Earlier this year, Identity Thief had a similar problem. It too put at its center a thuddingly vile character, in this case played by another talented comedy performer, Melissa McCarthy. In that example, she played a woman who stole the life of Jason Bateman’s character. At no point were you given any convincing reason to root for her, yet the movie still tried to turn things. As such, it asked you to feel sorry for her, instead presenting Bateman’s character as the one that needed to do the grovelling near the end. So: the one who had had his life wrecked? He’s the baddie. The one who stole it? She’s just misunderstood. It rang hollow, and when the credits rolled, the movie felt sour. It was a huge hit.

It feels like we’ve gone backwards, as if the cycle is starting again. After all, in the aftermath of the original American Pie‘s success, we got the likes of Say It Isn’t So, a movie that gleefully pokes fun at someone who’s had a stroke. Again, that in itself still isn’t the main problem. The problem is that it never has a joke to tell about it. Films don’t have to be consistently likeable to be funny, but this was the equivalent of bullies on the school bus just pointing and laughing. And that was it, it had nothing more to offer than that. I could have cited several American Pie imitators that fell into similar traps, but they soon tailed off.

However, then The Hangover happened, hit very big, and alll of a sudden, this vein of comedy is back in force. Since The Hangover (and the first movie has merit to it, and at least had some solid laughs), it feels as though the mean and nasty tap has been turned on again. And it also feels as if Hollywood, rather than trying to gross us out at the moment, is looking to be as offensively unpleasant as possible in some of its comedies, but without the comedic and writing skill and/or effort needed to turn that into a good movie.

I’ve found in the past when I’ve cited the increasingly nasty core in many successful R-rated comedies, that the counter arguments tend to center around me being out of touch, that comedy is subjective, and that I’m being a bit too sensitive to it all. Maybe. But then I sit in front of a comedy like Role Models, and laugh like a drain. Or Old School, Anchorman, Election, South Park: Bigger, Longer And Uncut, the first American Pie, Shaun Of The Dead, bits of Wedding Crashers or the entirety of 21 Jump Street (which felt like a mighty breath of fresh air), and enjoy them. A lot in some cases.