"The Campaign" Is One Of The Most Underrated Comedies Of The Last 20 Years

We didn't know how good we had it in 2012. Comedy was alive and well. 2012 included big theatrical comedy hits like “Ted”, “21 Jump Street” and “Pitch Perfect”. Will Ferrell had been on an all-time comedy streak, with movies like “Step Brothers” in 2008, “The Other Guys” in 2010, and then “The Campaign” in 2012.

At the time, this movie, with a stacked cast (Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, Jason Sudeikis, Dylan McDermott, John Lithgow, Dan Aykroyd, and Brian Cox), and Will Ferrell and Adam McKay's involvement, AND director Jay Roach ("Meet The Parents"), seemed like a common occurrence.

Ferrell's character, a clueless blowhard, was a variation on the comic persona he'd cultivated in a wide range of films, including “Anchorman”. Galifianakis, a specialist in oddball humor, deftly merged his eccentric comic sensibilities into a mainstream comedy, making his underdog character a memorable weirdo with a surprising amount of heart. But that was familiar at the time, too, as Galifianakis was coming off “The Hangover” and “The Hangover: Part II”.

Consequently, the movie kind of came and went. It holds a 66% score on RottenTomatoes. It grossed 104.9 million worldwide against a 95 million budget (which means, considering advertising costs and theatrical revenue share, it lost a significant amount of money on its theatrical release).

I watched this movie last night - and I laughed for its entire slim 85-minute running time. Back in 2012, Barack Obama ran against Mitt Romney (in a campaign that, today, would be laughable itself by comparison to modern politics, in terms of how polite and civil it was). Maybe that's part of why “The Campaign" didn't feel as vital and necessary at the time.

Imagine if “The Campaign” came out NOW. In 2012, its gags seemed absurd. Ferrell's character at one point releases a sex tape/campaign ad, and goes up in the polls, Galifianakis discovers a children's book Ferrell's character wrote as an 8-year-old about “Rainbow Land” and frames it as a communist manifesto. But those gags don't really seem that absurd anymore, in our modern political landscape.

The other big change is what has happened to comedy, especially theatrical comedy. Theatrical comedy is almost totally dead. At the time of writing, we're nearly at the end of summer. In years past, summer would have been prime time for a variety of major comedy theatrical releases.

This year? “Deadpool & Wolverine”. “Bad Boys: Ride or Die”. “The Fall Guy”. That's basically it. And not coincidentally, all three of these movies are really action films with comedy. None of them are pure comedies. Last year, 2023, had a couple of attempts at this - movies like “No Hard Feelings” and “80 For Brady” are straight theatrical comedies. But neither of them were made for almost 100 million dollars, they aren't really comparable to the scale of “The Campaign”.

“The Campaign” also, tragically, nearly marks the end of the Ferrell/McKay theatrical comedy partnership. They would collaborate on “Anchorman 2”, which came out the following year. And they would share producer credits on some future films. But noticeably, McKay neither directs nor is a credited writer on “Daddy's Home”, “The House”, “Daddy's Home 2” or “Holmes & Watson”. And his absence is felt, those movies are all less critically well-received, less beloved by audiences, and less enduring in the culture than their close creative collaborations on films like “Anchorman” and “Talladega Nights”. The two have since professionally parted ways, as has been well-documented in the press.

To look at what happened to comedy since - just look at Jay Roach (unquestionably a huge name as a comedy director, with credits on “Meet The Parents” and “Austin Powers”) and Galifianakis' careers. Jay Roach would next direct “Trumbo” and “Bombshell”, two dramas. Galifianakis would run it back for “The Hangover: Part III” and “Masterminds”, but after that? He's mostly done dramas - movies like “Tulip Fever”, “A Wrinkle In Time”, “The Sunlight Night”, and animated comedies, like “Ron's Gone Wrong” and “The Bob's Burgers Movie”.

To echo the tone of “The Campaign”, this used to be a country where you could go to the movies in the summer and see a giant studio comedy, with an all-star lineup of the biggest comedy stars, which had no goal other than to make you laugh as much as possible. Part of the reason “The Campaign” is so short is that it doesn't have an ounce of narrative fat on it. Almost every scene and sequence is a gag or set-piece, and all are very well-supported by real political talking heads (Chris Matthews, Bill Maher, Wolf Blitzer), that react as they would (and have, to real-life versions of some of the ridiculous gags in the movie in years since) in reality.

Ferrell's character accidentally punches a baby, and then asks with a straight face, in a later scene, “Is anyone asking how my hand feels after punching that iron-like jaw of that baby?” He subsequently accidentally punches the dog from the movie “The Artist”. Galifianakis shoots Ferrell on purpose, claims it was a “hunting accident”, and goes up in the polls. A news anchor exclaims, “Ted Nugent would be proud!”

In a comic touch so bizarre it seems like to have originated with Galifianakis, for reasons unknown his character can't seem to understand doors need to be pushed open. He repeatedly has a dramatic exit ruined by his inability to open doors.

When his campaign is in a down spot, Ferrell is zip-lined in above the crowd, playing guitar, as fireworks shoot up across the stage, and scantily clad dancers perform a routine. At no point in the film does his character offer any policy whatsoever, he mainly just repeats, “America”, “Freedom” and “Jesus”.

Galifianakis' pugs are phased out of the family for being “Chinese dogs”, and Dylan McDermott's campaign manager character casually says they should be “put down humanely”. When Galifianakis and his wife reunite after she sleeps with Ferrell's character, she encourages his campaign, and he says, “When you talk like that, I do get a little careless whisper in my body.” Then they grotesquely make out, tongues extended in the air, while Galifianakis for no reason whatsoever eyeballs Thomas Middleditch's character who is watching.

When Netflix did “The Roast Of Tom Brady”, part of the reason it resonated so much is that it was no-holds-barred, just pure funny, on a big scale. Watching “The Campaign”, that same feeling is there. And it's been lost, to a large degree, in the theatrical film experience.

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Xose Sullca
Tu imaginación es increíble, ¡creas escenarios que parecen reales!
08:54 11 November, 2024
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Erith Maraguacare
Me encanta el actor Mcdermott, me parece excelente actor
02:28 31 August, 2024
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Bob Woolsey
The Will Ferrell, Adam McKay falling out really upsets me. I don't know if we'll ever see them team up on a comedy ever again and that's a sad thing for the world.
07:39 25 August, 2024
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