I Saw Religulous the Other Day.
So the Hell What.
I should’ve seen it coming, but I didn’t. Bill Mahr is a stand-up comic. I’m not one to buy wholesale into categorization as a reflection of essence, so I don’t think that means much. I gather, though, it does to Bill Mahr. It’s the likeliest explanation for 101 minutes of pedestrian comedy masquerading poorly as bad documentary.
I had watched the tail of a Mahr interview on Tavis Smiley a night or two before, and had adored Mahr’s comparison of the Jonah tale with a Mother Goose story. The third time he dropped it, nearly verbatim, by roughly 15 minutes into Religulous, I adored it less. I never confused it for compelling rhetoric; I had, however, confused it as something more earnest than a joke. That’s my fault.
The remainder of the flick runs through a checklist of the shockumentary genre:
- confronting representatives of the institution under scrutiny, with one or more besieged members stomping off
- forceful rejection while attempting to invade the institution’s hallowed grounds (chaotic camera work is appreciated here)
- interviewing one or more expatriots of the institution who divulge SECRET DIRTY INFORMATIONS!
- simplistic condescension
I watched and enjoyed Fahrenheit 911 and a couple other recent additions to the canon; and I chuckled a couple of times during Religulous. I’m also not above calling out problems I see with this or other institutions (independent of how warranted or skillful are my jabs). But Mahr’s repetitive schtick and outright rudeness, coupled with his reflexive delulsional grandeur, made me realize how much we need thoughtful commentary, couched in snark or not, and by just how much Religulous misses that mark. This is not thoughtful commentary. This is a comedy bit, and it’s not a good one.
If only Ricky Gervais had helmed this.
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