I Re-Watched The Empire Strikes Back for the first time after seeing The Last Jedi and...

Agree. I didn't find the humor as out of character as many would suggest, but to each their own.

 

I noticed that the humor in The Last Jedi is intentionally 'mocking' as opposed to the humor in the other movies. It is funny, but just in a different way (it consciously mocks and makes fun of certain elements and characters. You see them do unexpected things in unexpected situations, which can be quite hilarious even though it hardly is reverent...I say that ).

I haven't been in a theatre where people didn't laugh, but usually the amount of laughter is dependent on the time of day

 

The Last Jedi isn't even fit to be mentioned in the same breath as The Empire Strikes Back. Or share the same DVD shelf. Or hard drive.

 

I laughed because I didn't expect it, but I don't laugh at it now, because in my mind I immediately see the scene in ROTJ where Lukes throws away the sabre. It has a beautiful dual meaning. It appears to mock what should for Rey have been a majestic moment in which she meets her hero (she hopes to meet the hero she had imagined, like we did), but instead Luke throws away the sabre. It is funny and tremendously melodramatic and sad at the same time.

--- Double Post Merged, Jan 30, 2018, Original Post Date: Jan 30, 2018 ---

TFA has wonderful humour, I still laugh, and when I saw it again december 13th when TLJ released, I saw that audiences find it very funny.

 

I think the difference is that in Empire there is humor. In TLJ there are jokes.
I do think that Finn has a bit of that old style humor, where the humor is in how the character subtly acts and mannerisms.
I'm not a fan of the over-jokey nature of TLJ, myself.
I did like when Finn tried talk his way out of trying to escape the ship. I liked Luke saying "I can't imagine why." when rey said the caretakers don't like her. I don't like the "surprise shooting" joke that rose and leia do. The shock jokes i don't like.
I like things like when Han steals Threepio's advice about replacing the reverse power coupling. Or Luke saying "you're lucky you don't taste very good."
A lot of the stuff in TLJ just seemed like weak gags that don't land for me. Some gags are fine...but TLJ just seem to pump them out one after another. I must admit, I did laugh when Kylo lays out Hux at the end and the pilot instantly obeys Kylo...but even then, at the climax, I feel like it's just making a big joke out of the whole thing.

 

@Cole
I think I understand your point.
Some of the TLJ humor seems a little bit rude.
The tone of the humor in the OT is more subtle or "softer" most of the time.
Oth the "mainstream tone" of our time often seems a little bit rude compared to more subtle or "softer" side kicks and conversations in "the good old times of our youth"

In rude times we live?

 

I didn’t care much for the movie starting off with a vaudevillian type ‘who’s on first’ routine. It read to me as an SNL sketch and seemed weirdly out of place. It took me out of the movie for a beat and I had to readjust. Not the best foot to start off on IMO, but most people probably don’t agree. Otherwise, I think the humor of the film landed mostly the way it was intended to and served the story decently well.

Anyway, ESB and TLJ were written by different people at different times with different comedic sensibilities. Of course the humor is different.

 

Lucas used puns in AOTC. Let us remember that before we bemoan RJ’s use of humour in TLJ.

 

I think the point of this scene was to establish the difference between the mechanical bureaucracy of the First Order and the individualistic rebelliousness of the Resistance. If anything, I'd say that point didn't need to be made, as not only is it a theme in 5/8 of the previous Star Wars films but also is a pretty common film trope in general.

Yeah, that's a good point. There's a fine line to walk, and while I absolutely adore the original trilogy, that same humor could come off as pretty cringey with modern actors and filmmaking. RJ took a bit of a risk, and many think it didn't pay off, but I think he also could've done a lot worse.

Hey, I'm sure we can all agree that it's better than Rey saying "poodoo" 3 or 4 times in the film for laughs.

 

I’d extend this beyond the humor though. LFL went out of their way to recruit a filmmaker with an individual voice - a singular vision. It’s a franchise film, so he certainly had to conform to specific criteria, but the movie is an extension of the auteur that made it.

The OT was a product of a time and crew that can’t be replicated. It’s gone now. You can try to emulate it, or you can allow what comes next to have its own unique personality. Each trilogy should have its own flavor. Each episode should have its own flavor. That’s my take anyhow. If people only want what the OT gave them, then go watch those movies. Y'know? Meh, I’m blathering.

 

The humor in TFA and ESB is simply more sophisticated than in TLJ. It's humor that exploits character while, at the same time, serving it: 3PO rambles, Han is argumentative and sarcastic, Leia bosses around, Luke is whiney. In TFA Poe trolls, Rey is a know-all, Finn lies and Han continues being his argumentative self: (to Finn) "That's not the way the force works! (to Chewie) O really? You're cold?" Gold.

In TLJ there is humour that serves the characters. I, in particular, like that scene with Snoke and Hux just because of Gleeson's face before he's thrown around: "I'll take it (Snokes call) in my Chambers..." Hilarious. But there is a lot of rubbish, from Finn in particular, him leaking, him in the Casino with Rose (Ugh). Some gags work better than others. Chewie and Porgs, yes. Rey accidentally shooting on carers' wall. no.

 

"Sophisticated"

 

It serves a purpose: Yoda is presented as childish and weird to the audience and Luke. It works for me. In small doses.

 

Reaching, you are.

 

Go to 0:42.

 

WHAT?!?!? You don't understand the dramatic importance of "keepaway"!?!?

 

No, they are not reaching.

Yoda acting in the way he does is humorous at first, until we realize it's all an act. Yoda is intentionally acting that way to get under Luke's skin to:

1) get a reaction out of Luke
2) teach Luke a lesson about his reaction...

Most people realize this the moment that Luke lashes out at Yoda in Yoda's hut, than all of a sudden the switch is flipped and we get serious Yoda... "I cannot teach him, the boy has no patience" Fromt hat point on there is no real humor with Yoda anymore. Yoda's humor served a purpose...

 

Luke throwing the lightsaber serves a purpose.
Poe Maclunkey with Hux serves a purpose.
y-a-w-n

 

What's your point because your post really doesn't serve a purpose....

 

Neither does yours.
Implying Yoda's humor in ESB serves a purpose in the way the original post about it frames it, implies TLJ humor had no purpose. It did.
so again, yawn.