That was the only part I liked as well.
TCM: We’re not saying that type of humour doesn’t exist.
TCM: Yeah, I concur with EJE in the sense that I’m not denying the existence of such comedy. And I do appreciate cynical humour if it’s done well, as I’ll explain below.
The racism joke didn’t bug me so much, because it actually took Foghorn’s catchphrase and gave it a new interpretation. We academics call this “appropriation” and “reconstitution”. You take something and give it a new meaning. I do this all the time with my videos, and if you watch Youtube Poops or shows like “Tim and Eric”, that’s the gist of it. But after LeBron made his points, he kept going on and on, with the Looney Tunes characters looking increasingly upset and disappointed, and then you start feeling sorry for them and the jokemaker fails to be funny anymore. And then they had to drive the nail into the proverbial coffin with the squashing of the little mouse.
I’m not sure if TLK producers intended the ‘Be Prepared’ scene to be read as a paean to Hitler, but it can be certainly read that way. It reminded me of communist regimes, for example. There are any number of ways to interpret it, unless the TLK producers explicitly said in a DVD commentary that “Yes, we wanted this to look like a Third Reich march” or something. People see what they want to see. Besides it’s not much an example of cynical or skeptical humour as more of a meta-reference to real-life. And Scar gets his ‘just desserts’ at the end, and in a very smart twist of irony, I might add (assassinated by his own troops).
Sometimes cynical humour works. I like parodies and spoofs for example, if they point out a cliched trope and then lampshade it. The great spoof films of the 80s and 90s like Naked Gun, Airplane, Mafia! all had very subversive and sarcastic humour, but it worked a treat because it pointed out genre conventions and flaws that were nonsensical if it happened in real-life, but that we’ve grown to accept in movies due to our suspension of disbelief.
But modern, contemporary movies tend to go overboard on the references to the point of nihilism. McFarlane comedies, for example, are not my cup of tea because they rely on repeat gags and offense for the sake of offense. There was very little point to their jokes (although there a couple of political-subtext gems like the ‘Marijuana’ Stewie and Brian dance number I saw in one episode). But most of the jokes rely on debasing somebody or group without any meaningful intent. Or just watch any of the recent ‘Scary Movies’, ‘Disaster Movies’ ‘Meet the Spartans’, etc. They’re content with simply throwing in pop-culture references without any real attempt to point out the underlying genre cliches.
Movies like Borat, Team America, and shows like South Park and Archer are brilliant because they take something which we’re familiar with, like American hypocrisy or British spy movies, and draw attention to the flaws by making it absurd or subverting it. And it’s usually done in a very clever and ‘homage’ sort of way, or if it goes on the offense, it usually does it for a reason.
The recent ‘How it should have ended’ for Toy Story 3 is another great example. It pointed out one of the flaws in Toy Story 3 of Lotso’ character development (“If there’s any character that should be mad for not being replaced, it should be Baby or Chuckles”). Andy copping out and taking his toys back from Bonnie was his love for his toys taken to parodic extremes, and it works.
College Humour videos like ‘Sordid tale of the lamp’ start off brilliantly (I mean, after all, isn’t the Luxo lamp squashing a letter, or didn’t Michael Jordan have a pretty lousy team in Space Jam?). But then it keeps going and going with the ribbing, and then you start to wonder if there is going to be a ‘redemptive’ punchline at the end of it, something to teach the ‘letter police’ or LeBron a lesson for bullying the protagonists. But no, it keeps getting worse, and it just ends on a very sombre note.
Shows like ‘The Simpsons’ or ‘MLP’ also have cynical or parodic elements, but it all works out okay in the end cos’ no one gets hurt or offended (unless those who really deserve it). I’m not saying that these shows are a reflection of real-life (because sometimes, people do get hurt or offended in the end), but I’d, personally, rather watch life-affirming stories where the villains get their come-uppance, instead of a mean-spirited tale that keeps ‘bashing’ on the protagonists (like with the lamp being electrocuted at the end, or The Looney Toons team doomed with a second-rate player with no hope of winning).
That’s my two cents on it.
I wish I was as good as you with counter aruguemnts and wording my opinions. You basically summed up all my feelings on the matter!
Thanks EJE. You get a lot of practice when you’re writing academic essays. 