After the Saturday Night debut of Ben Stiller’s NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: SECRET OF THE TOMB stick around for a comedy stint from Will Ferrell as he pays a humorous homage to Baseball. His special, which we brought to your attention back on March, debuts SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12 at 10:00pm.
HBO is doing some odd marketing, or at least this writer thinks so, with this sports-themed event. It joins 7 DAYS IN HELL, which aired in July, as a ‘sports documentary’ instead of calling each of them a ‘comedy special.’ I mentioned this back at the tennis spoof review as well. I guess it doesn’t really matter as long as we get the content. Here is a look of Ferrell’s take on his game of choice. I guess he loves baseball enough to kind of roast and toast the colorful characters that take up the positions around the diamond.
You saw that correctly. It was quite a logistic feat I expect. Ferrell suited up with ten different Major League Baseball teams over the course of five Spring Training games in March of this year. He played for the Arizona Diamondbacks, Los Angeles Angels, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, Cincinnati Reds, Oakland Athletics, Seattle Mariners, Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, and the San Francisco Giants, playing all 10 positions, including designated hitter. All of the antics and the games were covered by cameras for Ferrell’s Funny or Die Productions.
Now the trailer makes it look like it was a huge honor to play the game he dreamed of playing professionally one day, but you know it also has to be full of either broad slapstick or wry humor, or even a blend of each. Let this clip serve as proof that there is plenty of the wry delivery in use.
Again, this is shot the sport documentary style and seems like a lot of fun for those who love America’s Pastime and why stop there. Who knows, maybe in 2016 we will get Mike Meyers praising hockey, Kevin Hart doing basketball, Adam Sandler at football, Paul Rodriguez raving about futbol (soccer), Sarah Silverman loving figure skating, Amy Schumer doing synchronized swimming, and David Letterman besting Tiddley Winks.
Here is one more clip from FERRELL TAKES THE FIELD seen on HBO and online at HBONow/Go.
