David Zucker helped invent the kitchen-sink approach to film satire.
The co-writer/director of 1980’s “Airplane!” hurled gag after gag at audiences until they couldn’t help but howl. Puns. Sight gags. Pop culture Easter eggs.
He recalls a female studio executive objecting to a bit about a female officer getting a breast reduction to fit into her Kevlar vest.
If one joke didn’t land, the next three would.
Ted Striker: Surely you can’t be serious.
Rumack: I am serious … and don’t call me Shirley.
Zucker added to his legacy with “Top Secret!” (1984), the “Naked Gun” trilogy, and more satirical smashes. Even a rare failure, the six-run episode of 1982’s “Police Squad!” is considered a TV classic following its cruel cancellation.
Now, he wants to share the blueprint behind those laugh-a-minute romps.
‘Gun’ grabbers
The upcoming “MasterCrash: A Crash Course in Spoof Comedy” lets the comedy legend expound on the tricks of his hilarious trade.
“One thing we learned … is it starts with the characters. The audience has to be invested in your characters,” Zucker says.
The online course came to him after he got rejected by Hollywood, Inc. for his “Naked Gun 4” script.
“Paramount liked it … but suddenly we didn’t hear anything,” Zucker tells Align about the project. “I woke up [one day] to read Seth [MacFarlane of ‘Family Guy’ fame] had come and taken over the franchise.”
The results? “The Naked Gun,” starring Liam Neeson as the son of the character played by Leslie Nielsen in the original trilogy. The reboot/sequel hits theaters in August.
‘There’s a discipline behind it’
Zucker is skeptical of the upcoming film, and that’s putting it mildly.
“[MacFarlane] doesn’t know how to do it. He can do ‘Ted’ and ‘Family Guy,’” Zucker said, cautioning that his signature style (along with collaborators like Pat Proft, the late Jim Abrahams, brother Jerry Zucker, and Mike McManus) is harder than it looks. “It may seem like we’re zany and crazy, but there’s a discipline behind it.”
The course might even inspire the next generation of satirists, assuming they take copious notes.
“You can’t teach people how to write comedy, but you can stop them from wasting time thinking they know how to do it,” he says.
Zucker can laugh about the Paramount snub now. His legacy is secure, and he has faith in his approach to humor. His films age well, including Val Kilmer’s lead turn in “Top Secret!” He doesn’t like being a victim, either.
“I don’t take it myself seriously,” he adds.
Joke police
Zucker recalls the dawn of his satirical approach.
“We’d watch serious B movies and dub in our own voices,” he says of his formative years, captured in the ‘70s-era “Kentucky Fried Theater Show” in L.A.
“That stage show was a live laboratory for us to develop our style,” he says of his comic companions. The showcase became 1977’s cult hit “The Kentucky Fried Movie,” helmed by a then-unknown director named John Landis (“Animal House,” “An American Werewolf in London”).
Zucker’s brand of comedy might dabble in blue bits, but he eschews profanity and often works below the R-rated radar. He still ran afoul of the woke mind virus in recent years, particularly while pitching his “Naked Gun 4” script.
The screenplay spoofs the “Bourne” films and “Mission: Impossible” saga far more than police procedurals. It’s his chance to acknowledge the “Naked Gun” legacy while moving on to fresh satirical targets.
He recalls a female studio executive objecting to a bit about a female officer getting a breast reduction to fit into her Kevlar vest.
“It was such a mild joke, and she said, ‘I don’t know if you can do that.’ We just rolled our eyes,” Zucker recalls.
He says audiences are ready, willing, and able to laugh at big-screen comedies again as woke fades to black. Studio boardrooms aren’t on the same page, he adds.
“These are frightened people beholden to stockholders or big-time owners,” he says. It’s one reason he’s going the independent route for his next big-screen comedy, a film noir spoof, “The Star of Malta,” that he hopes to begin shooting in the fall.
Nakedly conservative
He’s also keen on reviving a repurposed “Naked Gun 4” script as his follow-up project.
Zucker’s inimitable style, seen most recently in the “Scary Movie” franchise, isn’t all that sets him apart from his peers.
The 77-year-old is one of the rare openly conservative artists working in Hollywood. He’s hardly as vocal as a George Clooney or Jon Voight on Beltway matters, but he leaned into his political views for the 2008 comedy “An American Carol.” The satire poked fun at Michael Moore and liberal sacred cows.
Hollywood often punishes artists for embracing the right, but Zucker isn’t sure if his views ever dampened his career.
Zucker recalls working with producer Bob Weinstein (Harvey’s younger brother), whom he jokingly describes as “to the left of Castro,” on three “Scary Movie” sequels. (Zucker directed numbers 3 and 4 and co-wrote number 5).
“When it came to hiring a director, he knew that I was able to do it and I could do it well,” he says. “Bob has always been very supportive and always had faith in me. He didn’t care about the politics.”
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