We're only halfway through 2009, but already, methinks we can award the Oscar for Best Misdirection Campaign by a Movie to Funny People, because while everything we've seen about the actual movie suggests that it is a melodrama about what happens when a famous stand-up comedian faces the prospect of dying (both literally and figuratively), all of the accompanying publicity for the movie is outlandishly slapstick and in-your-face funny. Such is the case, again, with the site Laugh Your Dick Off, which is the home for one of the movie's characters, played by Aziz Ansari. In the movie, his "Raaaaaaaandy" persona has an onstage DJ sidekick and an aggressive attitude. Note to Internet programmers: Videos that automatically start when you put them on any page? Not cool. That's one of the ways you brought down MySpace. Way to go. (If you want to see Raaaaaaaandy in action, video after the jump)
Coincidentally, Ansari is recording his own hourlong DVD special tonight in Los Angeles, and will include a Raaaaaaaandy set for the extras.
i think the viral marketing is in opposition to the tone of the movie to flesh out the characters – so we can see each *working comedian* (in the FUNNY PEOPLE universe) on the job – and the stark difference between that and their shitty personal lives becomes all the more disparate in comparison.
or some shit.
Good point!
Instead of waiting for the DVD to see outtakes and extra features, this movie is giving it to us early. Not only a marketing ploy in the sense of going viral and generating interest, but also perhaps a pre-emptive strike in its defense when we all go to the movie and wonder where the laughs were? Or something like that.
BTW. FYI. LOL. Happened to catch the start to “So You Think You Can Dance” tonight, and the host introduced a female contestant named Randi as “Raaaaaaaandi!”