The name David Zucker once guaranteed a lot of laughs of the non-politically correct variety in movies such as Airplane!, The Naked Gun and the Scary Movie franchise. However, in a recent interview, the director doubled down on previous comments that Hollywood is too eager to please “the 9% of people without a sense of humor.” According to Zucker, he believes that this is directly leading to the death of comedy.

David Zucker has frequently commented on the way Hollywood now handles many of the more risqué comedy movies and always comes back to one often used joke, which is when asked whether he could make Airplane! now, he usually replies, “Yes, but without the jokes.” In an interview featured on PragerU, Zucker explained how he feels that trying to please a minority is “destroying comedy.” He said:

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“My current writing partner Pat Proft and I wrote a parody of James Bond and Mission: Impossible. One female executive said, ‘This joke is getting pretty risqué here.’ It was a mild joke about the lead female character. Because she had come up through the police department and through the FBI…she needed a breast reduction to fit into the kevlar vest.

It was pure oatmeal, so mild. Not one of our funniest things, but [even] this was too much. I thought, ‘If this was the criteria for it, we’re in big trouble.’ They’re destroying comedy because of nine percent of the people who don’t have a sense of humor.”

Are Offensive Comedy Movies Wrong?

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According to Zucker, Hollywood is so eager not to offend anyone that it is impossible to make comedy movies without constantly worrying about how a joke will be perceived. He continued to discuss how much different it was working on his early movies compared to more recent projects. He said:

While Zucker is correct that every joke presented in a Hollywood movie, comedy special, or even in social media conversations, is scrutinized and called out for any aspect that offends in any way, there are still plenty of comedians and comedy writers who constantly rebel against the tide.

“We could be as offensive as we liked. We went where the laughs were. We never thought that we were offending anyone, but if we were offending people we knew we were on the right track. As time went on, it got to be the ’90s and the 2000s and it did change… We never worried about any of this stuff with the Naked Gun or Scary Movie films.

Comedy’s in trouble, but I think it’s gonna come back. I think there’s a pendulum and it’ll swing back. I’d just like to see comedy filmmakers do comedy without fear…We just want to make people laugh.”

Seth MacFarlane, who is best known for his animated comedy shows such as Family Guy and American Dad, and British comedians Ricky Gervais and Jimmy Carr, who have both found themselves on the receiving end of backlash for jokes made in specials released on Netflix, as well as South Park creators Matt Parker and Trey Stone are just some of those who have constantly remained popular despite frequent public outcry by that minority Zucker talks about.

Perhaps, the pendulum is already in the process of swinging back quicker than Zucker hopes.