They Came Together is a riotously funny take on romantic comedies

A spoof movie is a delicate thing. The absolute classics like Airplane! or Galaxy Quest work because they combine real characters and absurd situations to make a legitimately interesting movie, not just a simple parody. Sometimes a specific movie or movie series can be parodied like Spaceballs or Austin Powers, but in both cases the characters are more than just the caricaturish cardboard versions of the original characters. But get too ridiculous, and the movie becomes a different sort of animal; something like the under-rated UHF works by combining cliched drama story ideas with absurdism, and the Naked Gun series plays things mostly straight except for a few dips into slapstick.

There is, of course, the danger of using reference humor, which can quickly become dated and boring years later. I still like Not Another Teen Movie, but will those unfamiliar with the spate of 80’s and 90’s teen movies find it as uproarious as I do? Probably not. The absolute worst thing a spoof movie can do, though, is to become hateful and unfunny, like Epic Movie or (shudder) Date Movie, the worst movie I’ve ever seen. But that’s a really low bar I don’t expect to ever see met again.

They Came Together is the latest film from writer/director David Wain, known for the cult movie Wet Hot American Summer and the middling Wanderlust. This time, he pokes fun at the entire genre of romantic comedies, using more references in one movie than any one person’s likely to have ever seen. The movie is the story told by Molly (Amy Poehler) and Joel (Paul Rudd) to their friends Karen (Ellie Kemper) and Kyle (Bill Hader) over dinner of how they met and fell in love. From that moment on, the movie is told like an actual romantic comedy, except that every single scene is exaggerated and bursting with over the top absurdity.

Molly is the typical romantic lead, the owner of a specialty shop in New York City (which is itself a character, as we are explicitly told a few times). She sells candy, and gives everything away for free! Just like all lazy scripts, her character has one sole “flaw,” her extreme clumsiness. Of course, this cliche came about because screenwriters need to have women be perfect in personality and looks, so clumsiness is the only way they can think of to make her “relatable.” But then there’s Joel, a soulful businessman working at the big candy corporation across the street (much of the superstructure of the movie riffs directly on You’ve Got Mail, much like Not Another Teen Movie riffed on She’s All That).

Then the movie proceeds to hand out literally every romantic comedy cliche you could conceivably think of. But David Wain isn’t afraid to dip hard into the nonsense, with a few scenes so ridiculous, they border on the sublimely hilarious. Now, not every scene is a winner; there is a scene with shades of incest that missed the mark, and an extended run on a guy defecating in his Halloween costume that goes on too long, despite the very funny line it sets up later. But now for the full disclosure: I laughed a few times until tears came to my eyes. I must offer this caveat though: I was watching in a theater with other people. It is a known phenomenon that we laugh more when surrounded by other people laughing, and this is a movie that builds on its laughs as it goes, so ideally you should watch with several friends. But that still raises the question: Does this even work as a spoof movie?

The good news is that, for the most part, everyone plays it straight, making the stupid things they say and do far more funny. Paul Rudd is as enjoyable as he always is, playing off his own archetype and mugging in extensively hilarious ways, while Amy Poehler is the perfect distaff counterpoint, effortlessly charming and engaging. Many other fine comic performers abound, including Max Greenfield as Joel’s brother archetype and Ed Helms as the “wrong guy she shouldn’t marry” archetype. I didn’t think Cobie Smulders was particularly funny here, with a bit of a stiff delivery at times, but her character isn’t much in the movie. I do have to pay particular attention to the friends that are hearing the story, Ellie Kemper and Bill Hader. Obviously, Bill Hader demonstrates why he’s one of the best alumni that Saturday Night Live ever produced by being funny in basically every thing he says. Ellie Kemper is a good partner, playing the audience surrogate, breaking into scenes that don’t make sense and asking legitimate questions.

This is the sort of movie that works if you like spoof movies and absurdist comedy, but it’s helped if you’ve seen enough romantic comedies to recognize the tropes and cliches. I haven’t seen that many in the scheme of things, but I recognized nearly all of the callbacks. By the time the movie’s ridiculous but one hundred percent apt conclusion rolls around, you may find yourself out of laughs to give. Right now, this may not become a parody classic, but it’s one worth seeing.

They Came Together is currently available on demand and in limited theater release.