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Sunday, April 20, 2008

I can't wait. So sue me
Posted by Jill | 7:09 AM




Yes, it's going to be full of penis jokes, appalling sexist humor, and equally appalling, adolescent-style homophobia. That's what it takes to get some of the people who most need to know about what the paranoia of the post-9/11 world actually means into the theatre. But if it's as smart as Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle in its treatment of racism, it'll be worth it:

“Our top priority was to make people laugh,” Mr. Schlossberg said in a recent telephone interview. “But the secondary priority is that there’s something a little smarter below the surface. I guess in a certain way it’s our reaction to post-9/11 paranoia.”

The new film, which opens Friday, picks up where the first left off, with the two pot-loving roommates — a Korean-American corporate desk jockey Harold Lee (John Cho) and an Indian-American ex-pre-med slacker Kumar Patel (Kal Penn) — en route to Amsterdam having satisfied a killer case of the munchies. Kumar, despite being harassed by airport security, manages to smuggle a stash of weed onto the plane. A bungled attempt to light up in the lavatory — not helped by the fact that “bong” sounds like “bomb” — lands the guys in Gitmo on terrorism charges. The homeland security official overseeing the case, a paragon of belligerent idiocy played by Rob Corddry, takes one look at our heroes and concludes that Al Qaeda and North Korea are in cahoots.

In devising the plot the filmmakers borrowed from Mr. Penn’s own travel experiences since the Sept. 11 attacks. “That’s probably one of the only parallels between Kumar and me,” Mr. Penn said. “We both get pulled out of line at airports.”

This became a routine occurrence when he and Mr. Cho were flying around the country to promote the first film. “Once we were with a friend of mine — he’s the same age, same height as me, except he’s white,” Mr. Penn recalled. “I was stopped at security, but he went through even though he had a hunting knife that he forgot to take out of his backpack. They were so focused on pulling out the brown guy, they didn’t even notice.”

[snip]

The signal achievement of both Harold and Kumar films is that they make race incidental without taking racism lightly; they presuppose an enlightened audience. “When we start to write, we’re under the assumption that everyone knows racism is bad,” Mr. Schlossberg said. “If you don’t know that, you’re a moron. Harold and Kumar’s attitude toward racism is more frustration at having to deal with idiocy than moral outrage. We try to create a world where racism is stupid.”


I'm also waiting for Part III: Harold and Kumar Run for President. Coming to a television set near you this fall.

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2 Comments:
Blogger The Minstrel Boy said...
i laugh out loud at harold and kumar, i'm not ashamed.

i'm looking forward to this one too.
4/20/08, 11:00 AM  
Blogger driftglass said...
Do not speak ill of the penis jokes. Some of my best friends are penis jokes :-)
4/20/08, 11:01 PM  
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