20 Comedies They Could Never Make Today, Ranked

Kevin Smith's 2006 sequel took shocking counter banter and an infamous donkey show to extreme heights. While praised for heartfelt character arcs, modern executive suites would balk at the outrageous raunchiness.

Terry Zwigoff's dark holiday classic starred Billy Bob Thornton as a foul-mouthed, alcoholic safecracker exploiting mall Santas. The unrepentant cynicism and brutal insults make it unthinkable in today's family-friendly landscape.

Harold Ramis and Chevy Chase turned a peaceful golf club into an anarchic war zone of crass gags and debauchery. The heavy substance jokes and wild gopher battles remain legendary but impossible to pitch now.

Written by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, this raunchy high school quest became an instant classic. Yet its unrelenting sexual slang and fake ID escapades would face intense sanitization from contemporary studios.

Johnny Knoxville played a desperate con man faking an intellectual disability to rig the Special Olympics. Though produced alongside Special Olympics leadership, the premise alone would instantly spark immediate studio vetoes.

Todd Phillips struck comedy gold with three groomsmen retracing a blackout night in Las Vegas. From roofie mishaps to Mike Tyson's tiger and child neglect jokes, modern sensitivity readers would reject the original draft.

Bob Clark's 1981 smash hit followed horny Florida teenagers obsessed with a local brothel. The voyeuristic shower sequence and locker room exploits would never pass current industry consent standards.

The Farrelly Brothers revolutionized gross-out romance with Cameron Diaz and Ben Stiller. Unforgettable gags involving impromptu hair gel and animal cruelty would trigger massive social media backlash today.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone used marionettes to mercilessly satirize post-9/11 foreign policy and Hollywood vanity. The graphic puppet romance and scorched-earth political mockery could never survive modern studio notes.

Jim Carrey catapulted into superstardom as an eccentric pet detective chasing a stolen dolphin. The film's pivotal bathroom-plunging reveal regarding Lois Einhorn has since sparked heavy transphobia discussions.

Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd shone in John Landis's classic rich-man poor-man wager. Despite sharp systemic commentary, Aykroyd's infamous train disguise in full Jamaican blackface makes modern executives cringe.

Carl Reiner and Steve Martin introduced cinema to Navin R. Johnson with his absurd opening confession. Martin's surreal brand of humor delighted 1970s audiences, but navigating racial identity satire today is a studio minefield.

Keenen Ivory Wayans directed brothers Shawn and Marlon transforming into wealthy blonde socialites to solve a kidnapping. The heavy gender caricatures and overt racial stereotyping would provoke intense studio hesitation.

John Landis and National Lampoon birthed the modern college comedy with John Belushi's beer-chugging antics. However, the film's depicted lack of consent and predatory fraternity culture would be completely rejected today.

Jim Abrahams and the Zucker brothers crammed hundreds of sight gags and spoof lines into an imperiled flight. Poking fun at plane crashes, mental distress, and nervous drinking habits would trigger heavy corporate oversight.

Sacha Baron Cohen roamed America completely unscripted as an outlandish Kazakh journalist. The brazen antisemitic jokes and deceitful public interactions pushed legal and editorial limits that studios would never insure now.

Jeff Kanew's collegiate underdog story rallied outcasts against wealthy jocks. Yet iconic scenes involving covert voyeurism and dubious sexual deception are now universally viewed as nonconsensual crimes rather than innocent pranks.

Steve Miner directed this story of a white student tanning his skin to claim a Harvard Black scholarship. Widely boycotted by the NAACP upon release, the entire premise remains one of cinema's most untouchable taboos.

Ben Stiller took aim at narcissistic Hollywood method actors filming a chaotic jungle blockbuster. Robert Downey Jr. earned an Oscar nomination playing Kirk Lazarus in full blackface, a razor-sharp satire that modern execs wouldn't dare risk.

Mel Brooks created the definitive boundary-shattering satire with Cleavon Little and Gene Wilder. Packed with raw racial slurs and satirical stereotypes, its mission to ridicule bigots succeeded brilliantly, but modern risk aversion makes it impossible to remake.