Airplane!‘s renown lies in its unwavering assault of joke-a-second puns and absurdities, bringing slapstick and screwball comedies of the era it parodies to their (il)logical conclusions. However, it’s still the extremity of a frequently trite form of comedy. Airplane! never builds on itself like character-driven comedies and their potential intricacies. It’s an assault of stones that eventually you give into and accept the chuckles, but it’s not humor that draws from the soul.