More on Jerry Lewis

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on February 23rd, 2009

This time, from Manohla Dargis, writing in the New York Times, in this section, discussing Lewis’ humanitarian award from AMPAS.

…It’s hard to imagine Mr. Lewis, who has never been nominated, giving the academy the brushoff. He needs the applause too much.

You can hear that need in every convulsive laugh and see it in a smile that stretches across his face like an abyss. Comedy is an art of desperation, feeding on the laughter and love of the audience, and few screen comics have worn that hunger more openly than Mr. Lewis has. To watch one of his early romps, including those with his longtime partner, Dean Martin, is to witness not just the pathos of that need, but also its horror. When Jerry Lewis laughs, his rubber-band lips widen across his cheeks, creating an enormous hole, a cavern of dark. It’s as if he were simultaneously splitting himself open for our delectation and trying to swallow us whole, maybe both.

Mind you, this is from an appreciation of Lewis.

We suppose Dargis is merely playing by the unwritten rules, to wit: If you’re going to praise a comedian (particularly one so vulgar as Jerry Lewis), then you must establish cred by first portraying the subject of your appreciation as pathetic, possibly psychotic, but definitely neurotic.

With appreciators like that, who needs detractors?

While watching the Oscarcast last night (and the red carpet coverage beforehand), it became apparent that of the two groups (actors or comedians), the comedians were the least needy, the least pretentious, the ones seeming to be least in need of attention or “love.”

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