April 3, 2024: Satire Studying: The Interview

[If ever ayear both needed and yet resisted a heavy dose of satire, it would be 2024. Sofor this year’s April Fool’s series I’ll share a humorous handful ofSatireStudying posts—please add your thoughts on these and any other satirical textsyou’d highlight for a knee-slapping yet pointed crowd-sourced weekend post!]

On what’sproblematic, and what’s important, about a hugely controversial comedy.

In the last postin my 2012 April Fools series, I highlighted fivegreat, enduring works of American satire. Having had the chance to see the satirical film The Interview (2014) subsequent to drafting that post, I have to admit that Idon’t see it ever landing on such a list. Directed by Seth Rogen and EvanGoldberg, based on a story by Rogen, Goldberg, and Dan Sterling, and starringRogen and James Franco as the producer and star of a celebrity interview showwho are recruited by the CIA to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un,the screwball comedy throws a ton of jokes and over-the-top sequences againstthe wall, many of them vulgar, graphically violent, or some combination ofboth. There are certainly funny moments, both of the silly and the pointedvariety; but for the most part the film feels like it’s working way too hardfor much too little payoff. And much of the problem lies in that attempt tocombine the silly and screwball with the satirical—satire, it seems to me, requiresus to use our brain; and too much of the time, The Interview is trying to hit us far lower than that.

The film becamefar better known for its controversy than its comedy, of course, and on thatlevel too I would argue that it’s problematic. I don’t have any problem with awork of fiction satirizing (and even, SPOILER and graphic violence alert, brutally killing) aworld leader like Kim, and certainly I don’t support the North Koreangovernment’s attempts to suppress the film’s release. But as I wrote in thisJanuary 2015 piece for my Talking Points Memo column, I don’t believe weAmericans have much of a leg to stand on when it comes to critiquing suchblind, uncritical worship of our beloved leaders. Since many of the responsesto my piece suggested I was equating the two nations overall, let me be clear:America is not North Korea, in any sense. But I would stand by my point thatfar too many Americans expressed, in response to Natalie Maines’ far lessincendiary depiction of George W. Bush, a level of outrage and angercommensurate to the North Korean response to a film portraying their leader infar, far worse light (as well as, y’know, brutally killing him). Which is tosay, if we want to make the case that North Korea should be able to handlesatire and criticism more calmly, we’re going to have to turn that mirror onourselves and our own histories as well.

I don’t think itentirely succeeded in doing so, but it is important to note that The Interview does, in fact, attempt totrue that satirical and critical lens on America as well as North Korea. Itdoes so partly through the easy targets of the media and our culture ofcelebrity, both embodied by James Franco’s thoroughly annoying and stupidcharacter (although he is eventually supposed to be a hero, so I’m not sure howmuch the zingers ultimately connect). But it does so more subtly through thefilm’s true heroine, Sook,the North Korean officer who hopes to overthrow Kim and establish a democraticgovernment in his place. When Sook reveals her true intentions, Franco andRogen exclaim that Kim must be assassinated; she replies, “How many times isAmerica going to make the same mistake?,” and Franco responds, “As many timesas it takes, sister!” Again, such moments of thoughtful satire of Americanforeign policy and perspectives are both few and far between and oftenovershadowed by the silliness and vulgarities and so on; but they’re there, andperhaps they even registered with the millions of viewers who sought out the filmafter the controversy. For a silly, mediocre screwball comedy, that’d be asurprising and meaningful effect.

Nextsatire tomorrow,

Ben

PS. What doyou think? Other satirical works you’d share?