Steve Carell is a douche bag. I was once waiting for a cab and the guy walked up, all arrogantly smug like, "Oh, I'm a celebrity, I'm so hot right now, have you seen my Q-rating?" When my cab pulled up, he then hit me in the face with his umbrella and stole my ride.

Okay, that's not exactly true. In fact, none of it's true. Steve Carell, as far as I know, is a cool mofo. Even if he wasn't, I probably wouldn't care since I'm all about the work and, well, I love his work. Except Evan Almighty. I'm pretty sure even Carell hates that movie. Hell, I'm pretty sure God, who had a starring part in it, kind of hates himself now.

So, excluding Evan Almighty, which probably only satanists dig - but including this weekend's Dan in Real Life - here are five reasons why it's so easy to love one Steve Carell.

1.) Gary
Saturday Night Live has been so unfunny for so long now, it’s remarkable that it only took shoving Justin Timberlake’s junk into a box to make it funny again, if even for a moment. Another sure method: Saturday TV Funhouse’s “The Ambiguously Gay Duo,” which, for more than a decade now, has co-starred Carell as Gary, the sexually subjugated ward and “friend of friends” to Bruce Wayne-wannabe, Ace.

2.) Andy Stitzer
The most remarkable thing about Carell is his unwillingness to treat his characters with anything but respect. Well, except for Gary and, um, Brick Tamland (from Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy). Other than that, every character Carell plays maintains some sense of dignity that resists ridicule. Yeah, you can try to ridicule Michael Scott from The Office, but it’s just because it’s expected of you given his co-workers. You know the guy has a good heart, though, and so ultimately you couldn’t hate him even if you wanted to. This same dignity saved Andy Stitzer, a 40-year-old virgin that could have easily become a joke to laugh at instead of with. Even more impressive than Carell’s commitment to his characters is his own commitment to laughs: Andy’s now infamous chest-waxing scene shows just how far he’ll go to entertain you.

3.) Uncle Frank
In Woody Allen's Melinda and Melinda, a movie Carell had a bit part in, characters mused about the differences between comedy and tragedy in art. A few years later, Carell, playing suicidal-Proust-scholar Uncle Frank in Little Miss Sunshine, went on to prove just how easily he could straddle the line Allen was trying to define. It was the actor’s first serious role, a carefully modulated performance that utilized little of the blustery, exasperated style of comedy he had been known for in his career. Despite eschewing his natural gifts, Carell still made us laugh as Uncle Frank struggled through his own Proustian tragedy.

4.) Michael Scott
There are two reasons to love Carell as Michael Scott, the self-absorbed office manager from the US version of The Office. 1.) After three seasons he’s almost made you forget how good Ricky Gervais was in the same role in the original British version; and 2.) Carell has become a bajillionaire since The Office premiered but he still has no intention of quitting the show. He also gets paid very little compared to other NBC stars in order to keep the sitcom affordable, reportedly half of what Zach Braff is getting per episode, which shows the actor knows the value of the ensemble in “ensemble comedy.”

5.) Produce Pete
To clarify, “Produce Pete with Steve Carell” was a cooking segment on The Daily Show that only featured Carell, but that never made any sense since, you know, who the frig was Produce Pete? So, in my world, Produce Pete was a real character who would, during occasional segments, instruct viewers on how to make things like mulled cider and heritage ambrosia while letting his personal life’s soul-crippling disappointments seep into his implosive on-air performance.

So you see, Steve Carell is pretty lovable. From television to movies he’s laid it down in a manner which has been pleasing and for that we salute him.

Recommend (0)

|  Comments (0)

|  Email

|  Share

Share  Facebook Digg del.icio.us