Why exactly does Adam Sandler get so angry and yell so often in many of his movies? The comic actor has been working in Hollywood for over three decades now, proving divisive with fans and critics alike in the process. While the former Saturday Night Live star has had several well-received roles in recent years, he's seen by many as the king of the brainless comedy - usually appearing alongside any number of his comedian friends and frequent collaborators in projects any other actor would fail to get made.
Adam Sandler's movies are consistently popular, no matter how scathing the reviews and his continued career is one that never ceases to amaze - for better or worse. In addition to a cast of his best friends and SNL co-stars, his most notable comedies also tend to feature one very specific trope: an irrationally angry protagonist that screams his lungs out whenever mildly irritated, often at children, animals or inanimate objects.
This oddly specific aspect of Sandler's movies appears time and again in his growing catalog of comedies, and it's all too easy to dismiss it as laziness on the actor's part. However, when considered a little closer, it appears that there might be more to all of Sandler's angry yelling than meets the eye - or the ear - and the key to understanding it requires looking more closely at the man himself. Before he became a movie star, Adam Sandler was fired from SNL. This altered the trajectory of his career for the better, but it was suggested his silly antics behind the scenes were to blame. Sandler brought that silliness with him to his first major film, 1995's Billy Madison, but he also tapped into some comedic rage, which played well. In the years that followed, Sandler would revisit this device numerous times, resulting in him having an outburst in practically every subsequent role.
It's now abundantly clear Sandler is capable of a wider range of emotions, so why the anger in the first place? As a comedian, much of Sandler's material grapples with the concept of masculinity and how fragile it can be, and his on-screen anger may be an extension of that. Many of his most high-profile comedies (Happy Gilmore, Big Daddy) feature Adam Sandler as the perpetual loser, which again feeds into his characters' boundless rage or fragility. His comedy is often based on a lack of traditional masculinity, which is a theme that runs through many of his films - so often he appears as the emotionally stunted man-child, and screaming his lines is an easy way to communicate that to the audience.
Deeper reason or not, Sandler's constant angry yelling has become tiresome for audiences. He's long since proved he can be hilariously funny and he's now building his reputation as a talented dramatic actor, too, but his films so often descend into irate ranting that it's easy to forget. Regardless, Adam Sandler's popularity continues to endure, and it's likely he'll continue to yell angrily at audiences for many years to come.