Bridesmaids director Paul Feig says studio comedy is ‘nearly extinct’ as streaming redefines what’s funny

The streaming revolution is a double-edged sword.

As a genre, the big, broad studio comedy that are character-driven and goes for goofy laughs is nearly an extinct species at the cinemas. You may find them instead as a TV series, something like Platonic, the hang-out comedy with Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne.

In its place are cross-genre comedies that are laughs plus something else – comedy plus horror such as Ready or Not, comedy plus superheroes in the vein of Deadpool, and comedy plus mystery like Knives Out.

“Most comedy now is coming in the package of horror or thriller,” Paul Feig told The Nightly. “Or other things that are higher stakes.

“That (characters) are being put in a situation that is more dangerous and more unpredictable, and audiences have become used to that, and they crave that more.

“Comedy can be frivolous to a lot of people, and I love comedy, it is my bread and butter, but at the same time, I think we need to give them a little more these days.

“But then I say that, and then some completely gooft comedy is going to come out and go through the roof. So, comedy is a moving target and the minute you say, ‘I know what people think is funny’, you’re dead.”

Feig will be Australia next week for SXSW Sydney as a keynote speaker and as the recipient of the Screen Pioneer Award in recognition of his almost four decades in the film industry, originally as an actor and then as the director of comedy classics including Bridesmaids.

The festival has programmed an all-day marathon of the beloved, cancelled-too-soon series Feig created, Freaks and Geeks, which launched the careers of Rogen, Jason Segel, Martin Starr, John Francis Daley and Linda Cardellini. As well as screenings of Bridesmaids, Spy and The Heat.

He has been through the fluctuations in the genre, especially in the past 15 years as streaming became the dominant form of how people watched. Bridesmaids, which was written by and starred Kristen Wiig, was released in cinemas in 2011 while his most recent film, Another Simple Favour with Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick, hit streamer Prime Video earlier this year.

Feig said he’s grateful for streaming, because that is who is, for the most part, still commissioning comedy movies, but “it’s just unfortunate because comedies are better with a group (of people)”.

He has some experience with this. His two most recent releases, Another Simple Favour and Jackpot, an Awkwafina and John Cena romp, were both straight-to-streaming movies, and it didn’t come off quite as he hoped.

“Jackpot was kind of a bummer, and Another Simple Favour,” he said. “We test-screened those big audiences and they got huge responses, and then it’s on streaming and I guess, OK, people are watching in their pyjamas and that’s cool, but they’re not getting the experience of like, ‘Ohmigod, this is really funny and everybody else is enjoying this’.”

He explained that the first crop of critics were screened Another Simple Favour in theatres with an audience, and those reviewers were positive and the film was certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. But it was a very different reaction to the critics who saw it at home, “and they all gave it really bad reviews”.

How you watch a movie matters. Comedy, like horror, has a contagion effect. The person next to you is laughing, the person next to them is laughing, the person behind you, in front of you, to the other side, that collective reaction fuels your own enjoyment. Everyone is in on the joke.

“Movies are coming back, but it takes a lot to get people to go to the movies, and I don’t say (comedies) need a higher concept because that sounds corny, or that it needs a crazy logline,” Feig said. “(But) it needs to penerate so you go, ‘I’ve got to go see that’ because it’s so easy to say, ‘I’ll just wait until it’s on streaming’.

“You need an undeniable idea.”

For four movies in a row, Feig worked with Melissa McCarthy, from Bridesmaids through The Heat and Spy to Ghosbusters (“I took a lot of drumming because of Ghostbusters for many different, weird political reasons but it was kind of like, ‘Guys, we’re just trying to make you laugh and now you’re putting all this other stuff on it’.”).

At that time, McCarthy was a bona fide comedy superstar. You knew what you were in for, and she’s the reason you made the time and bought the ticket. Once upon a time, ditto Steve Martin, Jack Black, Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler, John Candy, Jim Carrey, Sandra Bullock, Drew Barrymore and Robin Williams.

“There was definitely the heyday of Will Ferrell and Chris Farley and Melissa, and those are some of the funniest people on the planet,” Feig said. “They’re (still) out there, there are so many funny people that I know and work with, I think it’s more that the vehicles aren’t there.

“I mean, Kate McKinnon, my god, she’s funny, McKinnon just killed in Ghostbusters. It’s finding the right vehicle, some of those vehicles from those classic comedies such as Stepbrothers, they aren’t being made right now, that would allow that person to become a big comedy star. That’s kind of sad.

“We used to try to figure out what is the comedy character is, we built it and put them in a crazy situation, and then take it through the roof. Now the criteria has shifted a bit, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t do it anymore because there are so many funny people out there who are just waiting for a vehicle.”

Feig’s next film, The Housemaid, is headed for cinemas in December. It stars Amanda Seyfried and Sydney Sweeney in a story adapted from a book by Freida McFadden. It is a comedy plus thriller, a cross-genre.

Feig has also written a TV pilot that draws more from the Freaks and Geeks realm. His first series was based on his experiences of being a “geek” growing up in Michigan, and this next effort comes from memories of old drama teacher.

For Feig, comedy will always be his bread, butter and jam, it’s what he wants to make. But it is an ever-shifting genre.

“Comedy is a release valve and for the past 10 years, he who shall remain nameless has hung over all of us, especially in the US, and I’ve been through various times of ‘Oh, well, people must want escape right now’, but I find people don’t want a full escape.”

Superhero movies, thrillers, horrors, they all have high stakes - world-ending, good versus evil stakes.

“I think that’s what people want. I hate to say the word fluff but a lot of people will consider comedy fluff, which is disheartening to all of us who do comedy.

“But it changes constantly, and what people want changes. It could change back tomorrow, none of us will know, and one person will nail it, and then we’ll all chase after that.”

SXSW Sydney is running October 13 to October 19