Deport Jim Carrey! That’s the rallying cry of certain factions of the American right aiming to have our hometown hero banned from the U.S. for making fun of the Second Amendment — that’s the one that gives Americans the “right to bear arms.”
Don’t worry. Jim’s not getting an escort to the border. He’s an American citizen.
How did Carrey find himself in the middle of such a controversy? He put a five-minute video online and millions of people around the world saw Carrey’s satirical take on American gun culture.
In the video, which is made to look like a ’70s country and western variety show, Carrey plays many parts, including deceased actor and National Rifle Association spokesman Charlton Heston. Carrey performs (in character as a singer) a song called “Cold Dead Hand,” referencing Heston’s famous quote.
Heston is a hero to the pro-gun lobby, and Carrey’s not the first satirist to take aim at the icon. In Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine, Moore ambushes Heston at his home and excoriates him for his pro-gun views. The problem was that Heston was dying from Alzheimer’s at the time, and the consensus, even among Moore fans, is that he had gone too far.
Heston passed away in 2008, which Carrey took to mean that he was now an historical figure and thus fair game.
The video is hysterical, one of the best things Carrey has done, and reminiscent of his stellar work back in the days of In Living Color. The song is brilliantly written and executed, and Carrey is funny both as the singer and Charlton Heston.
Carrey has little history of political and social satire. He’s a darling of family-style comedy. He doesn’t even talk out of his butt anymore. So this video came as a real shocker to most people.
And he was immediately attacked by Fox News.The vitriol was extreme, personal and vile.
But no one could have predicted what came next. Carrey went after Fox News. Other performers have done so in the past, but none with the take-no-prisoners style that Carrey unloaded. Carrey may not be big on guns, but he blasted some serious buckshot at Fox:
“It’s a last resort for kinda-sorta-almost-journalists whose options have been severely limited by their extreme and intolerant views; a media colostomy bag that has begun to burst at the seams and should be emptied before it becomes a public health issue.”
Wow! Not even Bill Maher or Jon Stewart would have been so blunt. Good for him.
This is all happening at a time when his career is at a bit of a lull. He got third billing in his latest movie, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, although every critic agreed he was the best thing in the picture. Before that, Mr. Popper’s Penguins played to tepid reviews, and I Love You Phillip Morris barely opened.
Could this video have been a calculated provocation?
Anything’s possible, but my gut says that Carrey just had to speak out, albeit in a comic way. Newtown and other mass slayings are a hard thing to turn away from, even if politics is not your style. This time, Jim Carrey is not talking out of his butt.
Post City Magazines’ humour columnist, Mark Breslin, is the founder of Yuk Yuk’s comedy clubs and the author of several books, including Control Freaked.
