Behold, the King Duct Tape and WD-40:
For many years, I’ve had a Hulu clip of Mike Myer’s Middle-Aged Man with Chris Farley as his trusty sidekick, Drinking Buddy, embedded right here. Hulu has apparently decided not to allow embeds anymore and the video disappeared. You have to have a membership to Hulu to watch their videos but, as long as it still exists, you can also watch this clip on Yahoo View by clicking HERE. And, please, if the video is no longer player from that link, let me know by clicking HERE.
Mike Myers’ pot-bellied superhero, Middle-Aged Man, only made three appearances on Saturday Night Live, in 1990 and 1991, but I’m pretty sure I spent the entire decade quoting, “What are you lookin’ at? You’re lookin’ at my gut, aren’t ya? Well, I’m workin’ on it!”
These days, I don’t want you lookin’ at my gut!
Without even realizing it, I have become the character. Hell, I’ve made the joke in the above video, “You don’t buy beer, you rent it”, in earnest. More than once!
And, yeah, I’ve shown young turks how to connect jumper cables, too. But I still don’t really understand escrow…
And, to the best of my knowledge, I’ve never had a Maalox Moment.
I wonder what Mike Myers, who is now a middle-aged man in his own right, thinks of his character. Hopefully he’ll chime in here some day.
It’s an interesting position to be one of the few remaining demographics it’s OK to make fun of. I have a special affinity for humor (most notably because making my Dad laugh was the only thing that kept me from being ground to a pulp) so I can take the ribbing pretty well.
However, according to Cracked.com, here are the rules for creating a comic villain/foil:
The Butt/Butt of the Joke Should meet at least three of these demands…
1) Look as if they are powerful. This means we will believe them as a villain, and also that we will get more enjoyment from the humor of knocking them down a bit by making them the butt of a joke.
2) Not have been the victim of decades of repression. It’s just hard to root against for the guy who’s been kicked down by society for so many years. Also, laugh a bit too hard about someone making fun of a minority and people will start to ask questions (just ask Chris Rock why he changed his comedy stylings a few years back).
3) Not be a woman. The treatment of women by popular culture has come so far in just a few decades that it would be a major step back for them to be portrayed as evil shrews or bubbly idiots like they were always portrayed in the 70’s and 80’s.
4) Should not be young. Remember the key demographic everyone is trying to get is that 18-35 year old demographic. This is because they are the key moviegoers and the idiots who buy shit nobody really needs (like exercise equipment that lets you do push-ups and pull-ups you could do on your own without the $90 equipment). Movie going 18 year olds have bought into the fact that they are the oppressed heroes of their own lives, the last thing they would do would be root for a Middle Aged Man to overcome the technology savvy Teen.
Now, clearly, middle-aged men are not women, or young, by default. But have we been victims of repression and/or disempowered? I believe we have.
Now before you get your knickers in a twist, please understand I still think Middle-Aged Man is funny as hell. And I’m not taking any of it personally. I’m doing my best to model the response I’d like to see in others; “lighten up and don’t take yourself too seriously”.
But, at least, the subject deserves a reasonable discussion, don’t ya think? Or do ya think it’s a silly triviality? Why not let me know in the comments?
Carl
Here’s a link to the full article at Cracked.com