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I was reading an interesting review about the new Alvin and the Chipmunks movie when noticing that the reviewer felt that the movie touched on some rather serious points and that, contrary to popular belief, the movie is actually well developed and gives the chipmunks more of a personality than you would expect. That took me back to "50 first dates", an interesting movie by Adam Sandler I was conned into watching that was actually a very moving and sentimental picture about what it means to suffer from anterograde amnesia, a rather serious illness that people may have never known about otherwise. In fact some victims of anterograde amnesia, where the person forgets what happens after the injury, also suffer from retrograde amnesia as well, the type we typically associate with amnesia; such is caused global amnesia.

Now without 50 first dates I never would have even thought to research that, but it makes you think about all of the other serious movies that were disguised as comedy (despite my appreciation for the movie it is very hard to watch it, in fact I rarely laughed and it is a bit sad). This isn't the first time one of Adam Sandler's movies have gotten me to think either, of course any movie by prototypical conscientious comedians (with the exception of perhaps Dave Chappelle) will get you to think, pretty much every movie by Chris Rock has a message and even Bernie Mac and Cedric the Entertainer have a message somewhere in their movies. Not to mention the fact that some comedians, like Robin Williams, offer compelling performances in serious dramas (The Fisher King & One Hour Photo) as well as traditional comedies (Death to Smoochy).

Man on the Moon should have been funny, given that it was about Andy Kaufman, a comedian whose people's opinions of him typically differ between ideas of his being a sociopath or a genius, but given that it took a look at the impetus behind Andy's comedy it is a rather long, serious look at his life that is difficult to watch at times. I would imagine the same would be the case if anyone were ever to write a movie about Tina Fey and her contributions to SNL and other network humor such as her acclaimed show 30 Rock, of perhaps even Julia Louis-Dreyfus of Seinfeld fame. We all know that comedy often comes from a rather serious place, a dark reach that we're unsure if we really want to know the real depths of, and for that reason we have to ask ourselves if we truly want to know the real life of a comedian.

Yet comedians and writers can often pen tales of drama and intrigue, or just plain out narcissism in ways in which others rarely can. Woody Allen remains the king of the cerebral screenplay, a writer whose work is seen through everyone from newcomers such as Tyler Perry to veterans like Ray Romano and Larry David; few can deny the impact the former comedian had on cinema and television. At the same time it is refreshing to see someone like Steve Martin deliver a message that isn't too profound, just sentimental enough but not to the point where we stop laughing altogether; Shopgirl is an underrated movie, as is Novocaine.

The next time I'm watching an old Bill Cosby or Richard Pryor film, or perhaps dust off Forrest Gump I may have to question what I am truly watching it for. In between the laughs and the amusement are serious messages about life that are difficult to appreciate otherwise, and perhaps in trying to escape from the silly and absurd I should appreciate those fleeting moments from stress and life's problems and think how in some ways the dumbed down "childish" approach is often the only truly liberating one I found; if nothing else it was the easiest to reach ...




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