This movie is a spoof. I can't believe that there are so many negative comments blasting it for political reasons. I personally think it is the funniest thing Zucker ever did. Instead of relying on sight gags he lampooned real people. Damn! Some people are so touchy! Lighten up.
shareI'm a big ZAZ fan and I love their humor. But I just can't stand how unaware of history this movie is.
Zucker is pretending to make fun of so many things whilst he does absolutely not know anything about them... To laugh at this movie's jokes only proves that you're as ignorant as the writers were.
The way of directing jokes is still very good, but what's behind them (not even in a hidden way) is racism, xenophobia, sexism, nationalism, McCarthyism, Bushism, and, above all, ignorance.
Let's not forget all those young people who unnecessarily went to die in Iraq because the complete moron America had elected for president made them all believe there were terrorists over there (it happened twice, with Bush Senior and Junior, so lame!). Everyone but Americans knows there was only petrol over there, petrol that their bastard of a dictator wouldn't exchange with american dollars...
Again,you show my point exactly. This movie was never intended to make a serious political statement. Just like all the Zucker Abrahams movies it is a SPOOF! Was Airplane! making a serious commentary about the airline industry? In places it seemed to be making fun of the very things that everybody seems to think it endorses. Quit being so thin skinned!I have little political leanings either way. I had some respect for Bush senior but W. was an idiot. It seems whichever party is in control things just keep getting more screwed up. I'm glad I'm not a staunch Democrat because it seem from the comments here that none of them have a sense of humor.
shareMy point is, you can't expect to get a good reaction from the people to whom those stupid ignorant cliché jokes are aimed at. Exactly in the same way as a stupid racist joke about Black, Jew, White, men, women, retards, whatever portion of humanity you try to make fun of : if the joke is not really funny or really pointing at a real issue or problem, but will be done in a way that *designate* those people as the problem, it hasn't much more value than those who designated Jews as the source of all evil for decades before WW2...
What I say here is that I can absolutely laugh at any joke about Democrats or left-wing or Jews or Blacks or Muslims or anything.
The only problem is that when it's done in an ignorant way, it just shows us this stupid moronic part of humanity the entire world hates. This hate leads to war and destruction, never to dialog and diplomacy.
For example the scene in the beginning with all the Arabian guys named Mohammed Hussein, people did exactly the same in stupid anti-German comedies in the fifties and sixties, where all Germans were named Hans... You could do exactly the same with Americans being all named John or Jack, it still remains the same very low value joke, and is not making any point. With the spoofy humour, the Frank Drebin movies and "Airplane!" or "Top secret" DID make a point about the way cinema is made, in a manner more spoofy but not unlike someone like Godard or Tarantino, for instance. So the stupid visual jokes in those movies did have an intelligent purpose.
But the fact is that no one did the "everyone has the same name" joke with "John" or "Jack" and the people pointed at are always the same minorities. In this way of doing we can recognize exactly the same xenophobia that Hitler was writing about Jews in "Mein Kampf" and that lead to the disaster we know.
I am a big fan of stand up comedy. Many are politically incorrect and irreverent. Sometimes I hear them making light of things I believe in. I am not so insecure that I write long blogs trying to tear them down. If the bit is well presented, I laugh. My point in starting this thread is to point out that some people just don't get the point of satire. They are so easily offended at something as silly as this film that they get on their soap box and compare Zucker to Hitler. Is this film really such a threat to your political leanings?
share"Although satire is usually meant to be funny, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit as a weapon." (from Wikipedia, on the definition of "satire")
You could consider this movie as just a stupid one without a message (thus, not a satire), if it hadn't been bent at 100% against left-wing and democrats by trying to show them only as stupid people who do not think before the choices they make. On the other hand, never do we see Patton reflecting about the wrongdoings of war. So this movie actually _is_ propaganda with an aimed message, even if its made under the form of a spoof movie.
I'm not saying that Zucker should have been fair by showing also right-wing and extreme-right wing's stupidity too : he actually did it accidentally by showing himself as an ignorant pro-war Bushist...
Plus, making a comedy about real people, real politicians, might automatically drive you into the satire, the sociopolitical criticism, things with messages (I say messages that make you think, not brainwashing propaganda), as were masterpieces like Chaplin's "The Great Dictator". You cannot pretend to make "only a comedy without a message" by making fun only of HALF the politicians or HALF the parties...
This movie isn't dangerous to my political leanings. It is dangerous because it confirms how ignorant so many Americans are, even among people actually taking part into culture like Zucker. And people as ignorant as him will watch this movie thinking that he made a point, with good arguments, while he only used lies and ignorance (which is completely different to the use of exaggeration on caricatural purpose). The lack of education is what allowed so many easily fooled people to get lead into the Iraqi wars (and into all genocides too), thinking that they could avenge 9/11 or help create a democracy.
The buffoon should be the one moderating our leaders and telling them how wrong war is, not encouraging them to send people to spread destruction and hate and ignorance...
Lincoln said you couldn't fool all of the people all the time, but that's because he wasn't at the era of television... Now you can show a truck to people and tell them that it's because of that very truck that we ought to destroy an entire country...
"This movie isn't dangerous to my political leanings. It is dangerous because it confirms how ignorant so many Americans are, even among people actually taking part into culture like Zucker."
So you claim that this movie doesn't threaten your beliefs, but what is threatening is that people you've decided are "ignorant" might enjoy the film? It seems then that your problem isn't with the film itself, but rather with the type of people who think differently than you and might enjoy it. I fail to see how this isn't simply disliking the film for political reasons.
For the record, I thought the movie sucked, but the fact that others actually liked it doesn't automatically make those people unenlightened and ignorant. And it definitely doesn't make the film dangerous.
And by the way, when you define something in the future try checking a dictionary. Quoting Wikipedia, especially on something so subjective as humor, kind of destroys your credibility.
I look at this film, and it reminds me of where I once was, and where I am now. It's not un-funny because of its politics. It's un-funny because it tried too hard to be funny for one group of people. I was one of that group for a long time, but am libertarian now (which is a mellowed-out conservative). Some of the gags aren't just mocking liberals, but anti-war sentiments as well. Really? I've been to war; don't call me a traitor for disliking it! 2008 really was the last gasp of mindless retardation4Bush in America, I think. (But GOD! How people have NOT wised up to O-buttplug-bama! Unbe-dumb****ing-lievable!) Even when I was a total stooge, I couldn't get myself to think this movie funny, no matter how hard I tried to force my brain to think it so.
And, like it or not, neocons, the ACLU has time and again proven more useful than not in defending many of our Rights! Don't seek to be rid of them too soon just because the Rights you wish to cherry-pick come ONLY with the whole package!
So, yes. ANYONE can take a joke. But the joke has to be FUNNY! (O'Reilly slapping Michael Moore in the porta-john was pretty funny, but that was already showcased in the preview)
Agreed, I tried to watch some of this film but it was just awful. Comparing the situation with Chamberlain and the European Peace Policy, to what has happen in the Iraq and Afghanistan is like comparing peanuts to goldfish.
At the end of the day a film like this is made to rile up opposable views, which is fine but bending and shading historical circumstances to fit the joke is wrong.
Hey, careful, man, there's a beverage here!
And there's the rub. This movie completely distorts history and takes shots at Micheal Moore that are completely unfair, but if it was funny I would have forgiven it, but it's not funny, and so everything else that's wrong with it pushes it all the way into full-blown loathsome.
shareAmen to that. I am not above laughing at good humor on any topic, even if it zings my own sensibilities, "Team America" being one of the best examples of a movie that manages to be offensive and completely hilarious. And I'm a big fan of the sort of off-the-wall humor that David Zucker practically invented with the original "Airplane," honed in the "Police Squad" TV series, and perfected in the "Naked Gun" films. Whatever your political leanings may be, the sad fact is that this film is not only not funny, it's bad.
shareLet's take the Saturday Night Live sketch where Ben Affleck mocks Keith Olbermann as an example: it was fracking hilarious because it was written by people who understood comedy and simply played up Keith's overblown on-air bombast. Learn the difference.
shareWell, to be fair, Glenn Beck did a hilarious mockery of Obama's daughter on the radio a couple years back. What made it so funny wasn't just the comedic routine, but the phony outrage the left put out there to mask their intolerance for the political commentary therein, i.e. "Daddy, you're a puppet!" Beck was compelled to apologize for it, of course, but we knew his meaning
shareyou guys don't f-cking see what happens ... these movies keep making ignorant people & wash their brains.
And about taking jokes, No we won't take a joke about our religion, culture, or race ... you can't insult my mom & say : Take a joke man ! ... guess what, i may take a joke on my parents BUT don't f-cking try it on my religion.
"don't f-cking try it on my religion."...? What religion would that be, the Church of JMFC?
Uh, that's Just Me Feeling Contented...wait a minute, what'd you think? That I talk like you?
Your religion is stupid. Which ever one you picked, it is stupid.
shareThird try, I finally got through this movie. It was horrible. Just a political hit piece.
Really, really unfunny.
OldGeezer916,
I am so happy to find your thread. I was beginning to think I might be the only person to think it is hilarious movie. Totally never thought it my be such a political movie. Guess I am one of those ignorant people mentioned in the responses to your thread. Don't usually try to find politics in movies. I just watch movies to be entertained and escape the reality that is politics. I thought the movie "War" (John Cusack, Hillary Duff) was hilarious, too.
Take a chance, flip a coin, everything is 50/50
War was a political movie. You shouldn't have to try to find political meaning in it, because it's right out there plainly visible.
shareBut its not funny.
share