Will Ferrell: Did I Miss the Memo?

Will Ferrell

I think I did miss the memo. Apparently there is a good segment of the population that believe he is funny.

With the upcoming release of Anchorman 2 we have all been battered with “Ron Burgundy” shilling for Dodge Durangos, Will Ferrell reading out the Dodger lineup in the NLCS and other tortuous tie-ins.

I never liked him on SNL. His over-the-top characters tried too hard, and they had the desperation of trying to appeal to middle America. There was something mean about his portrayal of a male cheerleader and a club hopper. In fact, most of SNL during that period was an attempt to dehumanize the margins to appeal to the populace.

The only film of his I watched was A Night at the Roxbury, and that was under coercion. You would have hoped that my turning a sketch into a feature film there would be some character development, but it stayed at the superficial level. Sure you can make fun of these stereotypes, but they are human also. Instead of tapping into that a little, it remained a ha-ha-look-at-how-pathetic-they-are type of schlock.

I haven’t watch any of his other movies. Every time I see him make a television appearance, I keep hoping for something funny to happen. I have yet to see it.

It confounds me how much people like him. I don’t get it. Can someone tell me why he’s funny?

He might be a great guy. But I just don’t find him funny at all.