🎬 #179 The Power of Spoof
I’m not sure another film in the history of cinema has managed to cram in so many jokes, layers of them, at least every 30 seconds. From sight gags, to word play to incredible non-sequiturs this film has you laughing along, barely able to keep up, with its boundary pushing, delicious ridiculousness.
Happy viewing,
Bry
FILM: AIRPLANE!
1980 Dir Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker and David Zucker [known as ZAZ]
1 hour 22 mins
This was another film I’ve watched many times growing up, repeated often on tv usually fairly late at night, when I probably should have been in bed. When you were younger maybe you didn’t get some of the jokes, the adults would laugh and you’d wonder what was funny about a woman blowing air into an inflatable auto-pilot. And like Nielsen, you’d wonder why everyone is calling him Shirley and asking what a hospital is - a big building with patients in it, but that’s not important right now.
What’s important is that the crew of writer / directors borrowed a lof of plot elements from an earlier film, Zero Hour! on which they strung a tons of comedy pearls - creating outlandish scenarios and pushing the boundaries of taste. Today, a lot of the jokes would probably be culled because of general sensitivities but that’s exactly why these kinds of films exist. Comedy can exist to push us, to look at ourselves and the situations in the world - who we are as people. We have to be able to laugh at even the darkest of thoughts or else we wouldn’t make it out alive.
I’m sure a lot of you have seen it but take the chance to revisit this fully-loaded film that never feels mean spirited - because everyone and anyone gets taken down by the humour at various points. Hope you can drop any seriousness for a moment and have a good laugh.
* Available for a small rental fee on Apple and Amazon in the US and UK.
Fact: If you can believe it - this was Leslie Nielsen’s first comedy role.