Good-bye, Cruel World

Last updated
poster Good-bye-cruel-world-movie-poster-1982.jpg
poster

Good-bye, Cruel World is a 1983 American comedy feature film directed by David Irving and starring Dick Shawn and Cynthia Sikes. It was co-written by Shawn and Nicholas Niciphor. It features The Daily Show correspondent Larry Wilmore as a sergeant.

Plot

The film parodies the various gimmicks that were used to get audiences into theatres by claiming to be based on audience choice, although all of the selections are pre-selected, and the actual audience response is not measured within the theatre or by choices of the home viewer. The film was sold with images of a man flushing himself down the toilet. The story involves newscaster Rodney Pointsetter (Shawn) who is so depressed between his job and his family that he tries to make a film about his life, which he intends to culminate with his own suicide. It is often interrupted with irrelevant comic sketches that an emcee (Allan Stephan) claims that the audience prefers to see. One sketch features Angelique Pettyjohn as a stripping nun, and another Dan Frischman hosting "Things Your Parents Used to Say," while Rodney's gay brother, Ainsley, also played by Shawn, stages an opera in his house. The opera sequence was staged by John Hall of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and featured Vincent Cole, Johnny Guarnieri, Dennis Parnell, Tanino Provitera, David Romano, Gene Shaw, James Sterret Bryant, Starleigh Godfrey, Pam Scanlon, and Susan Grossman.


Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of theatre</span> Collaborative form of performing art

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to theatre:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ronnie Barker</span> English actor, comedian and writer (1929–2005)

Ronald William George Barker was an English actor, comedian and writer. He was known for roles in British comedy television series such as Porridge, The Two Ronnies, and Open All Hours.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Melodrama</span> Dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters to appeal to the emotions

A modern melodrama is a dramatic work in which plot, typically sensationalized for a strong emotional appeal, takes precedence over detailed characterization. Melodrama is "an exaggerated version of drama". Melodramas typically concentrate on dialogue that is often bombastic or excessively sentimental, rather than on action. Characters are often flat and written to fulfill established character archetypes. Melodramas are typically set in the private sphere of the home, focusing on morality, family issues, love, and marriage, often with challenges from an outside source, such as a "temptress", a scoundrel, or an aristocratic villain. A melodrama on stage, film, or television is usually accompanied by dramatic and suggestive music that offers further cues to the audience of the dramatic beats being presented.

<i>Bye Bye Birdie</i> 1960 musical

Bye Bye Birdie is a stage musical with music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Lee Adams, based upon a book by Michael Stewart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Nelson Reilly</span> American comedian and actor (1931–2007)

Charles Nelson Reilly was an American actor, comedian, director and drama teacher. He performed in the original Broadway casts of Bye Bye Birdie; Hello, Dolly!; and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. His television credits include The Ghost & Mrs. Muir and Match Game. A recording of his autobiographical one-man play Save It for the Stage: The Life of Reilly was adapted into a 2006 independent film.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Damon Wayans</span> American comedian, actor, producer and writer

Damon Kyle Wayans Sr. is an American stand-up comedian, actor, producer, and writer. He performed as a comedian and actor throughout the 1980s, including a year-long stint on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live. He later became a writer and performer on Fox's sketch comedy show In Living Color (1990–1992), on his animated series Waynehead (1996–1997) and on his TV series Damon (1998). Since then, he has starred in a number of films and television shows, some of which he has co-produced or co-written, including Mo Money, The Last Boy Scout, Major Payne, Bulletproof, and the sitcom My Wife and Kids. From 2016 to 2019, he starred as Roger Murtaugh in the Fox television series Lethal Weapon. He is a member of the Wayans family of entertainers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teatro Regio (Parma)</span> Opera house in Parma, Italy

Teatro Regio di Parma, originally constructed as the Nuovo Teatro Ducale, is an opera house and opera company in Parma, Italy.

<i>Vanya on 42nd Street</i> 1994 film

Vanya on 42nd Street is a 1994 American comedy-drama film directed by Louis Malle, written by Andre Gregory, and starring Wallace Shawn and Julianne Moore. The film is an intimate, interpretive performance of the 1899 play Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov as adapted by David Mamet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Double feature</span> Exhibition of two films for the price of one

The double feature is a motion picture industry phenomenon in which theaters would exhibit two films for the price of one, supplanting an earlier format in which the presentation of one feature film would be followed by various short subject reels.

The Designated Mourner is a play written by Wallace Shawn in 1996, which was adapted into a film and was directed by David Hare in 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dick Shawn</span> American actor (1923–1987)

Dick Shawn was an American actor. He played a wide variety of supporting roles and was a prolific character actor. During the 1960s, he played small roles in madcap comedies, usually portraying caricatures of counterculture personalities, such as the hedonistic but mother-obsessed Sylvester Marcus in It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963), and the hippie actor Lorenzo Saint DuBois ("L.S.D.") in The Producers (1967). Besides his film work, he appeared in numerous television shows from the 1960s through the 1980s.

<i>Carnival!</i> 1961 Broadway musical

Carnival is a musical, originally produced by David Merrick on Broadway in 1961, with the book by Michael Stewart and music and lyrics by Bob Merrill. The musical is based on the 1953 film Lili, which again was based on the short story and treatment titled "The Seven Souls of Clement O'Reilly" by Paul Gallico. The show's title originally used an exclamation point ; it was eventually dropped during the show's run, as director Gower Champion felt it gave the wrong impression, saying, "It's not a blockbuster. It's a gentle show."

Samuel Norkin was a Brooklyn, New York-born cartoonist who specialized in theater caricatures for more than seven decades. His drawings of theater, opera, ballet and film celebrities appeared in Variety, Backstage, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe and many other publications.

"A Royal Flush" is the fifth Christmas special episode of the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses, first screened on 25 December 1986. It was re-edited into a shorter version with an added laughter track and released on DVD in 2004. In the episode, Rodney becomes friends with the daughter of a Duke, and Del decides to help him make the right impression.

Richard Jones CBE is a British theatre and opera director. He was born in London, and studied at the University of Hull and University of London. After working as a jazz musician, he spent 1982–83 on a bursary working with Scottish Opera and the Citizens Theatre.

<i>The Duenna</i>

The Duenna is a three-act comic opera, mostly composed by Thomas Linley the elder and his son, Thomas Linley the younger, to an English-language libretto by Richard Brinsley Sheridan. At the time, it was considered one of the most successful operas ever staged in England, and its admirers included Samuel Johnson, William Hazlitt and George Byron.

<i>Music in the Air</i> (film) 1934 film by Joe May

Music in the Air is a 1934 American romantic comedy musical film based on Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein II's Broadway musical of the same name. It was part of the popular subgenre of operetta films made during the era. The film was a commercial failure on its release, losing $389,000. This was the worst performing release by Fox Film that year.

The following is a list of recurring Saturday Night Live (SNL) characters and sketches introduced between September 28, 1991, and May 16, 1992, the seventeenth season of SNL.

<i>The Late Late Show with James Corden</i> American late-night talk show (2015–2023)

The Late Late Show with James Corden is an American late-night talk show that aired on CBS from 2015 to 2023. It is the fourth and final iteration of The Late Late Show, and aired in the U.S. from Monday to Friday nights at 12:37 a.m. ET/PT. The show was taped in front of a studio audience Monday through Thursday afternoons at Television City in Los Angeles, in Studio 56, directly above the Bob Barker Studio. It was produced by Fulwell 73 and CBS Studios.

Sean Sullivan was a Canadian actor. He is most noted for his stage and television performances in productions of David French's play Of the Fields, Lately, for which he won an ACTRA Award in 1977 as Best Television Actor for the CBC Television film; and his film performances in Springhill, for which he won a Canadian Film Award as Best Actor in a Non-Feature Film in 1972, and The Boy in Blue, for which he received a posthumous Genie Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor at the 7th Genie Awards in 1986.