New at Reason: Dave Weigel on the Conservative Comedy of An American Carol

SugarFree | October 10, 2008, 4:38pm | #

This is what happens when a giant pile of poop takes a shit.

ed | October 10, 2008, 4:47pm | #

Sorry, the bitch set me up.

Jim Bob | October 10, 2008, 4:51pm | #

Age of Bush

David, will you do me a favor and never, ever say that again unless you're reviewing a Ron Jeremy biopic?

Great review, by the way.

green mamba | October 10, 2008, 5:00pm | #

the never-promising genre of Charles Dickens pastiches...

I thought 'Scrooged' was a brilliant updating of 'A Christmas Carol' and the perfect way to kick the Eighties' ass out the door.

But the same Dickens scheme as it's laid out in this movie just sounds dumb, as does everything else I've heard about the movie. Too bad, because I'd love see a good send-up of Hollywood's smarmy liberal culture.

Btw, what is Weigel referring to when he says conservative comedy thrived during the Clinton years?

Episiarch | October 10, 2008, 5:04pm | #

Are you referring to Weigel or the movie?

Are you going to stand for this, Dave?

gmatts | October 10, 2008, 5:28pm | #

"The rest of the liberals and left-wingers in the movie are psychopaths who willfully make things up, chant slogans mindlessly, and beat up people who upset them."

Sounds like a McCain rally nowadays.

Some Guy | October 10, 2008, 5:39pm | #

I can't wait to hear about how this movie "exposes the truth about Michael Moore," and almost certainly in those exact words, from my still-believing-in-Bush friend.

lunchstealer | October 10, 2008, 5:44pm | #

The ghost of George S. Patton (Kelsey Grammer)

Huh-wuzzah?

How does that work?

About as well as George C. Scott playing Lillith.

gmatts | October 10, 2008, 5:46pm | #

"Yup, no reasons for conservatives to be angry right now"

Yeah, if conservatives could have only been able to hold power in this country during the last 15 years or so they wouldn't be reduced to making spoof movies.

Sing it with me...Nobody knows the trouble I've seen...

Kwix | October 10, 2008, 5:50pm | #

We’ve forgotten what’s being parodied by the time the ghost of John F. Kennedy jumps out of Malone’s TV set to remind him that his high-toned rhetoric disguised an anti-commie ass-kicker.

This is the give away that this is a spoof of a spoof. When the most highly revered, ultra-librul, elitist-to-the-bone Democrat is held up as a paragon of "The American Way" the jig is up.

Peterson | October 10, 2008, 5:54pm | #

The author makes a good point about comedy mocking authority. Which is why Colbert's ironic taking-on of what he perceives to be conservative Republicanism is doomed to failure under a Democrat-controlled government. Which is sad, because his show is enjoyable.

JB | October 10, 2008, 6:09pm | #

gmatts and BDB, those were Republicans, not conservatives. Republicans these days are pretty much Democrats whereas Democrats like Obama are pretty much socialists.

And what's this "you" stuff? I'm a fairly hardcore libertarian. I tend to have more sympathy for conservatives than liberals because I can always buy social freedoms if I have money (just look at how many rich people go to jail for drugs and prostitution these days).

Regardless, I do think conservatives have some good reasons to be pissed these days. Though frankly, not as many as libertarians (unless you are the anarchist-type...those days are looking closer and closer).

JD | October 10, 2008, 6:17pm | #

I actually enjoyed the movie quite a bit - I thought it was pretty clever and very non-PC, which always brings a smile to my face.

joe | October 10, 2008, 6:24pm | #

Oh, Jeebus, conservatives are always angry. They get angry when they have to press one to continue in English fer chrissakes. They get angry when the bad guy in a movie isn't black or Arab.

I remember reading columns from angry conservatives because the City of New York was going to have a black guy and a Latino in the 9/11 Memorial.

Cry me a river.

libertymike | October 10, 2008, 6:34pm | #

Non PC also means ridiculing cops and soldiers and all of Caesar's heros. Of course, conservatives think it is a treasonous offense to point out the truth that cops and soldiers and FBI and DEA agents are nothing more than parasites.

Sean Scallon | October 10, 2008, 7:08pm | #

I was going to say too, what conservative comedy? You mean the guy who did the Bill Clinton impersonations on Rush Limbaugh? I thought South Park was Libertarian.

Sandy | October 10, 2008, 7:24pm | #

If you transported Zucker back to 1978 and pitched him Animal House, he’d direct Niedermeyer: Man of Iron.

Wajda doing that film would be awesome in the extreme. Especially if he directed it with the soundtrack of Man of Marble.

Ray G | October 10, 2008, 7:28pm | #

Have all the commenters seen the movie, or are we just taking the knee-jerk reaction to what is perceived to be a "conservative" film?

I'm a Marine veteran, and current Libertarian that happens to like America very much.

I recognize that someone has to have a monopoly on physical power in order for there to be liberty, and after a brief review of the world's powers, America is the only candidate available.

Having said that, I'm as suspicious of the state as any good libertarian, but that doesn't mean I buy into the Utopian pipe dream of a borderless, stateless world where everyone suddenly wakes up one day and realizes that free markets will make us all happy and free.

More to the point, I haven't seen the movie, but I'm glad someone took aim at the ridiculous Leftist caricatures of Moore and Hollywood in general.

The idea that defending America against such imbeciles is strictly a "conservative" thing is intellectually vacant, and perhaps morally so as well for a supposedly liberty loving individual.

And congratulating someone on a great review without seeing the movie is illogical. How does one arrive at that compliment?

gmatts | October 10, 2008, 8:06pm | #

"Looks fun, seeing it tonight."

Let me know if people watch the previews or if everyone just spends their time talking about: the media as if it's 1990 and there are only 3 places to get information, the way Sarah Palin totally aced the Sean Hannity interview, how everyone thinks McCain should "take the golves off", and how Obama and Osama are just 1 letter off so they must be related.

- | October 10, 2008, 9:33pm | #

Proving once again that liberals can dish it out, but they can't take it in. Like a bratty, kool-aid stained, fat kid in the back seat of a car. "Mom, he's looking at me! Mom, he's touching me!"

- | October 10, 2008, 10:02pm | #

And Hollywood has been dishing it out for years. Got a little smacked back in their face and they're whining like the fat kid.

TrickyVic | October 10, 2008, 10:22pm | #

"""And Hollywood has been dishing it out for years. Got a little smacked back in their face and they're whining like the fat kid."""

Sure, and the right wing IS the whining fat kid. I'm sure the right is overjoyed that the left gets to whine for a while instead of them.

Turnabout is fair play, both sides are whiner.

scotth797 | October 10, 2008, 11:40pm | #

The South Park guys (who also did Team America) are libertarians. And the same goes for Thank You For Smoking, which is more intelligent, than any predictable left or right *comedies*

May I play the race card, and claim that neither Colbert or Stewart are funny to me. Of course their audiences have all the ethnic diversity of a Subaru dealership in Vermont.

South Park Fan | October 11, 2008, 1:20am | #

scotth797:
"The South Park guys (who also did Team America) are libertarians."

Not strictly true. And regardless, although I'm a huge fan of Trey and Matt's work, 'Team America' is a blatantly and unapologetically pro U.S. intervention film.

Rex | October 11, 2008, 4:14am | #

I got the idea from Team America that it was lampooning both.
The right for jumping head first in and blowing the shit out of everything.
The left (specifically hollywood) for trying to get together and basically holding hands with bad guys.

Not to mention the whole the right has to employ an actor (lefty) to defeat the enemy seems a very subtle jab at conservatives basically taking on liberal traits whenever it suits them.

I could be wrong though. America fuck yeah did not seem totally pro interventionist it made them look foolish.

my two cents.

I don't really consider matt and trey libertarian (hell i don't like labeling myself that, fuck who cares labeling yourself just makes everyone immediatly assume every belief you have anyway.) even if they said they were. I just think they're smart enough to see hypocrisy when it's evident.

Dave | October 11, 2008, 4:55am | #

the whole "dicks fuck assholes" speech in Team America summed up their stance pretty clearly, I thought : America is far from perfect, but there's a hell of a lot worse out there, and we keep it in check.

Dragonfly | October 11, 2008, 9:33am | #

It's charming that - actually believes Hollywood will give a shit about American Carol.

South Park Fan | October 11, 2008, 10:40am | #

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7JVLipzwbM

This speech here - in keeping with the sort of didactic speech from Stan or Kyle which closes most episodes of South Park - makes the film's point of view quite clear. People like Kim Jong Il, in the view of Matt and Trey, need to be dealt with aggressively as it's foolhardy to believe they can be dealt with in any other way.

I saw the same film as you, but I wasn't looking for it to agree with me. I saw instead what it was rather clearly saying.

South Park Fan | October 11, 2008, 1:22pm | #

http://dir.salon.com/story/ent/feature/2004/10/12/parker_stone/index1.html

Salon: Still, do you ever feel like you cover your asses too much by taking on targets on opposing sides?

Parker: I don't think so, because we do take somewhat of a stand at the end. I mean, I believe we do make a point at the end of the movie. Some people consider that point to be fairly right-wing, and some people consider it to be fairly left-wing ...

Salon: What do you think that point is?

Parker: [Laughs] The thing is, obviously, we're not setting out to make a movie going, Look, America, this is how you should run things, this is how it should be. Because then we'd be no better than the fucking actors we hate. But the only thing that we assert is that there's a difference between dicks and assholes. That's the biggest thing that we assert.

Stone: That's such a strong political statement.

Parker: And it really kinda is! Because that's the thing that we realized when we were making the movie. It was always the hardest thing. We wanted to deal with this emotion of being hated as an American. That was the thing that was intriguing to us, and having Gary (the main character) deal with that emotion. And so, him becoming ashamed to be a part of Team America and being ashamed of himself, he comes to realize that, just as he got his brother killed by gorillas -- he didn't kill his brother; he was a dick, he wasn't an asshole -- so too does America have this role in the world as a dick. Cops are dicks, you fucking hate cops, but you need 'em.

Tim Cavanaugh | October 11, 2008, 6:03pm | #

Interesting anecdote from Jerry Haleva, who played Saddam Hussein in two films directed by Zucker's partner Jim Abrahams. That whole "want them to laugh" part is what Zucker forgot this time out:

Charlie Sheen was a little unhappy about how much more material they were writing for me. Because this was his vehicle, of course. It was the second Hot Shots! characterization he had done, and they kept focusing on stuff that made the Saddam character look good. Or not look good, but look funny. There was one scene that ended up on the cutting room floor, a Jerry Colonna moustache-stretching-type scene, where Charlie comes over, says "I gotta do this," and grabs my moustache; and of course there's a fake moustache that keeps stretching and stretching. It ended up not really working. But at the time Charlie really didn't want to do it. He said, "No, I want to haul off and deck him. The audience will cheer." And Jim Abrahams said, "We don't want them to cheer; we want them to laugh."

the innominate one | October 11, 2008, 9:38pm | #

It’s the story of Michael Malone (Kevin Farley, brother of Chris)...

more evidence that there is no benevolent god

see also: Belushi, John; Belushi, Jim

Robert | October 11, 2008, 10:11pm | #

I call Ron Paul "Dr. Paul" because it's a tendency I have from my medical background to call MDs whom I've met "doctor".

mch | October 12, 2008, 3:14pm | #

I recognize that someone has to have a monopoly on physical power in order for there to be liberty, . . .

And one has to believe in inteligent design in order to be a Darwinist, and there must be a drug war in order to protect ratonality, and slavery must exist in order to preserve the economics of a free society.

LarryA | October 12, 2008, 6:33pm | #

Too bad, because I'd love see a good send-up of Hollywood's smarmy liberal culture.

So would I, but I don’t think conservatives can do it. What we need is a libertarian movie.

When the most highly revered, ultra-librul, elitist-to-the-bone Democrat is held up as a paragon of "The American Way" the jig is up.

JFK? You mean the NRA member who invented the Green Berets? “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country?” “A rising tide lifts all boats?” That ultraliberal?

Much of JFK’s “liberal” legacy was filtered through LBJ.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm | October 13, 2008, 3:18pm | #

It portrays conservatives as a group of slack-jawed morons, screaming joyfully at the endless assertions that America has the right to kick the shit out of anybody who annoys us,

Uh, right.

That sounds a lot more like you're far-left loon who repeats MoveOn talking points and hasn't seen the movie.

dunphy | October 15, 2008, 7:17pm | #

In regards to my last post, consider also the epic "Team America: World Police", by the duo that brought you South Park.

This movie is clearly more sympathetic to the right than the left. The matt damon parody alone is worth the price of admission.