Will Ferrell: BDS Addict
by Don SurberThirty years ago, actor James Whitmore did a one-man show called “Give ‘em Hell, Harry,” about President Truman. It was a fascinating tribute to a man who left the White House unpopular over a war that everyone said was unnecessary. The vindication of Truman came as the Vietnam War wound down.
Will Ferrell is preparing to do a show mocking President Bush. I guess Farrell is afraid that 30 years from now, Bush too will be vindicated. Ferrell will re-package old “SNL” skits for his show, “You’re Welcome, America. A Final Night with George W. Bush,” which begins previews on Inauguration Day.
Ferrell told the New York Times that he suffers BDS — Bush Derangement Syndrome.
“There are people who are going to be, ‘Enough already, leave him alone.’ Or, ‘I don’t care if it’s funny, I don’t want to even think about that guy anymore.’ Or — and I hope this is the case — people who think, ‘This is cathartic, this is good,’ ” Ferrell told the Times. “At first I thought, I don’t know about a Broadway show. I don’t want to be just known as the guy who did Bush. But then I thought, what am I talking about? This is a great way to hang that character up, not even so much as a political statement, but to send him off into the sunset.”
He ought to listen to those people who tell him to let it go. Hate can eat a man alive.
Politics aside, is it funny? Here is the sample of Ferrell’s humor that the New York Times shared with readers:
Q: Former presidents have worked on their memoirs; have you thought about how you’re going to tell your story, when you’re going to begin writing it?
A: I actually finished mine, Jon. They will be sold only as a book on tape narrated by Vin Scully and Joe Morgan. I don’t want to ruin the ending, but let’s just say, Osama gets what’s coming to him.
Q: Sir, you wrote your memoirs, and they’re fiction? It’s a work of fiction?
A: Yes, yes, it’s fiction, Jon. If people want to read what actually happened, they can go to the library and read the micro-fish.
Q: Uh, I believe, sir, fiche. Microfiche.
A: Are you cursing at me in Jewish? Listen, Jon, just shut up. This book is going to make a great movie. It’s like a cross between ‘Harry Potter,’ ‘Die Hard’ and ‘Forrest Gump’ — only with e-mails being deleted, and torture.
This goes on for 75 minutes without an intermission. He even said he wants the theater kept dark so he does not see the people leaving.
I don’t think many will enter.
I’m curious as to who Ferrell thinks will see his show. Certainly not the 62 million of us who voted to re-elect Bush in 2004. So who does he expect to show up? Al Gore voters? John Kerry voters? I think they have moved on to the new president.
Ferrell hasn’t.
James Whitmore got a lot of praise for his one-man show. It was a tribute to Truman, not a put-down. Whitmore and his writers were smart men.
Nobody does tributes to presidents in Hollywood anymore. Are you kidding? Ferrell is going to be Chevy Chase to Jerry Ford. Chase mercilessly mocked Ford on “SNL” some 30 years ago. He even mocked the two assassination attempts on President Ford. Chase was quite proud that Ford was not elected in 1976.
But President Ford lost in 1976 because he pardoned Richard Nixon. Ford would rather be right than president. On May 21, 2001, Ted Kennedy and Caroline Kennedy bestowed the Profile in Courage award on Jerry Ford.
A year later, Comedy Central did a roast of Chevy Chase. It was not light-hearted, but mean. A reviewer said, “Jeez. I had been ready to laugh, but I eased off as Chase, in sunglasses, brooked the insults — and a full, tragic portrait of the enigmatic wastrel emerged. Arrogant young comic, former addict, maker of failed family movies: The shards of Chase’s persona almost seemed too negligible to put together, much less take apart again. But then I began to wonder if there were any way, in light of the fact that so many people now openly revile him, to admire Chevy Chase again — if for no other reason than that someone ought to.”
Ferrell might want to re-think this whole BDS thing. Give the guy 30 years and see what happens.
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57 Comments
Will Ferrell, USC frat boy, mocks George W. Bush, ex-president with degrees from Yale and Harvard (MBA) . . . .
My wife talked me into seeing “Elf” – which I actually enjoyed. The guy has some actual comedic talent, if he stuck with truly light-hearted (and funny) stuff, he would probably do alright for himself. You are right, hatred and bitterness tend to take over the person after awhile.
Hate may be a profitable business, but what goes around comes around.
Hate may be a profitable business, but what goes around comes back around.
I have never seen ELF because I completely disliked Kicking and Screaming, and was never impressed by Ferrell; until he latched on to the GWB impersonations, he was very milquetoast—and still is, in my opinion.
But I heard Bob Newhart (or is it James Caan?) is in Elf, and thanks for reminding me it was directed by Jon Favreau, who is very talented–maybe I will give it a try, since I found this analysis very comforting—that Ferrell will be relegated into the dustbin of has-beens who never were.
Good to see that actors will not let it go. Probably because (as Chris Rock says) NO ONE can find things to make fun of with President Obama.
Coconutisland – you do realize that Churchill was villianized after WWII, right? Yeah, now he’s considered one of the best leaders ever. History will judge Bush well, Obama – not so much.
In my humble opinion Will Ferrell is not now nor has he ever been
funny. His movies are so sophomoric, as are 99.99 percent of the
‘movies’ churned out by the SNL herd of turds (adam sandler, rob
shneider, mike meyers). Listen, I understand there are lots of people
who just want to watch mindless slapstick, scatalogical humor, fine
knock yourself out. But as I said to my friend after I told her that
I did not enjoy Sandlers movie ‘little nicky’ and she asked me
“where’s your sense of humor?” I told her I still have a sense of
humor, it’s just moved beyond the burping and farting phase.
I think a lot of these ‘celebrities’ popularity is based on baby boomers
aversion to growing up. If the tweens think it’s cool well heck it must
be cool.
The only thing I ever saw ferrell do that was funny to me was play more cowbell.
The movies Will Ferrell does that he also receives writing credit on are usually a series of very loosely linked low-brow skits, that in most cases can be interchanged within the movie with virtually no effect on the story continuity (because there isn’t much there to begin with). So a funny bit here may be surrounded by two lame skits, or vice-versa.
Here, he supposedly is going to do one-hour and 15 minutes straight without any cuts or fade-outs and maintain the audience’s interest. That might work opening night, or for the HBO taping, where the theater will be packed with Frank Rich and Keith Olbermann types who’ll still want to have endless loops of Michael Moore films on the DVR to watch in the nursing home 30 years from now. But other than the BDS true believers and based on Ferrell’s normal level of humor, it’s hard to see a lot of other people wanting to sit there that long (though I suppose he could borrow a page from “Taladega Nights” and run an Applebee’s commercial in the middle of the performance).
[...] hatred has given meaning to your pathetic lives, so it’s no surprise that you find it so hard to let [...]
Farrell's impersonation of George W. Bush falls flat for one simple reason: for attempts at humor to be funny, they must be based in the TRUTH.
Apart from that, however, I must say that his Bush impression doesn't merit a full show because his Bush impression is…a BAD impression! He doesn't even DO George W. Bush right! He never has!
I disagree with the point of Frank Caliendo's humor when he does his Bush impersonation, but I HAVE to admit…his impression is SPOT-on! A HUNDRED times better than Farrell's impression of ANYBODY will EVER be!
Why should ANYONE pay attention to someone who declares himself “TEHSTUPID” from the very beginning?
One of these days, Will Ferrell will reach his depth in a movie, as soon as someone figures out how to adapt a mud puddle to the screen.
One wonders how long the left will try to keep whipping the last administration? It may actually work for a while but I think they now understand that when you slay the devil, the thing you have been organized against, you have to find something else to obsess about. Wonder who or what it will be?
I wouldn’t put too much time and energy into analyzing this. Ferrell’s star is on the wane so he is doing what all celebrities do when they see their Q factor begin its long inexorable slide into oblivion, which is to go back to the well. Even the brilliant ones have to deal with this sooner or later and to be fair some of Ferrells work is hilarious. Ron Burgundy for example has become fro many the new Caddyshack for quotes. But there is that fame arc and Ferrell is on the down side of it, and he knows it. Why else would he bother with a now irrelevant gag? Its not that he is any less funny that he ever was, we’re just looking for something/somebody new. We’ve seen all your tricks.
Witness Mike Myers and Jim Carrey. Each has in their time owned Hollywood and now each can’t get arrested in the place.
Ferrell is hoping that he has that comeback ability that only a few stars seem to possess like Travolta, Stallone, and Rourke whose obituaries have been posted so many times over the past 20 years.
Will, your Bush schtick is tired and alienated about 1/2 the people. I used to like comedians like yourself and Letterman but the bashing became shrill so people like me quit watching. Bush will probably be vindicated by history, your 15 minutes are almost over, give up the politics and go back to being funny.
Hate him all you want. Bush is a man of conviction who was handed a rocky foreign policy – among other things – by an administration who had spent 8 years ignoring the need for action in the middle east. In the waking hours of 9/11 Bush did what he felt was necessary to defend the country. Disagree with the war we are now in or not, America hasn’t suffered an attack since 9/11 – which can’t be said for many other Western and Eastern countries who chose to hide behind the ignorant Bush haters. People’s understanding of Bush and his foreign policy is, unfortunately, shaped by SNL skits and the agenda-driven media. Bush is human and didn’t do everything right, but he certainly acted in the interests of the coutnry and not himself – despite the floggings he has received and will continue to receive because people refuse to believe that war is sometimes necessary. I for one will not waste my time with Ferrell’s show – nor much of anything else he does these days. Not because I’m easily offended, but because the guy just isn’t funny.
You are so right on with the Chevy Chase/Will Farrell comparison, at least IMHO.
My ex-husband, extreme left winger, just about wet his pants once when, while at a benefit concert for some liberal cause, he saw Chevy Chase across the room. It was like watching a nervous guy approaching the most beautiful woman at a bar. And the resultant interaction was very similar to the nervous guy getting shot down. My ex came back like a dog who had been whipped hard and was looking for cover. I can’t recall exactly what Mr. Chase said, but it was enough that my ex demanded that we leave immediately. As much as I dislike my ex now, I never thought he deserved to be berated for showing his interest in the likes of Chevy “has been before he ever was” Chase.
I’ll just have to add Will Farrell to the heap of actors I will no longer be spending my hard earned money on to see, especially if he thinks the best way to work towards “hope and change” is to berate a fine former president like George Bush.
The box office of Oliver Stone’s “W” leads one to think the products of BDS will be as sucessful as the films that hoped for America’s defeat in Iraq.
(And as for that earlier, idiot remark that Truman bombed Japan after we had won the war, the Japanese certainly didn’t believe that and before the Bomb, housewives were being prepared to battle the Allies with their pitchforks. The decision to drop the Bomb in the long run saved many Japanese lives.)
They won’t make fun of Obama, so what choice do these poor Liberals have.
Tehstupid- I am very sure that if someone critiqued your job on a daily basis, you wouldn’t fair any better than President Bush. As far as I’m concerned, being POTUS is a very thankless job. No one on this earth could please all of us all the time. Bush did his best to lead our country and I am sure that Obama will do the same. It’s very easy to be an armchair quarterback and declare that he was a failure. The most important thing to remember is that the USA is by far the best country on the planet- we are very blessed to be citizens of this fine country. Any if anyone thinks it is unbearable, they are most certainly welcome to leave with a one-way ticket.
coconutisland – January 22nd, 2009 at 6:03 am
I just think it was a host of ignorant voters who got him elected and relelected, who have no understanding of what diplomacy means.
You mean like the diplomacy carried on by the UN year after year that Hussein thumbed his nose at? That diplomacy?
TEHSTUPID – January 22nd, 2009 at 6:24 am
The problem for conservatives is that this line of thinking just feeds into the perception that conservatives refuse to not only take responsibility for their mistakes and failures but that they will deny that those failures even exist.
Time to get real, fellas.
Conservatives and Bush DID get real. Real enough to go into Iraq after years of him thumbing his nose at the world. If the UN resolutions were to stand for anything, they had to be enforced. The Coalition of the Willing enforced them. Otherwise, resolutions aren’t worth the paper they are printed on.
SNL has been lampooning Presidents on both sides of the isle for years. Obama will get his. People need to lighten up about stuff like this. Will Ferrel’s Dubyah character was something he did throughout Bush’s presidency. While not nearly as endearing as Dana Carvey’s Bush Sr., I can certainly see why they would do a “best of” type show to send off that character.
“Hate can eat a man alive.”
Long-term, maybe. But short-term it’s the easiest way to feel good about yourself.
We need a bright, young African-American comic to step up to the plate and mock B. Hussein Obama, thusly.
The scene could be set with Greg Craig standing behind the 44th president and looking down at several executive orders. The smiling, new president looks over his shoulder and asks the white-haired, almost painfully caucasian man what the orders mean as he scribbles his signature across the parchment. Photos are snapped, but none of the attentive reporters seem bothered that the most powerful man in the world has no idea the import of the words on the papers and none notice the puppet strings held in the dapper, white man’s hands.
Maybe, comedy is out of the question. But, tragedy. Yeah, maybe.
It’s amazing how humorless this column and most of the comments are even while trying to say that WF isn’t funny. WF is damn funny, especially as Bush. Tell you who isn’t funny. Don Surber and most of the comments here.
Who do you people find funny? Bob Newhart? What?? Check the calendar.
Hey Surber, remember when you criticized “the left” and “hollywood” for a Habitat for Humanity lawsuit in Jacksonville? You stood by it and deleted criticism for about a day. You then realized how many Republicans are a part of Habitat and that church groups are heavily involved with the charity. You promptly deleted that article and rewrote it criticizing the poor who own the homes — easier targets I guess. Well that Orwellian masterpiece is the number 3 most visited case of revisionism at the internet archive for this month. I guess there is bias in the media.
I am proud to say that I have ALWAYS hated Will Ferrell. I gave him a chance with Anchorman, and I learned my lesson.
Will Ferrell is Salieri from Amadeus. He’s a mediocrity who’s one gift is the talent to cue the audience when to laugh. He presents himself as likable and nice, but inside beats a heart of hate.
Why do people think this guy is funny? For God’s sake, didn’t you see “Elf”?
Ferrell will make a pile now. I imagine in 20 years or so when he’s about 10 years washed up he’ll try to drag it out and no one save for elderly damn dirty hippies and the few holdouts will see him on the Patrick Wayne dinner theater circuit. Rubber chicken and stale BDS… awesome.
When was Ferrell ever funnY?
How can the pre-sales be HUGE if there are no pre-sales yet?
There are people out there calling for Bush to be imprisoned as a war criminal, comparing to Hitler, and other ridiculous things. That is over the line. Will Ferrell’s Bush character isn’t close to any of that; his character is hilarious.
I voted for Bush twice and I’m proud of what he’s done in office, but I can still take a joke.
Until they get an, “Okay, I agree!” out of every 43 supporter, buckets of “Bush is evil” will continue to be poured down conservative noses by these masters of comedic/musical/literary water boarding. Winning of hearts via adult conversation? Not interested! They’ll browbeat, shame and, yes, threaten (Fairness Doctrine) any that dare not mouth allegiance. Look to the new DC and bow the knee.
Russ, thanks. Your post is perfect. Painfully, enragingly accurate, but perfect.
TOMMY:
I responded to something you wrote in the “70s” thread, where you said you went to a jr. high in Orlando across from the navy base, which would be Glenridge Jr. High in Winter Park. I went there from ‘79-’82, then on to Winter Park HS (class of ‘85). What years did you go? As I remember Glenridge, it was home to great-looking cheerleaders and lousy football teams……
I gather WF has made enough money to be comfortable for the rest of his life, because his movies are destined to bomb from now on, like I Am Sam’s.
Will is funny and his impersonation of “awol” is spot on. Sometimes I can’t tell the difference but then I remember that Will is the smart one. “awol’s” legacy is one of failure. Do you really need a list? Will is helping us by making us laugh when we have been crying at the horrible regime of cheney/bush.
Will Ferrell has said He has had no desire to meet President Bush, yet
he has no problem working with Woody Allen?
Morons will be morons. And the Hollyweird elite are the biggest morons.
I thought Ferrell did a good Bush impersonation, better than whoever does it on SNL now. “Strategery.” I love it.
But Ferrell can’t carry a show. Any Ferrell-centric movies are usually about 30 minutes too long. (By which I mean, the story ends and we are still sitting there going, can I leave yet?) Stranger Than Fiction was great, but it wasn’t Will Ferrell and a bunch of relative newbies or also-rans. It had a strong cast and wasn’t all toilet and sex jokes. So his idea of doing a Ferrell/Bush centered show is going to bomb, regardless of how egregiously he is sure to treat Bush. He just can’t pull it off.
The funniest thing about this comment section is all the people defending Bush. Despite the fact that the past 8 years have been the worst for the U.S. in my lifetime, we all have to suffer with the other fact that our country is 8 years behind in stem cell research which will effect everyone reading this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rHB2Cz8Z4f4
Whomever said that war in the pacific was over and then Truman dropped a bomb clearly hasn’t read any historical references. If the war was over, why did we have the need to drop TWO bombs. Could it have been that the Japanese didn’t surrender after the first bomb? No, it was the devil incarnate in the white house that determined the need for more loss of human life. The casualty estimates for America alone were more than twice the amount killed in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. The Japanese casualty estimates were in the millions you stupid ass.
General Georges Hormiz Sada (aka Gewargis or George Hormis; Arabic: كوركيس هرمز ساده, Syriac: ܓܘܪܓܝܣ ܗܪܡܙ ܣܕܐ; born 1939?) is an Iraqi of Assyrian descent, an author and retired general officer of the Iraqi Air Force.
After the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, Sada sided with the US-led government, and served as spokesman for the interim leader Iyad Allawi, and was appointed as National Security Advisor.
In August 2004 Sada announced that he would be signing a bill to introduce the death penalty for those “threatening national security”. (on al-Jazeera)
He serves as the Senior Warden of the St. Georges Anglican Church and as the President of the National Presbyterian Church, both in Baghdad. The former President of the Evangelical Churches of Iraq, Sada is also chairman of the Assembly of Iraqi Evangelical Presbyterian Churches. He has been active in advocating that Iraq was historically Christian in nature, and not Muslim.
On January 24, 2006, he announced the publication of a book he had written entitled Saddam’s Secrets: How an Iraqi General Defied And Survived Saddam Hussein, with the tagline “An insider exposes plans to destroy Israel, hide WMDs and control the Arab world.”[1] Sada, the former Air Vice-Marshal under Hussein, appeared the following day on Fox News’ Hannity & Colmes, where he discussed his book and reported that other pilots told him that Hussein had ordered them to fly portions of the WMD stockpiles to Damascus in Syria just prior to the 2003 Invasion of Iraq.
Well, I want to make it clear, very clear to everybody in the world that we had the weapon of mass destruction in Iraq, and the regime used them against our Iraqi people…I know it because I have got the captains of the Iraqi airway that were my friends, and they told me these weapons of mass destruction had been moved to Syria.
Much as Bush-hating media members conveniently ignore historical events that led to the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, their current finger-pointing at the White House, John McCain, and all Republican politicians for the collapse of the financial services industry lacks any honest assessment of decades-old legislation that laid the groundwork for today’s problems.
In particular, 1977’s Community Reinvestment Act which required banks and savings institutions to make loans to the lower-income areas in the communities they served.
Despite how integrally tied the current crisis is to this bill enacted by a Democrat-controlled Congress and signed into law by Jimmy Carter, no major media outlet other than Investor’s Business Daily and National Review Online mentioned it during last week’s market meltdown.
Going against the grain was a highly-informative editorial by IBD Thursday (emphasis added, h/t NBer Gary Hall, photo courtesy About.com):
To hear today’s Democrats, you’d think all this started in the last couple years. But the crisis began much earlier. The Carter-era Community Reinvestment Act forced banks to lend to uncreditworthy borrowers, mostly in minority areas.
Age-old standards of banking prudence got thrown out the window. In their place came harsh new regulations requiring banks not only to lend to uncreditworthy borrowers, but to do so on the basis of race.
These well-intended rules were supercharged in the early 1990s by President Clinton. Despite warnings from GOP members of Congress in 1992, Clinton pushed extensive changes to the rules requiring lenders to make questionable loans. [...]
Failure to comply meant your bank might not be allowed to expand lending, add new branches or merge with other companies. Banks were given a so-called “CRA rating” that graded how diverse their lending portfolio was. [...]
In the name of diversity, banks began making huge numbers of loans that they previously would not have. They opened branches in poor areas to lift their CRA ratings.
Meanwhile, Congress gave Fannie and Freddie the go-ahead to finance it all by buying loans from banks, then repackaging and securitizing them for resale on the open market.
That’s how the contagion began.
With those changes, the subprime market took off. From a mere $35 billion in loans in 1994, it soared to $1 trillion by 2008.
Readers are strongly encouraged to review this entire fact-filled piece to not only better understand the roots of today’s financial crisis, but also to get a sense as to just how absurd media accusations of this all being Bush and McCain’s fault are.
That said, from 1989 through 1995, I managed branches for two savings and loans: Imperial Savings, which got taken over by the Resolution Trust Corporation during the S&L bailout, and; Great Western Bank which eventually was purchased by Washington Mutual.
The pressure to comply with CRA was astounding, especially at Great Western as it was expanding throughout the country. Its ability to acquire other institutions was directly related to its CRA rating.
With this in mind, IBD’s views concerning this matter are spot on raising a very important question: if the role of news media is to inform the public, why does a LexisNexis search indicate that as this crisis came to a head last week, its connection to CRA, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton was almost completely ignored?
Would such a revelation make it difficult for Obama-loving press outlets to point fingers at George W. Bush and, more importantly, John McCain?
Yes, that’s a rhetorical question.
A sad spectacle as he falls from fame to “nobody cares”. We won’t have to watch much more of him, he’ll probably fall out through the bottom of the porn industry eventually, and then wander the streets with a shopping cart full of bottles and cans. Eventually he’ll be as obscure as the zeppelin, and all the old videotapes with him on them will degauss to mere static.
If he wants to stay fresh and in the public eye he should start cracking Obama jokes. There’s plenty of material there. Of course, he’d never do that, because he’s not really a comedian, he’s more of a joke.
As an alum of USC, I’m embarrassed his association with the school gets brought up so often. He’s not representative of the community. I cringe when I see him standing on the sidelines at football games. Once funny – now a joke
I’m not sure why conservatives would stick up for Bush. He did not do anything good for conservatism except maybe appointing justices that seem conservative so far. Eight wasted years…
[...] Comedic Non-Entity: “The Will Ferrell Story” [...]
In 30 years even suckers like you will realize what an incompetent disaster the Bush/Cheney administration was.
[...] Random Feed wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptby Don Surber Thirty years ago, actor James Whitmore did a one-man show called “Give ‘em Hell, Harry,” about President Truman. It was a fascinating tribute to a man who left the White House unpopular over a war that everyone said was unnecessary. The vindication of Truman came as the Vietnam War wound down.Will Ferrell is preparing to do a show mocking President Bush. I guess Farrell is afraid that 30 years from now, Bush too will be vindicated. Ferrell will re-pac [...]
will ferrel is a TOOL!.
he’s not funny,and nevery has been.he is fact a “mirror image” of chevy chase.chase still made money in movies,mind you.so will ferrel.but that is only because Hollywood is liberal.the truth is Hollywood does not reflect the way all Americans feel.they just have a bigger soap-box to preach from.the same goes for that Riley guy,don’t know what his name is.so let the TOOLS speak,every time they open their mouths,they just make bigger fools of themselves.
When the next terrorist attack comes, and it will, one can only hope they hit our liberal bastions in New York or LA or San Fran, or dare say it, TEHSTUPIDS house. Maybe then they will appreciate the last seven years.
Very good place
==
http://www.myspace.com/paulandre
There’s an elephant in this room and every room that seeks to analyze the incredible effect liberals seem to be having on this country. A left leaning ethnic group of less than 2% includes those who decide what is in our news, our comedies, and our government both neocon and anti-bush. Lorne Michaels belongs and has always made SNL and those who want screen time there biased.
Why can’t we talk about this uncomfortable and central issue?
Hear, hear, Tony G. It's really easy to kick someone when their down and judge their leadership while watching from the sidelines.
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