokes. I remember seeing Adam Sandler's "Click" back in 2006, expecting a movie about Sandler messing around with a magic remote, but most of the movie was dick and fart jokes with a dog humping a pillow/toy/I forget.

I know there's tons of great comedies that don't rely on them, but the majority of the ones I've been watching lately are just so peppered with dick and fart jokes to the point of me cringing when I hear them. Maybe they were funny to me when I was 13, but I'm a bit tired of them now. I probably need to go out and watch more movies.

What do you guys think?
 
RockmanX3 said:
Don't get me wrong, I love Kevin Smith and Judd Apatow as much as the next guy, but over the past few years, comedy movies have been going a bit overboard with the dick and fart jokes. I remember seeing Adam Sandler's "Click" back in 2006, expecting a movie about Sandler messing around with a magic remote, but most of the movie was dick and fart jokes with a dog humping a pillow/toy/I forget.

I know there's tons of great comedies that don't rely on them, but the majority of the ones I've been watching lately are just so peppered with dick and fart jokes to the point of me cringing when I hear them. Maybe they were funny to me when I was 13, but I'm a bit tired of them now. I probably need to go out and watch more movies.

What do you guys think?
Click to expand...

I honestly think they get shoved in for one primary reason, they make great trailer moments. It's hard to set up and pay off a complicated joke in a trailer and not eat up a lot of time. Broad gags and crude language get quick, cheap laughs.
 
Well I don't know if you've seen Walk Hard but they took dick to a whole 'nother level. I personally could not stop laughing at that scene.
 
Richard J. Johnson said:
Well I don't know if you've seen Walk Hard but they took dick to a whole 'nother level. I personally could not stop laughing at that scene.
Click to expand...

Man I HATED that movie...painful...the only joke I found funny was Tim Meadow's whole drug shtick, "You don't want any part of this...It takes all your bad feelings, and turns them into GOOD feelings."
 
I thought "Funny People" was absolutely insanely over the top in that regard, and along with its *way* excessive length, totally killed any possible enjoyment of the film for me. "Hangover" wasn't exactly written for choirboys, but IIRC, it relied a lot less on body part/function references, and was a vastly funnier movie IMO.
 
Batutta said:
Man I HATED that movie...painful...the only joke I found funny was Tim Meadow's whole drug shtick, "You don't want any part of this...It takes all your bad feelings, and turns them into GOOD feelings."
Click to expand...

I laughed maybe 3 times myself, but that hotel scene where everyone was naked effing kills me for some very odd reason.
 
Ted Spencer said:
I thought "Funny People" was absolutely insanely over the top in that regard, and along with its *way* excessive length, totally killed any possible enjoyment of the film for me. "Hangover" wasn't exactly written for choirboys, but IIRC, it relied a lot less on body part/function references, and was a vastly funnier movie IMO.
Click to expand...

I agree. I felt Funny People was a chore to sit through while The Hangover was far more enjoyable.

Back when I was a kid, it was hard for me to chose between Ace Venture and Dumb and Dumber, but when I got older and rewatched them, Dumb and Dumber was the far superior movie in terms of humor.
 
It's easy and it sells. Producers want reliable, those are reliable. The end. I do enjoy phallic references and fart jokes quite a bit, and use them often, but at some point it just doesn't work anymore. Specifically, it only works when the lines are integrated into something a bit more well crafted. I can think of some incredibly hilarious lines in movies and shows I've seen, none of them involve crude references. It just isn't clever.
 
Hopefully this will prevent anyone here from ever using or enjoying a fart joke again--
IMPORTANT NOTICE: No media files are hosted on these forums. By clicking the link below you agree to view content from an external website. We can not be held responsible for the suitability or legality of this material. If the video does not play, wait a minute or try again later.
I AGREE
 
Batutta said:
Don't make me feel old.
Click to expand...

Makes you feel old... I can remember when neither would have been shown in 'legitimate' theaters... we were stuck laughing at Jerry Lewis... Or a lady singer and ukalele player running around with to guys in drag who play respectively a sax and a bass filddle...
 
Yeah! Give me the good old days when films didn't have fart jokes... movies like BLAZING SADDLES and ... oh, wait, never mind.

I just did a quick search on film fart jokes and found an article from the NY Times from 1935 on how dialogue comedies don't sell to France, but American movies with physical comedy and flatulence...

So - same as it ever was.

- Bill
 
wcmartell said:
Yeah! Give me the good old days when films didn't have fart jokes... movies like BLAZING SADDLES and ... oh, wait, never mind.

I just did a quick search on film fart jokes and found an article from the NY Times from 1935 on how dialogue comedies don't sell to France, but American movies with physical comedy and flatulence...

So - same as it ever was.

- Bill
Click to expand...

Yeah, but you have to admit that "Blazing Saddles"(1974) was a watershed film for flatulence... Ranging from reintroducing Le Petomane to the modern age, a campfire bean fest, to a lisping choreographer's delicate comment about 'steam escaping'...
 
The difference is in delivery. There's more to it in the creative use of flatulence in Blazing Saddles than is seen in the easy comedy we're complaining about.

Do keep in mind that I grew up with Ren and Stimpy as my favorite cartoon (watching it being one of the limited bits of family time), and I'm glad for that. Yet I agree with the premise here.
 
There’s a lovely detail in Vonnegut’s 1985 novel, Galapagos, about how the descendants of the human race, a million years from now – having evolved into downy, seal-like creatures with no remaining capacity for language or abstract thought – still retain a rudimentary sense of humour when it comes to flatulence, and will start to bark hysterically, clapping together their little flippers as their bodies roll around on the beach, whenever someone lets one off!

DP
 
I completely agree. Something about flatulence and dick jokes that just turns me off, and actually pulls me out of the movie. I have laughed at dick and fart jokes before, but rarely, and only when they were cleverly introduced as a bigger joke that asked for it. Can't even think of any at the moment.

To me dick and fart jokes are more cop outs. It's when a writer just doesn't know what else to write and they think "this will make people laugh easily".

And for some people it works. This is why people will make youtube videos where they take a clip of some famous movie and just add fart sounds to get laughs...
 
I wholeheartedly agree. Its not just in movies either. I've been doing stand up for a few years, and during this time period I've come to despise comics that appeal to the lowest common denominator, with acts centered around dicks, pussies, and farts, not because I think its "too easy" or "shock humor" as people call it, but because it lacks SUBSTANCE. Both Louis CK and Sarah Silverman talk about sex and pooping and all that stuff, but the difference between the two is that Louis CK has depth, while Silverman doesn't. Louis CK is dirty, but its in a greater context, as he talks about social issues and family issues. He utilizes profanity in a way that George Carlin called "seasoning the stew. put too much in, and it ruins the stew." Silverman ruins the stew. She is one dimensional, better suited for those who lack the attention span to stay on board for a 10 minute story like Louis tells.

As for "Funny People", it wasnt that bad. I agree it coulda been shorter, and it was somewhat unrealistic when dealing with the newer comics progression at stand up.
 
odonnelly99 said:
Silverman ruins the stew. She is one dimensional, better suited for those who lack the attention span to stay on board for a 10 minute story like Louis tells.
Click to expand...

I never liked her. Her whole disingenuous shtick wears out its welcome real fast, and it limits her as an actress because she's incapable of sincerity.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top