Throughout the 2000s, Seth Rogen portrayed many characters in comedy classics like Superbad, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and Knocked Up who are so annoying and stupid that at certain points they just stop making sense. From that point onwards, for some, they just end up becoming a great source of laughter and for others, the same characters are nothing but buffoons.
His collaboration with Evan Goldberg behind the scenes is no different. From The Interview to Black Monday, the duo has divided opinions with their comedy work that often ends up offending a few sections of viewers.
While with someone like Rogen behind the camera, many actors might enjoy more freedom than usual to make offensive jokes, it also puts them in a tricky spot when the decision-makers attempt to take things too far. In that regard Don Cheadle gave an insight into his experience of working on Black Monday – the show executive produced by Neighbors star and others.
How Don Cheadle Reacted When Creators of His Comedy Series Crossed the Line
Don Cheadle starred alongside the likes of Andrew Rannells and Regina Hall in the dark comedy that followed the employees of second-tier Wall Street trading firm the Jammer Group, as they try to take advantage of Wall Street’s messy situation in the late 80s.
The David Caspe and Jordan Caham created show, for which Seth Rogen put on his director’s hat for the pilot, attempts to present the situation around the international stock markets crashing in 1987 in a satirical way.
Accordingly, when Don Cheadle joined the likes of Sacha Baron Cohen and Timothy Simons for The Hollywood Reporter‘s Comedy Actors Roundtable, he was asked to share his thoughts on working with Black Monday’s showrunners during a discussion centered around where he draws the line. The 58-year-old said:
“They just push hard and I think they do it because you don’t really know where the line is sometimes until you’ve stepped over it and you go, ‘Oh, that was the line, I guess we’re over here now.’ But I think that the protection is always that the joke is always on the people that are saying the line, we’re not making fun of the people that are the subject of it. It’s that these people are so blind to, they have no self-awareness.”
Cheadle continued: “Both of the writers are Jewish and they like to throw in some anti-Semitic jokes. And I’m like, I’m not doing that. You can say that one, I’ll make up the Black joke.”
The more hilarious, less foxy, and low-budget version of The Wolf of Wall Street is filled with jokes that many might consider below-the-belt humor, and how one would perceive it entirely depends on their sense of humor.
Don Cheadle Gives His Take on Excessive Mention of Drugs in Black Monday
Another thing that puts The Wolf of Wall Street and Black Monday on the same table is their frequent display of the drug-fueled environment of Wall Street in the 80s.
Talking about the same, Rogen said [via Variety]: “Cocaine in the ’80s is funnier than cocaine today. That I can definitely say.”
During the discussion with his fellow comedians, Cheadle, who plays veteran trader Maurice Monroe in Black Monday, was asked to explain Rogen’s comments, to which he responded: “It’s funny then because we are here and we can see where it’s headed. I know you think now that this is brilliant juice, but it’s not going to work out.”
Ever-so-hilarious Jim Carrey, who was also present there quipped that it drove the industry.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter, Variety
