I was watching an old "Honeymooners" rerun with a friend and we came to Jackie Gleason's Ralph's inevitable "To the moon, Alice!" expression of frustration with his wife, and suddenly I realized that it WAS inevitable, so why were we laughing, having heard it a dozen times before? My friend pointed out that Gleason's timing - the manner in which he held his slow-burn, the widening of his eyes, the sudden "Bang! Zoom" take off into the line - was what always made it funny. We weren't laughing at the line so much at the performance of it.
"Don't Be A Menace" is the most obvious collection of predictable gags and bits I have seen in a long time, but it is by far the funniest. The Wayans are rather stuck - the genres they parody here have very rigid conventions, so much so that there is usually only one or two gags one can use to mock them - e.g., when a young gangsta warns us that many young men in the 'hood don't live to see their 21st birthday, we all know what's coming next. So the Wayans handle it in a manner that delays the punchline while emphasizing its obviousness. Thus we laugh with them, appreciating the way they pull it off, and recognizing the gangsta genre limit that's getting parodied, rather than at the bit itself.
Just about the whole movie operates on this level, and for this reason has become one of my favorite comedies. The Wayans capture every moment with a dead-on rhythm that blends the gags into a kind of music. Shawn plays the steady bass while Marlon does some wild riffing. Other characters and bits drop in and out like improvisation and sound effects. Keenan Wayans drops in every now and then like the voice on a scratch dub. The tempo could have been a little swifter, but the rhythm itself is excellent.
Comedy like this is very tricky, and I personally didn't think the Wayans' efforts in the "Scary Movie" films were quite as successful - but here they move it right along.
It's rude, it's crude, it's in-yor-face - and it's just a delight to watch.
"Don't Be A Menace" is the most obvious collection of predictable gags and bits I have seen in a long time, but it is by far the funniest. The Wayans are rather stuck - the genres they parody here have very rigid conventions, so much so that there is usually only one or two gags one can use to mock them - e.g., when a young gangsta warns us that many young men in the 'hood don't live to see their 21st birthday, we all know what's coming next. So the Wayans handle it in a manner that delays the punchline while emphasizing its obviousness. Thus we laugh with them, appreciating the way they pull it off, and recognizing the gangsta genre limit that's getting parodied, rather than at the bit itself.
Just about the whole movie operates on this level, and for this reason has become one of my favorite comedies. The Wayans capture every moment with a dead-on rhythm that blends the gags into a kind of music. Shawn plays the steady bass while Marlon does some wild riffing. Other characters and bits drop in and out like improvisation and sound effects. Keenan Wayans drops in every now and then like the voice on a scratch dub. The tempo could have been a little swifter, but the rhythm itself is excellent.
Comedy like this is very tricky, and I personally didn't think the Wayans' efforts in the "Scary Movie" films were quite as successful - but here they move it right along.
It's rude, it's crude, it's in-yor-face - and it's just a delight to watch.