Laugh at me. Please.

I frequently lament the absence of a good nonsense movie in today's world. I once explained Monty Python to my brother as "do you find a sheep exploding to be funny? Then you laugh."  The end of their show and the beginning of the Monty Python movies pretty closely overlapped by the rise of the Zucker, Abrahams, Zucker movies and National Lampoons. The early 80s was probably the high water mark of the nonsense comedy film.

Airplane. 

Because the Catholic Schoolgirls In Trouble clip is just too damn funny for family consumption.

I would suggest that these are the best of the nonsense movies because the laughs come first. The jokes run the spectrum from high-brow word play to slapping each other with fish. But the jokes are never second to a plot point and they are never abandoned for a happy ending.  At the end of Airplane! or Animal House, the characters are victorious in landing the plane or destroying the parade, but they don't give up what made them funny.  The characters continue to be horrible people, and we are still laughing.



There was a secondary wave of quality nonsense in the 90's that was headlined by the early Farrelly Brothers. Much of their appeal had to do with the completely profane language and their willingness to show just the most horrific things. And yes, I do mean the frank and beans situation. But this is where the tied turned. Even the Farrellys required the characters to end the movie on some high point, and many times that high point sacrificed what made the movie funny.

Not frank and beans. But so ungodly hilarious that it sustains watching.

Again. And again. Eh, just put it on a loop.

Judd Apatow has tried to resurrect screwball, but his attempt at stringing together a narrative and some sort of character development is done at the expense of laughs. I had a lot of hope for the movie Trainwreck. Amy Schumer tore through the first two acts of that movie, and it was hilarious. But the third reel just went flat because they confused a comedic character arc with the need to be loved and redeemed.

Jake Blues.

How to be loved without being redeemed.

This is all to say that I have reset my hopes. Unfortunately, they now ride on the shoulders of one Sacha Baron Cohen. He's been a great foil in movies like Talladega Nights. Borat was smart and funny, but completely dated in a way that its brand of gotcha comedy was quickly abandoned and forgotten. His other on-the-spot comedy never caught on with me.

Anyway, he has a new movie called The Brothers Grimsby. The red band trailer has several things going for it: distinct lack of poop jokes, children carrying beer, and  But it also includes a bit of re-introducing us to Baron Cohen as well as yet another example of a recent trend where someone lands uncomfortably on something pointy. I'm not totally sure why such things are funny, but hopefully the payoff for the joke will be better than just "he has something up his butt."

My hope rests on the fact that Baron Cohen appears to have no desire to end on a happy note. He does not appear to be one that will sacrifice a joke just to make the audience feel better. And that may be the kind of comedy we need.

You be the judge. Here's the trailer. It's not safe for work.

Yeah, this ain't safe for work.

Wait for the waxing scene.