Bill Hader names cinema’s only “perfect” comedy movie: “It’s genius”
Realistically, there’s no such thing as a perfect comedy movie, because the genre is so subjective. Bill Hader would disagree, though, since there’s one film he considers the epitome of the term.
Even the most beloved comedic pictures of all time aren’t for everyone, and in a similar vein, there might even be a handful of people out there who’ve been left doubled over by one of the many crimes against cinema committed by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, because it’s different strokes for different folks.
It’s a good thing there isn’t a secret ingredient to making a comedy flick that everyone adores, because then we’d be inundated with nothing but homogenised gags designed to appeal to everyone. If you can’t crack a smile at Blazing Saddles or This Is Spinal Tap, that’s fine, but it doesn’t mean they’re not classics.
Hader’s personal preferences are much more attuned to his cinephile side than his comedian side, with the Saturday Night Live veteran, man of a thousand voices, and impressionist extraordinaire a self-confessed celluloid geek who was raised on a steady diet of arthouse, independent, and international cinema.
Obviously, he still enjoys silly shit, and shit doesn’t get much sillier than Christopher Guest’s signature style of mockumentary filmmaking. Not all of them can hold a candle to the aforementioned Spinal Tap, which he co-wrote, but for Hader’s money, he peaked in 1996 when Waiting for Guffman premiered.
“I watch this once a year,” he told Time Out. “Everyone in this movie is perfect. Every performance is beyond inspired.” In fact, he thinks it’s so good that he encouraged everyone to buy the movie on home video to uncover its hidden treasures. “Watch the DVD extras to see Parker Posey’s character’s audition,” he added. “It’s genius.”
Waiting for Guffman wasn’t exactly appreciated in its time, with the low-budget comedy still failing to recoup its meagre production budget at the box office, but like many of Guest’s mockumentaries that didn’t initially set the world on fire, it’s only become more popular with the passage of time.
The tale of an off-off-off-off-Broadway actor roping in an ensemble of untalented small-town locals to lend a helping hand in the production he sees as his ticket back to the big time made such an impression on Hader that he name-checked it when he was pitching the project that became the critical and awards season high watermark of his career.
HBO’s Barry was touted by its creator, star, writer, and director as “What if Robert De Niro’s character in Taxi Driver met the theatre group from Waiting for Guffman, and they helped him?” and ended up with one of the most acclaimed, original, and inventive TV shows of the last decade.
