‘Twitter changed everything’: Ben Stiller blames social media for lack of comedy films

Ben Stiller thinks that the "immediate response" offered to the public on social media has caused Hollywood to stop making comedies. Photo / Getty Images

Ben Stiller feels that social media is to blame for the decline of comedy movies.

The 59-year-old actor has starred in comedic flicks such as There’s Something About Mary and Zoolander but believes the “immediate response” provided to the world on social media has shifted the climate.

Stiller told The Times newspaper: “There are landmines everywhere.

“Twitter changed everything. It took off in 2009, and offers an immediate response.”

Stiller recalled the offence caused by the character of Simple Jack – a boy with learning disabilities in the spoof movie featured in the 2008 film Tropic Thunder.

He said: “We had issues on Tropic Thunder with Simple Jack.

“It wasn’t a Twitter storm. Everything didn’t blow up. But instant reactivity can now, all of sudden, just kill.”

Stiller believes that such an environment makes both comics and film studios “trepidatious”.

Stiller explained: “Yes, you’re more trepidatious, and there’s no denying the environment is more volatile, but when studios keep saying no, creatives will stop trying and, instead, pivot to movies they think will get made, and that’s awful.

“Studios are trying to create movies that will make a billion dollars, but comedy is cut and dried. People are laughing or not. And that’s tough.”

Stiller is the son of the late comedians Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara and “felt pressure” to honour them in the new documentary film Stiller and Meara: Nothing Is Lost, in which he serves as director.

He said: “I just had to make something for my parents. My dad died during Covid, so there was no memorial. When my mum died, five years earlier, we did an event on Broadway, and so I felt pressure.”

Stiller recalled how his parents were often away performing but admits that he did not learn lessons as he spent time away focusing on his career when his own children from his marriage to wife Christine Taylor – Ella, 23, and Quinn, 20 – were young.

He said: “Like any parent, I remember things that weren’t happy about my childhood and go, ‘I’ll do better.’ And then I realised it was impossible to avoid making the mistakes they made.

“I feel like I have a really great relationship with my kids, but it’s complicated and has at times been strained.

“When they were young, I did not get it, I thought, ‘Oh, the kids are young, I can work away and be a good dad earning for the family.’ But the bonds you form with your kids when they’re young is so important.”