10 Most Underrated Comedy Films Of The 90s
Some people just can't appreciate a good belly laugh.
We can all agree that the 90s were a weird time, right? There was just something very...uneven about the whole time period.
It's almost as if the ten year span should be split into two separate decades, with one half of the 90s getting credit for initiating social and cultural change on a massive scale, while the other half just sunk into a sea of watered-down ideas, Pearl Jam knock-offs, and the liberal use of fat suits and wacky sound effects in place of actual jokes.
That last bit made some 90s movies seem uproariously funny at the time, but now require a thick pair of beer goggles to garner even a titter. Meanwhile, tons of great, clever comedies flew so far under the radar that they nearly sunk into the ocean to be lost forever, just like that super expensive necklace the old lady tossed to the bottom of the sea at the end of Titanic like an idiot.
Granted, comedy is one of the most subjective genres around, but it's odd how many borderline classics escaped the 90s with such negligible recognition.
So if you're in the mood for a genuine LOL tonight, you might consider one of these lost gems.
10. PCU
It's understandable that the idea of Jeremy Piven actually being funny might give you a migraine. But there was a very brief period of time in the early 90s when Piven and his incredible receding hairline could actually hold down a role that required considerable amounts of charm.
PCU is something of a spiritual predecessor to the "big man on campus" comedies of the 2000s like Van Wilder, with Piven acting as the slacker extraordinaire who always manages to skate through life and, naturally, get everything he wants out of life despite overwhelming odds being stacked against him.
Actually, it shares a great many beats with Old School, a film which Piven would not-so-coincidentally play a polar opposite role in. The biggest difference is that PCU is unapologetically offensive and relishes its own flaws. It's more concerned with landing the joke than it is providing any real, groundbreaking ideas about society and, for that, it deserves a freakin' medal.
Because too many pseudo-intellectual comedies of the 90s had a tendency to force an agenda down the audience's throat while neglecting that whole humor thing for large chunks of time. PCU decides early on that it'd rather make of the people who take their "causes" very seriously without actually understanding it beyond a cutesy slogan.