Last year, when the Kennedy Center named Tina Fey the 2010
recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, I was
compelled to offer my
opinion that Fey is not funny and that the only
reason she was being honored was because of her imitation of Sarah
Palin. Humor, of course, is in the eye of the beholder. So some
people liked
what I had to say about Fey’s brand of “comedy” while
others vigorously made their objections
known.
Well, last week the Kennedy Center
named Will Ferrell the 2011 recipient of the
Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. I am now compelled to offer my
opinion that Ferrell is not funny and that the only reason he is
being honored is because of his imitation of George W. Bush. Once
again operating with the understanding that humor is in the eye of
the beholder, some people will like what I have to say about
Ferrell’s brand of “comedy” while others will vigorously make their
objections known.
The year before Fey was awarded the Twain prize, the
Kennedy Center bestowed it upon Bill Cosby, a true pioneer of
American humor. Here is how I described the Kennedy Center honoring
Cosby and Fey in consecutive years:
The idea of honoring Tina Fey the year after Bill Cosby is kind
of like the Baseball Hall of Fame enshrining “Marvelous” Marv
Throneberry the year after inducting Mickey Mantle. The Mick and
Marvelous Marv were both baseball players but the similarities end
there. Cosby and Fey are both comedians but there too the
similarities end.
Well, honoring Fey and Ferrell in consecutive years is
more of a lateral move. If going from Cosby to Fey is like going
from The Mick to Marvelous Marv then going from Fey to Ferrell is
like going from Marvelous Marv to
Choo Choo Coleman. Indeed, much of the
Saturday Night Live cast from the mid-1990s onward could
be likened to the 1962 New York Mets.
But Ferrell is nearly single-handedly responsible for
making me stop watching SNL on a regular basis. I simply
found his antics annoying and unfunny. At best, he was a tenth-rate
version of John Belushi or Chris Farley. At worst, watching his act
was like tuning into someone run his fingers down a blackboard week
in and week out.
Nevertheless, I realize Ferrell gained a fan base on
SNL which turned out enthusiastically for his movies such
as Old School, Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
and Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Yet the Kennedy
Center tells us:
The Mark Twain Prize recognizes people who have had an
impact on American society in ways similar to the distinguished
19th century novelist and essayist best known as Mark Twain.
As a social commentator, satirist and creator of
characters, Samuel Clemens was a fearless observer of society, who
startled many while delighting and informing many more with his
uncompromising perspective of social injustice and personal
folly.
Notwithstanding his success at the box office, Mark Twain
is probably the last person who comes to mind when discussing the
“humor” of Will Ferrell. Running naked while shouting, “Let’s go
streaking!!!” doesn’t exactly convey an “uncompromising perspective
of social injustice and personal folly.”
This brings me to George W. Bush. Now Ferrell is hardly
the first SNL cast member to impersonate a U.S. President
and he won’t be the last. But make no mistake. Ferrell portrays
Bush as a stupid and venal man. Contrast that with Dana
Carvey’s mimicry
of George H.W. Bush, which was done with affection and in
many ways humanized the 41st President. By Ferrell’s own admission,
he declined the opportunity to meet Bush because he doesn’t share
his politics. Indeed, when Ferrell was told that Tina Fey thought
Ferrell’s portrayal of Bush “almost made him likeable,” he
responded
by saying he tried to make him “fumbling and
bumbling.”
Consider also the reception Ferrell received when he took
his act to Broadway in February 2009 shortly after Bush left office
with “You’re Welcome America: A Final Night with George Bush.”
Shortly before its opening, Patrick Healy of the New York
Times wrote,
“And who better than liberal New York theatergoers, they (Ferrell
and co-writer and director Adam McKay) hoped, to appreciate a
cutting post-mortem on the Republican president?” Well, not
surprisingly, Ferrell’s Bush was a smash hit with the liberal
intelligentsia of the Upper West Side and was nominated for a Tony
Award. Joe Dziemianowicz of the New York Daily News shared
this sentiment when he
wrote, “Unlike Dubya, Ferrell is lightning
fast on his feet and turns each ad lib into a burst of hilarity, a
mission accomplished, if you will.” Michael Kuchwara of the
Associated Press echoes Dziemianowicz by
writing, “As a thinker, Ferrell is a lot
faster with a quip than the bumbler he is
impersonating.”
I think you get the idea. The only purpose of Ferrell’s
portrayal of President Bush is to reinforce liberal hatred of him
even after he has left public life. How else does one explain the
video Ferrell made of Bush’s reaction to the death on Osama bin
Laden on his website,
funnyordie.com? Of course, if a comedian of
conservative inclination were to write and star in a play about
President Obama, there is little doubt these same critics would cry
racism before the curtain went up. But for publicly deriding a
prominent conservative public figure, like Tina Fey before him,
Will Ferrell is celebrated, feted, and given prestigious awards
such as the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.
The only comfort I take in all of this is that Twain’s
contributions to American humor will be remembered decades after
Ferrell’s off-key, one-note act has been long forgotten.
