Bill Hader on THE CAT IN THE HAT
Bill Hader argues that the comedy in THE CAT IN THE HAT works because it doesn't split humor into separate lanes for kids versus adults. He points out that people often trip up by treating those categories as distinct when funny is just funny and emotions remain emotions regardless of the target audience. The speaker notes that trying to force jokes on children usually fails, but finding humor in their actual actions succeeds every time. It's a reminder that mixing adult and kid content creates confusion rather than clarity.
Transcript (en)
What is it about that element of making sure the adults are just as invested as like you know the younger audiences that this movie gets so right? You don't see a difference between this is for kids is for adults like the funny is funny emotions are emotions that seems to be where sometimes things like trip up because sometimes if you just make it well I find this funny there's a good chance a lot of other people will find it funny and I just know with my kids anytime I've tried in the past to be funny do something I think they're gonna find funny it just falls on its face, but when then I'll just say something about what they did, died laughing, you know, that I find funny.
