Did Comedy Reach its Peak in the 80s?

[Mr_Northside]

Probably didn't hurt movies like Airplane! that they were rated PG at the time.  It was a lot easier for movie studios to push the envelope with a lot of things and still get an approachable rating.  The same thing applies to horror movies when you had things like Poltergeist coming out with a PG rating.

Airplane! got a PG rating with that inflatable autopilot scene?! Surely you can't be serious.

Not to mention the gratuitous (and awesome) exposed tits in the turbulence scene.

[kernals12]

Probably didn't hurt movies like Airplane! that they were rated PG at the time.  It was a lot easier for movie studios to push the envelope with a lot of things and still get an approachable rating.  The same thing applies to horror movies when you had things like Poltergeist coming out with a PG rating.

Airplane! got a PG rating with that inflatable autopilot scene?! Surely you can't be serious.

Not to mention the gratuitous (and awesome) exposed tits in the turbulence scene.

Mind you, that was only the second funniest boob joke in a Leslie Nielson movie

[hbelkins]

Whenever some media outlet continues to flog a deceased equine day after day, I will invariably comment, "Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead." Increasingly, I get blank stares or "huh?" in return.

[dlsterner]

I saw the title of this thread and immediately thought of how SNL was kind of bad in the early 80s, except for Eddie Murphy.  The show did get better after Lorne Michaels came back, though (not sure if that's cause and effect or mere correlation).

Just only "kind of bad"?  Personally, I thought the drop-off from the "first generation" cast to the "second generation" was immense.  Loved the first generation, despised the second generation (well, Joe Piscopo did have a few funny moments, and Eddie Murphy coming in a bit later was a breath of fresh air).  Also remember the late Charlie Rocket getting fired for dropping the F-bomb while on air live.