There's something so cynical about all these people who leave Saturday Night Live to pursue their careers (i.e. the higher pay of Hollywood) and in the process forgo any remnants of originality they had in the live action of improvisational comedy.
With regards to Mike Myers in the "Love Guru," I remember seeing the poster advertising the movie some weeks ago in the New York City subway system and thinking, "That's funny these days?" It seemed old as a joke before it even came out. I had a vague notion that the Simpsons nailed it more than ten years ago -- and that was a cartoon -- so why was Hollywood taking on Hindus and sex?
Mostly because they can, is the short answer.
And mostly because of sex, is the other answer.
And fundamentally because the butt of these particular cinematic jokes is a dark-skinned immigrant character, both charming and prurient, which is always hilarious if you're in the business of putting white butts in dark movie houses for the purposes of making money.
Particularly at a time when our nation is bleeding economically and our educational system is falling apart, the subtle racism of targeting the new American type who is not the man or woman in the software job, moving ahead by the sweat of their ingenuity or sheer industriousness but is rather an eroticized fantasy is just, well, predictable, boring, and, to those who yearn for the artist that shone in improvisational comedy only to sell out in Beverly Hills, annoying.
Given that Hollywood is the land of fake erotic body parts, there's something apocalyptically cynical about a movie like the "Love Guru." The author of the Kama Sutra, a taxi driver, and a porn star walk into a bar...
Do you really want to hear the end of that joke?
Should a movie like this be made?
Well, no. But that won't stop anyone from doing so.
Which is to say when ethnic humor is good, it's really good, even transformative of people's views of the Other.
But when it's bad, which this movie seems to be, it's just indulgent nonsense.
I'd bet there's a real Bollywood version of this idea that's hilarious. But sadly, it's not in Hollywood's interest to have it see the light of day here.
For after all, as a friend recently said:
A person who speaks three languages is trilingual.
A person who speaks two languages is bilingual.
And a person who speaks one language is American.
"Love Guru" is a typical step backward for our already dumbed down culture.
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