This Is The Day Before The Show, Y'all
Thursday, October 13, 2016 at 9:01AM 
In honor of Christopher Guest’s long overdue return to the mockumentary – the costumed cheerleader saga Mascots, hit Netflix at midnight – let’s take a moment to celebrate some of the most indelible characters in his filmography. This collection of ordinary folks in extraordinarily amusing niches – small town actors with big city dreams, obsessive dog owners, outdated folk musicians, awards show hopefuls – could easily be milked for laughs through condescending jabs. Instead Guest and his repertory cohort of improvisational comics imbue their creations with rich empathy and heartfelt humor, no matter how ludicrous their worlds. This marks theirs as a distinctly humanist cinema that revels in personal idiosyncrasies rather than repelling from them, and chooses ironic optimism over sarcastic defeat. While refreshingly full-bodied, they’re, above all else, very funny.
For me, all roads lead back to Libby Mae Brown, the spirited, slack-jawed (low-fat or non-fat) Blizzard queen from Waiting for Guffman, the first of Parker Posey's slamdunk soul-searchers in Guest’s company films. Who among us wouldn't like to meet some guys, some Italian guys, and watch TV and stuff? But the competition is stiff and the runners up are numerous; the distant loss of Catherine O’Hara’s Mickey Crabbe in A Mighty Wind tugs at the heartstrings between laughs while (runner-up at the 2001 National Society of Film Critics Awards for Best Supporting Actor) Fred Willard’s class clown motor-mouth in Best In Show surely pioneered the archetype of lucid and silly sports announcers for performers such as Jason Bateman or Elizabeth Banks. And then there’s always Guest’s own restless dreamer Corky St. Clair, the community theater iconoclast who pops up in Mascots for a second time.
Of all the peculiar characters in the Christopher Guest universe, which is your favorite? The one that most fuels your stool boom, if you will.
Reader Comments (11)
Marilyn Hack's descent into madness alone is worth every penny, but I'd place Harlan Pepper up there as well.
Sherri Ann Cabot is one of my all time favorites. That entire sequence where she and her husband are first introduced is etched into memory.
Marilyn Hack is a contender, but Mascots' The Fist (Chris O'Dowd) definitely packs a punch.
You already took mine with Libby Mae -- hell, her outtakes from that movie are funnier than most entire movie comedies.
but i'm also extremely fond of Corky, Mickey Crabbe, Marilyn Hack, and Sheri Ann Cabot.
Most underrated has to be Meg Swan (also Parker Posey) in Best in Show: "BUSY BEEEEE"
Jennifer Coolidge in Mighty Wind!
Meg Swan is probably my favourite, with apologies to Sheri-Ann. The busy bee meltdown is everything! I've adopted so many quotes from that sequence. 'Of course I looked under the bed, that's where you look when you lose things!' & 'what are you? A wizard? A genius?' And Posey playing barely contained panic & rage in the pet store... 'That's a fish. That's a fish!' Genius.
I force "That's a bear, in a bee costume" into at least one conversation a week, no matter how absurd.
Catherine O'Hara's drunk scene at the Chinese restaurant in WAITING FOR GUFFMAN is life! If my life passes before my eyes when I die, I want it playing on loop.
Sherri Ann Cabot: "I'm just going to wait here until I get another messages from myself". Gold.
i'd love the chance to not talk or talk forever and still find things to not talk about with sheri ann
Meg Swan. Parker Posey's performance as Meg was...Everything!!! Literally every single line reading has me bursting with laughter. Everything from her hotel room freakout to the emotional beginning therapist scene was aces.
(*sigh*) Cinema could use more Parker Posey.