Stars who bashed their own comedy films.

[studpuppet]

Admittedly a very black comedy, but top of the list must be The Day The Clown Cried, for which the star locked the only footage away until 2024.

The film's release was initially blocked by co-writer Joan O'Brien, according to the Lewis biography King of Comedy by Shawn Levy.
Later, Lewis himself didn't want the film to be shown, at least not in his lifetime, and rarely spoke about it.
On one of the few occasions he broke his silence, he said it was "bad, bad, bad" and would "never be seen".
"I was ashamed of the work and I was grateful I had the power to contain it all and never let anyone see it," he said in 2013.
"It could have been wonderful but I slipped up - I didn't quite get it."
"It ain't finished," he said in another interview in 2009. "No one's ever gonna see it."
"After I'm gone, who knows what's going to happen? [But] I think I have the legalese necessary to keep it where it is."

[Poison To The Mind]

Burt Reynolds got proper pissed off about Boogie Nights.

tbfttl he never saw it.

[Mr Trumpet]

Olivia Colman and forum favourite Robert Webb on that terrible wedding-based comedy. Sounds like they were both a bit traumatised by the experience.

[Autopsy Turvey]

After watching a bit of Carry On Henry not long before his death, Kenneth Williams told his diary "Only an audience of illiterates could ever have found this tripe amusing". His diary couldn't answer back, but if it could I like to think it would have said "Oh fuck off you miserable old cunt".

[Echo Valley 2-6809]

"I am shit without Merchant" - Gervais on David Brent: Life on the Road.

[Huxleys Babkins]

Olivia Colman and forum favourite Robert Webb on that terrible wedding-based comedy. Sounds like they were both a bit traumatised by the experience.

Colman claimed she had been misinformed about the amount of nudity involved in the film. Webb claimed, on The Graham Norton Show, that the director had informed him that his genitals would all be pixelated in the final film and was not aware until the screening that this was not the case.

Christ.

[frajer]

Olivia Colman and forum favourite Robert Webb on that terrible wedding-based comedy. Sounds like they were both a bit traumatised by the experience.

I remember on RHLSTP that Webb said he couldn't say everything he wanted because of the legal consequences, but I can't imagine what justification the director had for not pixelling out their nudity if that had been agreed upon beforehand (allegedly).

Only watched the film once years ago but it was almost entirely irredeemable shite and having Webb and Colman appearing billy bollocks made no comedic difference beyond a bit of mild initial shock value.

[Leej88]

Artie Lange said he was embarrassed to be in Mystery Men which has become a cult film.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Admittedly a very black comedy, but top of the list must be The Day The Clown Cried, for which the star locked the only footage away until 2024.

That link to David Schneider's programme about Jerry Lewis's controversial and mysterious Nazi death camp film is fascinating.  I wonder if it ever will see the light of day.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

That link to David Schneider's programme about Jerry Lewis's controversial and mysterious Nazi death camp film is fascinating.  I wonder if it ever will see the light of day.

As studpuppet said, there were plans to give the film its first public screening in 2024; Lewis donated a copy to the Library of Congress on the proviso that it must not be screened before that year (he knew he'd probably be dead by then). But it turns out the copy owned by the Library of Congress is incomplete, something which Lewis must've been aware of. I don't think there ever really was a final edit of the film, only a rough cut.

[Brundle-Fly]

I think I heard this on Rule Of Three podcast but apparently, Stan Laurel in his later years watched his old movies on the telly in despair. He believed their timing was all off and they didn't work anymore. The films weren't made for the not-invented-yet platform in mind, but picture houses packed out with guffawing patrons. During the filming and editing process, for comic timing purposes, Stan would allow gaps for people to laugh so as not to miss any dialogue or the next gag. To a modern TV viewer, it might've seemed like bad pacing.

[Leej88]

You can tell that in comedy shows like Red Dwarf series VII someone will say a line they will be a pause usually for laughter then next line but with no laughter, it is dead air.

[paruses]

There was a trend for cutting the laugh track out of Big Bang Theory episodes and sticking the in YouTube. Interesting to watch for a few minutes.

[Sebastian Cobb]

Boogie Nights is not a comedy by the way.

Sigh. It's a period drama with enough comedy elements present that I thought it warranted a mention.

[Gulftastic]

Artie Lange said he was embarrassed to be in Mystery Men which has become a cult film.

The cheeky get. He's barely even in the film.

[Mister Six]

You can tell that in comedy shows like Red Dwarf series VII someone will say a line they will be a pause usually for laughter then next line but with no laughter, it is dead air.

I realised recently that's why I find How I Met Your Mother so uncomfortable to watch - apparently they record in three-camera style without a studio audience, then dub in canned laughter afterwards, which is why the performances exist in this weird uncanny valley that's slightly too dramatic to be sitcommy, and slightly too daft to be a drama.

Whereas the casts of Friends, Frasier, Big Bang Theory et al can feed off the audience to pitch their performances appropriately, the HIMYM cast are basically performing into a void, so there's an uncomfortable disconnection between the way they act and the three-camera sitcom trappings they exist within.

Plus, the scripts are often weak, and combined with that uncomfortable delivery, the sound guys are forced to mix the track low (because uproarious laughter would be way too out of place), which adds to the uncanny, barren feeling of the scenes.

Sorry, I know I keep going in about HIMYM on CaB, but Mrs Six still hasn't finished her marathon run on the show and it's driving me fucking mental overhearing it.

[willbo]

Watching any Friends/Big Bang style sitcom with the sound off and subtitles on (or the laughter just removed) is really creepy. The pauses feel really uncomfortable and it starts to feel like some grim European dogme film or something.

[Sebastian Cobb]

I realised recently that's why I find How I Met Your Mother so uncomfortable to watch - apparently they record in three-camera style without a studio audience, then dub in canned laughter afterwards, which is why the performances exist in this weird uncanny valley that's slightly too dramatic to be sitcommy, and slightly too daft to be a drama.

Whereas the casts of Friends, Frasier, Big Bang Theory et al can feed off the audience to pitch their performances appropriately, the HIMYM cast are basically performing into a void, so there's an uncomfortable disconnection between the way they act and the three-camera sitcom trappings they exist within.

Plus, the scripts are often weak, and combined with that uncomfortable delivery, the sound guys are forced to mix the track low (because uproarious laughter would be way too out of place), which adds to the uncanny, barren feeling of the scenes.

Sorry, I know I keep going in about HIMYM on CaB, but Mrs Six still hasn't finished her marathon run on the show and it's driving me fucking mental overhearing it.

I don't think non-live audience tracks are especially uncommon, versus live audiences or using entriely canned laughter.

I think Red Dwarf used the former. I guess a lot of it depends on the size of a set, e.g. it makes sense to have an audience for something like Bottom since the majority of episodes take place within the confines of the lounge/kitchen of the flat.

[jobotic]

Someone posted a laugh free Friends scene on that thread and it is amazing. Someone says something and everyone just sits there without emotion for a few seconds and then it's someone else's turn.

[jobotic]

That scene in which Ross goes on about being able to see Rachel naked whenever he liked in his head would be creepy as fuck without a laugh track.

[Leej88]

Imagine Royle Family with a laugh track would not work at all.

[Elderly Sumo Prophecy]

"What did you have for tea, Dave?"
"Lancashire Hotpot"
AHAHAHAHAHA

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Imagine Royle Family with a laugh track would not work at all.

I know that would be weird if a consciously designed lowkey sitcom had a laughter track that would go against the whole point of it wouldnt be funny /

[studpuppet]

Someone posted a laugh free Friends scene on that thread and it is amazing. Someone says something and everyone just sits there without emotion for a few seconds and then it's someone else's turn.

There are lots of Friends ones on YT that read as psycho-thrillers with the characters' thoughts removed, Ross's bits are very creepy without laughter punctuating them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H6Ux3l75Rc

[zomgmouse]

I think I heard this on Rule Of Three podcast but apparently, Stan Laurel in his later years watched his old movies on the telly in despair. He believed their timing was all off and they didn't work anymore. The films weren't made for the not-invented-yet platform in mind, but picture houses packed out with guffawing patrons. During the filming and editing process, for comic timing purposes, Stan would allow gaps for people to laugh so as not to miss any dialogue or the next gag. To a modern TV viewer, it might've seemed like bad pacing.

This makes a lot of sense as to why I found it a bit slow watching it on my own.

[Poison To The Mind]

I realised recently that's why I find How I Met Your Mother so uncomfortable to watch - apparently they record in three-camera style without a studio audience, then dub in canned laughter afterwards, which is why the performances exist in this weird uncanny valley that's slightly too dramatic to be sitcommy, and slightly too daft to be a drama.

The edited programmes were shown to audiences and their genuine laughter taped*, aiui. The fact that every (? iirc) single episode of the series is told achronologically in various ways would make it physically impossible to get real laughs from a live audience: they would have to be penned up for two solid days, watching a bizarre concatenation of unconnected events set on different days and years and sets and in different clothing.

*probably both sweetened and mixed low because of the pacing, sure.

[St_Eddie]

There are lots of Friends ones on YT that read as psycho-thrillers with the characters' thoughts removed, Ross's bits are very creepy without laughter punctuating them, re-edited without laughter, dialogue removed, horror music layered on top, a dark filter applied, the footage slowed down to make Ross stare and the sound of an ambulance added at the end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H6Ux3l75Rc

Who would have thought?!

[BeardFaceMan]

Matt & Trey South Park seem to run down BASEketball at every available opportunity. They're wrong, of course.

[Leej88]

James Franco Your Highness it is a bad film with a great cast wasted on bad material.

[Unger]

I seem to remember reading about Michael Richards offering refunds to friends of his who'd paid to see him in Coneheads. Bit weird considering he's barely in the film.  I love Dan Aykroyd but the double whammy of Nothing But Trouble in '91 and Coneheads in '93 effectively finished his career as a leading man.