What Went Wrong?

 

In ancient Greece Aristophanes knew that there are many forms of comedy and many forms of comedic player. Steve is an expert comedian but he is the wrong type of comedian for the role. Steve is an accomplished, sophisticated and instinctive clown but the role of Inspector Clouseau is not one for a clown; In fact a straight actor could play it better than many a comedian.

 

Let us transcend the basic premise that movie posters need a big name actor. In this instance the movie’s title was the biggest name in the room.

 

Clouseau is a guy who gains laughs via loss of dignity. He seeks to show us he is a sophisticated, urbane criminologist whose whole demeanour is in total denial that his actions could ever be considered funny. Clowns are not funny when they lose dignity, they have none. Imagine this scenario: the trouser supports of a clown suddenly flick off and hit him in the face knocking off his wig, then his trousers fall down: So what, clowns do this all the time! Funny perhaps to a child but a more sophisticated audience requires a more sophisticated player. Now re-imagine this happening to the president of the United States during an inaugural speech. How now will the masses laugh and which will they pay the most to see?

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At the time there were dozens of actors who would have made the movie a big hit. What actor would you have replaced Steve Martin with? One of the most fundamental rules of comedy was broken at first base and so the movie was broken before the first take.

This error should have been spotted at minute one.