Pauly Shore as Richard Simmons

Cafe Society
1

If you were tasked to come up with a pitch for a parody movie that couldn’t possibly be real, a biopic about Richard Simmons (the manic goofball diet guru), played by Paul Shore (the manic goofball weirdness guru) would probably make the list.

But it’s apparently real, and in production. Simmons has disavowed the project, but Shore emphasizes that he’s taking it seriously, and intends it to be a tribute.

In furtherance of the project, Shore and the writer have made a short film (about 9 minutes long), found below.

If you don’t have the time or inclination to watch it, the film depicts Simmons promoting a video on Ellen Degeneras’ show. The film focuses on a guy who works on the show, who is a typical of Simmons’ target demographic: he’s overweight, struggles with junk food temptation, and. Is overlooked and under appreciated.

The film culminates with a brief chat between Simmons and the guy. It’s very sweet and uplifting.

I have no idea how the full length film might play out, but I love the idea that somebody who was so outrageous (Pauly Shore) getting acclaim for a poignant role. And, let’s be honest: if Pauly Shore was to take on any sincere part, there may be no more perfect person to play.

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Sounds like they cribbed the script from that Tom Hanks Fred Rogers movie, but that was a very good movie so I guess I can’t blame them for that. I admit to enjoying some of Pauly Shore’s work. He’s a bit overweight for the role, but otherwise it’s kind of a brilliant piece of casting.

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I hope they recreate the time that he dressed like a turkey and chased David Letterman around trying to kiss him, Dave sprayed him with a fire extinguisher, and Richard had to be taken to the hospital.

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When Pauly gets nominated for an Oscar, all you people who didn’t post here are going to regret it!

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I always felt that Shore had to be smarter and more talented than he appeared; you have to have something on the ball to play characters that stupid and have them actually be funny (for certain values of funny), as opposed to just being uninteresting at all. Kind of like a proto Ashton Kutcher in a sense.