Let’s face it: the world is becoming increasingly dystopian. One (global) political bad news after the other, the next potential world war is always only a tweet length away. And for the dystopia of climate change, we no longer have to look to the future, we are right in the middle of it.
It’s these times when I need distraction. Something simple, maybe even actively stupid, that I can stream fetal on the couch. Then I’m at Joyn+ on the wonderfully stupid “Funny Movies” from ProSieben – and after season 1 of the controversial film series I have found peace for the first time in a long time.
From horror to westerns: ProSieben launched Funny Movies in 2008, a spectacularly absurd parody series
In the early 2000s, movie parodies were a huge thing. The Scary Movie franchise not only made fun of horror but Hollywood in general and was very successful at it. ProSieben then hit a similar notch. released in 2008 the first season of Funny Movies with four filmswhich satirize blockbusters of different genres and in which even people like Tommy Krappweis (inventor of Bernd das Brot!) or Bora Dagtekin (Fack ju Göhte) were involved as scriptwriters.
These are all 4 movies from Funny Movie Season 1:
ProSieben FunnyMovie: Dörte’s Dancing: Parody of dance films like Dirty Dancing, in which Jeanette Biedermann as a “baby” finds her way back to herself and love for her fiancé through a coma caused by a car accident.
ProSieben FunnyMovie: H3 – Halloween Horror Hostel: Parody of almost all horror franchises, in which a group of clichéd teenagers (including Axel Stein) end up in a creepy hunting lodge and against Serial killers, zombies and a doll have to fight.
ProSieben FunnyMovie: One like no other: Parody of high school teen films like Eiskalte Engel, in which Josefine Preuss, as an uptight convent student, swaps bodies with the football-playing heartthrob and … collects different sexual experiences.
Play Me That Song and You’re Dead!: A parody of a western classic about two dopey cowboy brothers who have to flee their own execution every few minutes to search for their lost sister.
A total of three seasons of Funny Movies with a total of eight films were produced between 2008 and 2013. The parodies are in part horror mirrors of their time – including homophobic and sexist jokes and far too many Germany’s Next Top Model candidates in supporting roles. How and at whose expense groups of people are made fun of in places would rightly cause a completely different backlash today. At the same time, it’s hard to find mainstream comedy from the era that’s more sensitive in this regard.
The ratings decreased over the years, the critics were merciless from the start. But: The films are 70 minutes of nonsense that doesn’t require a one-hour YouTube video to understand the end. At its core, such a TV experience with no homework and no brain activity required sounds pretty good to me.
Insults, clichés and urine: The Funny Movies are a new level of trash and that’s why they’re good
Of course, there are many undemanding formats with which one can let the general intolerability of being be sprinkled on after a tiring day at work. What makes Funny Movies so special? The answer is: The filmmakers don’t give a fuck. (Perhaps with the exception of One Like No One, which has a somewhat coherent storyline and works best as an over-the-top teen high school comedy in the early 2000s.)
Watch the trailer for Dörte’s Dancing here:
Dörte’s Dancing – Funny Movie
You’re just recovering from the fact that women’s prison icon Katy Karrenbauer yells words like “Schwanzklemmkaiser” (!!!) in the face of the heavily sweating cowboy Jerry-Lee-Larry, there ext German rap legend Oli P. in Dörte’s Dancing already a bottle of his own urine. Jeanette Biedermann stops him before he can empty the container with sperm. An interesting line that ProSieben draws here when consuming bodily fluids, but that’s not the point now.
Absolutely anything can happen at any time because nothing matters. Genre, music change, characters, fuck it. Everything at once, everything wildly mixed up to the point of pop culture whiplash. This is how it must feel when the TikTok algorithm has a nervous breakdown on nine vodka Redbull and three hits on the bong.
And like after every party escalation, the film experience is followed by numbness, a dull pain somewhere in the temple area and what I long for in the midst of bad news and constant media bombardment – finally emptiness in my head.
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