🤣🥊 #210 - Punches and Punchlines
The hard-hitting humor of Action Comedy.
Sage Hyden dives in to a positive re-appraisal of the original three Pirates of the Caribbean films, and part way through hones in on a point about the merging of action and comedy that’s popular in modern tentpole films:
This is why I want to get to the Pirates movies, because while modern films have action scenes and comedy scenes, they don’t often have action comedy scenes.
[….]
Scenes where the premise of the action is comedic. Where the comedy escalates over the course of the action scene. Where comedy isn’t just coming from characters making quippy one-liners over one another, but where the visual presentation of the action is inherently funny itself.
This suggests that the strongest action/comedy isn’t just a peanut butter cup mashup. For a look at improving the action side of the equation, Henry Boseley shares some examples of memorable fight scenes, and how they were shaped into dynamic set pieces that don’t just keep the audience on the edge of their seat, but disrupt the status quo of the narrative.
Tony Zhou edits together an ode to Jackie Chan, a performer whose career is defined by meshing comedic beats into kinetic action scenes:
See also: Tony Zhou’s visual essay on Edgar Wright’s style of visual comedy. And Andrew Saladino rounds up examples from Jacques Tati to highlight the importance of observation, exaggeration, and timing to creating a visual gag.
For an example of all of these things coming together, let’s take a look at the Fanny Pack Fight from Everything Everywhere All At Once:
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The preferred bird for word nerds
Easy to learn and fast to play, AlphaBirds is the word-building card game from Quote-Unquote Apps.
It started out as a game played after Friday meetings in the QApps office, but it felt like it needed to be shared!
AlphaBirds is a word-building game like Scrabble or Boggle, but faster and more fun. And it’s super easy to learn. Here are the basic mechanics:
You take two cards. Keep one, give one. Make words if you can.
That’s it.
To learn more or get a copy for your game collection, visit the AlphaBirds site!
Previously on Inneresting…
In case you missed it, last issue’s most clicked link Parker Molloy covers the shift in reporting in the New York Times, sacrificing journalistic practices and creating false equivalences in pursuit of controversy.
What else is inneresting?
Karen Abbott and Ellen Wexler on the 1904 St. Louis Olympic Marathon. This race has everything. A World’s Fair. Wild dogs chasing athletes. Testing theories about intentional dehydration. Rat poison as a performance-enhancing drug. Peach theft.
Zaria Gorvett on the quest to recreate the lost ancient pigment Tyrian Purple.1
Let the hate flow through you: ToYou offers a shortlist of books written out of spite.
And that’s what’s inneresting this week!
Inneresting is edited by Chris Csont, with contributions from readers like you and the entire Quote-Unquote team.
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Post-Credits Scene
Many, many snails were harmed in the making of this pigment.