The End of High Concept Comedy?

Recently running into a commercial for the Will Ferrell-John C. Reilly vehicle Holmes & Watson on On Demand I was surprised that I didn't recall hearing a word about it, and eventually got around to looking it up. I quickly ran across Jesse Hassenger's article on the matter at The Verge that made it clear that not only did the film drop into theaters last December with little fanfare, before flopping, but that it appeared symptomatic of a significant trend--the decline of the A-list, star-centered comedy (the top slots at the box office, more than ever, are monopolized by sci-fi/fantasy action and splashy animated movies), which has long been noticeable but which hit a new low in 2018.

While Hassenger is right to notice the trend, his explanation--that movie-goers are getting their comedy from action movies and animation--does not really convince me. I don't deny that there may be some truth in it, but I suspect a far bigger competitor to these films, like all films, is the small screen--to which not only are movies zipping from the theater in record time, but which is replete with original comedy of its own through the burgeoning array of channels and streaming services.

To get people out of the house and make them pay $20 a ticket, parking fees, and notoriously obscene concession stand prices for mediocre food, the big screen really has to deliver something they can get elsewhere.

There are only two things it can offer now.

One is to serve up something that plays differently on a big screen than a small.

The other is to make the film's release feel like an event--something they want to participate in right now with everybody else rather than wait two months to see it much more cheaply in the comfort of their own home.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe flourished by accomplishing both. However, neither works nearly so well for comedy. While action can seem more thrilling on a giant screen, I'm not sure it does nearly so much for slapstick, let alone one-liners. And where the creation of a sense of an event is concerned--the latest entry in an action-adventure epic seems more plausible material for such an effort than a repeat of goofy antics.

It is the case, too, that Hollywood has less incentive to try--and perhaps, less ability than it used to. Where incentive is concerned, consider the things that make movies lucrative commercially--foreign earnings, sequels, and merchandising. High-concept A-list comedy is less natural material for this than the action movies and family animation. Comedy travels less well than action, it lends itself less easily to "Part 6," and the rest.

Where ability is concerned, it should be acknowledged that comedy is simply harder to do passably than action (what is funny is a lot harder to pin down than the stuff of tentpole thrills)--and the audience more unforgiving when filmmakers make a botch of it. One can botch a big action blockbuster badly, and people will still walk away feeling reasonably satisfied if they saw that quickly cut, glossy, flashy-looking $200 million parade of CGI up on the screen. (Remember Transformers 2? Despite the criticism and the outsized budgets the series made it to Transformers 5, and Bumblebee, which might be getting its own sequels even as the endurance of the main series has become uncertain.) But screw up a comedy, and the people who are not laughing, entirely aware of the fact that they are not laughing, will be quicker to punish those who have wasted their time and money.

It might be added, too, that this is not a promising political climate where much of the traditional material of comedy--the sex comedy, the romantic comedy whose decline has already been the subject of any number of articles--is concerned. (Is the Hays Code era Ernest Lubitsch too edgy for today's puritanical Hollywood? Quite likely.) And of course, those inside the Hollywood bubble, utterly insulated from the lives and concerns of ninety-nine percent-plus of the planet, are likely neither inclined nor equipped to tackle any real social satire (and the right-wing press ready to tear them apart if they even try).*

Naturally, I do not see the trend running its course any time soon.

* Again I cite David Graeber: "Look at a list of the lead actors of a major motion picture nowadays and you are likely to find barely a single one that can't boast at least two generations of Hollywood actors, writers, producers, and directors in their family tree. The film industry has come to be dominated by an in-marrying caste."