I thought that Adam Sandler had changed careers when I saw that he is the current director of The Price Is Right. Good for him!
Oh, there are two Adam Sandlers out there!
The price is wrong, bitch.
But put more seriously (in a thread on humor, no less!), whatever one believes about the quality of Adam Sandler’s humor (and I readily admit I can leave the majority without feeling much loss), to deny he has had a significant impact on American society via humor over the last quarter century is delusional and, to my mind, speaks more to a generation gap than anything else.
That would make sense to me if he was getting an award back when he was actually doing any of that. But he’s been the butt of the joke for washed comedians for quite a long while. His newest content is pretty much always described as him just phoning it in and giving work to his friends.
To me he’s just this guy who was funny for a while back in the 90s and early 2000s, but then got passed by. I can’t think of any lasting changes he made in the world.
Quoth the Dude: well, that’s just your opinion, man!
That’s when anyone gets these types of awards. It’s almost always given as a retrospect, except for awards which are tied to current productions, i.e. Oscars.
Looking at his Box Office track record, the decline started about ten years ago. He’s still phoning in comedies, a new one dropped on Netflix the other day. But he also did Uncut Gems which has a 91% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.
Give the man his prize, let him bask in fake adulation from his peers. Is there another comedian in decline that’s more worthy? Perhaps.
And then they’ll get it next year and it will spawn a thread: “Boring MacBorefest wins Mark Twain award. WTF”
The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor is an American award presented by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Artsannually since 1998, except for the years 2020 and 2021. Named after the 19th-century humorist Mark Twain, it is presented to individuals who have “had an impact on American society in ways similar to” Twain.[1] The JFK Center chose Twain due to his status as a controversial social commentator and his “uncompromising perspective of social injustice and personal folly.”[1]
I am fine with Adam Sandler winning this prize, seems about time to be honest.
All his movies have this- “You can trouble me for a glass of shut the hell up. Now you will go to sleep or I will put you to sleep. Check out the name tag, Gradma. You’re in my world now.” funny, but also social commentary on how we treat old people.
ETA: the wiki page for Twain has a bust of him….and it has cleavage. It’s early in the morning but that may be the best thing I see all day.
I’m not a fan but one of his recent movies Hustle was genuinely brilliant. One of my highlights of 2022.
And I will not hear a bad word said about 50 First Dates. I’ll fight you.
That sounds like both Mike Myers AND Jim Carrey as well. And probably a dozen others!!!
Being actor-friends with Sandler seems like a ticket to repeat paid work, often in nice holiday destinations, with someone who seems well-liked by people who work with him. So I think some of the peer adulation isn’t necessarily fake.
I know, which is why I posted upthread that he seems universally liked.
By fake adulations I mean the unfunny scripts for the supposed roastings. I just once wish his friends would be allowed to really roast him. Because you know that Sandler (and others in his position) would love that a whole lot more. I mean a guy who did Don’t mess with the Zohan is not going to find the jokes he was made to suffer through very funny.
