God of War is kicking off its marketing campaign for its upcoming release, and in it, Ben Stiller has created a father-son support team. I can see what they’re going for here: At their core, modern God of Wars is about a dysfunctional father-son relationship. And…LeBron James and John Travolta are bald with beards? But isn’t Ben Stiller? So is he responsible? And are they all Kratos fans? Yeah, no, I can’t see what they were going for here. I was lying. Well look, you have your own mind and opinions, just see for yourself. And yes, these are their real children: PlayStation While there are some nice lines in there — “LeBreakthrough” (the first time it’s used) and that last one, “It is a costume,” works for me — the overall ad feels like a wasted effort to recapture Stiller’s glory. The 90s debut, The Ben Stiller Show. Sadly forgotten – and yes, I preferred this story just so I could get into it – The Ben Stiller Show was an absolutely pivotal sitcom. Running from 1990 to ’91 on MTV, then revived by Fox from ’92 to ’93, the series not only brought Ben Stiller, Andy Dick, and Janeane Garofalo to fame, but more importantly, it brought near writers David Cross and Bob Odenkirk. Those latter two would go on to create Mr Show With Bob & David, the best sketch comedy since The Kids In The Hall, which has yet to be bettered (though Aunt Donna comes close). The Ben Stiller Show was fascinating for many reasons, not least because it had no studio audience or any form of laughter, which was unheard of in the early 1990s. Decades ahead of its time, it pioneered this awkward atmosphere with a single camera that would he was getting so famous on The Office, 30 Rock and so on. , and the recent revival of the Kids In The Hall series. So it’s through that lens that I pay a lot of attention to this weird and slightly silly ad that everyone else in the YouTube comments seems to like. I can see those classic Stiller vibes in there, his head tilting, the characters getting out of character and Stiller’s vanity. And it just saddens me that this short period of great sketch comedy is stuck there, 30 years in the past, and hasn’t been magically revived by the world’s greatest basketball player and this creepy Scientologist guy. I may have expectation issues and strong opinions about artists who do commercials. Seriously, though, watch this. It is excellent. Squad in mobile homes in a puppet show of police corruption. Then download all of Mr Show because you no longer have a DVD player. God of War: Ragnarök comes out on November 9th and we’ll have our review up soon.
