I wrote a paper analyzing the movie Caddyshack in college, in terms of the principles of Greek comedy we were studying.
What was your main idea?
Does the chorus show up in comedies or just the tragedies? I had one Greek drama course in college but it was forever ago (and we focused more on tragedies) so I don’t remember much.
I can’t remember any of the names in Greek, but basically all of the major archetypes and the central thrust of the story were there.
Danny Noonan is obviously the protagonist, the maturing hero. Judge Smails is the central antagonist with money and power. Rodney Dangerfield is the agrokyoy (or something similar), the lovable buffoon who stands in opposition to the antagonist, slowly setting up the central climax of the story by undoing his evil machinations at every turn. Lacey is the beguiling love interest who catches the eye of the hero. Spaulding Smails is the wretched and conniving antagonist who is ultimately powerless to impact the story in any way, mostly just serving as comic relief. Ty Webb is the wise figure who takes the protagonist under his wing and guides him throughout the story.
As the agrokyoy and the antagonist come increasingly into conflict, the protagonist, previously a trivial figure, must step in at the climax of the story and make a fateful choice that represents his coming of age and his own moral victory. Everyone defeats the antagonist, victory is at hand, and everyone leaves leaving only the chorus. Or, in this case, the gopher.
Hey everybody, were all gonna get laid!
Yep, Greek af
I wrote the whole paper because it really did fit perfectly. It wasn’t just that Judge Smails was the antagonist; there was a specific type of pompous antagonist that plays a very specific role in the story, and he fit it to a T. But it was legitimately clear to me that Caddyshack was, on purpose or not, following in the exact footsteps of a very well-established tradition for how to make a well-functioning comedy.
I honestly don’t remember whether the paper was well received. This was quite a while ago.
That sounds awesome. I really like the Greek myths, (I was even into them as a kid) but the course I took was kinda boring because it was a huge lecture course instead of a seminar. I mean, I’m glad a got a look at a large swath of material but it would’ve been more enjoyable digging deeper into a subset. And maybe the themes would’ve stuck better in my brain a little better too.
It really sucks that schools and universities take something as amazing and entertaining as Greek mythology and makes it as boring as possible.
They teach it at the grade school level and remove all the sex… and Greek myths are like 90% sex.
One of my middle-school English classes handed out a list of Shakespearean insults and paired us off to stand up in front of the class and have, essentially, a rap battle trading insults appropriate to the person. I was paired off with a girl I legitimately didn’t like very much and I got a little bit personal with her and she fired back with absolute venom. I’m not gonna lie, she fucked me up. I remember she called me “hind-bred.”
My courses weren’t censoring anything-- all the sex and murder was included. It was just that we were plowing through 1500 pages of material instead of say, doing close analysis on like half of that.
No, I was talking about when grade school does it, not a college-level class. They just make it boring, like you said, by giving you a ridiculous amount to read.
That was a pretty awesome analysis, I never would have thought to look at Caddyshack like that. Thanks for sharing!
Tell them large Marge sent ya👾
“It sounded like a dump truck… falling off the Empire State Building!”
Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton’s film after Peewee) almost follows the format. No rich guy and he does start to win over the neighborhood. But one mishap orchestrated by Anthony Michael Hall (breaking out of his nerdy character phase) and suddenly the suburbanites go mob mentality. For a fish out of water comedy, it really doesn’t end all that positively.
Edward Scissor hands is a tragedy that had some studio interference soften the ending. Tim Burton tried to bring back the classic tragedy and ended up with the sugar coated gothic that became his signature.
Tbf, few things are more enjoyable than ruining the life of a rich person.
I feel like I should know, but what movies are shown in the post?
Also does anyone know some other good movies that fit this criteria? I smell popcorn for a movie marathon.
Left – UHF
Up Right – Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure
Down Right – Elvira, Mistress of the Dark
All great classics IMO.
Although the last two characters had a few movies and it could be one of the others.
Might not fit this exact scenario but I’d say The Burbs fits the overall genre pretty well.
I found a copy of UHF in my condo buildings recycling bin once, had no idea what it was. Boy was I pleasantly surprised.
I once needed a videotape for something, and it was cheaper just to grab a random video from the $1 bin to tape over. I grabbed “Bubba Ho-Tep” because it was a funny name. When I got home with it, one of my roommates went absolutely nuts and demanded that I watch the movie instead of taping over it. And lo, I was enlighted.
I just showed it to my 13-year-old daughter the other day. She loved it even though she’s never seen Raiders of the Lost Ark or even ever heard of Rambo (she had to ask me what it was a parody of).
Pump up the volume? If a school principal is a rich person.
I legitimately styled my whole personality around being that passionate weirdo
There are dozens of us!
Barbie movie
tfw wham!, the internet, or anyone irl will never know you because you’ve spent decades of life anonymously shitposting.
Cool as Ice comes to mind.
Cool as Ice should never come to mind. I think society would be better off if we just all forget Vanilla Ice existed. Kind of like Yahoo Serious.
Cool As Ice is my favourite so bad it’s good movie. It’s so not self aware that it’s insane.
