4 only? The comedies of 2016 haven’t been all that up to par – The Boss was a disappointment and every other romantic comedy seemed like some sort of attempt to use up investor funding, rather than being funny for the sake of it. But yes, there were some pretty good hits, and here are the best 4 that you should go look out for.
The comedy in “Ghostbusters” wasn’t as consistent as many others, but still managed to churn out many laughs. I think the script probably went through copious edits for structure, which explains why they might have not had the 3 jokes a page guide like most comedies do. But the best funnies came from the most unexpected scenes, like when the Ghostbusters finally confront Kevin, possessed by Rowan, and he snarks that women are always late.
Yes, sexist, I know.
“The Brothers Grimsby” was one of Sacha Baron Cohen’s few films that was as mainstream as possible, and while many folk complained about how it wasn’t like his previous ones, it was still a pretty funny flick. It had its grotesque moments, but then it wouldn’t be a Sacha Baron Cohen film without lewd scenes now, would it?
Confounding people everyone by putting an apostrophe S after Bridget Jones, the title just goes to show how British the humour could get in “Bridget Jones’ Baby”. It wasn’t all just wordplay and double meanings – there was plenty of visual humour, and many singles could also relate to Bridget Jones’s situation. Plot-wise, it was predictable and you could see the end coming a mile away, but we weren’t watching this for its epic plot twists now, were we?
And topping 2016’s charts is “Zoolander 2”, a movie that was 15 years in the making. OK it’s more like a sequel that took very long to be made, and fortunately the characters didn’t all age… that much. It was funny and absolutely dumb, and revelled in its idiocy. It didn’t attempt to pander to audiences that would clearly not get it, and that’s the beauty of “Zoolander 2”. It knew what it was, and what it wanted to do.
SPECIAL MENTION
My friend Rob pointed out that I completely overlooked “Deadpool” and he’s absolutely right! I didn’t think about “Deadpool” in the classical, conventional idea of comedy, but then “Deadpool” is far from conventional in that sense. The fourth-wall breaking assassin-for-hire definitely garners status in this year’s list of comedies, meaning that hey, 2016 wasn’t all that terrible in the comedy front! Just that I didn’t spot this one.
So what were your favourite comedies of 2016? Leave a comment and flame me if you disagree!
Marcus Goh is a Singapore television scriptwriter. He’s also a Transformers enthusiast and avid pop culture scholar. He Tweets/Instagrams at Optimarcus and writes at marcusgohmarcusgoh.com. The views expressed are his own.
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