Saturday, November 15, 2014

Dumb and Dumber To … by gimleteye

The 1994 "Dumb and Dumber" hit by the Farrelly brothers -- (shout out Providence RI) -- was made for its time and earned a cult status for its absence of weightiness. "Dumb and Dumber To", a sequel fans have been clamoring for over 20 years, is now generating so-so reviews. So here is an idea for another sequel that hews more closely to roles for this aging comedic duo.

There is a built-in comedy for Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels in our current politics. There are a lot of smart people in politics, but who can argue that the results are 'dumb and dumber'.

The Farrelly's should send Carrey and Daniels to the state legislature to play an up-and-coming leader and his chief-of-staff.

All they would have to do is act our the role, say, of a Jimmy Patronis. Not the real Jimmy Patronis, but a comedic version. That might be Carrey. Patronis is a recent Scott appointee to the Florida Public Service Commission. What could be better than for Carrey to play a slow-talking, fast rising star of the legislature, coming from the background of a small family business in the Panhandle where he is scooped up by ultra-wealthy business interests to film-flam in the legislature without knowing who he is fronting for. Of course this wouldn't be the real Patronis, who knows perfectly well he is carrying the torch for an anti-regulation, especially anti-environmental, jihad on behalf of special interests.

Special interests in Florida have their own cut-and-paste comedic potential. It wouldn't be hard to make a laughing-stock of the Ayn Rand school of self-interest or its blowhards. Daniels could play a chief of staff, or political advisor, or good old boy representing the charter school industry.

Or how about the PSC, itself, that recently voted this week to "gut" the state's energy-efficiency goals by more than 90 percent, according to the Tampa Bay Times. Hilarious material in the hands of Carrey and Daniels. No one does pompous so well as Carrey. He is physically made to object to climate change; the temperature skittering from seventy to minus ten degrees, one day to the next.


All you need to do is to follow the script that denies climate change in an age of unparalleled climate threats. Plus, to watch Jeff Daniels in the polar opposite of the role he plays in the uber-PC HBO drama "Newsroom" would be a delight. A dream.


So that is the sequel -- think of "Being There" as high comedy -- , we shouldn't have to wait another twenty years for "Dumb and Dumber, Three" when the reality version is playing in government chambers near you.

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