‘Ghostbusters’ and the Death of Comedy
Really? Abortion is a difficult topic. So are drone strikes, capital punishment and enhanced interrogation.
“Ghostbusters” is about a four heroes in grey suits taking down paranormal creatures. Easy peasy.
Not any more.
The decision to remake “Ghostbusters [Blu-ray]
” with four female, not male, performers had some wisdom to it. It makes the long-delayed reboot instantly different. It also allows the new cast members to blaze their own trail while escaping the shadows left by the original team. Who wants to measure up against Bill Murray? Anyone?
What’s the bottom line?
That casting decision unleashed the full force of modern political correctness. Some saw the casting choices as insulting the original film’s legacy. Others viewed it as a chance to flex female power at the box office. Finally.
In the latter case, “Ghostbusters” is now not just another movie reboot. It’s a cause celebre, If it fails, women in Hollywood will be hardest hit. So now everything surrounding the project has a PC charge to it.
It’s why TheVerge.com felt compelled to publish this essay, entitled, “How to talk about the new Ghostbusters movie with friends, family, and commenters.”
Ghostbusters is a difficult topic. To help you through the next few months, we created a simple guide to writing about or discussing the film. Whenever you feel yourself bubbling with rage about four women destroying everything you’ve ever loved, open this page and protect yourself and the internet from inexhaustive rage.
Sound unnecessary? Movie fans are already upset that one of the four new characters isn’t a scientist according to the film’s first trailer. The reboot, like the 1984 original, focuses on three paranormal experts – read scientists – who battle a wave of ghosts in New York City.
RELATED: Is Comedy Tide Turning Against PC Culture?
Kate McKinnon, Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig play the three scientists, with Leslie Jones joining the team already in progress. The first three actresses are white. Jones is black. Guess what happened next?
Why couldn’t Leslie Jones be a scientist? WOC are capable of being more than the sassy sidekick. #ghostbusters
— Maria (@BeLikeAudrey) March 4, 2016
That’s only one of many outraged tweets. The trailer even inspired one YouTube regular, Smoothiefreak, to record this charming rant.
Comedy in 2016 is already on life support. Comedians live in fear that a particular joke will outrage someone, anyone, and the blowback will go viral. Jobs are at stake. So are livelihoods. When Jerry Seinfeld, the squeakiest of squeaky clean comics, complains about people taking his jokes the wrong way, there’s a problem.
The upcoming documentary “Can We Take a Joke?” lets stand-ups speak out against the PC Police. Will it arrive in time to change hearts and minds?
We just watched an entire Oscars ceremony begging us to forgive Hollywood for being racist. What happened next? People were upset by jokes they say targeted Asian-Americans.
Would you want to write comedy for a living today?
Lost in the kerfuffle? The first “Ghostbusters” trailer just isn’t funny. Not even close. The finished product could still be a blast. The film’s cast is impressive and director Paul Feig previously delivered “Bridesmaids.”
“Ghostbusters” hits theaters July 15. By then, will anyone be in the mood to even watch it assuming the current PC dialogue continues?
UPDATE: According to The Washington Post, we’re only allowed one point of view on the new “Ghostbusters” trailer.
That trailer was even worse than I thought it would be.
Thank you for the excellent review. It’s fine if ladies wish to turn a silly movie into a serious message about inclusion and diversity. I challenge ladies to write their own movie in the future and stop stealing from men. By the way, ghosts are real and need our attention and few have the courage to pause and find out what they need: to pay off a debt. Duh.
Imagine what would happen if a movie made its hero a conservative Republican scientist. The same people who think a silly fantasy comedy has as some sort of social obligation to make its main black female character a scientist under the assumption that it will some how increase their representation in the real world would be aghast, saying that it’s impossible because they don’t exist in real life.
I hate these people. Political correctness and victim class feminists can choke to death on their putrid self righteousness. Screw this move, screw you if you think having a vag makes you special, screw you if you take offense.
Women of the past were funny because of their personality, now women have to be funny because they are women, it is not going to work.
When Melissa McCarthy isn’t allowed to be the brash Melissa McCarthy, the movie fails (think the road trip movies with Susan Sarandon and Jason Bateman). It looks like Ghostbusters is using that Melissa instead of Bridesmaids, Heat, and Spy Melissa.
Q: How many feminists does it take to change a light bulb?
A: That’s not funny
The original had some of the best comic actor/writers of the last century.
They were willing to fund AND distribute Bill Murrays otherwise unsellable “The Razor’s Edge” to get him to LOWER himself to do it.
When somebody said “Remake of the ‘Ghostbusters’ with female cast” I thought:
Hmmm; Rosanne Barr, Rosie O’Donnel, Jill Richardson, WHoopie Goldberg……
But, just like in politics, the politically correct have no respect for anything established. The ‘money’ says “Kewel! We don’t need those expensive STARS, we’ll buy some CGI and sucker the rubes for CHEAP!”
I felt so sad for the Black Actress who, I’m sure, really, really needed a paycheck. (Hopefully big enough to kill the pain) And I’m so politically incorrect I consider my self a happy Social INjustice Warrior.
You actually thought Roseanne, Rosie, and Whoopie? Do you know what their box office track record this century is? And who is Jill Richardson? Do you mean Patricia Richardson who played Tim Allen’s wife on his show 20 years ago? The producers would only have hired them if they really were looking to save money.
This movie may turn out to be as bad as the trailer, but whatever problems it may have, casting isn’t one of them.
The lack of minority women as scientists is a direct reflection of the Bush Administration’s policies of hate against women and minorities. They especially want to keep minority women down. The Republican-controlled Cogress is happily continuing Bush’s policies of hate. Hillary will change this after she is elected as she is a tireless champion of women,
If you are not being sarcastic you’re a moron.
And you can’t tell?
Tsk, tsk. ?
Oh get bent you psychopath. Medication. Find it.
I wonder what would happen if a major motion picture featured a conservative Republican scientist as its hero. The liberal head-exploding all over the Internet would be at least as entertaining as the movie itself.
The Lovcraftian horror of that preview, with no humor and endless bellowing made me recoil.
Except that usually, Lovecraftian doesn’t mean Sucks.
Very few movies that are heavily influenced by Lovecraft do well. He was a master of written horror, but his style actually does not translate well to movies. Or at least few directors understand what it is that made his horror work, and it was not the monsters.
Gracie Allen. George Burns credited his career to her talent.
So would it have been better if they had cast Betty White as Harold Ramis’s widow and one of the younger actresses as his daughter? It would have been nice to memorialize him in some way beyond a passing reference or two.
“, If it fails, women in Hollywood will be hardest Hit”
.
Sorry, but we’re not talking about a movie here, we’re talking about political correctness, and PC is always a “win-win” for its enforcers. If the movie is a hit, the narrative will be “girl power defeats patriarchy, now give us moar girl power movies”. If it flops the narrative will be “sexism beats girl power, exposes need for moar girl power movies”
doesn’t matter if the actresses suck balls or if the rewritten script is even worse. All that matters is that it’s Politically Correct…and for that reason alone, I won’t spend my hard earned dollars on shyte.
Feminism is cancer.
According to Milo Yiannopulous’s polls, it’s actually worse than cancer.
Cancer is curable.
Anyone want to back my all-White remake of “Waiting to Exhale?” It’s called “Don’t Hold Your Breath.”
How about an all-white remake of “The Wiz”?
Wait, what?
ZFG.