"InAPPropriate Comedy" presents a series of skits that are related only in their efforts to test the boundaries. Some fall flat, while others are laugh-out-loud funny.
The most successful are The Amazing Racist skits, starring Ari Shaffir who looks very much like the stereotypical intellectual Jewish liberal, but spouts xenophobic, anti-Semitic and racist ideas that seem entirely out of character. But he plays it completely seriously with apparent conviction and sincerity. His actions are outrageous, but his narrative is restrained. He doesn't spout a string of caustic slurs or vulgar characterizations, but implies bigotry in more subtle ways.
Some may view the TAR sketches and feel offended because the protagonist is offending various groups. They may feel they should not be amused because such humor is inappropriate. However, Shaffir isn't advocating such bigotry. He is mocking it. He is not ridiculing religious and ethnic minorities, but the intolerant bigots who insult and stereotype them.
Fifty-one years ago Lenny Bruce's arrest on obscenity charges became a cause célèbre for free speech. Today, everybody is afraid to say anything for fear of offending some group or another. Statements that wouldn't have raised an eyebrow ten years ago result in boycotts, cancellation of sponsorships, the forced disposition of a basketball franchise, the cancellation of television series and other sanctions that would never have been considered even a few years ago. Free speech is threatened by special interest groups intent on penalizing those who use it to express ideas that don't conform to their political agendas.
We should applaud comedians and filmmakers who ridicule these free-speech revisionists and counterrevolutionaries. But "InAPPropriate Comedy" is unlikely to become a cause célèbre because it is uneven. Many of the skits fall flat. Others seem outdated. Making the skits iPad applications adds nothing. Some of the skits are simply underdeveloped.
The parody of Marilyn Monroe's iconic scene from "The Seven Year Itch" might have been much funnier if they had waited to reveal the Vince Offer character until the end and given the gag about Lohan's media persona a 1-2-3 punch. But they introduced Offer first to use the application idea and then add a really hokey computer 3-D animation graphic.
The Porno Review skits miss the mark because the reviewers are parodies of review teams like Siskel and Ebert and the films are parodies of porn movies. One or the other should have been played straight.
Flirty Harry would have been funnier if they had kept Adrian Brody's character straight (in the sense of being a comedic straight man), rather than comical with the pink sweatpants.
As George Carlin said, we can make a joke out of anything, it all depends on what you choose to exaggerate. IC is not a great film, but if we can get over ourselves and stop thinking that we can't laugh at some jokes because their subject matter is taboo, it offers some decent laughs.
The most successful are The Amazing Racist skits, starring Ari Shaffir who looks very much like the stereotypical intellectual Jewish liberal, but spouts xenophobic, anti-Semitic and racist ideas that seem entirely out of character. But he plays it completely seriously with apparent conviction and sincerity. His actions are outrageous, but his narrative is restrained. He doesn't spout a string of caustic slurs or vulgar characterizations, but implies bigotry in more subtle ways.
Some may view the TAR sketches and feel offended because the protagonist is offending various groups. They may feel they should not be amused because such humor is inappropriate. However, Shaffir isn't advocating such bigotry. He is mocking it. He is not ridiculing religious and ethnic minorities, but the intolerant bigots who insult and stereotype them.
Fifty-one years ago Lenny Bruce's arrest on obscenity charges became a cause célèbre for free speech. Today, everybody is afraid to say anything for fear of offending some group or another. Statements that wouldn't have raised an eyebrow ten years ago result in boycotts, cancellation of sponsorships, the forced disposition of a basketball franchise, the cancellation of television series and other sanctions that would never have been considered even a few years ago. Free speech is threatened by special interest groups intent on penalizing those who use it to express ideas that don't conform to their political agendas.
We should applaud comedians and filmmakers who ridicule these free-speech revisionists and counterrevolutionaries. But "InAPPropriate Comedy" is unlikely to become a cause célèbre because it is uneven. Many of the skits fall flat. Others seem outdated. Making the skits iPad applications adds nothing. Some of the skits are simply underdeveloped.
The parody of Marilyn Monroe's iconic scene from "The Seven Year Itch" might have been much funnier if they had waited to reveal the Vince Offer character until the end and given the gag about Lohan's media persona a 1-2-3 punch. But they introduced Offer first to use the application idea and then add a really hokey computer 3-D animation graphic.
The Porno Review skits miss the mark because the reviewers are parodies of review teams like Siskel and Ebert and the films are parodies of porn movies. One or the other should have been played straight.
Flirty Harry would have been funnier if they had kept Adrian Brody's character straight (in the sense of being a comedic straight man), rather than comical with the pink sweatpants.
As George Carlin said, we can make a joke out of anything, it all depends on what you choose to exaggerate. IC is not a great film, but if we can get over ourselves and stop thinking that we can't laugh at some jokes because their subject matter is taboo, it offers some decent laughs.