A Series of Genres: Comedy Part Three

Before I move onto the Crime and Gangster / Detective and Mystery genre study; I want to reveal my top five list you all have been waiting for. So here you go:

1. Wayne’s World
2. American Pie
3. National Lampoon’s Vacation
4. Home Alone
5. The Hangover

• Wayne’s World spawns from a sketch comedy show that airs on Saturday called Saturday Night Live (SNL). The skit focus on two rock music fanboys named Wayne Campbell (Mike Myers) and Garth Algar (Dana Carvey) who happen to run their own television show names Wayne’s World. I typically don’t like adapted sketch comedy skit as feature length films, but these two films make me want to party on for some reason.

• American Pie captured the fantasy of high school life in the late 90’s. A story about four guys who make a pact to score by senior prom. The preceding films follow those four guys through college and even marriage. The films give a nice outlook on the folly of pretty much every young adult’s exploration of their sexual maturity. I remember when the first American Pie film came out. I was in Junior High School and all my classmates were quoting the film left and right, but I hadn't seen the film yet. Let’s just say rated R films were more or less forbidden when I was growing up. When I finally did watch the film, years later, I thought it was hilarious. Unfortunately there were four or five spin-off films that dawn the American Pie brad, but not the quality.

• National Lampoon’s Vacation movies follow the Griswold family and their various family vacations, which usually have many mishaps. Their first vacation destination is a Disney-esk theme park named Walley World. The family has travelled to Europe and Vegas, but my favorite vacation of theirs is Christmas Vacation. It’s a good film to dust off and watch during the holidays. The film is a good reminder that, family may be dysfunctional, but you got to love them.

• Home Alone is another great holiday treat. Another film with a dysfunctional family, so much so, they leave their youngest home alone. While home alone the protagonist Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) has to defend his house from the “Wet Bandits” played by Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern. He does so by placing various Rube Goldberg style booby traps throughout the house. Home Alone 2 plays out a similar scenario, but in a Ney York City hotel. While the third film is basically Home Alone one, but with a new protagonist Alex Pruitt (Alex D. Linz). I personally didn’t like the third film.

• The Hangover is a film about three guys trying to find their friend after a long night of partying in Vegas. When this film came out, it was one of the first films to keep me laughing from start to finish, in a long time. Then the sequel came out and it was just the Hangover but in Bangkok. I didn’t even see the third film because part two wasn’t that great. This film series proves that comedy struggle with making good sequel. There maybe more story to tell or even new adventures to go on with the characters but there is no new jokes. Even with bad reception of two and three, The Hangover is a solid comedy to cover the butts of Part One and Two.

There you have it, my top five franchises in the comedy genre. Let me know you’re thought in the comments.