But I do think something that Segal understands, and that Allen understands, and hell, that Adam Brooks understood at least in Definitely, Maybe is what's key to resurrecting romantic comedies. The funny bits aren't just the cute things, the moments that bring the protagonists closer to each other. They're the sad bits, Segal's naked penis, a mid-proposal confession of infidelity, the guy who falls for the Wicked Queen instead of Snow White. A lot of what's funny about falling in love is that it's awkward, and embarrassing, and weird, and hurtful, and it doesn't have an inevitable trajectory towards success.
It's profoundly disheartening that romantic comedies so drastically narrowed their comedic range, and decided that there was only one form of really acceptable ending, the successful monogamy that's the traditional finale of comedy. On the other hand, those are relatively easy—and ought to be relatively inspiring—things to fix. Creating decent female characters is a whole different challenge, of course. But different kinds of love stories lend themselves to different kind of lovers.