Why Game Night Restored My Faith in Comedy
So how can I explain this without being mean to an entire genre of movies? Let's just say my interest in comedy movies as of late has been dwindling. In fact I have spent the last 30 minutes trying to remember a comedy movie I actually paid money to see in theaters before Game Night, and I honestly couldn't think of any!
The last one of note that I remember was Thor Ragnarok. Which I know isn't even technically a comedy but I laughed the whole way through it (and that’s more than I can say for half the comedy movies out there right now). Hopefully that helps you understand just how bad the genre of comedy has been lately. That I have to rely on the humor of superhero movies in order to laugh at the theater.
I can't say for sure why comedy movies over the last few years have disappointed me. I do have an educated guess though… and that is how comedies have slowly over the years devolved into a type of humor that relies solely on exaggerated pratfalls and crudeness. And if you need to see some examples in order to understand what I'm talking about, let me direct you to the likes of Baywatch, The House, and Snatched.
Now I fully acknowledge that this could just be my own personal taste in humor. Maybe some people actually like all the Hangover movies! Who am I to judge. However that particular brand of comedy just isn't for me and lately that seems to be all we've been getting.
Don’t get me wrong, I can appreciate that kind of crude comedy. I think Wedding Crashers is a genuinely hilarious film! It is important to distinguish however between humor and crudeness and not mistaking crudeness for comedy.
Now what’s the difference between your Hangovers and your Game Nights? The difference is really quite simple. Subtlety. Let me explain.
With The House and the later Hangovers (Hangover one isn’t great but definitely better than 2 and 3), both of their premises are fairly simple and inherently funny! A mom and dad struggling with the idea of sending their daughter to college both financially and emotionally. Then a group of friends struggling to remember what happened the night before their best friend's wedding. Rather than just let the plot dictate the humor of that situation, which would be more than enough, they stuff it with what I call “comedy junk food” that just isn’t funny.
Not to mention the acting gets way over the top. You don’t need to have characters become caricatures of a human! This isn’t SNL. Even when you have actors like Ferrell, Poehler, or McCarthy. They clearly have the comedic chops to make an unfunny line on paper funny. Just let them play normal humans in abnormal situations trying to deal with it!
That’s why Horrible Bosses and Game Night work for me. Both have easy premises to understand. In Horrible Bosses, a group of friends who hate their bosses decide to try and kill them. Hilarity ensues. In Game Night, a group of friends who have a weekly game night get sucked into a real life mystery game where someone genuinely gets kidnapped!
In both of those movies the characters are simply trying to keep up with the ridiculousness of their situations and making little subtle jokes/comments throughout. There’s none of this ridiculous over the top sketch comedy acting. When characters and actors start doing that I’m immediately taken out of the situation and am aware they’re in a movie where I’m supposed to be laughing. Not to mention when they do that and then try to be all heartfelt with the “serious” beats of a story, the results can be laughable (and not in the way it’s supposed to).
So all this is to say that despite what ALL of my friends and family (aside from one cousin) are saying, I think Game Night is the best comedy that has come out in a LONG time. It gives me hope for the comedy genre and I pray that filmmakers will take the right lessons from it and learn that you don’t have to rely on crude and inappropriate humor just to get a laugh.