What Makes Airplane! So Funny

This week: talking about humor theory is very very difficult.
For the transcript and a detailed list of sources, see:
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Essential Films is a channel that aims to take a closer look at beloved and culturally important films, classic and modern, to examine what makes the films that are generally considered to be "great movies" so great, while also championing debated contemporary films and unearthing unsung masterpieces from some of film's earlier decades. These are the films that I believe are the greatest: the best of the best, the films that anyone who loves (or even simply likes) films should see. My greatest hope for this channel is that it will introduce younger generations to older movies and older generations to newer movies, but more importantly, that it will give people a chance to reexamine films that they've already seen with a new perspective. Absolutely none of these videos are "spoiler-free", as I pretty much cover each film on a general scale, attempting more or less to capture the film's structure scene-by-scene as I address the competing critical theories, so be warned. All in all, regardless of whether you like or dislike any of these films, I do believe that these are all worth a closer look.
Music:
"Stayin' Alive" - Bee Gees
"Airplane! - Suite" - Elmer Bernstein
Movies:
"Team America: World Police" (2004, dir. Trey Parker)

[@danielolortegui8767]

It's an entirely different kind of comedy altogether. "It's an entirely different kind of comedy"

[@RR-ir6ss]

It's my favorite comedy of all time because it's precisely that… pure comedy.

[@JuliaMinervaRhodes]

That's the idea!

[@r.d.henderson2531]

Love Airplane, but my favorite of all time is HISTORY of the World Part 1

[@irina1296]

Fantastic movie, and one of the funniest films ever

[@bev9708]

I'm THRILLED you decided to tackle this movie... I remember when this was new, watching it with my friends and all of us doubled over in pain and tears from laughing soooo much, and even then we knew it would end up as a classic!! This AND Blazing Saddles too!!!! Keep up the great work Julian!!

[@thewayneflyinghigh9128]

This film is titled Flying High! Here in Australia, not sure why.

[@bev9708]

Because that title is soooo much funnier and even appropriate considering the glue sniffing jokes too, but perhaps either too controversial and/or too subtle for U.S. audiences!!

[@thewayneflyinghigh9128]

Bev surely you can't be serious?.

[@thiccboss4780]

in Brazil it's translated to "Tighten your Seat belts ..... The Pilot's Gone" im not fucking kidding pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airplane!

[@thatllputmarzipaninyourpie3117]

I don't know. Why is Burger King called Hungry Jack's?

[@ThreadBomb]

They probably thought "Airplane" would be confused with the serious movie Airport. Clarification: there were actually four Airport movies in the 70s, all airplane disaster films, so you can see the title might have caused some confusion. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airport_(film_series)

[@rickramirez751]

What was joke #3? I'm serious.

[@john_blues]

Oh my god! This is one of my favorite movies, I've watched it a dozen times and I just noticed the MAYO in the background of that gag! 😂😂😂

[@frankburns8946]

' Don't call me surely...'

[@danielolortegui8767]

Captain. How soon can you land this plane? Well, I can't tell. You can tell me, I'm a doctor. No, I mean I'm just not sure. Well, can't you take a guess? Well, not for another two hours. You can't take a guess for another two hours?

[@sagiksp4979]

It's criminal you have only 400 subs. well now it's 401

[@BurnTheController]

sagiksp now it's 403

[@Thoughtbubble788]

404

[@codeoptimizationware2803]

@sagiksp: 1 year ago: "It's criminal you have only 400 subs. well now it's 401" And 1 year later now it's approximately 8,000, including myself. @Essential Films: Great videos about (mostly, IMHO) great films! Keep up the great work, man! hehehehehe

[@avd_designs_]

He now how 13k

[@michaelgallagher3640]

Update 26k subscribed

[@codeoptimizationware2803]

It might also be noted that for a time in the previous decade of the '70s, Disaster movies were a popular genre that spawned many films of varying quality, including _Airport_ [1970], which Abrahams' & Zucker's _Airplane!_ [1980] is a parody of.

[@farenhite4329]

I thought it was more of a parody of Zero Hour!

[@Aroreiel08]

@@farenhite4329 It is. But it does grab little references and moments from other plane disaster movies like Airport.

[@jamesalexander5623]

@@farenhite4329 It is.... They had to Buy the Rights to Zero Hour to make Airplane!

[@soupermoviecritic8511]

I love that its politicly incorrectness. That’s something that makes the film even funnier. Unlike today.

[@ruialmeida818]

"I have a drinking problem" :D

[@johndemetro902]

I take it black like my man

[@michaelgallagher3640]

5:27 I think there is a wink at the audience when Striker looks at camera and says "What a pisser".

[@sameerhafeez7029]

Yup

[@shirleymental4189]

The Author missed the point about the necessity of the right casting. And this cast was perfect. Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves. All well known as serious drama actors, playing it straight but saying the most stupid things. Great how Leslie Nielsen who was basically a B movie actor went on to have a new career as a comedy star.

[@pocketheart1450]

It's not just Politically Incorrect I feel like the movie is actively trying to dismantle stereotypes and show just how absurd they are when it's doing it's weird racial jokes and such. There are so many jokes in this movie where you laugh at it and then you feel bad about laughing and then you laugh at yourself.

[@theunlawfulsponge5908]

It's dumb but it's funny as hell

[@DRACOFURY]

*Naked Gun Series Funny As Fucc too* *Especially 3*

[@TequilaPrincessMx]

It is definitely the kind of movie that makes you laugh even of things you normaly wouldn't, although so many jokes got lost in time and context, I've read reference to some of them like the wife thinking her husband never drinks coffee twince at home refering to a tv commercial of the time or the radar microwave but there is one I haven't figure out and is driving me crazy... the horse in Mrs. Ouvert bed... somebody help?

[@TheBatugan77]

What DOESN'T make this film funny? Kareem is funny! Peter Graves is funny. Lloyd Bridges! Frigging Otto Pilot is funny.

[@Protoman85]

This is my favorite movie, but nobody can laugh at all the jokes... can you explain to me why the eggs coming out of the sick womans mouth is funny? I don't get that one! ...and don't call me Shirley

[@stevestroh2267]

Good point. That was kinda weird. I took it as “Wow, she is so sick, she has whole eggs coming out of her mouth.” That and the spear hitting the wall behind Lloyd Bridges. What was that?

[@Error403HRD]

I love this movie.

[@michaelb6729]

It's 2021, have Millenials and SJWs cancelled this movie yet ??? ahaha

[@Cobalt_Dragon0716]

Airplane! funny?? Surely you CAN'T be serious?

[@frankburns8946]

The Marx Brothers went over my head as a kid...but then a few years later I absolutely got them! This is wonderful movie however... But the Marx Bros. ' Night at the Opera ' is probably the funniest comedy of all time...

[@ThreadBomb]

Why, I'd horsewhip you! ... if I had a horse.

[@jamesalexander5623]

I'd say "Duck Soup" ..... Check out Wood Allen's "Love and Death" ....

[@stevestroh2267]

I went years before I saw a comedy that made me laugh on the level that Airplane did. I think “Something About Mary” and “Dumb and Dumber” got about the same type of belly laughs from me when I first saw them in a theater. Like the reviewer says here, however, Airplane is non stop jokes with every kind of humor in it. It has ages well pretty well too, it’s still funny 40 years later. “Something About Mary” I don’t think is quite as funny on repeated viewing.

[@thiccboss4780]

turns out the sequal's terrible kzbin.info/www/bejne/iXyxZmh3fa6rpa8

[@ministerbarrythomas6603]

That gay actor made the film, LoL, One Liner was AWESOME

[@deckhead33]

Barry Thomas I found him the only non funny character in the movie tbh

[@eduardo_corrochio]

Stephen Stucker was so funny in this. And the cool thing is, he had no lines written for him; they gave him the "straight lines" that he would react to, and they let him have carte blanche to do/say silly stuff ... so, what we see on the screen is his improv. Brilliant. He would've had a big career but he got AIDS in the mid 1980's and died, unfortunately.

[@andyotic]

Thanks, are you a film student?

[@z0uLess]

A tip for those wanting to understand humor. Read the chapter about laughter in Robin Hansons book Elephant In The Brain.

[@z0uLess]

8:00 this is like watching that netflix show called The Haunting of Bly Manor

[@georgefecomics98]

97% on rotten tomatoes wtf??!!!

[@InternetTAB]

Isn't it interesting how even 50 years ago they were inserting BBC jokes into their media. Some things never change.

[@lonzo61]

One of my favorite comedy movies, and one that I have watched three or four times since I first saw it in the movie theater. Your analysis of the film and its varied forms of comedic absurdity was quite good. Most of all, your comments about how over-analyzing the jokes misses the point is spot on. Well done.

[@deathsquadron3311]

my family says its not funny

[@aznpinoy666]

This is my flawed theory that I just came up with a minute ago but I think this is why you don't see much big Hollywood "comedies" anymore. A lot of comedy movies now are heavily dialogue based and improv, and I think this is became other genres have a formula that makes a good action movie or a good horror movie or a super hero movie. With comedy its harder to create a formula that makes a funny joke instead of a formula that makes a scene scary or exciting. Either that or our ideas of comedy has changed and studios are taking less risk with comedies for the fear of being politically incorrect also.

[@AJRabies]

A lot of what passes for comedy these days in movies seems to be sophomoric, juvenile, locker room, & bodily function oriented. While there is room for some of that, sometimes, it seems that Hollywood thinks good comedy writing is fart jokes & showing someone vomit on someone else. Sorry Hollywood, that's why I have not gone to the theater to see a "comedy" film since.... wow... since I can't remember... not sure if any in this century.

[@jeffo9396]

@@AJRabies Sometimes, though, fart jokes work, such as in Airplane!, when the captain farts after Leslie Nielson describes to the stewardess the symptoms of eating that contaminated fish.

[@AJRabies]

@@jeffo9396 There are exceptions. Airplane is classic... and.. of course Blazing Saddles: Best Fart Joke Ever.

[@jeffo9396]

@@AJRabies Believe it or not, I never got around to watching Blazing Saddles, except for maybe the first 10 minutes of it when I was like 12 years old. I'll make it a goal to watch it before I die though. But the fart joke in The Naked Gun also works well.

[@TMS5100]

no mention of zero hour?

[@JuliaMinervaRhodes]

Nope!

[@TMS5100]

ಠ_ಠ

[@danieldougan269]

Essential Films Why not?

[@OnlyPenguian]

Fixed! kzbin.info/www/bejne/moCcYZuaoMp-qNU

[@alfiecox6899]

Great analysis

[@7alaZone]

i love this movie very mush ,can you please make video about johnny english

[@stevecreamer5289]

It's all about laughter ..still top medicine

[@Aaron-hh5tf]

Absolutely Love this film! 😂

[@sethobregon4100]

Excellent analysis man! 👏

[@Adamsnadler214]

The seen where the plane goes through window was in an episode of the A-team

[@HeroinMethod]

Hahahaha that was such a deep movie review, good job !

[@jamespfitz]

The jokes. Duh.

[@thiccboss4780]

*THERE IS A FUCKING SEQUAL!?!??!* is it a black sheep ? an underwhelment? an improvement? good for fans? bad for fans? more of the same? broke new ground? i'm trying to make an analogy with other film sequals but i can't fathom the fact that i missed out on the existence of a sequal, *no one ever mentioned it!!*

[@plasticweapon]

it's as funny as this film is supposed to be(but isn't).

[@thiccboss4780]

i don't get it explain to me

[@Ljordan093]

A true comedy classic.

[@VaryingViewpoint]

Great review!

[@daviddemar8749]

Airplane? Really? Well at least I agree w your joke theory. I figured it out on my own when I was in grad school 35 plus yrs ago. You figured it out a few yrs earlier in your life than I did. Congrats 😊 thanks for using the E.B. white quote. Im back 3 years later in 2021 . Ive rewatched this video which i stil think is terrific . I decided to reassess my opinion of this- movie because of this video. I upgraded it. I think that, upon reconsideration, it's funnier than i had originally opined and that it actually is actually one of the funniest films in the last 50 years because of the amount of jokes it contains as well for the variety of jokes it contains. But here's a question i pose to all cinephiles/humor aficionados in the KZbin universe - is Airplane as funny/brilliant as a Marx Bros. film?

[@stevestroh2267]

You sound like the kind of person the Zucker brothers would want to parody. The kind of person Leslie Nielson would not only slap once in the face, but twice.

[@daviddemar8749]

@Deonex Hello my friend. . Ive edited my comment in October of 2021. Ive upgraded how i rate it.

[@daviddemar8749]

@@stevestroh2267 Fyi i have edited/ lengthened my. comment in October of 2021. Im an open minded person and take feedback seriously. Because of your comment i rewatched the video and consequently I have upgraded my rating of the humor in this film. Please check out what i added and id like to hear back from you.

[@stevestroh2267]

@@daviddemar8749 I’m not sure what you originally said that made me post what I did, my reply looks a bit snarky now. For that I apologize. I agree with your edited comment. Marx Brothers comparison….that’s tough. I love the Marx Brothers, but it always seemed like there were long gaps of non funny stuff in between the hilarious stuff. Harpo was a great harp player, but do we really need to see that in a comedy every time? That’s probably not picking though. The gags, the writing, the delivery were awesome much of the time. Then you factor in that they were doing this in the 1930’s era. They were way ahead of their time.

[@stevestroh2267]

@@daviddemar8749 one more thing. I remember seeing an interview with Groucho, he may have still been alive. He told the story of when he was in the middle of a show, a vaudeville show. Groucho was on stage, in front of the audience and someone, for reasons I don’t know, shouted out, “The garbage man is here!” And Groucho said, “Tell him we don’t want any.” He was so quick witted.

[@pres.jimmycarterrecognized8153]

Hmm.

[@DJamesLaSalle]

You are smart and cute!

[@asifmetal666]

The actress was aweful in this film. But it's still the one of best parody film. They can do so many lame joke but they didnt. The joke they used was incredible.

[@cainster]

Her acting was supposed to be wooden. That was what helped to contribute to the character and the movie. Everything delivered in that same monotone parody of a 1970s disaster film.

[@edwardblanton4809]

cainster yeah Julie seems one dimensional but that is part of her subtle satyrical humor I think she nails it

[@MrSlitskirts]

You mustn't analyse "Flying High 2"/"Airport 2"...

[@thewayneflyinghigh9128]

Film & TV why not?.