Posted on 06/20/2009 10:33:43 PM PDT by tang-soo
Why I Walked Out of ‘Year One’ Crying
by Victoria Jackson
I had a date with Judd Apatow. It was around 1991 and I was between husbands: the out-of-work-Jewish-Gypsy-fire-eater-musician, and the high-school-sweetheart-Baptist-helicopter-police-pilot.
I needed a date to a premiere. I knew the rules of engagement for a Hollywood career, and I tried to follow them. It’s difficult to do this when you carry the burden of ethics around with you, but I tried to do it and stay within the bounds of morality.
1) Go to the right places. I went to the Playboy Mansion to find an agent, and I did. I was 21 and a Baptist virgin, and I found Betty from the William Morris commercial department there. Check.
2) Wear something provocative to a Hollywood premiere so you can get free publicity. I did that. When I was an SNL castmember trying to increase my movie roles, I attended some Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan premiere (go figure - it was a flop!) in a see-through black shirt with a flowered bra underneath. I felt ashamed, but I did get my picture in a few magazines. All press is good press, and press leads to opportunity.
3) Date famous men or up-and-coming smart Jewish comedy writers. I went on a date with Arthur Godfrey right before he died, and ten years later, when I was 30, I asked Judd Apatow to escort me to some Century City event. I was pretty much invisible to him the whole night, but we did get our picture in People Magazine.
That is about it in my list of cliché things I have done to help my career move along.
Well, today I walked out of a Judd Apatow movie crying. It was the scene where the obese homosexual is fortune-telling by looking at the bowels of a sheep that has been sodomized by a person.
The movie was “Year One.” I tried to be open-minded as I watched the first 20 minutes of masturbation, fornication, circumcision jokes, continual penis references, bestiality, violence, and Biblical blasphemy. I told myself this was a PG-13 movie and the writers were “lost” so they didn’t know how vulgar they were being. I looked at the ten-year-old and his father sitting next to me. I must be old-fashioned or something. But, then I noticed no one was laughing. No one was walking out either. I was hoping that the crude jokes were flying over the heads of the poor children who were sitting there wide-eyed and innocent.
My daughter is 15 and she loves Jack Black and the guy from “Juno,” so I thought we could have a Mom/teenager date. I asked myself, “Vicki, is this movie making you feel good?” Myself replied, “This movie is making me angry, very sad, hopeless, and dirty-feeling.” As the onscreen obese gay man poked at the bloody intestines and told the fifth anal sex joke, I looked at my daughter, and we got up and walked out.
I started crying in the parking lot as we walked to our car. I am not from this world. I am an alien. No wonder me and Apatow never hit it off.
THe posting and mostly positive comments can be found here.
Saw the last Jack Black movie about the movie cast lost in the Vietnam jungle. Several parts of that movie were similiar and quite distasteful, nothing this bad.
Guess I can take this off the list.
If I shoplifted a T-shirt when I was 15, does that mean I can never in my life say shoplifting is wrong?
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Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment
Obama: “If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”
There is a severe collapse in our culture that would even pay the money to see such a picture. Much less take my child to see it.
I noticed the five year old kid sitting a few rows away from me this morning at the same movie; I don’t think he belonged there. Of course, it gets the PG-13 rating because there is no actual sex scene (though there probably will be one in the “unrated version” released next fall). All the vulgarity is confined to words and implications, rather than explicit shots.
MPAA ratings are given out just by checking stuff off on a list, and studios know full which specific things to avoid to get that coveted lower rating. You just can’t expect to rely on the rating system for anything beyond the most general of guidelines.
No wonder me and Apatow never hit it off.
My, my, doesn't Jackson know it should be "No wonder Apatow and I never hit it off."?!?
This lapse in language skills clearly shows that Victoria Jackson is inferior in intellect to comedy writers that make movies about anal sex bestiality.
/S
Video games today have better stories, plots, characters, and morals than does Hollywood.
Isn’t that alone saying enough?!
You are not alone Victoria! There are many times so many of us have felt the same way you do and done the same thing you did...
I am often surprised by some of the people who have, after all, turned out to be on our side.
How about that!
Isn’t that the skit where she wrote “I love you” on her eyebrows?
As for the film (indeed...film..) V Jackson hasn’t developed the sort of radar that keeps this from happening, this isn’t Mel Brook’s “History of the World” it’s mere pablum, free speech for the dumb type of stuff.
Jack Black is a funny guy. He needs to understand, though, that the best laughs are clean. For example, he was great in “School of Rock”.
I once made the mistake of renting Black’s “Tenacious-D Pick of Destiny” movie. Funny premise, could’ve been a really good movie, but it was filled with foul, vulgar, filthy language and references that added nothing to the story.
I had to stop watching the movie - it was just too foul.
I thought the concept of Year One sounded pretty good. The execution sounds horrible.
No more Jack Black movies for my family.
I don’t know. Richard Pryor was pretty dadgum funny, and he used oceans of profanity.
I've been feeling that for around 30 or so years. This planet is nothing but an insane asylum. Don't think so? People pay good money to see sewage like "The Hostel".
People mewl of "peace" and getting along, etc, but all they really live for is darkness.
I was thinking of seeing this movie, but I was suspicious that the previews were probably the best parts. My son saw it and said my suspicious were correct. He said it was a bad movie. So, it is off my list too.
That’s funny. Two somewhat conservative folks were on SNL at one time. Wonder how Hollyweird let that happen?
I have no idea who this is about but it’s been 53 years since I went to a movie and have no intention of doing so in the future..
Many parents have been fooled by these ratings, taking a PG-13 rating at its word...I personally wouldn't take my 14-year-old daughter to a PG-13 movie without seeing it myself or doing real research. Heck, I wouldn't take myself to see most of them....even PG movies sometimes cross the line.
I guess I'm either getting really old and prudish, or the world is going crazy.......
Just my 2cents,
O2
Wiki
Godfrey was married to the former Mary Bourke from 1938 until his death in 1983. They had three children.
I made the mistake of renting 40 Yr old virgin NR version. WOW
I always liked her .. this seals the deal.
Dale, you’ve missed some really, really great stuff. I feel sorry for you.
MIDNIGHT COWBOY was rated X. Did they even use profanity? I suppose they did, but not so much that I remember. It got the rating for the subject matter treated, in particular prostitution and homosexuality, and not for the manner in which it was presented, which was fairly restrained.
Come to think of it, MEDIUM COOL, a politically oriented movie centered around the '68 Democratic convention in Chicago, was rated X, I believe because of a brief and incidental scene of full frontal nudity.
I just saw this movie with my wife. I really was hoping that they could capture some of the fun of “History of the World Part I” which was taboo, but i think good fun - poking fun of ourselves.
This movie was just awful. I think she’s got it right when she says it made her feel “dirty”. It made me feel dirty. There were 7 people in the theater (and it was an 8:50 showing at a popular theater) and not one time did anyone laugh until the outtakes. Everyone in the theater looked at each other as they walked out - knowing that they were now a lesser human being than the one they walked in as simply for seeing that movie.
I was hoping to get a good laugh out of this movie. With politics these days being so heated, I really wanted to take a lighthearted look at how crazy life of the past used to be in the eyes of today. Instead, I got a movie that was the equivalent of watching those Saddam Hussein movies where they throw people off the side of a building for punishment.
I did laugh at two of the outtakes. I guess for $26.00, that’s all I was entitled to.
And can I just say something to the gay community. Enough already. There were no lesbians in the the time of Isaac. No matter how much you want to show that your “kind” have always been around. They haven’t. Enough already. Get over yourself. If you need acceptance, see a shrink. Otherwise, can we please stop talking about your sexual preference. I don’t care what you do. I’m just sick of hearing it. You’re obsessed with yourselves.
I just looked this movie up on IMDB....I’ve never been one to find what I call ‘12-year-old boy’ humor to be very entertaining, but from the descriptions of this movie, I can’t imagine why anybody would want to have anything to do with it. The written accounts alone are disgusting. Who would pay to see this? Who would expend effort to make it?
I’ve decided, the world IS going crazy.
O2
Hollywood's movie writers today produce trite, vulgar, screenplays that lack the ability to be interesting, funny, or entertaining.
Most of us should spend little money on what they produce. Buy a Kindle and read the great books that you can get for free. See http://manybooks.net/categories/
If you walk out of a movie, the theater manager genarally will give you a refund upon request (or a pass to see another movie).
This should help to get a bad movie pulled from the theater.
GREASE was rated PG. Maybe you’re thinking of SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER. It was originally rated R, but the soundtrack was so hot, the studio re-edited it to get a PG.
Back then, profanity was edgy, unsettling, and created a conspiratorial bond between entertainer and audience.
Now it's just tiresome.
I have always liked Victoria Jackson. She was the star of SNL when she was on, and one of my favorite X-File episodes of all time (and I’ve seen them all) was the one she starred in where the weatherman was secretly in love with her and he inadvertantly caused horrific weather conditions when he got emotional. Now THAT was an episode that could make you cry... with joy. Great episode.
By the way, this article by Victoria is the first time I ever saw or heard of the name Jude Aspertow.
It's a shame, as he has natural talent.
She was probably making fun of the movie “Raiders of the Lost Ark” when she wrote “I love you” on her eyebrows, from a similar scene in that movie.
Hmmmmm
Better by far than some other options so common to many in such spheres.
1956 ? What, did you throw in the towel after the remake of DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments” ?
“did you throw in the towel after the remake of DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments” ?”
Nothing to do with it since I never saw it.
Was that movie overrated or what ? I was expecting brilliant black comedy and it largely sucked (surprisingly, Tom Cruise was about the best part).
Wow ! You never saw it, even on tv ? What was the last film you saw in a theater in ‘56 ? Just curious.
“What was the last film you saw in a theater in ‘56 ? Just curious.”
Couldn’t tell you since it was in a drive in movie and the purpose of going wasn’t to see the movie!
I think maybe the last movie I saw was probably a Disney movie my mother took me to in the early 1940s.
Ah. Well, if you haven’t seen it, you should at least watch “The Ten Commandments.” Good ole epic. I think they still run it yearly at Easter on ABC (for how much longer, I don’t know).
I remember seeing her on Hannity one night. She was about to drive Beckel crazy. LOL.
Hollywood writers produce crap because they have no talent. Couldn’t tell a decent story if their lives depended on it..
I totally agree. And I didn't appreciate the graphic descriptions of homosexual acts when we had taken my youngest son and his girlfriend with us. I'll never watch anything Jack Black does again.
A considerable portion of the comedic entertainment industry players, have not just lost their way, they have lost their minds.
I’ve got a potty mouth. I’ve told and listened to my share of off color jokes. I don’t consider myself to be a prude. Some of the comedy movies out there these days aren’t just offensive, they’re a downright insult to lower life forms, let alone humans.
And this stuff is rated so that 13 year olds can go see it. Oh who am I kidding, any kid of any age can see any movie they like these days. The theaters don’t give a damn. The parents drop the kids off, and the theater owners let them go into any “R” movie they want to see.
And movies like this make it so they don’t have to bother going to see “R” movies to be subjected to filth that is unfit for human consumption.
If this doesn’t poison the minds of those who see it, then their minds were destroy before they bought the ticket.
Victoria Jackson was an important humor element in the years of my extremely awkward adolescence.
Here was a beautiful woman, who was incredibly talented with a gift to make people laugh. At the same time, she still seemed to be a good person. She also had ‘a goofy girl next door’ thing about her. I almost never missed a show, even though she wasn’t the only reason I watched. It was a great cast, top to bottom back in those days. Comedy Legends.
I knew she was a great person throughout. I just had a hunch. I found out later that she was a born-again Christian. This made sense to me.
She was beautiful then and she is still beautiful now and it is nice to hear from her.
I was watching some program on Hollyweird not so long ago and this one guy suggested (somewhat seriously) that bringing back the Hays Code might go a long way in improving the quality of the writing of filmmaking again. I don’t mind off-color stuff, but when it’s a constant litany in the absence of everything else, that’s not good, it just becomes numbing and not funny anymore.
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