Entertainment reflects bad side of society
by Michael Kraft, entertainment editor

   It’s been said that movies and television are merely mirrors that reflect society’s values, fears, morals and sense of humor. If that’s the case, then America is in trouble.

     An increasing trend in movies is to avoid intelligence and just go for the gross-out humor. This isn’t to say that humor must be impossible to grasp, but more creative set-ups and punch lines would be nice.

    I say this because while I laughed at American Pie and chuckled at Me, Myself and Irene, I don’t consider them apexes of comedy and know we can do better.

     I blame the audiences though. The studios wouldn’t make this drivel if it didn’t sell. Modern audiences seem to have a case of Attention Deficit Disorder because gags from films such as The Pink Panther or any Monty Python film would seem too slow nowadays, and audiences can’t be bothered to wait or think for that matter.

    The filmmakers are just getting gross because audiences are getting jaded and need the allure of something grosser to get them in the movie seat.

    We really should take a cue from the British. Their humor, whether the advanced intellectual type or the silly slapstick, actually has something called wit. I find it more fulfilling to watch the Monty Python troupe dress up as communist leaders Che Guevara, Mao Tse-Tung, V.I. Lenin and Karl Marx and try to answer questions about English soccer teams in the World Forum sketch than to watch Jason Biggs have intercourse with a pie. Why? Because it’s more absurd, and it probably took much more creativity to come up with World Forum than the other bit.

   Americans need to stop letting corporate movie machines shovel this stuff into their heads. We should demand films with quality, films that make people think, films with a weird or unusual take on everyday life.

   We need more films from people like David Lynch and John Waters. These directors have made some of the most challenging, bizarre and interesting films in memory. Lynch’s Twin Peaks TV show is legendary as a twisted look at the bad craziness in a small town, and Blue Velvet’s exposure of the dark, scary, violent side of Americana is not to be missed. Lost Highway is good if the viewer understands fugue states.

   Waters’ films are equally great. Serial Mom was good for twisted humor. Pink Flamingos, well nothing can be said about it here because this is a college publication, but see it if you want REAL gross-out humor. The best I’ve seen though is Waters’ own indictment of the film industry, Cecil B. Demented. It basically says everything that needs to be said.

   These films make people think about and question the world around them. We need to get back to that before the only way to up the ante is to kill someone for real on-screen.