Half-Baked. Happy Gilmore. Billy Madison. Grandma’s Boy. Dude, Where’s My Car? Where have the movies like this gone? Clerks 3 was, I think, the last good one I’ve ever seen (and even they got too real and too sad so I don’t even know if I ever want to see it again as a comedy). There’s gotta be some good, funny shit that’s even funnier when stoned out of your mind that’s more recent than that, right?
TvĂĄ main reasons:
- Medium budget films are not economically viable anymore. 30-75 million dollar films where these comedies would fall are too risky and don’t pay off.
- Comedies have been made into comicbook-movies. I hate it.
Your first point is definitely a big trend. Studios either target a niche audience (like horror or art house maybe), which don’t have the size to support larger budgets. Or they go after the larger more casual crowd, but then they compete against the blockbusters. Not only on the production budget side, but importantly also in marketing.
I guess the question is if these kinds of comedies could somehow be done on a lower budget.
They still make them, it’s just that they aren’t super mainstream anymore and most people who grew up with them grew out of that type of humour, and the nostalgia is what’s hitting them for those movies.
Seth Rogen still makes them, the guys from workaholics made one not too long ago, there’s some other good fringe ones I’ve seen.
They still exist, but the comedians you’re nostalgic for doing them have gotten old now. And watching an old man trying to carry on like a teenager is more pathetic than funny.
Christopher Lloyd in Camp Nowhere is the only exception. It’s fun to see a burned out hippie trying to understand what happening.
Don’t forget about all the Harold and Kumars, pineapple express, basically every other movie with Seth rogan, all the bill and Ted’s, Project x, role models, tropic thunder, horrible bosses, 21 jump street, etc. Some of these are also older, but I do think there are a lot more out there than you’re listing
Hollywood budgets have ballooned and killed mid-budget pictures. Typically these would be genre pieces like comedy or horror movies. I think horror could be in a similar shape to comedy if it weren’t for A24 producing a lot of mid budget films.
Big budget action/comic book movies are still seen like a better investment because audiences have only just started losing interest from a very high peak.
