Even stone-cold classics like Beverly Hills Cop have their scenes with which modern viewers can rightly take issue. The world changes, people change, and so do their tastes. And, just as aspects of 1970s comediesThe Jerk, Blazing Saddles, and, especially, National Lampoon’s Animal House have aged poorly, so too have some cinematic comedies from the ’80s.
It’s not surprising, as the gargantuan success of Animal House seemed to not only open doors, but invite subsequent members of its genre to top it. After all, Friday the 13th had to find a way to top Halloween, and it did so with gore and elaborate kill scenes. And what did many ’80s cinematic comedies do? Tell jokes that, in time, have come across less like jokes and more like regrettable moments and, in some cases, outright crimes.
There’s nothing wrong with enjoying the movies on this list, but they’re products of their time and must be viewed through that lens.
10 Porky’s (1981)
Bob Clark’s masterful one-two holiday punch of Black Christmas and A Christmas Story have both aged remarkably well. The same director’s Porky’s? Well, it’s a lot more Baby Geniuses (also Clark) than A Christmas Story.
It’s Definitely Pig-Like
But, at the time, this sex “comedy” was a massive hit. On a budget of just $4 to $5 million, it raked in $160 million worldwide. It was a trendsetter and, unsurprisingly, led to a pair of sequels. But, now, it’s tough to watch at best, and even putting aside its viewing of women as sexual objects and sexual objects alone, it’s the type of ’80s comedy where a modern viewer wonders where the jokes are.
9 Trading Places (1983)
John Landis’ Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd-led Trading Places is an odd watch these days. On one hand, its indictment of classism was cleverly handled and ahead of its time. On the other hand, its use of blackface was very much an unfortunate product of its time.
A Mixed Bag
But, at the end of the day, there’s more that works about Trading Places than doesn’t work. Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche are endearingly odious as the greedy Randolph and Mortimer Duke, making it more of a movie to anger rich people than anyone else. That can be stomached.
8 Revenge of the Nerds (1984)
Like Porky’s, Revenge of the Nerds is basically unwatchable by this point. But it’s not unwatchable in a Police Academy (another so-called comedy that received a few sequels) kind of way, it’s unwatchable in a “how was any of this ever acceptable” kind of way. Of course, Police Academy has its problematic elements as well, but it’s nothing compared to Revenge of the Nerds. One scene in particular.
A Strong Contender for the Most Problematic Scene in Film History
Essentially, Revenge of the Nerds has a sexual assault scene that’s effectively played for laughs. It also is meant to be a cheer-worthy moment. The audience is supposed to applaud the nerd for having sex with the cute girl…against her will. So, no, it’s not a movie that would get greenlit in the 2020s.
7 Blame It on Rio (1984)
In Blame It on Rio, Michael Caine and Joseph Bologna play Matthew and Victor, two friends who work at the same company. The friends are having marriage difficulties (basically, they’ve grown bored) and go on a vacation without their wives. They bring along their daughters, with Demi Moore playing Caine’s and Michelle Johnson playing Bologna’s daughter, Jennifer. But, as the vacation progresses, Matthew starts sleeping with Jennifer, resulting in a bunch of sneaking around and ostensibly humorous situations.
An Icky Resolution
Of course, having the 50-year-old Michael Caine start hooking up with the 19-year-old Michelle Johnson is inherently creepy. But so too is the movie’s supposed resolution of the awkwardness surrounding the sexual misconduct. Basically, Bologna’s Victor isn’t that upset his friend has been sleeping with his daughter because, twist, Victor has been sleeping with Matthew’s wife.
6 Sixteen Candles (1984)
John Hughes undeniably made likable movies that have gone on to become iconic and proved to be box office smashes at the time. But almost all of them have aged like raw chicken on a countertop. For instance, Weird Science centers around two teens effectively manipulating a 20-something woman’s every move because she’s, well, a computer program. That movie almost gets away with that courtesy of the computer element, but there are multiple things about Sixteen Candles that are pretty inexcusable.
Well-Regarded, But Problematic
For one, there’s the exchange student, Long Duk Dong, whose name alone is clearly intended to evoke laughs. As is each one of his cringeworthy scenes, in a case of “it’s not the performer, it’s the writing.” Not to mention, like Revenge of the Nerds, there’s a sexual assault scene that ends up being played for laughs.
5 Mr. Mom (1983)
Like Overboard (more on that later), Mr. Mom is a movie with a problematic premise that nearly gets away with it thanks to its fairly gentle tone. Oh, and Michael Keaton’s charming performance. But it’s still a film about just how oh-so-very odd it would be for a man to stay at the house with the kids while the woman is at work.
It’s Also Called Just Being a Dad
It’s the type of thing that tries to coast on once-well-established gender stereotypes. And, while that may have worked back in ’83, it’s the diametric opposite of something that would play well with modern audiences. The only reasons someone could watch it fully without the throbbing pulse of awkwardness now is, again, Keaton, and the fact that his Jack is made to look like he can’t really pull off anything his wife has done on a daily basis for years.
4 Short Circuit (1986)
Fisher Stevens is a likable, talented performer and filmmaker, but not even he could pull off playing a character named Ben Jabituya. Jabituya is one of two robotics experts who create robot prototypes intended for military use. The other is Steve Guttenberg’s Newton Crosby, whose casting is fine outside of Crosby supposedly being an introverted character and Guttenberg being, well, pretty far from introverted.
And the Character Led the Sequel
Stevens has since commented on his role in Short Circuit (and its sequel). And, to his credit, he said to Yahoo! Entertainment: “It definitely haunts me. I still think it’s a really good movie, but I would never do that part again. The world was a different place in 1986, obviously.” What’s worse is that the character was actually intended to be a white American, but was changed mid-production. They didn’t want to fire Stevens so just had him play the altered part.
3 Soul Man (1986)
Even if 1986’s Soul Man ever was a funny movie, which it wasn’t, it sure wouldn’t be now. It’s amazing just how many talented people are in this dud, with a plot that can basically be summarized with the phrase “a white kid uses blackface to win a scholarship.” The Amazing Spider-Man’s C. Thomas Howell, Tales from the Darkside: The Movie’s Rae Dawn Chong, The Naked Gun’s Leslie Nielsen, Veep’s Julia Louis-Dreyfus, The Office’s Melora Hardin, they’re all here and all fail to make the movie even watchable.
What a Cast, What a Mess
Not even the late, great James Earl Jones can help cushion the blow of watching this movie’s horrible attempt at making a point. Great, Howell’s Mark Watson learns that he can’t understand what it’s like to be Black in the United States because he’s, well, white. But why should the audience care about this guy? It went through his brain that he should take a bunch of tanning pills to score a scholarship. Yet, people did, because Soul Man grossed $35 million against $4.5 million.
2 Overboard (1987)
Unlike Soul Man, which never makes its obvious point well, Overboard does to at least a slight extent. And, also unlike Soul Man, Overboard is a likable movie. This is thanks primarily to the charm of real-life couple Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell, but the movie’s core concept is certainly not without its problems.
Still Better Than the Remake
The narrative follows Hawn’s ultra-wealthy, conceited, and snobby Joanna Stayton as she falls off the yacht she shares with her husband, conks her head, and loses her memory. Russell plays Dean, a carpenter who was working on the boat to whom Stayton was rude and shorted financially. He convinces the memory-deprived woman that they’re married, all so he can get what amounts to free work around the house and assistance with his four kids. I
t’s troubling because the arc is essentially that she, as a character, should develop into someone who’s a housewife. But, of course, that’s not all a woman can, should, or wants to be. The only reason Overboard works, outside its goofy tone and the chemistry between the leads, is that Stayton starts off as a pretty rotten person, and by the time the third act wraps up, she’s both substantially humbler and genuinely happy. Still, not even a gender-reversing could make this plot fully work when the movie was remade in 2018.
1 Big (1988)
Big is one of the most charming movies of the 1980s and a dynamite showcase for Tom Hanks’ likability and range. But, there’s one scene that’s inherently a little icky given the plot. Hanks plays the older version of 12-year-old Josh Baskin, but the issue is he isn’t really older so much as transformed.
One Scene Has a Big Problem
After getting a job at a toy company, feelings start to develop between Baskin and his coworker, Susan Lawrence. One night they consummate these feelings and, given what the audience knows, it’s a little gross. Of course, Lawrence doesn’t know she’s actually having sex with a 12-year-old, but the audience does, and that’s enough to make the scene a lot less cutesy and coming-of-age and a lot more “this is messed up.”
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