The Last Jedi The Comedy elements: Did it work?

[writer0327]

I'm hearing a lot of comments about the comedy elements of the film with mixed reactions. What worked and what didn't work?

 

[OutOfBoose]

Comedy elements felt like they were from Spaceballs.

 

[C. Lee]

It was fine with me. We weren't watching SAVING PRIVATE FINN....all SW movies have had humor in them....this one had more than usual....some people didn't like that, some of us do. It's funny (see what I did there?)....when you spend time reading the discussions over the years on a franchise. When TFA came out, there was a lot of talk complaining that it was just ANH rehash....so this one does something that's not a rehash....and people complain it's not like the others.

 

[DarthSkywalker]

I felt like 90-95% landed really well. And some of it got a big laugh out of me, my brother and our audiences.

 

[Mjölnir]

I'm fine with the amount of comedy but I don't think that much of it was particularly funny. Only a few things were directly bad though so I'm fairly in the middle on it.

There doesn't seem to be an option for my stance in the poll though.

It was fine with me. We weren't watching SAVING PRIVATE FINN....all SW movies have had humor in them....this one had more than usual....some people didn't like that, some of us do. It's funny (see what I did there?)....when you spend time reading the discussions over the years on a franchise. When TFA came out, there was a lot of talk complaining that it was just ANH rehash....so this one does something that's not a rehash....and people complain it's not like the others.

I think it's odd to complain that this isn't like the others since TLJ repeats a lot of beats from both ESB and ROTJ, at times even copying scenes with a little twist. It's of course not as much repetition as TFA was but there's definitely a fair amount.

 

[gohei_]

Comedy elements felt like they were from Spaceballs.

Exactly. It wasn't the amount of comedy that was the problem, it's the fact that a lot of it was bad and not funny at all.

 

[Grootster]

I wouldn't necessarily say there was too much comedy (I actually thought it was less overall than TFA), I would just say the comedy didn't work extremely well here. Most of TFA's comedy worked because it fit the tone and style of the movie, this was a much darker and more cynical movie with out of place jokes thrown in. There were also bizarre, abrupt tonal shifts. The opening scene was fun and high-octane with a lot of quips, and then a character [BLACKOUT]sacrifices her life tragically and the entire bomber squadron goes down while the rest of the fleet watches horrified.[/BLACKOUT] That was my first indication that this was going to be a very weird movie. Also, what was up with Luke's grass scene? Was that ad-libbed? It was cute, but completely out of place with how Luke had been acting. It felt like something that should have been on the blooper reel. Some jokes like the Kylo shirtless scene just didn't seem like Star Wars. A lot of the humor just seemed weird and random to me.

 

[Reaver027]

Star Wars has to have some comedy in it. But the comedy in this one did not work for me at all. It was too much and just bad comedy.

 

[Consona]

Star Wars has to have some comedy in it. But the comedy in this one did not work for me at all. It was too much and just bad comedy.

This. It was awful most of a time.

 

[OutOfBoose]

Exactly. It wasn't the amount of comedy that was the problem, it's the fact that a lot of it was bad and not funny at all.

I thought it was hilarious, but so out of tone with the rest of the film. Before anyone starts throwing "no fun allowed" at me, I'm not against comedy. Comedy just needs to respect the rest of the film. And I didn't feel it was like that in TLJ.

 

[Iceman]

Most of it was fine, some of it wasn't.

 

[SomeOldGuy]

Just right.

 

[flickchick85]

I just watched TFA again, and I definitely preferred TLJ's humor over TFA's. Abrams had a lot of "try hard-y" comedy moments between Finn and Rey that totally fall flat with me, even on first viewing. There were only a couple random jokes in TLJ that fell flat in comparison. 90% of the humor worked for me here.

 

[titansupes]

I just watched TFA again, and I definitely preferred TLJ's humor over TFA's. Abrams had a lot of "try hard-y" comedy moments between Finn and Rey that totally fall flat with me, even on first viewing. There were only a couple random jokes in TLJ that fell flat in comparison. 90% of the humor worked for me here.

I felt the opposite of this. TLJ had several sitcom-y gags that didn't fit the SW style. TFA had one or two of those, but this they really took it up a notch hear and, most irritatingly, used them to undercut the drama.

 

[MadderMaximus]

Just right for me. I liked that Poe's humor was consistent with his "who talks first" bit in the beginning, too.

 

[flickchick85]

Just right for me. I liked that Poe's humor was consistent with his "who talks first" bit in the beginning, too.

Ha, yeah I noticed that too. Both films opened with Poe being a wise ass.

 

[Thundercrack85]

I actually was fine with it for the most part, except for the jokes in the first scene. I was fine with Luke having a few funny lines. Rey inadvertently pissing off the natives was legitimately funny.

 

[Drizzle]

I thought there were a lot more comedic elements in The Force Awakens, but a lot of the humor in The Last Jedi worked. The funniest scene for me was [BLACKOUT]Chewie eating the Porg.[/BLACKOUT]

 

[NewYorkSpider]

They had some great comedy moments in this film. But I felt they over did it just slightly.

 

[FeedOnATreeFrog]

Some of the Kylo Ren/Hux comedy felt out of place imo.

 

[danoyse]

Honestly, if Episode IX has multiple scenes of Kylo Ren just Hulk-smashing Hux around, this entire thing will have been worth it.

 

[CaptainWagner]

It was fine with me. We weren't watching SAVING PRIVATE FINN....all SW movies have had humor in them....this one had more than usual....some people didn't like that, some of us do. It's funny (see what I did there?)....when you spend time reading the discussions over the years on a franchise. When TFA came out, there was a lot of talk complaining that it was just ANH rehash....so this one does something that's not a rehash....and people complain it's not like the others.

^^^ This. I thought the vast majority of the comedy worked very well, and got good reactions from the audience I was in.

 

[Sundancer]

It was fine with me. We weren't watching SAVING PRIVATE FINN....all SW movies have had humor in them....this one had more th

And C-3PO was in all of them in Empire

 

[Brother Jack]

Some of it worked, some of it didn't. There was some detrimental tonal confusion, especially in the first half of the movie. Not every scene needs to be loaded with jokes. A Star Wars movie should have comedy but it's about putting it in at the right time, in the right amount. They should have gone more subtle with a lot of it.

 

[Clark-Kent]

Some of it didn't work and was cringey because it felt like an attempt falling flat. Kind of like many of my posts.