Mr. Magoo Goes to the Bank

[unbibium]

Internet legend Kibo once reviewed a movie called Mr. Magoo, in which Leslie Nielsen forgets what made him funny in Airplane!.

Years later, when he was in full-on clown mode, but too old to insure for a feature film, he made these commercials for Arizona Federal Credit Union.

1. 1. I don't remember the cheerleaders being this hot when I went to Computer U.
2. How many more ways could the director have underlined the "uh-oh" moment?

OK those were the only two I found online.

Comments

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

There should have been an "AH-HOO-GAH" somewhere in there.

[infrogmation.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Leslie Nielsen did his best comedy work when he could play it straight, the character being totally unaware that anything wacky was going on.

And there's only so much even a good actor can do with a lousy script.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

The Wikipedia article on Airplane! fails to adequately describe what was so new about the ZAZ comedy style. The deadpan aspect, sure. But the key thing was the sheer density of jokes: they don't have to be very good jokes, in fact it probably works better if they're really stupid ones; you just need to have so many of them that the audience doesn't ever get a break from the jokes. Deadpan delivery means you can sneak in more. If the lead actor seems oblivious it makes them funnier.

Anyone who wrote for Leslie Nielsen and didn't understand that was likely wasting him.