Ick.
In late October, Dennis Prager and Adam Corolla, intellectual heavyweights in the sense that their crania are denser than lead, released No Safe Spaces, an entire movie whining about how comedians can’t make gay jokes any more and how conservatives are being “cancelled” everywhere. It did not appear at any theater near me, and seemed to sink without a trace.
I did find a Fox News headline bragging about it, ‘No Safe Spaces’ sees massive box office haul
, praise that was qualified by the next few words, on just 1 screen
. Yeah, it was shown at one theater in Phoenix, Arizona, and presumably they bussed in a bunch of Fox News watching retirees to see it so they’d have a blockbuster weekend with a whole $45,000 in revenue. It also means most of the reviews on IMDB are good — it got 8.6 stars out of 10.
It features a lot of interviews with the usual third-rate conservative faces, like Dave Rubin and Jordan Peterson, and of course the fourth-rate wackaloons, Prager and Corolla. Despite the low wattage and volunteer contributions of the “stars”, I doubt that this movie broke even. Dennis Prager might think he’s a charismatic box office draw, sitting in an easy chair and puffing on a cigar, and Corolla might imagine he’s still in his glory days of the 90s when MTV would pay him to be crude and sexist, but the sight of either of them would tell me to skip the movie, it’s not even going to be fun to mock.
It also got me thinking, though. The Right preaches the gospel of capitalism and the profit motive, yet to persuade the public that their cause is just, they rely on shadowy sugar daddies to pay for their loss-leading movies and think tanks; the Invisible Hand is constantly slapping them down and telling the world how much they suck. Meanwhile, the Left knows that few billionaires are going to prop up their propaganda, and they have to rely on popular support to defy the absence of Big Money support they can get. Isn’t this backwards? In a truly capitalist society, shouldn’t this dreck just die of starvation?
File it next to “Atlas Shrugged: the public shruggening”
I, for one, applaud the RWNJs lighting their cash on fire making these “movies”. If the fire is big enough, they might have to have it in a dumpster also, too.
“it was shown at one theater in Phoenix, Arizona”
Ahh yes Arizona, the state where white people go to die.
To the conservative, be they of the religious or secular variety, their beliefs and “values” are like gravity or strong nuclear force: They are vital and inarguable components of reality that only the insane or the depraved would argue against. However, the insanities and false promises of the Left are seductive and can easily sway the impressionable and “emotional” (e.g. youths, women, non-whites, LGBTQ, and other irrational folks who don’t subscribe to David Smalley). Systemic racial and sexual chauvinism, and an cut-throat economic system that throws the less-fortunate to the wolves while a spoiled few live in care-free opulence are just too important to leave to the marketplace of ideas without support. Without all that Dark Money, America would descend into a miscegenated, culturally relative, non-binary, socialist Hell that will drag humanity into barbarism!
So keep those checks to Prager U coming! Your very life may depend on it!
“It Is No Longer Possible To Make Great Comedy,” Laments Former Host Of “The Man Show”
Snarki @ 1
Not only that, celluloid slime like this will keep the guys over at God Awful Movies in material until Noah is absorbed and replaced by his impending lung tumor, Heath drinks himself to death for the fourth time, and Eli has to take to a country without an extradition treaty with the US.
Adam is hoping this movie will make women jumping on trampolines funny again.
Oh, the saga of Atlas Shrugged trilogy was a joy to behold as each movie flopped and they had to keep recasting and in the end resort to some decidedly un-Randian begging to get funding to keep making them.
Russel Glasser @ 4
And what is “Great Comedy” to these goons? Swilling beer, burping, farting, lewd innuendo, and punching down at anyone who isn’t a straight, white, grunting, libertarian, hyper-macho, mouth-breather. It’s the same low “humor” that amused the bullies who used smack me around in grade school. Their comedic ethos is essentially “THIS IS WHAT IS FUNNY AND IF YOU DON’T LAUGH, YOU’RE A HUMORLESS PRUDE OUT TO SILENCE ME!!!”
steve1 @ 6
The fact that anyone found that hilarious (or even arousing) is speaks volumes about our society. “Yes, it’s an attractive, voluptuous, young woman on a trampoline. Yes, I can see her breasts jiggling as she jumps, but why is that funny? Hell, it’s not even sexy. Can we change the channel, please?”
@ 7 Tabby Lavalamp
Someone tried to make not one but three Atlas Shrugged movies?
I think I tried reading the book when I was a teenager and tossed it after about page 35.
rkrideau @9: They did and the train wreck of their failure was glorious to behold.
“…tossed it after about page 35.”
Just to be clear, was that page 35 of the novel, or page 35 of the goddamn patronizing monologue?
Incidentally, they show ATLAS SHRUGGED on one of the streaming services I see on my Roku, and its shills have managed to give it nine stars or so. This is useful information, inasmuch as I no longer place any credence whatever in ratings on those things, if they’re that easy for a small group to game.
Thankfully we have the right to skip propaganda.
I also find it kind of odd that they need the shadowy support while proclaiming the truth of the market place. Kind of like how the republicans talk about voter fraud while at the same time spend considerable effort on voter suppression .
uncle frogy
@13 Or how the impeachment hearing are illegitimate because the witnesses are all second hand, and also, no first-hand witnesses should be permitted to testify.
Who?
:googles:
Oh, that guy. Sorry, Adam, but if your career is flagging, it’s not due to bias against conservatives; it’s because fart jokes and prank calls might fly with the 14-year-old viewer demo when you seem young and hip, but it’s just kinda embarrassing when you’re visibly old enough to be their dad.
@jkrideau. Me, too, except I was about 11. The cover fooled me into thinking it was an SF novel. After the first few pages I realised that the writing was appalling and the characters more wooden than Sherwood Forest. It is utterly baffling that any adult human can read Rand’s outpourings with a straight face.
Honestly, my favourite comment on Atlas Shrugged is still the one from a 2010 blog post: Stupid Things Libertarians Say, Part II: Simplicity Itself
Adam Corolla can go suck eggs, along with every other entertainer who blames the audience for not liking their act.
My dad had a copy each of Atlas Shrugged and The Fountainhead. I was 13 or 14 when I picked up one of them, I think The Fountainhead, but I can’t really say for sure. It was a great turning point in my life. I read less than 10 pages, decided that if my dad considered that a good book he couldn’t possibly be right about everything, and then moved on to more realistic and less sexist divertissements, like super hero comics.
From the Common Sense Media review:
It’s taken $236,619 to date, according to Box Office Mojo and Wikipedia. They might make their budget (couldn’t find any estimate for that figure) back yet.
Incidentally in a single 100 seat cinema, at 95 minutes in length and at 15 bucks a ticket, they would need to show to full houses continuously (30 shows) to gross $45,000 in 48 hours (Friday night-Sunday night). That’s some dedicated viewers!
I wouldn’t be surprised to see a budget item from something like the Heritage Foundation that is only a thousand dollars or so less than the amount the movie took in, under a header like “community outreach” or “publicity.”
How many people here think people should be arrested for hate speech? Just curious.
Arrested? Nah. Fuck the cops. Hate speech is a problem you solve with milkshakes and bike locks.