Was It That Long Ago

Was it that long ago that Harold and Kumar went to White Castle? I was cruising for movies to watch last night and ran across that classic. I loaded it up, but before I did I watched the trailer for it and it felt dated. The cadence of the voiceover voice and the selling points of the movie all felt so foreign. I can’t even explain why and I just watched a YouTube video on how Jim from the Office changed voiceover work in the early 2000s or 2010s.

There is a great debate among film fans as to why comedies aren’t made anymore. The general consensus seems to be that with the loss of DVD sales studios have become more risk averse. Yet they release new horror movies all the time, and just like comedy movies horror movies aren’t made with the biggest budgets or expectations for awards season or anything else.

Watching Harold and Kumar gave me some insight. It is that studios are afraid. Our modern political climate is going to impact comedy more than horror. While they have the same social commentary and undertones it is a lot easier to ignore that John Kramer is fighting the American healthcare system because…hey look a cool kill, than it is to ignore the anti-racist message of a movie like Harold and Kumar.

In a climate of open and hostile culture war a movie that turns a cynical gaze to modern society is going to be unpopular with both the people that understand it and the ones that don’t. Look at Harold and Kumar. In order to turn racist characters into the butt of the joke they need to exist in the first place. I am certain the existence of the cop and the punk character angered people that didn’t get the film. I am also certain that there are people offended that the movie made those characters look bad.

The excuse given for not making comedy movies anymore might be the loss of DVD sales and cancel culture but it is probably the opposite. There are plenty of people in this world that will miss satire and subtle positioning, but there are more that make money raging about every little thing online, and those are the ones that would quickly turn their ire on a modern day version of Harold and Kumar or Animal House or Fast Times or American Pie. Not because they are full of sex, drugs, and off color humor but because they turn a critical eye on the status quo and established institutions.