Funny or Die's Presidential Reunion
March 3, 2010 4:20 PM   Subscribe

 
I expected Clinton to transform into a demonic chair.
posted by Stylus Happenstance at 4:29 PM on March 3, 2010 [3 favorites]


Jim Carrey's Reagan stole that show pretty thoroughly.
posted by Nomiconic at 4:29 PM on March 3, 2010 [5 favorites]


I just saw this a few minutes before you posted it. It's so odd... it's uncomfortable because it's all SNL actors, but it isn't immediately apparent without context like you provided (say if it was just a link in an email). So you're going "where's the laugh track?" and it's not there and it's weird. Then they start talking about consumer protection and the political process; it's kind of off-putting but I can't figure out why. I keep expecting a joke, but none comes, and then suddenly it's "call your Congressman" but the damn thing is so vague (even though it's almost 6 minutes long!) that I barely know what to call about, or what to say when I call! Bizarre.
posted by r_nebblesworthII at 4:31 PM on March 3, 2010 [3 favorites]


Was it actually funny? Not really. But I love how the web allows projects like this (directed by Ron Howard!) to come into being and seemingly get around a lot of the contractual red tape which may have prevented them from happening in the past.

Plus -- it's for a good cause, and makes its valuable points in a pretty non-painful way.

We could use more things like this happening, I think.
posted by hippybear at 4:32 PM on March 3, 2010 [9 favorites]




Jim Carrey's Reagan stole that show pretty thoroughly.

Poor Randy Quaid, waiting by a phone that never rings.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 4:37 PM on March 3, 2010 [3 favorites]


was that really Dan Akroyd as Carter? wow. and Chevy Chase just creeps me out these days. it did have some good moments, though (namely, anything that Will Ferrell says or does in his Bush character).
posted by wundermint at 4:37 PM on March 3, 2010


Can someone provide this non American with a cheat sheet? I get Bush (Jr. and Sr.), Clinton and Reagan, but who are the two other guys?
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 4:42 PM on March 3, 2010


(Or, I guess I only know Carter and Ford through photos, so actors who don't look much like them don't ring anything for me)
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 4:44 PM on March 3, 2010


Can someone provide this non American with a cheat sheet? I get Bush (Jr. and Sr.), Clinton and Reagan, but who are the two other guys?

Dan Akroyd is Jimmy Carter, one term liberal tragic hero, and Chevy Chase is Gerald Ford, who was president for the rest of Nixon's term after his resignation.
posted by Nomiconic at 4:47 PM on March 3, 2010


Would have preferred a Richard Nixon ghost over the Jimmy Carter, but who the hell am I? Getting those guys together in a room must have been a blast!
posted by jabberjaw at 4:47 PM on March 3, 2010


Is the missing context here going into this without being aware of the CFPA stuff going on right now?

Yeah, that. But also - the link was sent to me via email with no surrounding text at all. So I see two SNL actors and think "Oh, it's a skit." But then it goes on.... and it comes off like SNL directed by Kafka.

I mean, I get the message but who's the target audience? Isn't FunnyOrDie just like Break.com or Youtube restricted to only funny videos? The website actually gets mentioned in the video - so anybody who sees this outside of FunnyOrDie won't understand that reference... and then the content itself is pretty unclear right up until the end, I thought. The CFPA is barely mentioned, if at all (I'll watch it again).
posted by r_nebblesworthII at 4:59 PM on March 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Chevy Chase's Ford is the only thing that beats Fred Armisen's Obama in the "you wouldn't have any idea who he was impersonating if they didn't come right out and tell you" stakes. Ford slipped and fell once or twice. Chase's impression, if you can even call it that, never even attempted to tap anything else about the guy.
posted by George_Spiggott at 5:00 PM on March 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


I just love all of that. Makes me remember why SNL used to be good.
That is to say, across-the-board good, instead of here-and-there mostly Lonely Island related good.
posted by The Esteemed Doctor Bunsen Honeydew at 5:06 PM on March 3, 2010 [2 favorites]


I don't think I've ever said this before in my life, but here goes:

That would have been funnier with a laugh track.

I feel dirty.
posted by LordSludge at 5:12 PM on March 3, 2010 [6 favorites]


The Not Ready for Primetime Players: Mistaking Rote Impersonation For Biting Satire Since 1976!

(I applaud the intent and all, but geez, guys, hire someone who knows how to write, won't you? I hear Conan O'Brien could use some work.)
posted by gompa at 5:17 PM on March 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


So John Candy was actually eaten by Dan Aykroyd?
posted by jeremias at 5:18 PM on March 3, 2010 [2 favorites]


I'd say the point is celebrity endorsement pure and simple. Those guys are perhaps the biggest living American comedians. Each one knows humor better than anyone on this website, but they're obviously making a political statement, not focusing on jokes. Fair enough.
posted by jeffburdges at 5:23 PM on March 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Ford slipped and fell once or twice. Chase's impression, if you can even call it that, never even attempted to tap anything else about the guy.

That was sort of the joke, though: that he looked and sounded nothing like Ford and just fell down a lot, because Chevy's gag was falling down anyway.
posted by DecemberBoy at 5:26 PM on March 3, 2010 [4 favorites]


Chase's impression, if you can even call it that, never even attempted to tap anything else about the guy.

Well he DID say he was dead.
posted by Max Power at 5:29 PM on March 3, 2010


"Can I be the Ambassador to Cancun?"
posted by spilon at 5:32 PM on March 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Not funny, so die.

Actually, I though Carrey was pretty good as Reagan.
posted by bwg at 5:34 PM on March 3, 2010


I felt like Carrey wasn't so much doing Reagan as he was doing Phil Hartman as Reagan, which was great.

(for reference)
posted by Pope Guilty at 5:49 PM on March 3, 2010 [3 favorites]


I dislike that they chose to refer to Ex-Presidents by their proper title, and not the current President.

I guess another way of saying that is, that's President Obama to you, Funny or Die.com!
posted by lazaruslong at 5:54 PM on March 3, 2010


Chevy Chase looks like Dick Cheney. So does Dan Akroyd.
posted by Trochanter at 5:59 PM on March 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


"Nothing but these pendulous balls" is a phrase that, had Reagan actually said it, would improve my respect for the man a great deal.

As political...satire? I don't think that's really satire, I'm not sure what to call it...well, in any event, I don't think it amounts to very much, but as a pure nostalgia jolt for when SNL could be relied on to be funny more than twice in 90 minutes, damn. Incidentally, and I feel I should preface this with a NOT-AGEIST, but Dana Carvey has, er, really grown into his Bush Senior impression.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 6:02 PM on March 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Getting those guys together in a room must have been a blast!

After the short, a quick behind the scenes of the event autoplays and it's kind of fun watching them all interact (some, awkwardly).
posted by SmileyChewtrain at 6:09 PM on March 3, 2010


Seeing Carvey as Bush 41 was about the only thing I really enjoyed once the novelty wore off. I kept expecting Carreyreagan to bust out with RIDE THE SNAKE!, which would have upped the lolfactor for me by a bajillion. Other than that the whole "wtf?" vibe kept me from appreciating this as much as was probably intended.

Sorry Funny or Die, but Old Spice wins today.
posted by WolfDaddy at 6:15 PM on March 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Phil Hartman is missed.
posted by Rarebit Fiend at 6:21 PM on March 3, 2010 [19 favorites]


Disappointing. All that talent but very little in the way of good jokes or clear message.

It might have been easier to follow if they had been more clear about CFPA being the motivating reason for the past presidents visiting. Yes, it was mentioned that Obama needed to clean up their messes, but it was late in the skit and not really sold well.

Maybe if all of the presidents had come in with mea culpas about how all of their past screw-ups were huge, but nothing in comparison to the consequences of getting this right, it would have made the importance of the reform more clear (i.e. better to fix this and risk reelection than to fail and basically break the country and drag all of their legacies into the toilet).

And why should Obama be the responsible one? Well, what did you expect from an idiot like Bush, an ego-maniac horn-dog like Clinton, and out-of-touch blue blood like Bush (queue the grocery scanner incident), a senile octogenarian actor like Reagan, or a possum-eating peanut farmer like Carter, or a klutz like Ford (who then falls and breaks that expensive china that Nancy bought)? Obama is the best last chance for getting it right. Or something.

As much as it pains me to say it, I also agree a laugh track would have been an improvement.

PS to me the biggest miss was Jim Carey as Reagan. Joe Piscapo would have done a better job. It's also a shame Phil Hartman isn't alive to do it; he could have carried that sketch by himself. Also, Akroyd is a much funnier Nixon than Carter.

And why not cast someone who is actually funny for Obama? Like Eddie Murphy? Let him do his Mr. Robinson character, pissed off that they came barging in his room. Of course, they'd all be surprised by the change in personality... with Nixon being blunt about it.

"It's just that you seem... well..
"What?... ... blacker?"

"Well... not the term I'd... er, yes, blacker"
"Uh-huh. This is what I'm like when the cameras aren't rolling. You see any cameras rolling in this bedroom?"
(followed by awkward silence and furtive, knowing glimpses around the room... then raised eyebrows from Michelle "Well!?")

"Uh, no, of course not".
"Good, now shut the F- up and tell me why you're here...".
posted by Davenhill at 6:41 PM on March 3, 2010


It's difficult to do satire that's pushing a political message like this, I'd think. I wish they'd either'd played the presidents semi-straight or instead of mentioning the reform legislation directly just letting the facts about the banks add up more, with Obama becoming more and more disturbed by their glibness and collusion turning into The Rock Obama and kicking some ass and tearing the set apart, with Don Pardo doing a serious voiceover asking that we contact our Congress person.
posted by Skygazer at 6:43 PM on March 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Davenhill, Akroyd definitely should've been Nixon, it would be awesome to see Murphy do Obama, although it would be such a diss of Fred Armisen's earnest serious Obama.
posted by Skygazer at 6:48 PM on March 3, 2010


Chevy Chase and Dan Ackroyd looked so oooooold. *sigh*

Can't those two take better care of themselves?
posted by KokuRyu at 7:03 PM on March 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


As George Washington once said to John Adams, "Tag, you're it!"
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:07 PM on March 3, 2010 [3 favorites]


agreed it wasn't funny.

which made feel even more like SNL.
posted by el io at 8:03 PM on March 3, 2010


hey i loved it
but i am a little impaired, so that could be the cause
posted by angrycat at 8:06 PM on March 3, 2010


It was a bit odd. They all have very different impersonation styles. It was a bit like seeing a cartoon where every character has been drawn by a different cartoonist.
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:19 PM on March 3, 2010 [5 favorites]


Funny or die? RIP.
posted by scottymac at 8:35 PM on March 3, 2010


So, I'm supposed to be for the CFPA? Or were they making fun of the CFPA? I think the former, but I'm not really sure.
posted by ctmf at 8:40 PM on March 3, 2010


"And why not cast someone who is actually funny for Obama? Like Eddie Murphy?"

Wha? Eddie Murphy's what now?
posted by saturnine at 9:16 PM on March 3, 2010


From the previously-mentioned behind-the-scenes video:

Jim Carrey as Reagan is holding the pendulous testicles prop.

Prop-person: "Does it feel good to you?"

Carrey: "Yeah they're definitely Republican."


That made the whole thing worth it for me.
posted by kingbenny at 10:12 PM on March 3, 2010


Boy, tough audience around here. First the OK Go video, now this.

Look, it's just a hook using familiar actors and impressions to get people to watch for a minute or two and then click through to the activism site. I don't think they were going for great art or comedy here.

Going back to 1977 (wee woo wee woo), ISTR that the point of Chase's pratfall-laden impression of Ford was almost how much it was an anti-impersonation, a basis for straight-up sketches that didn't rely on precise Fordness. Later SNL fell prey to the make-up impersonation and that became their schtick, but it was actually pretty innovative to do it the way Chase did, and it certainly fit his style. In the same way, I miss Hartman's Clinton, because while Darrell Hammond does do pitch-perfect impersonation, it goes for lower-hanging satirical fruit.

Anyway, I liked what Astro Zombie said -- it was a collision of styles. I thought that made it more interesting.
posted by dhartung at 10:16 PM on March 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


Awful. Just, awful.

Thanks to this skit, I am now totally against the idea of a CFPA.
posted by Sukiari at 11:23 PM on March 3, 2010


In defense of Chase it does have to be said that I cannot recall ever seeing anyone actually attempt to impersonate Gerald Ford -- there's nothing to work with there. I doubt even Carvey could have done it, and he's incredibly gifted at creating blown-out caricatures, even to the point of creating new traits that you retroactively assign to the real person because they just seem to fit. His Bush I and Ross Perot bits were perfect examples of this; I feel quite sure that many people imagine they're remembering those two when in fact they're remembering something from Dana Carvey's bits. But Ford wouldn't give an impressionist anything to grab onto. Chase's approach was probably the only thing you could do.
posted by George_Spiggott at 11:28 PM on March 3, 2010 [1 favorite]


It's 2010 and nobody really remembers what Ford was like. Chevy Chase's classic SNL skits where he played Ford are better remembered than that Nixon-pardoning asshole is.
posted by Pope Guilty at 11:42 PM on March 3, 2010


At the very least, shouldn't Obama have ended the sketch with:

"I'm on a horse"
posted by Davenhill at 11:57 PM on March 3, 2010 [2 favorites]


But Ford wouldn't give an impressionist anything to grab onto

Oh please, there was tons for an impressionist to grab onto with Ford. Ford has sort of a Jimmy Stewart timbre, a little bit of Fargo "ya sure ya betcha" accent, go with Forest Gump for the pacing, and do Bush II for grasp of foreign policy. Just watch this excerpt from the Ford-Carter debate and tell me there was nothing to grab onto. Granted, what I described is more of a caricature than a clinically accurate description of what Ford was really like, but that's kinda the point.
posted by robla at 12:25 AM on March 4, 2010


I played Jimmy Carter in a mock debate in sixth grade and won the election. (I didn't do an impression, though.)
posted by kirkaracha at 8:38 AM on March 4, 2010


Hulu comment: "Never forget how great Phil Hartman was, how SNL used to be good, and that Ronald Reagan was a terrorist with many thousands of rapes, kidnappings, incidents of torture, and murders on his bloody hands."
posted by mrgrimm at 10:33 AM on March 4, 2010 [1 favorite]


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