Sometimes you wonder how you missed a film back in the day. The 1990s were a wild age for silly comedy gold. . .the crop of Saturday Night Live at the time spawning an era of laughs on the big screen – Mike Myers bringing forth Wayne’s World and Austin Powers, Chris Farley and David Spade doing the buddy comedy thing in Tommy Boy and Black Sheep, Adam Sandler bringing Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer, and The Waterboy to the world, Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan offering their famous tv skit to the big screen with Night at the Roxbury, and Molly Shannon showing that she truly was a Superstar. Yet somehow, after all of these years, I only just discovered Dirty Work (1998), a cult classic co-written and starring Norm MacDonald (the only film on his writing credits).
Directed by, of all people, Bob Saget (yes, Mr. nice guy father Danny Tanner from Full House finally bringing his dirty stand up side out), it oozes 90s oddball comedy. Feeling like gazing into Norm MacDonald’s quirky meta-mind while he dreamily acts his way through an hour and twenty-two minutes of a never before seen comedy routine – if you love the guy’s eccentric shtick, then you’ll probably dig this, but if you’ve never been a fan, then this is probably not for you.
Following lifelong best friends Mitch (MacDonald) and Sam (Artie Lang), two thirty-somethings who have nothing good going on in their lives, it only gets worse when the latter’s Pops (Jack Warden – 12 Angry Men; The Replacements) has a heart attack and needs some big money to cover the cost of his recovery.
With no cash and nowhere to turn, they run with the only skill they share – being shit disturbers/revenge artists to raise the money that is needed in two short weeks (hence the aptly named dirty work). Jam packed with the who’s who of the comedy world, including a snooty golf pro. . . oh sorry, I mean politician Travis Cole (Christopher McDonald – Happy Gilmore), severe gambling addict Dr. Farthing (Chevy Chase – Christmas Vacation), insulting theatre owner Hamilton (Don Rickles), struggling bar hop Jimmy (Chris Farley – sadly his last role), attractive accountant and love interest Kathy (Traylor Howard – Me, Myself, and Irene); as well as a slew of amazing cameos, from Adam Sandler and James Downey (a face that will be immediately recognized from Billy Madison), to boxing legends Ken Norton and George Chuvalo, while even John Goodman and Gary Coleman randomly show up for some fun, it makes for quite the quirky cast. Even Rebecca Romijn is in the film. . . that is, if you watch the original theatrical version and not the dirtier cut – which is longer, but somehow doesn’t feature her scene.
Filmizon.com’s Nikolai Adams with boxing legend George Chuvalo – who has a cameo in Dirty Work
Filled with silly gags that will bring to mind many of Norm’s famous jokes from standup and talk show appearances, expect to see and hear many of his favourite things and words, like a Montreal Canadiens jersey (he was a huge Habs fan), it being filmed in Toronto (of course, he was a Canadian), while he uses lingo he’s frequented such as ‘whore’ – a whopping fourteen times, and ‘hooker’ – trailing behind at a measly eight. Perhaps the most meta part is the fact that it feels as though MacDonald is walking through the whole thing simply playing himself – smirking when he’s having fun, a twinkle in the eye when he’s being especially dirty. . . each joke a test to see if it will find its way onto his next comedy special.
It must also be said that another thing that stands out while watching this movie is just how many talents we’ve lost over these last several decades – on top of Norm MacDonald himself, Warden, Rickles, Farley, Coleman, Norton, and Saget, all of whom played a key part in this movie, have passed away, making this viewing all the more poignant. Lastly, as a huge James Bond and Sean Connery fan, I’ll just say that there’s a great gag revolving around the legend and a From Russia with Love poster. So, if like me (until recently), you haven’t done your Dirty Work yet by seeing this, rectify that – it’s most certainly a better option than Chairman of the Bored (look the Norm gag up on Conan’s late night talk show if you don’t know what I’m talking about).