Critical Essay on Humor in the "Wedding Ringer"

Introduction

The wedding ringer is a comedy about Doug Harris (Josh Gad), who is a groom to be afraid of being embarrassed as he has no friends to be his groomsmen when he marries the woman he adores Gretchen Palmer (Kaley Cuoco-Sweeting). Gretchen, on the other hand, has a plethora of bridesmaids. Doug is then referred to the best best-man in town Jimmy Callahan (Kevin Hart) by the wedding planner, Edmundo. Jimmy in conjunction with his team provides best man services at a price. Jimmy's many faces and personalities help him in learning about his clients and making them look like the best people to be friends with. Jimmy also creates a happy friendship life that never existed and makes spectacular wedding speeches. In contrast to his skills as the best man who also gives moving speeches at 'supposedly' best friend's funerals, Jimmy has no life nor close friends who would genuinely do the same for him. The movie, therefore, depicts Jimmy's failure of his almost successful backpedaling life as he becomes the best man and a friend to Doug.

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The humor in the wedding ringer can be strongly tied to the relief theory of humor. The theory emphasizes on the release of nervous energy. This energy results in the laughter of the audience due to the release of animal spirits that have resulted in built-up pressure in the nerves (Morreall). The society's fascination with taboo topics and language creates an avenue for the wedding ringer to explore these topics to the extent that they can be acknowledged and found funny. Humor is therefore used in interracial settings, funerals, tackling life challenges and on characteristics of family members and facilitates a comic relief from a somewhat previously tense situation. Doug despite being socially awkward, lost touch with individuals he thought were his friends after being engrossed in the family business at the expense of any social life. He later realizes this when he approaches the potential acquaintances and asks them to be his best man. His efforts are reciprocated by rude responses funnily. One of the acquaintances sincerely thought Doug was dead, confusing him with the other guy from their class. Another potential best man is surprised since he did not invite Doug to his wedding let alone be his best man (Garelick, 1:50). Continued outright rejection and disallowed calls from people Doug persuades to be his best man results in Doug's desperation. His despair is expressed humorously when he adopts the wedding planners idea to approach a best man for pay (Jimmy) and creates Jimmy's fake name 'Bic Mitchum' from the razors and deodorant labels in his cabinet (Gollumpus).

The selection of supposed friends of the successful lawyer "Doug" is entirely awful leaving the viewers to wonder whether the team will successfully pull off their plans without being caught. None of the individuals selected by Jimmy are what anyone can refer to normal. Hal of the lot are the individuals who happen to work at the theme park where Jimmy's office is located. Another guy is a security guard at the airport who harasses ladies. Two of the other guys being hired to have to do a screen test to get the job. Among those doing the screen test one had been recently released from jail, the other had an extra testicle as a party trick and the almost standard looking masculine blonde had a speech impediment besides being ridiculously dumb (Gollumpus). When the groom is introduced to his 'best friends' he is less impressed as he refers to them as 'entire cast of Goonies grew up and became rapists!' (Gollumpus). However, he had no choice and is relieved to work with the weird-loser spectrum rather than entirely lacking groomsmen. Especially after bragging about many friends as a tactic to win over his fiancee.

Fig 1: Selected Groomsmen for Doug

Source: Gollumpus

The movie casts depict a real comedic genius theme that is entertaining to watch since topics considered outrageous are made funny and also relatable. The constant embarrassments and personal matters are turned into jokes that are hilarious. The latter is a depiction of individuals contemporary life's as people try to find ways of releasing tension by laughing about issues and situations that are supposed to be complicated or discouraging. Therefore, shedding light on the circumstances and releasing some of the animal spirits which have built up inside their nerves. The jokes on a family level also increase their relevance and how people can relate to it. For example, the brides further continually jokes about individual weakness in a mean and funny manner. He jokes about the bride's grandmother in a way that the joke releases tension after Jimmy and Doug burned her in an attempt to cover their lie during a family lunch.

Ed Palmer: Well Gretchen...How do you like your Grandma?

Gretchen: Why would you ask me that? I love her-you know I do. What happened?

Ed Palmer: No I mean how do you like her? Medium or well done... (Garelick, 31:41)

Tension is released at the hospital leaving everyone laughing.

Kevin Hart (playing Jimmy Callahan) along with other characters forming Doug's long lost friends implement creative diversionary tactics and constant lies that are funny, almost undetectable and amazing at releasing tension. Jimmy expresses his relationships with the hired grooms in a manner and situations that would otherwise not be funny but ends up being laughable and makes the grooms appear as hero-best friends. When Jimmy takes Doug to former client's funeral, he gives a moving speech of how he had lost a dear friend who had his back in school when everyone bullied him due to his short stature and being the only black Ethiopian Jew in the school. " Stu was my lighthouse in the storm...Not only did his family save mine from starvation and sudden death in Ethiopia... the Guy taught me killer crossword and moonwalking (Geralick and Levendor, p.20)". The masquerading by Jimmy is believable, and the audience including Doug hold back tears. Jimmy mocks the situation of being an Ethiopian Jew in a school full of bullies to the extent that it becomes laughable. The supposed pain from the bullying is made fun off and no longer seen as a painful experience but rather an experience that depicts Stu as a great friend. Jimmy later refers to Reinsdorf, "Stu," as a soulless douchebag depicting how good he is a creating loveable personality to his clients for money.

In as much as the characters make the movie enjoyable to their audiences, stereotypical responses are elicited by the film on various occasions. Gender bias depiction of women in the society is portrayed when the bride (Gretchen) is given the role of a spoiled rich girl who cannot fend for herself and considers marrying Doug or his money. "I am girl that is used to a certain lifestyle, and he can afford to give me the lifestyle that I want. It's enough to make a girl say I do..." (Geralick and Levendor, p. 125). The latter supports stereotypes in the society aimed at undermining the position of women by equating them to the financial stability of their male counterparts. The model-like appearance of Gretchen and her emphasis on cutting weight by dieting further builds-up on the stereotype that to a attract a man a woman must have a model like a body image to fit the media and social norms towards ideal women bodies. In this case, the myth that for a perfect wedding a man should not be less successful, weaker shorter or younger than the woman is also portrayed (Johnson, p.360).

Moreover, racial stereotypes are further enhanced by Jimmy (African Americans) as he continually attributes various traits to white people. When Doug gets confused about which car to use as they head to Reinsdorf's funeral, Jimmy surprised and perplexed at the confusion to follow minor instructions associates the trait with white people (Garelick, 13:01). Associating most of the characteristics, Jimmy found weird such as hugging between males with white people can be viewed as an insult by Caucasian audiences.

Despite the few instances where the movie upholds stereotypes and myths in the contemporary world, in general, the film challenges the audience to think positively rather than dwelling on aspects of an individual's life one considers to be a failure. Comedy in the movie was used as a coping mechanism as each situation to expose the lie came up diversionary tactics were implemented. The irony in the film applies to the audience's day to day lives as Jimmy helps friendless individuals yet he does not have a friend he considers dear. This revelation dovetails perfectly with the sensible message in the film that it is not worth it to put up elaborate masquerades with the aim of impressing- which in this case is the many weddings based on lies supported by the industry. The movie also challenges the audience to think about the extent people can go to pretend, especially where there is money involved.

Jimmy tells Doug that once he steps on the roller costa of the Golden Tux (fake groomsmen), there is no going back. To hold the lie, more and more lies are told throughout the movie to cover the fact that the groomsmen are fake. From there the constant deception in the wedding ringer often ends with hilarious and catastrophic results from spoiled lunch meal to burnt grandma to a spoiled wedding. However, the ability of the characters to backpedal in a resourceful way from tricky situations is something that amazes the audience and also cautions the so-called perfect conditions and individuals. The speedy dialogues, awkward moments, performances at Jewish funerals, and romantic stories help give the movie stereotyping of genuine pathos in a creative, charming and unanticipated funny style. Various themes in the movie are also easy to understand as the audience can easily relate to their real situations and come up with solutions rather than drowning in self-pity and failure.

Work Cited

Garelick, Jeremy. "The Wedding Ringer (2015)". Will Packer Productions and Miramax Films. Accessed January 2015. https://www8.fmovies.se/film/the-wedding-ringer.726/1ovz6v

Geralick, Jeremy, and Levendor, Jay. The Wedding Ringer FKF; Best Man Inc. /Golden Turk. Screen Gems Production.Inc. 22nd October 2013. Retrieved from https://wikileaks.org/sony/docs/03_03/Mktrsch/Market%20Research/Scripts/Wedding%20Ringer%20-FULL%20SCRIPT%20W%20GREEN%20REVISIONS.pdf

Gollumpus. "Movie Review: The Wedding Ringer (2014)". Accessed 30th August 2018 from http://gollumpus.blogspot.com/2015/01/movie-review-wedding-ringer-2014.html

Johnson, Kevin A. "Unrealistic portrayals of sex, love, and romance in popular wedding films." Critical thinking about sex, love, and romance in the mass media (2007): 355-366.

Morreall, John. "Philosophy of humor." (2012).