Lead Blog about Talladega Nights
Will Ferrell is one of the funniest male actors in comedy. Most all the movies he is in are ridiculously stupid yet he makes them so funny. My favorite movie that he has starred in is Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. People either find it hysterical or just think it’s plain stupid. Fans of the movie will be able to quote whole scenes from beginning to end. The film is about a man named Ricky Bobby (played by Will Ferrell) who is a NASCAR driver and the movie takes place in Talladega, Alabama home to a famous racetrack. He is very successful with his best friend, Cal. Ricky is very rich, with two kids, a big home, adoring fans, and a beautiful wife. In an early scene, Ricky, and his family are sitting around the dinner table. It begins with Ricky’s wife yelling, “supper’s ready come on y’all I have been slaving over this for hours”. So I expected it to show a home cooked meal. Instead, the camera pans to the table and the food is from Taco Bell, Domino's, Pepsi, and KFC. The movie is incongruent because the viewer can’t predict what is going to happen next. The dinner starts with a prayer from Ricky Bobby. Everyone around the table has their own idea of what Jesus looks like but Ricky prefers to pray to Baby Jesus. Ricky begins the prayer by saying,“Dear Lord Baby Jesus, or as our brothers to the south call you, Jesús”. To Ricky, the Jesus he is praying to is not a man but a baby. The prayer scene is also an example of relief theory because they take a prayer which is usually really serious and make it a comedic topic. Ricky continues and in a serious tone says, “I just want to take time to say thank you for my family, my two beautiful, handsome, striking sons, Walker and Texas Ranger, or T.R. as we call him, and of course, my red-hot smoking wife, Carley who is a stone-cold fox.” Ricky says what he thinks and doesn’t have a filter. I find this scene to be so funny because the wife keeps saying don’t disrespect Jesus or you won’t keep winning all the races. Ricky ignores her and continues the prayer with, “Dear Lord Baby Jesus, we also thank you for my wife’s father, Chip. We hope that you can use your Baby Jesus powers to heal him and his horrible leg. And it smells terrible and the dogs are always bothering with it”. This is an example of superiority theory because we laugh at Chip’s leg and how Ricky is oblivious to his father-in-law’s pain. It’s so bad that the dogs bother with the leg, but yet we laugh because it is so outrageous to say during a prayer nonetheless. Ricky uses relief theory again by explaining when you, “say grace you can say it to grownup Jesus, or teenage Jesus, or bearded Jesus or whoever you want”. He makes Jesus, the holiest of all figures, look like a normal guy. The average person usually says Jesus, without reference to the age of Jesus or what Jesus looks like. Ricky makes us think about who we are praying to and while obvious, I had not thought about it when I am praying. Making something apparent when it wasn’t before is important to comedy. Ricky then continues the prayer to say, “Dear tiny Jesus, in your golden-fleece diapers, with your tiny, little, fat, balled-up fists”. He talks about him like he’s just another baby, that happens to be Jesus. Ricky’s friend takes his turn to continue the prayer and says, “I like to picture Jesus in a tuxedo T shirt, cause it says, like, I wanna be formal, but I’m here to party, too. Cause I like to party, so I like my Jesus to party”. This is so incongruent because who would really think that Jesus would party like him. Jesus is always seen as a spiritual, solemn figure and not a party one. They bring Jesus to act and look like a person just like them. After everyone is ready for the prayer to be done Ricky concludes by saying, “Okay. Dear 8 pound, 6 ounce newborn infant Jesus, don’t even know a word yet, just a little infant and so cuddly, but still omnipotent...Thank you for all your power and your grace, dear baby God. Amen”. The humor was in Ricky’s outrageous words said with all sincerity of a prayer. This scene is a great example of all three theories.
This scene has always occurred to me to be a funny variation on the phrase "believe in the god you want, and I will believe in the god I want." This is a classic statement of American religious pluralism. But it becomes comic by making it about which version of one god we pray to, which as you say is sacrilegious and hilarious.
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