AIRPLANE and THE NAKED GUN director David Zucker says Hollywood is ‘destroying comedy’

I grew up in the 80s and 90s and it was a very different time for movies and TV shows as far as comedy and the offensive. So many comedies were offensive for the sake of laughter. I grew up watching these things, Airplane, The gun pointedThe asshole, Burning Saddles, and more. I loved these movies because they made me laugh! But nowadays you can’t make this kind of film. There’s a very different climate in Hollywood where people don’t want to offend anyone. It is what it is, and director David Sugar he believes that because Hollywood is in this state of over-sensitivity, they are “destroying comedy.”

Think the only way an Airplane the kind of film one could make today is “no jokes.” In a new interview (via Mediaite), she said:

“We could be as offensive as we wanted. We went where the laughs were. We never thought about offending anyone, but if we offended anyone we knew we were on the right track. As time went on, the 90s and 2000s went by and things changed… We never really worried about those things with ‘The Naked Gun’ or ‘Scary Movie’ movies.”

Zucker went on to share an experience he recently had with a film executive who complained about one of his unmade scripts because it contained a joke about a female character in need of breast reduction. He explained:

“My current writing partner and I wrote a parody of ‘James Bond’ and ‘Mission: Impossible.’ One female executive said, “This joke is getting pretty risqué.” It was a slight joke on the female lead, because she had come through the police department and the FBI, she said she needed breast reduction to fit the Kevlar vest.

“It was pure oatmeal, so delicate. Not one of our funniest things, but this was too much. I thought, ‘If that was the criteria for doing it, we’re in big trouble.’ They’re destroying comedy because of nine percent of people who don’t have a sense of humor.”

Zucker concluded, “When we do screenings of Airplane! we get the question if we could do Airplane! today. The first thing I might think of is sure, just without the jokes.

Comedy has certainly changed over the years. Stand-up comedians have been talking about it for years, but yeah, I don’t think we’ll ever see the same kind of comedy from the 80s and 90s in major studio films ever again. Maybe some indie films will be able to try it and get away with it, but the major studios aren’t willing to take a chance on offensive jokes these days.

Now there is a Bare gun remake in development with Liam Neeson, and I’m curious to see how he will handle the comedy.