I find Mike Myers incredibly unfunny. And what’s worse is, HE thinks everything he does is pulverizingly funny. The disconnect is Grand Canyon-wide.
He’s had enough flops like THE LOVE GURU that we’ve been mercifully spared Mike Myers for the last few years.
But now comes word that he’s making a new Netflix “comedy” series. As if that wasn’t enough to make me almost cancel my subscription, he plays seven parts.
“NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!”
So we get seven un-funny cartoonish characters probably in ridiculous make-up. Gallagher is more subtle.
I think back to the plot of THE PRODUCERS when they were intentionally trying to make the worst musical ever so the show would flop and investors would be be screwed. Thus “Springtime for Hitler.” In that case it backfired. With this project they’re taking no chances.
Because to ensure this show will be unfunny they’ve now hired Ken Jeong to be in it. Why not just give Mike Pence a stand-up comedy special?
Hopefully, this is like the Mister Mxyzptlk storyline in Superman where every six months he appears and Superman has to get rid of him. This new sitcom could be another LOVE GURU and Mike Myerszptlk goes away for six more years. One can only hope.
49 comments :
I was a big fan of Mike Myers in the 90s. I can still watch Wayne's World to this day. But not the sequel. That was bad. My all-time favorite Mike Myers film is So I Married An Ax Murderer, with co-stars Nancy Travis, who is perfect in her role.
I haven't been into much that he's done since then, but I'll probably give this a shot.
Ken Jeong ? I am outta there on this one. A boil on my ass is more amusing than Ken Jeong.
It's funny (haha). Right before I clicked on the link, I thought "Mike Myers, for as funny as I thought AUSTIN POWERS was, was really the start, in my mind, of the 25+ year string of 'Comedians and actors who think they're so much funnier than I do.'" The worst, to me, being Jimmy Fallon, who strikes me as an un-ironic version of Sammy Maudlin (played by Joe Flaherty on SCTV). I'm glad (and sad, as well) that I'm not the only one who feels this way. I hate sounding like one of those GET OFFA MY YARD people, but I wish they'd get offa my yard AND stop laughing at themselves.
The love Guru was filmed in Toronto and a friend of mine was a member of the crew. She said he became a nightmare to work with. He would stay in character and the don't look him in the eye or talk to him rules were in place. He was miserable. Maybe he knew the movie was going to suck. After a small role in Inglorious Basterds in 2009 he did not work much. Maybe word got around about his behavior.
The frustrating thing about Mike Myers is that when he's just acting he can be great; Shrek is by no means my favorite movie but he was fantastic in it, and I've generally enjoyed him in smaller, non-lead roles here and there. But when he's involved with writing, things fall apart.
Most of Mike Myers' most lucrative characters have been excruciatingly unfunny or at least run into the ground beyond their potential effectiveness. Some of his one-shot SNL characters like 'Johnny Letter' were funny (to me, at least), as were some bits that didn't become massive cult hits--such as 'Middle-Aged Man and his sidekick Drinking Buddy' or 'I'm a Handsome Man.' The song and dance number he did with his Mother on the SNL Mother's Day special was sweet and funny. I liked his episode just fine of The Littlest Hobo.
Please spare me from any more Wayne's World, Austin Powers or Love Guru.
He was fun on SNL, and I enjoyed the first AUSTIN POWERS film, and I still enjoy the soundtrack album, but the sequels were terrible (although I do like the Madonna's song from the second film). Based on things I've read over the years, I suspect that he is another of those "laughing on the outside, crying on the inside" performers, like Robin Williams, Chris Farley, and Judy Carne...
I'd like to add WILL FERRELL and VINCE VAUGHN to the "never funny" folder.
Wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, Ken? This has got to be the nastiest blog you've ever written. Your perogative, of course.
It's fine that you find Mike Meyers unfunny. However, when you write, "And what’s worse is, HE thinks everything he does is pulverizingly funny", is simply you being a bit of a jerk. Your statement just isn't true.
I do like Mike Meyers, and I know that not for one moment does Meyers think that everything he's done has been a success. Since you don't like him, you probably don't watch him when he does interviews with Colbert, Seth, Kimmel or even Kelly and Ryan. He has certainly spoken of his fails, so that is him in acknowledgement. He strives for the best, but like anyone else, he doesn't always get there.
He certainly proved himself on SNL. (Cheeky monkey!) The first two Austin Powers movies were great. The third, not so much. He seemed to lose interest. The first Wayne's World was terrific. The earlier Shrek movies. He was great in his cameo in Bohemian Rhapsody.
I have no idea what to expect of his upcoming series on Netflix. I'll check it out when it shows up. I'm also surprised at your dismissal of actor, Ken Jeong. He's had a long career and obviously hasn't been run out of Hollywood for lacking talent.
Well, one mean blog once in a while isn't going to drive me away. I hope tomorrow is a nicer day for you. And me, for that matter.
While I agree with the assessment (but can also find dozens more offensive examples), columns like this leave me discouraged. There's no point to them. At all. It's not even a commentary on unfunny people who still get work, for example. It's nastiness just for the sake of being nasty (it does help explain why Cheers devolved into nothing but bullying and put-downs for years before going off the air). High school behavior is supposed to stop when you get out of high school. I guess Ken Teigen didn't get the memo.
Funny on SNL, not so much in movies (though I liked the first Austin Powers and Shrek).
Wow. Okay. Well, I think he's hilarious and the Austin Powers movies have provided many years of laughs, no matter how many times I've watched them.
I'll second Bob Leszczak, with the exception of Ferrell's cameo in Wedding Crashers and his Harry Caray impression. But that's not much in a long career.
As for playing multiple parts, Peter Sellers did it brilliantly in Strangelove (he also was to play the Slim Pickens role but was injured and couldn't do the physical stuff), and when Sellers wasn't able to do The Seven Faces of Dr. Lao, Tony Randall got the part and was magnificent. And ... Mike Myers ain't either of them.
I thought the first AUSTIN POWERS movie was great, and the second one was okay. But what I really love is an unexpected Mr. Mxyzptlk reference. There just aren't enough of those any more!
I would have to agree that Mike Myers isn't funny. I liked him in the Wayne's World sketches with Dana Carvey but that is it. I saw "Cat in the Hat" in the theater because I liked the book. Turns out it was a bad idea because Mike was scary in that movie. I can think of many actors or actresses that could have held that part and made it funnier.
@ Bob Leszczak
I would agree with you, but Will Ferrell is funny when he is playing Alex Trebek "Celebrity Jeopardy" sketches or Bush 43. Too bad SNL didn't do sketches with Pappy Bush (Dana Carvey) and Bush Jr. in the White House. I love the sketch where the two Bushes go hunting.
Myers is a one-trick pony. After So I Married An Axe Murderer, the characters were just recycled. I enjoyed some of his stuff as a kid, but after his crappy sequels to Austin Powers, and everything after, I just can't watch him. It shows my age, granted, but as kids no matter the generation, I assume we all overlooked a lot.
His role in Inglorious Bastards was very funny. It just wasn't meant to be.
Why Tarantino would pick him, when so many actors could have done a better job, is a mystery.
I agree pretty much with the group. M.M. had some funny bits on "Saturday Night Live," but in general I don't think he's funny. "Wayne's World" was O.K., yet I never understood the effusive praise it received. "Austin Powers" is probably his best work. But once again, it's not on my list of all time favorites.
Myers is an alumnus of Second City. It could be he was one of those who was much funnier on stage that on film. I've never seen him live, so I don't know if that's true or not.
It also exemplifies what I've said before about the undue influence "S.N.L." has over show business.
Multiple characters are really tough to pull off. That's why I hate one-man-shows so much. Tracey Ullman and Eddie Murphy can do it successfully, but they're the exceptions.
Just because personally you hate Mike Pence doesn't mean he couldn't be funny. For all we know the former vice president might be funnier than Mike Myers and Ken Jeong combined.
M.B.
Myers was funny last century, but his Mount Rushmore-sized ego rolled in with the millennium, and he's been excruciating ever since. I'm just glad his horrific version of The Gong Show is dead.
As for Ken Jeong, his career is a mystery to me. Why is this hopelessly unfunny person befouling so much media? Not surprisingly, Jeong was also an unfunny fixture on Myers's awful Gong Show. Nowadays, he's safely on The Masked Singer, where there is no danger of my accidentally seeing him. When he quit being a doctor to go pretend he was a comedian, show business's loss became the medical profession's gain.
I've never, ever found Mike Myers to be remotely funny. Austin Powers, Wayne's World, Shrek: The appeal of all of these franchises has had me baffled for years.
While I can't say I've never liked anything Meyers has done (with the caveat that if you take SNL out, the list goes down to almost nothing), I would have to agree that he's not nearly as funny as he seems to act like he thinks he is. His biggest problem, I'd say, is that he seems to be more concerned with throwing in as many potential catch phrases as possible, rather than actual jokes. I mean, I've never watched Austin Powers, but I know a ridiculous number of lines just from hearing people recite them thousands of times. And very few of them seem particularly amusing.
(Has there ever been an instance of someone writing something as a deliberate catch phrase that's really worked, as opposed to people liking a particular line and then writers re-using it as a result? Eh, I'm sure there are, but... the number of unfunny failed attempts is probably much, much larger...)
The picture at the top of this piece is actually from the movie Baby Driver, in which only that mask appears, and it's one of the funniest moments in the movie. It might even be one of the best Mike Myers jokes ever, and he's not even in it himself.
I actually canceled Netflix yesterday. It feels good. I'll miss those STRANGER THINGS kids.
I'm also feeling verklempt. Tawpick, Animal Crackers, they're neither an animal or a cracker...Tawlk amongst yourselves.
Party On! Excellent!!
This seems unnecessarily and unprofessional, to be honest. Comedy is subjective but I just avoid the things I don't like, not write a disparaging blog post. If you don't like his stuff, don't watch it.
Superman editor Mort Weisinger imposed the 90-day rule on Mxyzptlk because his writers (Jerry Siegel, for the most part) kept wanting to write funny stories about Mxyzptlk, to the exclusion of everything else. Weisinger thought one story every three months was about right.
Eventually Mort and Jerry ran out of ideas about how to trick Mxyzptlk back to the fifth dimension, so Mort created a contest. Fans sent in their own ideas. Mort and Jerry lived off that thing for years.
Well, OK. Good to know. It's obviously your forum, but as a request, could we get some more about the stuff that you've actually seen before reviewing? Or the stuff that at least intrigues you enough to give a chance to before presuming awfulness? My opinion only, but I find your descriptions of things like HACKS or KEVIN CAN F*** HIMSELF far more interesting than these intense proclamations of kneejerk antipathy.
Gotta give him credit- If it weren't for him & Coffee Talk, fahklempt, ferklempt,
(however you say/spell it) wouldn't have become part of the yiddishy vernacular.
Many years ago, a friend urged me to watch an Austin Powers movie. She thought it was hilarious. I yawned all the way through it. She asked me what I thought was funny. I brought out an old tape (tape?) of Kind Hearts and Coronets, an Alec Guinness movie. I thought that it was wonderful. She hated it. We're no longer friends.
Some funny bits on SNL. Wayne's world had a goofy charm, maybe it hit my own suburban Chicago nostalgia. Austin Powers was a dragged out SNL skit, might've worked better in five minute hits every other week.
As long as we're doing overrated SNL players: Can anyone explain the popularity of Kristin Wiig to me ?
Ken
Friday question: Some of the blowback to your post today on your dislike of Mike Myers has me curious. Have negative comments by your readers ever caused you to regret or reevaluate a post of yours? Just how much do the comments "stay with you", the good and the bad? Are there any posts that in hindsight you now wish you'd never published due to your reader's comments?
Ken is spot on. The haters be wrong.
The best DVD commentary I have ever heard (seriously) was Mike Myers on one of the Austin Powers movies.
He gave out scene numbers, he gave out the real clock times that scenes were actually filmed.
And everything was fact after fact after fact.
He was the gold star of DVD commentaries.
(even though that unfortunately says very much)
The only reason to see a Mike Meyers film is to have an excuse to grope your teenage girlfriend's tits (not saying I know this from experience, only that I know this from experience).
WAYNE'S WORLD was pretty good for that reason alone.
Mike Myers stopped being funny right about the same time as he broke up with his first wife, comedy writer Robin Ruzan, who he always called his muse; he'd say/do stuff, and if she thought it was funny, he'd keep it. They divorced in 2005, and it's been about that long since he hasn't made me cringe. But I loved him back on SNL, I miss *that* guy.
Cheers, thanks a lot,
Storm
For the life of me I can't think of one film he was in that I liked him. After awhile I just skipped any movie he starred in.
He could have had a good career as one of those comedians who transitioned to drama. He was great in "54." But then he went back to comedy, and has been distinctly unfunny ever since.
"Jaymo said...
Many years ago, a friend urged me to watch an Austin Powers movie. She thought it was hilarious. I yawned all the way through it. She asked me what I thought was funny. I brought out an old tape (tape?) of Kind Hearts and Coronets, an Alec Guinness movie. I thought that it was wonderful. She hated it. We're no longer friends."
Well we can be friends, because I LOVE Kind Hearts and Coronets and find Myers unfunny. Did you see/love A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder," the Broadway musical made from the same novel as Kind Hearts"? God, I LOVED it!
" Jim, Cheers, Fan said...
As long as we're doing overrated SNL players: Can anyone explain the popularity of Kristin Wiig to me ?"
THANK YOU! I find all the Wiig praise and love inexplicable. She's the Queen of taking one not-funny gag and running it into the ground. Her characters are all one joke, except the ones who are only half-a-joke. Her recurring characters were the same exact sketches repeated in different sets with a different guest host or hostess. God I was glad to see her leave SNL.
I'm in the camp that found Myers funny most of the time on SNL, but most if his movies (that I've seen) not so much. Wayne's World, Austin Powers and Shrek were good in their earliest incarnations.
I can take on the subject of Kristen Wiig on SNL (haven't seen her movies). When she started on that show, she often had a subtlety, underplayed, even shyness in her characters, in her performances. She also did some dead-on impressions. For a while, she was very enjoyable on SNL.
But the warning signs were there right in her first show. There were 2 characters, The Target Lady and Aunt Linda. Both were weird, over-the top, and stiflingly unfunny. As her time on SNL went on, he did more characters that had wild, bizarre behavior that not only was not funny, but seemed to be the whole point of the sketches. One, Gilly, was funny once, but intolerable after that.
Ken, please ignore the commenters who chastise you for being mean-spirited about overrated comedians. Keep it up. Make it a series.
I may have never laughed so hard at anything on SNL as about the first ten "Dieder" sketches (it began to get a little old after awhile).
Some years back I remember there was going to be a Dieder movie but Meyers backed out at the last minute and proceeded with 'safer' projects, which I always thought was too bad.
I thought Kristen Wiig was one of the few worthwhile elements in the unnecessary remake of 'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.'
Ken, you may not touch my monkey - Dieter
It's well known that Myers has burned some bridges in the movie biz. All it took was one flop for the knives to come out.
That said, he was great on SNL, I loved Wayne's World and the Austin Powers trilogy.
Myers work was heavily inspired by Peter Sellers (another talented but difficult talent), and Austin Powers is, in my mind, a better version of the original CASINO ROYALE, the flop 60s Bond spoof. Even the LOVE GURU is very Sellers-like in concept.
Humor is subjective, so I'm not here to defend Mike Meyer's ability to amuse, but just to offer evidence of him being a mensch. Several years ago, I bought my niece and nephew some shaved ice from a piraguero at Delancey & Norfolk on the LES in NYC. I had just handed my nephew his orange drink when his elbow was jostled by a passerby, knocking the cup to the pavement.
I turned back to the street vendor to order another for the boy, only to discover that the customer behind me had already done so, graciously paying for it himself. That customer was Mike Meyers. Meyers has been okay in my book ever since.
I haven't seen the Love Guru, but I found Wayne's World, Austin Powers, and Shrek pulverizingly funny. I haven't seen the first two in years, so I am not sure if I think they would hold up today. But I always have enjoyed his stuff.
@JessyS
The reason that Myers did The Cat in the Hat in the first place is that he owed Brian Grazer a movie from when he dropped out of Sprockets for not approving the script. The issue was the the Sprockets script was written by Myers himself! In any event Myers didn't want to be there and the result was this God-awful movie that really hurt his reputation.
@Storm
Robin's mother was the inspiration for the Linda Richman character on Coffee Talk on SNL. In the first iteration of the sketch Mike played Paul Baldwin, then switched to Linda for Season 2 and stayed as her the rest of his time on the show.
There are a lot of actors/comedians/performers who work best under a director that can channel their energy and say no to their worst excesses.
I'd be interested to see what Myers would do in the role of Mr Mxyzptlk. With an assertive director.
"Corvus Imbrifer said...
I'd be interested to see what Myers would do in the role of Mr Mxyzptlk. With an assertive director."
Well, first off, Mike would fire the assertive director....
A correction to my comment on 6/18/2021: My wife recently informed me it was actually comic actor Richard Lewis who paid for my nephew's shaved ice treat replacement, not Mike Myers. So it was Richard Lewis who was really a mensch that day. Geez, maybe that means Mike Myers really is a schmuck....
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