Marketing of the Moment: Raaaaaaaandy!

Marketing of the Moment: Raaaaaaaandy!

Posted on August 12th, 2009 by Sean Cunningham

Funny People is a movie where the best part of the movie really isn’t in the movie. I’ll explain. For the film, the standup comic Aziz Ansari created the character of the standup comic Randy (or, as he prefers to say it, Raaaaaaaandy!), who manages to utilize virtually every gimmick comedians find hacky in other comedians (including relentlessly dropping catch phrases, constantly dancing around the stage, and refusing to write jokes that don’t involve oral sex) with some new tricks of his own (Randy is the first comedian to have his own DJ, who punctuates punch lines with sound effects). Aziz then collaborated on “documentaries” about the character, all available at the web site laughyourdickoff.com–Randy opens his act by asking, “Who’s ready to laugh their dick off?!?–where we learn that Randy likes breasts, dislikes what’s going on in Darfur, and met his DJ at a dentist (where Old Youngin’ was a hygienist busy “WORKIN’ ON THEM TEETH!”), creating a tremendous anticipation for the character even before the movie opened.

Then the movie opened, and the world learned Funny People was overstuffed with plot and characters and members of the Apatow immediate family, leaving virtually no screen time left for “Raaaaaaaandy!” (“With eight A’s!”, as he specifically informs an audience). I enjoyed the movie–it’s hard to dislike a film where Sarah Silverman does an impression of her own vagina–but with The Hurt Locker still unseen by most people, I can’t recommend rushing out to see it. I don’t hesitate, however, to urge everyone everywhere to check out Randy. He may have turned out to be nothing more than an online marketing gimmick, but I’ll take hype this glorious over substance any day.

__ of the Moment appears each Wednesday.