The new Judd Apatow film, “Funny People,” that came out last weekend wasn’t quite the comedy smash opening studio folks had hoped. It was certainly nothing like the summer’s biggest hit so far, June’s “The Hangover.” The R-rated Todd Phillips comedy has made over $368 million to date, beaten “Beverly Hills Cop” to become the highest grossing R-rated comedy of all time, and is still playing in theaters. Zach Galifianakis, comedian and one of the stars of “The Hangover,” sat down with IGN recently to talk “Hangover 2,” and ended up tossing Apatow and the gang a little advice…or so it would appear.
Talking about the recent trends in comedies, Galifianakis said dropping incessant f-bombs was just too easy, and perhaps lazy.
“They’ve become so saturated now, comedies. Cursing has become the new wit and it just drives me crazy when I see that. I saw a movie — I won’t say which — and every character cursed. And that’s fine, if you give them a reason to be that way. But they just did it gratuitously.”
It’s a pretty fresh interview, so perhaps he is talking about “Funny People”? The picture certainly lived-off immature dick jokes (but succeeded because of the personalities and the endearing delivery) so it does suspiciously smell like that’s a sideways diss at Apatow’s new flick.
Galifianakis admits “The Hangover” comedy wasn’t completely unique, but had enough small pushes in new directions that it engaged the audience. “You know what it was… I had dinner with the director, Todd Phillips, the other day and he was driving me back to my place. And I said, ‘I think it worked because there was some fresh jokes.’ I don’t mean that there was groundbreaking new humor, but we would do some jokes and I’d say, ‘Todd, I’ve seen that before.” Even with the jockstrap stuff. I’d seen fat guys in tighty-whities before. I said, ‘Give him a jockstrap.’ It was that kind of small thing… Not that that was the revolutionary thing. [Laughs] But it was those kind of small, little things…You need to surprise an audience.”
He does forfeit that “The Hangover” uses vulgarity and crude humor, but also reminds people that his character never cursed. He also expressed some skepticism about the potential “Hangover 2” sequel.
“I’m not running to do ‘The Hangover 2.’ I told Todd, the last thing I want is the ‘Police Academy’ chain all of the sudden, where I’m only known from… You’ve got to be careful with something like that. The movie’s really good, why bother with a sequel? And I’m not saying that I’m not going to do it. I’m just posing these questions. These are things I ask Todd. Obviously, the reason is executives have Bentleys to pay for. I would love, love, love to work with those guys again. The script has to be good! But I’m working with Todd on a movie we’ll be shooting in about six weeks. So I’ll do that first, and then we’ll see how it goes.”
Hmm, doesn’t sound like he’s totally convinced the sequel is the right move and he’s probably right. (Bottom line, nobody ever really wants to make a sequel and repeat themselves, but it pays the bills.)
As for the potential Apatow vs. Galifianakis beef, it seems ironic considering audiences likely bought into the film especially because of the Apatowian dirt, grime, swearing and general manchild juvenilia (though yes, Phillips does do a cruder, more fratastic version of that comic form). Galifianakis does make a good point though: Apatow and his gang have been using the same foul-mouthed “wit” for awhile. Comedy’s never gotten anywhere staying in one spot and with Apatow’s recent release being a bit lackluster, it might just be a sign that some people are growing tired of it (or want it in economic bite-sized form). Neither film are comedic masterpieces though and only time will tell which funny man’s got the right idea. – Frank Rutledge
