“Man of the Year” Review
Another step on my journey to watch (or rewatch as in this case) all of Robin Williams’ films and as I believe I mentioned last time this one came around, this is an obvious ‘what if we just elect Jon Stewart to be president” wish fulfillment story with the comedic genius of Mr Williams as the comedy host turned politician. Oddly enough, just a few years after this movie came out and Stewart handed off The Daily Show to a new host, Stewart was able to get some significant legislation passed to benefit 9-11 emergency responders that were on track to lose all their health benefits due to Republican shenanigans. He’s gone on to support a couple other efforts since then to varying degrees of success, but it’s great to see him leverage his celebrity in such an effective and net-positive manner. As for “Man of the Year”, it remains a fun ‘what if’ scenario about what happens when you elect an honest funny guy to the top political seat in the country, then he finds out that his ascent to the top wasn’t completely legitimate. It all ends the way it should, but I think a sequel exploring what the comedian did next would have been great to see, because real life shows that the second act is sometimes better than the first.
