Peter Bart: Judd Apatow & Paul Feig Favor Comedy Over Cohesion In Two New Projects
deadline.comChris Rock was supposed to deliver the big laugh, not the big slap, but to comedy practitioners the Oscars debacle seemed an appropriate metaphor for the state of their craft.“The 1960s would have been easier to survive with a laugh track,” Lenny Bruce once explained, and his sardonic observation would apply today.Two shows this week from prolific producers Paul Feig and Judd Apatow underscore the problems of the moment.
The Minx from Feig is about a feminist trying to rationalize the start of a new sex magazine; In The Bubble, Apatow’s focus, centers on a band of stranded actors attempting to exploit their quarantine into a hit movie.Feig and Apatow, while productive as manufacturers, concede their craft is at “an odd place,” in Feig’s words.
Their styles are a study in contrast: In personal conversation Apatow wears the wary look of the veteran standup who’s always wondering, “Why am I wasting this good material on you?”By contrast, Feig dispenses geniality, and bravely delivers interviews to journalists that analyze the strategy of eliciting laughs.
His credentials are indisputable, having been responsible for Bridesmaids, Spy, the 2016 version of Ghostbusters and Freaks and Geeks, the legendary show that created careers but not ratings.The opening scenes of his new HBO Max show are dense with pitches and arguments about magazine content, but skeptical viewers will be quickly distracted by the cameos of twenty penises displayed by young models who look alternately prideful and weirded out.Feig had been skeptical about finding a buyer for the show until, he says, “a surprising ‘yes’ suddenly emerged from the phallic ashes.” While studios usually favor shows based on established IP, not original ideas, his stunt
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