Liam Neeson: Did the world’s most serious action hero miss his calling as a stand up comedian?
Liam Neeson is best known for playing only the most serious, dangerous, and grave characters in his long list of movies.
In Comedian Ricky Gervais’ show ‘Life’s too short’, Liam Neeson makes a cameo appearance in a genius sketch.
In the beginning of the sketch, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, who are both successful comedians and the producers of The Office, are finishing up a meeting with Warwick Davis when Liam Neeson rings the bell.
He is let in, and strides up confidently, practically radiating a sense of importance. A grave nervousness enters the room.
Liam: I’m here because I’m thinking of uh…I’m thinking of doing some comedy.
The air goes still for a moment.
They rapidly learn that Neeson is serious about comedy, and not just some comedy movie where Neeson’s stern personality could be concealed by production magic -stand up comedy- precisely the opposite of what anyone could picture him doing successfully. Then Liam asks a serious question that puts everyone else on the spot:
Liam: I’m a funny guy, aren’t I?…I’m funny, right?
Liam’s question is met by awkward silence.
Ricky (nervous): Yeah, definitely.
Then, Liam pulls a crude paper list from his pocket and begins to recite it to them almost like terms of surrender, his tone still solemn:
Liam: improv, standup comedy, funny monologues, crazy characters, sketches, slapstick, anecdotes, parody.
Liam: You noticed this list, huh? I’m always making lists. In fact, that’s probably why Stephen Spielberg cast me as Oskar Schindler in Schindler’s List.
Despite the air being still so far, Liam appears to redeem the moment in a joke about one of his previous movie roles as Oskar Schindler in Schindler’s List (1993).
Liam: I said, ‘Stephen, I make lists all the time’. And he said, ‘That’s exactly what I’m looking for.’
Thinking Liam had just delivered a well-timed joke, Stephen Merchant and Ricky Gervais begin genuinely laughing at the funny reference to the classic solemn movie about the holocaust. For a split second, Merchant and Gervais begin to relate to Liam’s comedy dreams.
Liam: What? What’s funny?…
Liam takes serious offense with their laughter, extinguishing it.
Realizing Liam is offended, Ricky apologizes for thinking it was a joke. Liam, seemingly implying that his being cast as Schindler was seriously because of his list-making tendencies, replied, “as an actor you need stuff to draw on. I drew on that.”
Ricky: Okay. Wow.
Liam: Okay, let’s do some improvisational comedy.
In a moment, Ricky desperately begins to fabricate some busy excuse to cut short the awkward encounter with Liam:
Ricky: I can’t now, Liam-
Suddenly, in a loud, stern tone Liam interjects:
Liam: Let’s do some improvisational comedy. Now.
In a contradiction to improv comedy, Liam Neeson forces improv comedy. Left with no choice and not wanting to anger Liam, Ricky concedes. It’s becoming fearfully more apparent to Ricky that there may be some deadly truth to the movie roles Liam Neeson is cast to play.
Ricky: Okay.
Liam rudely orders Warwick Davis to give a scenario. In a scenario fail where Liam is a Hypochondriac and Ricky is a doctor, Liam dodges all actual comedy by refusing to improvise:
Liam: Don’t presume, that’s a backstory we didn’t agree on beforehand.
Ricky, frustrated, tries to explain that improv is about going with the flow, but the concept is lost on Liam, who blames Ricky for ruining the skit. They soon restart the same scenario, but this time Liam improvises that he has contracted AIDS. After a contemplative pause, Ricky asks how he got it. Instead of anything resembling comedy, Liam effectively creates a sad, sobering dead end that is impossible to resurrect for comedy:
Liam: From an African prostitute. I’m…riddled with it…The prostitute is from an African country that’s ravaged by starvation, so selling her body was the only financial recourse she had left.
Stephen Merchant attempts to lighten the atmosphere:
Stephen: Do you mind if I interject for a second? Sorry, I just think it’s getting quite heavy, and I just wonder if, perhaps, just for the sake of comedy, you might not want to have contracted AIDS from an African prostitute.
They begin again, but Liam completely disregards Stephen Merchant’s advice:
Liam: As I said before, I’ve got full blown AIDS.
Neeson continues to improvise on heavy subjects with a grave seriousness we have all seen in many of his movie personas, steering the skit towards morbid non-humor.
Stephen: Yeah…cancer, though, and AIDS and famine…are just not really subjects for comedy.
What make this cringe comedy sketch hilarious is the layers of paradox within the premise. Liam Neeson is not known by any stretch of the imagination to be a funny actor, but here we find him aspiring to comedy. He has serious dreams to be a stand up comedian, but says the most serious and least funny things possible at every turn, which paradoxically makes us laugh.
So, did Liam Neeson miss his calling as a stand up comedian? Perhaps so! If he were as unfunny as he is in this sketch, he would be hilarious.
Image credit: https://nerdist.com/a-sitcom-from-2013/liam-neeson-thinking-comedy/