When I was looking for examples from funny comedies for my Thursday article, I nearly broke out in hives. As I searched high and low, I couldn’t find any movies that I felt were genuinely funny all the way through. I started to wonder if I’d outgrown comedy features altogether. Comedies are made for the 12-25 crowd. I’m not that.
Then I watched Bad Trip.
And I could not stop laughing.
It wasn’t just how funny the movie was. It was how *inventive* it was. I’ve never seen a movie quite like it.
Bad Trip is basically a re-make of Dumb and Dumber. A Florida car wash employee, Chris, runs into his high school crush, Maria, while on the job. After getting the courage to talk to her, he learns she’s only in town for the day and is heading back to New York, where she works as an art curator.
The impulsive Chris tells his best friend, the wimpy and introverted, Bud, that he wants to go to New York, tell Maria he loves her, and hopefully live happily ever after. Bud is reluctant at first but agrees to join him. They go on a road trip to New York and hilarity ensues!
Sounds pretty basic, right?
Well, here’s the catch.
The spine of the movie is a fictional narrative but all of the set pieces are prank scenes. The best way to explain it is you know the scene in Dumb and Dumber where Lloyd and Harry stop at the diner and piss off Sea Bass? Imagine if, in that scene, Jim Carey and Jeff Daniels walked into a real diner with real people who had no idea they were in a movie, and pissed off a real Sea Bass?
That’s Bad Trip. It’s a real movie narrative mixed with a bunch of scenes where the people surrounding our heroes have no idea they’re in a movie. I’ve never seen that before.
Now some of you may say, “Uh, Carson. Have you not seen Borat?” It’s hard to explain but Bad Trip is nothing like Borat. Borat’s schtick is finding real people and making them admit they’re racist or sexist or something. It usually revolves around one person, with him occasionally doing a performance scene, like a concert or a wrestling match.
In Bad Trip, almost all of the prank scenes involve multiple onlookers. For example, the two friends get in an elaborate car crash and a dozen clueless [real people] come to their rescue, none the wiser. And they’re all seamlessly (for the most part) woven into the narrative. It’s a thing of beauty.
The genius of the comedy is that Eric Andre, who plays Chris, is willing to take the comedy as far as it can go. Then we get to watch a bunch of real people react to it. For example, early on in the movie, while at the mall, Chris decides he’s going to travel north to see Maria and is so excited he starts a random dance number right there in the food court. As other actors join into the choreographed dance, the looks on the real mall-goers’ faces are priceless. They genuinely have no effing idea what’s going on.
So why haven’t you heard of this movie?
I’ll tell you exactly why.
Because it’s not politicized.
It follows two black men who head up north and not a single gag they’re involved in is race-related. In fact, there’s a scene where they stop at a big redneck bar where they’re the only two black people there, and the bulk of the scene shows how well everyone gets along with each other. You can’t have white people and black people happily getting along in a 2021 movie.
That’s what really won me over about Eric Andre’s comedy. All he cares about is making you laugh. And he doesn’t do it at the expense of anyone. Imagine a Borat movie where Sascha Baron Cohen wasn’t allowed to make anyone look bad. There wouldn’t be a Borat. Yet, in Bad Trip, every single scene is about Eric and Lil Rel Howery being the butt of the joke. There’s not a single scene where a random person is the butt of the joke. Not only do I respect that. But that’s much harder to do.
The question I was asking myself was, what can comedy writers learn from this movie? I struggled with that because it’s such a unique film. But I did have a couple of takeaways.
First, there’s value in trying something different. What made this movie so fascinating was how different it felt from every other comedy film. You’re trained to think that everything has been done already. But this is a reminder that it hasn’t. You have to think that with new things popping up on the internet every day, there is still opportunity for you to come up with the next unique comedy concept. I mean, has anyone made a Zoom comedy yet? Seems like a slam dunk with the right concept. And hey, you still have a month and a half before the Comedy Showdown deadline. So maybe start writing that Zoom comedy now!
The second thing I learned was more traditional. And that is, when it comes to comedy, you want to take the reader right up to the edge…. You want to make them think that you’re finished… and then you want to go past it.
One of the biggest laughs in the movie occurs when Chris and Bud go to the zoo. While a tour of real people are watching the exhibits, Chris notes to Bud that the gorilla exhibit door has been left open. Since the silverback gorilla is currently asleep, Chris sneaks in to get a daring selfie with it.
The people then watch in horror as the [unknowingly fake] gorilla awakens and attacks Chris in… well, let’s just say it attacks him in sexual way. It’s both hilarious and way too much at the same time. Chris is able to escape the gorilla and barely get back through the gate door. The zoo-goers are besides themselves, happy that Chris narrowly escaped death but also mortified at what they just saw. Legitimately, there are a couple of people who are traumatized.
As zoo employees are called and everyone’s asking Chris if he’s okay, Chris realizes that he dropped his cell phone in the exhibit. So he GOES BACK IN TO GET IT. Everyone’s trying to stop him but Chris has to get his phone. And, of course, when the gorilla sees him again, he attacks Chris a second time in an even more mortifying way.
Take them right up to the edge, make them think you’re done, then go past it.
Speaking of edges, it looks like the Oscars have finally plummeted over the edge and into the abyss. There has never been an Oscars with this many movies that nobody has seen. I am not exaggerating when I say that some of these movies haven’t been seen by more than 1000 people. Yet they represent our industry’s best! Wooo!!! Here are my quick thoughts on every major movie on the list…
Sound of Metal – I tried SO HARD to watch this movie over the weekend just so I could say I watched one Oscar movie. No scenes. Just a bunch of scene fragments. Typical indie randomness. Starts off being about a deaf drummer then it becomes about addiction. So it’s a movie about deafness or a movie about addiction? So confused. Gave up after 40 minutes.
Mank – Quite possibly the most rambling incoherent film in the Oscar race. And that’s saying something.
Minari – Whenever I see a poster with a group of depressed people in a field, I know there’s a 180% chance I’m not going to like the movie. Didn’t see this. Don’t plan to. Nobody can convince me it’s good.
The Trial of The Chicago Seven – I mean, Sorkin wrote it so it probably has some good moments. But this subject matter doesn’t interest me. Not going to watch it.
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom – I’m as interested in 1920s blues singers as I am a group of depressed people in a field. Not sure if I would’ve seen this if it was the only movie released all year.
Nomadland – I’m convinced this movie was created to make the world a more depressing place. I mean come on. How do movies like this get made? Seriously.
Promising Young Woman – Read the script a couple of years ago. Gave it an “impressive.” Director looks like they made the script even better. As far as I’m concerned, this is the only movie on the 2021 Oscar list that looks like it deserves to be there.
By the way, where’s I Care A Lot??? That movie was a thousand times better than any movie on this list. If you’re pushing me for writing winners, I’m guessing Nomadland wins for Adapted Screenplay only because no one’s giving a goofy comedy (Borat) an Oscar. And Nomadland has gotten a bigger marketing campaign than any other movie on the list, which means more voters will have actually heard of it. Not the best way to win best writing but you take what you can get. Promising Young Woman will win for Original Screenplay. I know Sorkin’s in that category but unless he can figure out a way to be female between now and 5pm, he’s probably not going to win. Oh, and finally, the one and only movie I actually want to win an Oscar tonight: MY OCTOPUS TEACHER!!! Go octopuses!
