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Minimum Wage: Offensive Concept Or Hilarity Ensues?By Rafe Telsch: 2008-03-20 08:59:27
In the world of Speed Racer posters, Indiana Jones widgets, and Jack Ryan sequel directors, the news of the development of Minimum Wage almost got passed by altogether. Who really cares about the announcement of a comedy being developed, even if it does come from the producer of Wedding Crashers? A comedy being developed isn’t huge news until a cast is added or advertising starts.
Then I got to thinking about the premise of the movie, which made the news at Hollywood Reporter. This is a comedy about a corrupt corporate executive who is convicted and sentenced to live on minimum wage in a town his company bankrupted. Forced to live on minimum wage as his punishment. A comedy. If the premise sounds familiar, it’s because Joe Pesci did something similar in The Super, playing a corrupt landlord who was forced to live in one of his own tenements. In that case, however, the punishment fit the crime – run a crappy place for people to live, then be forced to live there yourself. This is about someone who is used to living large that is then forced to live small. Think a movie version of The Simple Life, (hopefully) without Paris Hilton. I think most of us can agree it’s almost impossible to survive off of minimum wage, especially if you want anything of quality in your life. Still, there are thousands of people who are forced to live that way, not from a court sentence, but from necessity. And now Participant Media and Tapestry Films are going to make a movie about someone used to living a high-style life being trapped in that minimum wage lifestyle. Sure, the project is being described as a “broad but socially conscious comedy,” but I don’t buy into it. This seems more like a borderline offensive concept, making light of a pretty serious situation. The sad thing is that, if The Simple Life is any indication, Minimum Wage will likely be a hit conceptually. After all, if America’s most vacuous personalities, Paris Hilton and Nicole Ritchie, can entertain people in an unscripted series, surely a comedy like this can entertain. I just hope it manages to do it without insulting people who are stuck in a Minimum Wage situation every day.
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