How 'SNL' whiz kids Please Don't Destroy translate their chemistry to the movies

I often write of the struggle to critique comedy.

Either you laugh or you don’t. The best I can do is report whether I found something funny and analyze why.

Take for instance “Please Don’t Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain,” which premieres on Peacock this week. I laughed consistently through the film. There’s some dry stretches — even with a perfunctory plot, the plot gets in the way nonetheless. But few movies cause belly laughs from start to finish. Something that makes you laugh frequently is a rare success.

First, the details. Please Don’t Destroy is a comedy team consisting of Ben Marshall, John Higgins and Martin Herlihy. They started on the stage but, during the pandemic, became a sensation online. They were hired by “Saturday Night Live” shortly thereafter and their goofy, absurdist humor was featured in digital shorts that, essentially, consist of the three sitting around a writer’s room while increasingly strange things happen over the course of a few minutes.

You’ve certainly seen it. Please Don’t Destroy’s videos usually get the space on the show right before the first musical spot. What’s most impressive about the group — other than the comedic chemistry between the three — is how the jokes come across as a magic trick. There’s the set up and then a punchline, but then there’s another punchline that upends the entire joke. There’s a reveal and a prestige. Much craft is put into such silliness.

These shorts should give you a sense as to whether a Please Don’t Destroy movie is to your taste. Even if you like the skits, there’s no guarantee the same thing will work for a full-length movie as anyone who has seen an “SNL”-inspired film knows. For every “Blues Brothers,” there’s an “It’s Pat” or “A Night at the Roxbury.”

Again, the three leads are likable. They seem like guys you wouldn’t mind hanging out with even if they are losers. The approach of Please Don’t Destroy comes from a good-natured innocence. Even if the jokes are crass and gross, there’s no meanness.

If I have any issue with the likes of Adam Sandler and his earlier work, there’s an aggressiveness that’s a turnoff. Like I am being asked to laugh at someone rather than laughing with someone. For my money, I would take this trio over “Billy Madison” or “Big Daddy.”

But the idea of three guys hanging around in a writer’s room isn’t quite cinematic. So “The Treasure of Foggy Mountain” applies the most cliché-ridden of plots: the treasure hunt. It’s labored, but also feels like part of the joke — the film knows the storyline doesn’t matter, so why not find a story that runs on auto-pilot? It’s a movie about a treasure, hid on a mountain, with a map where “X” marks the spot.

The story is a frame to hang jokes upon. As the three head up the mountain, they confront another pair of treasure hunters that also leads to love. They encounter a cult led by Bowen Yang. There’s also a hawk who can’t fly with an unnerving chirp. Recounting the humorous situations they find themselves in seems a fool’s errand. But, if the idea of a cult led by Bowen Yang sounds funny, then “The Treasure of Foggy Mountain” is the movie for you. (I find it very funny, for the record.)

The three live together and work at a Bass Pro Shops-like retail shop called Trout Plus, run by Ben’s dad. As played by Conan O’Brien, the comedy legend seems thrilled to be a part of the proceedings as he passes the torch.

All in their mid-twenties with various hang-ups, each sees the treasure as a way of getting out of their arrested development. Such is the usual structure of these “SNL” movies. Young guys need to grow up, but resist adulthood until confronted with forces outside their control, requiring them to develop enough to be considered relatable. They don’t get too serious because there’s no fun in that.

I did laugh. Even though the plot is an afterthought, there are moments where it must function and those stretches are tedious. Not every joke lands but their success rate is over half. Given that I was inclined to like the performers in the film, it qualifies as a win.

I confess I would have enjoyed the film more in a room full of people laughing at the same jokes. Comedy is a communal type of entertainment; almost as much — if not more so — as scary movies. But people still flock to horror films at the multiplexes while genuinely funny films flop and are now largely relegated to home entertainment. An odd phenomenon, but one I hope goes away.

As much as I enjoyed watching “Please Don’t Destroy” in solitude, I can’t help but think I would have liked it better with a crowd as opposed to how people will watch it on streaming.

James Owen is the Tribune’s film columnist. In real life, he is a lawyer and executive director of energy policy group Renew Missouri. A graduate of Drury University and the University of Kansas, he created Filmsnobs.com, where he co-hosts a podcast. He enjoyed an extended stint as an on-air film critic for KY3, the NBC affiliate in Springfield, and now regularly guests on Columbia radio station KFRU.

This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: 'SNL' whiz kids Please Don't Destroy translate their chemistry to the movies