Being surely one of the most quotable movies of all time (it is one of the most quotable movies of all time, but don’t call me Shirley), Airplane! fits humor into every single scene, causing viewers to try and catch their breath from laughing too hard. From the ridiculous back-and-forths between straight-faced characters to using cheesy sound effects to emphasize physical comedy, Airplane! employed nearly every comedic style — satire, deadpan, slapstick, and puns — to reach cult status.
The film opens very eerily, so much so that it could convince an unknowing audience member that they are about to watch a dramatic thriller. However, this changes rather quickly once PA speakers begin arguing over which zone is for stopping and which zone is for loading after having repeated the announcement 5 times. We are soon introduced to Ted who drives a taxi onto the curb, leaving a customer to wait for him as he goes to try and reconcile with his ex-girlfriend Elaine. He promises her that things will be different, but she tells him that it takes many things to make love last, including respect — which she does not have for him anymore. She leaves to catch the flight she is working, and Ted is left there standing in the airport. This moment of emotional intensity is quickly turned humorous with Airplane!’s classic use of deadpan comedy, as he turns to look at the camera and says with a straight face, “What a pisser.”
These deadpan moments are prevalent throughout the entire film. There are only three times when characters react to puns and double entendres within the dialogue. One of these occurrences was when Ted is first seated on the plane, visibly very nervous. The elderly woman sitting beside him asks if he’s nervous, to which he answers yes. She then asks him if it was his first time [flying], to which he responds “No, I’ve been nervous lots of times.” The woman realizes he had misunderstood her, however says nothing. As the characters keep a straight face in the midst of even the most ridiculous quips and puns, the audience needs to decide what they find funny. This differs from most blockbuster comedies we see today, many of them starring eccentric characters who speak for the audience to laugh with them, and not at them.
Moments of deadpan dialogue that also serve as puns are what makes the film truly special. Terms like Over, Roger, and Clearance are often overheard in the cockpit of a plane, comedically identical to the pilots named Oveur, Roger, and Clarence. The similarities cause a lot of “Huh?”s and “What?”s from the pilots as each of them tries talking over the radio. From this moment on the audience can assume that the plane ride will be– for lack of a better word– a shit show. These elements of dramatic irony place the viewer in a very interesting position where they must keep up with the back-and-forth of these dry characters. “Dry” must not be confused with boring however, because the characters in this movie are far from it.
All while these eccentricities occur, Airplane! stays true to its inherent form as a parody of a more serious airplane film. Due to Airplane!’s popularity and relative modernity, it is seldom known by audiences that it is actually a parody of Zero Hour!, Hall Bartlett’s 1957 airplane disaster film. Apart from the addition of deadpan delivery, physical, and slapstick humor, Airplane! mirrors the original film by borrowing exact lines of dialogue, which were originally written to be taken in all seriousness. The main characters have the same name in both movies, as well as very similar stories. In Zero Hour!, war trauma-ridden Ted Stryker (Dana Andrews) follows his wife and young son on an airplane in hopes of reconciling with them. Similarly, in Airplane!, war trauma-ridden alcoholic Ted Striker (Robert Hays) is shown throwing drinks onto his face rather than drinking them, follows his stewardess ex-girlfriend onto her flight in hopes of winning her back. Both female love interests initially reject their respective Ted because he is “caught living in the past.”
In both films the passengers and pilots who chose fish over meat are struck with food poisoning, leaving it up to Ted to fly the plane, as he is the only passenger with any sort of flying experience. Chaos ensues on the flight as passengers get sicker and in the case of Airplane!, sillier. As Zero Hour! depicts characters with the classic case of food poisoning, Airplane! depicts passengers and pilots with absurd symptoms, like a woman who can’t stop spitting out eggs.
During the scenes where the lines replicate the original from the 1957 movie, Airplane! employs physical comedy rather than play-on-words to poke fun at the original script; for example, after a stewardess shakes a woman and tells her to get a hold of herself, passengers line-up to get their turn at slapping her. The score also remains melancholic as to mimic the dramatic score of Zero Hour!; however, it switches to fairytale-like music during flashback scenes of Ted and Elaine’s romance, and switches to patriotic American music in moments of triumph such as when Ted (somewhat) successfully lands the plane.
The two films end in this same way, with the male hero making a safe landing and reconciling with his respective partner, who has a newfound respect for him. Even during this triumphant scene, Airplane! shows its inability to take itself too seriously by ending with the auto-pilot (an inflatable man named Otto who controls the steering of the plane) waving to Ted and Elaine as he flies off with an inflatable woman.
The combination of deadpan, satirical, and slapstick comedy is what makes Airplane! so special. It shows performers and audiences alike just how far comedy can be stretched. From actual shit hitting a fan to a doctor’s nose physically growing longer while lying to passengers, Airplane! tests the limits of how many jokes and play-on-words can be infused into a single word, object, or concept.
