IMO good comedy is more than stupid people acting silly, that’s an incredibly reductive view of the genre. Comedy should be clever and play to more than just the basest impulses. Even a comedy about stupid people can be smartly written. An example brought up in this thread is Zoolander. It’s silly and absurd, but it’s also smart, even though the characters are stupid. Talladega Nights is just stupid.
Mane I thought you were gonna say Office Space or like a West Anderson film as a “smart” comedy, not Zoolander lol. I wouldn’t necessarily call that high brow compared to Talladega Nights, but I haven’t seen it in quite some time so could be misremembering. I get what you’re saying though- a lot of the Will Ferrell comedies use really stupid visual laughs (or dead obvious lines) instead of anything that would require thinking a lil.
Office space is also good, Wes Anderson movies tend to be a little up their own ass for my taste. Zoolander works as a better comparison due to the intelligence level of the characters being about the same as Talladega Nights while the quality of the writing is much higher.
IMO good comedy is more than stupid people acting silly, that’s an incredibly reductive view of the genre. Comedy should be clever and play to more than just the basest impulses. Even a comedy about stupid people can be smartly written. An example brought up in this thread is Zoolander. It’s silly and absurd, but it’s also smart, even though the characters are stupid. Talladega Nights is just stupid.
Mane I thought you were gonna say Office Space or like a West Anderson film as a “smart” comedy, not Zoolander lol. I wouldn’t necessarily call that high brow compared to Talladega Nights, but I haven’t seen it in quite some time so could be misremembering. I get what you’re saying though- a lot of the Will Ferrell comedies use really stupid visual laughs (or dead obvious lines) instead of anything that would require thinking a lil.
Office space is also good, Wes Anderson movies tend to be a little up their own ass for my taste. Zoolander works as a better comparison due to the intelligence level of the characters being about the same as Talladega Nights while the quality of the writing is much higher.