Airplane and the Decline of Comedy

I don’t see a decline of comedy - just a decline of comedy movies. TV produces funnier material than Hollywood these days, and so do informal online spaces.

My diagnosis? The “theatrical Hollywood movie”, as a format, has become too expensive. Despite it never being easier for anyone to record video, theatrical productions have never been more expensive to produce, market and release.

And so they are first and foremost a financial investment, with all the modern consumer-analytics-driven optimization that comes with that. It sucks the life out of a project. It’s a safe, risk-conscious decision for producers to steer clear of edgy material.

Put simply, there’s too much money at stake. TV is cheaper, and other formats and mediums cheaper still. And those are where you go for jokes today.

If twenty years ago you had told me, "One day we'll live in a world where the NY Post is a more intellectually honest and insightful paper than the NY Times", I'd have laughed in your face, but here we are.

“Some things which were commercially successful for broad markets in the past would not be today, just as some are today that would not have been in the past, because of strong offense to disproportionately influential groups. Because the group offended by work in which I have a financial interest is the one in play today, this constitutes a ‘decline’ of culture. Or at least my passive income opportunities, which is approximately the same thing.”

Of course, its also wrong on top of the other problems: genre-parody movies of the type for which Airplane! is the iconic example still get made [almost stamped out on a production line] today, and while the exact jokes change with the times, the style and themes of the humor are quite similar. You absolutely can make movies like that; the only challenge with selling them to studios seem to be competing with the 97 other variations of the same broad idea the studio has in development for funding and a release date.

'Airplane' (aka 'Flying High') has always been my favourite movie. I never mind shelling out for it in different media.

Many of it's lines come out of my mouth in relevant day-to-day situations. Just yesterday it was 'Vector, Victor'.

We still have this kind of comedy today and its very lucrative for the studios that aren't playing the PC/woke games.

Book of Mormon and South Park especially come to mind.