Heckler

There is an extreme chance that you haven't seen this film. A portion of that chance may be from the fact that is a documentary. While informative and usually a good mind stimulant, documentaries are a dying breed. I, personally, enjoy the doc because of its willingness to dive into issues. It is a movie genre that isn't afraid to make a fool of itself and almost wants to make every situation as awkward and uncomfortable as possible. The documentary has also transformed whoever is making the film into a world authority on the matter. Suddenly, every Tom Dick and Harry thinks they are the leading source on whale migration in the Arctic Ocean or an increase in AIDS cats in the deep South. Documentaries give their filmmakers a sense of pride, one that probably wouldn't be achieved if they wanted to write a book or something. Who reads anyways?

Heckler is Jamie Kennedy's attempt to examine the psychology of the critic and the heckler. Leading experts in the field, otherwise known as comedians, explain personal experiences with hecklers and critics and try to debunk the villainous truth behind bad reviews. Essentially, it is an hour and eighteen minutes of every comedian ever seen on Comedy Central repeating each other, "Hecklers want to get their voice heard, Bloggers want to attack the people on top!"

At times in this doc, I felt genuinely bad for these performers. Here you have people going on stage in front of people they have never met before, just trying their hardest to get people to laugh. When nobody laughs, the negativity comes out. Come on, audience, it's not like the comedian can read everybody's mind to see what they find funny. Cut the guy a little friggin slack. Also, you don't have this comedian coming to your work and telling you how pitiful of a garbage man you are or how awful your copy pressing fingers look. Jesus Christ, people, have a little sympathy.

With that being said, Jaime and all his comedian friends, grow the fuck up. Boo hoo, a critic slammed your movie because it wasn't funny or it wasn't intelligent. I'm pretty sure you are still walking home with a paycheck larger then most McDonalds employees go home with after a year. So your movie didn't reach out to every single person in the audience; in the perspective of things, I bet you made a couple of people laugh or cry. So if anything, it's a double whammy for you: not only did you entertain some people, you also are making more money then Juan from the gas station and his entire family combined. You may make the argument that it's not always about the money, it's about doing what I love. Well that's very noble and all, so why don't you start charging free admission for comedy shows or stop bashing the economy in every set you have.

It's strange, Kennedy talks about people just like me in Heckler. He says we are fat, white, nerdy, and smelly. While that may be true for most bloggers, it is not for me so suck it. A number of the comedians interviewed say the same thing, absolute dipshits are bloggers. Ok, so why are you caring so much what we write then. Of the millions of blogs and review sites in this gigantic world, what the hell makes you think that the person who is deciding between your next movie or someone elses is going to consult my site first?

We love to attack the guys on top. It's true, we get jealous and it forces us to break others down. That's human nature, just as performing and taking home giant checks without thinking twice is human nature. So what it really comes down to is we both enjoy what we do, you make money, enough money in two weeks that would put our lives to shame while we write reviews that bash you that will probably never be read. Let's see who has the advantage, chances are nobody will ever know that this existed. Sorry Jaime, I loved you in Malibu's Most Wanted.