They Came Together : Best film of the year, so far.

They Came Together is the best movie of the year, so far. Funniest, most outrageous, and strangest. A lot of people hate this movie and I can't say I understand why. I guess most of these ignoramuses have absolutely no clue what David Wain is all about. Ever heard of a movie called Wet Hot American Summer? It's another bashed upon film by the same genius (and the other genius that doesn't receive very much recognition, Michael Showalter). I'd recommend watching David Wain's first film before this one. They Came Together could give off the impression that it tries to hard or is actually a rom-com done wrong, but it's just satire!

Stahp. This is the kind of garbage that gets agents fired.

I agree with you on almost every level except for it being the funniest and best film of the year so far. Thaaat is really pushing it or maybe this whole post was meant as a joke aka. the film itself.

I can't say that I've seen a better one this year. A Million Ways to die in the West? Nope. 22 Jump Street? Nope. Any better comedies?

well, I guess if we are just talking comedies in general, I would say The Lego Movie was probably the best made comedy film I've seen this year, but overall funniest..and just plain funniest film of the year it would have to be The Other Woman or Blended. Million Ways to Die in the west was awful, but 22 Jump Street was a better comedic film than They Came Together for sure.
As far as the actual best film in my opinion of the year so far is Richard Linklater's Boyhood. Not to be missed.

There is the difference between you and I. I think Wet Hot American Summer is better than any Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore movie. Blender wasn't a game changer in that realm.

Did you just say The Other Woman was funny? God, that movie was terrible. Haven't seen the Lego Movie yet, but Guardians of the Galaxy was actually pretty funny. Blended was god awful as well. 22 Jump street was done well, and I thought Bad Neighbors turned out all right too, even though it could have been better. Million Ways to Die in the West was a hack film. I'm hoping The Interview is good.

i laughed more at this than any comedy this year. i was surprised so few people liked it

I think everybody got that it was a parody. It's just not a very funny parody. It feels like a writer trying to show you how clever, meta and pop cultural referency he can be but he forgot that he has no original thoughts worth sharing comedy-wise or actual story skills. Kinda like the writing on "Community" but worse. Even a parody has to have a cohesive structure and each scene has to have arc plus a point to exist in the overall story. It's hard to take a satirist seriously if he isn't even remotely as skilled as the writers that he is skewering.

Showalter is from the Mtv comedy abortion "The State." I cannot stand his work or pretty much any of the unfunny, improvy poop that most of the cast from that show has been involved in since. They are a few years older than me but we are more or less contemporaries in terms of cultural background. So, it's not that I don't get where they are coming from. It's just that they really, really aren't funny.

You've got opinions and you are entitled to them, so I respect the answer. A bit on the negative and very downer side, but they are opinions nonetheless. What shows or movies do you like? Just a question for the mind?

I don't mean to be a "hater" but I feel very strongly on this subject. I take comedy seriously.

In terms of what I like TV comedy-wise, "Cheers," "Frasier," "Friends," Big Bang Theory," "VEEP," "MASH" (best ever), "Will & Grace," "Garfunkel & Oates," "Blackadder," " Laid" (Australian,)"Scrubs" (1st two seasons,) "Mom," 30 Rock," "Taxi," "Barney Miller," etc. Because I write, I study the classics. Best way to learn. So, I'm anachronistic in the sense that I prefer a good multicam to a good single cam nine times out of ten.

This is simply because the conceit of a multicam is that you are a member of an audience actively watching a stage play where actors are reading lines. You are not laughing "at" them but the lines that they are reading. In most single cams, the conceit is that you are a passive voyeur being invited to sit, judge and laugh at the banality of the characters' lives. That makes me feel like a bad person.

In terms of what films I revere? That could take hours. Currently, I'm pretty enamored with "My Favorite Year," an old film about live TV starring Peter O'Toole playing an Errol Flynn type character. It's based on Mel Brooks' experiences writing for Sid Caesar. O'Toole got an Oscar nom for it. Seek it out. It's worth it. I like well done slapstick stuff. I enjoy the occasional buddy-cop or rom-com. I put those together because in many ways they are the same. It goes on and on.

I guess I just really love seeing things when they are done well and there is a sense of truth somewhere in them. By that I mean that the writer actually is being earnest about what he's doing as opposed to the hipster, ironic, "too cool for anything," "meta" vibe that films like "They Came Together" seem to put out. There's got to be a little truth, honesty and love inherent in what you are doing otherwise, why are you doing it?

I would like to be honest with you. I find none of the shows you watch interesting or funny at all. Especially not Big Bang Theory, which I like to think of as one of the worst shows on TV, at this moment.

I like your thoughts on the whole idea of seeing more of a performance, than good acting or well executed directing, but I don't see it that way. I think the best shows that have ever been on TV are single cam.

Just for good measure, I'll let you know some of my favorites. I think I have pretty good taste in shows, usually. I love sketch comedy. The Kids in the Hall and Mr. Show with Bob and David being my favorites. I was head over heels for Breaking Bad for a while. I thought no other show could beat the top-notch writing. I was very wrong.

Shameless is the best show to ever exist in the history of television broadcasting. This show is perfect in every aspect. The writing is intensely amazing, the acting is the best on TV (on par with Breaking Bad performances), the directing is F-ing phenomenal, and the cinematography say no more!

I still stand by my argument, They Came Together is the best comedy of the year, so far.

I honestly, think we just are completely antipodal in terms of taste here. I think sketch comedy is funny at times but usually lazy in terms of writing but that's because I'm coming from half hour and feature. Sketch is a different animal. It has next to nothing to do with writing story. Try watching "Run, Ronnie, Run" and explain to me what geniuses Bob and David are. The skills from one do not translate to another.

I believe in creating characters who are sympathetic, setting them up in an arrangement where the interpersonal dynamics lend themselves to years of storylines and good solid, hard jokes that spring both from character and from dialogue. There are no jokes in most single cams. It's not funny on the page. 30 Rock and MASH being exceptions to the rule.

I was in a meeting a few years ago with an exec who told me they had a multicam that really wasn't funny so, they re-shot it as a single cam because the bar for actual humor is so much lower. I've written both and I have to tell you, there is a lot less pressure to be funny on a single cam. If you had thirty seconds, which would be easier to come up with on the spot, a big, solid joke that serves as a blow to end the scene or some awkward pause like in "The Office?"

Usually when someone tells me they don't like multicam, I assume they mean bad multicam. Bad multicam is an abomination. But the idea that someone could claim to like TV comedy and disparage a show like "Cheers" or "MASH" is so foreign to me that I cannot even wrap my brain around it. I don't know. Maybe joke writing is dead and I (and the vast majority of the viewing public) haven't gotten the memo. It's possible. We all have different POV's and that is what makes a ballgame. :)

I don't really like Run, Ronnie, Run very much. I'll agree that there has been a lack in jokes in lots of shows lately, going to lazy excuses, such as pauses or making the reaction another joke. I like The Office a lot though. One of my favorite comedies. I have been watching many HBO and Showtime shows lately, which aren't usually multicam. Actually, I am lying. I saw a special feature on a Shameless DVD that said it was shot using multiple cameras. There are usually 4-5 cameras on set or on location making sure to keep the performances real.

Single cameras are shot with multiple cameras, it's just the format title. I don't really consider Shameless, Nurse Jackie, OITNB or House of Lies really comedies though. They are dramas with sparse moments of relative levity. If that is the bar, then the opening dark humor quip Jerry Orbach made in every episode would make Law & Order count as a comedy. That's why so many people are ragingly pissed that HBO and Showtime submit those programs for comedy Emmys. Voters like to vote for "serious" shows so they are going to vote for those shows no matter what category they are in whether they belong there or not. If you doubt that there is a prejudice against material that is actually funny, consider how few Oscars have been given to comedies or actors in comedies. Winning best actor in comedy for one of those premium cable dramedies is cheating and everyone knows it.

As far as "The Office" goes, well you are hitting all of the buttons today. That is my all time least favorite "hit" comedy. It is everything I dislike about single cam that I described to you. The only thing more objectionable to me was the British version. Both seem mean and petty with pathetic characters that I don't want to be around because they make me sad. Even the "likeable" characters are pretty much cruel jerks.

The funny thing about single cams is they don't do well in syndication. There is not the sense of comfort that a multicam show gives people. They don't want to watch them over and over again. I think it has to do with the dreaded "audience track." It makes people feel a little less lonely when they are watching a show in the middle of the day with the flu. And also, because you've seen them once, you know what happens. There are no jokes in a single to entertain you again. People like hearing jokes multiple times. Not so much with the awkward pause.

All of this is to say, I have very plebeian taste and you seem to be a little more of what is currently considered more artsy. Just different tastes.

Okay. That was something. You don't really seem to like anything, do you? Hey, what the F, that's life. I feel the complete opposite about The Office, but like you said, "It takes, different strokes to move the world." Maybe you just need to watch Wet Hot American Summer?

"I take comedy seriously" hahahahahaha.


"I don't consider myself outside of anything. I just consider myself not around."

Community is great. This was just a big pile of sh!t. At least Community is funny, made with care, has better references and jabs at cliches and more importantly has a cohesive storyline. I can't believe people finance this sh!t. This was in the same level as Date Movie, Epic Movie etc kind of movies. It's sad really because I love this cast but they get more and more unfunnier each year, I think it's because their heads are so far up their asses now, they can't tell if what they do is working or not.



'And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high saying, O Lord bless this thy hand grenade'

Comedy abortion "The State?" WHAT??? (face palm)I guess that show just went (woosh) over your head. jeez

One of the worst movies I've ever seen. I only kept watching because I was trying to figure out why others thought it was so good. Never did figure that out.

Oh well, go away. Leave me alone. Let me mingle with my emotions. I've been torn to pieces by people like you. I'm so miserable.

i laughed harder than i have in years and more often.
strange that so many people hated it. btw i didnt like WHAS much.

I love satire Airplane was fantastic. This, however, was painful. Most of the gags fell flat.

As for better comedies this year, there were many MUCH better than this one:

The Grand Budapest Hotel
Big Hero 6
The Lego Movie
Paddington
St. Vincent
22 Jump Street
The One I Love
While We're Young
Frank
etc

I agree, The Grand Budapest Hotel was better.

That movie is amazing, but it's really hard to compare any of the movies on your list to anything David Wain has thought up.

I might be the only person on IMDb that actually appreciates They Came Together for what it is. A comedy.

Somebody above said it, "I take comedy seriously." Maybe that's the problem.

I don't take comedy serious, because I like to laugh at it.

As for the gags: the reason they fell flat is because it'd be funnier if they did.

Airplane is hilarious, but it doesn't hold up nowadays, to be honest. It's funny, for sure, but if it were to come out tomorrow, you'd say it's a piece of $hit too.