Stupid Comedies That Actually Deal With Really Serious Issues

Though it hit theaters in 1983, Wall Street comedy Trading Places still has eerie relevance. Transient Billy Ray Valentine (Eddie Murphy) scrapes by running hustles on the streets of New York. Financial executive Louis Winthorpe III (Dan Aykroyd) is part of the upper echelon of the city's financial and social elite. Winthorpe's bosses, brothers Randolph (Ralph Bellamy) and Mortimer (Don Ameche) Duke, decide to run a social experiment of sorts. One believes it is a man's nature that defines him. The other believes habitat plays a large part in a man's character. To test their theory, they bet a dollar and swap Valentine's and Winthorpe's lives. When the two discover they have been non-consenting subjects in this experiment, they reveal the brothers' scam and insider trading tactics that made them business tycoons. This scene has even been mentioned on the floor of congress during discussions about insider trading laws.

Trading Places has its ridiculous, over-the-top comedic moments - like when an intoxicated Winthorpe crashes his former employers' holiday party - but it also speaks to the American landscape at large. Americans may pride themselves on their country's belief that "all men are created equal," as outlined in the Declaration of Independence, but social constructs like racism, classism, and ableism privilege some Americans above others.

Before Chris Farley's untimely passing, he and fellow comedian David Spade were on a roll. The classic comedy duo starred in the Saturday Night Live sketch-turned-movie Coneheads in 1993, and in 1995, the two hit the silver screen for what would become their trademark collaboration, Tommy Boy. The eponymous Tommy Callahan (Farley) inherits his father's slowly dwindling auto parts factory. Tommy's stepmom is eager to sell the factory and cash out, but Tommy and his father's uptight assistant Richard Hayden (Spade) attempt to save the place - and all the jobs it provides the small Ohio town. 

The film touches on an issue that started brewing during the 70s and 80s, when laissez-faire economic policies, which limited government intervention and placed profit as a company's highest priority, were put into motion. By the 1990s, after NAFTA opened up trade further, many companies opted to move manufacturing jobs overseas to save production costs - at the expense of the average American blue collar worker.

One of the reasons Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is considered one of the best comedies of the 2000s is its pure absurdity. Characters like Brian Fontana (Paul Rudd), who uses a gasoline-scented cologne called "Sex Panther," and Brick Tamland (Steve Carell), who eliminates a rival newscaster with a trident, make Anchorman feel like pure farce. But the Will Ferrell-starring comedy puts a laser focus on sexism in the world of journalism, particularly in the mid-1970s.

When Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate) expresses interest in becoming a national news anchor, Ron and his cohorts find it laughably impossible. She has to endure coworkers who genuinely believe her menstrual cycle will lure bears into their San Diego newsroom. Yes, Anchorman might be overt with its portrayal of misogyny in the world of journalism, but it's not too far from the reality of newsrooms in 1976, which were overwhelmingly male-dominated. Corningstone is a lot like real-life reporter Barbara Walters, who started as a news "girl" before climbing her way up to a national post in 1976 - becoming the first female national correspondent to co-anchor an evening news broadcast. Walters's style of interviewing captivated American audiences, just like Corningstone does when she and Ron become equal co-hosts of World News Center.

Most fans of Mel Brooks's 1974 Blazing Saddles likely remember it for dealing with one serious topic in particular: racism. Sheriff Bart (Cleavon Little) faces overt prejudice as soon as he sets foot in the tiny town of Rock Ridge. Townspeople openly use slurs and berate their new sheriff, even in the face of impending doom. But even the surface-level plot of the movie has a historical basis -- Bart and his perma-inebriated buddy Jim, "The Waco Kid," trying to keep people safe from attorney general Hedley Lamarr's (Harvey Korman) plan to push people out of their homes in order to obtain the profitable land. 

While the land grab in Blazing Saddles affects a white population - or as Jim refers to them, "These are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know - morons" - it does touch on another blemish of American history: the forced removal of Native Americans. The United States government repeatedly forced native populations out of their land if it had something they deemed valuable, like gold or oil.

When Mrs. Doubtfire was released in 1993, critics were lukewarm on it. Many viewed it as nothing more than a feature-length showcase of star Robin Williams's off-the-wall comedic chops as Mrs. Doubtfire, AKA Daniel Hillard, a man who finds an unconventional way to connect with his kids in the midst of divorce.

The film was a box-office smash - the second-highest grossing movie of 1993, behind only Jurassic Park - and continued to build on its audience after making its way to home video. But while it may be nostalgically remembered as a vehicle for Williams's zaniness and charm, Mrs. Doubtfire in fact managed to touch on the difficulties of fractured families and relationships, and the eggshells everyone - including children - has to walk on during a major familial shakeup. The fallout of a failed marriage isn't just the backdrop for comedy - it's the movie's very subject.

It makes sense that Adam McKay, the writer/director of both The Big Short and Vice, made a not-as-obvious politically charged comedy before he delved into more serious territory. In 2010's The Other Guys, NYPD desk jockeys Detective Allen "Gator" Gamble (Will Ferrell) and Detective Terry Hoitz (Mark Wahlberg) are eager to make names for themselves on the force. The two unlikely buddies team up to investigate Australian billionaire David Ershon (Steve Coogan). They discover he's entrenched in a complex web of white collar crime, and they are determined to take him down.

While the film by itself might feel like a simple David-versus-Goliath tale, the film's animated, stat-heavy closing credits solidify the filmmaker's contention regarding the 2007-2008 financial crisis - namely the loopholes and wealth privilege that contributed to it. The credits show the increasing gap between CEO and employee payment, the alarming rate of Ponzi schemes, and bank profit and loss numbers. As credit designer Grant Nellessen explained to CinemaBlend, the credits were designed to "[attach] this kind of outlandish movie to the real elements of what's going on today. So he [McKay] was just really into that."