New!! : McCain Action Man

A great change is facing the world. A rogue politician plans to upheave current systems and affect everything from climate change to civil rights to the economy to healthcare to international policy. Only one man can stop Barack Obama in his diabolical scheme. Only one man can keep everything exactly the same. He is the greatest war hero of them all. That’s right, it’s John McCain.

Yes, there is a new Action Man figure due to be released this November. The figure is slightly different to the vintage Action Man dolls – for instance it doesn’t have the same fuzzy hairstyle, going for the aerodynamic look, or the same posable arms – but toy manufacturers are assuring the American public that this new Action Man is THE greatest hero of them all.

He may not have the features we have all come to know and love in our favourite hero, but he has been around longer than Action Man himself, and has more combat experience.

This new McCain Action Man may look less agile than earlier models, but he does all his own stunts. Yes, a strategic genius, he is one soldier that knows exactly the right weapon to use when his enemy starts to look strong.

Barack Obama may think he and his team can outsmart our hero with their straight forward politics and commitment to their word, but nothing can stop our hero on his quest for the White House. After all, he is older than dirt with more scars than Frankenstein.* Real scars too – ones from torture, and losing to Bush and, torture, and being called a homosexual. To make it through such ordeals without changing your stance or your outlook on the world even one inch is the mark of a true American hero.

So this November, get yourself and the whole family down to Walmart to get your exclusive John McCain Action Man doll. You’ll find it in aisle five between the live ammunition and baby seal harpoons.

*It is assumed that McCain meant the monster of Frankenstein and not the scientiist himself who has no known of scars of note, at least not in Mary Shelley’s unabridged version of the book. Being an American hero though, i assume he has not had time to read this book and is thus forgiven.

Lesson for Life #2 : Never be a Hired Goon

If comic books, movies, television and cartoons have thought us anything, it’s that hired goons/nameless henchmen always suffer the worst fates of all. Whatever about the main villains of the piece, these guys get a really raw deal. They don’t die with particular dignity or ceremony, and they don’t die for any goal or point. I mean, at least with the majority of Bond villains, they died at the hand of the best spy on her majesty’s service, having being foiled in their missions to blackmail the western world/destroy London with a nuclear missile/run smuggling operations and so forth. They weren’t shot in the back of the head while unloading a crate of stuff they didn’t own in the middle of the night for someone they’d never met.

Sure, from the evil villain’s point of view, it’s great. As C. Montogomery Burns puts it, “I prefer the personal touch you only get with hired goons.” Sure, it’s great to have henchmen do your bidding, but it’s not so much fun when you are the uncredited, unnamed, faceless henchman.

I’m not saying for a second that you need to enter a life of warmongering, embezzlement, extortion or general nihilistic terror. But, if you do choose that path, or on whatever path you do choose, stick to your principles. Set your own goals, do what you’re good at, leave your mark and keep your honour. Never be the hired goon when you can be the hero or the evil master.

Here are just a few examples of ‘goon hiring’ shows out there that back up my theory that it’s no fun being a hired goon:

1. The Joker’s Hired Goons, Batman.

Throughout the ages of Batman, all the villains have had henchmen to carry out their dirty work. Whether it’s being ambushed while unloading crates in the middle of the night, being shot by your boss, or being made to fight for your life with another hired goon with half of a broken pool cue as a weapon, being the hired hand of one of the Dark Knight’s enemies ultimately ends badly. I chose the Joker because his brand of master villainy in particular places little value on the lives of the hired help. From setting all his goons up to kill each other on a bank job, to making former mob gorillas fight for a place on his goon-roll, to ramming a pencil through the head of a member of the mob, Joker constantly comes up with new and creative ways of undermining his workforce and the workforce of other Gotham criminals. Even with these tactics and the low morale of the Gotham scumbags, he still managed to get all of the Gotham mob to shift allegiances to his side when he became the main man of Gotham. And they had to wear stupid face-paint.

Lesson : goons are forced to work for psychopaths in risky conditions with very little job security. Embarrassing uniforms also a downside.

2. Doctor Evil’s Private Army, Austin Powers : International Man of Mystery.

Ah, the human, vulnerable side of the hired goon. In a few touching scenes in this spy spoof movie we got to see exactly how the families and loved-ones of a henchman are affected by the careless disregard for their lives by their employers, enemies and the writers of the films and books in which they feature. When one hired henchman is run over by a steam-roller, we witness the heart-wrenching phone call to his mother, and the moment when she has to break the knews to her young son, Billy, that his big brother, Steve, was run over by a steam-roller and would not be home to play catch with him. As if that’s not enough emotion for one film, another hired henchman’s life is senslessley and prematurely lost when he is decapitated by a tank of ill-tempered, mutated seabass. This news is received with dismay and shock by his awaiting stag party.

Lesson : Being a hired goon puts your loved-ones at risk of having their world torn apart, and because you’re of no consequence, neither will they be when you’re gone. You won’t be remembered, and neither will they when it comes to compo time.

3. The Foot Soldiers, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The masked, trained foot clan that faced off time and time again against the heroes in a half shell worked for the evil super-mutant baddie, Shredder. At one point, Shredder considered making these highly skilled mercenaries a bit smarter, but he tried it with a prototype and it turned against him and tried to overthrow him. He realised that they should be deadly, but ultimately, stupid in order to serve him adequately. However, the problem with this was that they were all pretty much as thick as horse manure and ended up getting their heads kicked in by the turtles on every outing. It was probably better for them, in retrospect, that their faces were hidden. Getting your ass handed to you by 4 giant sewer turtles when you’re supposed to be a trained ninja soldier is pretty feeble.

Lesson : If you’re a hired goon, the man (in this case Shredder) will always try to keep you down. If he doesn’t think you’re worth it, no one else will. You’re setting yourself up for failure.

So, just what is it about the nameless, faceless soldiers who work hard, but ultimately have no goals that makes them such likely candiates for early retirement into the shark tank in the sky? Well, there is a lot to be said for fighting spirit. Some of these hired goons may be well-trained, but they just don’t have the determination and courage of heroes, or even of super villains. Their cause isn’t their own, and it shows in their work. Don’t let that be you.

As famous British spy Nigel Powers says to a henchman of Dr. Evil in Austin Powers, Goldmember:

Do you know who I am?

Henchman: [nods] Nigel: Have you got any idea how many anonymous henchmen I’ve killed over the years?

Henchman: [nods again]

Nigel: I mean, look at you. You don’t even have a name tag. You’ve got no chance. Why don’t you just fall down?Go on son.

[henchman falls down]

There you have it really. The guy with the charisma, wit and confidence overpowers the goon. What a surprise. It’s all about mentality. If you see yourself as a goon, others will too. And it’s not just in the world of crime of doing the work of evil, but in all walks of life. Would you want a goon doing your taxes? Would you want a goon teaching your kids spellings and algebra? Would you want a goon being president of the United States? (That may be a weak example.) But still, there’s nothing cool about being a hired goon. Stand tall, don’t work for anyone whose name starts with ‘The’ or contains the word ‘death’, don’t wear a mask and don’t let it happen to you.

Ireland’s Next Top Model

According to the Indo and the Herald, it looks like there’s going to be an Irish version of Tyra Banks’ world famous show, America’s Next Top Model.

 

The first issue with I have with this concept is captured beautifully in the first line of the Herald article:

IRELAND’S top catwalk queens may be in for some stiff competition before the year is out.

This whole idea of searching for Ireland’s NEXT top model is a bit problematic. Whose shoes will they be filling exactly? In America, Tyra Banks – one of the most famous supermodels in the world - is the mentor and judge for the girls. In Germany – the legendary Heidi Klum is the one to whom the aspiring young ladies can look for guidance. Slightly pushing it, Britain have chosen Lisa Snowdon. While hardly ‘top model’ material, she did go out with George Clooney for a very long time, which in fairness, does give her some grounds to tell the rest of us how it’s done. Who have we got lined up for the job? Well, it’s rumoured to be Andrea Roche, former Miss Ireland. So everything that Tyra has been banging on about for the last 10 seasons about the competition being a search for a model and not a beauty pageant queen is out the window then. But hey, I’m sure the big wigs in charge of the project know what they are doing…

…After all, the company set to bring Ireland’s Next Top Model to our screens is none other than Screentime Shinawil, the same people who brought us You’re a Star and Popstars. I mean, it’s not like they’d allow someone who didn’t know what they were talking about be a judge on the show, is it? That would be like putting a failed popstar turned glamour model and Fair City reject in charge of advising and selecting new up and coming popstars… oh wait, eh…. Okay, it’s not like they’d pour loads of time and money into a show and then have the result be a completely misjudged, mismanaged flop, no..they’d never do that..would they?…

I can just imagine what the Irish version of the show would entail:

Challenges involving cow-milking: “As a top model, you have to be ready to get to grips with any scenario and be a professional.“

Photo shoots in the Galtee Mountains or out in the middle of some bog : “Top models often have to brave the elements in the name of high fassshhhion.”

Final judgements in the elimination room in front of an expert panel made up of panto legend herself, Twink, the fella who does the airbrushing for RSVP magazine and whichever member of Boyzone isn’t making a comeback/changing religions/joining the cast of Coronation Street this week. That’ll be the old one then.

Weekly photographs illustrating the true diversity of the hidden talent and beauty Ireland has to offer: from Lancome flash bronzer, to Fake Bake, to St. Tropez, to Clarins – the range of shades and brands of fake tans these beauties will lather on in order to battle the rain streaks knows no bounds.

With everything from blonde bobs, to blone extensions, to platinum bobs, to blonde with brown extensions underneath, to long blonde, to blonde streaks – capturing the truly unusual, dynamic and uncultivated beauty of the average girl walking through the streets of Donnybrook or Drumcondra is what this show is all about.

I can see it now: giving opportunity to those who have really had to pull themselves up by the bootstraps. Only previously successful in regional pageants and in doing promotions in lycra for the local radio station, these young buds will finally be able to blossom on national television. And what better channel to showcase the best and brightest and most beautiful girls in Ireland, than TV3, home of Miss Universe Ireland, in its pink bikini-clad glory, and Diary of a Beauty Queen, a sneak preview at the truly insipid nature of some of these fame hungry girls with boobs, legs and little else.

I may sound a just a tad sceptical about the prospect of INTM coming to our screens, and you may think that I am being needlessly unfair. But ask yourself: is Ireland ready for this show? I have to say no. We live in a country where girls aspire to be beautiful by parading in bikinis and wearing tiaras and waving to assembled crowds at pageants. And judging by the winners of such pageants in previous years, it’s pretty clear that the mold of the girl with long legs, big boobs, poker straight hair and fake tan has not been broken.

If we are to believe supermodels are glorified clothes horses, that’s well and good. But you cannot deny that when you see a picture of Kate Moss or Tyra Banks or Helena Christensen in a couture gown, it looks slightly more impressive than Rosanna Davidson or Glenda Gilson in a dress from Brown Thomas. There is no definitive way of looking at beauty, and no way of deciding what is and is not stylish. But Irishness is unmistakable, and the uncanny ability Irish ‘celebrities’ have of taking things from American or British pop culture, such as reality TV, glamour modelling and fashion magazines and turning them into head-in-you-hands-cringefests cannot be denied. Something tells me that INTM is yet another chance for the embarrassing underbelly of the Irish entertainment industry to rear it’s ugly, spray-tanned, ghd-ed, noisy, vacant head.

Lesson for Life #1 – Empathy

In order to explain how empathy came to me, and why empathy is lesson number one, I first have to give you the background of the events that lead me to this lesson. I have a retired US politician, a nightclub, rain and some strangers to thank. So if you’ll indulge me, here is how I came to regard empathy as a very important life lesson.

In an effort to stop my brain from turning to mush over the summer, I decided to take adavantage of the library in college before they revoked my student card, and actually get some books out that might be some way relevent to my masters. I have been reading The Fog of War : Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara. Robert McNamara is a former US Secretary of Defense and was involved in some of the major international crises of the 20th century during his career. The Fog of War is a book based on a documentary made about the lessons McNamara learned from his involvement in events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War.

Robert S. McNamara

In terms of stopping my brain turning to mush, it is an interesting and stimulating read based on something called critical oral history. This combines the insights of historians, official documents and the recollections of former officials, who were heavily involved in the events, in order to come to conclusions regarding lessons that should be learnt from certain mistakes or crises in international history. The ‘fog of war’ refers to how these mistakes are often made because of the effect that war has on human rationality, emotion, trust and decion-making ability.

This book explores some of these lessons and is designed to give the reader a chance to understand what it must have been like for rational human beings to have had their judgements clouded by the ‘fog of war.’ The first lesson, and probably the most important one to all the rest, is empathise with your enemy. Empathy is very important in international relations, and it is also often absent. Things that we read or hear about as news or history were more than just monumental events at one point. Each of these huge things can be broken down into a series of decisions made based on the knowledge, sources, fears, beliefs and assumptions of various political leaders. The point of the empathy lesson is that two opposing parties can be in complete disagreement over something and may be completely unable to see eye to eye on aims or principles, but can still understand that the other party may feel genuine fear, concern or interest. It was because of a lack of empathy that the Cuban Missile Crisis nearly became the most devastating loss of human life in history, and it is because of empathy that it was finally averted.

All of this makes perfect sense, and it makes even more sense if you read the book, which you should, if you have the chance.

Allow me now to apply the lesson of empathy to my own life, but instead of the Fog of War, I am going to refer to the events of last night as the Fog of Rain.

So I went to work yesterday evening, with my head full of words and thoughts to take me through the hours. My evening job consists of standing outside the Courthouse handing out flyers for a Cork Nightclub. It’s grand work, when the weather is nice. The time flies and you meet and see lots of people. Last night, the weather was awful. It lashed rain for the whole three hours, and the street was not the same hive of excitment that it usually is when groups of people are coming and going.

So it rained and poured, and I tried to give flyers to the people who walked past in dribs and drabs. In my mind, every one person who accepted a flyer from me made my bundle one flyer lighter, and made it a smidgen easier to hold my giant umbrella. When you’re wet and cross, (or when the fog of rain descends upon you) it’s strange how the tiniest gestures, like someone taking a flyer and saying thank you, can give you a little bit of extra steam. It’s like half way through a run up hill, a sup of water can make you go on for that little bit longer without feeling like you want to die.

In my mind, I knew that if I was miserable under my umbrella, then all of these people trudging to and fro in the fog of rain must be miserable too. Yet I still had to do my job, so I tried not to be too annoying and just do the flyering.

Most people just take it and keep going. Maybe they use it, maybe it gets binned - I don’t know. But some people just ignore you, or just stuff their hands in their pockets and shake their heads or try not to catch your eye and scurry past. Why do they look so frightened? I’m not selling anything, I’m not asking them to stop, I’m not going to beat them up. Every single time a person turns down a flyer it’s like a little kick in the guts. Just TAKE it. I don’t care what you do with it anymore. JUST TAKE IT!!

My anger, their fear, the reason they won’t take it, the reason I really want them to – it’s the special set of circumstances offset by the rain.

And then, under my umbrella, alone, in the rain, it came to me. These are the people, that, given a situation of substantially higher stakes and more serious consequences, would be the non-empathisers. You can always tell about a person’s intuition in its simplest form by how they react to a minor incident with a complete stranger when no one is watching.

The people who refuse to take a simple flyer from me are doing so because they are wet, in a hurry and probably not going to go clubbing. But if they empathised with me, then surely they would see that I’m pretty miserable too,  handing out flyers in the rain. And even though we are on opposing sides, with me giving out flyers, and them not wanting them, me wanting them to go to a club, and them not wanting to, they would appreciate that my aims are not malicious, but I am only doing what is in my best interest (earning money, for food), and the best interest of my peple (the nightclub) and what I believe in principle is right. (Go out and have fun, don’t go home!)

The fact that they don’t care about or agree with these ideals and aims, is irrelevant. They should understand that this is what I must do. I understand their feelings. And I’m not getting in the way of their aims. They can still go home, they don’t have to go anywhere, they don’t have to talk to me. Nothing about their life needs to change, other than the fact that they make my night a little better.

So you see: it makes perfect sense. They didn’t take a flyer because they don’t want one, and their personal wants outweighed their capacity for empathy.

And they all passed by. And I was left standing there. With my soggy flyers. In the rain.

The most positive outcome of this whole experience is that I managed to actually remember something I read in a book, and managed to apply it (don’t even think about saying tenuously) to a real-life, 1st principles scenario. And by coming up with this (don’t say mad) theory, I managed to kill few minutes in the cold without resorting to games on my mobile that are likely to murder any brain cells I did preserve by reading a history book in the first place.

Thank you Robert.

Thank you rude strangers.

Thank you Fog of Rain.

Obama : Intelligent, Inspiring, Dynamic and Really Not Funny

 As the US Presidential Race heats up, it’s difficult to read a publication on world politics or watch a global news programme without coming across a story relating to the 2008 elections. Amidst the serious articles, interviews, polls and analysis there is always a place for satire. Journalists and cartoonists all over the world had a field day with Hilary Clinton. She’s a woman, a former first lady and, well, a Clinton. On top of that she has a habit of making some very dodgy facial expressions in public and even crying at one point during her campaign, while addressing the press and public in New Hampshire in January. When she finally bowed out of the race for the Democratic nomination after year and half slog-out with Barack Obama, it was a race between Obama and the Republican candidate, John McCain. The focus of the comedy world shifted now to the young African-American nominee and the aging Vietnam Veteran. As with any Republican Senator in the US, there was no shortage of Left-Wing critics of McCain. Jon Stewart and the crew on The Daily Show in particular have a reputation for pulling no punches when it comes to satirising the politics and actions of the Republican Party.

When it comes to political satire, it seems that it is the Democrat nominee, Barack Obama, who is proving to be the bump in the comedy road. Whatever you say about the popular Democrat Senator, he is really hard to make fun of. He’s steering clear of controversy and has taken early criticisms of his inexperience and idealistic politics of ‘hope’ and ‘change’ in his stride. Now he has secured the nomination, he is the picture of the balanced, confident, popular politician. He is young, but not naive, hopeful, but not unrealistic, smart, but not uncool, and cool but not in an irresponsible threatening-to-middle-America sort of way. He is the wind of change that gently caresses the back of your neck and reminds you to take a sweater, as oppose to the hurricane that blows your umbrella inside out when you were expecting a light drizzle. People think he is wonderful, and it is easy to see why.

So when a Fox news reporter commented that his greeting with wife, Michelle, was a ‘terrorist fist-jab’ people were obviously shocked at the implication. Most people though it was ridiculous and the reporter soon took back the remarks and said they were meant as a joke. It was this incident that sparked the New Yorker to last week put a satirical cartoon of Barack and Michelle Obama on its cover. The cartoon depicts the couple bumping fists with Obama dressed  in Muslim robes and his wife in combat gear. There was a portrait of Osama Bin Laden on the wall of the Oval Office and an American Flag burning in the fireplace.

The response from both Democrat and Republican camps was to decry the cartoon as being offensive and out of line. The New Yorker, which has a history of such political sattire, defended the cartoon rightfully. The cartoon is not 1930s propaganda. It is not depicting the Obamas as terrorists. The idea of the cover was to take all the ridiculous things that had been uttered in relation to Obama, blow them up, and show how silly a picture they made. The theme of the cover was the Politics of Fear, and the point was to show all the ridiculous things (like a Christian Democrat Senator is an Islamic terrorist) people say in order to frighten people distort the democratic process in the United States. It has been this way for some time, and has heightened during the reign of the Bush Administration and come under particular scrutiny with political documentaries such as Farrenheit 9/11 and Bowling For Columbine, by Michael Moore.

Following the harsh criticisms of the New Yorker cover from the Obama camp, many late night comedians began to feel the sting of the lack of things to make fun of about Barack Obama. All the reasons he is wonderful make it difficult enough for your average left-wing satirist, but the reaction the New Yorker got for making fun of religious or racial criticisms of the politican really seemed to put the fears into political comedians in the States. With the researchers and audiences of late night comedy shows being predominantly white, they want to avoid backlash for sketches that may be deemed racist. Jon Stewart has said that finding jokes about the healthy, intelligent, gifted public speaker is not an easy task. “We’re carrion birds,” said Stewart, “We’re sitting up there saying ‘Does he seem weak? Is he dehydrated yet? Let’s attack.’ … So far, our take is that he’s positioning himself to be on a coin.”

Maybe there is nohing funny about Barack Obama. Maybe he is just one of those people that you like, but just can’t joke about. Maybe after 8 years of Bush, we need a straight laced, straight talking intelligent figurehead. But at the same time, I think he last thing the democrat nominee in this tight race needs to be doing is taking him too seriously when it comes to media sattire. Obama seems to have it all. I’d hate to see him taking himself too seriously as the perfect president become the one thing that the satirists can say about him without fear of reprecussions. Well, that and his big ears.

The future of funny: The Saturday Night Live Curse.

With the recent release of ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’, the latest effort of the ever-morphing Hollywood ‘Frat Pack’, a new breed of comedy film is taking cinemas by storm. The likes of Old School, Dodgeball and Anchorman (courtesy of Ferrell, Vaughan et. al) have found their place in most of our hearts and permanent DVD collections. A couple of years on and we have films such as Knocked Up, Superbad and Forgetting Sarah Marshall making their mark and providing a whole new collection of quotes and catchphrases for us all to overuse and get sick of. The new Hollywood…. (ok running out of words that end in ‘-at’)…. Sprat Pack is a motley crew of the likes of Jonah Hill, Jason Segel, Seth Rogen and Bill Hader, with a smooth transition from the ‘Frat Pack’ by Phoebe’s boyfriend off of Friends. The huge success of these recent releases got me thinking about what happens to the classic comedy stars after they hang their Dodgeball uniform/fraternity blazer/burgundy suit up for good.

A recent article in the Indiana Jones issue of Empire Magazine hailed the team behind ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall’ as the new wave of Saturday Night Live hosts to collaborate and make a series of funny and potentially cult films. It jogged my mind down memory lane to such jaunts in the 1980s as the brilliant ‘Three Amigos’ (Chevy Chase, Martin Short and Steve Martin) and ‘Ghostbusters’ (Dan Akyroyd, Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver.) Things were not so different then. The basic formula was the same: A number of young funny guys, want to make a few movies, get together and have a bit of a laugh, a fairly hot lady with a sense of humour, a few big name guests, a lot of memorable gags, a place in cult and comedy history…. You can almost trace the stencil to today’s pack of funny guys.

In the case of the Anchorman/Dodgeball Era you had Vaughan, Stiller and Ferrell as the funny guys with the silly stories. With a few of their crew they churned out hit after hit. The odd girl part was tossed in the way of actresses such as Kelly out of Married with Children and Ben Stiller’s missus. Add to this a few appearances by Chuck Norris and Lance Armstrong and you’re away in a hack. We laughed, we cried, we put their jokes on bebo.

Now it’s all happening again. You have the basic gang of guys and the same sort of storylines. Throw in a hot blend of Katherine Heigl, Mila Kunis and her out of Veronica Marrs and you’re almost there. A smidgeon of Russell Brand should do the trick. And hey presto, you’ve done it again.

But now we have new guys to laugh at, what of the golden oldies? Well, turning the clock way back, lets look at the original Saturday Night Live school of dude-films. Back when Steve Martin was funny. He made ‘Three Amigos!’ and ‘Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.’ Classics, no doubts. Then, he got older and made smash hits such as, umm, Cheaper by the Dozen. hmmm. Well there was Chevy Chase. Remember, he was in that Paul Simon Video? and all those National Lampoon Movies? And then emm, The Karate Dog…. The same pattern can’t be drawn for Bill Murray who’s deadpan hangdog dryness got him roles in films such as ‘Groundhog Day’ and ‘Lost in Translation’, classics in their own right. He branched away from silly comedy and made himself his own niche in the film market.

Fast forward a few years. The less said about Stiller’s later efforts the better. Night at the Museum. I think the point makes itself. Post-Anchorman Ferrell tried to make his mark again with ‘Talladega Nights’, and while funny, it made nowhere near the same impression as the earlier efforts. Trying a new spin on chewing-gum-for-the-eyes comedy he made the little league comedy ‘Kicking and Screaming’, a lukewarm effort by all accounts. His most memorable role, to my mind, since the golden days has been the troubled protaginist in the quirky but funny ‘Stranger than Fiction’ alongside Emma Thompson. Maybe if he ‘does a Murray’, so to speak, he can carry his talents forward and escape the ‘Saturday Night Live curse.’ Vaughan has branched out into the Rom Com area in ‘the Break Up’, which enjoyed reasonably good box office success. He’s an actor who has already shown his versatility thanks to his turn as the chilling Norman Bates in the 1990s remake of Hitchcock’s ‘Psycho.’ Laying the head low for a bit after the ‘Frat Pack juggernaut’ has passed might allow him to make the smooth transition into more good films with less typecast roles.

And now we have ‘the new guys.’ They are young, they are fresh, they are funny. I have Knocked Up. I have Superbad. I’ll probably watch them again and again, and I’ll probably buy ‘Sarah Marshall’ on DVD. But are these guys the future of comedy, or the present? Have they peaked already? I’m trying to imagine Jonah Hill as the feckless dad of Dakota Fanning and 6 less famous, but arguably cuter and younger, children in a family comedy in 5 years: her dimple phase a distant memory, his pink eye days a thing of the past. When you look at what has happened to some of the comedy greats, it’s not all that hard to imagine really. And who’s the next to be hit by the SNL comedy movie bug? Please don’t let it be Lindsay Lohan…. Although, if she disappears and never works again afterwards, it might be worth sticking out one lousy comedy. As long as she doesn’t play two of herself again.