I saw this last night and mostly enjoyed it. I read a review of it today and it kind of puts it into an interesting perspective: It’s the story of Doug Kenny as the way Doug Kenny would have written it. In telling the tale it becomes clear that to Doug everything was a joke. He’s at a meeting with magazine publishers and he’s making fun of them. The producer of Animal House is flipping out and he’s getting wise with him. His live-in girlfriend comes home early to see a cocaine-fueled party and he’s not taking it seriously. His humor in general was often callous and crossing the line, including jokes about death.
In the same vein, it seems Doug was obsessed with his legacy. There’s the one scene where they leave a showing of Airplane! and he’s freaking out because he says people will love it more than Caddyshack when it comes up. He shows up at the comedy club to discuss Caddyshack high and furious because of the compromises made in the movie with his name on it.
I’m only basing Doug Kenny on the film, but I can’t fault them for saying that levity at his funeral and the need to have his name associated with comedy is just what he would have wanted.
