The NYT has a story up about Robert Mankoff, who is studying why people laugh. Dr. Mankoff has a plastic Godzilla on his desk
"Because he reminds me that I'm silly."
Certainly, some of Godzilla's movies are pretty funny; the dubbing is so bad, we always made up our own dialog to go along with the stories (when we even watched the stories, mostly we just wanted to watch Godzilla stomp stuff).
Yet even in this story, the writer admits the first Godzilla was truly the best story, for all of its poor special effects...and then some of his movies were pretty bad.
Many moviegoers who saw last year's restored version of "Gojira," the 1954 movie that started it all, were surprised to find an air of menace, a touching back story and a complex political message about atomic weapons. Even so, years of English dubbing, bad effects and improbable adversaries - Mothra, Megalon and the Smog Monster, among them - have reduced the irate, 150-foot T. rex to a veritable stand-up act, a fate sealed with the 1969 short "Bambi Meets Godzilla."
Once Godzilla fought Hedora (remember that HORRIBLE song in the middle of that movie...that was the scariest part of the whole thing...) and there was a "baby" Godzilla, his movies weren't as scary--but to a little tiny kid, Godzilla himself was still a force of nature, and he was huge. I saw my first Godzilla movie when I was in kindergarten, and I was the littlest kid in the class.
More than anything, a little kid wants to be a big kid and not be bullied. Teachers and administrators never control bullying in schools--public schools are the most horrible form of torture for a little kid ever devised. The bullies just wait and get the little ones later, and the little ones (like I was) always look for a hero. And Godzilla was the ultimate bully-biter, kicking the shit out of the bad guys every time, even if he accidently kicked the shit out of the good guys too. He didn't give a shit about other priorities, he mostly just wanted to be left the hell alone, a sentiment most people can share.
So Dr. Mankoff may believe Godzilla is a king of comedy, but I can't see it. To me, Godzilla will always be the King of the Monsters. Hail to the King, baby. Hail to the King.
