ONCE upon a time, long ago, there was a comedian who released a couple of films that were moderately funny for that era.

That actor was Adam Sandler.

His brand of ‘humour’ was in-your-face, men-acting-like-kids buffoonery that was lapped up by those looking for a laugh or two. And children.

Fast-forward to the present day and Sandler’s ‘comedy’ is still, sadly, that which he used when he first stormed Hollywood.

It’s clear the man-child and his painfully unfunny chums – Kevin James, Rob Scheider and Chris Rock (stick to the stand-up!) – refuse to grow up. Or even evolve.

Stuck in their early 90s comedy routines, all you should expect from these ‘actors’ is funny voices, physical comedy that was out of date after the Three Stooges and men dressing up as women.

I genuinely haven’t found any of his films funny since Anger Management – and even then, it was Jack Nicholson who stole the show.

Anger Management was released in 2003 – since then he has starred in some 13 movies in 11 years. None were funny. Two were serious. The rest were piss-poor.

Put Sandler in a straight role and he can flourish – Punch-Drunk Love was great.

Reign Over Me was sobering but I still gave him credit for doing something serious. And Funny People was passable.

But when he goes back to the comedy roles, he reverts to type and it’s not long before his character grates on your nerves.

Don’t Mess With the Zohan was awful. Racial stereotypes in comedy can only go so far before they become offensive. He has that side of things down pat.

Grown Ups? The less said about this abomination, the better.

Zookeeper? Again, by the looks of things it’s just an ‘old pals act’ by turning up in a friend’s film. As pointless as it is woeful.

And having put myself through the trauma of the trailer for his next flick, Jack and Jill, it seems the juggernaut that is Sandler has no signs of slowing down.

So just what is it with Adam that strikes a chord with so many cinema-goers? Are THAT many people so easily pleased that they’d pay hard-earned money to go and see a film starring him? Maybe.

It’s clear that his movies are making enough dough for studios to greenlight anything else he decides to produce from his ass and pass off as funny.

The biggest problem nowadays is that the only other kind of comedy to rival Sandler is the gross-out kind from the likes of Judd Apatow or Todd Phillips. Even those releases are beginning to wear thin.

This year, Bridesmaids made me laugh… a lot. It’s the only mainstream comedy released in 2011 that I’ve laughed at. Yes, it has some toilet humour (literally). But it was more than that.

It had likeable characters. It had great central performances – including scene stealer Melissa McCarthy. And it had heart. But, mainly, it had funny jokes.

And that’s where Sandler has been going wrong for so long.

What he labels as ‘funny’ is just ‘meh’ to the rest of us. His films are no longer about trying to make audiences laugh. They’re just a series of in-jokes among him and his pals.

Yet there are still scores of people willing to queue up and watch anything with Sandler in it.

Maybe his films are unfunny. But he’s still coining it in.

So could the joke be on us? It certainly looks like it.