Ryan Reynolds is wrong about comedy

By Chris Snellgrove | Published 1 second ago

Most people would think Ryan Reynolds is a comedy expert, especially after the Hollywood comedian made us all laugh on Deadpool and Wolverine. However, he was recently called out on Deadpool. The Marvel Cinematic Universe actor responded with a post about how comedy is just as difficult to make as drama, but here’s the thing: Ryan Reynolds is dead wrong in his attempt to defend comedy.

Ryan Reynolds gets defensive

In the original X post, @drivcmycar alluded to the film. We live in timejuxtaposing how Andrew Garfield would tell Variety how he portrayed the heartbreaking struggle of a husband whose wife decides to forgo cancer treatment with how the other actor would simply talk about playing Deadpool. This led Ryan Reynolds to post a long response “in defense of comedy” in which he claimed that it was just as difficult as drama but that we don’t realize it because “comedy should look and feel effortless” and drama should not. However, regarding the incredibly successful comedian, we disagree. Good dramatic acting has always been harder to achieve than good comedic acting and always will be.

Ryan Reynolds’ basic thesis here is that drama is designed to make us “see it’s hard” and that comedy takes so much work but we don’t realize it because it seems easy and effortless when done right. However, you can realize how wrong that is by simply thinking about your own life. For example, you’ve almost certainly made people laugh with a good joke from time to time, but how often have you made people cry with a display of raw emotion?

Obviously, Ryan Reynolds is a funny guy. With the Deadpool movies he has shown that comedy and superhero movies go together like peanut butter and jelly. But like Deadpool, he doesn’t even have to show his face most of the time, and the beginning and end of his funniest scenes simply involve him combining some crude jokes with body language. Even if we limit ourselves to the world of Marvel films, it’s clear that his performance as Deadpool cannot compare to the pathos of Anthony Hopkins as Odin, the mania of Willem Dafoe as the Green Goblin or the total transformation of Robert Downey Jr. into Iron Man.

Tough dramatic competition

If we leave the realm of superhero cinema, Ryan Reynolds’ defense of comedy becomes even more ridiculous. Does anyone think it’s harder to tell a funny joke behind a funnier mask than it is for Daniel-Day Lewis to play Abraham Lincoln or for Jamie Foxx to play Ray Charles? Is it harder to joke about chimichangas than it is for Denzel Washington to perform in training day or have Tom Hanks act in Forrest Gump?

All of those actors were notably Best Actor winners, and that brings me to my final point: How often does someone take home the Best Actor Oscar for a fun role, much less a superhero role? The closest we’ve come in recent years is Joaquin Phoenix winning the Oscar for Jokerand ironically he earned that award by showing his dramatic skills instead of simply telling jokes. His performance in that film is proof that great actors can be both funny and dramatic, and Ryan Reynolds should take note that Phoenix’s dramatic moments obviously required a lot more intensity (“maximum effort,” so to speak). than his deliberately bad stand-up comedy. routines.

This is not intended to be a criticism of Ryan Reynolds himself. He is a comedy legend and Deadpool and Wolverine It’s still one of the best movies we’ve seen in years. But making the audience laugh is the easiest way to act, especially when you have a team of production experts and the largest studio in Hollywood helping with every punchline. And until he does like Jim Carrey and shows us that he has real depth and range as an actor, he will remain a clown who simply dreams of being something more.