Movie review: Judd Apatow’s Funny People, starring Adam Sandler, Seth Rogen and a cast of thousands
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What’s often missed about the sense of humor is that it’s a defense mechanism. Behind every biting joke, taunt or put-down is a kernel of fear or hurt. Maybe if we keep laughing, all that pain and uncertainty hiding just behind the smile will stay contained. Judd Apatow’s excellent Funny People is a hysterical, profane, entertaining, challenging, honest, touching, sentimental, overwrought jokeathon of a movie. It’s loaded with great performances and wants to make Big points about Big topics. Life and death literally hang in the balance. This is a movie that stares into the abyss and sees a dick joke staring back.
I had a dream the other night that I was on a transatlantic flight on its way to Africa. I was sitting next to a man in a brown jacket, clown pants and Jesus sandals who kept repeating, “Down we go.” That should have given me a clue to the unfortunate end to my dream, or nightmare, but it didn’t. Suddenly, the no-smoking sign started flashing a blood-red color and the pilot got on the intercom and said something along the lines of, “We are going down, hold on to your fucking hats.” I couldn’t really make out what he said, but I’ve always thought that would be the best way to break the news to the passengers. If we’re going to die, I don’t want to hear, “Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to bring an unfortunate situation to your attention. Blah, blah, blah.” Cut to the chase, man! Anyway, to make a long story short, we plummeted thousands of feet into an island and, magically, I was the only survivor. That is the point when I woke up. And for some batshit crazy reason, the first thing I thought of was an episode of 
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