There doesn’t seem to be that many straight up comedy films these days, though one of the few people still reliably churning them out is actor/writer/producer Seth Rogen.
Rogen keeps popping up in R-rated studio comedies every now and then, whilst also enjoying big success more recently in television with genre comic-to-TV material like “Preacher” and “The Boys” which works mostly thanks to some darkly comedic humor throughout.
That’s part of the problem according to Rogen in a new interview with GamesRadar whilst out promoting HBO Max’s “An American Pickle”. Rogen says that the definition of a comedy has changed over the past decade and it’s hard for more cost-effective ones to really break through mainly due to deep pocketed companies like Marvel Studios:
“Something that me and [producing partner] Evan [Goldberg] talk about a lot is how Marvel movies are comedies. ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ is a comedy. ‘Ant-Man’ is a comedy at its core. So that’s what’s out there. There are $200 million comedies out there, and so that’s something, as a comedic filmmaker, to be aware of. That is the benchmark that people expect!.
If you’re going to make a big huge comedy, just know that your competition is like Marvel. Not to say you should not make those types of films, but know that’s what audiences are seeing, and that, when you see those movies in theatres, they are playing like comedies. They are legitimately funny and star comedy stars. Audiences still love comedy, and they want that – ‘Deadpool’ – but the scope of them is huge.”
As a result, comedies that don’t have big budgets have to rely on a more emotional and human connection, along with doing the kind of raunch that Disney-backed Marvel can’t get away with:
“When you’re not offering them that scope, you have to think, ‘What am I offering them?’ That’s why something like ‘Good Boys’ does well, because we’re not offering scope. What we’re offering is pure comedy and emotion and relatability and nostalgia. That’s the trade-off. You don’t get to see the God of Thunder being hilarious, but you get to see something that maybe represents your actual life, and that’s very gratifying in another way.
Movies like Sausage Party and Blockers have managed to do really, really well, even though they’re the exact type of thing that people say doesn’t do that well. But then every once in a while we’ll have a Neighbours that does really, really, really well. It allows us to keep making them.”
The second season of the Rogen-produced “The Boys” premieres soon with that show having already been renewed for a third season. That begs the question of whether the producers have an endgame in mind for the show.
Turns out they do with Rogen saying showrunner Eric Kripke has “an ending in mind that he likes and is working towards…to my knowledge, he has an endgame in sight and an ideal number of seasons in his head… he’s been very deliberate in the plotting out of the show.” Kripke is no stranger to long arcs, the showrunner created The CW’s “Supernatural” and ran it for its first five seasons which became increasingly serialised.
“An American Pickle” is now on HBO Max while “The Boys” will air on Amazon next month.
