Film

In honour of Melissa McCarthy’s Oscar nomination for her role in Bridesmaids, we look at five other comedic performances that deserved greater recognition.

By Darragh Harkin

This week Melissa McCarthy picked up an Oscar nomination for her role as Megan in Bridesmaids. This took me by surprise as though I thought McCarthy was hilarious in her role, I never imagined the Academy giving a nomination for such a purely comedic performance.

It is a rarity that comedy actors get even a look in when it comes to the little golden statue, but this decision made me think of all the other fine comedy performances that could have received a nomination through the years.

Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy from Anchorman

Though it is hard to pin Will Ferrell to just one movie, I feel it is for Anchorman that he will be forever known. His portrayals of Frank the Tank and Buddy the Elf are also excellent but it’s the chord he strikes from the first minute of Anchorman that wins it for me.

Ron Burgundy is a man who loves scotch, he loves his dog Baxter, he has many leather-bound books and his apartment smells of mahogany. Most importantly of all, he is the leader of the finest news team known to man and in an era when anchormen were rock stars, he was their God.

Will Ferrell is Ron Burgundy. He throws himself into the role and is totally engulfed in the 70s suits and cocktail pool parties. The man even went to the physical extremes of doing over 1,000 arm curls with dumbbells each day! Now that is character acting that would make Daniel Day Lewis blush.

Burgundy is a character that will stand the test of time and yet in the same year, the Academy gave Heath Ledger a nod for Brokeback Mountain and Philip Seymour Hoffman the award for Capote. Do either of these character portrayals come close to Ferrell’s 1970s anchorman who ill-advisedly chooses to drink milk on a hot day? I’ll let you decide.

Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat from Borat: Cultural Learning’s of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

Sacha Baron Cohen is a talented man and though many people still think of him as Ali G, it is without doubt that the majority of the world knows him as Borat. In 2006, with a small budget and one big idea, he took on the United States of America and produced a movie of comedy gold.

Borat is a somewhat uncomfortable movie, it may make you feel sick one minute and hurt with laughter the next, but overall, Baron Cohen is immense. His life-like portrayal of a fictional character is one that deserved recognition.

Here is a man who put himself at risk to get deep into character and yet the movie is ‘just’ a comedy. In the same year that Borat was rocking the cinema world, Johnny Depp was getting an Oscar nomination for singing about cutting people’s heads off in Sweeney Todd.

That is not exactly a bad movie but how many of you have it on your DVD shelf? Wasn’t the portrayal of a young man from Kazakhstan trying to educate himself in the ways of America worth an Oscar nomination? I’d give it to him for the mankini alone, not to mention the moustache, nude wrestling and his fine singer song-writer abilities.

Ben Stiller as White Goodman from Dodgeball: A true underdog story

Ben Stiller is not exactly everyone’s cup of tea but he has pulled off some brilliant comedy roles in his time. From Derek Zoolander to Greg Focker, he is a box office success all over the world despite going full retard on Simple Jack! For me, Stiller’s stand out performance in comedy came in 2004 when he played the role of once fat but now super fit White Goodman.

White is a nasty piece of work who wants to shut down Average Joe’s Gymnasium for the benefit of his own creation, Globo Gym. He is the type of man who is better than you and knows it, has some chains for crazy sex games in the basement and hates Chuck Norris. He is a despicable character and perhaps it is this quality that Stiller pulls off best, as although Goodman makes you laugh time and again you always have a slight urge to smack him.

It did come out the same year as Anchorman so Ron Burgundy may have a thing or two to say before White would get an Oscar nomination, but one thing is clear. Nobody makes White Goodman bleed his own blood, nobody.

Zach Galifinakis as Alan Garner from The Hangover

Zach Galifinakis took a page out of WWE Superstar Shawn Michaels’ book when he stole the show during the 100 minutes of The Hangover. From making babies look like they are masturbating to slipping roofies in everyone’s drink, Alan is a constant pleasure on screen. Galifinakis was born to play the role and though he had been working as a comedian for years, this role introduced him to a larger movie-going audience.

This member of the wolf pack surely deserved an Oscar Nomination in the same year that Mark Ruffalo got one for The Kids are Alright. I mean, the wolfpack speech is delivered with such gusto and dignity that Galifinakis must have been expecting a nod.

Bill Murray as Big Earl McCracken from Kingpin

This could easily be Phil Connors from Groundhog Day or Dr Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters as Bill Murray is an extremely funny man. He did pick up an Oscar nomination for Lost in Translation and though that is a good movie, it is by no means a full-on comedy. His character of Big Earl McCracken, however, is as full-on as you can get.

From the moment Earl lands on screen in Kingpin your eyes are transfixed by his hair.

His hair is a magical sight to behold and he possesses the kind of flowing locks that would make even Sir Bobby Charlton jealous. Earl is a man’s man and a ladies’ man as he is possibly the greatest bowler to have ever lived. He goes from town to town bowling, picking up women and just being one awesome person.

Billy Murray is of course fantastic as Earl as it gives him the opportunity to throw out lines like: “It’s a small world when you have unbelievable tits.”

The year that Murray did his thing in Kingpin, the Academy decided to give a best supporting actor nomination to Greg Kinnear for As Good as it Gets. Though it may be a better film than Kingpin I don’t believe Kinnear’s character portrayal came close to the level of Big Earl. The Oscars were just afraid of him and his oozing machismo.