Dear Comedy: It’s not funny anymore

First, this is a real quick post. I don’t have much time today, but I wanted to get this out while it’s on my mind.

I go through phases with movies. For a while I’ll be into cerebral stuff — independent films, long, atmospheric pieces, epic dramas. Then I’ll be into horror films — people getting into ridiculous situations and doing stupid things while experiencing really horrible things. Then comedy — people getting into ridiculous situations and doing stupid things while experiencing really horrible things (wait, what?). Then action, sci-fi, etc.

Each genre of film has its own sort of standard structure. I’ve been noticing  some really repetitive structures in comedies. They recall the classic Greek comedy structure of well-woe-well. And it’s becoming tedious to the point that I don’t want want to watch comedies anymore.

• We join the protagonist in situ, just going through their comfortable, idiosyncratic life.
• The protagonist encounters something that breaks them out of their comfort zone.
• He or she resists, then gives in.
• Loves the new situation, does really well.
• But the old, comfortable life, or some personality trait from that life, catches up and causes problems.
• It looks like things are going to end badly for our protagonist.
• Through a ridiculous series of events, happenstance or uncharacteristic resolve, the protagonist overcomes.
• Happy ending.

I’m really tired of this. It makes movies so predictable that it’s like 80-110 minutes of deja vu. Last night I watched Ghost Town with Merry. It was nice, there was humor. But I was able to predict the exact course of events at each turning point. Please, can we have some new structures in comedies? Maybe lately comedies just haven’t been disguising the underlying structure very well. Not enough effort has been put into development.

Or maybe it’s time to go back to the cerebral films. A little randomness might be nice.