Take a Little Time and Go Watch "The Court Jester"
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In Saint Louis we had freezing rain overnight. This caused school closures, some businesses taking the day off and sports activities being pushed back. But, on Monday's I grocery shop for the family. It is what I have been doing since I became the at home parent. And since grocery stores are seemingly never closed, I did my duties as usual.
When I got to my first stop they had a sign on the door saying they did not open until 11am. I got there at about 20 till, so I sat in my car and played on my phone. While scrolling social media I saw a story about the unauthorized short film "The Court Jester". This is the short where Pauly Shore plays Richard Simmons. By all accounts, Simmons had not given this his blessing, so that is why it is considered an "unauthorized" biography. In reading this story, it was on Uproxx, I did read that Shore said Simmons was coming around to almost giving it his blessing. They screened it at, I believe, Sundance, and it got an ovation. I have been curious about this since I first read a week ago that Shore was playing Simmons in a biopic. I have always been an unabashed fan of Shore's. He came into my movie watching life at the best time. When I was a pre teen, "Encino Man" and "Son in Law" came out during the prime of pay per view, and I watched those movies over and over and over again. I never knew why I was so enthralled by these movies as a kid. But when I became an adult and a father, it hit me. Pauly Shore is what drove me to watch these movies. There was no one funnier than him to me at the time. This was before I got into "SNL". Then I started to watch Sandler and Farley and Rock. Those became my favorites. But for a good long while, I was a big fan of Shore's. I have semi followed his career since I first watched him. I like the movie "Pauly Shore is Dead". I think it is a solid mocking of his career. I was stoked when he was a special guest star on "Workaholics". Listening to him on "WTF with Marc Maron" was very eye opening. I sought out movies like "Bio Dome", "Jury Duty" and "In the Army Now". I was pretty enthused when he appeared on the "Comedy Bang! Bang!" tv show. While his stuff is never serious, or even very good, I find it to be like comfort food for me. It is nice to sit back and turn my mind off and laugh at his nonsense. So when "The Court Jester" was announced, I thought it was going to be a comedy.
It is not. I read the Uproxx story and Shore said as much himself. He took this role in this short seriously. He didn't want to poke fun at Simmons. That was never his, or the filmmakers and writers intention. The Uproxx story, nicely, added a link to watch the short. Since I still had ten minutes before the store opened, I clicked the link and watched the eight minute short.
I loved it. I thought it was pretty excellent. They told a nice, heartwarming story. There is this worker for "The Ellen Show" who is a little heavy and nondescript. The short starts with a shot on this worker staring at a donut and a song plays where the only lyric is, "DONUT". He is then snapped back into reality and told to give Simmons a copy of his DVD to promote on the show. All the while people keep asking who he is, and if he is new. He tells everyone that he has worked there for seven years. He doesn't make it in time to hand over the DVD, and the people on the show are furious with him. During this time, Simmons goes on the show and does his schtick. Anyone who has the slightest clue of who Simmons is knows what I am talking about. And Pauly Shore absolutely nails every aspect of Simmons. He looks like him, he's built like him, he has the same mannerisms and voice as Simmons. He is as upbeat as I remember Simmons being. It is a pretty fantastic impersonation. Eventually Simmons runs into the worker and they have an incredible heart to heart. And Shore nails what it must have been like to have a one on one conversation with Simmons. And there is no poking fun or jokes or anything that could be perceived as cruel. Shore does Simmons as one of the nicest, most comforting people you could ever meet. It was pretty amazing to see him transform into this character.
I highly recommend checking this out. It is only eight minutes, like I said before, but it packs a punch. I was happily shocked at Shore's ability to pull it off. I'm curious if they will make a full length feature. But for now, I have "The Court Jester". And that will do just fine.
Ty
Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.
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