Will Ferrell's Broadway Bush - VIDEO
Who knew this was George W. Bush in reflection week? I must have missed the memo. But when I tuned in to watch the HBO debut of Will Ferrell: You're Welcome, America, his take on President Bush since the end of this presidency, I couldn't help but recall that just a couple of days ago on Hard Ball, MSNBC's Chris Matthews was going at Bush's former press secretary Ari Fleischer hammer and tongs as Fleischer defended his old boss. Don't these post-mortems usually take a few years to take place? But this post isn't about politics. It's about Will Ferrell, and my thoughts are mainly about Ferrell's show, which has a certain raunchy charm, which apparently offended quite a few people when it played on Broadway. All the raunch is still in place in the HBO version, so if you're curious about Bush's little George (allegedly), check it out.
As a Broadway show turned TV special, Will Ferrell's one-man show (actually there are a couple of other characters, but they don't speak), wasn't up to the standard of a good Saturday Night Live opening sketch in my estimation. The humor is scattershot. I've always thought that Will's W was terrific, like this bit from last October when he did a cameo opposite Tina Fey's Sarah Palin.
This one-minute was better than the ninety minutes on stage. I think the problem with Ferrell on stage is simply this: editing. On film, including his great web site Funnyordie.com, the comedy can be snipped and cut to the essence. There's no flab or filler. I think the You're Welcome, America -- which has some funny spurts, like when George tells the story of the Bush men getting lost in a mine shaft on his Crawford ranch -- might have been really perfect at half the length.

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