Will Ferrell, Mark Twain VS. PBS
Last night I watched Will Ferrell accept the Mark Twain Award for American Humor. It was, of course, odd that the show was broadcast on PBS - SNL sketches were bleeped out - I wasn’t sure if the night would be, well, funny.
I’m not advocating that humor has to receive a PG-13 rating or higher, it just has to hit the right audience. Some of the comedians locked on to this. Tim Meadows (longtime SNL cast member and the principal from Mean Girls, for those who don’t know what the 1990s were like) discussed the diversity of the people in the crowd followed by a wide shot of the predominantly white audience. Andy Samberg also added his own bit saying, PBS is for people who listen to NPR and wonder what those people look like.
Of course they showed scenes from Old School, Anchorman, SNL, and of course Funny or Die’s “The Landlord.” Also, they recognized Ferrell’s Tony-Award winning performance as former president George W. Bush from You’re Welcome America.
Many people, close friends of mine, now use the term “a Will Ferrell movie.” What this means is that each year - or every two - we get “a new Will Ferrell movie.” We started throwing that term around back before Adam Sandler’s Big Daddy came out and, aside from Funny People, we groan whenever there is “a new Adam Sandler movie” coming out. It means two years has passed, we forgot, and then as a horrible reminder that we are aging, something like Jack and Jill is released on us.
I digressed.
Will Ferrell became a typecast, but the subtle moves he makes and his attention to detail and his ability to push the comfort level of comedy is what won him the award. He can interpret people, or a culture, in a short amount of time and then turn it on its head. It is what good comedy should do: show a photo of ourselves so we can see someone gave us bunny ears.
