Counting Every Single Joke in The Movie "Airplane!" (1980)

I've all the time thought that Airplane! is the funniest film ever made, so I wished to again up my subjective opinion with some information.

To the perfect of my skill, I counted precisely 271 jokes. That makes for a median of three.079 jokes per minute for the whole lot of the film.

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Whereas counting, I additionally categorised the kinds of jokes: visible gags, sound impact gags, dialogue, and in addition took discover of issues just like the totally different comedy rules they use comparable to heightening, rule of thirds, operating gags and subverting the expectations.

Here’s a hyperlink to the google doc. (disregard spelling errors, I can barely kind my title proper)

Right here is the TLDR:

Visible Gags
IMO these are two sorts:

• apparent ones, when it’s entrance and centre so that you can see (commander strolling by the mirror, tower supervisor posing on the desk with the very same picture behind him)
• background ones, that are extra delicate and act as a "reward" for the individuals who discover them (whacking materials journal class, x-ray of lungs on the airport safety). I observed that the background visible gags are sometimes used to make a second or a scene slightly bit extra enjoyable when it will in any other case be simply an exposition.

Working Gags
Loads of these within the film. The longest time from a setup to payoff is the whole lot of the film, as they setup a person ready within the taxi within the opening scene and have him nonetheless ready all the best way till after the top credit. The commander selecting the incorrect week to give up X can also be a fantastic one too.

Heightening
It is a comedy precept linked to operating gags. You repeat the very same factor a number of occasions, however you begin grounded, you then exaggerate on the second beat, and at last take all of it the best way to 11 on the third. (Information getting a reside memo -> information in Japan with a hand-drawn display screen -> information in a tribe with sticks being the memo)

Dialogue

The dialogue is brief, snappy, witty and efficient.
Among the formulation they use are misunderstanding the query and answering the incorrect one, taking issues actually and naturally wordplay and puns.

Subverting the expectations

One of many largest strengths of this film is that everybody performs it straight. Leslie Nielsen was thought of a severe drama actor on the time. The principle actress is meant to be this basic outdated Hollywood, modest love curiosity, however she is consistently confirmed to be fairly the soiled thoughts.

General, the pacing of this film is relentless. Even in the event you didn't like a gag you don't have to attend lengthy to get one other one. It's a parody of "Zero Hour!" (1957) however you don't must see the unique to get all of the jokes.

I made an in-depth video about all of this by which I am going into much more element and develop on issues like layers in comedy, so if that tickles your fancy you may test it out right here