Published at: June 17, 2001, 2:45 a.m. CST by headgeek
Sometimes I walk into a theater I’ve never seen before on a street corner with no name. On this day, which was neither yesterday nor the day before, I found just such a theater, paid my admission and sat down in the oh so comfy seat that has never been sat in before and watched a film that was not in release.
Amazing how the theater with no name does that. Was it here in Austin, or down the street from you, to tell the truth, I can’t remember, all I know was it was neither here nor there, but in its own particular place and time.
And the film on the Marquee was RUN RONNIE RUN…. A Mr Show Movie with no release date at all. There were coming attractions, no other patrons, it was merely me in attendance. Kind of strange being an audience of one, in a theater sandwiched between a Church and a Strip Bar… all alone.
Well… I sat… the curtains pulled aside and the projector started clacking in that booth… the sound I never heard, but knew was there all the same.
RUN RONNIE RUN is some funny as hell shit. Have you ever watched a film that made you laugh to such a degree that you actually felt more dumb by the time you exited the theater?
RUN RONNIE RUN, did that to me. I left with Ronnie Dobbs in control of my mouth. That damn ignorant accent… The drawl… the insistence on dimness… All right there in my head.
First, I have to admit something. I’ve never once seen an episode of MR SHOW. I don’t know these guys’ work. So I can’t judge if RUN RONNIE RUN was redundant… tired material from the show…. Or any of those sorts of things. All I can comment on is how the movie struck me.
And it struck me as being funny as hell.
Redneck trailer trash humor and I go way back. There’s an underground comic strip called TRAILER TRASH by Roy Tompkins… there are no new issues that I know of now, but it was well loved. There’s something just wonderfully degenerate and evilly fun about white trash America.
It isn’t to make fun of poor white America… it’s just… well, it’s DELIVERANCE’s fault. That non-suburbia… beer culture that hangs out drinking and getting into trouble and not understanding what is so wrong with what they did.
RUN RONNIE RUN plays in that world, but instead of saying it is wrong or stupid… it validates it as a beautiful way to live your life. That there is nothing wrong with tearing down the PIGGILY WIGGILY sign. That you can become a star if you get arrested on enough minor charges and get recorded on a show like COPS.
It takes that whole O.J./Tyson/Menendez/Jon Benet Ramsey fame thing to its most absurd and non-offensive place.
Here we have a fella that crashes his car into a tree… resists arrest as a drunken scoundrel… and becomes a national icon. Is it really possible to become famous as a lush and an idiot? Hehehe, um… no it is absolutely impossible coughbullshitcough…
How funny is RUN RONNIE RUN?
Well, that depends… For example, there is one location name that I couldn’t stop laughing at and just the memory of it would get me giggling for moments on end… TASTEE-LIQUOR! This is the greatest name for a Liquor Store ever… This isn’t the BIG humor of the film… just a gag in the background… However, for me it is indicative of the type of cleverness that the humor has.
This world feels a bit like the physical version of THE SIMPSON’s universe if you could have a song about kicking a woman in the CUNT thrown in… Or could get a major Broadway star naked on stage singing…
The story is quite simple, it is about a simple man, Ronnie Dobbs, being discovered by a wild inventor/TV innovator that makes him the biggest star in the world. Exploiting him to his furthest level.
You know… recently there was a film put out called THE ADVENTURES OF JOE DIRT…. A film to be avoided at all costs… RUN RONNIE RUN is everything JOE DIRT wanted to be, but failed miserably to attain. The comic instincts are dead on perfect.
I don’t want to ruin the gags or ‘explain’ the jokes… That’s a terrible injustice that I will not commit, but I will say this… RUN RONNIE RUN is the redneck belligerent drunk bastard version of the Austin Powers style character. Everybit as funny, if not more, but more honest to me. You see, because I’ve never seen MR SHOW, these actors were the characters. Austin Powers, I never forgot that Mike Myers was in there. Here… David Cross is only Ronnie Dobbs for me. David Koechner, who Moriarty informs me is in a comedy god from something called NAKED TRUCKER, is totally that white trash scary hillbilly bastard invalid. And he’s fantastic. Especially when he is tormenting Terry, who I understand is a Bob Odenkirk… and Moriarty says I should know who he is because he and this David Cross fella are geniuses that will make comedy that will heal the world and enlighten Dubya… but at least heal the world.
I don’t know about that, but I do know it is snot-snortingly funny. I know that Ronnie Dobbs is an absolute blast to see running rampant in the world. Watching him talk to that little cripple Asian brat about all the pussy that he (Ronnie Dobbs) is gonna get… Dear lord, GENIUS! And the little cripple kid with the big feet is a GOD! He makes me giggle and snort like a stuck pig on a riverbank roast.
I also dig the honesty of just reacting to things as a decent insane person would. This film reminded me of the great CHEECH & CHONG films (UP IN SMOKE and CHEECH & CHONG’S NICE DREAMS) because… well the characters believe in their world so completely. This is a world where a single bad beer can completely alter the perceptions of a character… and that’s great. I like that. It’s true. One beer is a dangerous thing, because like Pringles Potato Chips, you can’t just ingest one. One beer is the doom of man.
Be prepared when you walk into RUN RONNIE RUN… sometime later this year I think… It is funny in a very non-guilty funny way.
