It's the 1970s and San Diego anchorman Ron Burgundy is the top dog in local TV, but that's all about to change when ambitious reporter Veronica Corningstone arrives as a new employee at his station.
02 Apr Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004)
Unanchored
This is a simple exercise in humour by going out of bounds. Well, this has energy at least.
It does have what I call folding, being a show about a show and show business. But that element is mundane , of the “Zoolander” variety.
I’ve been studying bounds recently. You might call them norms or conventions…
Much of humour comes from understanding where those bounds are at that moment and with that particular audience — and then stepping just over them. So much of humour can be seen this way just by allowing different boundaries to think about.
If the distance of the step is tiny, the humour is considered sophisticated and is often missed by the less sharp or attuned. If the stepping over is a big step, the humour is considered broad, crass.
We like the small steps because it shows more skill, even intelligence and it points out the humour in “real” life. So we remember it. Sometimes it changes us.
This is broad and crass. Purveyors of this sort of thing make up for that weakness by shooting in many directions, and at least all the big ones: sex, status, life, religion…
When that’s your formula, you can only accomplish so much. It all boils down to whether it has energy and whether the overall rhythm of the thing has a groove. This just has energy.
Posted in 2005
Ted’s Evaluation — 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.
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