Happy Gilmore

As a golfer, I think that Happy Gilmore, one of Sandler’s earlier comedy films is particularly funny.  From the beginning of the movie, we are introduced to the belligerent, extremely untalented hockey player that is Happy Gilmore.  In fact, Gilmore brags that he holds the record for the only person who ever took off his skate and attempted to stab someone during a game.  The overall theme of the movie and the main aspect of humor that it employs is complete mockery, particularly the mockery of sports.

When Gilmore finds out, however, that his grandmother is grossly in debt and that her house is being foreclosed, he abandons his hopeless goal to become a hockey player and tries to find a way to help out his grandmother.  When Gilmore is first introduced to the game, he declares,  “Golf requires goofy pants and a fat ass. You should talk to my neighbor, the accountant. Probably a great golfer, huge ass”.  It is right after Gilmore makes this statement that he discovers his incredible ability to hit the ball farther than anyone on the pro tour.  It is this scene that shows the utter mockery of golf, Gilmore blatantly insults the game and the type of people that play golf. 

As the movie progresses and Gilmore begins to play more and more golf, his frustration with the game comes out in an extremely amusing.  The typical conception of golf as a game played by gentleman requiring a great deal of etiquette, is shattered when Gilmore begins to play on the pro tour.  Whenever he hits a bad shot, he is seen throwing clubs, breaking rakes in the sand traps, and even starting fights with the spectators.  This humor of flagrant disobedience of traditional values and conceptions is present throughout the movie and is a good demonstration of Sandler’s comedic style.  Sandler not only mocks hockey in the beginning of the movie, but throughout the rest of the movie, this style of humor is used to mock the game of golf and its players.  I think that this type of mockery that Sandler uses in Happy Gilmore can be glimpsed in almost all of his films, as we saw in my post about Billy Madison, and it is this mockery that makes his films incredibly funny.

In my next blog I will talk about the humor in Mr. Deeds.