'Airplane!': A Lesson in Comedy

What makes a great comedy film? Loads of laughs, obviously. But how do writers, directors, and actors make us laugh? Airplane! (1980), probably the greatest comedy movie ever created, sets the gold standard for comedy (and especially parody) movies with an unbelievable range of comedic elements.

Airplane! is a parody movie of the 1957 disaster movie, Zero Hour. After the flight crew becomes incapacitated due to food poisoning, a former military pilot must overcome his fear of flying to save the passengers and get the girl. Here is a small sample of the "Comedy Commandments" on display in the movie Airplane!

Visual Humor

The most prevalent thing Airplane! possesses that modern comedies lack is visual humor. Eye appealing comedy can be found in most Edgar Wright movies, like Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, and Scott Pilgrim vs the World, through clever editing techniques. Although these are all great movies, they simply don’t compare to Airplane! when it comes to visual humor.

The most obvious example in the barrage of visual hilarity found in the movie is the automatic pilot. As the plane spirals out of control, a flight attendant fixes the problem by employing the help of an automatic pilot. Out pops a blow up version of a pilot which stabilizes the plane immediately. Later in the movie, he deflates, leading to an even funnier visual scene best witnessed firsthand.

This is far from the only example of visual humor in the film, however. From the opening Jaws-like introduction of the plane, to the numerous magazine antics throughout the film, many of the funniest examples are missed on the first watch due to the general humorous chaos of the film (which is another point I will get to later).

Slapstick Humor

When is the last time we’ve had a good slapstick comedy movie? You could maybe count Supertroopers (2001) over a decade ago, but the golden age was in the 1980s with Spaceballs (1987), National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989), and a few Adam Sandler movies in the 1990s. You know you’re watching a slapstick comedy when you see obviously farcical situations and characters, comically violent overreactions, or absurd mishaps.

While there were a few slapstick movies before Airplane!, Airplane! perfected it. The main character has a drinking problem, he literally cannot drink liquids properly; the doctor sleeps with his stethoscope in his ears; and the flight operator keeps picking the wrong week to quit various drugs.

These slapstick moments are the most defining part of the movie. There is a plot, and it is important, but the slapstick gags and jokes exaggerate the comedic moments and make it an effective parody movie. In my perfect world, there would be more slapstick and parody movies, especially with franchises like the Marvel Universe and Harry Potter with tons of content to spare.

Subverting Expectations

This element can be used in comedies and non-comedies alike. This is the dissonance that happens when what we see on the screen doesn't match what we expected to happen. When done properly, this can be extremely comedic. Airplane! is a master of this.

Everything is taken literally by the characters in this movie. One of the funnier exchanges in the movie goes a little something like this:

Passenger: Nervous?

Striker: Yes.

Passenger: First time?

Striker: No, I've been nervous lots of times.

We expect to hear about previous flying experience, or a simple "No." Instead, subverting our expectations and instead answering in a literal sense makes me laugh every time I see that scene.

This isn't the only example of that, either. Another great scene comes later in the movie when the airfield operator questions the plane's instruments. The scene cuts back to the cockpit where they are playing actual instruments.

Rewatchability

The final comedy commandment we are examining in this article is rewatchability. I alluded to it in the first commandment but there is nary a film as rewatchable as Airplane! I have seen this movie well over a dozen times and yet each time I watch it I find something new to laugh at. Due to its chaotic nature with visual gags and jokes crammed into every nook and cranny, it's easy to miss laughs the first time you watch.

The jokes you do catch on the first watch are still funny when you watch the film again. This is something missing from modern comedies. I enjoyed and laughed at the Hangover (2009), Horrible Bosses (2011), and Ted (2012), but these are movies I would never watch again unless they were on TV.

Final Review

There has never been a movie I have seen with more laughs per minute than Airplane! I rate it a perfect 10/10, one of the few movies I would consider flawless. I recommend Airplane! to anyone who is a fan of comedy as it truly is a classic.