The performance – which was officially called “You’re Welcome America: A Final Night with George W. Bush” was broadcast live from the Cort Theater in New York City. One can only wish that they were actually in the audience, as Will seemed to be overdoing the George Dubya Bush character he had perfected on his years on Saturday Night Live. The subtlety was completely lost on TV viewers… one of the best things about the Dubya character was the occasional arched eyebrow and wink at the camera. This was entirely lost on the television: he was obviously playing to the audience at hand. Not particularly a bad thing if you were actually there, but I can’t stress how badly this translated to the viewers at home.
He also seemed about two years too late with the show. George Bush was a terrible president; might it not have been more apt to do this last year, when we were still deep in Bush shenanigans? It’s like he was too busy being an awesome Anchorman and making videos at Funnyordie.com to really make this work.
There were a few laugh-out-loud moments but this shouldn’t be on Will Ferrell’s oeuvre. The guy was playing it safe and came off more like Jackie Gleason’s sheriff in Smokey & The Bandit than anything else.
Which is a shame. The show was advertised strongly by HBO and the risk of putting it out live – unlike per say their Chris Rock specials which are taped and edited – greatly affected the outcome of the show. They should have taped this; the commercials advertising it were funnier than the actual performance. Why? Because Will is best when he’s not being loud. It’s the small things he does in between that really make his comic genius click as anyone that has seen the infamous “The Lovers” sketch with Rachael Dratch during his years on Saturday Night Live.
Simply put this fell far short of expectations. Not to knock Mister Ferrell – who is a very talented guy – but he should’ve know better to put this out there the way he did. The live part just didn’t work. It came off as boring and a little pretentious, and as the theater audience laughed along you couldn’t help but feel jealous for them actually being there.
(Photo By: Joe Shlabotnik and Derivative work/Taberci)
Comments
Phil
March 19th, 2009 - 2:34:17 PM
Will Ferrel has a strange record for me. He can be hilarious and then annoying and then hilarious again all within a 20 second joke. Over all I like the guy, but there's a lot of sub-par stuff in his catalog.
1
Josh
March 19th, 2009 - 6:36:57 PM
I think you gotta leave the George Bush impersonations to that guy Frank Caliendo. He ended any contreversy over who sounded the most like Dubya.
2
Denton
March 29th, 2009 - 6:32:45 PM
Yeah, that show sucked. It could have been a 5 minute sketch, but it was mostly just super boring and mildly painful. Will Ferrell did much better as Ashley Shaffer of Ashley Shaffer BMW in Eastbound and Down. Now, that shit is amazing.
3