Comedy, race, irony: “Airplane!” (video)

June Cleaver (Barbara Billingsley) and "ideal" white middle class family (TVworthwatching)

Who knew wholesome all-American mom June Cleaver (Leave It to Beaver) spoke "Jive" (Ebonics?)? Who knew our subcultures were so different among the races (or four major race-color groups) that sometimes they are mutually incomprehensible, like secretive Yiddish of nebbish folk among predatory proper German speakers? Or that it could be so funny when a masterfully ironic movie points it out?

The iconic 1980 film Airplane! from the ZAZ directing team, Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker parodies the plot and characters from the 1957 disaster flick Zero Hour! It broke out as a leading example of comedy done right and one of the funniest films of the 1980s. It was the ZAZ team’s feature directorial debut. FilmWeek Host Larry Mantle talked with the directors during KPCC’s virtual film series, “FilmWeek and Chill,” along with the film’s stars Robert Hays and Lorna Patterson Lembeck, Casting Director Joel Thurm, and KPCC’s own film critics Tim Cogshell and Christy Lemire. FilmWeek presented a portion of that conversation or this week’s show, or watch the entire event. More

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