I love Jim Carey, but not as Biden.
Alec Baldwin was Trump. He provided catharsis. He provided comic relief, but Jim Carey isn’t working for me.
I hate that Jim Carey isn’t working for me. I love Jim Carey. I loved him in every role he ever played from In Living Color to The Mask. There was nothing he couldn’t do, until now.
I don’t know why he can’t do Biden. Maybe because he has mastered hyperbole but not subtlety.
Jim Carey, as Biden, scared me before the election. Now that everyone has voted, I’m less worried. Pre-election, I was afraid that he would ruin Biden for people. I was afraid that he would make Biden less appealing and draw attention to his lack of charisma. But then Jim Carey gave Biden too much charisma and that didn’t work either.
On the other hand, I can’t stop thinking about Jim Carey as Biden. Even though I think he was terrible, it resonates.
The fact is, that Jim Carey knows more about comedy than most of us, and I don’t always get the joke right away. Sometimes, after a joke, I say, “I don’t get it”, and the teller looks at me like, “Really? It was so obvious.”
There is a possibility that I don’t get what Jim Carey is doing with the Biden character, and that I don’t understand his joke. I’m willing to admit that.
I do keep thinking about Jim Carey as the fly on Pence’s head, so Jim Carey is doing something right. A joke must be working if it leaves you thinking about it later. Is humor like advertising? Like there are good ads that emotionally affect you, and there are bad ads that are so annoying that they also get stuck in your head?
Comedy isn’t just one thing. It ranges from the knock-knock joke to the very sophisticated Sarah Cooper to Montey Python to fart jokes. Some comedy is right on the other side of the door and some comedy is a slow burn. All comedy holds a mirror up to the world.
Is it possible that with the Jim Carey/Biden thing, that I just don't like what I’m seeing in the mirror that comedy is holding up to the world? And that it makes me angry because everything about this world right now makes me angry? And maybe I’m transferring that anger on to Jim Carey? Or am I overthinking it?
There’s another possibility. Do you know those times when someone makes a joke too soon? Like a tragedy just happened and they tell a joke right away? And you say, “Too soon. Not funny yet.”
Is it possible that once we get some distance from this election, I will see that Jim Carey is the perfect Biden? And that I won’t be sad that Jim Carey is Biden anymore? And it will become something that I look forward to every Saturday night?
Is Jim Carey just playing Biden too soon, while the tragedy is still happening?
