Is Resurrecting Chris Farley in a Direct TV Commercial Morally Offensive?


A lot of people over at /Film seem to think so. Reading their article (and especially the reader reviews), I was literally shocked at the backlash coming off thing. Take a look at the commercial in question embedded below.

Thankfully, it seems the more readers comment the more the storm is starting to settle, level out between a mild kind of outrage and nonchalant shoulder shrugging. But I’m still scratching my head over how something like this became an issue in the first place, and then that the “issue” had enough steam to form into a “controversy.”

I had to add my two-cents:

“Honestly, I’m not offended by this at all. Watching that scene again only served to remind me how funny Chris Farley was and how much I loved his stuff when I was younger. Growing up Tommy Boy was, like, THE movie with me and my friends, and this actually brought back some good memories. I can understand where the hesitancy is coming from here but, really, are celebrities supposed to be off-limits forever if they suffer untimely deaths? Their images are already built-in parts of the public consciousness, why not celebrate that?“

So part of me is confident. But then I see that a couple people are pissed because David Spade refers to Farley as “Tons of Fun” in the ad and…I don’t know – didn’t he call him that in the movie? Isn’t that exactly something his snide wise-ass character would have called him? Is this just a classic case of people overreacting for the sake of overreacting? The fact that I can’t wrap my head around it only makes me question my own indifference.

Is it possible my nostalgia for the movie is overshadowing my normal measuring markers for what’s morally okay? Could it really be that this commercial actually is ethically wrong?

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 27th, 2009 at 1:00 pm and is filed under television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “Is Resurrecting Chris Farley in a Direct TV Commercial Morally Offensive?”

Matthew October 27th, 2009 at 5:30 pm

Nothing pisses me off more than stuff like this. People should get over it. I Love "Tommy Boy," but I can look at this objectively and say that there is nothing wrong with any part of this commercial. Next people will be getting upset when background music on commercials are Michael Jackson songs or when TNT starts playing "Dark Night" on cable. Get over people, these people are public figures, dead or alive and they CHOSE to become public figures the second they became entertainers.

Mike October 27th, 2009 at 10:08 pm

Yeah, I totally agree. It's crazy. And that Michael Jackson comparison is spot-on. I don't think anybody would think twice about that. It might even be looked at as a "tribute." But you replace Farley w/ a body double for one second here and people lose their minds.

zierk October 28th, 2009 at 10:33 am

Yeah, sounds like people are making a big deal about nothing. I got a big grin when I first saw it, and I was singing "Fat guy in a little coat" for the rest of the day.

Oh yeah, and hasn't it been 12 years since he died? TOO SOOOON!!!

Mike October 28th, 2009 at 2:23 pm

Oh my God, it's been 14yrs! Wow…I feel old.

Remember that one line where he said: "You can get a good look at a butcher's ass by sticking your head up there, but, wouldn't you rather to take his word for it? …No, wait–"?

That was awesome.

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