Will Ferrell...is not Funny

There, I said it. It took me a while to come to terms with this, both as someone who until recently, hadn't thought about Will Ferrell in a very long time, and as someone who once upon a time, was an avid fan. I recently saw Semi-Pro, his latest offering under extreme duress. I was told I was a snob (heh, a "pretentious know it all" if you will) for not wanting to see this film. The only other people in the theater besides myself and my kidnapper were a group of boys, no older than thirteen, who had obviously snuck in (more on that later).

I don't know exactly when it was that Will Ferrell stopped being funny...wait, yes I do. It was sometime around here:




This was back in 2004, a year after Old School. I remember watching Anchorman and thinking that something felt...off. The jokes were landing a bit heavier, the plot was feeling a bit thinner. The one good thing I can say about Anchorman was that it introduced the world to Paul Rudd as a comedic actor--and the payoff from that has been exponential for him. And yes, I suppose it gave Steve Carell a boost he needed, though truth be told, outside of an Office setting I'm getting a little sick of him too. I digress.
I wisely avoided his 2006 offering, Talladega Nights after hearing from a friend "It was kind of funny, but not as good as Anchorman." That was enough for me. The only thing that made Will Ferrell in Blades of Glory (again, watched it under duress) mildly watchable was pairing him against Jon Heder, who is quite possibly the only comedic actor in Hollywood more stale and one-note than Farrell.
After seeing Semi-Pro, I've sort of come to the realization that titles this
post...Will Ferrell isn't funny. It's a Will Ferrell comedy, so you know you're going to get the following staples:

1. Ferrell yelling, and throwing/kicking/hitting things
2. Ferrell playing an ultra-macho, blowhard with little to no grasp on reality AND...
3. Ferrell at least partially naked, inexplicably, contextually or otherwise. I suppose this is actually an extension of #2, because seriously, is there anyone more obsessed with his or her own body than Will Ferrell?

There are probably more, but I won't bother with listing them all, nor will I bother even trying to explain the inane plot of Semi-Pro. It was like watching deleted scenes on the special features of a DVD for a much funnier movie. You kind of chuckle, but ultimately you say "Yeah, I can see why they cut that out." That, and every single scene in the film had almost nothing to do with the scene that preceded it. When a group of thirteen-year-old boys aren't even laughing, is it still pretentious to say that Will Ferrell isn't funny? Can we speak honestly and just admit that it's all getting a little old? Especially since we've seen films like Stranger than Fiction and Winter Passing and know that Will Ferrell can at least kind of act? This left me longing, not for the days of Old School (which was more of the same, we just didn't know it yet). But whatever happened to the Will Ferrell, who played the most popular high school boy in a little film called Superstar? The Will Ferrell who was inventing dances, and barely raised his voice above normal-speaking level (loud does not equal funny. That's painfully clear now). I'm not deluding myself into thinking that Superstar was a piece of comedic genius. But it has more charm than it's given credit for. More than any Will Ferrell movie released since then, and certainly more than Semi-Pro. I'll take Superstar, dance-inventing Will Ferrell over loud, kicking and screaming, retarded temper-tantrum Will Ferrell any day.

You know what, scratch that. I'll take neither.