David Zucker’s An American Carol Trailer Starring Chris Farley’s Brother

Posted by on August 15th, 2008   Filed under: Comedy, Trailers, TV

Writer/director David Zucker definitely knows his around the spoof genre, and he should, since he’s been doing it for a good 30 years now. Although he kind of fell off the map for a while (along with his brother Jerry and writing partner Jim Abrahams) after The Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult, he has since find a new home taking over the reins to the wildly popular Scary Movie franchise. Now this year, he’s about to release his first original comedy in a very long time, and although I would normally be somewhat excited, I honestly don’t know what to make of this.

The movie is called An American Carol, and it is a retelling of A Christmas Carol, set to a surprisingly political backdrop. It stars Chris Farley’s brother Kevin as a Michael Moore lookalike named Michael Malone, who is crusading against the Fourth of July holiday, when he gets a visit from three ghosts who try to show him the good in America. Now I’m not against making fun of Michael Moore, but is this really funny enough to carry an entire film? I don’t know. It doesn’t help that the trailer for the flick actually premiered on The O’Reilly Factor (Bill O’Reilly has a cameo in it). Talk about playing to a conservative audience! Part of me thinks that Trey Parker and Matt Stone somehow inspired this movie (Zucker did BASEketball, after all) but it seems a bit too overtly political even for them. I will say that the trailer had a few funny moments, but overall something about it just doesn’t feel right to me. Check out the trailer below and see what you think. An American Carol hits theatres on October 3rd.

Update: You can now watch it in high-definition over at Yahoo!



  • Aaron

    For the record, O’Reilly is a registered Independent. He is not a Republican.

  • O’Reilly is a jerkoff. Plain and simple. He gives a bad name to conservative minded people in general. That being said, an overtly biased liberal like Michael Moore is overdue for a roast. I don’t think the movie looks very good, but I don’t begrudge it’s existence like I think most people will. After all, it’s not going to do big box office.

  • Goon

    “For the record, O’Reilly is a registered Independent. He is not a Republican”

    http://mediamatters.org/static/img/oreilly-voter-reg.jpg

    nope.

    anyways, conservatives generally fail at satire (remember 24 hour news hour?). Its going to suck pretty hard.

  • Goon

    oh, and

    “That being said, an overtly biased liberal like Michael Moore is overdue for a roast.”

    do you realize how many anti-Moore movies have been made already? have you not been paying attention? Michael Moore Hates America, Me & Michael, Fahrenhype 9/11, and on and on and on and on.

  • Goon

    anyways, much like I fear for W and is the case with a number of political movies lately, An American Carol is a political movie first and a comedy second, and using Moore seems dated, and what they show us in the trailer is more blatantly mean than satirical.

    In this movie, and this is true, there is a scene where George Washington teleports Michael Moore to Ground Zero, and accuses him of “abusing free speech to disrespect the dust of 3000 innocent people”.

    Hi-larious.

  • That doesn’t even make sense to me.

    This looks embarrasingly bad. Reminds me of the 5-minute amateur theatre that people do, where it’s always some easy celebrity like Michael Moore they do a sketch about.

    I laughed more when Bill O’Reilly slacked off Snoop Dogg, because I find his blatant racism pretty funny, and I find Snoop Dogg absolutely ridiculous. (In the best possible way, I don’t like his music, but his personality I can’t get enough of. His hair and wardrobe alone is outstanding entertainment.)

  • @ Goon —

    The movies you listed about Moore were all documentary style films. This is a satire, or spoof. That’s why I referred to it as a “roast.” I am well aware of the anti-Moore documentaries as I have seen them all. They are just as biased and oppurtunistic as his own films. But a spoof of him is what I think is overdue.

    Like I said– I don’t think this will be very good, but I don’t think that simply because it’s a conservative, anti-moore film. I just don’t think it will be very funny.

  • Goon

    “That’s why I referred to it as a “roast.” ”

    What’s new to satire? I mean the Moore stuff was already kind of awkward even in Team America, but I guarantee its all going to boil down to “He’s fat and he hates America”, which is lame to begin with. “Hating America” is the dumbest HURR attack concept in general and anyone who runs with that is someone I dont want to talk to regardless of political affiliation.

    “They are just as biased and oppurtunistic as his own films.”

    Not really. Moore has something to say about a topic, and everyone in return just attacks the messenger, and even there the number of errors and even larger bias they show is astounding. Like him or not, Moore doesn’t fill his movies with talking heads, bringing out Chomsky or someone to prove his point for him – whereas the anti-Moore movies are like “Moore is biased! Just ask Ann Coulter!” – I mean, what? Why are admittedly biased people complaining about bias?

  • Goon

    Anyways, to make my case at specifically why Conservatives absolutely fail at satire:

    They are incapable of also making fun of themselves.

    Look at the Daily Show or Colbert Report. Colbert does actually earnestly make fun of actual Democrats pretty often, and has the recurring character from David Cross stereotyping the far left hippie environmentalists. Stewart is incredibly self deprecating. Even Libertarians at least make fun of both sides. But the right wing, can you point at anything at all that shows that they don’t take everything so seriously?

    Here’s more on “Carol”:
    http://www.reason.com/blog/show/128061.html

    In “Carol”, the ACLU will storm a courthouse to try and remove the Ten Commandments, and the guardians of the Bible will literally blow them away. Funny? Subtle? Satire?

    After the scene I listed above, Moore replied “Leave me alone, I’m just making movies”, to which Washington will reply: “Is that what you plan to say on Judgment Day?”

    So its Christian satire too?

    Anyways, like “Redacted”, this is going to fail hard because it is politics before entertainment. At least with Moore he knows how to make entertainment a priority and will attack the left as well (ie Hillary in “Sicko” and Bill’s administration almost constantly throughout the 90s), I mean most people are mad that he has to try and make them entertaining at all. When the Zuckerites are literally saying “We have to show up to a movie that has our values.” and “Finally, a movie for us.”, I just groan, because satire in general isn’t meant to preach to the converted. Look at “Bob Roberts” – Tim Robbins is pretty leftist, but that movie is very harsh towards the left as well, and without that going for it it would be insufferable.

  • Goon

    In summary, right wing fanatics, and certain left wing fanatics, are only funny when someone like Sacha Baron Cohen is digging at them and exposing what offends them.

  • His films are oppurtunistic in the way they are edited. I understand that documentary films are biased by their very nature. The filmmaker goes in with a partular stance, and uses the film to get that across. But what I don’t like is when people take his films as gospel. Anyone with even a slight amount of knowledge of the ways that films are shot and edited would know many of his scenes are fake. This was never more obvious than in “Sicko” when he is supposedly yelling over a bullhorn to Guantanamo. It is painfully obvious that it’s a fake. The video of the scene I’m talking about is here…

    http://jonwritesforthescreen.blogspot.com/2007/11/dvd-review-sicko.html

    By the way– I don’t defend people like Ann Coulter or Bill O’Reilly. They are hypocritical dickbags. I just happen to think the same of Michael Moore.

  • “Anyways, to make my case at specifically why Conservatives absolutely fail at satire:

    They are incapable of also making fun of themselves.”

    Goon, I think you are speaking about stuffed shirt republicans, not conservatives.

    I consider myself conservative, but not necessarily republican. And you can’t lump a whole group together like you have. At least not without further clarification. I mean, I certainly don’t fit the mold of what a typical liberal would think of as a “conservative.” I’m a film school graduate, working in the film industry, pursuing an MFA in creative writing. You can’t get much more liberal friendly than that. I am way open minded when it comes to other people’s politics, I just want the same thing in return. That is something the left still hasn’t gotten. They are supposed to be the open minded bunch.

  • And you’re right– this film won’t do well, for the same reason “Redacted”, “Stop Loss” and “In the Valley of Elah” didn’t– nobody wants to go to the movies to be preached at about political beliefs– right or left.

  • Goon

    “His films are oppurtunistic in the way they are edited. But what I don’t like is when people take his films as gospel.”

    You can take this argument and apply it to every single op-ed columnist in the entire world. it is for this reason that I refuse to get upset over Michael Moore unless he is flagrantly misrepresenting someone. Some have argued that they have been, but I don’t even know for sure. I mean, those jock douches from Borat argued the same thing. People complained about for example, a scene in BFC where Heston says “from my cold dead hands” and then theres a cut and then a different part of a speech, saying “THEY WERENT AT THE SAME EVENT! HE CUT IT TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE IT WAS SAID RIGHT AFTER THE OTHER!” – I mean fuck, the ‘cold dead hands’ cut was to introduce Heston as a character into the movie, and anyone could see the clothes and background changed, there’s nothing being hidden there, but people want to make up some conspiracy there where none existed. They don’t understand filmmaking and especially the documentary standard wheere people are also to some degree, characters, who get introduced and sometimes go through their own plot.

    “This was never more obvious than in “Sicko” when he is supposedly yelling over a bullhorn to Guantanamo.”

    Christ man, Moore is doing this as a joke to the audience, its like a Colbert or Daily Show field report. You’re acting as if he was trying to make a point or some earnest appeal to the Coast Guard.

    Sorry man, Moore is pretty left and I don’t agree with him on everything, not by a bit, and yes, he does ask people questions he already knows the answer to and fakes shock at the answer, he can overplay maudlin, etc – but I’ve read Coulter, O’Reilly and Limbaugh books for some bizarre masochistic reason, and there’s no fucking way Moore is as extreme left as Coulter and Hannity are extreme right. The humor and self deprecation itself goes a long way to support that.

    I especially refuse to get that upset about Moore, becuase Moore comes and goes every couple years, whereas Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly spew their garbage on national television every goddamn night.

  • Goon

    I want to give one example, jon – after BFC came out the biggest ‘Moore debunking’ site was called Bowling for Truth, and centrist people were talking it as if it was unbiased factchecking of the movie, and saying “oh, I guess Moore isn’t that honest” – never checking otu that the guy who made that, and went on to make an anti-Moore book that has Moore eating the capitol building on the cover, is a professional gun lobbyist. Again, biased people complaining about bias, and this guy himself was making up things that happened in the movie. I once watched BFC with his notes in front of me and literally, this guy (I think his name was David Hardy), was concocting scenes in his analysis that never ever happened. Perhaps I also give Moore some slack because the people who take time to debunk him are usually more zealous fanatical kooks than Moore is – Moore at least like I said, is putting an opinion out there, and the response isnt to present the other side of the argument, but to simply attack Moore. I don’t respect that.

  • The problem is, most people aren’t documentary savvy enough to realize that the bullhorn prank (and similar scenes) are being played for the humor. And I don’t think Moore’s “self-deprecating” style does anything to move him away from the extreme left. In fact I think his “humor” is often what he uses as a defense when someone calls him on a scene in one of his films that is a blatant misrepresentation.

    O’Reilly and his uber-right ilk are just as bad as Moore and his types. I don’t know how many times I can say that– they all make a mockery of their proposed personal politics. They become caricatures of themselves at a certain point, and this render themselves useless.

  • Goon

    ugh, the first post I made failed so I’ll keep it short

    I refuse to blame the artist if someone is too dumb to realize a prank for what it is. Example: Born in the USA is treated like a jingoistic anthem when its about a Vietnam Vet returning home and being treated like shit. I remember Beavis and Butthead being treated like they were cool and being emulated when they were also a satire of teenagers.

    Yes, I think the humor does make a big difference. Theres a reason Moore succeeds where others fail – humor makes the bitter pill go down easier. I saw someone complaining because in Sicko theres a Photoshop of a guy holding a giant novelty check that doesnt really exist, people were saying “blatant fabrication” – Moore defends; “Humor”, and i’m sorry, thats acceptable to me. Unless you can cite an example where he said “humor” to defend a scene without it…

    Moore has at times caricatured himself, however the caricature by Zucker to me simply doesn’t exist. I mean seriously, it all comes down to the fact that what they run with against Moore is that he “hates America”

    I cant say it enough, thats the dumbest fucking smear in the entire world, and anyone who says it can suck the greasy foreskin off my buddy’s cock.

  • Goon

    By the way John, remember, Moore has made a political satire fiction work before: Canadian Bacon.

    That film is not great, but it’s so not preachy, it makes fun of everyone pretty equally and I couldnt even tell you what party the president was supposed to be from. Young Michael Moore was probably even more of a bitter activist than he is now, and unlike Zucker, Moore doesn’t resort to insipid fantasies of blowing away his political enemies or having Ameircan heroes appear to dress them down as unpatriotic, hellbound embarrassments. Moore doesn’t like O’Reilly in Zuckers film, show up to beat up some effigy of a political enemy.

    Moore is a leftist, but he is not not or has not ever been an idealogical talking points bully for the Democratic Party. This is the same guy who referred to the 2000 candidates as “Gush and Bore” and spent most of the 90s as a major thorn in Clinton’s side. Conservatives didn’t hate him so much then somehow. It’s always okay to stick it to the man until its YOUR man.

  • Goon

    “Goon, I think you are speaking about stuffed shirt republicans, not conservatives.”

    I don’t know, you were touting that bullhorn thing and blaming the artist for people taking things wrong. I don’t know just how stuffy you are, but you’re giving me tinges with what you’ve presented so far.

    “You can’t get much more liberal friendly than that.”

    “I am way open minded when it comes to other people’s politics, I just want the same thing in return. That is something the left still hasn’t gotten.”

    I’m sorry man, I’ve spent the last 8 years, well more like 6 since Bush fell out of favor, being told I was anti-American or enabling terrorists in place of actual debate from political conservatives, and being told I have no morals if I don’t believe in God from religious conservatives. I’ve experienced more than my fair share of non open mindedness when it comes to trying to engage in friendly debate with the other side. I certainly don’t pretend that is the case with you or ALL conservatives, so please don’t speak to me as if its a one way street and that its only the left who ‘hasnt gotten it’. It all comes down to individual people and who is ready or able to stand up for themselves, and who isn’t.

  • Goon

    um… I forgot something for a second… you’re the same guy who thought Dark Knight was a defense of Bush’s foreign policy, right?

    um….yeah. I just wanted to say I think you’re totally full of shit on that. The difference is that Batman is a vigilante with no oath or accountability to anyone, whereas Bush was elected, and is supposed to protect the constitution, not circumvent it where the ends supposedly justify the means. Did you think King Leonidas in 300 was Bush as well?

    The few remaining Bush supporters are funny, they’ve turned finding Bush in movies into the new “Find the Christ figure”

  • Goon

    One more thing:

    Just to keep this moving, as it seems it is – Even though I defended Moore earlier by showing his record of going after both sides – I don’t necessarily think that is the answer to all political problems, the “truth lies somewhere in the middle” people are annoying. Sometimes one side is right, sometimes one side is wrong, like completely wrong. Straddling the fence doesn’t mean you’re not a preachy fuck either – case in point: South Park is the preachiest comedy show in all media, and as it has gotten more and more preachy, the show has gotten worse and worse and worse.

  • Yeah– I was the guy who brought up Andrew Klavan’s op-ed piece about the dark knight. I didn’t however, write that op-ed piece, so back it up a bit. All that I said about it was that Klavan’s interpretation was a valid one, because he is able to back up his thoughts with examples. Not that those examples are the correct, or only interpretations, but that the interpretation is merely a valid one, worthy of more than just the cursory denouncement it recieved on the proverbial blogosphere. I mean, to me, its like a case of Deckard being a replicant or not. Some people see it one way, others don’t. But it’s not explicitly stated either way.

  • “In fact I think his “humor” is often what he uses as a defense when someone calls him on a scene in one of his films that is a blatant misrepresentation.”

    One thing that I hate about self deprecating humour, in the vein of Michael Moore, Kevin Smith or George Clooney, is that it’s always a bunch of lies. These people are telling you that they’re bad, because they don’t really think so themselves. I can’t stand people who lie blatantly like that, it’s incredibly obvious that it’s defensive.

    Michael Moore is not as bad as the other two. When Sicko came out on danish TV people were asking why he was strengthening the opposite argument by making his films so dishonestly, but he did defend himself. He said in America, the opposition (corporations, specifically in this case medical companies) is presenting their case dishonestly every commercial break, so he feels justified in doing it once ever couple of years. That’s a defense I can take seriously, and it makes me respect a man who realizes his own tactics and the futility in hiding them, rather than just going “hey man, I’m just having fun with all of this. Laugh at it”.

  • “South Park is the preachiest comedy show in all media, and as it has gotten more and more preachy, the show has gotten worse and worse and worse.”

    Fuck you Jimmy Buffet! FUCK YOU!

    If that’s preachy, I must be the choir.

  • JakeTheFatMan

    I like how the quote “the master of movie satire” is by David Zucker himself. He could have at least gotten his brother to say it.

  • I just realized my South Park quote may read as if I don’t like Jimmy Buffet. I actually have no idea who he is, I just think it was a hilarious ridiculous scene from season 12.

  • Goon

    I didn’t see all of season 12. Before I would watch them anyways in some false hope things would get better. Sometimes the episodes focus on the kids being kids, and they would be alright – the anime, WoW, and Imaginationland Part I are good examples… but yeah, when it gets into politics they fall into the same formula they’ve been doing for 12 years that I’m very sick of. Issue divides town into two strawman groups, celebrity represents one side or both and gets killed, Stan and Kyle present everyone their libertarian down the middle lesson, and everyone is saved again. hooray. yawn.

  • Same could be said for “The Simpsons”, except when they do a politically themed show, the leftist views of the show’s cast take center stage. It’s all but unwatchable anymore, anyway. The simpsons is a dead horse fox refuses to stop beating.

  • I agree those episodes of South Park are the worst. Probably the worst episode ever I have seen is the smoking-Rob-Reiner-eats-hamburgers episode.

    I loved the Iraq War episode though, where they end up not giving a fuck about the war and singing a song about getting to 100 episodes. “For the war, against the war, WHO CARES? 100 Episodes!” that was great. I also liked the Terry Schaivo (the invalid chick that the president took an interest in, I believe that was the name) episode, called Best Friends Forever. I wonder what makes those South Park episodes a comedy show with a tame political lesson, and Michael Moores films political films with acceptably tame comedy. I guess South Park will always be perceived as comedy first.

    Check out the end of season 11 called “The List”, a great, great episode.

  • Matt

    Man, this movie looks like shit.

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  • J-Dawg

    I don’t know…the only part of the trailer that I thought was really funny was how David Zucker was calling himself “the master of movie satire.” I mean, I saw it as a Bowfinger-esque finger in the eye of the entire Hollywood establishment who gets their brother-in-law or neighbor or whomever to say, “Oh, so-and-so is the most masterful what-the-fuck of our times” I mean, it’s all so incestuous and farcical! To have Zucker come out and say, “I’m gonna cut out the middle man…I’m the most masterful what-the-fuck of our times!” That’s funny, man. As for Moore, he’s an unfunny, deceitful, fat, disgusting, self-absorbed, grab-asstic piece of shit. The better part of him ran down his mam’s leg! (Apologies to the Gunny) Moreover, I’m pretty sure that if he were on fire, I wouldn’t piss on him to douse the flames. I hope this movie makes him cry himself to sleep at night, leaving him unable to find solace in a six-pack of ring-dings. Clown-shoe wearing fuck! Oh…and I disagree with his politics. That being said, I don’t like the whole Airplane/Scary Movie kinda shtick, so I’m pretty sure this won’t kick-start my funny bone, either. I’ll sit this one out, but I welcome all-comers in the give and take cagematch that is expressing your political and character bent for the world to see. Moore put himself out there, and we know he can dish it out…let’s see if he can take it without crying. ;)

  • JW

    I’m sick of listening to interviews with a Zucker as if they are real film directors. Their “body of work” is sad, just “kind of funny” and not very relevant. I heard them introduced on NPR, like they were inspiring or visionaries or something. They have barely made anything, and certainly not any great opus in 30 freaking years! I take them about as seriously as the writers of General Hospital.

    Airplane was great when I was not allowed to see it when I was 12, but I recently watched it and realized how freaking stupid, rascist and small-minded a lot of the jokes are… kind of like the Zuckers and their fans. Still can’t get enough of the fart jokes or alliteration. Who’s on first is hilarious, right? Not really. Same with a lot of their movies. Maybe their fans are all drunk and stoned when they see their films, and that’s where the base lies, I’m not sure.

    Maybe they should also start making films for the Taliban, or the Sudanese government (you know the ones that are raping and commiting genocide), more people Bush and his family have supported just because it’s a “different opinion”. So is cannibalism, but I don’t want to hear it. Shut the fuck up, Zuckers, go back to your sad Beverly Hills cave, and quit pretending to know anything about America. I want your opinion now about as much as Paris Hilton’s.

    Michael Moore is better educated, more fair and has done something the Zuckers have not… SOMETHING. It’s interesting that nearly every idiot that really has a problem with him mentions that he’s fat. Ever been to a McCain rally? Fucking pig fest. The entire republican base is overweight, uneducatated hicks right now.

    Oh and here’s something, the Zuckers don’t satire. Talk to your local doctor, scientist, professor – see what their political leaning is… always Democratic. Then go to the KKK – republican. Christian Fundamentalists and Radicals – Republican. Then of course the shady corporate lawyers, junk bond salesmen, and Wall Street hustlers that have kept you poor for years – Republican through and through. Anyone in a union, or who actually works for a living, vote Democrat or are just uneducated. Firemen, Policemen, especially in cities – Democrat. Interesting, huh? People that haven’t finished college – predominantly Republican. People that have finished, especially advanced education – democrats. Weird, huh?

    That’s because the right has become so whack-o right and the left has also gone more right. Any old school Republican like me is either a Libertarian or a Democrat now, especially in idealogy. We’ve entered a new age – one of the tax and spend republican, and the Democrats for gun rights. In fact, there are no far left political parties in existence right now, don’t believe the hype.

    We need the Zuckers right now about as much as the people in concentration camps needed comedians hired by Hitler. We are in the midst of an oppressive take-over of not only democracy, but basic human rights. Bush and the Republican party have not only given America to corporations, many of them foreign, they’ve helped to kill over 100,000 people worlwide, many women and children.

    So people like, J-Dawg, you should be aware of all the people YOU helped kill. Women and children raped in Darfour, on your watch, with your guy, with your lazy, uneducated vote. Good, hard-working, Americans out of their homes because of your guy, your silly vote. Congrats. You are, unlike Michael Moore, not a true patriot, and belong in Afghanistan with the Taliban.

    You and the Zuckers are puppets of a sad king, J-Dawg. Now you can return your head to your ass. Or go back to watching wrestling or whatever.