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.
As I recall, she wrote that because she was going to get married at the time?
Should be interesting to watch as she goes further down the rabbit hole ala Alice in Wonderland, I hope she can continue to keep working as Hollyweird hates it when their illusion is shattered.
I think they did, but I can’t remember precisely. I haven’t watched it recently. I always got a kick out of Yul Brynner, who is practically doing the same role as Rameses as he did as Mongkut in “The King & I.” As a kid, I got to see Brynner doing the latter on stage shortly before his death.
The more “non-leftist in Hollywood”, the merrier it really will be for everybody!
As a ray of hope, attitudes seem to have changed since the election of Obama. A little fear of "hope" and "change" does wonders. Polls are showing the very recent rebellion against abortion, licentiousness, and socialism. Will the rebellion continue or be crushed by a fat, dumb, and lazy public?
Eddie Murphy, Jeff Foxworthy and Steve Martin seem to me to be good examples of decent contemporary comedians. (Well, maybe Steve Martin transcends generational-classification?)
“Eddie Murphy”
Have you seen any of his stand-up performances?
Unless he’s had a change of heart, his act is extremely vulgar.
I tried watching “Nacho Libre”, but I just found it lacking (boring ?). I just think he’s missing some component that I find desirable in a comedic actor.
As for Eddie Murphy, I think he’s been stuck in a rut for some time. I think he was better in the ‘80s, and the same goes for Steve Martin, for that matter (although their joint production of “Bowfinger” was pretty good). My personal favorites from childhood are largely gone now, such as Rodney Dangerfield, John Belushi, John Candy, Richard Pryor, Ted Knight, etc. Nobody seems to be able to fill their shoes.
Well, I wasn’t going to see this one anyway, but now I DEFINITELY won’t go and see it.
Out of curiosity, I looked up Year One at Rotten Tomatoes. It got one good review and the rest were all bad. And if you check out that good review (best prehistoric movie of the year), it gets 3 out of 5.
So, even the politically correct reviewers think this one’s a loser.
The Grease Lightening song ALMOST put a damper on things....remember the part when they sang “You know that ain't no shit we'll be getting lots of tit in Grease Lightening”......well, she had a fit!!
She attempted to cover our eyes and ears, she only had two hands and 6 kids lol. We giggled the entire ride home, as we “sang” the song...she was NOT amused.
I want to go back to the day where that was offensive. I do realize now the more we are exposed to raunch, the more immune we become.
I too walked out of Year One; it was the first time in years I walked out of a movie and got free vouchers. Took my wife last night. The scenes in the previews were funny. Guess what, those were the only funny lines in the movie and they were used up in the first 10 minutes. It was just plain painfully dumb, and I’m not above a good brainless bit of slapstick if it’s well done.
Thanks for the warning. This is a defininte DON’T SEE.
I agree with the “get it over with” thing. Of course, if you say that to liberals, they’ll just laugh at you condescendingly, and say, “That won’t happen!”
Then, when it does happen, they’ll be the first to defend it.
Sobering report from an unlikely source - Wonderful to read it!
I agree.
I liked Jack Black in this film. It's about the only one
Wow. I didn’t know that kind of stuff was in that movie.
What happened to America?
I’ve always have liked Jackson.
I agree. You just can't beat "Back to School". Also Jon Lovitz in "High School High" was one of my all-time favorites ("My name is Anferny ... A-N-F-E-R-N-Y!") :D
Years ago, when I read he was chosen to play one of the leads in the KONG ‘remake’, I knew instantly it would suck. It did, big-time. Primarily due to One of the worst movie casts in history. I’ve despised him and Naomi Watts ever since.
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