Senryu : spoof

The 1st Annual Academy Awards Presentations on May 16, 1929, Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. downloaded from Wikimedia Commons.

underrated spoofs
laughter heals the heart and mind
Oscar likes films dark

senryu by M. Nakazato LaFreniere

What can I say?  I think movies that can make you laugh are under-rated and should win more awards.

These were the only comedies to win Best Picture

It Happened One Night (1934)
You Can’t Take It With You (1938)
Going My Way (1944)
Tom Jones (1963, UK)
The Sting (1973)
Annie Hall (1977)
Shakespeare in Love (1998)
The Artist (2011, Fr./US)

Some people consider these comedies, or dark comedies or seriocomedy.  They have also won Best Picture

The Apartment (1960) (mostly a comedy but there’s a suicide attempt)
Terms of Endearment (1983) (many funny bits but cancer frames everything)
Driving Miss Daisy (1989) (only off-Broadway based film to win Best Pic)
American Beauty (1999)
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)

At age 81, Jessica Tandy became the oldest winner of Best Actress for Driving Miss Daisy which is also the last PG film to win Best Pic. After that, winners were PG-13 or R-rated.

Also the Oscar folks really hate Science Fiction.  Has a Sci-Fi film ever won Best Picture?  I don’t think so.  Although I might count The Shape of Water from this year but it’s more Fantasy than Sci-Fi.  Another fantasy, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, has also won Best Picture.  Those two are pretty much it for Fantasy.

From Amazon:


Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Can I say this without getting killed? I don’t get Monty Python but I have had a lot of friends who love love love them.

Airplane! This movie triggered a slew of spinoff movies in the same vein. I remember cracking up when I first watched it.

2018 Best Picture: The Shape of Water

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References:

Academy Awards Best Picture Genre Biases
AMC Filmsite

Driving Miss Daisy
Wikipedia

RDP #44 – SPOOF
Ragtag Daily Prompt
Saturdays from myself, Cactus Haiku
on Ragtag Community

The Ragtag Daily Prompt now has it’s own blog site called the “Ragtag Community“.  Each day of the week a prompt is presented by a different person.  Today’s is “spoof” by me, Cactus Haiku. Come and participate by posting writing or images evoked by the word and add your pingback or link to the comments there.  Hope to see you at Ragtag Community!