Much funnier than given credit for

There’s a great article on “The Ringer” website about “Cabin Boy”, the wonderfully weird little movie that could. A project meant to be directed by Tim Burton before he abandoned ship for “Ed Wood”, the movie entered the sole custody of, thus far, untested David Letterman Show writers Chris Elliot and Adam Resnick. It was hated, despised, and reviled. In its way, it’s also kind of genius, which led to the cult following.

If you’ve seen Elliot in any comedy after this, from “There’s Something About Mary” to “Scary Movie 2”, he has no filter as to how much self deprecation he’ll inflict on himself. You wonder if maybe that was part of the reason why he never worked as a lead in anything else- a side character can clown as much as possible, a lead can only go so far.

But it’s not like his character here is irredeemable. Bill Murray, Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell, they’ve all played obnoxious assholes who need to be taken down a peg. This is one of those stories. Elliot’s Nathaniel Mayweather goes for broke, he’s a condescending prig ready to leave his prep school behind to sail on the Queen Catherine back to his family, where more entitlement and a cushy job in the family business await.

Numerous factors prevent that, however, as the foppish “fancy lad” winds up having to walk to the boat himself, making him exert himself for “the first time” in his young life. David Letterman’s cameo as a stuffed-monkey salesman is so dumbfoundingly silly it’s hard to imagine anyone not finding it hilarious and Andy Richter plays the simple-minded first mate of the ship Nathaniel actually ends up on, The Filthy Whore. He doesn’t know much, but he knows how a harem girl dances.

It’s a ship captained by four surly, salty, and rugged fishermen named Greybar (Ritch Brinkley), Skunk (Brian-Doyle Murray), Big Teddy (Brion James) and a personal favorite because he’s the most degenerate of this crew of roughnecks, Paps (James Gammon). Nathaniel’s uppity arrogance is tested by their continued humiliations, they throw beer cans at his head, make him lick the deck clean, and tell him it’s fine to drink seawater. This is one of the cruelest PG movies ever, and like comedic movie assholes before him who need to be taken down a peg, it gets very funny.

There’s greater brilliance to it though, starting with the audacious idea of turning itself into a mythological quest. There’s more than a bit of Ray Harryhausen’s “Clash of the Titans in here”, sending Nathaniel on an odyssey to become a more well-rounded and humble man. That includes Gods (Wind Gods?) in the sky blowing his ship off course, hallucinatory cupcakes, mythic half-man-half shark creatures, and the legend of a 6 armed, blue-skinned lady who helps rid men of their virginity.

I’m not sure if this was to try and cover the fact that the budget for this movie evaporated when Burton left but the film looks so intentionally surreal. There’s never a moment when we think the ship, water, and so on isn’t just a soundstage. I see this movie take flak for that and I don’t understand why. Once Wes Anderson started doing things like this, he was called a genius.
It’s not all sight gags and cheesy jokes though- there are funnier jokes in here than i’ve seen in the last couple current modern day comedies combined. Nathaniel admiring Paps for being the “drunken, abusive grandfather” he never had or saying his texture is more like “moist bread” once he pulls in the champion swimmer (Melora Walters) trying to swim across the ocean while not touching hard surfaces.

I remember people quoting lines in Elementary school from this movie all the time. Sure, we were all 10 but does it matter? The point is it tries for that sweet spot of hilariously dumb-bold comedy and even though there are lulls, it doesn’t treat the audience like idiots. The more you understand of the visual and storytelling styles, the more fun it becomes. The film deserved better; it’s way more in-control of itself than it gets credit for.