Shenoah Allen: There are so many comic brains that have perused the planet, floating mischievously in their skulls, peering out of their googly eye windows like crouching cats ready to pounce. How can I pick my hero? But, for the purpose of this exercise, I’ll choose Leslie Nielsen’s brain, that strange walnut that lurked for so long under his snow-capped dome.
Nielsen – best known for Airplane! and the Naked Gun films – was a man who didn’t even know he was funny until someone told him he was, and completely embraced it. With the grace of a ballerina, he went from being a serious actor to the king of deadpan comedy, and he made this transformation long after his hair had turned ghost-white. It makes me wonder what other butterflies are waiting to emerge from the cocoons most of us are wrapped in.
While I enjoy cutting political commentary and emotional upheaval as much as the next person, I love Leslie Nielsen for his complete willingness to be stupid and silly. There is something to be said for pure, joyous nonsense that has no point other than to make you laugh. And if there was one guy who committed fully to flat-out dumbness, it was Leslie Nielsen. He could keep a straight face. He didn’t do the laughing for you. He was sure-footed, confident, all class – and a complete moron.
Mark Chavez: If I had to pick only one comedy hero of mine, it would have to be these three guys: David Zucker, Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker, the creators of Airplane!, Top Secret! and the Naked Gun series.
As a little kid I was, at first, totally confused by their films, then later completely enamoured of them. They created worlds that were beholden to no rules of continuity, yet still held together as cohesive and fluid stories. But it wasn’t just their constant breaking down and rebuilding of the fourth wall like obsessive-compulsive masons that was so influential to me – it was also their ability to carry a tangent as far as it could go, until it became its own living and breathing thread in the story they were telling.
Beyond that – and what I value most about they did – is that they allowed every moment to be an opportunity for a joke, and that opportunity was always taken. No matter how mundane or intense a scene, a joke or a gag could be found. I love them for that. I’ll always be trying to create work that is as dense with jokes, ideas and concepts as their films. Thanks guys – your movies are rad.
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