"KFC Cinema Returns" Celebrates Traditional Chinese Medicine Festival
To some, the gruesome and distasteful "Kentucky Fried Movie" may not seem like an obvious choice for the Turner Classic Movies Festival. However, "Airplane!" - a 40-year-old sketch comedy sketch from the team - is noteworthy for its contribution to the comedy genre and its influence on other genres.
The trio of Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and David Zucker reunites with director John Landis. The blend of film and advertising parodies (including a memorable "Enter the Dragon" parody) earns "The KFC Movie" the midnight movie treatment, allowing its creators to share the film with audiences again for the first time in decades.
Sketch comedy still had a place in the theaters at that time, and before "The Kentucky Fried Chicken Movie" hit the big screen, there was "The Groove Tube," a similar racy short series with a cast that included a young Chevy Chase. Around the same time, Saturday Night Live brought sketch comedy into late-night television, and by the 1980s, the show had virtually moved entirely to television, becoming a fixture on networks such as Comedy Central and HBO.
"KFC Movie" served as a career launcher for the Zach brothers and Abrahams. Having worked with Landis, they invested approximately $30,000 from their parents' savings to fund a presentation. The film's surprise success not only gave them the opportunity to make planes - their first script - but also provided them with the chance to direct.
"It made so much money that the studio couldn't hide it quickly enough," David Zucker told CNN.
The team performed the material live on stage, confident that the audience would find the jokes funny, but with little experience in filmmaking.
"'Kentucky Movie' goes to film school," Abrahams said. "We had never been on a film set before."
The film's crude humor was partly intentional, as vulgarity was a key selling point for the movie. While racist humor no longer sells well, other elements - including language and nudity - have aged relatively harmlessly.
Abrahams stated that their comedic goals have always been "genuine humor, not just shock value."
"KFC Movie" and then "Airplane!" had a profound impact, leading to a wave of similar satirical projects with quick, biting humor.
When asked about the numerous projects that have drawn inspiration from their script, Jerry Zucker said, "If I think about it, I feel really proud. I cringe at it, but we were like the Marx Brothers and Monty Python."
"Kentucky the Movie" will be screened as part of the TCM Film Festival on April 8. CNN and TCM are both owned by Time Warner.
Additional Insights:
Although there is no explicit information about "The KFC Movie's" history, impact on the comedy genre, and the careers of its creators in the given sources, a YouTube video titled "When KFC Made a Movie" suggests that such a movie existed[1]. Further research and analysis would be necessary to fully understand the role of "The KFC Movie" in comedy history and the careers of its creators.
[1] YouTube. (n.d.). When KFC Made a Movie.
