Stiller Off-Broadway: Where We Stopped Reading
Sometimes articles—even short ones—have speed bumps too abrupt for us to get beyond. A perfect example of this is today's New York Times' Arts 'Listings' item on the new Neil LaBute/Ben Stiller show, This is How It Goes:
Neil LaBute has said that he didn't write the narrator of "This Is How It Goes" with Ben Stiller in mind, but anyone who reads the script might be excused for thinking otherwise. A likable writer with a weakness for bad jokes, the character (named simply Man) superficially resembles many of the nebbishy protagonists played by Mr. Stiller, above, in past films. Even his nervously staccato speech patterns will sound familiar to fans of "Meet the Parents" and "There's Something About Mary." For his long-awaited return to the stage, Mr. Stiller—
THUNK!
Ben Stiller's "long-awaited return to the stage"? Who's been long-awaiting Ben Stiller's return to the stage?
If anything, most people we know have been long-awaiting Ben Stiller's return to being funny (or, at times, to anonymity). Seriously: if we see Ben Stiller squander his talents—or read another ass-kissing magazine profile of him that fails to acknowledge that he's squandering his talents—we'll throw our Ben Stiller Show DVDs into a bottomless hole. (Or sell them on eBay.)
