“Are Comedy Movies in Theaters Dead?” | Nostalgia, Reboots & Streaming Takeover

In this episode of Original Geek, Steve and Jeff ask the big question every Gen X geek has been quietly dreading: Are comedy movies in theaters officially dead? 💀🎬

From quoting Caddyshack and Stripes to rewatching Happy Gilmore 2 on Netflix instead of in theaters, the guys dive deep into the evolution (and slow extinction?) of the theater comedy experience. They debate nostalgia vs. streaming, talk about the rise of meme humor, review the new Naked Gun reboot with Liam Neeson, and give shoutouts to underappreciated gems like Spies Like Us and Hysterical.

This one's got all the hits—Monty Python, Airplane, the sad state of multiplexes, and a desperate plea: GO SEE A COMEDY IN A THEATER BEFORE THEY’RE GONE.

👴 Punchlines from the past. 🤖 Comedy in the streaming age. 🎥 Theaters vs. TikTok.

Hit play and geek out with us.

Drop your favorite comedy movie quote in the comments!
And don’t forget to like, subscribe, and check out the merch at OriginalGeekPodcast.com

#OriginalGeekPodcast #ComedyMovies #GenXGeek #NakedGunReboot #HappyGilmore2 #80sComedy #90sMovies #MovieNostalgia #MontyPython #StreamingKillsTheater #Caddyshack #Stripes #MovieReboots #TheaterExperience #GeekCulture #PodcastClips #AirplaneMovie #GhostbustersReboot #LiamNeesonComedy #MemesKilledComedy #BringBackTheaterLaughs

Welcome to Original Geek—the podcast for anyone who rolled their first d20 on shag carpet, waited hours for a comic book JPEG to load on dial-up, and wore the label “geek” back when it got you mocked, not monetized.

Hosted by stand-up comic Steve Scarfo and Forever DM Jeff Shaw, we dive deep into what it meant to be a geek in the '70s and '80s—and how that underground culture became the mainstream multiverse we live in today.

🎙️ Subscribe for weekly episodes on Dungeons & Dragons, Star Wars, comic book chaos, geek court debates, and critical hits from your childhood basement.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to the Show
• 9:28 Geek Flashback
• 18:32 Geek Court
• 26:37 Basement Treasures
• 31:29 Geek Evolution
• 45:09 Critical Hits & Epic Fails

Transcript

Steve Scarfo (00:00)
so we started talking about it, but here's the real topic for the day, counselor. Are comedy movies at the theater dead? And I know which side I'm taking, and I'll give you the choice. You can go first or second, don't really, whichever way goes.

Jeff (00:05)
Okay.

You go

first. Yes or no? What's gonna be man?

Steve Scarfo (00:23)
I am very,

I'm very sad to say, I think they are. ⁓ I hope I'm wrong.

Welcome to Original Geek. This is the podcast for anyone who rolled dice in a basement, waited hours to download comic covers on dial up and proudly wore that label a geek back when it was a target and not a trend. We're going to dive deep into what it meant to be a geek in the 70s and 80s and how that compares.

to that mainstream world we live in today. Who are we? We're two of the Gen X survivors who didn't just watch geek culture evolve. We live through every awkward phase. Hi, I'm Steve Scarfo.

Jeff (01:19)
and I'm Jeff Shaw and we'll be your punchline in today's hilarious romp. Tell them what the topic is today, Steve.

Steve Scarfo (01:27)
That's

right. We're stepping to the left a little bit of geekdom, but we're driving into comedy movies because ⁓ it definitely fits with that original geek theme of ⁓ this is stuff from our childhood. The movies, the comedy movies specifically of the 80s and 90s were some of the best, ⁓ I think, that are out there. ⁓ I went through a list earlier, but you know, these are movies that made us laugh in the theater.

with a full room full of people. ⁓ And now things are changing, man. There are going to be things that are reboots and they're becoming streaming series and, you know, let's see.

Jeff (02:13)
Well, yeah, and one thing all of us geeks had in

common was endlessly quoting these movies. Like, I feel like half of what I said in the 80s was a movie or a TV quote. just, like, that was our, that was like our shortcut to humor.

Steve Scarfo (02:34)
I just every time you would throw out a quote, it would just completely remind you of the whole movie. And I think we talked about it a couple of episodes ago. Whenever you made a mixtape, ⁓ because we still had reel to reel mixtapes, Jeff would always throw in a movie quotes, but they were never like ⁓ it was never Braveheart, know, give me you know, it was we are the three amigos. And do you want to kiss? Do you want to kiss me on the veranda? Yes.

Jeff (02:43)
yeah, that's true.

Yeah. And, ⁓ Joe versus the volcano. ⁓ I know we can get

the job, but can he do the job? Yeah. Love that. And I mean, some of the things that we quoted were sometimes geeky, like more, a little more, you know, nerdy or deeper dive because, and I know this will probably, we'll probably have a whole Monty Python topic on another day, but I kind of feel like.

Steve Scarfo (03:05)
Do the job.

Jeff (03:27)
when we were growing up that being a Monty Python fan wasn't cool. Like that was more of a nerdy choice. And that was like NPR, or not NPR, but like public broadcasting would have something like that.

Steve Scarfo (03:34)
god no.

⁓ super

subculture for when we were in high school, especially in the 80s, know, anything British, you know, again, no cable. The only access to British TV we got was TV 38 and 56 out of Boston. And it was old episodes of Monty Python, Benny Hill, ⁓ which still ⁓ I believe that that theme song can make damn near anything funny.

Jeff (04:13)
Good point. Good point. Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (04:13)
And maybe we'll throw a little clip of it

in here too. But yeah, that's all we had. So most people weren't watching, you know, and again, the UHF channels that were, you know, people just, wasn't regular mainstream TV. So.

Jeff (04:30)
Yeah, absolutely.

Steve Scarfo (04:34)
So we wanna talk a lot about these things because there's something happening right now. ⁓ We talked about a few days ago in preparation for this episode. A lot of movies that we loved from the 80s and 90s are sort of making a comeback.

but they're not coming back in the same way. There are some reboots, there are weird sequels. ⁓ I just watched Billy Madison, not Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, ⁓ two. It just came out on Netflix. This is probably a couple weeks after that. ⁓ But the original movie was almost 30 years ago. And it's not a reboot. It's an extension of that same story.

Jeff (05:12)
It's just mind blowing.

Steve Scarfo (05:20)
Which is weird, and it's, you know, it was released on Netflix, which most people stream, but it's just a weird thing to see. And as many movies as he's, because he's put a ton load on Netflix, it was weird to see this one because I remember the original in the theater.

Jeff (05:30)
Yeah.

I know it is strange for something like that to not even have an in theater option for us. ⁓ But when I think about it, ⁓ the two of us used to go to the movies seemed like every week. ⁓ And certainly even later on, it went to once a month. And now it's down to a few times a year that the two of us are in theater together.

Like, so, you know, maybe we're partly to blame. I don't know. But yeah, it's it is it is different that, you know, some, you know, some of the best comedies and I don't know, because I haven't seen Happy Gilmore 2 yet. I am going to. I haven't seen it yet. But it seems like in at least the 2020s, there's not not that many movies have come out.

comedy movies have come out in the theater. That streaming's had some good stuff. But the theater, not so much.

Steve Scarfo (06:45)
Yeah.

Yeah, and I'll say it was a strong showing, right? was good. It was a good sequel. had all the nostalgia of the original because there's there's throwbacks in there and it had new humor and you know, it's it's a happy Madison production, so it's goofy.

Jeff (07:04)
Did they dig up the corpse

of Bob Barker?

Steve Scarfo (07:08)
They did not and fight the time agency, the TVA with Bob Barker's bones. They did.

Jeff (07:13)
No, literally like a zombie Bob Barker, because that's one of my favorite

parts of Happy Gilmore was Bob Barker kicking his ass.

Steve Scarfo (07:23)
So they don't, but there is a scene very reminiscent of that.

Jeff (07:27)
Okay, we have someone else

who kicks his ass that you would not expect Okay

Steve Scarfo (07:32)
Yes, and there's

even more to that relationship that happens that is unexpected. It's one of the things I liked about it because it actually carried the characters forward. ⁓ So listen on it.

Jeff (07:43)
So another thing I loved about the

original is this Ben Stiller's character come back because I actually liked his creepy nurse. It was so good.

Steve Scarfo (07:54)
So ⁓

Ben Stiller is one of the many, many, many people who will come back. And then there's so many cameos in this movie. There's so many people who, there is one person that showed up that I was looking at him going, I know I know that face, but it was so out of context.

Jeff (07:59)
Okay, good.

Steve Scarfo (08:11)
And I can tell you if you want, but I won't spoil it for you or anyone else listening who maybe hasn't seen it yet. I was like, oh, my God, that's him. And then there was another guy who had heard of but had no idea what he looked like, who was the other cameo. And they were in the same scene together. And I'm like, all right. So they put some effort into it. But and and so if you think about it like this, we got Adam Sandler, arguably one of the biggest comedy stars of the last decade or two.

Yes, he's been taking a lot of crap for all the stuff he dumps on Netflix, but he has put a lot of content out. He tries to make the movies. And for a property that sold so well in the theater the first time, he couldn't get a theatrical release. Maybe he didn't want it, but they put it on Netflix. Do you know what I mean? They didn't. ⁓ And that's sort of what drove us into today's topic is this this idea of. What's happening to comedy?

Jeff (08:45)
Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (09:05)
You know, especially as a comedian, there's so many movies that I love. And every time we talk about this topic, I have different movies in quotes floating around in my head that I want to use. And so it makes me it makes me kind of sad because I don't feel like there's a lot of original stuff anymore.

Jeff (09:20)
Yeah. Well, hey, before we talk about today, I think we need a flashback.

Steve Scarfo (09:26)
Do we need a?

Jeff (09:27)
Yes.

Steve Scarfo (09:35)
So this was hard. This was hard. ⁓ You know, I'm not a comedian by accident. I started by watching all these stupid movies growing up and I, you know, sad to say one of the things, ⁓ I sad now, but the first comedy I ever did was after watching Bill Cosby's himself on HBO.

and I recorded it on my VHS tape and watched it a thousand times. all of these movies, ⁓ all of these movies to me were like what caused me to have this sense of humor. All the stuff we talked about in the beginning segment about quoting stuff together, we got together to watch Monty Python movies. But for me, ⁓ the flashback ⁓ I wanna talk about, guess it really becomes, ⁓

more about Bill Murray than a specific movie. Because I had two movies in my list, Caddyshack and Stripes. And they're on kind of opposite ends of the spectrum, both just ⁓ goofball Bill Murray movies. also two movies that I quote constantly.

You know, it's ⁓ it's a cross between ⁓ Kentucky bluegrass and California centamere The best part is you can shoot nine holes and they get smoked you the but Jesus, you know what I'm talking about? That's like one of my favorite lines of all time And I don't know if like eight people get that that line from Caddyshack Or in stripes when they're at the end and where is yours? Where's your drill sergeant son? Blown up sir. You know what he mean? Like Bill Murray

Like you have epitomized early 80s comedies for me.

Jeff (11:22)
One of my favorite lines from Stripes, now that you say it, when they're trying to get in the army and they're asked if they're gay, and they're said, no sir, but we're willing to try. And I felt like such a great line.

Steve Scarfo (11:35)
you

Well, and him and he and Harold Ramis

had the best deadpan deliveries. they, they weren't, I've heard it referred to as winking at the camera. It wasn't like a, we're making something funny here. They just played it as serious. Like, cause they, characters just didn't give a shit. And they played it perfectly. ⁓

Jeff (11:43)
Yeah.

Well, and my choice is airplane for much that reason, because it was so absurd and yet most of the actors played it serious. Not all of them. was that one very flamboyant character that was in air traffic control who like, you know.

You know, just, you know, was going a little crazy and over the top and it really worked. It was funny. But most of the characters are doing the most absurd lines and the most straight, you know, fashion like serious fashion and Leslie Nielsen, who becomes, you know, Frank Drebin in the naked gun movies. And it's just so good at that. And ⁓ and it's just that that movie.

was so influential. ⁓ Also, you know, it's the Farrelly Brothers who something about Mary and ⁓ you know, those their movies, they said that they wouldn't be making comedy if it wasn't for Airplane and the ZAZ movies. The Zucker, Abraham Zucker, I think it's the was the was the team that made it. ⁓

Steve Scarfo (13:13)
Yeah.

Jeff (13:17)
You know, and and also Seth MacFarlane, who made the new Naked Gun reboot. ⁓ Same thing quotes airplane and the naked gun and those movies for, you know, his style of comedy and being super influential. And you can see it because, you know, if you think about ⁓ Family Guy, it has all these cutaways. Like suddenly there's a giant check in and he's fighting.

Steve Scarfo (13:33)
Yeah.

Jeff (13:42)
And it doesn't make any sense. And they go right back to the topic at hand. And it doesn't matter where it's like an airplane. Like the woman is panicking and they're trying to get her under control. And so they just slap her. And then it just keeps getting more and more absurd until you've got guys with machetes, a nun with a gun. There's a whole line of people ready to attack this woman. And then, you know, just absurd moment after absurd moment.

Steve Scarfo (13:59)
And there's a whole line. There's a whole line of them waiting.

Jeff (14:12)
and delivered, you know, without that wink at the camera, like you're saying, like, this is serious. This is what we're doing. And it works so well.

Steve Scarfo (14:25)
That same irreverent aside that they put in airplane, because it was always that line like, ⁓ everybody's at the hospital. The hospital, what is it? it's a building with patients and doctors.

Jeff (14:35)
Yes.

But that's not important right now. Yes.

Steve Scarfo (14:38)
That's what they, yeah,

so that's what they do in Family Guy, but sometimes they do it with a visual instead of the turn. Like they take the turn into left field, but they do a visual or a quick chicken fight, or they take it out of completely out of context. Yeah, those are great choices. ⁓ But it also brings us into the overarching idea of our topic for today, which is that reboot. So now the new naked gun.

Jeff (14:50)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Steve Scarfo (15:05)
with Liam Neeson is going to be hit in the theaters.

Jeff (15:08)
Yeah, yeah, I'm excited to go see it actually. ⁓ It didn't go out on streaming, which is amazing. Because in preparation for this episode, I looked up what are the top movies, comedy movies in the theater?

for the 2020s and other than like the Ghostbusters, if you count those, and I know that's got that bridge, right? Of kind of adventure comedy. that's out there. Like, I feel like the James Gunn movies have that element. know, Guardians of the Galaxy are...

Yeah, they're hilarious, but they're also action. So I think there's some that but a pure like comedy movie that's not, you know, action with comedy in or sci fi with comedy in it. There's not that much ⁓ out there. ⁓ No hard feelings with. Now I can't remember her name. She's ⁓ Jennifer Lawrence. ⁓ That came out in the theaters.

Steve Scarfo (16:01)
No, and most?

Jeff (16:15)
I didn't see it in theaters. I should have. Should have. ⁓ But when I did see it on streaming, I thought it was hilarious. Like it would have been a hit in a different time period.

Steve Scarfo (16:17)
No, and I don't think it did well.

Yeah.

So that's interesting because ⁓ some of the stuff I was reading fits into what you're talking about, which is it's not pure comedies that they're putting in the theaters. It's those, like in Jennifer Lawrence movie was maybe a one-off, but I think it still had this aspect of she's such a big star, they thought they could do it. But.

Jeff (16:49)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (16:51)
There's no comedy that's been produced since like, 05, 06 and streaming really started that hasn't had some other element. Like even the Ghostbusters movies, they were a throwback, a nostalgia movie. So there was a nostalgia play, there was a A-list actor play. Most of those have had some other element in them, but there are a handful.

Jeff (17:16)
I think that a little bit later,

a little bit later, Bridesmaid was 2011. That was a huge hit.

Steve Scarfo (17:23)
So it's funny because one of the questions I was gonna ask is like, what's one of the last movies, great comedy movies you saw in the theater? That was one of them I thought of. I was thinking of The Hangover, which I think was 08 or 09. So it was at that cusp of streaming. Yeah.

Jeff (17:34)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. there there's not that many, that's for sure.

Steve Scarfo (17:45)
So streaming didn't really hit till like 05, 07. Like Netflix didn't really start doing streaming until 07, 08. So those movies were like people were learning what streaming was. So I think that might have helped some of those. mean, because I'll be honest with you, I watched the first Hangover movie and I cried. I laughed so hard I cried. First time I saw Ken Jeong in anything and he was like hysterical. Now he's kind of a joke, but. ⁓

He just does anything and he's silly and she's fun, but you know what mean.

Jeff (18:19)
Yeah, I get it. But you know what? I think I'm gonna take you to court.

Steve Scarfo (18:25)
You ready to go? Are you ready to go to geek court?

Jeff (18:26)
I am. Yes.

I'm taking you to court.

Steve Scarfo (18:41)
to be louder next time. All right, so we started talking about it, but here's the real topic for the day, counselor. Are comedy movies at the theater dead? And I know which side I'm taking, and I'll give you the choice. You can go first or second, don't really, whichever way goes.

Jeff (18:49)
Okay.

You go

first. Yes or no? What's gonna be man?

Steve Scarfo (19:07)
I am very,

I'm very sad to say, I think they are. ⁓ I hope I'm wrong.

gonna start with a very hopeful, I hope I'm wrong, but everything I've watched in the last couple days, everything I've looked at, everything I've read, there's like three comedies coming up that I'm interested in seeing that are getting direct to theater releases. ⁓ We talked a little bit about one of them. ⁓

Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson called Friendship. It's sort of a subculture movie. ⁓ It looks very cool, but I still think that's propped up on Tim Robinson's the I think you should leave guy, so he had some heat. Paul Rudd's an A-list. The story is different, but definitely this isn't a subculture in terms of it's completely unknown. But most of the movies that have come out, I think streaming, I think streaming.

Jeff (20:01)
Well, didn't that one already come out?

Steve Scarfo (20:03)
Actually, yeah, sorry, you're right. Friendship has been out. This is how bad it is.

OK, I looked up movies from this year that were coming out and I did. I watched the trailer and you're right at the end it said coming in May and here it is July and I only found it during research for this show. So so this is this is what I'm talking about. It got a theatrical release. I don't even remember seeing it on a marquee, so I don't even think it was released wide.

Jeff (20:16)
Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (20:29)
And this is a couple of guys who are well known for being funny, right? So I don't think there's an appetite in the theater for humor. People are so used to taking their phone and giggling at memes and I do it too. TikTok for 30 to 45 seconds, YouTube shorts, everything's a meme. We talked about quoting, everything's a meme. I don't think that there's a huge space for comedies in the theater anymore.

Jeff (20:35)
You

Steve Scarfo (20:58)
Prove me wrong, sir. Prove me wrong.

Jeff (21:01)
All right. So, unfortunately, your example that you thought was going to be a good one of friendship is actually, it actually is proving your point because those are two that, Paul Rudd is definitely a big name. Tim Robinson is a, is a big name in the meme game, which you're talking about how you're, watching something for two seconds. I think you should leave with Tim Robbins is hilarious. And it's perfect in this meme culture. Each.

little segment takes about two minutes. Like coffin flop is just a bunch of guys naked falling out of coffins. And that's the whole concept. Goffin flop. It's great. ⁓ If you've ever seen a meme of a guy in a hot dog suit, you you know, with his kind of arms raised like, what, what about me? That's Tim Robbins. And that's from his show. And so it's pretty, it's pretty predominant and it's

It didn't work. You're right. So you might think it's dead, but I have hope. And that hope is in the new Naked Gun movie. I really, you know, ⁓ fingers crossed that comedy in the theater isn't dead. I do recognize that it's going to require reboots and big properties. ⁓ Not happy to hear that Happy Gilmore didn't have a theatrical release because it kind of goes against what I feel could have worked.

I felt like they should have done it simultaneously, put it out in the theaters and on Netflix. Netflix has done that before with ⁓ other movies, so I felt like they could have done that. ⁓ But I guess they just didn't wanna know, they didn't want the bad press in the event that it didn't work in the theater. ⁓ And I recognize that it's tough because I'm guilty too to get me away from my...

nice screen, nice comfy, couch, all the amenities of being at home. I've got the surround sound. I've got the, the, the great HDTV. I don't need to go to the theater for a quality experience. So I'm part of the problem, but, but, but I don't want that to be the case.

Steve Scarfo (23:15)
It sounds like you're making my point for the record.

Jeff (23:25)
so I am going to vote with my dollar and i'm gonna go see naked gun and if naked gun doesn't work because I think Liam Neeson is a fantastic choice for this and I think Seth MacFarlane's hilarious so I feel like this could if this works then at the very least ⁓ big property comedies could still function in the theaters and ⁓

And that could be the entrance. Maybe people give comedy a chance in the theaters again. So that's that's my hope. I'm not not not feeling great about my argument this time. I feel like most of these geek courts, I feel like I'm on the winning side. This one I'm not feeling quite as strongly about because it's about hope. We should have we should have done this episode next week after Top Gun was the number one movie in the country.

Steve Scarfo (24:06)
He he.

Listen, you still lost.

Jeff (24:24)
beating the Fantastic Four and beating Superman. Did I say Top Gun? meant, okay, naked gosh.

Steve Scarfo (24:25)
Not Top Gun, Naked Gun. You said Top Gun. So you did. And for the record, you still lost the Star Trek Star

Wars thing. I don't care how much money they make. Yeah, that's ⁓ listen, I'm with you on that. I do agree. Liam Neeson is probably the best choice, especially for that Leslie Nielsen style quality. And he started in comedy movies. There was a ghost movie he was in. ⁓

where it was very silly and dry and he's a great dry, I mean I've seen him do stuff with Ricky Gervais and he just plays it straight but he plays those comedy lines. I think he's gonna, I love Seth MacFarlane, I hope you are correct. I think even if it does well, it's gonna be an anomaly. ⁓ And part of that is because of the way things have happened, right? So everything you said about Tim Robinson, ⁓ he's...

that quick hit little screen access to so much humor and that we can clip it to two, three, 10 seconds. I mean, I've seen clips from old movies. My kids have been like playing videos on YouTube shorts. And I'm like, how do you guys know that song? And it's part of a meme. Someone's brought back, but it's from like an old movie or so I.

I don't want it to be true, but I do. I hope you're right. I hope Naked Gun opens up the doors. mean, especially as a comedian, I would love to see more comedies. ⁓ I did see that there are some, there are more comedy movies coming and a lot of them are ⁓ throwbacks. There are a couple of features that are gonna be released. guess Nate Bargazzi is actually releasing a standup feature in the theaters. So that'll be interesting to see if that does well. ⁓ That's another whole.

another whole area. So I don't know. I fear you're wrong in the court, but I hope you are not. I hope you are correct. ⁓ But now I think it's time to go dumpster diving, or in fact, basement diving.

Jeff (26:29)
Thank you. I appreciate that.

Steve Scarfo (26:44)
All right, I have four things listed for this I'm gonna pick one These are all from 85 and 86 and I was gonna go with one But I think that might be even more well known to me. This is a great basement treasure. It's spies like us It was it was 1985 Dan Aykroyd Chevy Chase

Jeff (27:03)
Hmm.

Steve Scarfo (27:12)
and they played the most absurd. It was something that happened in the 80s all the time. They were absurd, like put comedians in a real job and make them do foolish things. And because of those two guys, it was absolutely hysterical. And it's still quotable because I say forever, doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor. If you've ever seen a meme.

Jeff (27:32)
What's a dick for?

Steve Scarfo (27:35)
Yes, have you ever seen the meme of a bunch of people in fur coats calling each other doctor? It's from spies like us

Jeff (27:43)
Yeah, yeah, I agree. Spies Like Us is fantastic. And I think it does qualify as a basement treasure. I think a lot of people probably don't know about that that aren't Gen X. ⁓ Please do check that out. And you can find that one in streaming and you can purchase it through like Amazon or whatever, however you purchase things. What I'm going to share with you is a true treasure of the basement.

In fact, you got to keep digging because you cannot find it on any of your streaming services. Well, not not like Amazon or Netflix or Paramount Plus. And you cannot purchase it brand new. If you did want a copy, you could get a DVD on Amazon and it costs you 100 bucks. But I would save your money. It's not worth a hundred dollars as much as I love this movie. It's on YouTube. It's just been posted out there on YouTube. It's.

hysterical and his actually is hysterical, but the title is hysterical. It was one of. mean, I know Abbott and Costello made some spoof horror movies, but I mean, it's one of the first spoof horror movies in the vein of what we're used to in the modern era. ⁓

It came out after airplane and clearly I think the Hudson brothers who made it were trying to do what the Zucker brothers were doing with airplane. They, they end, I think to a large degree.

from my, when I was like 13, 14 years old, I thought they succeeded. I thought it was hilarious. I rewatched it. I do understand now why it didn't maybe stand the test of time quite as well. I still think it's hilarious. And because it's free, go out there, watch it, watch Hysterical. ⁓ The concept of this is it's a spoof horror. ⁓ People are getting turned into zombies.

because of this lighthouse keeper that died that was a sea captain and all of the zombies that are created from the sea captain, they kind of take on some aspects of the sea captain. have a turtleneck, bushy eyebrows, and they say, what difference does it make? And those are the indicators that they've been turned into a zombie. Captain Howdy, yes. And... ⁓

Steve Scarfo (30:01)
It was Captain Howdy.

Captain, howdy.

Jeff (30:07)
It's just if you if you do like airplane or love airplane naked gun those those movies, please give hysterical a try. It's free. So it's only going to cost you some time and highly recommend hysterical. And who knows? Maybe if enough of us watch it again, they'll reboot that one.

Steve Scarfo (30:23)
Yeah.

Maybe that'll be the next 40 year sequel.

Jeff (30:33)
Hey, and John Larroquette, a young John Larroquette is in it. ⁓ Maybe one of his first movies. ⁓ Other than that, Julie Newmar, the only reason I know that, you know.

Steve Scarfo (30:41)
God. And who played Julie Numar?

Who played the female lead? I can see her face. ⁓ I can't think.

Jeff (30:50)
To be honest,

I don't think it's anyone that famous. But Julie Newmar and John Larroquette would be the biggest names. Of course, John Larroquette wasn't a big name then. Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (30:58)
the tops.

No, like you said, probably one of his first movies.

Yeah, I think that's a great call. Boyd and I used to quote hysterical constantly the whole salt Peter conversation. Who was something? It Peter or salt? It was salt on the Peter. I don't know what the Peter was, but he's got salt. And we just, it was just nonsense. But such a great call. But I think it's now, it's time to talk about where things are from where they

Jeff (31:14)
That's right.

Steve Scarfo (31:37)
Ooh, I feel like that music should go longer. It doesn't. So ⁓ I think we started talking about it. I know I started mentioning it earlier. ⁓ The migration of comedies from the big screen to the small screen. ⁓ We've lamented a little bit over it, ⁓ but it really is a function of, I think, a couple of things.

Jeff (31:40)
Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (32:02)
Huge TVs, plasma screen TVs, 55, even during the gaming computer one we talked about last week, you mentioned my parents had this big TV, but it was a standard def TV. It was crap. It was big, but it didn't look great. Didn't matter, we weren't playing anything great. But now, 4K TVs, 8K TVs, 65, 85, 105 inch TVs, your screen at home is bigger, better, and sounds better, and doesn't cost 30 bucks to get into.

Jeff (32:19)
Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (32:32)
to

than a movie theater. So I think part of what happened with us, you talk about we only go a few times a year. Part of that's just we're older. We have weird schedules. But it's also like you want it to be a spectacle. Now, movie theater screens have gotten much bigger, too, which is awesome. Sound has gotten better. They've had to keep up because if I can watch it in 4K at home, they better be able to kick my ass in the theater. So part of that is the TVs we have at home. But really streaming.

Jeff (32:44)
Yes.

Steve Scarfo (33:01)
And I'm going to focus on comedies. That's for today. But the streaming platforms, ⁓ I did look this up because I couldn't remember because I remember Netflix when it was discs. I used to do a joke about having the discs and having a stack of discs at home. ⁓ But. It was 05 07 YouTube launched some video shorts in 05. ⁓

In 07, Netflix started their watch instantly service. It wasn't widely known or widely used. And even then you had to watch on a computer. But it wasn't until between 2008 and 2009 when other services, PS3, Roku came out where they had an app that you could put on your TV. And really, so I think 08, 09 is when...

this whole thing and Hulu I guess started in 2010. So is the Amazon Prime. That's the delimiter. There were movies we talked about that were on that cusp some some a little bit before maybe even 2011 2012 that not everybody was adopting you know we were probably early adopters and a lot of that stuff but this evolution of of how we can consume where we consume

made us choose what we wanted to go out for. When it was just as easy to sit down and watch Blazing Saddles, which we didn't even talk about, which is another phenomenal comedy movie that would never even be made today, never mind be a comedy in the theater. ⁓ You know, it doesn't exist and you don't get that, ⁓ you don't get to have that experience.

Jeff (34:41)
So yeah, I mean, I think, you know, unfortunately, this has been a consequence for multiple genres and certainly comedy is one of them. But, you know, as far as an evolution, because I know we've kind of, you know, already argued this out in our court, but OK, so let's concede. But I still think the comedy that we're seeing today, because I know I've heard that argument that you couldn't make

blazing saddles today, but I think that's okay, because there's a lot of comedies that don't, that, you know, they're good for their time. But I mean, some people say that as if because you can't, you can't, you know, push the same boundaries. But I would offer up South Park as a great counter to that, that if you've seen the most recent South Park.

Steve Scarfo (35:18)
Mm-hmm.

yes.

Jeff (35:37)
and it was used at AI generated President Trump naked in the desert with his penis talking. I'm going to counter and say because that was their most watched film episode in 27 years. So it I'm going to say you can still push some boundaries today in comedy.

Steve Scarfo (35:52)
episode.

So you can, but I think you have to, and I'm gonna call it hide behind the medium. South Park is animated. They got away with a lot of stuff in Beavis and Butt-Head, King of the Hill, ⁓ Family Guy. All of these shows do dirtier, raunchier, more non-politically correct jokes.

and they get away with it and I can't, I'm gonna say get away with it. This last one I know had some political ramifications but we're not a politics show so. But the reality is, we still have to be more careful about how we deliver those messages. I hope that, all right.

Jeff (36:37)
you

I have a counterpoint. It's always

sunny in Philadelphia. Not animated. Does push boundaries. There's an episode where they become crack heads.

just because it helps them get government's ⁓ subsidies and to subsidize their lives. They get addicted to crack. And there's another one where they order and eat human flesh. At least they think it is. So they think they're cannibals. I mean, you're pushing some boundaries there and always sunny.

Steve Scarfo (37:21)
So, okay,

we do have a little bit in there. ⁓

Jeff (37:27)
It can be done. just feel like, and I know, you know, we're not, we're, you know, it's a Stand Up comic, but I think the point is the same as Anthony Jeselnik. He, you know, he contends that you can make those jokes. We just have to make them differently.

Like that, you know, basically, you know, some of the things where you might've targeted someone to be cruel or mean doesn't mean you can't use that as a topic. So if you have a, if there's a topic you want to make a joke about, just don't punch down. That's all he's saying. Like you can, that, that topic, whatever it might be, trans athletes, whatever it might be, you can still have that in a comedy show and be a topic. Just don't punch down. I feel like.

Steve Scarfo (38:12)
Yeah,

and...

Jeff (38:13)
Like you can do it.

Steve Scarfo (38:14)
Jimmy Carr is another one that does that too. He can talk about and say some of the most horrendous things, but he's always punching up, if you will, to the reverse of what you're talking about, I mean, it goes back to the jesters of the courts, right? They were the only ones who could punch up. They were never making fun of their other plebes. They were always making fun of the king and his court, and they were the only ones that could get away with it. So.

Jeff (38:24)
Right, yeah.

yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, great point.

Steve Scarfo (38:44)
I do still hold out hope, of course, especially as a comedian, not that I get crazy and edgy, ⁓ but I love the fact that people can still, if they know how to do it, you can't just go out and be, you can't be filthy for the sake of being filthy, right? If you send that out the right way. I think South Park, to your point, that was a message that went out. It went out in their way.

and it went out in their format, their medium, but they got to say what they wanted to say, which was more than just making fun of him in this cartoon the way they did, because it actually had, if you actually watch and listen, there's more to the message than just kind of poking at him. ⁓ And that was great. But the idea of, you know, what's happening, ⁓ it's just become all,

Jeff (39:17)
Yes.

Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (39:36)
90 95 percent of good comedy if it's there It's just It's on the it's on the small screen. It's on your computer. It's on your phone ⁓ It's there

Jeff (39:48)
But it is there. think that's

what we gotta go with for the positive message. There's plenty of great comedy. It is on the small screen. But maybe we have a message for the new generation.

Steve Scarfo (40:01)
I

we might.

Yeah, and ⁓ that is a great point because one of the things I think we talked a little bit about in the early parts, right, is if you've been in a movie, ⁓ year, two years ago, we talked about during the comic book episode, the Spider-Man movie, right? I remember being in the theater full of people watching that movie and feeling the energy from the room.

Right, and we've, even the last couple of Marvel movies we've seen and fantasy and stuff we've seen together, they've been smaller crowds. That's the last one I remember being there, like in a room full and people like cheering and laughing and you know, the scene where all the Spider-Man are, like that used to happen during comedies. Used to be in a room full of people and enjoying... ⁓

Oddly, Shrek, the first Shrek, I remember being in a theater for the very first Shrek. We went under the guise, I think you were with me. Did you come with me to that? We took my little nephew, Thatcher. He was a tiny kid, he's gonna get mad if he hears this. He was a little kid at the time. A bunch of us, there was like seven adult men in this one kid because we all wanted to go see what we thought of as a kids movie and it really wasn't. If you've seen Shrek at this point, you know it really. The jokes weren't for kids, at least not.

Jeff (41:21)
Yeah.

God, that's

so funny because that makes me think about part of the point of this podcast is like embracing your geekdom. But it's so true. Like when we grew up, cartoons were for kids. So like there was that period in the 90s when I wouldn't go see an animated film in the theater without a kid with me, because like you'd be a weirdo if you were going to like. Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (41:39)
Yeah?

And that's exactly what happened. Yes. Why are you here? This is a kid's movie. Like, no, Shrek was

hysterical.

Jeff (41:56)
Like I don't think anyone would care as much today, but yeah, in the 90s and certainly when truck came out, yeah, you might have a kid with you or where's that creep?

Steve Scarfo (42:07)
my God, yeah, you were definitely

eyeballed by the staff. Like, well, this is a guy. There's an adult over there by himself next to the kid. Like, what's going on over there?

Jeff (42:14)
dare he.

But yeah, I agree that, so the message, I know we've been doing a lot of rants on this, but this is more of a plea. Go see a comedy in the theater. I mean, go to a movie in the theater. If you don't do that, for...

And I know we talked about voting with our dollar, but also for the experience. saw, ⁓ it was weird, ⁓ but last week I was in a theater outside of Boston and I saw Superman and it was packed. And it was such a different experience. know, where Steve and live in New Hampshire, we have we're small towns, our theater.

It doesn't get packed. Usually we still go to it and we still love it. But my God, it was weird to be. I had to sit close to the screen. It was like three seats back. It felt wrong to be that close to the screen. I haven't had to do that in so long because I haven't been in a sold out theater before or in a long time. And but it was just the energy of that whole crowd. And that can happen again. But we got to actually go to the theater for that to happen.

Steve Scarfo (43:02)
Not even on opening night, yeah.

You have this look.

Jeff (43:29)
So that's our plea.

Steve Scarfo (43:29)
So I'm gonna

add on to your plea. I'm gonna say, get on whatever social media you got, gather up your friends, gather up your horde, go out to see the Naked Gun movie on opening night or opening weekend, go with as many people as you can and fill a room, even if it's a small theater, fill a room full of people. Understand what it is like.

Jeff (43:43)
Mm.

Steve Scarfo (43:56)
As a comedian, I still get to see this sometimes in live stand up shows, right? There's still plenty of shows I do where we have smaller, smaller crowds. I always I try to do my best for every crowd. But my favorite rooms are those rooms that are full because the volume of laughter that comes back at me on stage is amazing. ⁓ And when you're sitting in a room full of people all laughing at something and sharing this.

And let's be honest, we don't have a lot of spaces where we share happy experiences, right? Even Marvel movies and DC and all the stuff that we love, ⁓ those are positive for the most part, but there's usually some action and there's fighting. A comedy movie is literally just for the sake of making you feel better on the way out than you felt on the way in. So get a group of people.

Go see a comedy. If you don't like Naked Gun, find the next one that's coming up. Go see a comedy in the theater.

Alright, so with that, we're gonna talk about some of our most favorite, and not quite so favorite movies.

Alright, hit us.

Jeff (45:10)
Well you, you're starting us off with a hit, cause I got the fail.

Steve Scarfo (45:14)
Okay, so here we go. ⁓ This might be controversial because of all the stuff I could have chosen. I liked this and this is sort of a, this crosses a couple of those categories, right? It is a reboot, but it also had a sequel already. ⁓ And it is a ⁓ reboot that had a reboot before it that didn't work.

I loved, ooh, the Ghostbusters reboot, Paul Rudd and ⁓ I'll be honest with you, the kid from, one of the girls from, ⁓ it's a Stranger Things, I think is the younger actress whose name is escaping me. But it did for me what ⁓ I think the Jurassic World movies did, right? If you like the Jurassic World, which is not a comedy, but.

It had a reboot, it brought all of those elements from the original movie. ⁓ Happy Gilmore, same thing. It brought all of those elements, but in the Ghostbusters reboot, because I love the original Ghostbusters so much, some of the original characters come back. The storyline is a consistent storyline. humor, Paul Rudd's great. He plays things very ⁓ middle of the road. He's not over the top. He's not super deadpan, but I love... ⁓

And then Frozen Empire, I think, extended that, right? I don't think it was one of those, shit, they should have stopped at one. ⁓ So that's my critical hit. It falls into everything I said is maybe wrong, but because it was a, it's a nostalgia play, it's a reboot play, it's a big name play, but it worked in the theater, and that's what I dig it.

Jeff (47:02)
Yeah.

Nice. I agree. I love those Ghostbusters reboots. Actually, and I know not everyone did, but I actually really enjoyed the all-female Ghostbusters too with Melissa McCarthy. So I actually liked all those reboots. But I'm going to epic fails.

And I don't want you to take this one personally, because I think he might actually be an extra in this movie. It's the Pink Panther reboot with Steve Martin. Weren't you in it? That's what I thought. So that's not why I chose it, though. I chose it because I love Steve Martin. Actually, ⁓ in the 70s, my dad had the Vinyls and I would listen to his comedy albums.

Steve Scarfo (47:32)
I am in that. ⁓

Yeah.

Jeff (47:50)
all the time, love Steve Martin, love Pink Panther. This did not work. ⁓ And I think it's because there's a certain kind of ⁓ silliness to Steve Martin. Think about Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

Steve Scarfo (47:53)
We didn't even talk about any of his movies.

Jeff (48:08)
He was the silly one and Michael Caine was a serious one. And we've talked a little bit about how like an airplane, Leslie Nielsen being really good with that serious, ⁓ being the serious actor, saying the kind of comedic lines, but playing it serious. And Peter Sellers did that in the original Pink Panther. It really, really worked. I just don't think it worked for Steve Martin. It's not that I felt the movie was horrible. I enjoyed it.

But I didn't care that it never got a sequel. Whereas like that's not that's a fail when you're trying to reboot a franchise and you don't care if it gets a sequel. So that and what's interesting talk about reboots. Eddie Murphy is just as breaking news maybe for some for some people. It was for me today. Eddie Murphy is going to be Inspector Cluso in a Pink Panther reboot coming out I think next year. And so.

Steve Scarfo (48:49)
Yeah.

I hadn't heard that.

Jeff (49:09)
So could that work? It might. ⁓ I don't know if he's any better at being the serious person selling the comedic lines. ⁓ But I'm willing to give it a chance. So I thought that was interesting. But my epic fail was the Pink Panther reboot because it did not successfully reboot the franchise.

Steve Scarfo (49:33)
No, and that's a good one, as sad as I am to say it because they filmed that here in Boston. Yes, I was an extra. I had a very cool scene that completely got cut as a scene at the end of the movie. So I got to actually be in a scene with Steve Martin and all of the folks playing. Alfred Molina was there. So I was in this room with all these big actors playing this goofy scene and it was fun. You'll never see it, but that's okay.

And so I was hopeful, but I think that's one of those movies. ⁓ It had all the right elements and it should have worked, but you're right, didn't. couldn't, for whatever reason, it didn't get that gestalt of being better than the sum of its parts. Every little element, if you said, is what we're gonna do, you'd go, all right, that should work. Steve Martin, that should work, he's funny. They didn't let him be him. He was trying to be Peter Sellers.

Jeff (50:32)
Right. He can't do it. That's not who he is. Exactly. feel like that's, you know, that's how it could work is if they, they, they realize they can't be Peter Sellers, like, and just to make it a new character. Cause I hope, cause one thing that he did is he did the French accent. I just don't think it worked.

Steve Scarfo (50:33)
And that's not, no, and I hope for Eddie Murphy they don't do that either.

Yeah, and for the record.

Jeff (50:56)
You know, and I know he's Inspector Clouseau, he's supposed to be French. I hope Eddie Murphy doesn't try the French accent. just, I know it worked for Peter Sellers, but I

Steve Scarfo (51:04)
but

they could have gone the naked gun route, which is what they're doing with Liam Neeson is he's the son of Frank Trebin, which really doesn't. But I mean, that one little change as Steve Martin is the son of Inspector Clouseau, also Inspector Clouseau, just as stupid and unaware of his surroundings, but as Steve Martin doing it, I think it would have been hysterical.

Jeff (51:14)
Does he make sense? It's so awesome. I love that.

Yes. Yes.

Yes, so we...

Yeah, yeah, it could have worked.

Steve Scarfo (51:32)
but they were trying to keep

to the tropes of the originals and it just didn't.

Jeff (51:35)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, that's true. Eddie Murphy, as in Inspector Clouseau's son, would be perfect. It's absurd, and that's why it could work.

Steve Scarfo (51:41)
Yes. Well, that would definitely be interesting.

All right. So we are we're coming up to the end here where this is one of our longest ones. So we're going to we're going to get you guys a question for you here.

Well, we're we're gonna ask you to ask us questions, but we're gonna ask you one first ⁓

This Ask an OG has really been OG asking you. so get on one of our social medias, It's originalgeekpodcast@gmail.com. Send us some emails. Please like and subscribe on all the social medias. Get on YouTube, watch us. Download us wherever you get your podcasts. But ⁓ I think we want to know right now, what was your favorite 80s, 90s movies? What was your pre-streaming favorite experience of a movie, of a comedy movie in the theater? And as a bonus points, give me

one of your favorite lines that you love to quote from a comedy.

Jeff (52:41)
Awesome.

Love that.

Steve Scarfo (52:43)
⁓

We do have I'm gonna call it geek news. It's not really ⁓ Go see Naked gun in the theater. That's like this is our geek news. It's this is comedy news. It's coming up Naked gun within a week or two. I think it's coming out probably out by the time this is out ⁓ This might be our first perfect timing for a real-world release And then go on Netflix watch happy Gilmore Two it was worth watching. It was fun ⁓ Yeah, but listen ⁓

especially as a comedian and as a Gen X old man, don't put down the old comedies. Don't just watch them on your phone. Don't just clip it in mement. Please give comedy what it's worth and go to see it in theater.

Jeff (53:29)
I agree. Go to the theater, folks. See a movie in the theater. That's our plea at the end of this episode. And like and subscribe, of course.

Steve Scarfo (53:36)
All right, so of course, like, subscribe,

click, heart, forward, share, download it four times, it helps our numbers. And check us out on originalgeekpodcast.com. We got some new merch up there. I'm gonna start throwing new stuff every week or two, try to put up a couple new designs. If you find something you want us to do, let me know. All right, otherwise.