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Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis at the VIP preview of “The Campaign” at the Newseum, where they chatted about politics and comedy. (Photos by Kris Connor/ Warner Bros.)
CAMPAIGNING FOR CONGRESS TURNS COMIC Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis take shots in their new comedy ‘The Campaign’ B Y J A N E T D O N O VA N
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orget the chicken and the egg. What came first, comedy or politics? “I think comedy came first, don’t you?” Will Ferrell said to Zach Galifianakis at a VIP screening for their new comedy, “The Campaign” (Warner Bros.) at the Newseum this summer. In the film, directed by Jay Roach of “Meet the Fockers” fame, Ferrell and Galifianakis play rival North Carolina congressional candidates who are out to bury each other in a mudslinging, back-stabbing, home-wrecking campaign that takes today’s political circus to the next level. Since Chevy Chase’s satire of President Gerald R. Ford in 1976, comics have played a defining role in the political life of America. Take, for example, Tina Fey’s impression of then-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on “Saturday Night Live.” “I can see Russia from my house,” said Fey, smiling into the camera. Or when comedian Stephen Colbert announced his candidacy for the presidency by saying “I’m running as both a Republican and a Democrat.” Ironically, many people believed him. In 2006, Bush impersonator Steve Bridges did a side-by-side with the real President George W. Bush at the Annual White House Corre-
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spondents Dinner, poking fun at the politicians in the audience. It was perhaps the funniest sketch ever presented at the annual dinner. And lest we forget, how about Life Magazine’s nomination of humorist Will Rogers for the Anti-Bunk ticket in 1928, when he famously promised “If elected, I shall resign.” Will Ferrell may proclaim that comedy comes first, but could comedy even exist without politics? We think the two are interchangeable. While making “The Campaign,” the actors visited many cities and met a lot of people.“You kind of see the pressure” real politicians on the campaign trail are under, Ferrell said, but “we don’t feel pressure because ... we are magic.” Galifianakis, whose uncle, Nick Galifianakis, was a Democratic congressman from North Carolina from 1967 to 1973, wasn’t specific when asked if there is anyone in the political system he would like to debate or run against. “I hate to say it but I am just an actor,” he said. “I’m just an entertainer, but yes there are a couple of people that I would like to sit down and chat with and ask some questions. Most citizens would because it seems like politicians are not living up to our expectations, which are pretty low right now.”
Ferrell and Galifianakis
Reporters at the Newseum questioned Ferrell and Galifianakis about taxes, congressional members and campaigns. But Ferrell was taken aback when one asked him to name the biggest jerk in the “do-nothing” Congress. “The biggest jerk?” he retorted. “I just think that it’s really interesting that this group of supposed adults don’t ever really have to compromise on anything.” With regard to real politics, the two stars’ most frequently repeated line of the evening, “We’re just actors,” seemed kind of like asking Tony Curtis what it was like to kill people in “The Boston Strangler.” “The Campaign” opened in theaters nationwide on August 10th.
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