It feels weird saying this in a story that also involves David Spade, but nobody from the returning cast of Joe Dirt needs a shot at redemption more than Dennis Miller.
In the newly released trailer, radio shock jock Zander Kelly returns for the sequel – and that’s huge for Miller.
Titled Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser, the follow-up cuts a convoluted path through the post-Joe Dirt present and the pre-Joe Dirt “recent” past – where he lands after getting sucked into a tornado. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
A lot of familiar faces make their way into the film, most notably Brandy (Brittany Daniel), Clem (Christopher Walken) and Kelly (played by the aforementioned Miller). With the exception of Walken, no one in Joe Dirt can be described as having true star power, but only a cursory glance at Miller’s post-Dirt life and it becomes clear that he needs this just a little bit more than the rest. For starters, I feel compelled to tell you who Dennis Miller is because if you are under the age of 25 and not a member of Young Republicans magazine he probably barely registers.
For a brief time in the 90s, Miller was one of the biggest comedians on the planet. His brand of snarky, reference-y, political and social commentary struck a chord with Clinton’s America. Then Bush happened and Miller became increasingly conservative (or maybe just his audience did) and suddenly he was hosting gigs on Fox News – and not much else. In 2006, he briefly tried to make his Fox News appearances into a regular affair and inadvertently hooked up with one of the worst rated shows in television history, The Half Hour News Hour. It was Fox’s excruciatingly bad answer to The Daily Show and lasted less than one season.
So looking back and 2001’s Joe Dirt was probably approaching Miller’s peak. He would never again capture the mainstream limelight.
It’s not to knock Dennis Miller or what he has done in the last 14 years, he’s certainly kept busy. He’s cajoled his right-wing humor into a sizable following. He briefly went all in with sports, then went back to politics. He has a radio show. He probably does well on the comedy circuit from old fans and people wearing shirts with eagles on them. The point is, celebrities – and particularly comedians – have a short shelf-life and their cultural moments often only last moments.
But Joe Dirt 2 is going to be big. It won’t be Avengers big, but it will be a “thing.” It will be huge for Cackle, the streaming service that nobody currently has nor wants, which will air the film exclusively. It will be popular because it’s kitschy and campy and the first movie is actually pretty great (despite what the critics say). It will be trending on Twitter the day it’s released. The trailer was trending on Twitter the day it was released. And Dennis Miller gets to be in it. This could be his chance to remind younger audiences or the ones he’s lost during Bush/Cheney that he exists. He will get the kind of demographically varied audience that he never gets as a guest on The O’Reilly Factor.
So if Miller has fallen the furthest, than he’s also got the most to gain from Joe Dirt 2. I don’t know if Miller cares (probably not), but his agent is probably buzzing right now. He or she is probably almost as excited as Mark McGrath’s agent. And let’s face it, Mark McGrath needed this too. Way to go, Mark!
