I bought a comedy album by Albert Brooks when I was 12–“A Star is Bought”–and was absolutely amazed and confused. I laughed really hard, but I couldn’t share its punchlines at school; unlike Steve Martin, say, or Richard Pryor or George Carlin, who if nothing else came with value-added profanities, and who always drew an appreciative laugh from the kids who might otherwise have punched me, Brooks…. well, how could I explain that his parody of the “Mr. Jaws” records was about the funniest damn thing I’d heard?
I was able to find on video at a local hole-in-the-wall Real Life, his and Harry Shearer’s absolutely brilliant send-up of reality television made thirty years ahead of its time (riffing on the contemporaneous PBS documentary ‘inside’–and destructive of–a family’s home). Mauer and Bruns have rhapsodized about that wonder elsewhere on this blog.
And although I got almost none of the specific angst pervading his next two films–Modern Romance and Lost in America–I got the existential genius of the arrogant, doomed-to-failure character “Albert Brooks.”
I’m kind of just gushing here. I’ve watched everything since–and even relished The Mother–but haven’t seen anything close to that early genius.
So, with great trepidation but also great hopes, I thought I’d post the trailer for his new flick, Looking for Comedy in the Moslem World. The trailer hits a couple high notes, and squawks awkwardly (and sounds almost Catskillsy, in the worst way) in a few instances. But…. here’s hoping I have a devil of a time talking to my colleagues, those ones who might otherwise punch me, about why this movie is funny.