Bay lampoon

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A YouTube clip that lampoons celebrity couple reality shows was sent to me this morning. The kicker is that "Michael Bay" is introduced and, according to the sender, the guy who portrays him does so to a tee. I'm sitting in a low wifi cafe in Los Alamos, California (north of Santa Barbara about 25 miles), and loading a video file will take eons. But if anyone who knows Bay has a reaction...

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on July 8, 2007 at 9:35 AM

comment #1

jsnpritchett says ...

The person who plays Bay barely even speaks. I don't see how anyone could think the actor has Bay down to a tee. The whole thing seemed very amateurish to me. No one looked, sounded, or acted like their real-life counterparts.

Posted by jsnpritchett at July 8, 2007 10:25 AM

comment #2

MickTravis says ...

I'm assuming Bay has assistants remove his shirts for him ... and his spraying the lens and getting the camera operator was funny (if clumsily edited).

But, yeah, other than that, none of these people seem to be making any attempt to look, act, dress or groom themselves like the person they're supposedly imitating.

Maybe you should watch these clips before you post them. It never seems to work out well when you post sight unseen.

Far more amusing would be a series of Bay's cameos in his own films. I swear, he plays a Nasa analyst in "Armageddon." He has two seconds of screentime, no dialogue and it's still a self-conscious performance.

Posted by MickTravis at July 8, 2007 10:36 AM

comment #3

JVD says ...

I might get flamed for this, but I can't help but partially blame the likes of Will Ferrell, Judd Apatow and Adam McKay for crap like this video. Improvisation has become the crutch of the modern comedy. (Much like CGI has lowered the intelligence quotient of thrillers and action films.) Screw trying to write a story where the humor flows organically from characters and situations, we'll just get a bunch of our buddies to "riff" and then find it in the editing room. Granted, most of the junk on YouTube is of the "retarded" sort, but I can't help but think videos like this one represent the de-evolution of the American comedy.

BTW, that was perhaps the dumbest Michael Bay impression ever. I agree with MickTravis, he's beyond parody because he's a parody himself. His cameo in Bad Boys 2 is much more cringe-worthy than his performance is "Armageddon."

Posted by JVD at July 8, 2007 10:50 AM

comment #4

BurmaShave says ...

This actor is not even 1/10th as gorgeous as the real Michael Bay. Just saying.

Posted by BurmaShave at July 8, 2007 10:58 AM

comment #5

Undercover Brother says ...

This clip sucks. A lot.

Posted by Undercover Brother at July 8, 2007 10:59 AM

comment #6

George Prager says ...

"Screw trying to write a story where the humor flows organically from characters and situations..."

So you're saying that you prefer LICENSE TO WED to KNOCKED UP? Seriously, all the great comedians "riff" and then the humor flows organically. Did the Marx Brothers adhere to an ironclad script? I don't think so. Did the actors in THREE MEN AND A LITTLE LADY adhere to an ironclad script? Probably.

Posted by George Prager at July 8, 2007 11:10 AM

comment #7

alynch says ...

I'm pretty sure the Marx Brothers performed to a script. They were stage performer after all.

Posted by alynch at July 8, 2007 11:30 AM

comment #8

christian says ...

didn't you say you've never seen a marx brothers film, prager?

i just watched NIGHT AT THE OPERA again last night. classic. and those lines are not improv. the brothers just know to sell it.

Posted by christian at July 8, 2007 12:33 PM

comment #9

Geoff says ...

The highlight of that whole clip really is Michael Bay. The very quick cut of an assistant taking off his jacket for him and the Ã¢â‚¬Å“itÃ¢â‚¬â„¢s a tough businessÃ¢â‚¬Â quote were great. Same with the lens cleaning.

And sure, the only thing lacking is a pretty good looking tall guy with nice hair to play him, but it's still a good moment or two.

Posted by Geoff at July 8, 2007 12:51 PM

comment #10

Hallick says ...

"Did the Marx Brothers adhere to an ironclad script? I don't think so."

From what I've read, the Marx Brothers would write a script and then tour it across the country, working out the duds and finding just the right spin on the humor like a stand up comedian does; so by the time they got to a movie set to start shooting, that text was etched on titanium.

Posted by Hallick at July 8, 2007 1:10 PM

comment #11

breadlymoore says ...

"So you're saying that you prefer LICENSE TO WED to KNOCKED UP?"

WED was just as riffed.

Posted by breadlymoore at July 8, 2007 1:26 PM

comment #12

JVD says ...

George,

My point isn't that Knocked Up is an inferior film to License to Wed. That's just asinine. The point is that an inferior script can only be helped so much by "riffing," and that improv has become a crutch used to turn mediocrity into something resembling humor. I thought Knocked Up was funny, but a little bit of discipline on the part of Apatow could've not only trimmed the running time but also made the film a bit more narratively sound. (I don't know what his original screenplay looked like, but anyone who claims to have shot as much footage as he did for a comedy sounds like somebody not terribly confident in his own writing ability.)

The lesson of these films to younger, amateur filmmakers isn't to take time working on characterization and a great script. It sends the misguided message that you can turn on the digital camera, run amok for 20 minutes, trim it down and pop it on YouTube, hoping for a million hits. Sometimes it works, but in a case like this piece of shit, it does not.

Posted by JVD at July 8, 2007 7:00 PM

comment #13