While the genius of Mel Brooks defines satire comedy, there is another subset that very few directors even try. This type of movie, that I call the Airplane! genre after its first movie, is almost totally devoid of any names other than that of the directing and writing team of Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker. Airplane!, released in 1980, along with Naked Gun, and Scary Movie, and of course, Top Secret! are four of the genre's top movies.
Top Secret! takes an irreverent stab at the Elvis-style movies crossed with war movies, the young rock and roll star goes to WWII Germany. Throw in a little Blue Lagoon, and a every pun that you can think of, then you have it.
The puns can be your standard verbal puns:
"I really don't know how to speak German." "It's OK, I know a little German. See? He's over there." [German midget waves.]
To more visual puns:
[The guards come to get Nick Rivers out of jail, and walk him to the electric chair while the priest recites last rights in Latin, and Pig Latin. Then we hear the chair frying, and cut to the scene where the priest is dead.]
"Apparently, your manager didn't realize that we use 220 volts here. They found him in his hotel room impaled on a large electrical device [sex toy]. Our surgeons did what they could, but it took them over 2 hours just to get the smile off of his face."
"If they found out that you have seen this, your life will be worth less than a truckload of dead rats at a tampon factory."
[A man in a cart, being pulled by a pony, singing.]
[Pony coughs.]
"Is he alright?"
"Yes, he's just a little horse."
[Horse starts singing again.]
