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Chris Morris, the 57-year-old English writer, comedian, and director, is both revered and reviled.
On an infamous one-off edition ofBrass Eye, 2001s Paedogeddon!
(If youre familiar with British slang, you get it.)
Channel 4 reportedly received 2,000 complaints after it aired.
LikeFour Lions, its a tricky attempt at getting laughs out of impossibly dark subject matter.
The topic is ginned-up FBI stings in which hapless nobodies get reinvented as terror masterminds.
(Her read on Moses: Hes got the threat signature of a hot dog.)
Theyre playing with people that they dont understand but that they can manipulate.
The Day Shall Comeis billed as being based on a hundred true stories.
Was there one, in particular, that inspired you?Very much so, yes.
He said, Remember that full-scale ground war in Miami?
It was actually going to be seven guys on horses.
But they didnt even have horses.
Their first plan was to lead a protest to the governors house in Miami against conditions in the projects.
By the [former] attorney general, by the way!
[Alberto] Gonzales.
Thats how he described it.
I just thought, Right, thats some great lie.
And I now want to get to the bottom of this.
Before makingFour Lions,you spent years researching jihadism.
Was it a similar research process this time?Only in that youre following something to find out more.
But in all other respects, there were very few similarities.
The research then took me to a lot of places that were strange to me.
It was a series of very interesting, exciting acquaintances with the unknown.
And so that do that you have to understand the still-ongoing segregation that happens.
We came across a bridge across a canal in Miami which separated two neighborhoods.
Were definitely on to something here!
And theres a bit of a pause and then somebody else says, Yeah, we should.
What kind of sway does being a U.K. comedy legend get you in the U.S. moviemaking system?
[Dry British chuckle] Well, it varies.
Its certainly not the first part of the conversation.
Im curious about your development over the years.
It was, like, punk.Oh, you prefer the happy ending of a punk attack?!
Well, you know, those things are reactions.
Theyre glorified spasms, arent they?
Youre just trying to ruin the fabric.
Its like a grenade attack.
It is a series of spasms which you make as jokes.
When youre doing it, youre basically setting yourself impossible tasks.
And then you discover, Oh my God, we got away with that.
Theres an internal logic.
Its not just the end thats driving you forward.
Its your personal investment.
Your testing of your own presumptions and basic discoveries of human psychology.
Once youve discovered that, youd be mad to carry on doing it.
God, it would be so dispiriting.
It would be awful!
I think its a quite superficial.
So theres not an authority to undermine.
People, you could say, they go around undermining their own authority now.
I mean, really.
It does feel like politicians lean into the shameless these days.
You have to goso much fartherfor something to feel ridiculous.The shamelessness is a strongman political tactic now.
But I dont think its a very good long-term game, do you?
Its disorientating because someone is offending the social codes.
Its a disruptive tactic until people realize quite how basic the tactic is.
Waldos success comes from just being funny and awful, all the time.
Thats another bit of content that could be said to foreshadow our current moment.Im notsuuure.
Its the idea of beingin character.
As long as youre in character, you might get away with anything.
So as an evasion tactic, its pretty good.
We probably just saw that childishness worked.
