I'm sick and tired of these motherf@#n jokes on this motherf@#n plane! Not...

The movie Airplane is hysterical.  I had heard many good things about it, but did not have a good opportunity to watch it until now.  I do not regret this decision at all.  Sometimes with humor I find movies trying to overdo the jokes and it is not that funny.  However, Airplane strikes comedic gold, in part due to many of the reasons that Critchley lays out in his On Humor.  I think that the most important connection that Critchley makes to Airplane is the key to a joke and its situation.

In On Humor, Critchley talks about how a situation is key to the success of a joke.  A good joke not only, “shows the sheer contingency or arbitrariness of the social rites in which we engage,” but also, “humor can change the situation in which we find ourselves, and can even have a critical function with respect to society” (10).  Critchley later goes on to suggest that some jokes, in their situations, can critique society and others can merely point it out as obvious and there.  There are many jokes in Airplane, but the joke of the religious zealots and the joke with Kareem Abdul-Jabaar represent the two different kinds of situational jokes.

            One major joke that the movie makes immediately apparent is the annoying atmosphere of airports.  I am going to assume that there are very few people in the world that actually enjoy spending time in airports, regardless of cool shops, restaurants, etc.  Well one of the first jabs at the situation of Airplane is the vast amount of religious zealots pestering people to take their flowers for their church.  The main character, Ted Striker (played by Robert Hays), leaves his taximeter running – a joke about taxi drivers – and runs into the airport looking for his girlfriend.  One of the members of the church tries to pin the flower to his jacket.  Instead of trying to refuse the flower, Striker manages to slip of his jacket and hand it to the zealot. 

Later on, Rex Cramer (played by Robert Stack) is in a rush to the airport and has to literally fight his way through 10 religious zealots.  The fighting is the attempt to bring in a little slapstick comedy, which in this case, is pretty funny.  I think the joke about the religious zealots is funny only because it describes a real situation.  The slapstick comedy works here because people usually are in a rush at airports and generally want to fight people who get in the way.  Ted Striker leaves his jacket in the hands of the zealot because, like most people, he would rather give away that piece of clothing than have to deal with those pestering people in airports.  This joke is representative of a critical joke on society.  It is, of course, not a very serious critique, but people do often feel harassed at airports and would generally prefer not having to deal with distractions while trying to make a flight.

The next joke that is really tied to its situation is that of the pilot Roger Murdock… as Kareem Abdul-Jabaar… played by Kareem Abdul-Jabaar.  If you do not know whom Kareem is, shame on you.  Just kidding, but really he is the all-time leading scorer in NBA history and generally a famous individual all-around.  If you do know who he is already, the joke becomes immediately obvious and causes a casual chuckle.  For those that do not know who he is, his being 7’2 and having a large Afro makes him stick out, but the movie also clarifies the joke by having him argue with a little kid.  The kid recognizes Murdock as Kareem and begins to talk about how the kid’s dad thinks that Kareem is lazy and does not play enough defense – a situational joke about star players not playing 100% all the time.  This clarification is necessary for those who do not know who he is to get the full impact of the joke.  Otherwise the audience would be stuck without a context for the joke and it would strike them simply as odd to see a 7’2 man trying to work in a cockpit.  Unlike the religious zealots joke, Kareem offers a joke that revolves on him just being him in an odd and funny situation.

There are many many many more hilarious jokes in Airplane.  The jokes about the Zealots and Kareem Abdul-Jabaar may not actually be the funniest jokes in the movie.  However, they demonstrate the importance of the situation and context of jokes and the difference between a critical joke and the highlighting of an oddity.  I am sorry to those of you who have not seen this movie and I have now ruined two pretty funny jokes in the movie, because as Critchley says, and we all know from experience, a joke is ruined once it is explained.  Nonetheless I hope you do not wait any longer like I did many a time, and you watch the movie ASAP.