Why is this movie so funny? And why is it universally judged to be so by people who don't understand French culture? I have asked myself this question while watching it for the Nth time and while asking myself why most Hollywood 'comedies' made today are not funny at all. I believe that the answer is that the basis of all comedy is to make fun of someone. Here, fun is made of sexual stereotypes, of the British, of the French and, most of all, of the Germans, Nazis in this case. Hollywood has become so politically-correct that it now only dares make fun of a WASP male in a business suit, and of no one else. Take the case of 'The Birdcage', a remake of the French comedy 'La cage aux folles' made some 20 years earlier. Being bilingual, I can testify that the original version is immensely more funny than the Hollywood remake. That is because the Hollywood bean-counters, who like to pass themselves off as artistic decision-makers, toned down most of the fun that had been made of homosexuals in the original movie. Ask Shakespeare or Moliere: the play or movie will be funny only if it pokes cruel fun at someone, provided it is not at you. Sorry for the politically-incorrect opinion.
