When Chris Farley died in 1997, his friend and co-star David Spade didn’t attend the funeral. Why? As he put it at the time, he “could not be in a room where Chris was in a box.” Which seemed like a weird, somewhat heartless thing to say about a friend who had just died, but everybody mourns differently.
Still, though. Now we’ve got this:
Hey, at least he’s not in a box, right?
There seem to be two schools of thought about this ad. One is that Spade is selling out his dead friend’s memory and it’s sorta creepy. The other is that Spade is selling out his dead friend’s memory and it’s incredibly freaking creepy.
Asylum.com was able to get a statement from Spade about the controversy:
“When DIRECT TV came to me and the Farley family with this idea about ‘Tommy Boy,’ we talked and thought it would be a cool way to remind people just how funny Chris was. It is a clever homage to my friend and a movie that we loved doing.”
Is it really? It’s a clip from Tommy Boy intercut with present-day Spade in a hairpiece shilling for satellite TV. What’s clever about that?
Maybe it wouldn’t turn my stomach if I didn’t know the two of them were friends, and that Spade was so distraught over Farley’s death that he couldn’t go to the funeral. This just seems like some sort of weird denial or something. Just another way of not dealing with it. Except this time he got paid, so that’s pretty sweet.
If you want to remember Chris Farley, his movies aren’t too hard to find. And when you watch them on DVD, the only thing he’s selling are the pratfalls.
Update: They were talking about this at AdFreak.com the other day, and a commenter named Jocelyn put her finger on it:
This one really bothers me, and I realized why this afternoon when I saw it yet again. Spade’s talking about how if you had DirecTV, he wouldn’t have to be putting up with Farley/Tommy/whatever you’d like to call the ‘character’ in the commercial. I can’t imagine that Spade would be comfortable implying that he wouldn’t give anything for the chance to hang out with his friend again.
Yep. Sure, Spade is supposed to be in character as he’s saying that, but it’s tough to get past the fact that it’s a guy talking about his dead friend. Just… oof.
Update: According to Walletpop.com, in 2006 Chris Farley’s family first approved the use of his image in advertising for Prometa, a medication used for drug and alcohol addiction. Which seems like a pretty honorable thing. It was to help other people avoid his fate, right? But check out what Farley’s brother Tom told Matt Lauer about the complaints that they were exploiting the dead:
LAUER: I guess you’ve heard some people are saying, well first of all, how do you know that this par–why–why endorse this particular drug or alcohol program? How do you know it might have helped or not helped Chris?
Mr. FARLEY: Well, we–we have no idea whether it would have helped or not helped Chris, but he–Chris was certainly open to any of the, you know, treatments. He went–he was in everything from, you know, the boot camps to the spas to everything else. So he would have probably embraced anything that would have helped him with this addiction. But you know, this is–this is something that takes into effect a lot of different aspects of the addiction, and I just think, you know, it’s a–it’s a good–good start to–to helping people, whether it, you know, works or not, that’s–you know, we’ll see. But so far it looks like the tests for Prometa look–look very promising.
LAUER: If the goal’s to help people, I guess the other question being raised is why take the $25,000?
Mr. FARLEY: Well, you know that–that’s just kind of the price for–I mean everyone, you know, knows that this is–it’s an ad campaign, and we’ve–we’ve turned down so many offers for you know, Bobbleheads and Ringtones for–for three, four, five times that. I mean it’s really not about that.
Fair enough. What’s this about, then?
You might be saying, “Farley’s family is fine with it, so who are you to judge?” Well, I’m a prospective customer of the product being sold. That’s the playing field they’ve chosen.
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Dont usually disagree with you Simon but I have to say when I watched this yesterday I really didn’t find anything remotely bad about the idea. I really think that if Chris was to be asked about it who wouldn’t give a flying . Complete conjecture on my part I admit.
I think this is one of the times people are making something out to be too much. David’s response to not going to the funeral is one of my favorite things of all time. Not because I thought it was just clever. I thought it was a beautiful thing for one friend to say about another. I guess my feelings that noone should ever dictate someone else’s funeral behavior/decisions play a part in this too.
If the family is cool, and David(who I believe his sincerity in the love for Chris) think its cool too make money off it, then I am cool with it. If I died I wouldn’t begrudge anyone of my friends or family making a buck off my name as long as they weren’t making me look like a Jackass in the process.
I too thought this ad was strange and ill-conceived, the first time I saw it.
Um, I didn’t mean ONLY the first time. It continues to strike me weird. OK, just so we’re clear.
I vote for incredibly creepy, and that’s just the dead squirrel residing upon Spade’s head.
Bing Crosby for vacuums or whatever you’re selling with dead relatives/friends, its just creepy.
Guess what?
Well, it makes me a wee bit uncomfortable to watch it, like that one commercial for that cell phone where the guy is doing an autopsy and he drops his burrito into the body and then picks the burrito up and takes a bite.
Sorry if that grosses some of you out, I’m just saying that to me both fo those two ads are equally off-putting……IMHO.
You pretty much summed up my feelings, Koka. I don’t think Spade or the family are necessarily trying to take advantage of Farley, but there is still a general ickiness surrounding the whole thing.
As a sidenote, I was just thinking that I could have sworn when I was young, our school had Chris Farley anti-drug posters that were in really good taste. And as I was looking for one online, I came across the Prometa ad, and it really bothers me: http://discoveringalcoholic.com/wp-content/uploads/images/farleyprometa.jpg
I thought Chris Farley was incredibly talented, and I think what happened to him is tragic. Just the same, if his addiction was not his fault, whose fault was it?
Well, I didn’t know about the funeral thing, but I did know they were pretty good buddies.
So,…and I’ve only seen it once so far, what I first thought was, it was perhaps an add for Tommy Boy (it was on some channel just a couple of weeks ago), which is what DirectTV wants you to think – neat idea for an ad. When Spade started talking into the camera I then realized “hey, DirectTV has made another one of those several-yr-old movies and put one of the original actors in it” commercial. Then, I saw how Spade didn’t seem to have aged much, which is kind of the appeal of their ads. I also saw his hair, and was reminded in the movie at one point his toupee gets moved to the back of his head.
Then I thought I’d like to ask David if it was difficult at all to make this ad.
I think the last line he says is something like “…always funny.” I guess, referring to Chris’s talents.
So, not really creepy for me, but it did strike a weird chord somewhat.
“…down by the river!!”
“Never gets old.” Which is yet another creepy thing, come to think of it.
I generally enjoy David Spade, but I wouldn’t discount the idea that “creepy” actually figures pretty heavily into his sense of humor.
Did you hear Evis has slipped to 5th on the highest paid Dead Celebrities . So I ask, what is wrong with Chris Farleys family making a little extra cash. Fred Astair Danced with a vaccume for Gods sake. Get over it people, and worry about someting important.
Farley was so starved for attention he would love the idea that people are stilling watching him after his death.
Thanks, Simon – I knew it was something like that.
The entire DirecTV ad campaign is incredibly annoying, because they’re interrupting good movies (um, and some mediocre movies) to shill products, and goodness knows we get enough product placement in movies these days as it is.
The fact that now they’re using a guy who’s dead before his time in these annoying ads kinda tips them right over into creepy and douchetastic territory.
John Edwards picks a home for wifey #2
http://www.homefinder.com/NC/Wilmington/49186553d_1008_Windlea_Run
It looks like you’d be like living in a steakhouse.
David Spade has always seemed like a genuinely decent guy. I think this is a case of too many and too good yes-men.
I thought it was clever, I mean it’s been 12+ years, Spade has obviously gotten over it.
I agree with Symon, if I die and my family can make a quick buck off me promoting something, I don’t care, I’m dead.
It COULD be a little off-setting, but I think it’s perfectly fine as long as Farley’s family and Spade are OK with it.
I thought it was pretty creepy. It doesn’t help Spade’s case that he hasn’t been exactly doing anything noteworthy recently either. In other words, $$$
Some seem to think Spade is a tool. I kinda like him. Besides two words: Girlfriend Jillian Grace. Oh that’s more than two? Eat me.
http://famousbmw.autofun.cz/underground/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/jillian_grace-cowboy1.jpg
In the spirit of one’s family making a buck off of one’s deceased self, I seriously think Roseanne Cash should reconsider letting the makers of Preparation H use “Ring of Fire” for their adverts. Because: HAH!
- Pasta, Spade is chewing on that smoking’ hot girl?
Luckly Bas’tard!
- Beige, your last was awesome! Totally Awesome!
**you owe me a new computer screen**
Well he was. Plus Heather Locklear, plus some others. Chicks dig ‘im I guess. Besides I think he’s a Mopar guy so he’s alright with me.
Didn’t he have a baby with some Playboy Bunny? I guess chicks due dig a guy with a sense of humor, although I still cannot figure out why him
He tried to explain it once, and I have to say he has a point:
Either that or he’s packing.
From that article: “Spade is a funny dude, but that can’t be it.”
Yes it can. And from what I’ve seen on this site, not being an asshole seems to be a pretty easy thing to pull off in Hollywood. Oh and hot actresses also seem like they’re essentially retarded, so that makes things a lot easier too.
Let me ask you this, what if Chris were alive today? Don’t you think he’d be right there in that commercial, too? It’s show business. Your image gets sold and bought decades longer than you live. Are you going to get your panties in a twist about Beatles Rock Band commercials because a couple of them are dead? How do you look at money knowing that those poor dead people are being disgraced on the bills?
Pasta, I thought that you were a 70 1/2 Z28 Camero with the LT1 motor, factory headers, Muncie M21 Rock Crusher, and factory four wheel disk brakes, kind of guy? Not some under-powered, over-rated MOPAR kind of guy.
Or Holly, he can lick his eyebrows clean.
I don’t know. Neither do you. That’s kind of the point.
Aw, Simon. Sometimes I just heart you so much it makes me puke.
“Never gets old.” Which is yet another creepy thing…
Neither will John Belushi. Bet Chevy Chase envies him NOW.
“Roseanne Cash should reconsider letting the makers of Preparation H use “Ring of Fire” for their adverts.”
Ooooooo. That burns, burns, burns.
OVER-RATED!! I?!?!-What?!? Why I oughta…
Mister Snitch, if I had the power to switch out Chevy Chase and John Belushi, believe me: Done and DONE.
>I don’t know. Neither do you. That’s kind of the point.
Maybe, but we could certainly make an educated guess. And based on how many times he flaunted his belly for a sketch or did pratfalls like a maniac, I think he’d probably do just about anything for a laugh. So sorry, Simon, I tend to agree with Cheshire on that one.
Spade seems like a stand-up guy…
http://www.theinsider.com/news/1458166_David_Spade_helps_Phoenix_police_buy_rifles
…so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. Besides, I loved The Showbiz Show (at least until he started trying to sing with the band, yikes!)
Creepy? Hell’s yah.
But I think Spade is creepy even without the dead dude in foreground.
I once met KEVIN Farley when he purchased an item I’d donated to a charity auction. Seemed like a really nice guy. He’s the spitting image of Chris, if’n he’d lived longer.
The Farley brothers have (or had at the time) a non profit group where they went around talking about Chris’ drug problems and the way he wasted his talent and life. Seems like they put a book out about it all too.
I hope the charity got the DirectTV proceeds upfront, ‘cuz this is too jeebie inspiring to be sequelled.