Posted on 11/27/2014 9:15:55 PM PST by TigerLikesRooster
[WSJ] ‘The Interview’: Comedy Gold in North Korea
November 26, 2014
Clowns behind enemy lines have always helped us fear evil empires a little bit less. Charlie Chaplin mocked the Nazis in the “The Great Dictator” (1940) and Jack Benny did, too, in “To Be or Not to Be” (1942). Bill Murray and Harold Ramis made mayhem behind the Iron Curtain in “Stripes” (1981). Now James Franco and Seth Rogen infiltrate North Korea and parody its leader Kim Jong Un in “The Interview.”
“For decades, people have used humor to enlighten political situations,” says Mr. Rogen, who also co-wrote and co-directed the movie with his longtime collaborator Evan Goldberg. “I would say that was probably our fourth priority while making this movie.”
(Excerpt) Read more at koreatimesus.com ...
Bump
The Un is still angry about this video someone recently made.
It stars The Un (plus his dad and granddad), The One, Osama Bin Laden, Putin, and a couple of others.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUgEmezpS_E
“Last month North Korea reacted furiously to reports that Hollywood is to release a comedy movie about journalists sent to kill the North Korean leader starring Seth Rogan and James Franco.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/northkorea/10985913/Kim-Jong-un-tries-to-ban-dancing-viral-video.html
Kim Jong Un impersonator (world’s first).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsuukU_DSD8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlOaxe5C2nE
Too bad that Kim cannot spew vile hatred against China unlike S. Korea and U.S.. Imagine NK media calling Xi Jinping a human scum.:-) The consequence will be too dangerous to contemplate.
He forgot someone!
Those videos were downright hilarious. The guy was right. It freaks people out.
I loved those videos, too!
They mocked Hitler when it could have got them killed. Mel Brooks mocked Hitler after he was gone.
A very relevant point.
Kim has the resources, and may be crazy enough, to send assassins after the makers of this movie, if offended sufficiently.
Meh.
Mel Brooks was born in 1926 and was in the Army during WWII.
Not to beat this into the ground, but on further reflection you are correct in your insinuation that 17 year old Mel Brooks was too much of a pussy to take on Hitler via sarcasm while Der Fuehrer was alive. So rather than bravely mock him while alive, Mel Brooks joined the U.S. Army Engineers and sought to actually kill Hitler (or rather help others kill him - by defusing land mines). Once the Schicklgruber was dead, Mel could safely write The Producers.
Brooks' contemporaries agreed that he was a pussy, but brilliant.
It didn’t take any courage to mock Hitler in the 1960s. Moe Howard and Charles Chaplin openly mocked Hitler wile he was in power.
It’s in this context that I make my observation.
Mel’s mockery doesn’t compare to the other entertainers’ mockery in terms of possibly paying a consequence.
And 17 year old Brooks likewise showed no courage by enlisting in the Army during WWII, I suppose.
BTW Brooks took on a lot of things during his life. Some things took courage. Others took raw talent. Nothing wrong with the latter. It doesn’t suggest you don’t have the former.
Not the same kind of courage it took to make movies about a dictator that might put a price on your head, no.
I can concur that Blazing Saddles may not have taken the same courage as it did to produce The Great Dictator. And I do get your overall point.
But to imply that Brooks didn’t have the same courage as, say, Chaplin, because Brooks made The Producers much later is to ignore that teenage Brooks was in the field helping to kill Hitler. And that’s a fair counterpoint to make.
Now, if Chaplin had made The Great Dictator in 1955, you would have a very apt point. But it’s not apt when speaking about Brooks, who was a teenaged enlisted man during the war.
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