As a result, it wasn't much of a stretch for ZAZ to take things one step further. However, the third and final sequel, Airport '79, was so campy that it was marketed as a comedy. During the 1970s, the Airport series of films, based on the Arthur Hailey novel, became reliable box office draws. Fully 2/3 of the jokes could fail in a saturation comedy and it would still be described as "a laugh riot" or "laugh out loud funny." In the case of Airplane! during its original 1980 run, a higher percentage than 33% of the humor worked.Īirplane! is a disaster movie parody. Their brand of comedy involved puns, sight gags, slapstick, and anything else they could think of, all coming at the viewer so fast that when a joke failed, there was another one hot on its heels to replace it. ZAZ may not have introduced saturation humor, but they came as close to perfecting it as any filmmakers. They were not involved in the disappointing Airplane! sequel and claim to have never seen it. ZAZ would end up dominating '80s comedy, producing the TV series Police Squad and the motion pictures Airplane!, Top Secret, and The Naked Gun (based on Police Squad). After collaborating away from the screen for years, the three men had jointly written John Landis' Kentucky Fried Movie in 1977, but Airplane! represented their first opportunity for complete control. Airplane! still works, but newcomers may wonder what all the fuss was about.Īirplane! was the first of the ZAZ films (named after the writing/directing/producing team of Jerry Zucker-Jim Abrams-David Zucker). Added to that are the topical jokes that are longer topical and the clunkers that aren't any more successful today than they were in 1980. In addition, many of the gags used in Airplane! have been copied/regurgitated/ripped off countless times elsewhere in the last quarter-century, causing them to lose freshness in their original context. The brand of "saturation humor" it employs has become commonplace in comedies, resulting in dilution and overuse. Viewed more than 25 years after its initial release, Airplane! retains the capacity to tickle the funny bone, but someone unfamiliar with its history might wonder how critics in 1980 could have labeled it the "funniest movie of the decade." In a way, history has made Airplane! a victim of its own success. The fine wine hasn't turned into vinegar but it's not as pleasant to the palate as it once was.
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