I Only Laugh When It Hurts: 7 Rules for Comedy Violence

Share on Facebook posted 09-28-09 by craigmacnee

Update: Zombieland is not the first or last movie to capitalize on pain for laughs. Check out many of our favorite action comedies:

I Only Laugh When It Hurts

It’s happened to everyone. Maybe it was admiring a snowball as it soared high across the playground, connected forcefully with its target (the younger and more oblivious the better), and sent him crashing to the ground. Maybe it was watching an earnest gymnast catapult face-first into a beam. Or perhaps it was just the sight of some poor fool running into a glass door thinking it was nothing but fresh air. Your reaction should be one of compassion for your fellow human. A wince would be appropriate. But the comic equivalent of Tourette’s has other ideas, and in the moment of truth you erupt into unseemly gales of laughter. You may have tried to suppress the giggles, or worse still, attempted to cover them up with a cough. But it’s ultimately futile. The damage has been done. Judgments have already been cast. And therein lies the rub for those films that take the risk of bringing together the awkward bedfellows of comedy and violence. You’ve got to nail the tone. Miss, and you miss big. Score, and the results can be sublime. Let’s look at some successes and see if we can discover any fail-safe rules.

RULE #1: UNLIKELY COMBATANTS

MR. AND MRS. SMITH

After lording it up as Über-Man Achilles in Troy, Brad Pitt really needed a good ass-whupping by a girl to bring him down a peg or two. Man vs. Woman = Good. Husband vs. Wife = Better. Brad Pitt vs. Angelina Jolie = Jackpot.

STEP BROTHERS

On the playgrounds of our youth we heard the phrase “sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me.” This is what happens when sticks and stones are the only available option.

HAPPY GILMORE

Quiz show legend Bob Barker initially refused to do this fight scene with Sandler … until he was told by producers that he would win the fight. Barker — such a brawler!

RULE #2: STUPID WEAPONS

ANCHORMAN

Weapons include: a leg from a bed, a baseball bat with scissors stuck through it, a net, and even a trident. Also: What is the guy from The Shawshank Redemption doing in there?

SHAUN OF THE DEAD

Yet another reason to bemoan the demise of records — you certainly can’t do this with a digital mp3 file.

RULE #3: AN UNLIKELY SETTING

HOT FUZZ

The central conceit of this film was to export the overblown action of U.S. cop blockbusters such as Bad Boys, Lethal Weapon and Die Hard to a sleepy village that might as well be called Ye Olde English Towne. Carnage ensues.

RULE #4: OVER-THE-TOP GORE

MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL

Readers of The Secret beware. This is what happens when you take the power of positive thinking too far.

RULE #5: CAST LESLIE NIELSEN

THE NAKED GUN

A master of comedy violence, with his trademark deadpan delivery. It also helps that he seems to have achieved the feat of remaining 60 years old for the past 20 years.

RULE #6: THE ELEMENT OF SURPRISE

IN BRUGES

This recent film is filled to the brim with violent moments that shouldn’t really be laugh-out-loud funny. I put it down to the element of surprise.

RULE #7: THE KITCHEN SINK

FOUL PLAY

Mr. Hennessey vs. Delia Darrow. This 1978 movie, directed by Colin Higgins, was a romantic comedy with Hitchcockian thriller elements. This clip is a veritable smorgasbord of comedy violence wholesomeness. Vase throwing. Check. Ying vs. Yang combat. Check. Septuagenarians engaging in martial arts. Check. However, the piece de resistance is the moment when Hennessey runs out of ideas and grabs for the plant. Forgetting, as M. Night Shyamalan did with the debacle that was The Happening, that plants are not in the least bit threatening.