Cuk FK’s Komedi Gokil 2 (Crazy Comedy 2) is either another of Indonesian cinema’s many shallow sexualized comedy sketches or a very subtle satirical uppercut to society’s taste for that kind of comedy.

Whether you judge it as the former or latter depends on how you see the film.

Komedi Gokil 2 is the sequel to last year’s Komedi Modern Gokil (Crazy Modern Comedy), with some of the main characters, such as Indro (Indro Warkop) and Boris (Boris Bokir), remaining, while others, such as Dodit, have disappeared. However, there is no need to watch the first movie beforehand, as the sequel presents a whole new story.

As in the previous film, Cuk FK presents the narration for the film using the style of Warkop DKI, a popular comedy group in the 1980s, which Indro was a member of.

Back then, the group ruled Indonesia’s silver screen industry with a comedy style that heavily relied on slapstick, puns and the objectification of women’s bodies — launching actresses such as Nurul Arifin and Kiki Fatmala into fame as “sex bombs” due to their raunchy performances.

While many criticized Warkop DKI’s commercial success through sexual exploitation of their female co-stars, some thought that behind the raunchy comedic visage, the group delivered a lot of subtle criticism of society and the government during the New Order era.

Komedi Gokil 2 tries to emulate that style and to some extent it succeeds, although not very convincingly.

 After a psychedelic opening that will remind audiences of an iconic scene from Wayne’s World, the film introduces us to Indro and his wife Maya (Maya W. Sardjono), who own a mixed-sex boarding house in Jakarta.

The boarding house is basically a paradise for single men as the women living there are all voluptuous and comfortable in their own skin as they walk around in tank tops and very short pants. As for the men, for some reason they all wear decent clothing like button up shirts as if they are at the office.

Indro’s boarding house gets two new male tenants —Acho (Muhadkly Acho) and Lolox (Lolox), who is the younger brother of Boris.

Together, these four men spend most of their time falling victim to their own silliness, particularly driven by their bad luck or uncontrollable desire for women.

At the other end of the genre spectrum is Maya along with her niece Mia (Senk Lotta), Gina (Tengku Putri Dewi) and Tania (Brianna Simorangkir), who play significant roles in most of the film’s sexploitative comedic scenes.

There are also appearances from Nikita Mirzani and the dangdut pair Duo Serigala who clearly do their best to exploit their bodies whenever they can during their scenes.

Most of the comedic scenes have the same narrative, with basically no particular theme and a heavy reliance on patching together short comedic incidents.

It is very unclear what the film’s main storyline is, as Cuk FK keeps on changing the focus. At first, it seems as if the central plotline is Acho’s endeavor’s to win Mia’s heart, but then it shifts to Indro’s alleged affair before finally concentrating on the story of Maya and her old love, Tomsas (Mang Saswi).

The repetitive comedic narrative that relies heavily on sexual jokes also fails to draw laughs and after a while it becomes boring. For the most part, the comedy scenes are more absurd than funny.

However, amid the film’s somewhat bland comedy style, it still seems to take a few jabs at the current state of the comedy film industry in Indonesia. In some scenes, characters deliver sarcastic comments that take aim at the over-commercialization of the casts’ popularity rather than delivering any substance.

The film also does not hesitate to break the fourth wall in some scenes and talk to the audience directly. At some points, it even mocks the people who are watching it as it discreetly admits its low-quality storylines and poor comedic narrative.

With that being said, it is hard to determine whether Cuk FK made a bad comedy film on purpose to present a satire of today’s comedy film industry in Indonesia or whether he actually tried to make a funny film but failed.
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‘Komedi Gokil 2’

(MD Pictures, 95 minutes)
Directed by Cuk FK
Produced by Dhamoo Punjabi
Cast: Indro Warkop, Muhadkly Acho, Lolox, Boris Bokir

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