This is a documentary produced by and starring Jamie Kennedy, comedian, actor, and star of those great American classics Son of the Mask, Malibu's Most Wanted, and Kickin' it Old Skool. I picked this movie up at Hollywood Video because the box claimed that it was a documentary about drunk assholes who heckle comedians and the relationship between them and the performer. I'm an occasional stand-up comedian, and I love watching video footage of completely pissed off comedians going apeshit on hecklers, so it seemed like a good choice for me. If the makers of the film wanted to go into fascinating psychological territory and unearth startling new theories and revelations behind the emotional and instictive reasons behind trying to ruin the life of a person with a microphone, then all the better. I was ready for 80 minutes of scathing, hilarious, insightful, incisive, and revealing study on the subject. What I got instead was 20 minutes of amusing material on comedy club hecklers followed by an hour of Jamie Kennedy confronting movie critics and crying like a bitch because they didn't like Malibu's Most Wanted.
The movie begins by defining what a heckler is, and then shows us footage of hecklers at Kennedy's shows, interspersed with classic heckler encounters, such as Bill Hicks' infamous "drunk cunt" tirade, and interviews with dozens of comedians who recall some of their worst experiences. So far, so good. It's been pretty shallow, but I'm sure the movie is just setting the scene for deeper analysis. Then, out of nowhere, Kennedy uses the comedy club heckler stuff as a jumping off point to complain about movie critics in print and on the internet. This is where the movie completely jumps the shark.
What follows is lots of interview footage of various comedians saying that critics don't think about the feelings of the people they're criticizing, and/or saying that these critics either in print or on the web have no right to do what they're doing. Throughout are various pathetic scenes where Kennedy will stand face to face with a critic who didn't like one of his movies, read excerpts to the critic, and tell them that they got way too mean and personal while sounding like he's fighting back tears. I want to be entertained and also learn something from a documentary. I don't want to be privy to somebody's childish, whiny pity party. The movie eventually pays lip service to legitimate critics who write responsible, constructive work, but the main message is ultimately that people shouldn't be allowed to say mean things and make fun of comedians because they have feelings.
I have a lot of problems with the main point of the movie. For one thing, do comedians really have any reasonable grounds to be upset or shocked that they get heckled? If you can make a living as a touring comedian, you clearly have steel nerves and a high IQ. You obviously have the composure and brains to succeed in any number of so-called legitimate lines of work, yet you chose to stand alone in front of a room full of drunks 7 nights a week and tell jokes. You know annoying attention seeking assholes are completely inevitable when your job is to cultivate a raucous, laugh-filled environment for a bunch of liquored up jackasses, so fucking deal with it. You don't need to be a comedian. You're more than capable of finding better paying and more stable work if you really want it. If you can't handle that unavoidable aspect of the work, go do something else.
You also need to ask yourself what comedians do. It's their job to insult, lampoon, mock, and make fun of shit. If you're a comedian you're going to complain about which stores you hate, how your Ford car is a piece of shit, why your mother in law is a cunt, movies you can't stand, politicans you disagree with, and whatever else you want to eviscerate with your halberd-like wit. Your job is to criticize the shit out of and rip on everything you've ever experienced, and now you're going to tell somebody else that their criticism is wrong and immoral? You can talk about how much you want to fuck Sarah Palin but they can't write a negative review of your act in the paper? What the fuck? I should also probably point out how the fact that your job even exists is completely dependent on the first amendment, and it's just a bit hypocritical turn around and say that those people shouldn't express their opinions, but it seems too obvious to warrant its own paragraph.
So Jamie Kennedy, I leave you with this: sometimes you can't have your dick and suck it too. You voluntarily put yourself in the public eye by accepting acting offers and performing stand-up comedy. You chose to be a part of the lives of millions of people by accepting multi-million dollar paychecks to star in movies that appear in 3,000 theaters, and out of those millions of people, some of them are going to want to say what they think about it. Some of those opinions will be well thought out and constructive, and some will be mean-spired dickish cheapshots. If you can't stand that inevitable fact of life, then retire from acting and comedy and go be a bank teller. Maybe we'll never get your triumphant return return to CGI hilarity in Grandson of the Mask, but at least you can have peace of mind.
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