Where this was said
The Comedy Era: Imitating Other People's Funny Movies
At 39:04 · chapter starts 37:00
Sean Hayes frames his question diplomatically — he asks about the 'pivot to more important films' — and Will and Jason razz him for it. Tom doesn't take offense; instead he describes the era with sharp self-awareness. A $15 million film called a comedy seemed to do 'some brand of business' whether it was funny or not. Everybody who had said 'action' and 'cut' was trusted to direct comedies, and the real comedy talent was coming from the Second City and SNL ecosystem. Tom and his projects lived in the margins of that world — doing imitations of better films, using location as concept. Every dailies screening, regardless of the actual material, was proclaimed 'the funniest film ever made.' Will loyally notes that regardless of the material, Hanks was always good — always committed.
In the era when Hanks was churning out comedies, a $15 million budget and a comedy label was essentially a license to print money. The genre was dominated by Second City and SNL alumni, and Hanks describes his films as 'doing imitations of other people's funny movies' — yet every single daily screening was called the funniest movie ever made.
