The chicken, if we’ll all remember, crossed the street to get to the other side. It isn’t a particularly amazing or revealing joke, but at least one’s first experience with it involves a second or two of silent reflection and a possible smile. In the land of things that aren’t side-splittingly funny, brevity is king. And the last time I checked, 78 minutes isn’t brief at all.
For better or worse, Funny or Die is a growing voice in the realm of comedy in general, and parody specifically. So there has been some dog-faced anticipation for their first foray into feature-length projects, the truth-eschewing Steve Jobs biography titled iSteve. And though the bombings in Boston on Monday postponed the faux documentary’s release, iSteve was released on Funny or Die’s website late Tuesday night. Jobs, whose death in 2011 made the tech world step back and breathe for once, already has a couple of other biopics out there, but Sorkin’s version is still in the scripting stage, and Ashton Kutcher’s version is on an indefinite delay after disastrous test screenings. And so Funny or Die is currently the lone gunman in adapting Jobs’ life.
But they aren’t concerned with actually doing that. It’s no surprise really, considering the film was reportedly written in three days and directed in less than a week’s time from frequent F.o.D. contributor Ryan Perez, who used Jobs’ Wikipedia page as his only source. Justin Long and Jorge Garcia, as Jobs and Steve Wozniak respectively, are technically fine in their parts, Garcia especially, but the absolute lack of preparation in this script is woefully obvious, and there aren’t jokes so much as moments when laughter is expected to happen.
But this isn’t a review – and seeing as how I couldn’t make it through fifteen minutes of it, I’m not particularly equipped to review it anyway – so judge for yourself just how successful a comedy this is. Just don’t expect them to actually get any of the Apple stuff right, like these dedicated fanboys.
The film also stars James Urbaniak as Bill Gates, Michaela Watkins as Melinda Gates, and Anthony Gioe as Justin Long, in the meta moments where the “PC vs. Mac” commercials that Long starred in are covered. If only meta were everything.
Watch the full film here.
