See, this movie has a much lower rating than a lot of Mel Brooks' spoof films, and certainly is not as well known or "classic", yet I find this film just as funny or funnier than, say, Spaceballs or Men in Tights. It's the same kind of gag-a-minute spoof humour with everything from wordplay to slapstick. But, for whatever reason, this film is relatively unknown and Spaceballs is a revered entry in the spoof genre. Sometimes the gems just slip by...
shareIts a high-brow, low-brow thing. Not to analyze the humor which may be identical..but to discuss the views of the films and the actors...
Mel Brooks uses a lot of actors who get a certain cache...a though you need to be smarter to get him....Joan Rivers...Richard Lewis...very Jewy comedy. Mel has a high-brow cache which goes with him regardless if a joke is funnier than another...It must be funnier because its Mel Brooks.
Dangerously used a more blue collar contingent with questionable pedigrees...Henner, DeVito, Piscopo. Yes, the have produced some of the funnier stuff out there...but at the time of Dangerously Piscopo was the big star. This is pre Romancing the Stone pre Beetlejuice/Batman. And the supporting cast is certainly more minor players. So I think the film just doesn't get looked at the same way.
And yeah, im a little rambly....just trying to put a theory out there.
You're probably bang-on. The cast just didn't have as much comedy cache, in part because Brooks has done a terrific job of marketing, "A Mel Brooks film" as being a seal of approval for comedy.
Anyway, Johnny Dangerously is just as funny (or funnier) than Brooks' spoofs.
I happen to like JD, but IMO your statement needs to be qualified. JD is as funny or funnier than Mel Brooks' spoofs POST "HISTORY OF THE WORLD PART 1" (although I'd rate Spaceballs a little higher, it's in the same league, and JD blows most of Mel's post-1981 out of the water. 1981 and before though? Mel was at the top of his game, and a superior spoof maker).
shareThis is true; Young Frankenstein, The Producers, etc., are superior to Johnny Dangerously.
shareYes, I'm actually replying to a 7 year-old post. Shouting into the void, no doubt.
Anyway, the word you're looking for is "cachet".
Four other connections to Mel:
1. One of the writers wrote Blazing Saddles.
2. The studio that released this film was 20th Century Fox, which was where Brooks released most of his films.
3. John Morris did the music on this, as he did many of Mel's films.
4. Dom Deluise, one of the Brooks' regulars, is in this.