Spoof film fails to find humor, uses same tired, stupid jokes
Posted on March 31, 2008
Although everyone has an opinion on what is funny and what is not, everyone loves to laugh. They say it’s the best medicine, whether its slapstick comedy, dark comedy, dumb comedy or what “Superhero Movie” focuses on: parody. However, the parody comedy has been beaten to death by bad jokes and the same old not-so-funny humor. Yet these subpar movies just keep coming.
Do you remember the movie “Hot Shots?” Does the movie “Airplane” ring a bell? Or maybe it’s “Naked Gun” that you used to love as a kid. These movies epitomize the parody comedy. Recently made parodies, “Superhero Movie” included, are horrible and forgetful attempts at humor.
“Superhero Movie” is a spoof of the first “Spider-Man” movie. It begins with young Rick Riker (played by Drake Bell, “Drake & Josh”) being bit by some kind of genetically enhanced dragonfly. He then, of course, falls for the girl next door, Jill Johnson (played by Sara Paxton, “Aquamarine”), and becomes enemy number one of the evil villain, Hourglass (played by Christopher McDonald, “Happy Gilmore.”)
Learning how to juggle his new abilities with his school life and the evil villain’s master plan to kill everyone in order to become immortal, young Rick Riker has his hands full and must remember, with great power comes responsibility.
The return to the parody style became popular in 2000 with the release of “Scary Movie.” This spoof of “Scream” was well done and had genuine humor. Then in 2002 “Scary Movie 2” came out, but was not as good as the first. In 2003 “Scary Movie 3” came out. It was different than the previous two, but still had some good jokes. In 2006 both “Scary Movie 4” and “Date Movie” were released. Neither was good, thus beginning the downhill turn for parodies. 2007 delivered the awful monstrosity that was “Epic Movie.” Then in 2008 came “Meet the Spartans” which I couldn’t even bring myself to watch. Now there is “Superhero Movie” which is better than the last few, but still not worth the admission price.
The reason these movies are getting worse is because the same people are making them. These people come up with one funny joke and then make a movie based on it. This is not conducive to good humor. If there aren’t enough jokes to fill an entire movie, then more time needs to be spent writing it. They’re getting redundant and downright unwatchable. “Superhero Movie” takes a step in the right direction, but still doesn’t quite return to what made parodies funny.
