UK satirist wants to make “the comedy version of United 93″
posted at 6:05 pm on March 18, 2007 by Allahpundit
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I think he’s kidding. Sort of.
[T]he leaked casting note for the project, due to start filming this summer and directed by [Chris] Morris, describes one of the characters as being “the sort of guy who’d protest against cartoons in a bomb belt”. Another source said the film would look at “suicide [attacks] with at least some of the dark humour that Chris excels at”.
News of the project comes after Morris, who famously parodied the mainstream media’s attitude to paedophilia in a Brass Eye special in 2001, told an audience last week that he wanted to make “the comedy version of United 93″ – the award-winning film about the airliner destined for the White House on 9/11 which crashed in a field after a passenger revolt. Members of the audience at Bournemouth University said that the remark was laden with irony, but it is the latest evidence that the comedian, who has kept a low profile since the height of Brass Eye’s popularity, is looking to explore Islamic extremism.
He was seen at a debate on what motivated al-Qa’ida. When asked about the “war on terror”, he has said: “There are many eminently mockable things about it. I’m just not sure what you could do with it all.”…
The casting note, obtained by a fan website, Cookd and Bombd, states: “A TV film about a bunch of Pakistani lads living in Britain now. It’s about what they do for work, for play, what they believe, how they relate to their parents, families, the culture around them, their sense of heritage.” The document describes seven characters aged from 17 to 38 who are variously described as not good with people, fearless, mouthy and mad and brooding.
Having dabbled myself in this sort of humor, I’m not going to throw stones. Except to say that a comedy version of United 93 would be an exceedingly bad idea.
Exit question: Can we trust British humorists to exercise good taste in terrorism humor? Exit answer: Alas, we cannot.
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We do our best at Shire Network News but it is hard to consistently find humour without hitting a bad note from time to time.
On this one, however, Chris Morris is certain to sound like one of the complete no chance morons from American Idol.
Brian
brianoflondon on March 18, 2007 at 6:13 PM
Let’s title the comedy “The Dhemocrat National Convention.”
Mojave Mark on March 18, 2007 at 6:14 PM
Chris Morris is a genius and his art rests on him sailing as close to the edge as possible.
He is a surrealist and that makes his humour very hit and miss. But when it hits, nothing is funnier.
I love the man very much, but he needs a strong producer to keep him on the right racks.
uptight on March 18, 2007 at 6:33 PM
A superb parody of the MSM…Chris Morris starts a war
The stretched twig of peace is at melting point….
uptight on March 18, 2007 at 6:44 PM
Here’s another tragedy that Morris might find humor in …
“The Rise and Fall of the British Empire, or how a world power collapsed and became a soup kitchen for muslims.”
fogw on March 18, 2007 at 6:45 PM
Surely Morris is too clever and talented to associate himself with anything oafish.
Stephen M on March 18, 2007 at 6:46 PM
fogw – you are right – he probably would cover that.
uptight on March 18, 2007 at 6:51 PM
Stephen M – yeah, that’s crap. Bush-hate is far too obvious. It makes me so when people whose artistry I respect is employed in such a facile, unchallenging direction. I lost the last shred of respect for the singer Morrissey, when he made the same boring ubiquitous points.
uptight on March 18, 2007 at 6:55 PM
Stephen M – yeah, that’s crap. Bush-hate is far too obvious. It makes me so sad when people whose artistry I respect is employed in such a facile, unchallenging direction. I lost the last shred of respect for the singer Morrissey, when he made the same boring ubiquitous points.
uptight on March 18, 2007 at 6:56 PM
Why is this cat Morris going so far afield when there is a perfect homegrown source of yocks and zaniness right in the Underground?
I see a four group of Brits on rollerskates, pretending to be tube trains -and one double-decker bus- wheeling around on an Alhambra-cum-Camden Town art deco stage, syncopating their story to caterwauling hip hop Egyptian pop music.
As they progress, another batch of rollerskaters, in hoodies and toting overstuffed red backpacks, insert themselves into the groups, one by one.
The Brits do pratfalls and clownish double-takes when the backpacks “explode”, one by one, with spring-loaded confetti and papier mache body parts, skate wheels and silly string.
Why aren’t the London train bombings as funny as Flight 93?
Dead Americans are more mirthful than local viscera?
General satire is aimed at those with no sense of humor.
Or aren’t 1.2 billion of them enough of a comedy target for this “daring” “humorist”?
Hook hands Hamza seems overdue for a lampooning.
(But, of course, Bushitler [reg. us. pat. off.] and Yanks are so much safer. While England, ironically, grows less so, day by day… That’s a helluva punchline, eh?)
profitsbeard on March 18, 2007 at 7:03 PM
profitsbeard – again, spot on. At one point Chris Morris would have risked a fatwa for comedy. Nowadays he’s lost his spark and lost bottle.
Any old hack can get up, slag off America and score a few brownie points from fawning, dweebish students. But that’s not brave. That’s not challenging. That’s just boring and predictable.
uptight on March 18, 2007 at 7:15 PM
United 93 was one of the top 10 movies I’ve seen in theaters.
Nonfactor on March 18, 2007 at 7:45 PM
What Chris Morris, and maybe many on the left, don’t see, in my opinion, is that when they attack Bush like the parody from Stephen M, they are attacking the United States Of Amercia, and all it’s citizens.
Five years of “Hate Bush!”, “Bush is Hitler!”, and lies about “torture” and “lying” have resulted not only in “Hate America”, but to the point, “Hate Americans”. ALL of us, left, right, or in the middle.
Then it becomes easy, to even think about making a parody about “United 93″…….. not understanding that the “American People” will have none of it. In fact, those on board are considered “Honored Dead”.
Like those on the USS Arizona, there is NOTHING funny about it!
Just my 0.02…..
PinkyBigglesworth on March 18, 2007 at 8:05 PM
He can do a remake of the classic Monty Python Dead Parrot sketch using UBL, a goat, and KSM.
Valiant on March 18, 2007 at 8:54 PM
Even worse than those awful Airplane movies Hollywood gave us in the 80’s?
thedecider on March 18, 2007 at 10:33 PM
For the Europeans wrong, for us not so much…
In early Nov. 2008 we’ll see this headline in a British newspaper “How can 65 million Americans be so stupid?”
Entelechy on March 18, 2007 at 11:54 PM
A politically responsible satire of the events on UAL flight 93 does seem possible. The leftover procedures from the 1970s for dealing with hijackers need to be lampooned. Islam surely needs to be laughed at. It offers plenty of material, too, such as denying oneself sex and family in this life, and getting killed, all for the sake of going to The Big Brothel Up Above and enjoying the 72 virgins it would have been a sin to enjoy on Earth. And shouldn’t one be able to make something funny out of a gay lacrosse player leading the charge up the aisle? In the dream sequence, the terrorists end up face-down in the pillow; in reality, they end up face-down in the Pennsylvania meadow. Either way, I hear them yelling “Allahu akbar!” just before they soak the surface below.
Kralizec on March 19, 2007 at 12:18 AM
That was one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen. Chris Morris is quite good. This new project sounds a bit weird but maybe it will be more a mocking of the hijackers than anhything else. I’ll have to see it before I comment.
aengus on March 19, 2007 at 5:28 PM
profitsbeard and Pinky are exactly right.
lizzee on March 20, 2007 at 8:03 AM
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