Rumor: Warner Bros. Imposes "No Jokes" Rule On DC Comics Movies

[K12]

This sounds far too stupid to be actually true... that's would I would be saying if this headline was about any other company than DC. I'd believe this if they had a more general "no smiling" rule.

 

[endtherapture]

Wow how low has the Escapist fallen posting made up rumors by Disney shills in there news section.

It's become really pathetic.

1. Because people are taking it as gospel
2. Because it is pushing the weird anti-DC agenda this website has even more.

 

[Gorrath]

"UUUUUUUGH"

"NO JOKES BRO! LOOK AT HOW SRS I AM!!"

"OOOOOGHH"

Team Marvel all the way. The Dark Knight was good, but it a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Trying to re-capture it by removing humour and piling mountains of grit on everything will just leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth.

I already found the Man Of Steel aesthetic to be exhausting, boring and draining. If its going to persist across these movies, then Warner Bros. are bigger idiots than I thought.

EDIT: Has anyone at Warner Bros. even heard of Starship Troopers? And how unintentionally funny it was because it took everything straight-faced, ergo becoming a bigger joke than something like Big Trouble in Little China?

Starship Troopers is satire though so that's a bad example for your argument. +1 for mentioning Big Trouble though.

I meant the movie that tried to be all 'lolarmy' at the beginning, but then descended into a boring sci-fi fest using an awkward teenage drama as a backdrop.

Maybe it was so subtle I couldn't notice it, but the only times that the movie felt satirical was during those infomercials.

Understanding the satirical elements of Starship Troopers sort of requires that one have a good working knowledge of Heinlein's book and his ideologies. I don't know if you've ever read Starship Troopers, but a lot of the satire of the movie is totally opaque if you don't have the book to contrast it with. That's why almost no on realized it was satire when it came out.

Could be. Maybe I couldn't see through all the acting. I did have a little giggle when I saw Neil Patrick Harris in an SS Uniform as a general, and the way that the squaddie was killed in training was hilariously cheesy too.

Yup, that uniform choice and the iconography of the armed forces in the movie were intentional choices. A lot of people think that Heinlein was a fascist so they played the visual cues to evoke the Nazis. The cheesy deaths were a way of pointing to jingoistic war films and calling them out for cheapening death. I think people misinterpret the ever living crap out of Heinlein's work though. The guy's a fascist like I'm a Sailor Senshi.

 

[templar1138a]

Congratulations, DC. You continue to doom this movie to fail. If this no jokes thing is true, then all you're making is another example of a grittily-dark shlock superhero film.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

"UUUUUUUGH"

"NO JOKES BRO! LOOK AT HOW SRS I AM!!"

"OOOOOGHH"

Team Marvel all the way. The Dark Knight was good, but it a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Trying to re-capture it by removing humour and piling mountains of grit on everything will just leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth.

I already found the Man Of Steel aesthetic to be exhausting, boring and draining. If its going to persist across these movies, then Warner Bros. are bigger idiots than I thought.

EDIT: Has anyone at Warner Bros. even heard of Starship Troopers? And how unintentionally funny it was because it took everything straight-faced, ergo becoming a bigger joke than something like Big Trouble in Little China?

Starship Troopers is satire though so that's a bad example for your argument. +1 for mentioning Big Trouble though.

I meant the movie that tried to be all 'lolarmy' at the beginning, but then descended into a boring sci-fi fest using an awkward teenage drama as a backdrop.

Maybe it was so subtle I couldn't notice it, but the only times that the movie felt satirical was during those infomercials.

Understanding the satirical elements of Starship Troopers sort of requires that one have a good working knowledge of Heinlein's book and his ideologies. I don't know if you've ever read Starship Troopers, but a lot of the satire of the movie is totally opaque if you don't have the book to contrast it with. That's why almost no on realized it was satire when it came out.

Could be. Maybe I couldn't see through all the acting. I did have a little giggle when I saw Neil Patrick Harris in an SS Uniform as a general, and the way that the squaddie was killed in training was hilariously cheesy too.

Yup, that uniform choice and the iconography of the armed forces in the movie were intentional choices. A lot of people think that Heinlein was a fascist so they played the visual cues to evoke the Nazis. The cheesy deaths were a way of pointing to jingoistic war films and calling them out for cheapening death. I think people misinterpret the ever living crap out of Heinlein's work though. The guy's a fascist like I'm a Sailor Senshi.

That is true. He is still acting like a scientist guy, it's just that the movie remembered "Oh s**t!We need to take the piss out of fascism!" and hastily packed him into an SS uniform, forgetting that a uniform alone a nazi does not make.

 

[busterkeatonrules]

OK, is there any actual consensus on whether they mean no gags whatsoever, or just no JOKES - such as the appearance of Howard the Duck in Guardians?

 

[Neeckin]

Makes me want to go see guardians of the galaxy again.

 

[Trishbot]

On one hand, this sounds way too crazy to be true.

... On the other hand, I watched Man of Steel...

I walked out of Man of Steel with the most sour expression on my face. I walked out of Guardians of the Galaxy with a week-long smile that still lingers.

 

[Gorrath]

"UUUUUUUGH"

"NO JOKES BRO! LOOK AT HOW SRS I AM!!"

"OOOOOGHH"

Team Marvel all the way. The Dark Knight was good, but it a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Trying to re-capture it by removing humour and piling mountains of grit on everything will just leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth.

I already found the Man Of Steel aesthetic to be exhausting, boring and draining. If its going to persist across these movies, then Warner Bros. are bigger idiots than I thought.

EDIT: Has anyone at Warner Bros. even heard of Starship Troopers? And how unintentionally funny it was because it took everything straight-faced, ergo becoming a bigger joke than something like Big Trouble in Little China?

Starship Troopers is satire though so that's a bad example for your argument. +1 for mentioning Big Trouble though.

I meant the movie that tried to be all 'lolarmy' at the beginning, but then descended into a boring sci-fi fest using an awkward teenage drama as a backdrop.

Maybe it was so subtle I couldn't notice it, but the only times that the movie felt satirical was during those infomercials.

Understanding the satirical elements of Starship Troopers sort of requires that one have a good working knowledge of Heinlein's book and his ideologies. I don't know if you've ever read Starship Troopers, but a lot of the satire of the movie is totally opaque if you don't have the book to contrast it with. That's why almost no on realized it was satire when it came out.

Could be. Maybe I couldn't see through all the acting. I did have a little giggle when I saw Neil Patrick Harris in an SS Uniform as a general, and the way that the squaddie was killed in training was hilariously cheesy too.

Yup, that uniform choice and the iconography of the armed forces in the movie were intentional choices. A lot of people think that Heinlein was a fascist so they played the visual cues to evoke the Nazis. The cheesy deaths were a way of pointing to jingoistic war films and calling them out for cheapening death. I think people misinterpret the ever living crap out of Heinlein's work though. The guy's a fascist like I'm a Sailor Senshi.

That is true. He is still acting like a scientist guy, it's just that the movie remembered "Oh s**t!We need to take the piss out of fascism!" and hastily packed him into an SS uniform, forgetting that a uniform alone a nazi does not make.

Indeed, I love the movie as a cheesy, over the top time killer but a clever piece of satire it is not, despite what an exhausting number of people have claimed. But full disclosure here, I love Heinlein's work. This at once gives me a good understanding of what he was on about across the whole body of his work and also gives me a bit too much bias to be properly objective about it. Heinlein's message had its problems, but fascism was not one of them. Anywho, that's enough of me beating you to death with a personal irk. Thanks for tuning in.

 

[Sigmund Av Volsung]

"UUUUUUUGH"

"NO JOKES BRO! LOOK AT HOW SRS I AM!!"

"OOOOOGHH"

Team Marvel all the way. The Dark Knight was good, but it a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Trying to re-capture it by removing humour and piling mountains of grit on everything will just leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth.

I already found the Man Of Steel aesthetic to be exhausting, boring and draining. If its going to persist across these movies, then Warner Bros. are bigger idiots than I thought.

EDIT: Has anyone at Warner Bros. even heard of Starship Troopers? And how unintentionally funny it was because it took everything straight-faced, ergo becoming a bigger joke than something like Big Trouble in Little China?

Starship Troopers is satire though so that's a bad example for your argument. +1 for mentioning Big Trouble though.

I meant the movie that tried to be all 'lolarmy' at the beginning, but then descended into a boring sci-fi fest using an awkward teenage drama as a backdrop.

Maybe it was so subtle I couldn't notice it, but the only times that the movie felt satirical was during those infomercials.

Understanding the satirical elements of Starship Troopers sort of requires that one have a good working knowledge of Heinlein's book and his ideologies. I don't know if you've ever read Starship Troopers, but a lot of the satire of the movie is totally opaque if you don't have the book to contrast it with. That's why almost no on realized it was satire when it came out.

Could be. Maybe I couldn't see through all the acting. I did have a little giggle when I saw Neil Patrick Harris in an SS Uniform as a general, and the way that the squaddie was killed in training was hilariously cheesy too.

Yup, that uniform choice and the iconography of the armed forces in the movie were intentional choices. A lot of people think that Heinlein was a fascist so they played the visual cues to evoke the Nazis. The cheesy deaths were a way of pointing to jingoistic war films and calling them out for cheapening death. I think people misinterpret the ever living crap out of Heinlein's work though. The guy's a fascist like I'm a Sailor Senshi.

That is true. He is still acting like a scientist guy, it's just that the movie remembered "Oh s**t!We need to take the piss out of fascism!" and hastily packed him into an SS uniform, forgetting that a uniform alone a nazi does not make.

Indeed, I love the movie as a cheesy, over the top time killer but a clever piece of satire it is not, despite what an exhausting number of people have claimed. But full disclosure here, I love Heinlein's work. This at once gives me a good understanding of what he was on about across the whole body of his work and also gives me a bit too much bias to be properly objective about it. Heinlein's message had its problems, but fascism was not one of them. Anywho, that's enough of me beating you to death with a personal irk. Thanks for tuning in.

No problem, and worry not about not being objective. Strive instead to be subjective and informed of both sides.

 

[Mave]

Pffff sounds like a lot yada yada, I doubt DC would do something like this but, I feel the tone of the MoS was fine for it, really I don't know what people expect ? Batman dancing so Darkseid it's distracted? and then have the JL hold their hands and beat Darkseid with a nice friendship beam ...?¨yeah sorry not the movie I expect, might have worked for GOTG but I don't want it on my DC movies, funny to see so much people bitching here because DC is not Marvel.

 

[hermes]

Its like they are intentionally poisoning the well before taking a zip...

I still don't know if its true but, if it is, this is stupid. Really, really stupid. They already took almost all the fun of Superman, and they try to make the same thing to all their characters?

Some of my favorite moments in the animated Justice League was the banter between the characters. It sold the idea that, in a different context, they could be friends. Take that away, and it doesn't need to feel like a team at all...

 

[Diddy_Mao]

Admittedly, Warner/DC has done little to warrant defense as of late but allow me to play Devil's Advocate for a moment and suggest that this mandate can simply be interpreted as "take the material seriously."

DC, more than most Marvel comics, has characters that are much easier to treat as jokes based on their very concept. Aquaman alone tends to be a walking punchline to a joke nobody told. Look at the new 52 Aquaman comics for example wherein the first few issues he's the target of a running joke that he's nobody's favorite hero.

It's entirely too easy to take that idea and run with it and I can entertain the notion that the "No Jokes" policy is simply meant to deter that kind of treatment.

 

[Karavision]

The only thing that can make me care about this movie is if origins are skipped completely. If everyone jumps down Superman's ass for his fight in the last one and Green Lantern shows up after the credits already fully space cop mode ready to get people hype for a sequel, I may get into it. As it stands, I doubt that WB is going to be that creative and 2/3 of the movie will be introducing everyone...again.

 

[Elijah Newton]

Lol. Why? Why would you take that out of the writers tool box? I'm not saying it need to be goofy Jar Jar binks shit but even the wire which is IMO the best drama ever had some truly hilarious moments. Even Romeo and Juliet had funny moments. Laughter is just part of the human experience. Anywhere people are you can find some sort of humor somewhere. I dunno this seems like proof of a film taking itself in a direction it shouldn't by someone who has a childish understanding of what drama is.

PS: EVEN WH40k which is ALL about the grimdark has moments of humor and the community of Warhammer love to point it out. Just google Dreadknight WH40k and see what comes back at you. The world is richer with some comedy, even the drama.

Can I bill you for the time I just lost to d4chan? Heh?

Good points, though. While I can understand they're working on making themselves distinct from Marvel, this doesn't seem like the right way to go about it.

Some of my favorite moments in the animated Justice League was the banter between the characters. It sold the idea that, in a different context, they could be friends. Take that away, and it doesn't need to feel like a team at all...

Man, thanks for that video clip - it crystalized the following for me in a way I'd never quite realized : humor is a reaction to something unexpected. You can reveal unexpected stuff with horror (don't open the door!) or drama (I never! Learned! To read!) but over-reliance on those techniques gets old, fast and lessens the impact of each subsequent revelation.

But if you're not revealing something new, then everything is predictable.

I'm hoping this edict is something more along the line of not overdoing the snark - I love Joss Wheadon but I don't think his has to be the go-to style for self-aware banter. But one way or another they need to keep humor in.

?can't figure out how to segue neatly into this, so one last observation - GotG was a success to me because it had a firm appreciation for its own absurdity, immediately elevating it above the self-conscious Star Wars prequel trilogy.

 

[rembrandtqeinstein]

I hope its played straight at the same level as "300". Then it will be so unintentionally funny it will win a comedy award.

 

[CriticalMiss]

Makes sense, the movie itself is becoming a huge joke so they want some variety to mix things up. Maybe like mentioning how Batman is an orphan every now and then.

 

[Rayce Archer]

So there's no jokes, presumably they'll still be shilling the hell out of IHOP and Sears, right?

 

[elvor0]

I know this doesn't directly tie into "no jokes", but I watched Superman vs the Elite(or the adaptation of "What's so funny about Truth, Justice and the American Way?") again last night. Given the direction Batman v Superman is going, the guys in charge of the DC cinematic universe should be strapped to a chair and made to watch or read that story. Several times. Then slapped and removed from their positions and but Bruce Timm and Paul Dini in charge and we can all be happy bunnies!

When my girlfriend, who is by no means into comics, gets the character of Superman(mind you, I thought most people did) and understands the point of that story, clearly better than the guys in charge are, something is wrong with your production.

Oh well, I suppose I can just watch Captain America The Winter Soldier again, a movie that did a much better job of capturing the feeling of Superman than DC are going to manage. Cap was everything Supes should be in that movie.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Are they crazy? I know they're going for the darker edgier motif, but even so some moments of levity are nice. You know just to break things up a bit, to get a brief break from all the gloom.