Tag Archives: 80s cinema

These days, it’s easy to look back on old movies and TV shows you once found funny and cringe. Sometimes, it’s just part of changing trends. Sometimes, it’s just part of getting older. What you found hilarious when you were 10-years-old isn’t going to be as funny when you’re 40. It’s just a sad fact of life.

But then, there’s a movie like “Airplane!” And I submit that, in terms of comedies that have aged like the finest of wines, this movie is the gold standard.

I certainly understand that comedy and tastes are objective. I also don’t doubt that some people will watch a movie like this, not get the jokes, or take offense to it. But I would also argue that, while you can levy those kinds of criticisms about many comedies from that era, you can’t reasonably apply it to “Airplane!“

This movie isn’t just a classic comedy gem from the early 1980s. It’s one of those rare movies that takes a simple, but effective approach at being funny. It doesn’t try to be too smart for its own good. It doesn’t try to be too crude, so as only to appeal to a specific demographic and/or stoners. It just uses the basics of what makes good, endearing comedy and runs with it.

The story itself is not really that complicated. A traumatized ex-fighter pilot, Ted Striker, tries to win back his stewardess girlfriend, Elaine Dickinson, before she moves away and leaves him for good. He follows her to the airport, ends up on a plane with her to Chicago, and just happens to be there when disaster strikes and the flight crew falls ill. Along the way, some truly remarkable comedy gold ensues.

In essence, this movie is largely a parody of common tropes from that era regarding romance, war, and disaster movies. It also used the premise of a far more serious, less funny movie from 1957 called “Zero Hour!” But you don’t have to have seen that movie to appreciate plot, jokes, and comedy of “Airplane!” You just have to have the smallest semblance of a sense of humor.

It does get crude at times, but not so crude as to be juvenile.

It does get quirky with recurring gags, but it never overuses them.

It also gets more than a little suggestive at times, but not to the point where it needs to be rated R.

This movie came out before I was born. However, it was a movie my parents loved. Every time my mother watched it, she would keel over and laugh. I was only around nine-years-old when I first saw it. And even though some of the jokes flew over my head, I still found it funny.

Years later, when I rewatched it, I laughed even harder once I actually got the jokes. To this day, I can re-watch the movie any time of year and still find it hilarious. I still crack up at the scenes that involve speaking Jive. I still laugh every time Leslie Nielson says “And don’t call me Shirley!” And the autopilot steals the show every time.

While I wouldn’t go so far as to call “Airplane!” my favorite movie or even my favorite comedy, I can’t recall a single movie or TV show that has consistently made me laugh over the years. And at a time when so many other TV shows and movies are aging poorly, it just makes me appreciate “Airplane!” that much more.

So, for that, I thank David and Jerry Zucker, and all those involved in making this movie, for giving the world this timeless comedy gem. And if you haven’t seen it yet and are in the mood for some quality comedy, give “Airplane!” a watch. If laughter truly is good for the soul, this movie should give you plenty of nourishment.