Death to Smoochy
A Comfort Watch
There are three types of people in the world: people who hate Death to Smoochy, people who love Death to Smoochy, and people who don’t care about it at all.
I love Death to Smoochy. It’s a movie done with a lot of talent and care for the craft. It’s hilarious. Its themes of the corrupting influence of power, the commodification of entertainment, and the inherent tension between innocence and corruption are still highly relevant today. It features amazing performances, fun costuming and sets, and enough amazing writing that I still discover great lines in it that hadn’t really hit me before.
I can understand why this movie isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. It’s pretty dark and whacky staff, but I have what they call ‘gallows humor’ and am particularly delighted with magical realism. I can’t recall a single bad time I’ve had watching Death to Smoochy, and it’s one of my comfort movies.
Plot
Death to Smoochy is a pitch black 2002 comedy directed by Danny DeVito. It tells the story of a children’s television show host named Rainbow Randolph (played by Robin Williams) who is fired for corruption and replaced by Sheldon Mopes (played by Edward Norton), whose stage persona is a fuchsia rhino named “Smoochy.” Sheldon was selected among other performers by KidNet for being beyond squeaky-clean…
