"It Doesn't Give You a Hangover!"

This was an all-comedy kind of weekend. I went to see Forgetting Sarah Marshall with Laura and the lady Rebecca on Saturday night. It is funny. Very funny. But I kept having to shush my inner critic who kept saying, "This movie is a little too long, and there are too many extraneous characters." (I get it. Jonah Hill is HILARIOUS, but he is totally unnecessary in this film.)

And then I also watched, finally, Walk Hard which, predictably, I did not like as much as the brother and Mikey. Also predictably, only two things kept me from flat out not liking this film. The first was Tim Meadows, who is a comic genius. I know that those two words get thrown around a lot (mostly in reference to Dane [I-don't-get-what-is-so-damn-funny-about-him] Cook), but Tim Meadows truly deserves the moniker. Actually, he deserves the title "genius" just for getting through any scene he's in without laughing at himself. Because he is THAT funny.

The second thing was the Beatles scene with Jack Black, Justin Long, Jason Schwartzman and Paul Rudd (who makes everything he's in better. As we all know. Refer back to Forgetting Sarah Marshall. He's one of the best things about it.). I know that I probably should not admit to loving this scene, because I should be enlightened enough to have moved past laughing at the sort of self-conscious, ironic, postmodern & meta nature of the scene (and by this I mean the fact that Jack Black can't even sort of fake a Liverpool accent, and all 4 of the guys keep reminding us of who they are "supposed" to be representing because they don't look or sound like the Beatles at all, and we all know that they are that guy from Tenacious D, that guy who is dating Drew Barrymore, that guy who is in the Wes Anderson movies and Paul Freakin' Rudd), but the fact is--it does make me laugh. Call me simple.

Anyway, none of this gets to my point, which is this: since when do we just throw around full frontal male nudity in films? And why does it seem to be MORE ok if the film is a comedy? (Actually, I'm not really asking that question. I understand that a lot of people think that sex in a sexy context is much more damaging or offensive or whatever than sex in a "funny" setting. This is totally dumb. But it is clear that people do believe it.) Anyway, the reason I bring it up is that there is FFMN in both of these films, which I was not expecting when I went to see either of them. And I think that it is interesting how often the penis is now popping up (please excuse the phrase) all over the place in film. I am not, by the way, stating a position on this fact. Just noting it.

OK friends and neighbors. The following comment is for the lil' bro and his housemate Mikey J (who is a new homeowner. Congrats!) and J-bro. But read it if you want--

Brother of mine: If you have not seen Forgetting Sarah Marshall, do so immediately. I will tell you why. You know that joke that you keep insisting Jim Jarmusch makes in Broken Flowers, but that he totally doesn't? You know the one. Well, it actually gets made in this film. But it will probably be too obvious and go right over your head. So be sure to take Jamie or Mike with you to explain it.