Thoughts, Gripes and Plenty of Ramblin'

Yesterday afternoon, I received the following text message from my friend Dave (the Snook Report):

You just got pwned on my blog

Dave was referencing an ongoing conversation we’ve had for a very long time about the funniness or lack thereof when it comes to Mr. Will Ferrell. This topic seems to always lead to Dave espousing his views on the non-hilarity of Will and somehow always ends up in a discussion about Judd Apatow.

As you may have guessed, Dave is not a fan of Judd’s either. He says his comedy is worse than the lowest common denominator, in fact it is completely devoid of any cerebral activity.

On Dave’s website yesterday, he made his case for why Will Ferrell is not funny. I encourage you to read it, but I’ll give you the Cliffs Notes version:

Will’s films don’t do well at the box office therefore he is not funny.

Obviously two things are up for discussion here: What does doing well at the box office entail and how does one prove what or whom is funny?

I would first like to say that Dave used the Top 4 Grossing Comedies of all time as his frame of reference (why he went with 4, not 5, I have no idea). Well, there is one small flaw here. How many of the thousands of Comedies that have graced the Silver Screen can compete with those Top 4 Box Office draws? Well, frankly none. Therefore using the Snook Report’s logic, there are only 4 funny people in the world. Eddie Murphy, Macaulay Culkin, Dustin Hoffman and Mel Brooks.

It seems to me that not everyone that is funny makes $400 Million at the Box Office. For instance, I think Dave is a pretty funny guy, but I know he hasn’t made a dime off his humor. I actually got paid a few times to make people laugh back in Michigan… does making $50 for 20 minutes of work make me funny? Not according to Dave. I’m still over $399 Million short.

To give everyone a frame of reference here, Dave’s favorite comedy film of all time is Arthur. You know, I have nothing against the late Dudley Moore. Arthur is in fact a nice little comedy for it’s time (1981), but to say that is one of the greatest comedies of all time is stretching it just a bit.

I did a little number investigating of my own. Arthur made $81 Million at the box office. Taking into account the year in which it was released and the other films that made over $80 Million at that time, Arthur would not have made it into the Top 25 Comedies of all time.

Looking at all the money that Dudley Moore brought in over his movie career, $364 Million, he still falls well short of the Top 4 Funniest.

Just to give you some perspective, Will Ferrell movies have made $1.7 Billion Domestically and $2.3 Billion Worldwide. Mr. Apatow as a Writer/Director/Producer came in at $1.1 Billion.

The reality of the situation is, it all comes down to personal tastes. I know tons of people love Monty Python, but it really doesn’t do it for me. I didn’t grow up watching them and never got into it. It reminds me of how in love with Star Wars a lot of people my age are. I wasn’t allowed to see movies when I was a kid, so Star Wars doesn’t hold a special place in my life like it did for others. I just saw E.T. for the first time a year ago for crying out loud, but people my age loved that movie. I don’t get it. It’s cute and all, but I missed the window for it being amazing to me.

In my opinion Dave is an “old soul” and enjoys “the good ol’ days” especially when it comes to movies & music (and everything else really). There is nothing wrong with that, but I tend to be a “young at heart” kind of a guy. I really enjoy most Pop music and edgy, youthful comedies. I’m not against the old stuff. I would say two of my all time favorite funny movies are Caddyshack & Animal House. Classics without a doubt.

The funny thing is, I don’t think of Will or Judd Apatow as comedic geniuses, but I can’t deny they are successful and make me laugh a lot. At the end of the day, you either like Will Ferrell or you don’t. You cannot prove whether or not he is funny. I think millions of people disagree with Dave on his comedic evaluation of Ferrell/Apatow, but everyone is allowed to have their own opinion… even when it’s wrong.

So on that note, I would like to let Dave that he has now been officially PWNED!

I know that I’m late to the party on this one, but I wanted to write a quick note on the Pixar movie, UP. There’s no doubt a lot of you have seen this little flick, which just so happens to be nominated for an Oscar this year for Best Picture.

The first twenty minutes or so are amazingly emotional. If you are or have ever been in love I can guarantee that you’ll be touched by it.

I won’t go into detail about the movie, but I will tell you that it reminded me once again that life goes by so fast. It seems like just yesterday that I fell in love with Cheryl… in reality, it’s been over twenty years.

If you’ve got some time this weekend, get the DVD or download it from iTunes and let me know what you think.

As silly as this may seem to some people, I am so excited to see this movie…

April 23, 2010