Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

A Non-review by Professor Popinjay

(2001)

I’m realizing there was an era in my life when, if a good comedy came out, the intersecting social circles I ran in would each watch said movies at various intervals and I would often find myself present at each one of those intervals.

Galaxy Quest was one of those movies I watched about 700 times with different friends each time. Zoolander was another.

This surprised me considering certain friends’ convictions and the content of this film. Needless to say, certain circles would skip a scene or two. This in itself was humorous to me but I get it. In mixed company it’s awkward watching group intercourse with circus performers or to see Andy Dick (made up to be an ugly female nurse) wielding weird little brooms in a kung fu match against Ben Stiller’s tumescent phallus as it protrudes from his sheets after an invigorating spanking.

What the heck is going on in this movie!?! Just from that description, if you’ve never seen this film, you might assume it’s just a bizarre raunchy screwball comedy but it actually has a compelling plot, great music, and it’s freaking hilarious.

It’s so quotable too! “I FEEL LIKE I’M TAKING CRAZY PILLS!” “The Derek Zoolander School for Kids Who Can’t Read Good and Who Wanna Learn to Do Other Stuff Good Too.” “How can the kids learn how to read if they can’t even fit in the building?”

If you don’t know or can’t tell, this film is about really dumb male models who are being brainwashed to commit political un-alivements. 

[Jeez, I feel like I’m in a George Orwell novel, afraid to just say certain words. This is double plus un-good. Pretty soon we’re going to start seeing Bob Flag staring at us everywhere we go.]

This plot is facilitated by the villain Jacobin Mugatu, played by Will Ferrell at his finest. I actually met Mugatu at the Eucon in Eugene, Oregon. He was unfathomable!

This is a film I could gush about indefinitely but that would just be me describing the whole movie to you so suffice it to say, it’s funny and don’t watch it with your great grandma.

One little treat you may miss out on if you end up streaming this is the voice of Derek Zoolander on the DVD menu screen welcoming you to the “world Deh-Vuh-Duh”, he not realizing DVD is an acronym not a singular word with no vowels. Like I said, these are really dumb male models.

If you’re turned off by the mention of the sexual content, don’t sweat it. The scenes are brief, sparse (just the two), not overly sensual or revealing and played for laughs. You don’t miss anything if you must skip them. Just don’t go avoiding this one having assumed it’s in the same vein as Not Another Teen Movie or something stupid and raunchy like that.

I’m interested in the sequel but it seems like it came and went and no one is talking about it. That could be a bad sign. Beleive it or not there was also an animated series released on European Netflix. I will see it! It’s actually one of Jerry Stiller’s last performances before he passed away.

Poster art!