Yes it is a comedy


When I first watched Piranha as a young teenager , I didn't get the jokes I thought it was a proper horror movie.Then I watched it again a few years ago and thought, it is definitely a comedy.A friend of mine watched it for the first time last year and he didn't get the jokes.I had an argument with him trying to convince him that it was a comedy,Oh Jeez !

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I totally did not think it was a comedy!! It says it is a spoof to Jaws, but I never saw it as a spoof. Okay there were times we laughed but that was only because of the acting, and because it was made in '78.

Could you please give me a few examples of jokes they put in, like the ones that acted as spoofs?? Thanks, tommy!!!

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Well I will need to watch it again first because it's been a while since I last seen it.

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I don't think for 1 minute that this movie was designed to be a comedy, they just added a few laugths here and there just to break the ice a little and to give the film a little extra apart from horror.

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I wouldn't say Piranha is a full on comedy or spoof. Like most of director Joe Dante's movies, it does have some intentional comic relief. Many of the supporting characters, like Paul Bartel's camp counselor and Dick Miller's character, are intentionally comic. Those two guys are comic actors, that's what they are there for. What Dante says on his commentary for 'The Howling' could apply just as well here. To paraphrase, he says in a horror movie you need to give the audience something to laugh at or else they'll find something to laugh at that they aren't supposed to.

As for being a rip-off of 'Jaws', that was the intent was when Roger Corman produced the movie. The results, in my opinion, are a little different. Corman would generally give his directors complete freedom as long as they included certain elements in their movies. He wanted a killer fish movie, and there had to be a certain amount of nudity and gore. Beyond that, Dante was free to do what he wanted, and he did.

Apparently he didn't do too badly, since Stephen Spielberg actually contacted Dante to say that Piranha was his favorite Jaws rip-off, and that eventually led to Dante getting the job to direct Gremlins for Spielberg.

People who think this is a "bad" movie simply don't get it. The movie is fun, boasts a clever screenplay (by John Sayles) and some great performances, especially from the supporting cast of genre veterans like Barbara Steele, Kevin McCarthy, and Dick Miller. It delivers everything one would want out of a drive-in movie of the era. About the only thing you could criticize is the special effects, but considering the era this movie was made in and the budget it had, they're about as good as they could be.

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The only thing I find funny is your poor grammar.

I enjoyed watching this film when I was younger.

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[deleted]

Some movies are so bad that they are funny. Other movies are just plain bad. This movie is just plain bad.

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I first saw it in the mid 1980s on TV, then later on VCR, and in the early 1990s taped it off TV and watched it often. I really did like it, it is on my top 100 favorite movies of all time list, but even though I have often heard over the years that it is supposed to be a comedy to a degree, and a spoof, I never saw that in the least. To me this is a pure scary horror movie, all the way. And I'll admit hearing that so often about it did annoy me. But I did think the movie was very good, with the characterizations, pacing, adventure mixed with the scares, and the relationship between the two leads was very interesting. The summer wilderness and lake, resort, and camp scenes were also good and convincing, and the ending, where the threat of the pirahnas reaching the ocean, was a good conclusion to it. And though it was obviously inspired by Jaws (and Jaws 2), I don't think it was a ripoff of them, and certainly not a spoof. Pirahnas are a very different type of carnivourous fish than sharks are, but on the back of the VHS cassette I often read in the 1990s before watching it, it stated that "moviegoers just starting to go back in the water after Jaws get the bite from sea life considerably smaller than a great white shark-but no less deadly". I really liked that, and often drew a parallel to a situation of my own in the mid 1990s. I often mowed our lawn in the spring and summer for a few hours daily, and would think about my push mower, "something with four wheels considerably smaller than a car-but no less effective in what it does". I haven't used, or even touched a mower since 1996, and have not driven a car since April, 2001 (and rarely been in one), but to think of it this is a very true parallel. I hope now to see this movie on DVD (is it on it, I don't know?), and hope to ride in and drive a car soon again as well. About using a push mower again, I don't know, but I was very good at it, after moving to Miami I could try to become that (though only if I can't get the hotel houseman career I so desperately want). But no, Pirahna is not a comedy in any way, and I really wish people would stop saying it is.

"I happen to be a vegetarian". Lex, from Jurrasic Park

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Don't mean to pry, hereminton, but what keeps you away from cars. Were you involved in a bad traffic accident, don't believe in supporting the big oil industries or simply have no need of a motorized form of transportation? There is no wrong answer, I'm just curious. Perhaps you have a reason all your own, and wish or don't wish to share it. It's all cool by me. I'm just glad to find another fan of this film. Most people I know only raise an eyebrow when I bring it up. Which is often because I'm on a semi-quest to visit the filming locations of this movie. Why? I guess it appealed to me as an eight-year-old and was the only scary movie I knew of that was filmed in the waters I actually frequented. Take care and watch out for those huricanes in Florida.

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Thanks for replying RABerg66, and I don't consider this prying at all, and I will be glad to explain. The reason I have not driven a car since April, 2001 is simply because the one I had broke down then, I could not afford to get it fixed, and had to leave it on a store's property, where it was soon towed from. And I haven't even been in one much since then because I am usually alone and have noone to ride with. I've never been in a bad traffic accident, and even if I had been that would not have stopped me from riding in cars, and I do fully support all the oil companies (world can't do without them). About the third point, that is somewhat true, in that I am a very good long distance walker, it is by far my best physical ability, and I can get to most anywhere I have to in this area (of Charlotte, NC) by walking. But after five plus years I do really want a car again, as I know it will be much easier and more convinient, and allow me to do more things. And this is even more true in Miami. And from talks I had at a Honda dealer here last March I know with a job I will be able to get a new one in a month or two. The reason the one I did have broke down was simply because I did not take very good care of it, and drove it too much, and that was 100% my fault, but believe me I've leaned a lesson on that and will take care of this one so it will last around 10 years. I'm also on match.com now, and hope to get a relationship where I can ride in someone else's car until I get my own. But I was glad you did like Pirahna like me, and about the filming locations, if the river/resort/dam part was filmed in Texas, as you said, the summer camp was probably filmed there as well. And if you swam in that area as a child, I also swam in my uncle's farm lake in Saluda, NC in the 1970s, which did kind of resemble the lake in Pirahna (though I was mainly an ocean swimmer).

"I happen to be a vegetarian". Lex, from Jurrasic Park

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Charlotte, NC is a beautiful place. I was very close to moving to the "Research Triangle" a couple of years back. However, after moving to Austin, TX a couple of months ago, I'm happy to call it my home.

I agree walking is the greatest form of regular exercise. I commend you for making a habit of it. As far as owning a car (I have two), I would probably be better off financially owning a golf cart. Only wish they were street legal.

Good luck with your relationship search. Being married for 13 years, I've found my partner can really help me get through this ride we call life. ups & downs, we've got each others back. And now, we have the backs of my 4-year-old and baby due in September (2006).

I love river life. Tubing and rafting are great getaways down here. As much now as when I was a kid. Additionally, I had a great time taking my young son on the glass-bottom boat tour of "Aquarena Texas River Center" a month ago (Piranha film location). Didn't see any Razor-toothed fish, but the movie came up in the tour.

Best Wishes!

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Tommyuk, this film was a horror movie.

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If this fim was meant to be a comedy, I didn't get it. It wasn't funny at all. Maybe a psychologically disturbed person would find humor in people bleeding and having their flesh eaten off. Most normal sane people on the other hand would find it sick and disgusting. There was maybe one or two funny lines in between the scenes of the piranhas attacking people. To me the scenes showing children being attacked were in poor taste. In terms of the effects and overall quality, I would say this was a flat out B horror film trying to be like "Jaws" but never pulling it off because it was too low budget despite a decent script. Joe Dante however is a talented filmmaker and that became much more evident later with Gremlins.

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It was a horror movie, flat out. Why people say it was a comedy is beyond me. I will say, though, that it is rather obvious that a lot of you younger people who see this film nowadays, do not have the ability to understand the irony or the intentions of such films, certainly not if you believe this film to be a comedy. My advice to you who are as I describe, would be to stick with belittling horror films like those difficult Fulci pics, and watch mindless films like the frat-pack films, you might understand those better.

This film was not, and is not a comedy.

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A comedy?, not in my point of view. I don't see how people being eaten is funny. It's one of my all time favorite movies, but it definently is not a comedy.

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NO Way! There was no one laugh in the whole film. Maybe a little giggle, but nothing more.

Every other Drama and Action movie has more Comedy!

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Well IMDB have it listed here as a Horror/Comedy.

Here is the Wikipedia entry on it.

Piranha was a Jaws spoof directed by Joe Dante and produced by Roger Corman in 1978. Universal Studios tried to stop the film from being released (because of its satirizing of Universal's Jaws films), but Steven Spielberg saw the film in advance and liked it. There was a sequel - Piranha II: The Spawning which was the directorial debut of one James Cameron.

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[deleted]

Paul Bartel and Dick Miller. There is the comedy.

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Since it is a comedy, maybe it should have been marketed as...."Piran ha-ha".

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LOL

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This film disturbed the sh*t out of me as a kid, especially when the old guy gets his feet chomped. I never thought it was a comedy although I do remember some naff part where the lady flashes her tits at the prison guard.

It's showing on Film 4 now.

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[deleted]

Havent seen Piranha for so long and I dont think its been on terrestrial T.V in the U.K for many a year..I remember watching it as a young kid, long before Dvds were out and a guy drove around the streets renting videos in the boot of a car.. Its got comedy gore as far as I remember.

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