[Weekly Update] Comedy as Weapons

Writing this a bit late, as I'm in the process of ending my medication.

The decrease in dosage does funny things to my brain. I have had multiple songs stuck in my brain for days now. One of the songs were, of all things, Springtime for Hitler from The Producers.

For those who don't know, it's a long to makes fun of the Nazis. I'm not a Nazi, don't worry.

CHANNEL UPDATE

Because of the change in medication, things have been slow in our office. I did finish our script for African Kung-Fu Nazis, but have yet to edit it down. Ideally the script should go up tomorrow.

In the process of writing this script, I had the pleasure of revisiting some classic anti-fascist movies like The Producers and Dr. Strangelove. Man, I wish comedy today is this bold and meaningful.

Meanwhile, work on our April Fools' video has begun. In the end, I couldn't find enough Mandarin films with interesting swear words, so I'll be sticking only to Cantonese. Hopefully it'll come out funny instead of crass or boring.

MEDIA TALK

As mentioned in the channel update section, I've been watching some classic comedies that were used to mock various harmful ideologies, like fascism and nazism. Comedy as a weapon of thoughts is a practice as old as time. And in cinema, it also emerged fairly early on. Many of Charlie Chaplin's movies make use of comedy to fight for the common folks. One of his most iconic scenes would be from The Immigrant, where immigrants are treated like cattle as they arrive in America, right in front of the Statue of Liberty, a monument that welcomes immigrants.

These days, though, very few comedies dare to step into politics, let alone staking such a strong stance. The movie business has gotten so expensive, unless your are Sacha Baron Cohen, the risk is just not worth it. Satirical comedies like this now lives mostly on TV, with shows such as South Park. But even then, it rarely stings as hard.

The last comedy film like that that I remember were Don't Look Up. And even then, the film feels less like a comedy and more like a last desperate cry for help. It's hard to laugh at that movie, to no fault of the film.

It's a shame, since comedy is such a powerful genre to incite social changes. I briefly mentioned this in our 2024 Chinese Film Review video, but last year has been a good year for Chinese satirical comedies, and they were the kind of films I'm looking for. Living in a country with strict media regulations and censorship, even the average citizen is quite good at masking their criticism with humor. The subgenre benefits from this greatly.

We already talk about Johnny Keep Walking, so I won't repeat myself here. I do want to let you know that the film is now available on YouTube for free with English subtitles. So give it a watch, especially if you are a frustrated office worker.

Successor was another fantastic comedy about Asian parenting culture. The plot involves a rich father pretending to be poor, so that he can turn his son into a worthy successor, unspoiled by a wealthy lifestyle. Usually, this sort of story focuses on the lesson learned by the children. By the end of the film, you'd expect the son to learn to appreciate the small things in life, and that money can't buy happiness. This film, however, flips that on its head. It's almost like a spy thriller, in which the son gradually discovers the truth. Through his perspective, I learn about the hidden horrors of having a demanding parent, as well as the social forces behind such culture. It transgress on an expected social norm, which is brilliant.

One day I'll make a video on this, but many of Stephen Chow's movies are similarly satirical. The most obvious one is From Beijing With Love, a James Bond parody that lampoons the internal corruption in China. But there's also Forbidden City Cops, which lampoons the Hong Kong film and TV industry. Without the relevant context, the film just seems like nonsense, however.

All that's to say, I really wish there are more comedies that push for social changes. It seems horror has taken over when it comes to taking a political stance. I guess the genre is generally cheaper to make and safer in terms of box office return. But, oh man, I would love to see Jordan Peele making a straight comedy film.

Anyway, that's the update for today. Does your country have a happy of producing social-satires? I know India used to make a lot of them.

Anyway, I'll finish the video as soon as possible. See you around!