"Surely You Can't Be Serious" - Summary

Zucker firmly believes that comedic timing and delivery are crucial to landing a joke. He emphasizes the "deadpan" approach, where actors deliver even the most absurd lines with a straight face, creating a hilarious contrast that amplifies the humor. He illustrates this with behind-the-scenes stories of how actors like Leslie Nielsen and Robert Hays perfected this art in his films.

Zucker reveals his knack for spotting comedic potential in the mundane and the serious. He champions the art of subverting expectations, taking familiar situations, genres, or tropes and injecting them with unexpected twists and absurd humor. The book explores how he transformed disaster movie clichés into comedic gold in Airplane! and turned a simple police procedural into the wildly successful Naked Gun franchise.

Zucker stresses the importance of collaboration in his creative process. He delves into his long-standing partnership with Jim Abrahams and Jerry Zucker, fondly known as the "ZAZ team." He shares how their distinct comedic styles complemented each other, leading to a unique brand of humor that resonated with audiences worldwide. The book is filled with anecdotes that highlight the joys, challenges, and creative sparks that come from collaborative comedy writing and filmmaking.