Early in Surely You Can’t Be Serious: the True Story of Airplane!, the authors describe the cultural environment in which they developed their comedy. As they explained, people in the early ‘70s were as tired of the anti-war movement as they were about the Vietnam War itself. The political climate was polarized and political commentary was fierce. They explained how jokes about President Nixon at the time were “too easy” and that they avoided politically themed comedy because it just wasn’t as funny as other subjects. In our current political climate, it seemed that a light read was appropriate for this week.
But even though I wanted a light read (I listened to the audiobook, which is an ensemble work of the authors and others), I was struck by how a book about one of the funniest movies of all time—a staple of my childhood—also had timeless advice about business and life in general. The book certainly includes discussions of their start in the industry and why certain jokes worked (according to their 15 Rules of Comedy), but most of the book is about the business of comedy and making their first hit movie.
The three authors (Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker) began their comedy troupe in Madison, Wisconsin—the Berkeley of the Midwest as they described it. At first, the group began writing comedy and doing small shows locally. After some initial success, however, the “Kentucky Fried Theater” was born.
When the group wanted to take the theater to a literally bigger stage, and potentially work in the movie industry, they packed everything in a UHaul and a couple cars and headed west. Like so many transplants to Hollywood who long to make it big, it took a while to get noticed. The group renovated an old warehouse-style space to serve as a theater, and they pulled together the best of their material from Madison and created a live show that people loved.
Airplane! developed slowly, partly because they had little access to the industry, and partly because they did not know how to make a movie. When asked whether they had a screenplay, they asked what a screenplay was and how to format one. After getting a copy of the script for “An American Werewolf in London,” they used that template to format their own script. But once they put something together, they still had to sell it to investors to actually fund and produce the movie.
Because they were outsiders to the movie industry, they actually had a certain advantage. Even though they did not know basic movie-making language, they also were not tied to the “usual” ways that people did things. They could think outside of the box because they didn’t know where the box was—in a sense, they didn’t even knew a box existed.
The Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker comedy style is also an outside-the-box style. When Airplane! came out, people said they had never seen anything like it. There were no subjects that were off limits. And each individual line was meant to get a laugh. Part of the genius of the comedy was having straight-laced actors like Robert Stack play comedic parts (“Captain, maybe we ought to turn on the search lights now.” [ominous music] “No, that’s just what they’ll be expecting us to do.”) The best example might be Barbara Billingsley, the actress who played June Clever and “the whitest of white women,” as they describe her, being the woman who can translate Jive (a completely made-up language with ridiculous subtitles) on the plane.
As they describe their other work, some of the comedy is quite crude. And it seems to break through boundaries in a way that Airplane! only tested those limits. Even Airplane! would not necessarily be well received if it came out today. The authors are often asked whether they could make Airplane! today rather than in 1980. Their response? “Sure, if we just take out all the jokes.”
Airplane! made more than $200 million on a $3 million budget. It was both a comedic and business success. Here are some things Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker did that I think made the movie so successful.
Stick to your brand. You have your own unique voice and way of doing things. Stick with it. Even though the Zucker, Abrahams, Zucker style of comedy was new and different, it was their own. Some did not understand it. Others thought it was the best thing they’d seen. Either way, they stuck with what they wanted to do and put out their own brand of comedy. They did not want or expect everyone to think it was funny. They just wanted to stay true to their instincts.
Feel free to use what works for others. Airplane! is a long-form parody of another movie, Zero Hour. That was the airplane-disaster movie that they wanted to emulate, but they also weaved in parodies of many other movies in the process—From Here to Eternity, Saturday Night Fever, etc. They felt free to borrow lines, plots, or whatever they needed to make the movie work.
There is no Plan B. When the troupe went to Hollywood, only one author said he had a Plan B, which was only to go back to his father’s business in Milwaukee. All of them knew that they had to give all their energies to the work, and they did. They lived above the theater building. They did their own carpentry and electrical work, in addition to writing all the skits and scripts. They had an all-in mentality from the day they left Milwaukee.
Your parents’ expectations are not your destiny. As one of the authors described, his parents’ only desire was for him to be happy. And to be “happy,” you had to be a doctor or a lawyer. Although his parents did not support his move to Hollywood and his entering the movie business, that changed when he had some success. When his mother saw he was happy, she even played bit parts in the movies.
Expand your horizons. Someone once told me that everyone should live in either L.A., New York, or D.C. for some time to expand their view of the world. Living in a center of culture, finance, or politics gives you a new appreciation for things. As the authors said, “Milwaukee is a place things go to, not where things are from.” They had to go to L.A. and expand their horizons about where their comedy could take them.
There are many more lessons in the book, and if you like the movie, it may be worth a read (or listen). The takeaway for me is that we can find good business and life advice anywhere, even from a unlikely group of successful writers and directors who had an idea and made it into something great. If they can do it, so can you.
Good luck. We’re all counting on you.
Remember to turn every page. Enjoy your weekend. Please let me know whether you need anything.
Best,
Aaron
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