The major influence the writers and directors Zucker, Abrahams and Zucker (ZAZ) had on the film is the ability to brilliantly extract comedy from a seemingly dramatic material. Unintentionally recording the 1957 film Zero Hour! in a taping process, it would become the backbone for the parody script for Airplane!. They thus followed the structure of Zero Hour! by parodying the plot and dialogue in creating their own script. The dialogue is almost exact to the film which is dumbfounding how the same context could be turned into satire. The brilliant comedic minds of ZAZ, who were quite new in filmmaking at the time, would incorporate obscure humor to create one of the greatest comedic films of all time.
The incorporation of parodies, visual puns and gags, and fast-paced slapstick comedy into a rather melodramatic context creates for the classic comedy that it is. Moreover, the breaking of the fourth wall while accompanied by visual gags making the film stand out even creating the aesthetic for the directors’ future films. Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker intended for the characters to conduct themselves naturally without the awareness that they are being funny or in a comedic scenario. Hence the actions that seem quite absurd and comical are intended to seem like the likely reaction of the individual in that specific quandary. In essence, the directors project the tone of both a dramatic situation and a comedic one if the audience is aware that the film is indeed a comedy.
