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Woke Killed Comedy (Check Out the Frightening Numbers)

Laughter ruled theaters in the '90s, 2000s until social justice warriors arrived

Numbers don’t lie, and they often confirm our worst suspicions.

Take big-screen comedies. When was the last gut-busting feature that rocked the box office in the “Step Brothers,” “Bridesmaids” tradition? Sure, animated films are often humorous, and some MCU films deliver laughs along with superhero action.

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Old-school comedies, often R-rated and brimming with anti-heroes, are an endangered species at the cineplex.

Podcast giant Joe Rogan said as much last year, and now we have the facts to back it up.

Former Amazon Studios head Roy Price noticed some raw data regarding feature comedies and shared it via Twitter.

The-Numbers.com shows how comedies made up 20 percent of the total movie market share in 1997. Six years later, that number peaked at 21.44 percent.

That year we saw classic romps like “Old School,” “Stuck on You” and “Bad Santa.”

Old School (2003) Official Trailer - Will Ferrell, Luke Wilson Comedy HD

By 2020, the comedic market share shrunk to 3.8 percent. Now, it stands at 6.73 percent after 2023’s first quarter.

What changed? Isn’t it obvious?

The culture changed and, along with it, our ability to laugh at ourselves. Lovable characters like Bluto from “Animal House” are now too offensive. Select groups cannot be teased lest accusations of racism or bigotry emerge.

Jokes now “trigger” select audience members who revel in victimhood and scurry to social media to share their performative outrage. And, sadly, these souls hold sway over the culture in ways that scare cowardly Hollywood silly.

Comedy guru Todd Phillips abandoned the genre for that very reason.

Big screen comedies like 2015’s “Get Hard” came under fire as being racist, despite black comedian Kevin Hart co-headlining alongside Will Ferrell. Amy Schumer uncorked two comedies, “Snatched” (2017) and “I Feel Pretty” (2018), which both got blasted as racist and/or problematic.

She hasn’t made a big-screen comedy since.

Woke isn’t entirely to blame for the dearth of big-screen comedies. Some switched from theatrical releases to streaming, although very few have broken through like the “Old Schools” and “Step Brothers” of yore.

Is anyone quoting “Vacation Friends?” “Murder Mystery 1 or 2?” “The Wrong Missy?” “Spirited?” “Coming 2 America?” “Wine Country?”

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This should be a golden age for comedy, much like how horror is firing on all cylinders. Not only is modern culture ripe for ridicule, but it can be done at a fraction of the cost of the average blockbuster.

Comedies don’t demand A-list talents, for starters, and the hefty price tags they require. One of the best comedies of the modern era, “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” featured actors who weren’t A-listers at the time, including Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd and Elizabeth Banks.

The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005) Official Trailer - Steve Carell, Paul Rudd Comedy HD

Funny films rarely require CGI-laden budgets which might make a Return on Investment (ROI) harder to justify.

Modern audiences crave escapism, and the best way to make them forget their troubles is with laughter. It’s why rebel comics like Ryan Long, Chrissie Mayr, Tyler Fischer, Tim Dillon and, of course, Joe Rogan thrive on alternative platforms.

This comedy video, with no marketing or studio behind it, generated millions of views within a few days.

Were You Just Filming Me?

Andrew Schulz sold his “Infamous” special independently and quickly turned a profit. Louis C.K., canceled by mainstream Hollywood for his gross sexual acts, sold out Madison Square Garden earlier this year.

We’re desperate for laughter, but Hollywood is too cowardly to meet us halfway.

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11 Comments

  1. Hollywood really needs to disband, because I’m tired of them catering to a bunch of thin-skinned people on social media who can’t take jokes.

  2. Age of the sitcom is dead. They seem to be required to adhere to a litany of woke demands. There must be multiple POC, a mixed marriage couple is worth extra points, there must be at least 1 homosexual and a couple would be great. All non POC roles must be written to look education challenged and POC be very smart and not talk ghetto, non POC with fake ghetto accents are fine. TV is not worth watching unless you have a great library of pre-woke sitcoms that can never be made again.

    1. Even Big Bang that was about socially awkward male geeks and one hot girl has turned into Friends. Notice how frumpy Penny became? CBS was forced by feminists into giving girls a bigger role so now the geeks are getting more sex then the jocks. If the girls are so interesting, why not give them their own show?
      Now we have the feminists and Homosexuals fighting over a once all male buddy show, this is what Hollywood has become.

    2. Actually, the woke crowd does NOT like a mixed marriage couple(ESPECIALLY if it’s a Black/non-Black couple in particular and a Black/White couple especially), and U.S. House Representative Byron Donalds(R-Florida) has made it clear that most of the hate he gets from people for being married to a White woman comes from the Left.

  3. Nonsense. Utter nonsense. The movie-watching landscape has been nothing short of fully turned over on the past decade and a half, and the best analysis you have is shallow, cherry picked indictment of people being more sensitive to issues of race and gender? To quote a classic comedy, “even the guy who can’t think says something.” That guy is you. Do you ever challenge your assumptions? I mean, Jesus. What happened since 2008… Hmm. Streaming. Marvel movies. New star wars trilogy. A pandemic. Game of Thrones and many other cinematic shows. Massive TVs in people’s homes. Christ. But, yes, blame the SJWs.

    1. Even Big Bang that was about socially awkward male geeks and one hot girl has turned into Friends. Notice how frumpy Penny became? CBS was forced by feminists into giving girls a bigger role so now the geeks are getting more sex then the jocks. If the girls are so interesting, why not give them their own show?
      Now we have the feminists and Homosexuals fighting over a once all male buddy show, this is what Hollywood has become.

  4. I don’t think it’s been all bad. “Cocaine Bear” was non-woke and has become something of a cult hit. But yes Hollywood is now largely too scared of scolds with no sense of humor.

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