They feel lazy because everyone else has been copying them for the past 40 years. Another commenter was talking about “dad” jokes - where do you think “dad” learnt that type of humour?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28916271 ;)

The classic "Seinfeld isn't funny" effect

I don't think they are lazy. It's a lot of funny, original, creative and clever writing and delivery, it's very different from anything else, so I can't call that lazy. And I find it funny even without nostalgia since I wasn't born at the time. All of the humour being so unexpected is what does for me and much of it is hard to catch or understand during your first try, which also makes it intellectual challenge to try and understand everything.

I don't even think they are "stupid" jokes.

The actors are good. Their delivery and timing is good, and that saves some of the jokes. You can deliver a lazy joke well and get a laugh, it doesn't mean it isn't lazy.

When was the first time you watched this movie? Was it as an adult? Recently? If you watched it when you were young, and you're not young anymore, that's nostalgia. It has nothing to do with when the movie was produced.

I watched it recently with my SO and saw it when I was young and they had not seen it before. We both laughed our heads off.

And we both recognize humor at the expense of the other, but that simply isn't what 90% of the humor in Airplane! is. Compared to what came later in the 80s and 90s it was quite self-aware.

I may have seen it as a child, but I watched it recently and I don't think I had enough recollection of it to have any nostalgia at all.

AS others have said, they seem lazy as they've been copied ad nauseam in the 40 years since the movie. I believe that Airplane! was the first zany comedy containing these ridiculous types of jokes. Many movies have followed and tried to copy the humour but have failed. Will there be discussions in 30 years about Scary Movie and its sequels? I doubt it.