Wow - There are only three movies out tof the 36 lettrboxd "comedies of 2020s" you show that are ACTUAL comedies (Bottoms, Anyone But Us, No Hard Feelings). I wonder why the others are genred as such??
With the decade half over, if those three are lifted up as the comedies of the era, we are indeed in sad shape...
Asteroid City was a comedy too. But yeah it’s crazy how many animated movies that don’t even “feel” like comedies are on there. I can understand like Kung Fu Panda or Shrek being called a comedy, but Mario? C’mon.
I understand that this blog and this post is about pure data, but data alone can never really reveal the full picture.
One must be sensible to address the elephant in the room: we can't discuss comedy's decline in Hollywood without acknowledging the corresponding explosion in horror, murder, and crime content in turn—something your graphs make crystal clear.
Entertainment has always mirrored our collective unconscious. So when we see this massive surge in such genres, it doesn't take much to recognize what it reflects about humanity's current state of spirit.
Browse any streaming platform and every other film follows the same tired formula—mutilated bodies, unsolved murders, the glorification of drug money, criminal theft and elaborate heists, which feed our increasingly desensitized society's distorted appetite for meaning. It has become genuinely grotesque.
These have become the new cash cows.
The obsession with death, violence, and bodily harm—the way we glorify crime and brutality, then mass-produce and monetize them like fast food for a FOMO-driven society—reveals that humanity itself is withering, that we're running on empty inside.
Let us not forget that Hollywood is very liberal and much of what they put out has a political theme that is off putting. The pendulum is swinging back and until they get back the center many of us will stay away from the theaters.
I think that the political aspect is why there are so few comedies. Humor, by its very nature involves activities where something happens that makes you laugh. Think about what causes you to laugh - it is almost always at the expense of someone, in terms of physical interactions, or clever words that take a shot at something personal in other people, or just ridicule. Humor is not woke because it involves events that we do not want to experience ourselves, personally. It is therefore troublesome, and should be suppressed.
Better to produce stories about suffering and guilt, and how people overcame those trials and tribulations, than to laugh at them. So, no more comedy, very little humor, mostly aimed at kittens and other cute animals who do not really hurt one another.
I disagree. It is human nature to laugh. It is good for the spirit to laugh. Humor that is offensive or hurtful is wrong. My own approach is don't make a joke if you can't take one.
I think you don't quite understand what I am saying. People laugh at all sorts of things, for various reasons. Sometimes it is happy laughter, when you are celebrating something. Sometimes it is because you see something, such as a wild animal or some other natural scene, that makes you happy.
Laughter from comedy, however, is a different matter. Slapstick comedy invokes laughter, as does standup comedy where someone tells a story about something that happened. I would say that the vast majority of those sorts of laughter occur because the event is not pleasant for someone. The person suffers some sort of physical injury - usually quite minor, or in cartoons, something that does not really hurt. Or alternatively the comic tells a story about an even where someone did something that was unwise, or was the object of public scorn, and they suffered mentally, from the experience. Movie comedy these days is all about mental harm done to people. No one does slapstick any more, and physical harm is not considered a laughing matter - it has its own genre of "action" movies with comic book explosions and shootings, etc.
Can you give me any examples of comedy where a person is not the butt of the joke?
Oh, and I agree with you that we have become too sensitive to this problem, so that is why you don't see these movies any more. The nanny scolds tsk-tsk it as offensive or harmful. You should not make fun of anyone else's unfortunate experiences.
Love this. Great graphs! I also wonder if there’s something about the competition for comedy is higher with access to Reddit and TikTok. I can sit at my home and have a guaranteed laugh whereas I can’t get Tom Cruise level action unless I see the movie.
Also, kind of sounds like there’s an opportunity for an a24 model (small budgets, medium returns) of comedy
Another key economic factor is the erosion of the DVD/Blu Ray market. During its peak era, studios could "lose" money theatrically on a comedy but turn profitable later through DVD sales. Big box retailers often sold DVDs as loss leaders creating a huge market in that window. Without that revenue stream, comedies in particular became much more risky propositions for studios. Fewer comedies released = fewer chances for them to break out resulting in another important reason why that genre has been largely ignored theatrically.
This was an interestingly analytical take on it the demise of comedies. I miss them a great deal. I feel like everything is trying to defy genre now. Comedies are dramatic. Dramas are comedic. Action has horror or comedy or drama or all of them. The movies before 2000 would be saddled with the pre-existing expectation that it's funny, or scary or dramatic and would have to get you to laugh anyway. That was a real challenge, and the get rich quick modern media doesn't have the patience for it. At least it feels that way. I can't imagine a time that could better use brilliant comedy though, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, all would be having a field day...until they were cancelled and censored into oblivion.
I don't really understand the tone of this article. It starts off talking about how Evil Wall Street has taken over the movie industry, and makes the industry create terrible movies, and then goes on to resentfully describe why this is actually a sensible course of action.
I miss 90s comedies as much as anyone, and love Talladega Nights, but I feel like the article (against its will) goes over the reasons why we don't see them that often anymore!
Simple reason why comedies have fallen from favor over time: comedies have come to be seen as victimizing someone or something, and are therefore "bad" or "harmful." It's total BS, of course, but there it is. People think laughing is a bad thing. I was lucky enough to watch Young Frankenstein on Broadway--got opening night tickets. At the very end, in the reprise, the cast hinted (musically!) that next up was going to be Blazing Saddles. It never happened, and more's the pity.
I'd like to think that if Hollywood got brave, now that there's a renaissance of sanity, they might try making a few.
Hi Daniel! Love your newsletter and just thought about a topic that would be cool to read about in your Substack: post-credit scenes. When did they start, which genres have them the most, what is their purpose (e.g. just an extra joke, tease the next franchise instalment etc)?
I’ve noticed newer comedy-dramas like Everything Everywhere have an easier time being emotionally engaging than being funny. They’re great dramas but humor feels tacked on and cheesy. Older comedy-dramas were more often the opposite: effortlessly funny but with an unconvincing plot and tacky drama.
OK interesting! My takeaway is that comedies seem like a better genre for low-budget, niche filmmakers who aren't going for large returns or international appeal--at least as an initial step to get their "foot in the door"? Or am I misreading this?
Love this read ! - I wonder if something similar is going on to drive Disney's focus on recreating live action movies of original animations.
Can you recommended more
Wow - There are only three movies out tof the 36 lettrboxd "comedies of 2020s" you show that are ACTUAL comedies (Bottoms, Anyone But Us, No Hard Feelings). I wonder why the others are genred as such??
With the decade half over, if those three are lifted up as the comedies of the era, we are indeed in sad shape...
Asteroid City was a comedy too. But yeah it’s crazy how many animated movies that don’t even “feel” like comedies are on there. I can understand like Kung Fu Panda or Shrek being called a comedy, but Mario? C’mon.
I understand that this blog and this post is about pure data, but data alone can never really reveal the full picture.
One must be sensible to address the elephant in the room: we can't discuss comedy's decline in Hollywood without acknowledging the corresponding explosion in horror, murder, and crime content in turn—something your graphs make crystal clear.
Entertainment has always mirrored our collective unconscious. So when we see this massive surge in such genres, it doesn't take much to recognize what it reflects about humanity's current state of spirit.
Browse any streaming platform and every other film follows the same tired formula—mutilated bodies, unsolved murders, the glorification of drug money, criminal theft and elaborate heists, which feed our increasingly desensitized society's distorted appetite for meaning. It has become genuinely grotesque.
These have become the new cash cows.
The obsession with death, violence, and bodily harm—the way we glorify crime and brutality, then mass-produce and monetize them like fast food for a FOMO-driven society—reveals that humanity itself is withering, that we're running on empty inside.
Or at least it reveals what those who have money and power see as appealing to audiences. If you only offer red meat...
This was the exact thing I couldn’t stop thinking about looking at these charts, a massive increase in the consumption of cheap violence
Let us not forget that Hollywood is very liberal and much of what they put out has a political theme that is off putting. The pendulum is swinging back and until they get back the center many of us will stay away from the theaters.
I think that the political aspect is why there are so few comedies. Humor, by its very nature involves activities where something happens that makes you laugh. Think about what causes you to laugh - it is almost always at the expense of someone, in terms of physical interactions, or clever words that take a shot at something personal in other people, or just ridicule. Humor is not woke because it involves events that we do not want to experience ourselves, personally. It is therefore troublesome, and should be suppressed.
Better to produce stories about suffering and guilt, and how people overcame those trials and tribulations, than to laugh at them. So, no more comedy, very little humor, mostly aimed at kittens and other cute animals who do not really hurt one another.
I disagree. It is human nature to laugh. It is good for the spirit to laugh. Humor that is offensive or hurtful is wrong. My own approach is don't make a joke if you can't take one.
I think you don't quite understand what I am saying. People laugh at all sorts of things, for various reasons. Sometimes it is happy laughter, when you are celebrating something. Sometimes it is because you see something, such as a wild animal or some other natural scene, that makes you happy.
Laughter from comedy, however, is a different matter. Slapstick comedy invokes laughter, as does standup comedy where someone tells a story about something that happened. I would say that the vast majority of those sorts of laughter occur because the event is not pleasant for someone. The person suffers some sort of physical injury - usually quite minor, or in cartoons, something that does not really hurt. Or alternatively the comic tells a story about an even where someone did something that was unwise, or was the object of public scorn, and they suffered mentally, from the experience. Movie comedy these days is all about mental harm done to people. No one does slapstick any more, and physical harm is not considered a laughing matter - it has its own genre of "action" movies with comic book explosions and shootings, etc.
Can you give me any examples of comedy where a person is not the butt of the joke?
Oh, and I agree with you that we have become too sensitive to this problem, so that is why you don't see these movies any more. The nanny scolds tsk-tsk it as offensive or harmful. You should not make fun of anyone else's unfortunate experiences.
Love this. Great graphs! I also wonder if there’s something about the competition for comedy is higher with access to Reddit and TikTok. I can sit at my home and have a guaranteed laugh whereas I can’t get Tom Cruise level action unless I see the movie.
Also, kind of sounds like there’s an opportunity for an a24 model (small budgets, medium returns) of comedy
Another key economic factor is the erosion of the DVD/Blu Ray market. During its peak era, studios could "lose" money theatrically on a comedy but turn profitable later through DVD sales. Big box retailers often sold DVDs as loss leaders creating a huge market in that window. Without that revenue stream, comedies in particular became much more risky propositions for studios. Fewer comedies released = fewer chances for them to break out resulting in another important reason why that genre has been largely ignored theatrically.
Source: "The Big Picture: The Fight for the Future of Movies" by Ben Fritz. Highly recommended if you haven't read it yet
This was an interestingly analytical take on it the demise of comedies. I miss them a great deal. I feel like everything is trying to defy genre now. Comedies are dramatic. Dramas are comedic. Action has horror or comedy or drama or all of them. The movies before 2000 would be saddled with the pre-existing expectation that it's funny, or scary or dramatic and would have to get you to laugh anyway. That was a real challenge, and the get rich quick modern media doesn't have the patience for it. At least it feels that way. I can't imagine a time that could better use brilliant comedy though, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, all would be having a field day...until they were cancelled and censored into oblivion.
Ummm. Beverly Hills Copy did not gross $977 million at the box office in 1984. Try ~$235million. Still wildly successful but please check your facts.
I don't really understand the tone of this article. It starts off talking about how Evil Wall Street has taken over the movie industry, and makes the industry create terrible movies, and then goes on to resentfully describe why this is actually a sensible course of action.
I miss 90s comedies as much as anyone, and love Talladega Nights, but I feel like the article (against its will) goes over the reasons why we don't see them that often anymore!
Could Mel Brooks ever get away with a History of the World, Part 2? Or a sequel to any of his over-the
-top, politically incorrect films?
Simple reason why comedies have fallen from favor over time: comedies have come to be seen as victimizing someone or something, and are therefore "bad" or "harmful." It's total BS, of course, but there it is. People think laughing is a bad thing. I was lucky enough to watch Young Frankenstein on Broadway--got opening night tickets. At the very end, in the reprise, the cast hinted (musically!) that next up was going to be Blazing Saddles. It never happened, and more's the pity.
I'd like to think that if Hollywood got brave, now that there's a renaissance of sanity, they might try making a few.
Hi Daniel! Love your newsletter and just thought about a topic that would be cool to read about in your Substack: post-credit scenes. When did they start, which genres have them the most, what is their purpose (e.g. just an extra joke, tease the next franchise instalment etc)?
I’ve noticed newer comedy-dramas like Everything Everywhere have an easier time being emotionally engaging than being funny. They’re great dramas but humor feels tacked on and cheesy. Older comedy-dramas were more often the opposite: effortlessly funny but with an unconvincing plot and tacky drama.
OK interesting! My takeaway is that comedies seem like a better genre for low-budget, niche filmmakers who aren't going for large returns or international appeal--at least as an initial step to get their "foot in the door"? Or am I misreading this?
How did you access the Letterboxd data? Last time I checked there was no supported API
What a great analysis. Thank you!